Jamie Rhodes - Professional Triathlete

Ondarroa Race Report

The day started slowly for me as I struggled to get myself out of bed in the morning. This did not really matter much, considering that my race was starting at 4pm that afternoon. But come 10am I thought it was probably about time that I get up.

Kepa and Ana were going down to Gernika to buy a bike for his brother, so this left me with some time to do important race day things like “the cleaning of the bike”, “the shaving of the legs” and the “shaving of the face” (for the photos). Such things are usually reserved for the day prior to a race, however given the late start time, I needed something to fill in those extremely boring hours before an afternoon race. I also wanted to dispel the myths that shaving before a race should not be done as it requires energy for the regrowth of the hair. I believe I dispelled this theory. The other myth I would have liked to have dispelled was the myth where “one should not be intimate with another before a race”, as all energy should be saved for the race. Nut as there was nobody on hand at the time, this myth will have to be busted another day.

I had planned to arrive at the race by 2:30 for the 4pm start, but as is normal for me we arrived a little later than I had hoped for. On the way we had to pick up one of Kepa’s friends from the town just down the road. Then we had to pack the car, and then repack the car, and then pack the car again. Also the road that we would normally would have taken to the race was closed and an alternative needed to be taken. All of the above resulted in our later than expected arrival time.

By the time I did finally arrive, I had a little less time to do the normal pre-race things in transition, and a small warm-up. This was probably good as I it left me little time to think about the race ahead.

There were a couple of guys who I had to look out for. The first was Hektor Llanos. Hektor and his brother Eneko are well known in triathlon circles and Eneko this year finished second to Macca at Wildflower 70.3. Kepa told me the day before the race that Hektor would be racing, as before this he was not on the start list. The second was Mikel. I don’t know Mikel’s last name as it is too hard to pronounce, and even spell for that matter.

Anyway, Mikel is the guy that I rode with earlier last week and wanted to try and smash me on every hill. He is also the guy that used to ride professionally and is quite handy on the bike. But as I said earlier, he is not much of a swimmer, although he is improving.

Just before the race it looked as though it could rain a little as the clouds came over and the wind picked up. The swim was a beach start and not a bad one for me. The swim course was unusual as we swam in a small protected beach and then into the port where the fishing ships are docked, pretty cool actually. T=I had a great swim and exited in first with a lead on the next guy of 45 seconds. Hektor was over a minute behind, and Mikel about 3 and a half. This was pretty good for him and he was definitely within striking distance.

My transition was probably the worst of my life. All seemed to be going well when my wetsuit came off in a flash, but it was the race belt that found me unstack. I just could clip it together and lost about 10 seconds trying to do so. My helmet was not much better. But once I got onto the road, I thought that I was out of trouble. That was until I found myself sliding across the bitumen…. The day before the race I had travelled in the car to ride over the course so that I knew where I would be going and what I had to look out for. I also forgot my bike shoes which meant that I could actually ride the course, but give the Beamer a good run through some of the trickier sections of the course. However, the intricacies such as the transition exit and direction and roads out of town were not researched as well. About 50 metres after getting onto my bike I was screaming down the road only to find that there was a hairpin turn and a girl directing me to make the turn, quickly. Of course I was going a little fast and before I knew it I was on my side.

I was actually pretty lucky that I hadn’t got my feet into my shoes yet as I just slid a little bit and they stayed in the pedals. I was also wet which made the slide a little better. After a few expletives and a quick check of the body, I was off with barely a scratch on me. A did have a small knick on my big toe but managed to swell the bleeding and continue the race. Then it was onto the bike where hopefully my luck would change. 

The bike was tough and probably the toughest I have done. I was only one loop of 40km and travelled along the coastal road to the next town for about 12km. It was very undulating and it looked as though the road was not used much by cars anymore. The grass was growing over the road and there were a lot of patches of dirt and sand on some of the corners. I had the lead motorcycle with me and they were telling me where all of the dangerous corners were which was good. It was just a pity that they weren’t there to tell me about the very first one. 

