Madrid ITU Triathlon World Championship Series Update, Day #3

It’s the final day of race-prep and rest for the triathletes before tomorrow’s triathlon in Madrid – the second stop of eight on the ITU World Championship Series Tour this season. We’re staying at the host hotel with most of the other national teams and its amazing to suddenly realize that the woman carrying her bike past you in the hotel lobby is Kate Allen, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist from Austria. Lots of very talented athletes in the field and it looks to be a very competitive race for both the men and women.

Todd Anderson cleaning the USA triathlon bikes on the streets of Madrid

The behind-the-scenes part of race-prep isn’t too glamourous, but its a necessary part of getting the athletes ready for a key race. The USA Triathlon bike mechanic Todd Anderson has been busy cleaning up and fine-tuning all the bikes for tomorrow. He has a few tricks that allow him to get through the clean up of each bike in about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, that now means that I have one less excuse for not cleaning my bike after a race.

This morning was a final trip down to the 50-meter pool at  of one of Spain’s High Performance Sports Center on the campus of Consejo Superior de Deportes for a final swim tune-up for the Jarrod Shoemaker, Mark Fretta and Joe Umphenour. Each triathlete has their own way of getting ready on the final day, but the common theme I’ve noticed is that they are all remarkably relaxed and calm while remaining focused on the race. The women (Sarah Haskins, Sarah Groff and Mary Beth Ellis) are also finished with their last workouts and also relaxed for tomorrow’s race.

Pam Minix, USA Triathlon Junior National Team coach Andy Schmidt and Jarrod Shoemaker discuss final swim workout drills at the pool

This afternoon included a trip down to the race course to give a chance for the athletes to ride the bike course (8 loops of 5 km with a nice climb up out of transition that should start to sap some legs by the 7th or 8th lap. It’s relatively short, but fairly steep and I’m sure both the elite men and women will hit the bottom of the hill at full speed to prevent any breakaways or attacks off the front during the climb. The set up for the transition is the typical ITU Triathlon set up with the wide open transition area and bright blue carpeting for the elites.

USA Triathlon team getting ready to ride the bike course at the Madrid ITU World Championship Series

 We’re watching the weather forecast for tomorrow pretty closely. The early reports were predicting sunny and high 80′s for race time, but it looks like we’re getting a series of thunderstorms tonight and the temperature has been dropping into the low 70′s. 

Time to head off to our final team meeting to hear about race strategy and any last minute changes from the ITU.

You can follow along live tomorrow at www.triathlon.org