Race Coverage

Asturiasian * Adventure...

Saturday, 11 June 2016 00:10

ED. Words and pics on today's Liberty and Fairmont triathlons on Monday or Tuesday.

Liberty Results:  LINK 

By Matt McCoy

Greetings from Aviles.

Duathlon Worlds Race Report - I'm glad the race is done! I survived and didn't keep any cyclist around me from being able to say the same thing. I do have a bunch of stories! Overall I'm glad I was able to once again be a member of Team USA at the International Triathlon Union World Championships. I met a lot of cool people with interesting experiences and encounters. I also got to know people better that I had met and or known of before. One person in particular...too bad she lives on the other side of the country. (US west coast) We will get together later this month however so that's pretty awesome.

The race itself was an adventure. The city while having an amazingly picturesque historic district, it does have a strong industrial base. Most damaging to my...

performance was a coal fired power plant they was very near the race venue. I have asthma that was aggravated by that sucker! It was constantly belching billowing clouds of smoke. Not just steam, actual sooty smog. I tried to avoid that area as much as possible and was hopeful they would shut it down for the weekend. No such luck. We had to have our bikes racked in transition the night before. Race morning I walked up to my bike and thought someone must have spilled something on it. The paint on my toptube is white, or supposed to be. Ran my finger alone it and it was like someone had sharpened a pencil over it, minus the wood shavings. My finger was dark with fine black powder. We were given a storage tote at all our gear had to be in otherwise one would get a penalty. Anyway, it was clean and white when I put it down next to my bike at 7:00 am. Before noon when I was picking up my stuff it as already getting junked up. Between that and the humidity I feel like taking a shower every ten minutes while wearing a respirator. Clearly emissions control is not a top priority for them. Sad but obviously true. So the first run leg took us right alone the front gates of the aforementioned stacks of yuk. Just past half way of the first 5 I was wondering if I should dropout but quickly buried those thoughts. I've gone though a lot to get here and my skull is not cracked open bleeding on the ground. Come on dude lets do this! The further the bike course took us away from there the "easier" it got. Why couldn't they have taken most of it up to the nearby ocean coastline? The second run was kind enough take use right back to the blasted factory area. I was chugging along closing on the finish line and our team manager is shouting at me to catch to guys ahead of me. I did cross before the Brit and Spaniard he was referring to. I was the 3rd American in my division. The two guys ahead of me both have had a lot of cycling experience with stand alone bike races. Both also are from Florida so they have been getting lots of draft legal stuff when it's our fat tire season. I did beat some guys that I though they wear going to eat me alive by just looking at them.

The closing ceremony was nicely done although it didn't start until 10:00 pm. There were awards, buffet dinner, and fireworks that were spectacular but did not improve the air quality. That was all followed up by a concert that went until 3. I do feel a little beaten up this morning and factoring in the flight home suspect this will take some time to recover from. I'm going to try to remember the good parts and not dwell on the things that were out of my control. Hope things are going well back in MN.

Matt

* Aviles is located in Spain's Asturias Principality.

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