This was the big race of the season. My summer training was all aimed at Rotterdam so concentrated all summer on improving my running. The day came round very fast and soon I found myself on a flight to Holland! My flight was not till Saturday so I knew I wouldn’t have long to familiarise myself with the course so I watched lots of videos really detailing the course along with my race plan. I was very happy to see the tight technical course as I knew this would play into my hands.

I arrived Saturday afternoon and immediately made my bike and went on a ride to try get a sense of the bike surface. This wasn’t as bad as I thought which gave me confidence. I then enjoyed watching the elite men race, maybe I shouldn’t have been standing up?!?! I then went back to the hotel and set up my bike and got a good night’s sleep.

My race start wasn’t till 4:05 so had plenty of time but I had seen that it was a long way from t2 to t1 to set up so I left plenty of time. All set up I was ready to go. I got a good start on the swim but I felt myself drop off in pace due to the lack of swimming I have done recently. I came out the swim further back than I had hoped but I didn’t let this worry me because I had a long transition to rectify this. I put in loads of effort running to transition and made up lots of places. I mounted onto my bike but knew I would have to work to get into the front pack. So, I dug deep and chased after the pack. The tight corners as a group means that you will have to slow down much more but being a solo rider, I was able to get around the course quickly and soon caught onto the back of the group.

​I sat in for a few kilometers just to recover as I had taken a lot out of myself to catch up. I then made my way up the pack and soon someone made an attack, I chased after him to turnaround and see that we had made a break. I was shouting ‘go go go’ and we worked together but this failed and the pack were able to get back onto our wheels. As we raced through a tunnel through the city I had planned to race away into transition and I did just this. Unfortunately, when I did my bike recce I couldn’t ride over a temporary bridge which had some ramps. So when I came to these ramps I think I took off! I landed safely and raced towards transition. I came off the bike in first and ran down transition.

​Trainers on I was away, I felt great! I was in a group of three with an Australian and New Zealand athlete. The run course was great running on a path winding through a park. 3km in my legs were still there I knew this was going to be a sprint finish and I was ready! With 750 meters to go the Australian moved up a gear so I followed but we dropped 3rd. The pace was very fast and unfortunately, he was able to go up to one pace faster than I could. Even though I was in second the crowds were amazing for the last 500m and running down the blue carpet was an incredible experience. I finished 2nd in my age group but also 2nd out of all sprint athletes!
​All this could not be possible without support and guidance from my coach Brian Butler from Natural Ability.

This weekend saw a Junior Males relay team from Natural Ability compete at the Cotswold Water Park Relay Challenge. The four boys secured 1st Place by posting a new course record by over 9mins.

Each of the four team members Gregor Kelling, Reuben Trotter, Skip Snelston, and Luke Sherlock completed the 4 x 250m Swim -  8km Cycle - 1.5km Run to finish in an over all time of 1hr 43mins. A great performance by four very talented youngsters, congratulations.

14 year old Katie Pamphlett who went along to cheer on the 4 boys and found herself making up the fourth member of a male rugby club team, the rugby team had lost their fourth relay member and without Katie would have had to withdraw from the competition. After seeing her race they have asked her to act as a stand in winger during their next rugby match. 

,Katie-Ann following a period of mixed fortunes put a very frustrating summer of training to one side to claim 2nd place at the National Middle Distance Championships at Vitruvian this weekend. 
Katie-Ann has worked incredibly hard this year to claim 2nd AG position at Staffordshire 70.3, and then this weekend 2nd at the Middle Distance Championships. The training for Vitruvian focused on the adaption from bike legs to run legs, and with a solid run strategy Katie-Ann surpassed her goals and expectations for this last race of the year. Congratulations Katie-Ann.

​A fantastic morning of racing by the Natural Ability Junior Ambassadors 
Rosie Weston 1st Under 20s at the Bala Standard Distance Race. Rosie is in mid-preparation for the World AG Championships in Rotterdam.
Rose Lord 1st AG at Southam Sprint Triathlon. Rose is in the final preparations for the European Qualifiers.
Reuben Trotter 1st AG at the Bosworth Sprint Triathlon. Reuben like Rosie is in mid-preparation phase for the World AG Championships in Rotterdam.
Congratulations to you all.

​Did you know? During today's La Vuelta Stage 8 (199Km) the riders will consume between 12-15 bottles of fluid!! Makes my hydration strategy whilst on the bike a little inadequate.