Ironman 70.3 World Championshps (St. George) - Part 4 of 6 (Bike)

 

 

After finding my transition bag and changing, I grabbed my bike and headed out for what I was hoping would be an epic ride on this awesome bike course.  T1 time was 5:36 which was a bit slow, but not horrible given the enormous size of the transition area.

This is a picture from about two miles into the ride course as you circle Sand Hallow before heading back to the mountains and canyons in the distance.  At this point it was still an amazing day with beautiful weather.  Our Age Group (Men's 40-44) also got extremely lucky and got to head out first which meant mostly open roads for me to really find a good rhythm and ride my own race.  As anticipated in a World Championship, there were some guys that rolled by me quite fast and I knew were in my Age Group, but I let them mostly go.  After 10-15 miles I mostly settled in for a ride with several guys moving at roughly my speed and I spent most of the time trying stay outside of the draft zones or having to pass when I accidentally drifted in on one.

Here I am above making sure I stay cool on the bike leg.  This was an epic picture captured by one of the local photographers that was around!  However, about 30 miles into the bike, it was readily apparent that the day was likely to change quite drastically.  With the Snow Canyon climb approaching on my right, I could see a wicked looking storm to my left heading this way.  Dark storm clouds and lightning seemed to be rolling across the mostly desert landscape.  I started wondering if this would case the race officials to halt or cancel the race.  In the end, they did not but we were in for some epic weather! 

About half way up the climb, surrounded by booms of thunder, a pelting rain was unleashed upon us.  We were just soaked to the bone and had some crazy cross winds which weren't that bad to navigate on the way up the canyon, but the descent was quite a different story.  Coming down at almost 50 mph with soaking wet roads and a cross wind that made for some serious white knuckling.  I was thankful for my cycling background as I think I handle a bike better than the average triathlete and was relying upon all of my experience.  My bike split was 2:31:24 which I was quite happy with, given the course and the weather.  This was 81st in my AG of 350 with an average speed of 22.17 mph.