Curious if any competitors could share their race stories. I canāt find much other than they shortened the swim because it was COLD.
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Re: ITU Pontevedra Long Course age-group [DieselPete]
[ In reply to ]
I had athlete in 30-34 AG who finished 6th AG, 19th OA.
His swim was kinda a mess he didnāt get into the water til 30s before gun went off. He actually bought neoprene cap and I think booties week of race as he used the practice swims to figure out the river was super cold. Water was COOOLD.
My athlete loved the bike he said it was a good course but congested once lap 2/3 went down with LD + aqua athletes. He was 17th in swim and then moved to 3rd. Fell to 8th but was able to run up to 6th in AG.
He actually ran 3 laps with the Belg pro woman who ended up winning the race:
Here was his quick comment he sent me post race:
āThanks Coach! Holy balls! That was a tough race! I lost quite a few positions on the run but clawed my way back by just trying to stay consistent. You may have seen me on TV a few times... I was the guy in pink calf sleeves trailing the Belgian woman that became the world champ for the greater part of 3 laps šā
Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II
His swim was kinda a mess he didnāt get into the water til 30s before gun went off. He actually bought neoprene cap and I think booties week of race as he used the practice swims to figure out the river was super cold. Water was COOOLD.
My athlete loved the bike he said it was a good course but congested once lap 2/3 went down with LD + aqua athletes. He was 17th in swim and then moved to 3rd. Fell to 8th but was able to run up to 6th in AG.
He actually ran 3 laps with the Belg pro woman who ended up winning the race:
Here was his quick comment he sent me post race:
āThanks Coach! Holy balls! That was a tough race! I lost quite a few positions on the run but clawed my way back by just trying to stay consistent. You may have seen me on TV a few times... I was the guy in pink calf sleeves trailing the Belgian woman that became the world champ for the greater part of 3 laps šā
Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II
Last edited by:
B_Doughtie: May 10, 19 6:20
Re: ITU Pontevedra Long Course age-group [DieselPete]
[ In reply to ]
Thanks for the post, not much love for ITU on ST! I'm a 10x IM finisher and wanted to try something different this year so got a spot on the Team GB Long distance team (AG - 40-44M). I'll provide some colour on each aspect of the race and venue. I'm a dual US/GB citizen living in UK, so qualified under GB standards.
Venue - I got to Pontevedra from London on Thursday with the race on Saturday. The weather going into the Long Distance race was apparently pretty horrible, like 50-60's (9-12c) rain and cold. I was lucky and by the time I got there it was around high 50's(9-12c) in AM but sunny in late morning/afternoon up to 75-80 (22-24c). City is super clean and gorgeous. Easy flight (from London) and cab ride, no traffic into the city.
Event - It's a "multisport" festival so there are events like aquabike, cross tri, duathlon, etc....throughout the week. I met a number of competitors who stayed the week and got to compete in a few events - eg: duathlon first Saturday then Long Distance on following Saturday.
Crowds - Pretty cool to see Gomez and his hometown fans (literally from that city), they were chasing him at each transition. Super fast and I'm happy for him! Otherwise, the crowds are fun b/c they'll cheer for their home country athletes.
Participants - Not suprisingly, there were a ton of athletes from Spain and Portugal. I think around 30-40% in my AG were from Spain, 20% Portugal. GB was around 10% of the group. The US had a huge number of athletes. I shipped my bike with Tribike Transport (from UK) and they had a cool service from the US (don't breakdown your bike, air freight in a crate). I heard around 150 bikes came over!
Setup/Registration - All normal and nothing special. Similar to IM events. I didn't go to opening, closing, or pasta party, so can't comment.
Race - Planned 3k swim, 113k bike, 30k run (changed to 1.5k swim, 108k bike, 30k run)
Swim - Changed to 1.5k due to temp (rules state if air is less than 12 - might be 10c), then they have to cut the swim. Also, the current was very strong. i believe one of the races, like aquathlon, had a lot of participants being pulled out (37?). I'm an average swimmer, finished the 1.5k in 33min, but I'm sure the direction we started from was WAY harder, I might've had a 20 min one way 13 min back. It was a lot faster on the way back. Water temp was around 14c (high 50's?). I had a thermal cap plus normal cap and had no issues, actually pleasant swim. Also, not that crowded.
Bike - changed distance due to safety. 1800m (5k of climbing) and it was very hard, for me at least. I'm not used to all that climbing and found the 3 loops challenging. My power was higher than IM pace, which seemed right, but my VI was 1.15 b/c you were either climbing or going pretty fast downhill. Unless you had the right gears, it was tough to pedal downhill. Some parts had some narrow roads with turns which weren't that easy for me to navigate. If you are a good descender, then you could've gotten a lot of time. Also, there was at least one or two "U" Turns with almost complete stops at the bottom of a hill. Aero Road bike with disc brakes with compact/semi-compact setup might've been a good choice. I had tri bike (trek SC) with rim brakes and 53/39 setup, so had to grind it out. My bike time wasn't great - around 3:51. Some context, I biked 5:10 at IM Copenhagen (much flatter) the year before on 180k course. At least the roads were super smooth!
