Holten Premium European Cup

After Kitzbuhel I travel with Marc Austin and Grant Sheldon to Majorca for a training camp before heading on to Holten, Holland.

I managed to loose my race flats at Kitzbuhel, I wore them back across to the lake to do a swim warm down after I finished the race. I walked back to the athlete lounge without them and once I remembered and went back for them they were gone and nobody seemed to know where there would be a lost and found.

Left me in a difficult spot because as I traveled straight to Mallorca for a sharpening up camp, I now had no flats for fast sessions and what was worse I had no flats for my race in Holten a week and half later.

Thankfully Ladi who works from the Ferrera Hotel we were saying at works as a  rep for ‘On running’ shoes. He was good enough to lend me a pair on On CloudRacers. They are awesome shoes, comfortable snug fit and super fast.

I was lucky enough to get to keep the pair that I was borrowing and am maybe going to start wearing the On shoes for the Commonwealth Games and beyond.

Disaster struck in the middle of the camp. On a jog out to some trails to do a Saturday session I went over on my ankle, not what I wanted a week before Holten and 3 weeks before the Commonwealth Games but sh!t happens.

I managed it as best I could and it settle enough to justify still going to Holten.

I traveled to Holten and actually had a very good race.

Swim was ok nothing special. My lack of kicking in the swim made it hard to get out fast but managed to do enough to exit the swim on the fringe of the front pack. First part of the bike was strung out and with a long drag of exposed roads to get from the swim venue into the town the power was down until the front pack formed.

There was a decent hill on each lap, who would have thought; a big hill in Holland but it was true. I wasn’t sure how the ankle would hold up on the run so I worked the hill hard to at least use it as a session for Glasgow and get something out of the race. Not to try and get away but just not to hide.

Onto the run I actually felt good. I ran out of T2 in the 1^st couple and unlike other races I wasn’t falling through the field. I had a good first 5km, 3^rd lap I felt the bite and 4^th lap I popped. I finished 19^th; pretty respectable against a good field and especially after the struggles of the week leading in.

Time to head back to Stirling for my Final Prep before the games; Exciting times J