First my apologizes for late race report. I came home in Novi Sad on tuesday so you can imagine how much stuff I needed to solve, beside usual training, a lot of administration stuff as my passport got stolen in Spain, visa issuing for upcoming races and all other things as I havent been home for more than 4 months.
So last Sunday was held very nice sprint triathlon in turistic town Gandia, near Valencia. It is first triathlon race from Spanish National calendar and because it counts as a qualification race for Nationals (Spanish Championships) there were a lot of level for in terms sprint distance.
Some 70+ guys started the race, including 3 of my Triatlon Universidad Alicante team mates, Esteban, Java and Amancio.
Rough start but I went fast and find myself in good position after 100 m but soon one guy cut my way. Also my googles, for some strange reason got really foged so I couldnt see anything, really anything! So till the end I just stick to the legs of one guy. Overall fine swim but I lost some positions as I couldnt swim properly because of googles. Really uncomfortable situation, to not have clear view, and to not be able to see postitioned buoys and other comeptitors, as that is the key during the race. At the end I was still with first group, not counting two guys who were in front and who are cleary pure swimmers.
We swam in the wet suits and during T1 my zipper got stocked and I really sturgled to unzip wet suit. I lost at least 10 seconds. I dont know what happened that day, but some strange situations with googles and zipper. And because my shoulders are really unstreched I was suffering while trying to catch end of zipper… Anyway I somehow managed to pull it down, “get rid” of wet suit, grab my Trek Madonne and start chasing first group which I lost because of wet suit.
I catch 2 guys and try to organise chasing but they were simply week. In that situations I am trying to brigde the gap but not to drop them, as in the case when somebody can work but dont wont, I am trying to escape and not to give them free train to group. So I really worked hard and I had very good legs. They are giving changes just few seconds so I can take a short break and then I would come back and smashing 40 km/h on the very very strong headwind. After 3 km we catch them.
Group didnt worked so good, just few of us were in the front, and some Spanish guys were rude to me saying something “C’mon Serbian, go on front”, I dont know why as I’ve already been there, but just to satisify that ego I again went on front, was there 30 seconds and come on 4 or 5th position. I hope that make him happy! After few times leading the pack and seeing nobody wants to organise, except there were few breaks, we really slowed down and second group catch us in the last lap.
That made situation that 30 or so guys came to T2 togehter. Its farse as somebody who swam more than minut slower than us on 750 m came into contention, but that triathlon and thats racing. I was always positioned in the front and worked good at the closing km, but there are always some kamikazi who power their way to the front in the closing meters, after riding dead last whole way…
I started hard, as I had 7 or 8 guys to catch. After few mins I catch 3 or 4 guys and coming into second loop I saw my number on penalty board! I didnt know why but didnt have other option but to stop and wait…. There were many other guys with penalties I would say. So I lose some postitons, again chased and felt better actually in the second loop than on the first loop and on the turn in 2nd lap I saw 5 guys in front. I tried but couldnt manage to catch 5th guy.
I had penalty because I didnt put my things in transitions in the area beetwen bike racks which they consider to be box! I didnt have clue. I saw they dont have normal boxes so I thought they dont have it at all. So now I learned one more thing in Spanish racing. 2 races in Spain so far, 2 penalties. Third will be lucky! Thanks to Jorge Garcia who explained me my mistake. He is ITU referee and have been on the “duty” for many of my international races since I started doing them.
Overally I am happy with fast racing and dynamic race, a lot of speedwork done as a training for upcoming big races. Also my running is picking up, I am again at decent level after rough injury period.
First place was Jesus Gomar who is maybe in life shape, and who just came from second place from ETU European Cup in Larache in Moroco, just week before, and 7th place from ETU cup in Portugal 2 weeks before race in Gandia. He really deserved win as he exited water in the front, was in the front on the bike also and run fast.
40 second diference beetween him and me on the 6th place so you are getting image that it was really close racing.
Well done for our woman team Ana, Nuria and Mar which captured win! (3 athletes and their finishing places counts). Coach Roberto is certainly happy with how the day went.
Results here (running distance must be longer than 5 km, there are no doubt about that and bike course was 22 km)
Video of swim exit and finish of the race
P.S. I am apologizing to Serbian and Spanish readers. I updated version of WordPress so my language plug -in doesnt work as its not yet compatible with this version, so hopefully my next articles will be again on three languages! I can solve that now, but it will stole me 1 h which is luxury for me in this moment :)