I have cycled the course before a couple of years ago and I thought between that and the sections that are on the Standard route I knew it well enough not to recce it. The run is just a single lap of the 2-lap standard route so I knew I was fine with it. In hindsight I should have at least driven the bike route pre-race.
I got to Huntly fairly early in the morning despite expecting to be in one of the later heats. I got registered and set up transition in a decent space. There were quite a lot of TPT members around so plenty of people to chat to before the race and the usual chat about who felt worst and bike problems and lack of training all went on. I was much more optimistic than normal. I was feeling quite good, the bike is running smooth and I have been training really well.
I was drawn in heat 4 of 5 and I knew about half of the swimmers in my heat. I recognised a few that should go faster than me, and a couple that I should be close to. In my lane there were only two other swimmers. One 5-secs ahead that I didn't recognise and one 5-secs behind me that I recognised from Forres. I beat him at the swim there, but only by a few seconds and I figured with him drafting me he was probably going to get the better of it.
As the race started it took me about half a length to catch the guy in front. I let him finish the first length, hoping that he had just gotten a bad start and would settle into a pace that I could draft. Into the second length and he was definitely not going to go quick enough to be useful so I gave him the tap on the feet and he moved aside to let me pass. I pushed on at my own pace and easily dropped him but my shadow from Forres stuck with me. I hadn't adjusted my goggles too well and one side was leaking. It quickly filled up and I was swimming half-blind for most of the race. This was also affecting me spotting for my turns, and even though I was only doing touch turns they weren't anywhere near my best. At the 700m mark my shadow finally decided he had benefitted enough from my draft and gave me the tap to get past. I moved over and let him go and took the opportunity to empty my goggles and got back into his draft for the last two lengths.
Out of the water in 13:19, beats my 750m swim PB by a single second. I am pretty happy with this as I had to do all the work myself this time while previously I had other swimmers to draft for my fast times. My target for the year is to break 13mins. I am fairly confident that even a bit of a tow from a sub-13 swimmers and I will get under that, regardless of whether I can improve my tumble turns.
My first transition was one to forget. I forgot to leave a towel so I had to try and put my socks on to wet feet. That was a faff and took twice as long as it should. Then I put my helmet on but caught the straps in it and couldn't do them up, twice. I did remember to grab my garmin this time at least. I also had a couple of friends turn up in transition and heard them shouting support as I messed around with my bike shoes.
Out of transition and I had a bad start on the bike as well. I was instantly overtaken by a guy on a mountain bike. At first I thought maybe it was just because he had selected a better gear to mount on but he then started to open a gap. There are a couple of tight turns at the start and he was able to handle them much better than I was on the TT bike.
From here there is a crossing under a railway bridge which then turns uphill. As I went under the bridge I noticed it was wet and squeezed the brakes to try and shed some speed to make the turn uphill. Instead everything locked up and I took a massive slide. I was very lucky to keep the bike upright. After the race it turned out that one of the racers in the previous heat had been less lucky and had a big fall at this point. This left me a bit shaken and I continued to struggle on my way uphill and out of town. Then there is a short section on the main road, then a left turn on to a long flat straight. I knew this section from last year was great on the TT bike so I put my head down and started to work properly. I quickly caught the mountain biker and was passing other riders as well. I should have recced the course though, there were several corners that looked dodgy on the way in but were actually fine to take fast, and a couple that looked fine but turned out to be too tight or slippery. Both of those cost me time and speed that I could have smoothed out if I had known what to expect.
About half way round the course I caught up with a young lad who was going about my speed on a TT bike. I passed him on a downhill but then he came past again on the next climb. On the flats and climbs he was a little bit faster, on the downhills he liked to coast and I was making it back. I knew the finish was downhill onto flat so I just tried to stay with him until we got to a downhill about 3 miles out of town. Then I passed him and put in an extra kick to open a gap. Into town I was going well and despite a couple of tight turns at the end I finished well.
T2 went a lot smoother and I was out and running. There isn't really much to say about the run. It was steady but not spectacular. I caught a couple of people, as well as passing a few from the previous heat. I kept watching for the young lad catching and a ginger girl who seemed to be running really well but it soon became clear that I was safe from them.
I did about as much as I could. This was the best I have raced for a while, including Forres. This was a much tougher field and I was pretty much on my limit all the time. There were a few things that could have gone a little better or faster. Having someone to work with on the swim, kicking out of my turns, transitioning better in T1, knowing some of the corners so I didn't shed bike speed when I could have kept it. All in there were maybe a couple of minutes of marginal gains to be had, but nothing more to be found physically in the tank.
My results:
| Split times | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total time | Pos. male | Senior | Split time | Speed split time | |
 Swim(Time: 13:21) - Pos. 24 | |||||
| Swim | 13:21 | 24 | 14 | 13:21 | 1:46 min/100m |
 Transition 1(Time: 1:36) - Pos. 44 | |||||
| T1 | 14:57 | 25 | 15 | 1:36 | - |
 Bike(Time: 47:59) - Pos. 20 | |||||
| Cycle | 1:02:56 | 23 | 11 | 47:59 | 31.51 km/h |
 Transition 2(Time: 28.0) - Pos. 12 | |||||
| T2 | 1:03:24 | 23 | 11 | 28.0 | - |
 Run(Time: 23:11) - Pos. 22 | |||||
| Run | 1:26:35 | 21 | 11 | 23:11 | 4:22 min/km |
Full results are here.
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