Cagliari World Cup Race Report

Event - Cagliari ITU World Cup

2.06.18
12.30pm start Elite Women

Start number

Sprint distance

750m Ocean harbour swim, 22 degrees non wetsuit but quite choppy. 20km- 5 lap bike course, with one ripper climb & technical decent each lap, & back up the same killer climb & downhill fly over the 2 lap 5km run.

Weather

Weather- Warm & sunny, Hello Summer in Europe!

Result

A strong 5th

Splits

1:00:34- 10:01- 43-31:29-19-18:05

Cagliari World Cup, what a race, certainly one on the calendar I won’t forget in a hurry! What a stunning location for a race, it was so refreshing to get back by the coast, 4 weeks abroad & I had missed it! I hadn’t done Cagliari World Cup before but I sure had heard about the climb that rolls you through the typical old European style narrow winding streets. The course climb changes every year & those that have raced before have bragging rights of conquering it, but for a change this year they decided to take the run off the cobbled flats & up the same climb as the ride, more ouch for us!

Flying into Cagliari quite early with a few days to settle in before the race, get adjusted & be ready to rock & roll! We don’t always get this luxury so I try to take advantage where I can & enjoy the extra free time in a new city I’ve never had the joy to visit before, grabbing a map & walking the course a few days out, then heading off track & exploring a few of Cagliari’s ancient Roman sights & city hilltop views!

Prep work all done & set to go for a 12.30pm start on Saturday. Warm & sunny, it was going to be a hot race! Starting as number 4 in a big field of near 60 Elite Women, I had the advantage of an early pick of where to start on the pontoon line up, with a decent Right to left current sweep & an anticlockwise swim course, I went to the Right side of the pontoon to start. Heartbeat music playing, followed by the nerve racking silence that precedes the gun, GO! Off to a good start I got away into some clear water and free of the main chasing bunch behind & had a clean swim, being relatively untouched towards the front of the field! Coming up to the swim exit where there were some quite slipery stairs out of the water leading onto the run to transition. Being my well coordinated self I had slipped on the corner of the steps underwater that weren’t carpeted & sliced my shin open, luckily for the emergency fanatic nurse in me, I knew it would need to be looked at but could hold off till post-race, there was a job to be done!

A quick & smooth transition got me away care free onto the bike & in a good position with the likes of Alice Betto & Taylor Spivey where the intent was clear to work hard on the bike & keep the pace strong & pressure on for those just hanging on the back of this early front pack. I was mentally geared up & prepared to hurt on the hill, but If there’s one thing I know, hills put a little sting in the legs & burn in the lungs for everyone so I was comfortable knowing everyone was also hurting up those 5 climbs & extra 2 later on the run. Keeping the pressure on the whole loop, on the uphill, technical downhill decent & then flat out & back section we were stringing things out, dropping riders from our lead group & pulling away from the chasing pack of riders. Getting confidence in this to continue the solid work on the bike, with the likes of India Lee & the Italian Women strong help up front on the ride!

Heading into the second transition from bike to run we had dwindled our lead group down to 10 riders. Having been working hard on executing the “little things” like transition skills, essential for events like the super sprint Mixed Team relay, so I was aiming to be ‘first in, first out’ of transition 2. A smooth dismount & racking of my bike, I was away out onto the run with an early lead, if only the run was just to the finish line from here today!

Heading out onto lap 1 and the first climb of the run leg & a front pack of 7 had emerged up front, with the 2 Italian ladies taking it out fast up front. My legs were stinging, feeling a little more heavy & less light on the feet like I had worked to achieve repeatedly in traning, I couldn’t get “tapping” away & started to drop off the pack as the hill pinched up before the top turn to start the decent, making up room on the downhill steep decent & just off the back of the now leading 4 girls, running with Spence NZL & Betto from Italy for the last lap. With 1 km to go I was feeling good on the flats & decided to push it up and try make a move, dropping Betto it came down to a sprint Finish down the Blue carpet for Becky Spence & myself, I was really pleased to have that top gear handy & take the comfortable win in this little battle for 5th place!

Certainly one ripper tough race from start to across the finish line & onto the floor! I LOVE true hard racing like this & it was brilliant fun, and pain, I’ll certainly want to be adding this one to my season calendar next year. Onto Medical for some sutures in my shin to help close the cut up, yep indeed I had done a good job, followed by Anti doping control before finally enjoying a well earnt Pizza & gelato that night, a big sucker for Italian food! Job well done 😊

Emma Jeffcoat4 June 2018cagliari