I prepared for the race with nervous excitement as this would be my first trip to Europe and I was now the guy to beat. The trip almost did not occur due to finances but several people insured that it did which included Swanson Prosthetics, Team Toledo Triathlon Club, Challenged Athletes Foundation and Ossur. It also took some creativity on my part to garner cheap accommodations (with the help of a fellow PC Team Member - Matt Henderson) to keep the costs down. The city and experience were spectacular. One of my favorite moments was a practice swim in Lake Geneva and taking a few moments to tread water and looking back at Lausanne. Not many people can say they have done that! We also took a practice ride of the bike course which was going to be four laps of a 6.25K loop. The hills were much more extreme than the online video showed and were also very technical with strong switchbacks. I am used to riding straight and flat in Sylvania and I knew I had my work cut out for me. The race had four AK’s including Grant, Matt, Ruben Grande and myself who were all at the 2005 World Championships. If the race didn’t go well I could finish without a medal.

The water was very cold (low 60’s) and I was swimming without a wetsuit because it was lost in New York. With all the other expenses I had getting a wetsuit was not at the top of the list. I think the cold hindered my performance some but I also took it a little easy as I knew it was going to come down to the run. Grant finished the swim in 24-minutes and the rest of the AK’s came out in a little over 30-minutes. T1 was quick and Matt and Ruben were able to get out before me and I was in last place. This was not starting out well but it was a familiar position. I have been winning with the run so I was not panicking and focusing on doing the best I could on the bike.

We had the bike course to ourselves as the age-groupers were not going off for sometime but would likely catch a few of us on our last lap. Matt was no where to be seen and on the first lap I was not able to close the gap on Ruben. The second lap Ruben and I exchanged leads several times and on the third lap I was finally able to drop him for good. I knew at this point I would not catch Matt and I wouldn’t see Grant until the run. It turns out Matt was able to make-up two minutes on Grant and had the fastest bike of the day with a 1:29:14. Near the end of the last lap of the bike was a near catastrophe as I was not able to get my line on a steep downhill. The lead age-groupers were smoking fast and closing like a freight train on my left. In the interest of not killing someone I moved over to let them by. I was nearing 40 mph’s on this section coming into a turn and instantly knew I wasn’t going to make it. Knowing you are going down and not being able to do a damn thing about it is quit unnerving but I was calm. There were hay bails right where I needed them. To ensure I did not go flying over the steel barricades that lined the entire bike course right behind the hay I locked-up my front brake at the moment of impact. The timing was perfect and the rear of my bike went straight-up and allowed me to do a couple of head-over-heel somersaults across the hay. Of course I immediately thought my race was over as I surely broke something on myself or the bike. I was a little dazed and stood up while several race officials were screaming for medical assistance as I presume the wipeout looked much like the guy on the ABC Wide World of Sports “agony of defeat.” Except for a bit of blood on my hands there were no bones visible protruding from my body. That’s a good start! Quickly grabbing my bike while still dazed I was thrilled to learn my front Zipp did not snap and neither of the tires were flat. The handlebars were bent and my watch broke off due to the force but most importantly the bike was rideable. I lost about five minutes with the ordeal and was pleased that Ruben did not pass me during it. He must have really faded hard on the last lap. I finished the bike a bit slow and rolled into T2 with a horrible bike time of 1:41:10 and some very sore wrists.

The run was four laps of a 2.5K loop so I would be able to assess how far the competition was ahead. Heading out I was quickly dismayed seeing Grant just finishing his first loop which meant he was up by at least 15 minutes based on what I knew of his historical run times. Matt was about 1K behind Grant and looking much fresher than he did in NY where I passed him in the first mile. I was going to need the run of my life to pull this one off. The pain from the crash was increasing and just like my other runs this year I started to fad fast about 3-miles in. There goes the gold was my only thought and then my efforts started to focus on catching Matt and getting silver. However, Matt was making up serious ground on Grant and was close to catching him and increasing his lead over me. I couldn’t help but yell encouragement to Matt to catch Grant as I knew I wasn’t likely to catch either and I wanted an American to get the gold. Matt finally caught Grant on the last lap and won the gold with a 4:03 margin of victory (nearly the margin I won by last year and in NYC this year). Although I did not have the run of my life Matt did with a 1:09 compared to his 1:25 in New York. I walked towards the end of the run but ensured Ruben didn’t catch me and I ended up running a 1:15:47 which is close to what I ran all year. This was not my year for running. My total time was 3:35:43 on the hardest course I have ever raced. I am humbled with the bronze and provided my kids with a valuable lesson that you can’t win every race. At least I still have the bragging rights as the US PC National Team that was won in July in NYC.

I will have renewed focus over the winter after a short break and some solid base training in the winter. I have purchased a new wetsuit and Grant, Matt and I hope to meet up again next year in Hamburg, Germany where I must regain the gold! !.