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13-Nov-2009: December’s issue of Cycling Plus features the P3 of Cycling Plus reviewer Robin Coomber in their feature “Road Tested: Our Rides”. Read the feature here.

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Cervélo: Vroomen named Engineer of the Year in Netherlands

05-Nov-2009: Cervélo SA is pleased to announce that Gérard Vroomen, co-founder of Cervélo has been named the 2009 Engineer of the Year by The Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI NIRIA) in the Netherlands.

KIVI NIRIA President Jan Dekker presented the award to Vroomen Tuesday night at a festive event in the Museon in The Hague. In his presentation he said that Vroomen had distinguished himself through a combination of personality, entrepreneurship and innovation. The jury cited his ability ‘to combine technical ingenuity with good business instincts and an above average dose of perseverance and guts.’

In addition to the award, Vroomen was also given a cheque for 20,000 Euro by the Van der Poel Charity Fund, to be used for a project of his choice that demonstrates how technology can contribute to a better world. The award itself is an original sculpture by well-known Dutch artist Annemarie Petri.

“I am honored to be recognized with this award,” said Gerard Vroomen, “and I share it with everybody at Vroomen.White.Design and of course especially Phil White. Since we started Cervélo in 1995 we have always made engineering the focus of our work, internally as well as when speaking with our customers. It is clear that without our engineering background, neither our products nor our company would have achieved the level of success it has.”

KIVI NIRIA instituted the annual Engineer of the Year award in 1993 as a way to convey the value KIVI NIRIA engineers provide to society. It also highlights the varied and attractive career prospects that the discipline offers, thus encouraging young students to choose engineering studies.

Vroomen was one of three nominees for this years’ award and succeeds the 2008 winner Saskia Rijtema. During the upcoming year he will act as the ambassador for KIVI NIRIA continuing to spread the message he has already effectively done with Cervélo – enjoy engineering.

Cervélo: Macel takes fourth in Hawaii

11-Oct-2009: Tereza Macel capped off an incredible season with a hard-fought fourth place in the Ford Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, finishing behind three-time winner Chrissie Wellington, Miranda Carfrae and Virginia Berasategui. Earlier this season, Macel won both Ironman Lake Placid and Ironman Canada. Macel finished the World Championship race in an impressive 9:23:43 on an incredibly hot day on the big island. Congratulations Tereza!

Cervélo: Wins 2009 Kona Bike Count

11-Oct-2009: The results are in from the Triathlete Magazine bike count at the 2009 Ford Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. Cervélo topped the field again this year with a total of 462 bikes on the pier, followed by Scott with 109 and Specialized with 93. Thank you to all of our customers, and best of luck in the big race! For the full results, visit www.triathletemag.com.

Cervélo: Chris Ragsdale Wins Furnace Creek 508

08-Oct-2009: Congratulations to Chris Ragsdale for his impressive win at the Furnace Creek 508 ultramarathon cycling race last weekend. The FC508 bills itself as “The Toughest 48 hours in Sport” with a race course that is 509.58 miles long and has a total elevation gain of over 35,000 feet, while crossing ten mountain passes, and stretching from Santa Clarita (just north of Los Angeles), across the Mojave Desert, through Death Valley, to Twenty Nine Palms. An already difficult event was made even more challenging this year by DNF-inducing winds gusting to 60mph+ (and not tailwinds, either!).

Chris powered his Cervélo R3 to an outstanding sub-30 hour finish time and a more than 30 minute margin of victory. Chris partners with Cervélo dealer Sammamish Valley Cycle, and SVC co-owner Mark Thomas witnessed the performance first hand from the crew van, calling it “Awesome, just awesome.”

Cervélo: Javier Gomez Wins LA Triathlon

06-Oct-2009: Spanish ITU triathlon star Javier Gomez – 2008 ITU World Champion, and silver medalist in the 2007 and 2009 World Championships – demonstrated that he’s also a major contender in the non-drafting triathlon circuit, winning the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Triathlon this weekend. Gomez emerged from the swim with 12 other frontrunners. Racing on a P3 (Gomez usually rides an S-series Cervélo for draft-legal ITU triathlons), Gomez remained in the top ten going into the run, and put forth the second-fastest run of the day to take the victory by 10 seconds over Great Britain’s Stuart Hayes. Congratulations, Javier!

