Monday 12 March 2012

Oceania Triathlon Championships 2012

Arrived home earlier today after spending 3 days down in Devonport, Tasmania. The weather was surprisingly good down there considering how cold it normally is. I was glad to be leaving Sydney on Thursday morning to get away from the terrible weather.
Arrived in Launceston and then drove for an hour to Devonport in which we then built our bikes and went for a ride on the course. Everyone had spoken about this course due to the two extremely steep hills. I was shocked at how steep the hill actually was and the worst part is that we had to ride up it four times.
On Friday the team went down to the race site and had a swim in the ocean to loosen the muscles, I was hoping for a bit of swell to run through the beach but was rare to see any white water, it was pretty much a lake. We had race briefing that afternoon, we collected our race pack and then headed back off to the lodge to get some rest before the race in the morning.


Couldn't ask for a better day, weather was perfect. The ITU Junior men's start was to commence at 11:30am and would consist of a 750m swim, 20km bike and a 5km run. Bike racked and warm up done, it was time for race start. The siren went off, we had a field of about 60 juniors and a 10m run until we hit the water. It was a rough swim out to first buoy but had placed my self well. Came out of the water in about 16th position and was lucky to have a few people around me so I would have a pack to ride with. Pace was set early in the ride until we hit the hill which rattled everyone. After the first lap we had caught a few stragglers between our pack and lead group and was making ground on the pack in front. The pack I rode with was fairly strong, good to see everyone taking a turn at the front. Although after the 2nd lap we lost a bit of time on the front pack of 5 guys due to the fatigue of climbing the hills. Coming into transition with about 20 guys in the pack was a bit wild but managed to get in and out with no worries, lead pack got off the bike around 30sec before us. Out onto the run my legs were shattered from the ride but was able to keep good form to run myself into 14th position.


Was really happy with my performance, had a good race all round. It was good to get back in to racing at this level and look forward to the races coming up.


Jake Montgomery

Sunday 4 March 2012

Haven't posted much lately, have just finished my first week of University which was very busy although exciting at the same time. Done some solid training with NSWIS over the past few weeks which has brought my training back up to speed and will be travelling down to Tasmania, Australia next Thursday to compete in the Junior Oceania Triathlon Championships.
Have been waiting a long time for this as it will be my first proper triathlon race this year, so pretty excited to get down there and have a good hit out.
I will post a race report and photos when I get back from Tasmania.