Photo by: SuperLeague Triathlon
Event
3/11/18
1.15 pm start Championship Elite Women
Start number
22
SLT Super Sprint distance-
Triple Mix
2 lap 300m ocean swim with a beach start, no surf. 4 lap Brutal 4km ride, with 1 X 14% and 10% climb every lap!! Ouch. 2 lap 1.6km Run, including the 10% climb.
Weather
Mallorca in November meant cooler temperatures in the low 20’s, and a chilly 18 degree ocean temp.
Result
9th
Overall Result for Mallorca Round 3
9th
Round 3 of Superleague Triathlon saw us heading to the stunning Spanish paradise island of Mallorca! In true “go big or go home” Superleague fashion we took our own private charter flight from Malta to Mallorca with all Superleague athletes, staff, and bikes even on board the cabin! It was a ball of fun & made for a smooth and quick travel day perfect after the hard racing in Malta & the even tougher course to come in Mallorca!
We were treated by the former WORLD No#1, Rafa Nadal at the Rafa Nadal Sport Centre in Manacor, a world class facility hosting us for the week. With a 25m indoor mirrored pool downstairs, fresh running track outside, an excellent gym facility, brilliant riding around the island and not to mention 18 tennis courts! Plus, delicious fresh buffet meals available, physio’s & massage services freely available daily & some seriously comfortable beds to rest up! Rafa came to the centre during the week for a meet and greet, as a big fan it was surreal to meet him!
Day 1 of Superleague Mallorca kicked off on Saturday & saw a change from the original planned Eliminator format, to the Triple Mix format of 3 races as Swim-Bike-Run. 10-minute break. Run- Ride- Swim. 10-minute break before the last race of a bike-swim-run, starting in a pursuit style from the times of races 1 & 2 behind the leader. Whereby the first person across the line is the winner! When you’re going full gas and so used to racing Swim-Bike-Run, its very hard to them mix up the format and not make some little mistakes, like one of my best in Jersey Round 1… forgetting to take off my run shoes in race 2 to then jump on the bike, therefore doing the ride with my feet on top of my shoes with runners still on!
The weather was a bit grim during the week, and with the course being as HECTIC & BRUTAL as it was everyone was a little worried it may be a little too intense for this fast & furious super sprint racing & the very slick roads of Mallorca in the wet. Fortunately, the weather held off on both days and we had dry roads and the course remained unchanged… Ouch!
Designed by the Superleague mastermind team including multiple world champ Chris McCormack, featuring a 2 lap swim ocean swim, making us exit the water, run along the beach before heading out for the second lap. With a soft sand run up to transition, heading up 2 flights of stairs to transition. Heading out onto the 4 lap bike course, and straight UP “Mount Mallorca” a nasty 14% 200m climb straight up after the mount line, with a U turn at the top, a steep decent straight down into a sharp right hand corner back up another 100m 10% climb, U turn at the top, descend & another sharp slippery Right handed turn before getting to the far U turn, and heading back straight into the next lap and up Mount Mallorca again. We climbed that mountain too many times it hurts to think about right now!!
The racing got underway early in the afternoon, I got off to a great start, leading the first swim around and eager to set the pace up front! Winning my first short chute out of the water and getting to turn early on the first lap of the bike at the top of the hill rather than 10m further up the road. I soon got caught by the large chasing group of lead ladies on the bike who were certainly also on a mission to set the pace Hot off the start! Heading off onto the run I had a solid run to stick just off the back of the speedy ladies up front to finish.
10 minutes break flew past, trying to ignore the lactic burn in the legs after this killer course, setting up transition again and getting ready to start with a run-bike-swim race, mass start. Again, I held myself in contention early on the run sticking in the pack well over the 1.6km hilly run, with no momentum or rhythm to be gained it was a really starting to tax the legs. A poor transition from me cost my big time & saw me miss getting my feet into my shoes and losing momentum off the mount and having to settle with having my feet on top of my shoes up the first hill and losing contact with the lead group, meaning I was off the back solo for the remainder of the ride with Summer Cook as we struggled to hold the gap as narrow as possible. Heading out onto the swim to finish stage 2 I was able to use the beach starts & exits & sighting to my full advantage and overtake Summer Cook and Charlotte McShane in the closing stages of the race to finish across the line in 8th.
Unfortunately stage 3 starts as a pursuit style by adding up the time behind from the races 1 & 2 in which you finished behind, and for Summer, Charlotte, myself and 7 of the other girls earlier in the day, we fell over 90 seconds behind the leader, and that meant day over for us and no stage 3 start. A bummer but in this furious racing style that’s the way the cookie crumbles when you lose site of the leaders, they get away quickly, and with such a brutally honest course here in Mallorca its not the worst thing to be one race “fresher” for day 2 tomorrow in the Sprint Enduro stage!
Photo by: Superleague Triathlon