Pages

Monday 21 August 2017

Lausanne European Cup 2017

The week started in Loughborough, with a training camp with the English, Welsh and Scottish Talent squads. We partially fitted into the Loughborough training schedule and partly did our own thing, which meant I did some sessions I normally did with the Lboro guys, but also had some other stuff just with the squad, this gave it a nice balance. It was a pretty tough week of training, and then most of us flew straight out to Geneva on Thursday morning (the 3.30 wake up was not pleasant) to get to Lausanne for the race in the Saturday. The scenery for the race was by far the most beautiful place I have ever raced. The swim in Lake Geneva, with mountains as a back drop was almost breathtaking.


  We were all so excited to race in such a beautiful setting. The race came around quickly and before I knew it we were lining up, it was a non wetsuit swim and the sun was shining. It was a big field, with 54 girls on the start list, and luckily I was number 19 so I had a pretty big selection of spaces on the pontoon. Without realising I went straight to the middle, which probably isn't always a good idea if you don't want to be caught up in the chaos that is open water swimming. Luckily I had a pretty clean start and got near the front very soon. The water was slightly choppy and the sun was bright which made sighting for the buoy pretty hard, but after a little bit of meandering and 350m later we hit the first buoy and I was sat on the feet of the lead swimmer. The dynamics of the group didn't change much in the second half of the swim and I came out the water in a line with 4 other girls. It was a short run to T1 and a small group of 12 got away together, including 4 Brits. The bike course was the toughest that I have done on the European cup circuit, with a very steep and long climb, followed by a steep descent, but fortunately it wasn't very technical. The front pack got slightly reduced to 8 going into T2 and I was happy to be among the leaders after what was a very hard bike. Setting out onto the run I found myself in 5th, but quickly overtook and was running with fellow Brit Lissie Hood in second and third. We had 3 laps to do, and half way through the first I got broke away from Lissie, but also got caught by Erin Wallace, another Brit teammate.
I was feeling really good and I stuck with Erin until the end of the second lap, where she got a few meters on me. Sat in third I was still feeling strong and it was starting to sink in that I had the chance to podium here, in my last Junior European Cup. I held onto third and once I crossed the line I was still in a bit of shock. I had been working so hard on my run and it was finally paying off. Couldn't have asked for a better way to finish my Junior European cup career. Back in England now and no time to relax as we have the World Championship qualifier race next Monday at Mallory park, so I am excited to race there and Lausanne has definitely given me the confidence going into this final race of the super series.
Also really excited to be an AMANZIGIRL for the coming season, love training in their suits and excited to be a part of their team!

No comments:

Post a Comment