Trevor Wurtele finished second at Challenge Penticton behind Brent McMahon in a time of 3:52.
picture from James Richman at Ironman Coeur d’Alene
Are you happy with the result?
Yes, I’m definitely happy with the result. Of course I’d love to have won the race, but getting the oportunity to compete against Brent is always good. It opens up the possibilty of having a GREAT race if I were to manage to beat him. Having raced him a few times since he’s moved over to long course triathlon I have yet to get the better of him, but I’ll certainly keep trying.
Did the race go as planned?
I’d say the race went as planned, yes. I don’t change much in the way of strategy from race to race. My swim is really hit or miss, so that’s really the major factor that can change the outcome of my day. This time, at Challenge Penticton, it was pretty good. 1:40 to guys like Davide Giardinni and Brent McMahon is solid. The wetsuit certainly helps me keep those gaps to the really fast swimmers a bit tighter.
On to the bike I always do the same thing – essentially just ride as hard as I know I’m able to sustain. Which is usually in the 305-320 average power range. Sometime I’ll hit the first hour closer to 330w, and then watch it drop slowly over the last hour. Sometimes I won’t have that punch early on so have to just try and keep it steady all day. Some days I can go a bit better than others, which was the case a couple weeks ago at Timberman 70.3. Here in Penticton my average power was about 10 watts less than 2 weeks ago. I’m not 100% what to attribute that to, but I don’t worry about it too much.
Similar situation on the run, I go out really hard and try to hang on for as long as I can. I ran much better two weeks ago at Timberman, but even so, not horrible here in Penticton either. Early on the run, at the first turnaround 4km in, Brent was pretty close. Definitely under a minute. But further on, at the last U-turn with 8km to go I could tell he was not going to come back. Add to that, 3rd was a ways behind so I really lost the motivation to dig deep. On a great day, on a run course like that where I’m pushing the entire time, I know I can run low 1:13. The way it played out 1:15 is still solid and it got me a good result.
What is planned for the rest of your season?
From here I’ll be racing Ironman Chattanooga in 4 weeks. It’s a quick turn around for an Ironman, but with one long Ironman build already in my system this year, it won’t be a problem to get the endurance back. Heather and I are planning to go over to Kona this week, I’ll be there for 2 weeks and go straight to Chattanooga for the week prior to the race. Heather will put in another week of training in Kona for her World Championship prep.
Why did you decide to race Challenge Penticton instead of 70.3 World Championship?
Yeah, I was offerred a 70.3 WC spot, but turned it down in favor of racing Challenge Penticton and 70.3 Timberman. That was purely a business/financial decision. I love racing the best in the world, but in order to do well at a race like the Wold Champs I would have had to sacrifice both of those races. Add to that, the possibilty of placing outside the top 10 was very high, so it just wasn’t worth it. Looking at how that race unfolded I can see I made a good decision. I don’t want to dismiss it completely, but being top 10 there would have been a stretch on even a great day.
That said, the course there seemed like a good fit for me. I like challenging courses with a mix of flats and hills. More than anything that breaks up the drafting early on and keeps everyone honest, hitting the run with equally tired legs. But, man oh man, did they ride hard. I wouldn’t have been in touch after the bike. It was good to see a really fast twisty descent. Had that course been in the USA they probably would have implemented a speed limit – which is ridiculous.
Do you think that even though you are training in Canada and the USA you have the technical abilities on the bike to ride fast down European downhills? Do you think that Europeans are much better technical riders than Canadians and Europeans?
Haha. I’m fairly confident on descents like that, I don’t see it being an issue. We train all over the place and have certainly had our share of sketchy descents in training. I’m sure Heather was able to use that point of the course to her advantage.
I know there are a couple professional females that would have been scared sh**less going down it.
Were you surprised by Heather’s result?
Heather not being one of them. Seeing Heather finish in second was not a surprise. I was extrememly happy to see her get it done and do what she set out to do, but it was certainly not a surprise result. Her past results aside, the riding she was doing in prep for that race was amazing. Workouts like 3 x 4 minutes @300w+, straight into an hour of 250w average on the trainer. There are a lot of male cyclists that can’t do that. Add to that her running ability. Really all she had to do was just do her normal thing and she’d have been top 5. To get 2nd after a horrible swim she had to dig pretty darn deep, but she knows how and when to do that. She of course went in to the race wanting to win, but I mean, really, Daniela Ryf was on another planet that day.