ITU World Multisport Championships Pontevedra 2019 – Steve Ellison
After my journey into long course racing at Challenge Roth in 2017, 2018 saw a return to short course racing and duathlons and whilst it was a very up and down year, I managed to get an automatic GB age group team place at Stirling Duathlon, meaning I was heading to Pontevedra in Spain for the standard distance duathlon World Championships, part of the revised ITU Multisport championships.
I had done the 2016 event when it was purely the Duathlon World Championships and the event was returning to Pontevedra for the first time since 2014, where Fusions very own club chairman Donna won the World title over the sprint distance, so I had a good source of info on what to expect. Also – No pressure then!
The lead up to the event didn’t go well however, with various plans getting thrown out of the window. The warm up race at Stirling got moved to 1 week before, so that was out and World’s would now be my first race of the year. Unwell in the 6 weeks leading up to the event, antibiotics didn’t help and training was restricted. General election in Spain caused race day to be moved forward a day and the start time moved to 4:30pm 10 days prior. No course recce then. All coupled with various work and personal stress.
However, I had done the bulk of the training, daughter Shelley had kindly stepped in as my new support crew following Gill’s diagnosis and the overriding attitude was to give it everything and just finish.
The drive from Madrid to Pontevedra was interesting to say the least. After arriving in blue skies and sunshine, during the 5 hour drive we had everything. Gales. Rain. Thunderstorms. Hailstorms. Snow and a blizzard. Welcome to Spain. Where’s the sun gone!
Fortunately, this was the last of the Atlantic storm that had been battering the area that week and the weather steadily improved all through the day before the race. As usual the event was superbly organised and after collecting my bike, registering, buying the usual merchandise as mementos, doing the obligatory team race briefing and having a quick 20km ride along part of the course, I had an early dinner, movie and early night.
Race day dawned bright sunny and hot. Very hot. Bike racked, transition set up and then relax.
The race itself was the usual 10km consisting of 4 laps through the historic old town of Pontevedra, very windy and twisty with some sharp little rises and descents. The plan was to set off at not a crazy pace, settle and build. As usual the support was amazing. Northern Spain loves these types of events and the locals get very much behind it. Probably helps when a certain Javier Gomez Noya grew up in the town and was racing the long course later in the week. The GB crowd was also out in force as usual, a combination of athletes doing other events, managers, family members and also the sprint distance athletes who had raced in the morning, some of whom were clearly several beers into their recovery phase…..
Then came the bike. This was probably the toughest bike course I’ve ever raced on. The earlier week storm had caused the organisers to chop 4km out but in 36km there was 750m of climbing, and it was pretty technical, not much in the way of straights, but still very doable on a TT bike. I settled in and found myself in a 6-way battle with Spanish, American and German athletes. I seemed to have an advantage on the uphills but the Spanish and Americans were better on the downhill/technical sections. A course recce would have been very useful. On the final drag into town I managed to drop all but 1 of the Spanish athletes and then headed out onto the 2nd 5km run. Just 2 laps this time of the same scenic course but still the same levels of support all the way round the course.
By this point I was aware I was probably towards the back of the field and starting to feel the effects of this being my first race of the season. It normally takes me 2-3 events to really find my racing mojo. On top of that was the heat, which after a winter in Scotland wasn’t helping matters. But, I’ve only ever DNF’d one race in 9 years and that was due to a technical, so it was gritted teeth, sheer bloody minded-ness and knowing Gill was tracking me back home that got me to the finish. Shelley was there was the GB flag for my well-rehearsed finish line shot and it was done.
It wasn’t my greatest performance, but I was properly broken afterwards. Nothing had been left on the course and the following day spent lying on a beach in the sun was pretty much all I was good for. It’s a hard life trying to be athlete sometimes….
Qualification for any of the GB teams is difficult and takes hard work, but whilst I know I’ll probably never be at the sharp end of the field (especially with former elites now competing) it’s still a very, very special feeling pulling on a GB suit. If you get the opportunity to do it, even once, grasp it with both hands. You will not regret it.
As usual I’d like to thank everyone at the club for their support in the lead up to the race both in training and in the messages sent. Special thanks to JD for the great coaching, advice and a race day plan that I tried to stick to as best as possible. Gill for making sure I went to the race despite what was going on back home and Shelley for stepping into the breach at the last minute as team support crew.
I’d also recommend the Galicia region for a visit. It stunningly beautiful, the locals are amazingly friendly and there are some top notch beaches. And you won’t get the usual type of British holiday makers that frequent the more popular areas of Spain. I certainly plan on going back for a more in depth visit soon……