I rode really hard along this stretch as I knew it was where I could grab a few seconds. There was to be a turnaround section at about 20km where I could see where the others were, but other than that I would have to wait. That was until Kepa drove past in some dudes car yelling time splits out the window. Gold!!!

My lead was at 1:15 which was more than I had after the swim. This was good. By the time I had reached the turnaround point I was 1:20 in the lead. The lead was not increasing as I had hoped. The two chasers were Hektor and another guy and they were riding well together. Behind them was Mikel and I had a lead over him of 3 minutes by the 20 km mark. It was decreasing, but not at a rapid rate which was encouraging. Coming up was the toughest part of the course. A 3km climb up to a peak called Milloi. The best thing was that after this climb it was mostly downhill for the remainder of the bike. This climb is also the one that will be in the Lekeitio race, so I had done it last year and this would also serve as good practice for the race in a couple of weeks time. A few more drive-by’s from Kepa told me that the lead was stagnate at around the 1:20 mark. I needed, or wanted more time. Once I hit the top of the climb I hammered down as fast as I could possibly go. From the bottom I had about 8km where I could just put the hammer down and go for it. So I did.

The terrain however was not quite as easy as I had remembered from the previous day’s drive and the headwind was also making things a little harder than expected. Anyways, I just went as hard as I could and hope that the other guys were not going as fast as me. By the time I got into transition from bike to run I was well and truly out by the time the other were coming in. This was good! At the end of the bike I had a lead of about 1:50. I thought that this would be enough when I took off on the run and felt really strong. This was a good feeling given that I had just ridden my ring off for a pretty hard 40km and I had good rhythm.

The run was a three loop course, and as the km boards were ticking over I was surprised to see that the 10km one was situated about 700m from the finish line. Great, another long run… But by the time I came around for the second lap I could see Hektor on the opposite side of the river and he had not made up any time. Very good! The run was pretty cool in that the outward leg was on one side of the river that runs through the town and then after about a kilometre and a half you crossed over to the other side. After the turning point at the far end of the course you travelled through the centre of the town. All the towns are pretty cool with really narrow streets and about five story buildings on either side, so running through them is good fun and cool when the sun is out. Might is say that the sun is rarely out in the basque country though. Anyways, back to the race. The end of the lap runs up to the transition and over the bridge to start again. It was here that I was able to see where the competition was. So, after the first lap the margin was much the same. After the second lap I had lost a little bit of time but I had backed off a little as there was no way that they were going to catch me. Not today anyway as my lead was about 1:30 still.  The last lap was pretty cruisy and I lost a lot of time. But that’s OK. I crossed the line 37 seconds ahead of Hektor, and about 1:20 ahead of mikkel.

Once the results were up I was able to see that I only lost 40 seconds to Mikel on the bike. This was awesome and made me very happy. But I was happiest that I would receive a txapela for my win. The overall male and female winners in the basque country win things called txapela’s. They are giant Beret’s and have the race and date and stuff embroided in the top. It’s pretty cool and will definitely be making the trip home to Aus. Unlike the absolutely enormous trophies they love to give out here. Another two are now sitting on the mantle at Kepa’s place.

I’ve got a big couple of weeks coming up in terms of racing, with a sprint race in Donostia this Sunday. This is the race that I won last year, so it will be good to get back and have another go. No txapela on offer though.

The following weekend is the biggy with two sprint races in two days. I will be racing in Lekeitio on the Saturday afternoon at 4pm, and then making the journey back to France to race in Paris the next day. This is the second grand prix race for my French team. I had hoped to miss this one and stay here in the Basque country but one as Nicko has not been very well of late his is unable to race and I will have to travel back up to compete.

After the race in Lekeitio I have to travel up to the first town inside the Spanish/French border and then get on the overnight train which goes to Paris. It runs through the night and I can get a bed which will be alright as I can have a sleep on the way and then get up when I arrive in Paris the following morning. That is the theory anyway. Hopefully it all works out, but I can safely say that I think I’ll be a little tired afterwards.