After a middle of the bunch swim, and strong bike and run, Tyler was 8th place in the Monterrey World Cup today, 58 seconds behind the winner and 33 seconds behind second place.
This is the first time Tyler has been in contention after the swim leg at this level of racing. He attributes his improved swimming abilities to now being back in the sport for 18 months (after the four years out he took to race as a professional cyclist) and enjoys being able to join in with the various swim squads here in Boulder where there are up to four swim-squad options a day.
As usual Tyler spent a significant amount of time on the front of the pack and in the wind on the bike leg, unfortunately when you are strong not many people want to work with you.
Tyler’s group got to within thirty seconds of the lead group of seven (which included the eventual podium finishers) and he made several attempts to jump across the gap to the front group.
Retrospectively these efforts may have taxed his running ability, but Tyler is happy with the way he raced. He likes to ride and run hard.
Onto to the run Tyler let a small group go. With all the long distance training he has been doing in preparation for the Hawaii Ironman (World Championships) in October this year, the pace was just too fast for him at this point in his preparation. He was content to rely on his endurance training background with the plan to pick off guys in the second half of the run leg.
His patience paid off, although he recognizes next year when he is racing this distance full-time, he will have to make sure he has the speed to go faster from the beginning and hold it.
Tyler is very excited to be up as far as he was considering he has been preparing specifically for Half-Ironman and Ironman races (four and eight hours races respectively vs. the two hours today). It is a great confidence booster for Tyler as the ITU World Cup style of racing is what will determine whether he will get to represent Bermuda at the Olympics again in London 2012.
Tyler has two Olympic distance races remaining for 2010: The Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon in June which is put on by one of his major sponsors Philadelphia Insurance Companies; and the Central American and Caribbean Games in July.
In addition Tyler has four Half-Ironman races (70.3s): The American National Championships in Texas next weekend; St Croix 70.3 in two weeks; Mooseman 70.3 in New Hampshire in early June; Boise 70.3 (Idaho) in June; and of course Hawaii Ironman in October.
Tyler will also race in the Tokio Triathlon and May 24th Half Marathon while he is in Bermuda for the month of May.
No comments yet.