New Zealand Ironman - Lake Taupo

Well, I am now into the final week of my preparation for IM NZ and things have been going well. I am lighter than I have been for a few years for an Australasian race and I have put in a great block of training. I feel good, well prepared, and ready to go. It is just a matter of keeping things together for the last week, travelling well, and firing on race day. Platypus Asset Management will be supporting me again this year and I want to thank Nick, Gabrielle, and the guys for helping me out and all their encouragement. It will be interesting to see how the race plays out with a few people already qualified for Hawaii, some Olympians stepping up, the World 70.3 (Half Ironman) Champion racing with pre-qualification, and the 15 minute head start on the Age-groupers. The head start is good for me as it does not allow the slower swimming pro's to be dragged along in the swim to quicker times thereby lessening the gap to the better swim-bikers. There will be a few people going bust for podium positions which should splinter the field and a few will survive with others blowing up. The weather has been shocking the last few days but forecast is for similar rain and wind to last year on race day. Overall, good things for me as the weather does not bother me and I am happy for splintering groups with people not sure if they will make the distance or have correct nutrition strategies. I am race number 38 and will have the linkages for following the race posted this week sometime. I have some old mates from Sydney and abroad racing in Taupo so it will be great to catch up with them.
Cheers,
Bevan.

Goondiwindi Photos - Courtesy of Andrew Sawatske of Hi-Tide Photography

All photo's are courtesy of Andrew Sawatske from Hi-Tide Photography (http://www.hitidephotography.com.au/) who was also my road trip partner for the weekend. The last shot will be going into "Triathlete" magazine that is distributed worldwide (esp USA & Australia). Some nice shots in there. You can see how my aero bars 'broke' during the race making it 'interesting' to ride the return 40km, although I still managed to have the fastest bike time and win the prime (a bottle of lovely wine).

Cheers,

Bevan.

Frankie Photo's

Here are two photo's of Frankie in the past week. Check out our cutie!

I've made Xtri.com photo gallery for Hell of West Triathlon

Here is a link to the xtri.com triathlon website that does galleries of races from around the world. Andrew has taken some great photo's and here is the gallery for the Goondiwindi Hell of the West - link is: http://www.xtri.com/pix_thms.aspx?navT=1&navC=12&navG=115&navAll=1^12^115 . I am in two photo's, just click on the far right side both top (on bike) and bottom rows (just after finish line) to check it out. The last photo is the headline image for the gallery and on the main page also www.xtri.com .

Cheers,
Bevan.

7th @ Hell of the West Triathlon

Hi Guys,

Race report and some awesome photo's to follow. Quick summary. Came 7th overall, road to be leader of bike after 5th in swim, leader at bike/run transition, fastest bike split. Long road trip made fun with Andy from Hide Tide Photography who took some fantastic photo's that should end up in Australian and USA magazines. Recovering well and ready to hit the speed work in the lead up to Ironman NZ.

Cheers,
Bevan.