Tuesday 09/6/2
San Sebastian International Triathlon
I couldn´t get my fifth Txapela (not sixth as I said in my last entry). The competition was tough, both french Sylvain Sudrie and Russian Ivan Tutukin made the race hard from the beginning.
I swam in the leading group, the pace was fast and the longer swim was an advantage for the best swimmers. But I managed to swim well in that first pack.
Spectacular as always the start in La Concha
The short course specialists went away in the transition, I have almost forgotten those transitions in the World Cup and I am getting slower, something I have to work on. So I started the bike with some lost meters, Sudrie and Tutukin were pulling ahead and I had to ride hard to catch them, once I got them we rode together at a good steady pace until Orio. We kept a good rythm on the climb to Mendizorrotz, both the French and I tried to tighten the rope to drop the Russian but he managed to stay with us. Once on top of the climb and in the first turns going down to Igeldo I saw that Tutukin was not very good on the downhills and I decided to try to put some seconds on him before the run. So Sudrie and I arrived to La Concha with a few seconds of advantage on the russian, and after another slow Ironman style transition, I began to run in pursuit mode.
Heading to El Peine de los Vientos
At first my legs were slightly heavy but gradually finding good sensations, I thought I wasn´t going to be able to run fast because of the heavy training of this week. The Russian caught me back on the first turning point, the French had taken a few seconds we would no longer be able to cut and he run alone to victory.
Nice walk in La Concha
Tutukin and I had a nice fight until the last 500 meters, when he made a fast change, I have never been fast and since I train for Ironman you can imagine that I am even slower, but I didn´t gave up and tried to stay in contact with the russian, finally I couldn´t catch him and he went away with the second place.
At the finish line
In short, I was without the Txapela, but quite happy with my performance. Iñaki Arenal remains the King of La Concha. He, my brother Hektor and I are tied at four wins in San Sebastian, but for respect for the great Iñaki and for being the first I think he deserves to keep the throne, at least until any of us get the fifth, maybe next year? Of course we will be there to try, because this triathlon certainly deserves it.
