Ollie Turner – Triathlete

OTU Oceania championships 2018 – Devonport, Tasmania

I want to start the blog by saying the life I live honestly would not be possible without the help from all the people who have backed me up. Fairway Group for the financial support, TYR for the swim apparel, Big Maggy’s for saving my beans last minute!! (Cheers Rich), SportsHUB for helping to promote me as an athlete, JSF for keeping me strong and injury free and TPS coach for getting me to fittest I have ever been!! So many more people but we’d be here for next few days if I continued…

So…on Wednesday I discovered I had the opportunity to race in Tassie for the Oceania sprint triathlon championships. I was super keen so booked my flights straight away. Two hours of leaving Devonport airport I have already encountered two near death experiences when groups of locals threatened to run us over in their car. (Guessing they don’t like tourists?!?)

The day before the race we went for a bike recon and my legs weren’t feeling fantastic… especially when I saw the 300m 18% hill that we were faced with each lap (4 laps). Fortunately, we went for a 20min swim and I managed to loosen everything up which meant I was feeling much better after.

Race day:

Pre race:-

The plan was to wake up at 5:45am and get to the coffee shop at 6:30am. On the way to the coffee shop I noticed my Di2 on my bike wasn’t working. This was a big concern considering the race started at 9am. I rushed back to the hotel room and rang Tanguy from Big Maggy’s and he talked me through what to do. I had somehow leant my bike up against the wall with the gear button pushed in which in return ran down my battery to zilch!! I had 30mins till I needed to leave so luckily, I managed to put it on charge and waited anxiously in the hotel room.

Swim:-

The swim was straight forward. One lap of a triangle course which covered 750m in total. It was a beach start. Due to the fact I haven’t raced any continental cups before I was ranked last which meant I had the grid position that no one wanted!! I didn’t let this put me down though, I had a great start putting myself just to the right of the main field. I managed to get onto the feet of a large pack and I knew I was in a good positon for the bike.

Bike:-

The bike loop was 4 laps of 5k. This course had a 300m hill with the average gradient of 18%. This really sapped the legs but definitely split up the group a lot! I was in a group with 1 Aussie and 2 Kiwi’s and they were super strong, they were trying to bridge the gap to the front group. They dropped me on the hill which meant I was picked up by the chase group where I spent the remainder of the race.

Run:-

Coming into transition my legs were pretty cooked but I wanted to post a good run time so I made sure I pushed on. I was in a small group of 3 with an Aussie and Kiwi athlete. The Aussie kept surging and the pace was too quick for me to keep up. I managed to bridge a gap from the kiwi athlete and finished in a very respectable 17th place and 13th U23 overall.

BUT WAIT!!:-

Much to my surprise I was greeted by the ITU official for the event as I left the recovery area. She explained that I had received a penalty during the race for racking my bike 10cm past the limit away from my number plate. Apparently, this gave me an unfair advantage despite making actually 10cm further to run? I missed my number/name on the board which in return automatically disqualified me. At the end of the day the rules are the rules and they must be respected and obeyed. Although I am massively disappointed I have learnt a very valuable lesson and will grow to be a stronger athlete. It was a good performance/start to the season from myself and a great way to see where my fitness is….

Onwards and upwards:-

Back to the Gold Coast to continue my prep for commies in April. I have a chance to redeem myself next weekend as I am due to race in the Luke Harrop memorial race. Hopefully I have better luck!

#IfNotNowWhen #TeamTYR