Cervélo: SAS calls P4 “the fastest bike ever built”

01-Oct-2009: The European airline SAS featured the P4 on the Tech page in the September 2009 issue of its in-flight magazine, pointing out all the technical features of the bike, and calling it both “the fastest bike ever built” and “the fastest bike on earth”. See the article here.

Cervélo: Report: Bjorn Andersson Wins Savageman Triathlon

28-Sep-2009: Hi all, this past weekend I took part in the Savageman triathlon which surely is the toughest half ironman distance race around. The bike course features one climb with a 31% grade and numerous others up to 25% and while the run course isn't quite as bad it is constantlly climbing up and down as well so it's by no means easy either. Since my last update from Timberman 70.3 about a month ago training has been going well and my fitness level has been rising so I expected to be faster this time around than when I won the race last year. Unfortunately I caught some kind of virus on the flight over from Sweden a couple of days earlier and woke up with a fever the morning of the race so things didn't quite pan out the way I wanted. I ended up struggling throughout the day and was 6-7min off my splits from last year on both the bike and run so it was quite a ways off what I expected. To make matters worse I got stung by a wasp on the tongue during the race which only further enhanced the pain that this course already causes thanks to it's brutally hilly nature. Anyway, despite things not going super smooth I did manage to come off with the win in the end though world class duathlete Josh Beck got pretty close by the finish. It sure wasn't pretty but a win is a win after all.. Next up on the schedule is Augusta 70.3 this weekend so right now I'm doing what I can to get healthy enough to be on the start line for that.

Cheers
/Björn Andersson

Cervélo: Cervélo appoints Global Marketing Director

21-Sep-2009: Neuchâtel, Switzerland - Cervélo SA is pleased to announce the appointment of Clemens Zimmermann as Global Marketing Director.

The thirty-seven year old Zimmermann joins Cervélo after a twelve-year marketing career with the BMW Group at their worldwide headquarters in Munich. He takes over the position of Global Marketing Director from Cervélo co-founder Gerard Vroomen, who going forward will concentrate on strategic tasks.

During his tenure at BMW Clemens held a variety of progressively senior marketing and sales positions; beginning in 1997 as an in-house sales and marketing consultant. In 2001 he became Manager for MINI Marketing Planning & Brand Strategy, coordinating the planning of the worldwide brand and product re-launch that same year. For the next three years he served as the Personal Assistant to the Senior Vice President, BMW Group Marketing, before being promoted in 2005 to Senior Product Manager responsible for the all-new BMW X6 model line. His last assignment was as the Global Launch Manager for the BMW X6, where he was responsible for all central communications and the worldwide market introduction.

“While Cervélo is not a large “traditional” marketer, we connect with our customers in many different ways, from our Cervélo TestTeam to our éRide program and from our website to our retailers. We have felt for some time that we could do more for our customers in this regard, and Clemens has the experience and the energy to make that happen,” said Gerard Vroomen. “We’re ecstatic that Cervélo now has the ability to attract people of Clemens’ stature. His combination of skills will serve Cervélo well as we defy the bike industry trends and continue our rapid growth.”

"Being a keen cyclist since my teenage years, this new position is like a dream come true. Having the global responsibility for a premium brand represents a fantastic new opportunity,” said Clemens Zimmermann. “I consider Cervélo to be one of the most exciting brands in the bike business, with an impressive list of achievements in their short 14 year history. Cervélo occupies a positioning similar to the brands I was working on before: they are perceived as the thought and innovation leader at the top end of the market. In terms of translating technological advances into consumer marketing instruments, I can make a viable contribution to Cervélo’s continued growth. The fact that they have their own professional cycling team makes this position all the more fascinating.”

Cervélo: Raynard Tissink Wins IM Wisconsin

15-Sep-2009: South Africa's Raynard Tissink won Ironman Wisconsin on the weekend with a blazing time of 8:45:19, and called it the greatest victory of his career. Here is his race report:

Exactly 2 weeks after IM Kentucky, I win my 6th title, who would have thought. My whole career I've tried to prepare thoroughly and focus everything on one race at a time, trying to achieve the ultimate goal - winning. After a string of 2nd places, and then a disastrous DNF in PE this year, I figured "what's the point?" We spend so much time focusing on one race and then something out of your control ruins it. So now I'm going to race as much as possible, train as little as possible (for me that'll be around 30hrs a week, I've got 20 years of base behind me, I probably never have to train again), and enjoy success when you least expect it.

