Sérgio Marques Blog

It has been a very nice trip to Ibiza . It started with my bike box showing up at the airport belt in first place, cool. And the other pack came in in third place…

When I arrived to Ibiza the weather was pretty crappy, cloudy and roads where wet meaning that rain was here somewhere, Mariana (and her bike) confirmed to me that it rained pretty much all day. I Got pretty late so I went straight to bed

Friday and Saturday was the other way around, clear skies and a fabulous temperature, although the forecast showed an unstable weather Sunday was in fact even better, Hot Hot Hot, enough for me to open my suit zipper a bit .during the run.

Everything happened the way it should and in the morning I was ready for some racing. The course, the Old Long distance triathlon (that I think will return again next year after a not so long double olimpic distance) or more known as “nice Distance” 4/120/30 was pretty nice, 2 lap swim, 4 lap ride and 4 lap run, with plenty of spots and turnaround to check the competition.

It was early in the race that I made 2 mistakes, although one of them wasn’t really my mistake. The race was also the Spanish cup Final and National championships, so the best athletes where called into the start zone first, then everyone went in in numeric order, I was bib number 356!!! So I was far back and tried to find a good spot in the crowds. With the beach start I fell right when I was entering the water, it should give a nice photo. Then, when I started swimming someone just tought that an extra pair of googles shouldn’t hurt and “stole” my googles, and I never saw them again and I didn’t tried to find them, an impossible task with everyone kicking and punching. My major concern was swimming 4km in salt water. It was more or less the same until the field spread out, I had plenty of company to guide me but was a bit back in the field, after the fist buoy I ended up leading a group and passing some athletes, I could see that a big number of yellow caps where about 100 meters ahead and I was feeling great and still had some clear vision to navigate easily until the second buoy, I finished the first lap almost in their feet, but in the beginning of the second lap with the sun in my face, I could see nothing but fog and sun. I went of course a bit and had to stop swimming a few times to make sure where the heck was the first buoy. I got caught by the group behind me (or I got into course behind them) and passed them right away, but I could see nothing so I left somenone pass me to guide me until the last buoy, then I lost my cap and I now had even more water in my eyes, I was getting pretty annoyed, but since I was feeling so good I got away again, with buildings as reference and with plenty of polo swimming I got of the water in around 57 minutes, Around 5 min from the lead that given the circumstances, it wasn’t bad at all.

I spent some time washing my face to take of the salt from my eyes, I had too, It was hurting. And got into transition as fast as I could too fast since right when I was about to mount my bike, the marshal reminded me that I had no bib number (it wasn’t allowed to swim with one) #$%&$#%&#$, I forgot my bib number, that was my big mistake of the day, I need to go back to my spot to grab my bib number. I have no idea how much time I lost, a minute maybe, it felt like it was 15 minuntes, I spent quite a few kms on the beginning of the ride cursing myself :P.

The bike course was mainly false flats with one very steep climb in the middle of each lap, right in the middle of the city of Sta Eularia (the race venue). The first out and back section I had the chance to check the gap to the lead, it was around 7-8 minutes already , but still not bad considering that there where some of the best swimmers around, especially the Spanish Clemente Alonso. Between him and me there was plenty of atheletes, more than I would care to count and the good vibes of passing athletes came right from the beginning. I wasn’t feeling particularly strong at least my ergomo told me that, but I was still passing some guys from time to time until of course, the second lap where there where lapped athletes to pass, it was harder to see the competition of course but the leader was “marked” and I was loosing some time for him, it got to around 10-11 min in the third lap. The beginning of the third lap was when I started feeling very good riding and began to push some decent wattage, 270-290 depending of the part of the course and a bit less going “downhill” the only part where this could never happen was the hill in the course, it wasn’t long by any means but it was tough, especially near the top where the road was made of stone and slippery one too and the grade reached something around 15-17%, I needed to push really hard but without loosing traction on the back wheel or else I would need to stop. Anyway in the last lap I was able to pull back some time witch made me smile a bit.

 I got into transition in 5^th place and nothing happened on T2 I was out of there very quickly wondering how my legs would feel. It was quite hot already the first thing I have done in the first km was pour water in my head to refresh a bit.

There were no more no less than 4 turnaround spots in each lap, how cool was that to check how everyone was looking. 4^th place really wasnt looking that good and I passed him during the first lap, but Frederic Kolh, Clemente Alonso, and Rolf Lautenbacher where looking fast. Frederic Kolh had a big lead over me so i kinda settled for the podium idea. I settled for a rhythm that felt like comfortably fast for 30km (???!!!) and hope that I could hold that for the whole way. I was getting closer to the lead and podium but didn’t know if it would be enough, it would depend of course of how the other guys would run.

During the second lap it was clear to me that Kolh was having problems and that was a boost for me, I didn’t pass anyone on 2^nd lap but made a lot of time to the podium places. At that time I felt like giving everything to try at least the second place, Kolh and clemente weren’t looking that strong but Rolf was running well, just a bit slower than me. Third lap was my fastest lap of the run and was able to pass clemente and Kolh and Rolf was fading also. I passed him a bit earlier than I would expect, just after starting the last 7.5km loop. YES, im in the lead, I passed Rolf without changing the pace, I couldn’t anyway, I was at my “top cruising speed” I gained about a minute really really fast, and with about 5-6 km to the end I started feeling the pace and my feet were hurting a lot, due to….well I don’t think you want to know why my feet where killing me but I do need to fix that before IM Florida. I eased the pace since I was sure Lautenbacher wouldn’t catch me.

Second win of the season, this one was my best win of my career of course and the hardest one too. A good confidence boost to my last race of the season, IM Florida, I hope I can finally pull a good Ironman from this one.

If you are looking for a nice Long Distance race in October, Ibiza is a great one, great, beautiful place to visit and no, I didn’t see how the legendary Ibiza night clubs make justice to their names