Run - I knew I had to pick places off on the run, but don't think I had the legs. For the most part, the run was flat other than 4 short/sharp hills. I came into the run in mid-pack and probably only gained like 10-15 places. Ran 2:20 for 30k (18mi at around 7:30/mi pace). You have to put AG tattoos on your leg, but can't see everyone's b/c of calf sleeves. It was fun passing (and getting passed) by people. It was tough pacing and I tried to run 70.3 pace, but didn't have it in me, especially the last 10k. The weather got hot at that point in the day as well.
Overall - Finished in the 1st half of the AG. There were 100 or so athletes in my AG. Happy to answer any questions! Cool to try something different. Distance and atmosphere was cool with all the countries represented.
Venue - I got to Pontevedra from London on Thursday with the race on Saturday. The weather going into the Long Distance race was apparently pretty horrible, like 50-60's (9-12c) rain and cold. I was lucky and by the time I got there it was around high 50's(9-12c) in AM but sunny in late morning/afternoon up to 75-80 (22-24c). City is super clean and gorgeous. Easy flight (from London) and cab ride, no traffic into the city.
Event - It's a "multisport" festival so there are events like aquabike, cross tri, duathlon, etc....throughout the week. I met a number of competitors who stayed the week and got to compete in a few events - eg: duathlon first Saturday then Long Distance on following Saturday.
Crowds - Pretty cool to see Gomez and his hometown fans (literally from that city), they were chasing him at each transition. Super fast and I'm happy for him! Otherwise, the crowds are fun b/c they'll cheer for their home country athletes.
Participants - Not suprisingly, there were a ton of athletes from Spain and Portugal. I think around 30-40% in my AG were from Spain, 20% Portugal. GB was around 10% of the group. The US had a huge number of athletes. I shipped my bike with Tribike Transport (from UK) and they had a cool service from the US (don't breakdown your bike, air freight in a crate). I heard around 150 bikes came over!
Setup/Registration - All normal and nothing special. Similar to IM events. I didn't go to opening, closing, or pasta party, so can't comment.
Race - Planned 3k swim, 113k bike, 30k run (changed to 1.5k swim, 108k bike, 30k run)
Swim - Changed to 1.5k due to temp (rules state if air is less than 12 - might be 10c), then they have to cut the swim. Also, the current was very strong. i believe one of the races, like aquathlon, had a lot of participants being pulled out (37?). I'm an average swimmer, finished the 1.5k in 33min, but I'm sure the direction we started from was WAY harder, I might've had a 20 min one way 13 min back. It was a lot faster on the way back. Water temp was around 14c (high 50's?). I had a thermal cap plus normal cap and had no issues, actually pleasant swim. Also, not that crowded.
Bike - changed distance due to safety. 1800m (5k of climbing) and it was very hard, for me at least. I'm not used to all that climbing and found the 3 loops challenging. My power was higher than IM pace, which seemed right, but my VI was 1.15 b/c you were either climbing or going pretty fast downhill. Unless you had the right gears, it was tough to pedal downhill. Some parts had some narrow roads with turns which weren't that easy for me to navigate. If you are a good descender, then you could've gotten a lot of time. Also, there was at least one or two "U" Turns with almost complete stops at the bottom of a hill. Aero Road bike with disc brakes with compact/semi-compact setup might've been a good choice. I had tri bike (trek SC) with rim brakes and 53/39 setup, so had to grind it out. My bike time wasn't great - around 3:51. Some context, I biked 5:10 at IM Copenhagen (much flatter) the year before on 180k course. At least the roads were super smooth!
Run - I knew I had to pick places off on the run, but don't think I had the legs. For the most part, the run was flat other than 4 short/sharp hills. I came into the run in mid-pack and probably only gained like 10-15 places. Ran 2:20 for 30k (18mi at around 7:30/mi pace). You have to put AG tattoos on your leg, but can't see everyone's b/c of calf sleeves. It was fun passing (and getting passed) by people. It was tough pacing and I tried to run 70.3 pace, but didn't have it in me, especially the last 10k. The weather got hot at that point in the day as well.
Overall - Finished in the 1st half of the AG. There were 100 or so athletes in my AG. Happy to answer any questions! Cool to try something different. Distance and atmosphere was cool with all the countries represented.
Last edited by:
tri@thlete: May 10, 19 6:44
Thank you! I appreciate the detailed responses.