As the last race of the season, I was going to compete in the european duathlon championships, the 28th of october. The race took place on the lovely balearic island of Ibiza, very well known to party. But I wasn’t going to party, but to race hard!
The format was a standard distance duathlon, which meant 10k run – 40k bike – 5k run. As I’m last year U23, I was aiming for the podium although we were racing together with the elites.
The first 10k run went relentlessely fast on the narrow and continuously turning boulevard along the coast. I started really fast, a little bit too fast as I was paying for this in the 2nd half of the 10k run. But still I had a good run and found myself in the chasing pack in pursuit of the 2 leaders in the race, who had seperated themselves from the rest of the field. On the bike, we lost too much time due to the lack of cooperation. We even got caught by the chasers behind us. We weren’t working together and only attacking and tiring eachother. Towards the end of the 40k, I was beginning to feel my efforts from the first run and feeling tired.
In the closing 5k run, I didn’t have much left in the tank and started cramping up. I was forced to drop the pace. This cost me some valuable places.
In the end, I still finished in a good 9th spot overall, and 5th in the U23 category. Just missed the podium I was aiming for but still happy with the result! A nice way to end the season and already looking forwards to 2019!!
