The Fall at the Peak

Hi there lads and ladies! I should have written this right after the Boulder Peak race to keep you up to date etc, but I have been so busy again getting my old car towed, working, selling my bike, getting another car, plates, insurance, training, dancing and singing. So here I am on Thurs night before the big Rohto Boulder 70.3 Ironman this weekend. Firstly, the Boulder Peak race!
It was a beautiful day at the resevoir in boulder. I had been training well, and I was feeling good, and ready to race! I started off next to Matt Reed in the swim. He swims great, so I figured if I can stay on his feet than I would be out front pack. The gun goes and we're off! We smashed out the first 400metres real quick. It felt easy to me for some reason...I was fit, and it was showing. Somehow, someone moved across me and in the mess of it all, I lost Mattys feet! Due to this I was now in the lead of the second pack...again. Bryan Rhodes was swimming great in the front pack so I had a hard job to keep the gap as small as I could. I came out of the water 4th, got the Tommaso out on the tarmac and hammered those peddles.

It took me a while to get started as Josh Rix, Matty White, Tim De Boom and Tim Reed came flying along to join me. We smashed it up Old Stage rd, one of the steepest climbs in Boulder, and a great part of the race. I could see Bryan Rhodes just ahead, and the adrenaline kicked in. I reached the peak of old stage rd, and then came the fastest down hill sections I have ever experienced in a race. I was flat out to get as much speed as possible. Josh Rix later told me that we hit 90kph down there! For all you Americans and English, that would be about 56mph! Right at the bottom of this descent is where disiaster struck for the Hadmeister.

All I can remember is the steering going wild as I gripped my hands around the brakes...I assumed that my tyre was flat...going at this speed! So I skidding down the hill, just praying to hold control until I could slow enough to come to a safer site to crash on other than the tarmac. I flew straight off the road, into the gravel, dodging all kind of boulders and rocks...goodness know how I missed them all. This is that same section where a lady died in a crash sometime ago. Anyway, I teared up the umbankment and slammed into something that eventually brought me down. I stood up in a second, and realised I was totally fine. Not even a scratch!!! I turned to see Rixy and a couple of other athletes flying by. I grabbed the bike and saw the result...a blown out tyre! I shouted "can anyone lend me a wheel?!" I trained hard, tapered well, and I just really wanted to finish the race. I knew by now I was out of money contention, and I knew I would either get a penalty or DQ'd for accepting outside assistance, but who cares? I'm an athlete, and I wanna finish this bastard race! Despite what was written by people on slow twitch about me, the real story was this:

A lady approached me on her steel sunday cruise road bike. I said "can I borrow your wheel please?" She said "sure, here you go, but how will I find you?", I said, "I'm in the pro race, so come to the end of the run finish and I'll meet you there". So as she released her quick release on her wheel, I released mine. I passed her my $1000 carbon zip as I recieved her steel rim wheel which included such flash trimmings as a reflector! Love it. So I said "thank you so much!" and off I went,on a steel wheel half inflated with a beautiful looking reflector spinning round. I finshed the course and racked the bike.

I took off fast on the run. I was catching some guys pretty quick, but all of a sudden I get a time penalty. I wasn't sure what for, but I had to stand there for 1 minute, then get going again. It transpired that he was supposed to stop me for the outside assitance and tell me that I'm DQ'd, but for some reason he didn't know this. I went for it again, desparately chasing the guys I already caught sometime earlier. I was fierce, and determined to have a good training day at least..I ran a solid 34min off the bike (not including the 1 min time penalty)so apart from the crash and the stand down, I was really pleased with my performance.

Obviously the results don't show it, but I was racing well, and I'm fit to race. I have had some bad happenings in races recently. If I'm not careful I'll be known as "Calamity James". I was just so thankful that I survived the crash unhurt...hospitals are expensive here, and if I died, I'm pretty sure my Mom would miss me...I think. Next up is Rohto Boulder 70.3 Ironman this weekend...check out my results! I hope to redeem myself this time. So thats the story of the Peak! Till next time ladies ;-)