After 2 weeks of recovery training, my legs were feeling pretty good this morning, and I was looking forward to a nice tough race. The route here is hard. Lots and lots of hills on the bike especially, but on the run too. And hot. And a 26°C swim with wetsuits. And an IM in my legs from 2 weeks ago.

There was no doubt in my mind that it was going to be a tough day. But I had no idea how tough.

10 Minutes into the swim I was over-heating. After the first turn buoy I started cramping in my feet. Pretty soon after that I started throwing up, and all this while trying to hang onto the back of the lead swim pack. I could deal with most of the issues, but the vomiting became a problem after about the third or fourth time. I was losing all my calories, and the day had hardly started. I exited the swim with an almighty headache, probably from overheating in the wetsuit, but I'm sure from dehydration starting to make itself known. But I was still close to the leaders, so on I pushed.

At the start of the bike I again didn't feel too bad, my legs were good, but as soon as I tried to get anything down the hatch, it just came straight back out again. I continued to push hard at the start to try stay with the leader, but after 40km I couldn't keep up any longer, and decided to let him go so that I could take it easy for a while and try get something into my stomach. To no avail, for the next 3 hours I could not eat or drink without bringing most of it up. Some must have stayed, otherwise I'm sure I'd still be out there somewhere, but most didn't. There must have been at least three moments on that bike course that I almost packed it in, but figured I didn't have anything else to do today. One of those moments was when the usual bunch came passed at 105km, 6 guys, absolutely hauling (or maybe I was just going so slowly by then), and left me for dead. Once they were about a minute up the road I told myself that if they disappeared, my race was done.

I don't know how, but from somewhere, I found the strength to catch back up.

It took about 30km, but I got there eventually. Now the trick was just to stay there. For the last 40 km I hung in at the back, throwing all my nutrition away and just drinking water, trying to cleanse my system. It seemed to work, and by the end of the bike I started feeling better.

I lost a lot of time at the start of the run, taking my time in transition to just sit a while, eat something, and drink a bit more water before the start of the marathon. Then I started the run very slowly. By mile 2 the legs started loosening up, however the leaders were putting decent time into me. But at this stage my priority was just to finish, and I knew if I could run anywhere near 3 hours on this course (last year the fastest run was 2;56), I would podium. By mile 8 I started feeling good, and even pushed a little every now and then. By mile 11 I could see the leaders were blowing up from racing each other so early on, and I started thinking about that podium, but I was still concerned about the guys not too far behind who seemed to be running strongly. At about mile 15 I went into the lead, but it was way sooner that I would have liked. With 18km left, I was now where everyone else wanted to be, and therefore being hunted. There are a few opportunities to see your competition, and at the last of those, with a 4 minute lead and 4 miles remaining, and still moving forward fairly comfortably, I believed I could do it.

Despite all the problems I had during the first 4 hours of the race, after nearly quitting a number of times, and suffering like a township dog, 8h45 minutes (and 3 weeks after leaving home) later, I crossed the line to finish the 2009 Ironman Wisconsin in what felt like the greatest victory of my career. 5 months ago I thought I was done in the sport of triathlon. Ironman win number 6, now I can't wait for the next one.

Raynard

Cervélo: Kyle Jones’ Race Report from Worlds

14-Sep-2009: Yesterday I raced the World Championship Series Grand Final on the Gold Coast in Australia. The weather here has been awesome all week, 25ºC (77ºF) and sunny everyday, and yesterday was no exception. Perfect weather for racing.

I had a great start and was able to get some clean water out to the first turn. It was pretty rough rounding the buoys with so many guys bunched together. The second lap was a lot less rough and I was able to swim pretty well, exiting the water only 10 seconds behind the leader.

A group of about 30 guys formed almost immediately on the bike. Another group of about 20 guys caught us at about half way. There were a bunch of different attacks throughout the ride with 2 small breakaways getting away late in the bike. The first group got about a minute and the second group, with Paul Tichelaar, got about 40 seconds. I was well positioned throughout the ride, staying near the front of the group and out of trouble. It was a bit chaotic entering transition with so many guys trying to get to the front.

I was able to get out well and felt pretty good running. Everyone started insanely fast! I tried to be conservative for the first lap thinking guys would blow up. I felt better each lap, picking up a few guys, but there were no real explosions like I anticipated. I felt like I was moving well, there were just so many other guys running well too.

