Start of the season in Mooloolaba.

Today the new season could finaly get underway, with the itu World Cup of Mooloolaba. Last week I was watching the races in Abu Dhabi, as I was on the waitlist, and I felt a bit sad that I could not race there myself. So I was happy to have the chance to race here!
Mooloolaba provided a sprint race with a choppy beach swim, a technical, hilly but fast bike course, and a hilly run. A lot of strong athletes, and hot temperatures would definitely make it a hard race.
I had a good beach run to start the race, and felt confident in the swim. I managed to get to the first buoys in a good position, but lost a lot of places over there beceause of the aggressive behavior of some other athletes. Part of the game of triahlon, but not good for me today. I could keep in touch with the bunch and exited the water 30″ behind the fastest swimmer. A fast transition got me into a good group with some strong riders after the first transition.

We were riding damn hard, and were closing the gap to the front really fast. In the first 5k we took back 20″ of the lead, and got really close to catching the first group in the narrow streets near transition after one lap on the bike. On this moment, I was having a hard time, and when we were all riding on a long string I couldn’t keep up with the pace on the hill. I got dropped and stayed behing with a smaller group when my group closed the gap with the front group. A big disappointment for me, and a moment of mental weakness when I was suffering on the bike costed me a good result.

I knew the race was over now. We rode on with this smaller group but lost a lot of time. And motivation to dig deep on the run was not there anymore. Finished on a 50th place is not a good way to start this season.
Next will be World Cup New Plymouth in 3 weeks. Time to do some extra training and work on the weak points, and be positive about the things that went ok in Mooloolaba.

Greetz!
Simon