After an iffy 2007 (mountain bike induced head injury kept him off work and, more importantly, off the bike for 3 months), Rob was keen to get his teeth into some serious events in 2008. The focal points, at least prior to racing, were the Etape du Tour (105 mile mountain stage of the Tour de France) and the fabled Norseman. An early season knee injury required careful monitoring, but thankfully didn't put too many spanners in the works.
The Tour of Wessex, in which Laura and Emily also competed, served as a good warm-up for what was to come. He surprised himself how well he managed to hang on to a brisk group for much of the first day, clocking a shade inside 5 hours for the rolling 95 mile course. Day 2 was a bit harder going, with a puncture and a distinct lack of people up for chain-ganging at 20mph for 70 miles, but was lapped up nonetheless. The weather turned on Day 3, so Rob bailed out along with the girls. An outing at the sprint Blenheim Triathlon served notification that it's really not about short, lap-based mass participation events. That and the fact that he was way off his time from 2 years previously... Another, more successful, sortee came in the form of the Brighton Rat Race (adventure race), in which Rob subbed into the Cam Racers team, to help them to a very acceptable 3rd place finish.
The Etape lived up to its promise. The constant drizzle was unpleasant and spoilt the views, but did at least keep the temperatures down! About 8000 starters went off in groups of about 500, starting at Pau with a flattish opening section heading to the Pyrenees, before the 2000m climb up and over the Col du Tourmalet. A rapid decent twist down to the valley floor, before the final kick on the course took you up another 1000+m to the ski resort of Hautacam. Rob, despite priding himself on his climbing, found the unrelenting 25km of approximately 10% gradient up the first climb pretty tough and really felt the effects of earlier aggression on the climb to the finish. But perseverance was rewarded with a top 500 finish.
Then came the big one. Having had to defer 2007 entry to Norseman, Rob was itching to get his teeth into it this time round. He'd lined up a couple of good mates to serve as support and with whom he planned a five-day trek in the mountains 2 days later (who's stupid idea was that?) Training had ticked along quite reasonably, if in quite an unstructured manner - primarily cycling 24 miles to work from his parents' house! Come the race, he quickly found he hadn't swum enough - the countercurrent and cold patches made him quite uncomfortable and very relieved to finally exit the water after 4km and 1hr 45mins! Relieved to be on the bike, he unfortunately had to get off it a few too many time - 3 punctures proving quite disruptive to settling into a rhythm and grinding out the 180km. But at least the scenery was nice and the weather started to pick up. On arrival at T2, the sun was out and greated by supportman Charlie saying "Rob, I'm doing all the [marathon] run with you!" it was all looking bright. They set off at a cracking, but surprisingly comfortable pace, making up many places until Rob's knees gave out after 15km, forcing him to walk the rest. The start of the climb came as a welcome sight, whereby the rest of the field dropped to his level and a bit of a slower pace previously allowed Rob to push on strong to the finish, in a shade over 15hrs!
After a month or so off, the Accelerace Extreme Triathlon in September lured Rob back in to action. Conditions were very good and he laid the ghost of last year's burn-out to rest with a pleasing performance, only tainted by the frustration of losing a couple of places in the last mile or so. Comparing the race to Norseman, it was arguably psychologically tougher, on account of the constantly changing gradient and terrain preventing a rhythm being established. Oh, and the steep bits were steeper!! The Xtreme Terrain Triathlon (XTT) near Camberley at the end of the month provided another good outing and a solid performance, with very pleasant conditions on great offroad MTB and run courses. And to close out the year, Rob went back to the Monsterman series in Hampshire M.O.D. land for some more off-road action, finishing the first race in 5th place.
Roll on 2009 - the appetite remains insatiable.
