ITU World Championship Series

I had an interesting weekend to say the least. Besides the normal studying and paper writing for my summer graduate class I managed to find time to ride with coworkers. The 6AM start time on a Saturday was not my choice. I'm told until I get married and have family obligations I won't be able to appreciate the early morning workout.

The ride was pleasant and along quiet roads filled with plenty of rolling hills. I left the group after 30 miles to do a few threshold repeats. Along the way it began to rain lightly. I prefer not to ride in the rain but I was determined to get in a much needed long ride in that day. I wanted to take Sunday off to watch the ITU World Championship Series race in Washington, DC. As I turned a sharp corner on freshly paved asphalt my front wheel lost its grip. Before I knew it, I was sliding down the bike trail on my side. The injuries consist of a bruised and swollen ankle, hip, shoulder, hand, elbow, and knee. I have a bit of road rash but not too bad. I think my bike took the worst hit because the handlebars are a little out of whack. I've been taking it easy this week, which has allowed me to concentrate on my final project for school. You got to find the positive, right?

On Sunday I rode my beach cruiser into DC to watch 4 of the 5 top triathlon finishers in Beijing compete for ITU points. All the big guns were in town: Javier Gomez, Simon Whitfield, Hunter Kemper, Jan Frodeno, Jarrod Shoemaker, and Andy Potts. I had a special interest in one athlete, Matt Chrabot, because he's a member of Coastal Racing from Virginia Beach.

My first impression of the Olympic triathletes was, "Damn they're skinny!" At 5'8" and 150lbs I look fat next to these guys. I guess the less weight you carry around the better when you're at that level.

The swim portion of the race was a two loop course through the nasty, brown, debris filled Potomac. I felt bad for the guys because they spent much of the time dodging logs and trash. Afterwards, I managed to watch most of the bike on the big screen they had at T2/Finish. It was pretty awesome.


The lead group of five turned a 10 second lead out of T1 into a 45 second lead on the chase pack of 15 or so guys. The chase pack never could put things together. Shortly after the run started it was clear it was going to be a two man race between Javier Gomez and 21-year old Alistair Brownlee. Seriously, this kid looked like he could have been 16. He dropped the hammer over the last 2km and won his second race of the year.