I crossed the finish line in 25^th place. Not the result I was looking for but I can’t be too disappointed. I’ve spent the last 3 years working really hard on my swimming and I’m very pleased with where it’s at. I’ve been a front pack swimmer basically the entire year. I feel like I am finally in a position where I can focus on my running now, something I’ve wanted to do for a while. It's always been my strength but I've had to put it on the back burner for a while now to improve my swimming. I’m really looking forward to taking my running to the next level!

Cheers!
Kyle

Cervélo: Paul Tichelaar’s Race Report from Worlds

14-Sep-2009: The Grand Final is the last of 8 events in the World Championship Series. There are more points and more prize money on the line than at the other world championship series events. The world champion is crowned based on points accumulated throughout the series. The beautiful Gold Coast of Australia was host to this event. The weather all week has been perfect for racing (and for vacation); 25ºC (77ºF) and sunny with a nice ocean breeze.

After missing 2 months of training to injury earlier in the year I felt like I was just getting fit again in time for this race. I haven’t been quite as good as last year in the swim or run, but I have been cycling very well.

The swim got off to a really rough start. Then it continued to be rough in the middle and the got even rougher towards the end. I have never been so beat up in a swim. Every couple of strokes somebody would pull on my shoulder, kick me in the face, or swim over top of me. Other than pulling on shoulders, I’m sure I was giving out as good as I was getting. As I came to the end of the first lap I was sure I was close to last place but as we ran around the buoy on the beach I could see I was in about 15^th place. My second lap didn’t go so well and I ended the swim in 30^th place, but only 15 seconds behind first place. The whole group was bunched up.

The bike started out quite fast with the whole field in one long line. After half a lap the group of 50 men bunched up just rolled along at a good pace. Coming to the end of the second lap I positioned myself to sprint for the $500 prime and won it. I tried to continue for a breakaway but was reeled back in. I went with another breakaway attempt immediately after but we were reeled back in after one really hard lap. I sat in the group for a few laps to recover while a 2 man breakaway got off the front and gained a 45 second advantage. On the 6th lap Matt Reed (USA) and I just rolled off the front through a corner and got away from the large bunch. We worked really well together and in only 1.5 laps gained a 40 second advantage and nearly caught the 2 men on the front.

I flew out of transition onto the run and felt exceptional. I knew I had to run really fast if I had any hope of holding on to a top 10 finish. My turnover was really high and I nearly closed the 10 second gap to Bruno Pais (Portugal) by the first kilometer. By the second kilometer I hit a bad patch and dropped of the pace a little. I was in second place until the 4th kilometer when Alistair Brownlee (GBR), Javier Gomez (ESP), and Jan Frodeno (GER) (the podium finishers) came past me. At 5km a 10 man group came by me and I couldn’t lift the pace to stay with them. Throughout the run I was up and down, going well for a few minutes and then slowing down for a few. A couple more runners passed me over then next 4km. With 1000m to go I heard I was in 21^st place running shoulder to shoulder with Clark Ellis (NZL). I decided I wanted a top 20 finish and so started to kick to the finish with 500m to go. I crossed the line in 20th, pretty satisfied with my day.

The ITU season is now over. I am happy with how it finished up when I consider what a rocky start it got off to. In June it was starting to look like I might miss the whole year to injury. I was in three breakaways in three World Championship Series races with two 20^th place finishes and an 11^th. My final world ranking is 35^th. The sport has changed again this year and the guys are running faster than ever. Alistair Brownlee ran a legitimate 29:05 off the bike and the top 10 guys were under 30 minutes for the 10km. I’m going to have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a good plan if I hope to be competitive next season.

Thanks for reading,

Paul Tichelaar

Cervélo: Lisa Bentley at the Muskoka 70.3

14-Sep-2009: Hello from Subaru Muskoka Ironman 70.3!!

The race weekend is almost over and once again, Subaru Muskoka Ironman 70.3 lived up to all of its glory. Hosted by the best race organizers in the business - Mitch and Janet Fraser - athletes were treated to an amazing weekend of sport in perfect temperatures on a spectacular, challenging course! Dave and I are quite involved in this race and we are so passionate about helping to make this event a 'special' 70.3 - not a business - but a sporting experience blending family, friends and competition.

For me, this race is my passion. I have raced for the past 20 years and so much of my racing history has taken place in Muskoka. Whether it was trying to win our yearly local Muskoka Triathlon in the 1990's, competing in the 1992 World Championships, running away from the men in Subaru Muskoka Chase in the 2000's or now, racing International athletes at our very own Ironman 70.3, Muskoka is 'triathlon home' for me. And so, even though I would have liked to end my race season on a winning note with my victory at Philippines 70.3, my heart wanted to close out 2009 in Muskoka.

