The historically recognised racing format, TriF1, has made a triumphant return and fittingly - race two was help at the Formula 1 track in Phillip Island.
As it was so many years ago we competed in a super sprint style eliminator where there were 3 rounds of a 250m swim, 6km bike and a 1.6km run. and roughly 45 minute breaks between each.
I wasn’t sure how to approach this format but I figured it was basically a training session so I’d approach it as I would any other tough brick session.
For race 1 I was fairly relaxed, there was only 15 athletes so I knew getting to the first buoy wouldn’t be a mix between a WWE royal rumble and WWII. Of course I was wrong in thinking that… I ended up swimming on a 45 degree angle for at least 3 quarters of the swim, avoiding the heels and fists. the final 100 is meters I managed to get onto the inside and found a bit of clear water to bring myself back toward the front.
the run to transition was frantic, I was a bit down from the leaders and I knew 6km wouldn’t be much to catch and recover so I ran through transition and out to the mount line as fast as I could without risking a stack around the corners.
as I jumped on the front pack was no farther than 50m ahead so I used whoever was around me and we made our way up.
Not much happened throughout the next 5 laps around the tight hotdog course, I wasn’t sure what to expect so I did what I had to and got a feel for the intensity.
As we neared the dismount line everyone was still together, the usual attacks were made in order to dismount first, as expected, and I waited for my moment and managed to get off second and ran through to my spot in the position. My transition wasn’t fantastic and I ended up running out of T2 in about 4th.
Heading out to the first turn I saw Marcel just in front and I was holding pace with him, I looked down momentarily and as I glanced up he was a slightly smaller figure in the distance and was noticeably moving much quicker. I knew I wasn’t going to catch him so I focused on Chronis and reeled him in. Once I made that gap I noticed Brendan Sexton was still hot on my heels and Marcel had finished extending his lead, I maintained a 50m gap to Marcel down to finish lap one. I was feeling pretty strong but I knew I still couldn't make up that time so I did my best to hold pace as well as being slightly conservative in case I needed to have a sprint-off with Brendan.
Nothing much changed on the return to the final u-turn and I was waiting for an attack but none came. Brendan and I rounded the cones and got back up to speed heading into the finish and suddenly his foot steps were getting fainter and fainter. I knew I was in the clear for a 2nd place finish with about 200m to go so I kept pushing through to the line.
Following a light jog and resetting of transition round 2 was upon us.
I was expecting a heavy arm and fatigued feeling in my arms as soon as we got going again but as we lined up in the deep water and the whistle went I noticed I was feeling strong so I went hard and didn’t slow up.
I hit the first buoy in second and held that place around the next and into shore. I jumped up quickly and managed to end up leading out and through to T1.
As we got through I was second to mount the bike, I knew there would be other athletes behind me so I didn’t drop the hammer straight away. Everyone stayed together and almost rolled turns evenly throughout the first half but I wasn’t letting anyone take it easy so I began to ramp it up on the fourth lap. Not long after that a break had formed and there was four of us working together. the pack held a gap for the remainder of the 4th lap but began to look at each other after than and eventually lost a fair bit of time.
Coming into T2 I was 3rd and ran out in the same place. Again, I aimed to catch up to Chronis and once I did I figured I’d see if I could take the lead and hold it.
By the first turn I had created a small gap and didn’t want anyone catching me so I picked it up on the downhill.
As I hit the u-turn I looked ahead and saw I’d extended my lead so I held the same perceived effort and stretched out my lead over Chronis, Declan and Brendan.
It wasn’t much of a win considering it was round 2 of an eliminator but it was good to finally play to my strengths and put something together and end up coming on top in a pretty tough heat.
I knew I had gone quite hard but judging off the feeling of race 2 following race 1 I knew two things. Everyone was hurting and that I can still recover enough to perform well after an intense 15 minute session.
“When you’re all ready we’ll get going”… one of the more strange things I’ve heard a starter say. Anyway, eventually we had all lined up again for the final time.
Before I knew it, we were off. I felt the same as I did in race 2 so I managed to get a good position and hold feet throughout the swim. I wasn’t necessarily being conservative but the swim did feel slightly easier. By the time I realised this we didn’t have much further to swim so I stayed put.
The run into T1 was faster than any of the other 4 transition runs so I knew it was going to be full throttle on the bike.
I mounted in about 2nd or 3rd and took time to see who was in the pack. I wanted to really smash this bike and make it as tough as I could seeing as it was a training session.
After about two laps the group had been split up and I took time to get to the rear of my group and as I did an attack was attempted. i sat back and waited to see who was going. eventually Brendan and Declan had ramped it up and there were now three away, after the u-turn to begin lap 3 I attacked around the group and caught up the break, I knew I couldn't just sit up and start rolling when it was my turn so I immediately went around and everyone got on my wheel.
I’m not sure when it happened but starting lap 4 there was only 3 of us. Brendan strategically lead into the u-turn and started us off on lap 4, He had created a 2 meter gap from an outstanding turn but by the time I’d caught him he’d slowed up too much and I went past. I put my head down and realised I he was out of the saddle and he wasn’t quite on my wheel, so I stayed seated but dropped it down a gear and ramped up the pace. After the turn I noticed I had a gap into a head wind so I used that to my advantage and pushed as hard as I could. Starting the final lap I had about a 15 second gap and I didn’t want to slow up. I jumped off the bike with about the same gap and lead out onto the run.
I was seriously feeling the ride in my legs, I knew I was going to struggle but I didn’t think it was going to be as much as I did. the run was pretty average but I just tried holding my form together and I ended up finishing 4th. It wasn’t my happiest moment but nonetheless I’m glad I did what I did because at the end of the day it was training for me and as usual I put in 110% in all 3 races.
TriF1 is an exciting format and it really provides a spectator friendly event so I’m glad I had the opportunity to be apart of the return of the F1 series.
It was the first triathlon I'd done on my Avanti Corsa DR and it performed incredibly well on the tight course. I cant wait to race on it again.
Huge thank you to the organisers and volunteers for making it such a great event.
.JPG)
