I could hardly believe that it was May already and it was "time"! The weather was initially forecast to be awful for the race and there was much discussion via the Facebook group about what cold / wet weather gear we would be permitted to wear with our GB trisuits.
Needless to say, we arrived in Copenhagen to bright sunshine! The apartment that Angela had booked for us was lovely and was also the base for the GB Team.
I was travelling with Rose & Sara from One Life, Angela & Hedley.
It was great to have their company and also to meet up with Gemma & Ian who shared our apartment.
We arrived on Fri afternoon, in time for the bike course recce, led by Team Manager, Barron. It was a valuable ride out, looking at how the course weaved through the streets through the city and turned (sharply!) into the park. On the left was the sea which looked lovely but meant that there was the potential for a strong wind. We rode round one 30k loop and checked out transition. A very worthwhile exercise!
On Sat, we had time for a tourist trip on electric bikes to see the famous , but slightly disappointing, Little Mermaid.
It was incredibly hot for us Northerners and we were all keen to get out of the sun after registration.
There was a team briefing that evening in which Barron went over the latest race instructions. We decided to rack our bikes in the morning.
It was an early start on the Sun (8 May) but we were staying close to the course so could get set up and return to the room for pre-race faffing!
Our race started just after the elite women at 8am and it was already sunny!
After the first lap of the run (5k) along the road, around a park and back along the road to transition / turn around, I was already hot and poured water over my head. Back onto the second lap and the sun was hotting up, making the 10k challenging enough ! I felt quite sick for most of the run, but this soon changed into panic as transition time approached!
After doing a pre-race run through to locate my bike amongst the many, I was slightly dis-orientated when they had opened a different gate into transition for the race! I had told myself I would be calm and efficient in transition (!) even if it cost me a couple of seconds to get it correct. I soon located my bike and had a gel whilst putting my helmet & shoes on. A quick swig of water and the long jog out to the road.
The bike course started awkwardly with a turn round a cone and onto a bike path going the wrong way down the road ! I was slow to clip in but soon found my pace and managed to negotiate the twists and turns through the city and remain on my bike! The cobbled section was awful and I feared for my bike! As almost everyone else seemed to go up onto the cycle path to avoid the cobbles, I decided I'd do this on the second lap. The turn into the park was worse than on the recce, due to some strange cone action from the organisers and the country park was not closed as had been expected. I tried to maintain a decent pace over the 2 laps. I got overtaken but managed to overtake a few women. After 1 hour 51, the 60k bike leg was over and the transition 'marathon' was completed in reverse, with officials vocally enforcing 'rules' on where you could leave your helmet!
The crazy positioning of the one water station meant that you didn't pass it coming out of transition and had to struggle round one very hot 5k run lap until you got to it. I felt like I was dragging myself round the run, but thought that I couldn't be that bad as I was overtaking people all the way round the laps. I was desperate to finish and get out of the heat. I had to really hold it together running through the park on the second lap as the heat was relentless. I was pleased to get back to the road and finish the race.
Looking good after 3h 25! 😁
A decent result, all things considered , 8th in Europe and qualification for the World Champs 😊
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