Pescara Italian Grand Prix Final
Photo by: Ivan Anfossi
Event - Pescara Italian Grand Prix
24.06.18
9am start Elite Women
Start number
3
Sprint distance
750m Ocean swim, 24 degrees non wetsuit, shore start & quite choppy. 20km- 5 lap bike course, along the sea front prominade, & a 4 lap 5km run back along the same exposed stretch.
Weather
Weather- Warm & sunny, Hello summer on the Med!
Result
A strong 3rd
I was very excited to return to Italy for the second time this month to race! It’s one of my favourite countries, with its diverse landscapes, ancient Roman heritage, culture, cuisine & coastline. Flying into Rome with team Deda, and making our way to Pescara, on the East coast of Italy. A favourite European summer holiday destination & its easy to see why, with more gelato stalls than street corners!
We were here to contest the Italian FITri Grand Prix Event, meant to be held over the weekend with a sprint qualifier on Saturday to progress into the super sprint finale on Sunday. A huge storm front rolled through on Friday evening, bringing some decent swell & messy ocean conditions, which meant to event was changed to be an all out final on the Sunday over the sprint distance, another day training lay ahead on Saturday instead!
Us women kicked things off at 9am sharp. Treated to an ocean surf “surf” swim & beach run in start- it felt just like home, minus the waves! Using my surf skills to get the early gap, Leading around the swim course & back to shore to take the swim prime, an extra 200 euro for the days work, not bad to start!
Running cross country style through one long transiton from swim to bike- as we headed up the soft sand, across the promenade, over the road, through the bush park and through to the car park transiton zone, heading out onto the bike with an early lead & group of 3, along side 2 Italian athletes.
We were soon caught by the strong & determined stragglers just off the back out of the water * 3 became a solid 7, rolling turns throughout the 20km ride, it was refreshing to have a strong, like minded group working well together on the bike!
Continuing to work on nailing my transiton skills, first in-first out, I put in a surge at the end of the bike to get into transiton 2, from bike to run first & allow myself any extra seconds lead out onto the run.
I had fellow Aussie charlotte McShane on my shoulder and Italian Favourite Beatrice Mallozzi right there too as we strides out on lap 1 of 4, with our trio sticking tough together throughout the run, pushing one another to keep it honest. On the last lap it was time for someone to make a move & see who had the legs to take the win, Charlotte was first to surge, Beatrice reacted and responded, and well, I was the first to drop off, not having that extra top gear to respond out there today, somewhat expected when you train through races & dont taper off after a hard weeks training. I held it together to finish strong behind the duo up front who went for the sprint finish with Aussie Charlotte taking line honours & Beatrice just behind, with myself taking the bronze today.
I was pleased to have an all round positive race, with the right signs there moving forward into one very solid race block!!
Next up- Superleague Poznan!