At The 3D Australasian Multi-sport Championship – Rotorua

Richard Ussher / 10.06.2013

Heading to Rotorua for the 3D race was exciting, it had been the focus for me since the beginning of the year as a race in which I hoped I would be back to full health and with a good build up to try and defend my title there.

Elina was also looking forward to the race for very much the same reasons.

We’d both had good hit outs the previous weekend in Nelson with wins in one of the local duathlon races, and were heading north with good confidence in where we were at.

The race brought together one of the best fields assembled in the sport with the women’s field stacked and the men’s field only missing Braden Currie. It was certainly going to be a true test of form.

Race day dawned calm, and relatively warm for the time of year. The kayak had been moved to the Blue lake this year to accommodate the growing numbers and everyone agreed it was both logistically easier for parking but gave the spectators a much better view with the entire course visible and competitors completing 2 laps of the smaller lake.

The start of the kayak leg is always chaos and although I got a good start I got squeezed out on the first turn requiring a bit of evasive action and a sprint to get back on the front group.

Tim Grammer, National Surf ski Champion Travis Mitchell and I managed to make a break from the pack and together we worked to put a bit of time between the chasers and ourselves.

Heading onto the second lap Travis and I got a gap on Tim who was finding a bit of extra drag on the ski as opposed to the k1’s we were in. I was really happy to have hung with Travis for the kayak leg but I could see the pack still disconcertingly close behind too – the race was certainly not going to be won on the kayak but I was hopeful of having a small advantage to help defend against Dougal Allen’s blisteringly fast biking.

Heading off the water and onto the bike we had a series of switch backs heading out of the transition and at the top I could see Dougal and the rest of the front pack exiting the water, just a minute or so back.

The legs always feel a bit wasted after a hard kayak but knowing Dougal would be charging hard behind was plenty of motivation to keep the foot on the gas. A few checks over the shoulder towards the top of the main climb and I still couldn’t see him so I was obviously travelling pretty well.

Once the single track starts it pretty much continues for 20km and the smile doesn’t leave your face – it is incredible riding. I was pushing hard but not taking too many risks and towards the end of the second long section I started getting glimpses of Dougal carving the tracks up behind me as we headed in opposite directions on the continually switching trails.

It was heartening to see he wasn’t gaining time in big chunks and every now and again it seemed he would lose a bit of time, maybe the result of a small mistake in one of the corners. As we neared the final tracks he put in a big surge up the final climb and I was able to tuck in behind before we hit the final descent. Dougal had a big moment on one of the final corners but managed to jump back on the track quickly and we headed into the transition neck and neck.

I had a great change and headed onto the run with about 5 seconds advantage and for the gap seemed to be holding pretty steady. The main climb comes after about a kilometer and the legs felt good as I pushed at a good pace up the hill. Dougal was still hovering the same distance behind.

I let it hang out on the descent and put a little more time into him but slowly he worked his way back up and at the end of the first lap the gap must have been almost identical to when we left the transition.

I was starting to feel the effort of pushing close to 100% for almost 2 ½ hours as we headed up the hill for a second time and this time Dougal starting taking some time out of me. With a little over half the climb left he shot past but I was able to stay on his heels and shortly after he slowed and I fought back past him. We pretty much ran shoulder to shoulder over the brow of the hill. I tried to stretch it out down the hill and gained a few precious seconds again but once down the hill it was back to stride for stride. We were also going through the women’s field now and they were also all really tightly bunched.

I just managed to keep in front of Dougal for the final time through the twisting single track and I was hoping he might have been also starting to feel the pace.

As we hit the better tracks with just over a kilometer to go Dougal made a big surge and as much as I willed my legs for that bit of extra turnover I just couldn’t respond and slowly the gap edged out.

The final hill was my last hope that he’d gone to early but he kept pouring it on and extending the lead. I never threw in the towel but I knew now barring something extraordinary the race was gone.

Crossing the finish just over 20 seconds down it was still with a great amount of satisfaction. While I hadn’t won I felt like I’d given everything I had to give, the body had kept giving at the hardest level for all but the last 5 minutes and on the day I was simply beaten by someone who had a bit more in the tank than I did.

For me I had proved to myself that I was back to 100% health, so there were a lot of positives that I can now build on, it wasn’t a win but I can know put the frustration of this summer and not being 100% firmly behind me (while retaining the harsh lessons I learnt about not digging too big a hole to climb out of!)

Trevor Voyce rounded out the podium in the guys with James Pretto the first Australian home in 4^th.

In the women’s race Simone Maier took it to the other girls in the MTB and run, overhauling Sophie Harts lead from the paddle to come home a clear leader. Sophie took second ahead of Elina who had a huge tussle with Jess Simpson for the final podium spot.

The 3D race again proved to be a fantastic days racing not only for the elite’s but everyone from the kids runs to the MTB, duathlon races and the secondary school Multisport race. It really does show case our sport in the best possible terms and this year showed the depth in the sport is really starting to develop in both the men’s and women’s fields.

In the last week also the auction for my race kayak finished on Trademe with just over $2300 dollars being raised for the Foundation for Youth Development.

Up next Elina and I are off to the Northern summer, with a trip to China and some training time in Europe to try and keep the form slowly inching upwards.

To check out some photos check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AdventureSportNZRichardandElinaUssher or follow me at Twitter https://twitter.com/richussher

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