LUKE WHITMORE "Professional Triathlete"
2010 Australian Duathlon Championships - 4th
After a cracking weekend in Sydney, however a terrible performance (in the city to surf) I set about dealing with a chronic injury that seems to plague my performance at random times throughout a season and the city to surf was one of them. I had three days to get it right before road tripping with Tarryn and Oscar to the Barossa Valley for the National Duathlon Championships. The race was run from a little town called Tanunda nestled in the heart of SAs luscious wine country. The run was dead flat. A 2.5km loop completed four times, however strong winds made drafting remarkably advantageous. The bike course was a tough 20km loop completed twice including a 3km climb at 7% up Menglers hill. This ride would be tough enough, but mother nature decided it wasnt so decided to throw in 60km/h plus winds, driving rain and freezing conditions. It was then another 2 laps of the 2.5km run loop.
The first run was relatively controlled with a pack of five of us running a conservative 33mins. Each of was trying to hide behind the others into the head wind at one point we stopped, no-body wanting to take the initiative at the front. My leg was behaving itself until the 8km mark where it once again tightened up, but with only two kilometres to go I managed to nurse it into T1. I lost a little time in T1, finding my helmet proved difficult after it had blown four bike lengths away. I then bridged the gap across to the leading three just before the start of the climb and then dropped my chain. I was forced to stop and put it back on and then set about catching the boys in front of me who were way to strong for me up the hill. My disc wheel and TT bike wasnt such an advantage up the hill but on the way back to town into the headwind I managed to again bridge the gap across to second and third only to get dropped again up the hill. I couldnt manage to bridge the gap into the head-wind on the second lap. I entered T2 about a minute down on third and nearly three on first. I had no chance of catching third, couldnt feel my feet on the second run because it was that cold and was in damage control for the last 5km.
I thoroughly enjoyed racing on this tough course and would love another crack next year. I learnt quite a bit today as I was pushed by seasoned duathletes Dan Green, Raf Baugh and James Attard who were much stronger and in great form heading into the World Championships in two weeks.
On a separate note my wife Tarryn managed to win her AG 30-34 to claim the Aussie title. Each competitor received a beautiful bottle of Barossa wine for finishing and this certainly wet the lips for an enjoyable couple of days of good food and wine after the race. Its now time to knuckle down and prepare for the Half Ironman season.
