Holten European Cup

The Netherlands is an amazing country to go to if you like riding a bike. For starters, it's dead flat and the plethora of bike paths/lanes/roads lining almost every single street make cycling a breeze. The place is full of bikes where ever you look and (at least in Holten) there's no such thing as anti cyclist rage!

Bike racks at the station; narrow road through town with bike lanes either side

Flying in from Canada on Tuesday I had a few days to explore the quiet country town of Holten and the surrounding farming area before the race. One definite perk of doing a sport that involves cycling and running is that sight seeing can be done whilst training!

Exploring: an old thatched roof house; cycling through the Holterberg National Park; Pelmolen in Rijssen; a nice cobblestone road; gardens at de Oosterhof, Rijssen

Holten clearly takes pride in hosting this triathlon, a race that has been run annually since 1985, including an ITU race (either European cup, European Championship or World cup) since 2002. This year the event began on Thursday and encompassed the U23 European team and individual Championships, the ITU European cup race (my race), numerous different kids and age group triathlons and aquathons, as well as opening ceremony and after parties! When I arrived on Tuesday the town was already decorated with banners and flags promoting the triathlon, with most of the houses and lamp posts through town sporting flags like such:

The town came to life on race day with spectators lining the streets of the run course. The event had a festival-like feeling with at least 5 brass bands playing along course, speakers pumping out the radio, jumping castles and other inflatable play structures for the kids, and plenty of stalls for tri junkies to stock up on the latest kit.

One of the many bands playing

The race started out at the Domelaar, a lake situated about 10km from town. The swim was 1 lap of 750 meters in the lake, a wetsuit swim. The bike course was then 10km from the lake into the centre of town and two 5km laps from town through the edge of the Holterberg national park and back into town, encompassing some cobblestones and probably the only hill in the whole country. T2 was set up in the centre of town and the run was two 2.5km laps through town, finishing in front of a grandstand area set up for the race.

Holten was an amazing experience but unfortunately I didn't have the race I'd been hoping for and left feeling bitterly disappointed. Despite feeling good early in the week and thinking I'd recovered well from racing and jet lag, it caught up with me coming into the weekend. I woke up on race day feeling like I'd been hit by a truck. Knowing I’d pulled out many a good training session at the end of a hard week when I’d been feeling about the same I put it to the back of my mind and prepared for the race as per normal.

Swim start

Once again I was swallowed up in the swim, this time right from the start. I felt like almost as soon as I'd surfaced I had girls swimming on top of me. It seemed like no-one was swimming straight. I had people not just locking arms like my race the previous weekend in Edmonton, but using me to push off – grabbing my shoulders, arms, back. A few times I had to do a few strokes of polo drill just to try and get a breath. Learning from Edmonton I started wide coming around the first buoy and cut in onto the feet in front rather than getting bashed and pushed under and made up a few places. Heading back towards shore it calmed down a little and I made up ground but found myself trapped behind girls not swimming fast enough and with girls either side of me, I couldn’t get around. From what I could see I was in the main pack so didn't worry too much and just maintained position for the rest of the swim. Coming out of the water I felt very disorientated and almost fell flat on my face. Not the best transition I've ever done by far but enough to get me onto the bike still in the main bunch.

As soon as we were on the bike the field split. 3 girls had already broken away out of the swim. A few of the girls I was with put on the pace to catch the girls up the front before they got away. I rode with them but was having difficulty breathing out of the swim and dropped off just before they reached the front chase pack. I was relegated to the second chase pack of about 10 girls watching the front chase pack disappear into the distance. A very frustrating place to be in, knowing that if I'd just managed to hold the wheel for a bit longer I would have made it into the pack where the draft advantage would have been much greater, and the pace would have slowed a little.
I felt pretty rubbish for most of the ride but started to feel better on the last lap. My run was still far from what it should have been but I managed to run with a few other girls in my pack, finishing in 21st.

Again I learnt many things about racing, recovering from travel and racing, the holes in my preparation and what I need to work on for my next race, and next season. Despite having the worst race I've had for a while I really enjoyed the experience of the race and my time in Holten. It's definitely a race I'd like to come back and do again!

Gillian