Why was this such a hard decision? For most of this year, I have been battling some CF related health issues. For most of my career, I have competed mostly healthy save for a few brutal infections but never anything chronic. After IMC 2008, my doctor found that my lungs were growing a nasty bacteria called pseudomonas - a condition which can become chronic and lead to lung damage. The result was that I had to begin inhaling IV antibiotics twice per day beginning in February. We discussed whether or not I should be racing but the conclusion was that I would be even healthier after killing the pseudomonas so I should continue competing. During that treatment, I was on and off of antibiotics to battle one infection or another but in spite of all of this drug therapy, I never really got healthy. The good news was that I was pseudomonas free so the inhalation therapy worked. BUT, the inhalation therapy led to other problems. Of course, my results lacked the pizzazz I enjoyed for much of my career but my love of racing was still there.

Basically for the past 6 months, I have been on 5 courses of oral antibiotics, my usual daily inhalers and on the inhaled IV antibiotics but I kept getting sicker. By August, my cough was getting more severe and my lung capacity was starting to drop and not rebound the way it had rebounded after clearing an infection. We started a new inhalation therapy to try to clear my lungs. It would clear my lungs but my lung capacity continued to drop. I really don't know how I raced so well in Philippines - but I managed to pull out the victory. Two days after winning that Ironman 70.3, I went to St. Mike's Hospital for another attempt to solve my cough and inability to breathe and my lungs were now down to 75% of their normal capacity. The crazy thing is that there is no question that I was unwell but the doctors were a bit puzzled since I had never been this sick before and yet, I did not have an infection.

Two weeks brought me to Tuesday, the week of Subaru Muskoka Ironman 70.3. The diagnosis is that my lungs are growing a fungus that is normally occurring in the environment so on its own, it isn't bad. But, as a result of the CF, I have developed an allergy to the fungus growing in my lungs! So it is sort of like being allergic to a cat and wearing a cat around your neck all day and all night!

That allergy is driving down the ability for my lungs to work and let's face it, I need my lungs to work. The reality of this diagnosis - that I am actually not running on properly working lungs in a sport that requires 100% lung function - was hard to hear! Dave didn't want me to race in Muskoka. I didn't want to lose in Muskoka but I wanted to race. I love swimming, biking and running. I have always said that you do the best you can with your deck of cards. I am blessed with CF and I have had the most fantastic, full, wonderful career in spite of CF and yet because of CF. I have won 11 Ironmans and 11 Ironman 70.3 events while having CF. That is a miracle. And in my heart, in spite of really suffering from CF with this allergic reaction and reduced lung capacity, I wanted to race for all of those with CF that cannot race. I wanted to race for all the children at Sick Kids that cannot race. To not race Muskoka because I was not going to win would be a disservice to my career. My career has been about sharing sport, loving sport and doing sport. The winning has been the bonus.

I also knew that on Tuesday - 2 days after the race - I would be right back at the CF Clinic at St. Mike's Hospital beginning a very potent drug therapy program - I can't even talk about it because it makes me so upset. I promised the doctor that I would never run or bike hard ever again and that I would be fine to survive on 75% of my lungs just so that I can avoid the proposed drug cocktail - but they will not allow me to cause permanent lung damage. And so, in 2 days - on Tuesday - I will be 100% devoted to getting healthy and yet the drugs may make me unhealthy - and this will be the hardest race for me - because I won't like the journey!

Because I don't know what the future will bring, I had to race Muskoka! Besides, in a weird kind of 'positive thinking' way that is ingrained in my soul, I really thought I was getting better. I was still having my coughing attacks and my body lacked power and my heart rate was through the roof, but I really did feel better and I was convinced that with a bit of adrenalin, I could have a great race!

