Our Torq fuelled elite athletes were racing in Geneva at another European cup event recently. Jodie Swallow, who is having a fantastic year won the race and Jacqui Slack, who has turned pro this year, came 6th. We would like to congratulate them both on a well fought ‘wet’ race. This is Jacqui excellent account of the race.
‘Geneva Euro Cup was a last minute entry for me. I’ve been staying in Morzine with some British athletes and a few of them were racing Geneva, so I requested a late entry and got in. After my disappointing performance at the Tiszaujvaros ITU World Cup, I was pretty fired up going into the race and felt like I needed to redeem myself and show myself that I’m capable of more.
Harry Wiltshire, Phil Wolfe, Sophie Coleman, Charlotte Roach, Lucy Chittenham and myself all travelled to Geneva on Saturday to check out the course and to attend the race briefing. The drive was about 1 ½ hours from our place in Morzine. Lake Geneva was beautiful, clear and a warm 24 degrees; so we were sure it would be a ‘none’ wetsuit swim. The bike course was challenging; with a 13% 1k hill in the middle of each lap, that we were to do 6 times. The run was undulating through the park. We returned home that evening sat down to a ‘Coleman’ special pasta dish and went to bed. I chatted to Rob (coach/boyfriend) on the phone and he gave me some inspirational quotes to think about before the race I find this really helps. I would like to say a quick thank you to Nick Bebbo of Newcastle triathlon club for his motivating words it meant a lot and really helped thanks dude.
Race morning
As soon as we got out of the car the heavens opened and the rain didn’t stop, in fact it’s still raining now. The water temp in the lake had dropped and it was now a wetsuit swim, which to be honest I prefer I feel much more confident in my swimming ability when I’m wearing a wetsuit.
After setting up transition in the rain the race finally got started. After last weekend’s disaster I was determined to learn from my mistakes and positioned myself well on the pontoon. I made a mental note of where the fast swimmers were so I could follow their lead. The swim went well, but I had a poor ‘T1’ (transition one – swim to bike).
However, I was strong enough on the bike to work my way up to the group and at the first hill rep I was with the bunch. I got stronger and stronger on the bike and found myself leading the last 2 laps and wish now I would have made a break up the last hill rep.
I left ‘T2’ in 4th place and from then on my run performance was up and down. By the 3rd lap I was suffering with a ‘stitch’ and had dropped to 10th place but with a boost from Sophie Coleman I ran the last lap hard and overtook the athletes that had taken me, with 200m to go they hadn’t come back past me and I was ready for a sprint to keep hold of my 6th position. I sprinted to the finish and finished 6th, a good solid result for me and I’m very pleased.
Next week I have the World Sprint Championships in Lausanne, this is a massive race for me I’ve never been selected for a professional World Championships before.
Jaq xx’
With thanks to our sponsors
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Wheels: Fast Forward www.ffwdwheels.com
Power: Saris www.saris.com
Cycle shoes: Lake www.lakecycling.co.uk
Delicious, natural and healthy nutrition: www.torqfitness.co.uk
