Monterrey World Cup recap

This past weekend it was back to racing down in Mexico, this time in Monterrey for my first ITU World Cup of the year. Flew down on Thursday and stayed in what turned out to be a pretty nice hotel with Brian Fleischmann. We hung out and did some light training until the pro meeting on Saturday which was relatively painless but then unfortunately my trip took a bit of a short turn for the worse as I must have eaten something bad at lunch because right before bed on Saturday I was started spending some quality time in the bathroom. My biggest fear was that I had gotten in a bit of a battle with Montezuma's revenge but luckily once I fell asleep I was good till the morning and when I woke felt a bit off but not bad.

Race morning went ok, tried to get some food in me but was hesitant to eat my normal pre race because of my stomach so stuck with light food which in the end may have been part of my problem on the run. Got to the race on time, had a solid ride/run warm up but didn't get in the water until pretty late and wasn't able to do as much as I would have liked.

The swim was in a man made canal that was really shallow, just above waist deep, and really narrow at places so we knew the start was going to be important. I had a solid dive, but with the shallow depth couldn't do many dolphin kicks and had to really lay in on to get out ahead a bit before the bottle neck. I hit the first turn around in 4th spot, good position but knew that I was working way too hard for only going as well as I was. Jsut one of those days, so I put my head down and tried to grind it out as best I could. I got gapped by the 3 leaders but luckily once on the bike was able to work with 4 other guys to join the first break and start to work together. The bad part was that only 5 of us were working, and we were not being very efficient at first so out lead started to dwindle before we got it right and ended the bike about 40 seconds up on the large chase group.

I had a decent transition but once on the run knew I was in a bit of trouble. My legs felt ok but just didn't have any pep and I was losing time in a hurry. It was a four lap run and by the second lap the entire chase group had caught and passed me so I just did my best to hold my form and try and get something going. Just one of those days where it feels ok but not fast, and after the previous night and really tough swim I just made sure I was under the time cut to get some points for my effort. Ended the day in 26th, not bad but not great, same as my start number. Moved up to 138th on the world rankings, but unfortunately probably came up short for a getting a start at Hy-Vee.

Now it is time to get the Kestrel Airfoil Pro TT bike dialed in this week before I head to St Anthony's this week for the first non-draft of the year. Excited to be heading back, have a good homestay, like the race, and at least everyone will have to do the work for themselves on the bike!