I must say that I woke up feeling so incredibly happy and calm. There was nothing I wanted more than to race my favourite sport in Ontario's favourite triathlon playground. I felt good in the swim and exited with my usual deficit but nothing to sound the alarm bells. I felt ok on the bike - my tongue was down to my knees as I gasped for air but I loved it. The sun was shining, the roads were like roller coasters, there were people out walking dogs, the leaves were changing color - I was having a ball. I was falling further and further back but I was not discouraged. This was my choice to race and I was doing the best I could with my deck of cards. Starting the run, I was still very happy but the gasping for air was certainly tough and my lungs were hurting. Again, I reminded myself of my choice to be there and there was still no where I would rather be. I had a little scare at 3 km when I coughed up some blood but I knew it was just because my lungs were working so hard. I so desperately wanted to finish the race - to finish what I started - to do the best with my deck of cards - and so I slowed down to take the stress off of my lungs and promised myself that one more sign of blood and I would walk. During my slower paced run, I thought about Carter, the young boy with CF that I crossed the finish line with at the Hawaii Ironman. I thought about Kaitlyn, our 13 year old patient ambassador from Sick Kids who has endured 30 surgeries. I thought about my long term health and how my life with my husband Dave is really just getting started. I thought about how grateful I was to be running - even if it was slow - even if I wasn't racing to win or place - I was doing the best I could do with consideration for my health.

My run was truly a celebration. It was a celebration of the theme of my career - to finish what you start and to race with heart - that is what I did. No, I did not win and I did not place but I did what I loved with my triathlon family.

And now my goal is to get healthy. I am still hoping that my doctor will tell me that I am fine and that I don't need all those nasty drugs with terrible side effects. But regardless, I will 'step away' from competition for a little while and focus on pursuing all of the other things that I love - motivational speaking, representing my sponsors, coaching, exercising, consulting, healing and living! I wish I could 'step away' with a win .. but I think I did!

Thank you so much for your support!

Lisa Bentley
www.lisabentley.com

Cervélo: Tereza Macel Wins Ironman Canada

31-Aug-2009: Taking her third Ironman career victory, and her second in just five weeks, teamtbb’s Tereza Macel dominated the pro women’s field at Ironman Canada this weekend, winning by almost a full half hour.

Tereza led the race from the very beginning, exiting the water in a blistering 51:11, almost 2 minutes ahead of her nearest competitor. Her bike leg on the P4 – at 4: 58:13, the fastest in the women’s pro field by a large margin – left her over 15 minutes ahead of Belinda Granger, who had moved into second place. Her run was just as impressive. Though not the fastest of the women’s field – Macel was 3:17:52, and overall 3^rd place finisher Janelle Morrison was just 3 seconds faster on the run at 3:17:49 – Macel was a force to be reckoned with, and she increased her lead significantly, finishing in 9:11:20, 29 minutes and 39 seconds ahead of Granger, the second place finisher.

We are so proud of Tereza – what an incredible race, and an incredible season! Additional congratulations to her on her victory in the Battle of the Macels – and a congratulations to Jakub on a very impressive first Ironman.

Cervélo: Kyle Jones’ Race Report from Canadian Nationals

25-Aug-2009: Yesterday was our National Championships in Kelowna, BC. It was the first time in four years that all the National Team members were competing on the mens side. There was also a number of talented young development athletes that toed the line which made for an exciting race.

I had a great start and was able to get some clean water out to the first turn buoy. I came around the turn in about 5th place and was able to settle in for the rest of the swim. Andrew McCartney was his usual fish-like self putting 40 seconds on Simon, Andrew Russell and myself. The three of us had a 15 second gap on the rest of the field. We exited the water together and headed out on to the bike in pursuit of AMac. By the second lap we caught him and the four of us worked together in an effort to hold off Brent McMahon and Paul Tichelaar. They eventually caught us on the 3rd lap and we basically just rolled through for the rest of the bike.

The six of us entered transition together and everyone was able to get out pretty quick. Simon went from the start and none of us were able to go with him. Paul, Brent, and I ran pretty hard for the first lap before settling into a good rhythm for the remainder of the run. We took turns leading until the final lap where Brent went to the front. He lead the majority of the lap until about 800m to go when Paul surged ahead. I responded right away and got on his shoulder. I stayed there as we rounded the corner back to home. With less than 200m to go I made my move on the slight uphill as we crossed the bridge. I was able to get a small gap which allowed me to take the inside line straight to the finish while Paul was forced to go wide as we came down the bridge. At this point there was less than 100m to go and we were basically sprinting all out. Paul pulled even with me just as we were about to cross the finish and with a slight lean at the line I was able to just barely hold him off to claim second place.

It was a great feeling not only to finish second but to feel good racing. It’s been a while since I felt the way I did yesterday so I’m very happy. This result has left me confident heading into the WCS Grand Final in Australia in 3 weeks.

Cheers,
Kyle

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