If triathlons were space missions, then Langkawi was my Apollo 13. Other than two jellyfish stings, the swim was long, uneventful and went according to plan. It is a beautifully marked course, which made it quite easy not to get lost. No hassles in T1. I got onto the bike ready to go chase my Kona slot. The only benefit of being a weak swimmer is that you are always passing people on the bike, a huge mental benefit. That quickly turned into a draft fest though. At some stage I counted 14 people that passed me peloton style, every one of them an idiot that I passed earlier . It was also the first time I ever saw age groupers get carded for drafting. That made me feel much better about my individual effort. But I was stuck with this group, yo-yoing between leading the pack and falling back to avoid a penalty. At around 70km I took the decision to stop at an aid station and do a proper hydration refill, putting some distance between us. As it turned out I caught up with them at 100km. Fortunately the 2nd lap’s climbing was about to start. Relative to the field I am a strong climber, so I passed the group and managed to drop them in the 10km Redbull-Zone leading to the golf-course, without much additional power output. I saw Coach on this stretch (although she was heading back out again), realized that I was catching her , and I must admit that I was looking forward to finally passing her on the bike in a race. But oh what a cruel sport this is.nn n Read Moren nn n Read More
