While I was supposed to get ready and packed to jump on a plane back to Australia, I found myself fitting in training sessions whilst visiting friends and family in Holland. I was (easily) convinced by my fellow Xterra competitors to race two more races which were held back to back in East Germany and Czech with a 3 hour drive in between which made the logistics of travel in between races easy. After a rough start of my Euro campaign I was starting to really enjoy myself, especially catching up with old friends and reuniting with family in Holland. The thought of going back to Australia wasn’t that appealing anymore and new plans were made to extend my racing Holiday.
I was teaming up with London resident French DJing Xterra champ Cedric Lassonde for 10 days of adventure. I found Cedric to be one of the more interesting characters of the pro triathletes combining a lifestyle of music, late nights and creativity with early morning training sessions, endless hours riding, and many miles running. Two worlds at opposite ends of the spectrum which he somehow managed to link together. I wasn’t going to be short of great music or things to talk about during the trip! Cedric ended up one of my best ever travelling buddies, as our similar life approaching ways made the chaos of being on the road in the most remote areas of Czech and Germany very easy to tolerate. I am not sure if he felt quite the same way about me at the start; he had to wait roughly 7 hours for me at the airport in Prague when I managed to miss my flight from Amsterdam!! Cedrics response to the situation was “don’t worry I have a good book” which was a great relief for me!! His bike ended up left behind in London so neither of us had a smooth travel in to the Czech Republic.
We arrived in Prachatice in the middle of the night, struggling to find our hotel as a storm had flattened the little village a few hours earlier. Seemed like every XTERRA so far involved some form of adventure and this was no exception! We were accompanied by XTERRA’s usual players like Asa Shaw, Niko Lebrun, Yeray Luxem, Jim Thijs, Maud Golstein, Renata Bucher, and Katherine Muller to name a few. As always everyone was in good spirits which made for a lot of laughter, stories made and camaraderie. Never in any other sport have I found the athletes to have such a bond with each other, it really felt like a XTERRA family and it was great to be part of it.
Race day arrived way to fast and I felt like I was still very much in holiday mood and I didn’t seem to be able to snap out of it. My swim was even slower than normal which was held in a slimy, smelly pond, it wasn’t ideal to spend any more minutes than necessary in the murky water, but unfortunately it didn’t make me any faster! On the bike and I tried to get my race face on, but my thoughts wondered, about getting a job, moving countries, races been, races coming up and before I knew it I was on the 2nd lap of the bike still cruising. I did enjoy the course, it had a bit of everything in it, hills, technical terrain, forests and ended up quite fast. I managed to overtake a few girls so I wasn’t riding too badly. On the run and I could see where I was positioned in the field, no superstar performance but not too far back either so I tried to push myself a bit harder. I hit the last climb and I started to struggle to breathe, crap, an asthma attack. I managed to finish, not out of choice but no one knew what to do so I decided the only way to get to my inhaler as soon as possible was to get there as fast as possible. I was happy with 11th place considering the situation.The win was taken on home ground by a very consistent Helena Erbenova, with Renata Bucher in 2nd and Katherine Muller in 3rd place. Cedric had a solid performance for 5th male home, all done half naked after he forgot to wear his tri top under his wetsuit!! Lucky the rules of Xterra are quite relaxed about dressing protocol!
Bush bashing in the Czech Republic
Sunday post-race was spent exploring trails on the MTB in some of the coolest Czech forestry’s before heading to Zittau, Germany. This is what I love about the sport so much, seeing places you would otherwise never get to see. Even just the drive to Germany took us passed some very interesting parts of the Czech Republic. Great eye opener experiencing the Eastern part of Europe. Xterra Germany holds one of the bigger Xterra fields, in a very beautiful but sleepy part of the country. With absolutely nothing to do we ended up doing a lot of sleeping, recovering, a bit of training, checking out the course and hanging out with the Xterra family.
The weather was fantastic came race day which meant a non-wetsuit swim. Not ideal for me and again I had a very poor swim, but I wasn’t the only one and I didn’t come out too far behind.Bad luck had hit Cedric not far into the bike leg when I saw him come towards me with a broken bike, he was in the company of Asa Shaw who suffered from what seemed a broken spirit. Seeing him made me realise how hard it is to keep on backing up these 3hr long highly challenging races. Not only physically but mentally it is very hard to push the body into the hurt box every time, week after week. 8 races on the European tour held close together made for a demanding season. This was my 6th race in a short 8 weeks and I also was close to the end of it after an already long season in Australia.
Swim/bike transition Xterra Germany
After seeing the boys I managed to refocus and on some serious rocky descents, which I highly enjoy, I was passing a lot of people. This motivated me to really put the foot down in the last 10kms and I came into transition in good form. The run was fast and I felt good at the start but unfortunately the effects of the asthma attack from the week before started to play a role and I decided to look after myself and drop the pace. I was happy with 10th place in a stacked female field and my gap to the top 5 was getting smaller and smaller. Jacqui Slack took the win with a stellar performance, showing what a true champion she is, Katherine Muller came 2nd and a tired Helena Erbenova still managed a solid 3rd place.
Photo credit goes to Cedric Lassonde