Dan flying in Flanders

Powerman Vlaanderen, Belgium – 1st August 2010 - 10th Place (Elite Race)

Dan McCarthy competes at top level duathlon, here's his report from Belgium where he describes top 10 in a world class field as a "solid" performance!

"Powerman Geel has a special place in my racing history. The previous two occasions I came to Geel resulted in Achilles tendon injuries which took months to heal. Last year it occurred during the first run where I was comfortably running with the lead group. As a consequence I knew I had the pace to position up the sharp end of the field, intent on turning Powerman Geel into a good performance.

The race itself consists of a 10.5km run, 60km cycle, and 10.5km run. The course is pretty much typical East Flanders ‒ pan flat, which actually makes it harder with the lack of recovery on downhills etc. Having not raced for several weeks after a very hard block of training I knew Geel would be a good test of my fitness. As it happened, the first run caught me by surprise. The humid conditions literally sapped my legs of any energy. Up until 5km I had been running with the lead group and feeling pretty good. Fortunately a group of Lee Piercy (GB), Wim de Cort (BEL), and Karl Prungraber (AUT) caught me which allowed me to get to T1 in reasonable shape, with a deficit of 1 minute to the leaders.

Out of T1 I managed to get past the whole group and set my target on catching the group of leaders ahead. Into the corners I was visibly quicker than those around me. Around 5km into the bike I was re-passed by Lee just before a corner which meant that I had to drift to the 10m by 3 m drafting rule. The commissaire on the motorcycle did not like this and slapped me with a yellow card meaning I would have to run an extra 1km into T3. I spent the next few minutes arguing in my broken Flemish, absolutely broken at this point and genuinely considering calling it quits. I even considered a classic ‘Tom Steels’ gesture of chucking my water bottle at them, which fortunately I managed to avoid! In the end I re-grouped and caught up with Lee again which allowed us both work together (draft legally) until the finish of T2.

Out of T2 I usually feel great until after around 1km of running. Today’s 11.5 km (with a nice extra 1km penalty lap) felt awful. Although I was passing the athletes from the earlier start, I had nothing really to run for apart from 10th place, which I ended up with at the finish. As it turned out I was not the only one to struggle with the race. The finish looked like a war zone with bodies everywhere, including last years winner Anthony Le Duey, and multiple world champion Joerie Vansteelent, who fell back through the field during the final run. Matt Moorhouse was also a victim, whose usual fast final run was stifled by the pace and conditions of the race. The post mortem examination of my race would probably put me in 7th or 8th position had the time penalty not stood, but a top 10 in a World Class field was a solid performance, especially on a flat course which was not really maximising my strengths.

My Powerman season will hopefully continue well into October this year with the addition of Powerman Como in Italy to the calendar (on part of the Giro de Lombardi route). It had been my plan to contest Powerman Austria in 3 weeks, but due to travel issues and the need of more recovery time I will not be competing here. The preparation will now be geared around the Elite Race at the London Duathlon on September 12th which I hope to win, and Como where I hope to make the top 5 and bring home some more £££££."