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The Abu Dhabi Experience

Andy Wilson / 30.01.2009

So how does team SleepMonsters/For Goodness Shakes view our Arabian adventure - at first glance 19th place in a field of 36 might not sound like much of an achievement, and I expect that many who have first hand knowledge of our competitive nature at UK races may suspect some disappointment. Far from it, as a scan down the top 18 places will reveal a who\'s who of the worlds very best international teams, including Orion Health (the World Champs could manage just 7th), Nike (who were 10th at one stage and finished 5th) and the Uk\'s Saab Salomon (just one place ahead of us in 18th ). The stage format guarantees a furious pace and limits retirements, so every place is hard earned. Perhaps I might admit to just a little disappointment at the loss to Saab Salomon by just 37mins, especially as with hindsight these minutes were so freely thrown away.

The time we spent in preparations for the race certainly paid dividends, but almost inevitably there were things we hadn\'t considered or discussed. On the whole the race went about as well as we could have hoped, but there were a few lessons learned. Before the race I was reluctant to speculate on where we might come, because so much is outside your control – we had no real idea of our pace in comparison to other teams – so my definition of a successful race was that we would race to our limits, fight for every second, and minimise the time given away cheaply, in transitions and the like. No race is ever perfect but on the whole we came close to this goal and so are very happy with the outcome.

The first day triathlon started with a flat tarmac road ride on mountain bikes, which resulted in a large peloton hurtling around Abu Dhabi seafront. I can\'t say it\'s the most fun I\'ve had on a mountain bike but it was interesting in it\'s own way. Sitting in the pack, paying close attention to the hornet buzz of knobbly tyres on tarmac, pitch rising when the hammer went down, felt quite easy despite the pace, which was frenetic enough to shell some teams off the back. The main lesson learned was the concentration required to know where your teammates were at all times. There would be more fast peloton riding during the week and getting a teammate shelled is very costly.

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