Villasimius – 11 GLOBAL Triathlon Series ITALY : NON-DRAFT
From Belgium-Brasschaat to Sigmaringen –Germany in a day and a long train trip, I was back at home base for 2 days. This would allow me enough time to organise my life and trip towards the 11 Global in Sardinia 4 days later on the 4th June 2011.
Flying with Ryan-Air and driving on the right hand side of the road for the 2nd time in my life was very fun, and I needed to actually focus on driving. It took me 4 hours in my rental-car to get to Frankfurt-Hahn airport some 370km away from Sigmaringen, I then took a flight to Cagliari-Italy on the small Island of “Sardenga” Sar-Den-Ja known by the locals.
And boy, what a place to come race. It was 25-30degrees and many crystal clear exotic beaches littered the way to our accom at Tanka Village in the South of Sardinia “Sardenga”.
Travelling with Ryan Landy , Daniello , Moreno and a few other organisers I was soon set up at Tanka Village for the next 2 days leading up to the race in the Village called Villisilimus on the 4th of June.
My prep for the race was great, although my nutrition was not that great leading up to the race, as a buffet for brek-lunch and supper led to me overeating at every meal ha-ha J
Onto race day, and I was soon ready and all set up in transition, with my pre race cycle, run and swim warm up ,commencing an hour before the start.
Into my TRY – Hurricane Wetsuit I climbed, and we were all soon down on the beach with crystal clear waters leading us to the GIANT Yellow 11 Global Bouy. At the start I had a great line and was soon swimming on an Italians hip till we rounded the 1st bouy….. Then the wheels fell off, I lost a small gap of 2meters and was REALLY struggling to close it. Soon I realized I would do the rest of the swim alone, and would need to try catch-UP on the bike against good time-trial riders L
I managed to hold my composure for the rest of the swim but lap 1 was 9:11 (probably the number I should have been calling) and Lap 2 was 10:12 giving me a not so impressive 19:23 swim about 1:30 down of 2 front leaders..
Coming out of the water, and I will admit, I was hurting BIG time! I made my way into transition like an 80year old man, and had probable a 2min transition.
I managed to get onto the bike smoothly, but as soon as I started to push the peddles my legs gave in, it felt like there was NO power, and this really gave me negative thoughts for the rest of the race! The bike leg 42km with some 600-700meters of climbing with wind and non-drafting seemed like a daunting task, but I put my head down and pushed through…
About 500meters later on, my legs felt like I had run the comrades the weekend before. This sign to me, was fatigue from the weekend before in Brasschaat-Belgium and also all the craze travelling I had done!
I was going nowhere fast and decided to call it a day, after feeling completely drained after about 4km of cycling… After this, you could guess, I was not a happy camper and went back to transition.
Luke McKenzie and Fabio Allisandro were 1st and 2nd out on the road, but with an incorrect turn this ended their chances of a finish due to disqualification. Thus 1st and 2nd changed to 3rd and 4th place, which made for a lot of confusion.
Even though there were a few slip-ups and things that need work on, I think that this was probably one of the hardest + most scenic triathlon I have been part of. Being in Italy and racing in the colours of 11 Global, I have learnt not only things about myself and my season ahead, but also that sometimes things are out of my control “this I don’t like but will learn to deal with!”
PUUUUUUUMAAAAA's RYAN ROLL'S in STYLE!
Meeting new people and making new friends has been great these past few days! A LOT of Gelato “Ice-crème” has been ingested, some light training done, some valuable lessons learnt and some new opportunities have come from these past 4 days in paradise.
HUGE thanks goes to Ryan Landy from http://11global.com/, for believing in me, and for everyone for helping and being so kind and friendly over the time spend here in ITALY.
I have learnt that even if things don’t go my way that day, things will always be moving forwards in the big picture.
I believe that next year 11 Global Sardinia will be a MUST for anyone looking for a get-away and non-drafting triathlon event. Magical place and I will surely be back for more.
Keep motivated, even when times seem dark! There is always light at the end of your tunnel!
Peace
Rich*
Richard Murray 
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