Mooloolaba & New Plymouth was never going to be a gentle start to the season because the Aussies and Kiwis are hard to beat at anytime but especially on their home soil.

The first race in Australia got off to a good start as I swam pretty well and put myself in the front pack of the bike. It was a large group and nobody made much effort, which suited me. Onto the run I immediately felt a problem with my calf which I had had no signs of before. I ran through most of the fast starters up into 5th but couldn’t bridge the gap to a podium position.

The following week was spent massaging my sore leg trying to get ready for the race in New Zealand but I was a bit anxious as I hadn’t run for 4 days.

New Plymouth is a funky little town on the coast next to a volcano and I stayed with some lovely sports mad locals. The race was started with a Moari Haka which must have inspired me as I had one of my best ever swims (or maybe it was my new Helix wetsuit!). The bike was hard in places but I was more worried about how my leg would cope with the hilly run. Unfortunately all I could manage off the bike was virtually a jog but that was still good enough for 6th place.

However out of someone else’s misery comes some hope - at New Plymouth Kate Allen (current Olympic champion) suffered an horrific bike crash which may end her season and therefore give GB a chance to get a third slot in the Olympics for the women’s team.

It’s a strange situation this year as virtually every country has already selected at least one person for the Olympics. In fact, I’m struggling to think of one of the major nations that haven’t other than of course Great Britain. Most of the top athletes are preparing for Beijing but we are still preparing for our selection race at the end of May……….

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Andrea Whitcombe, Athlete Diaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.