On the 28th of may I took part in my first world cup of this season. This was the first race to count for the olympic ranking so the level was very high. The bike course was brutal with a climb of 1.5km between 15-20% which we had to go 3 times through. The run was pretty tough too having to go twice through the beginning of the bike climb.
Our race was at 10h30. I had an average swim start (as usual) and found myself around the middle of the field after the 3 buoys. At that point I was feeling quite comfortable but I decided not to surge to catch up as I could see the lead wasn’t far off and there weren’t real gaps in the field.
Getting out of the swim I had a good transition. There was a small hill at the beginning of the bike before getting onto the real hill. I was able to start catching up straight away and at the top of he hill I was already with the leaders. For the rest of the bike I just stayed near the front and tried to be smart with the heat and the difficult course.
The start of the run was pretty fast and as I was near the back of the group, I wasn’t able to get any water on the first aid station which didn’t help as I started kind of overheating on the first part of that run. I can feel that, like in Caorle, my run fitness isn’t where it should be since I had covid (but the heat just made it worse). In the end I finished 22nd which isn’t bad but I think I could do better when my run fitness comes back.
