Race Coverage

Another World Championship Medal For Sheri!

Monday, 13 May 2019 23:10

By Sheri Shrock

RACE REPORT - I earned Silver at the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships in Pontevedra Spain, and I owe it to this team: Dave who ALWAYS encourages me, Coach @LeandaCave who trains me to be the best I can be, @OtsoCycles who set me up with the sweetest mountain bike in the world, Chris Balser who fits my bikes to perfection, massage therapist Linda Stram who says, “Go ahead, if you wreck it, I’ll fix it!” Emilio DeSoto who customized my wetsuit and rushed it to me before Worlds, @JanetSoule and Cliff Millemann who mentored me before this race, @SomerSchrock and Amanda Kautzer who invite me to ride with them. 
I also earned 5th Place at Aquabike Worlds on my Cervelo P5 and I owe thanks to Cronometro for it’s performance....

About the Race: Cross Triathlon covered 1k swim, 30k off-road bike, and 7k trail run. Off-road triathlons are a great adventure. It’s a good idea to do a pre-ride before the race because we are responsible for knowing the route, plus I like to know what dangers I should watch out for. There was one big problem: the bike and run courses were not marked before the race because they lay in a protected area. Some of us downloaded gpx files to show us the way, but for the most part they didn’t work.
I spent a fun afternoon with Janet Soule and Cliff Millemann muddling our way through the bike course, stopping at most intersections and guessing. We took a few wrong turns but sometimes those lead to fun surprises. We managed to figure out about 80% of the course before we wore out and found our way out of the woods and headed home - on a real road.

The bike course climbed to the top of the mountain, dropped back down and climbed back up again. It was stunningly beautiful. The nice thing about pre-rides is you can stop and enjoy the view and take a few photos. Can’t do that racing.

River Swim: We were warned before we got here that the water was going to be cold. The river feeds into the Atlantic and the tide affects the water level. In another race that week 37 athletes were pulled out of the water either because of the cold or they could not make progress upriver against the current. I didn’t mind the cold water, but in one race I got pushed off-course with the current (my bad), and in another I tried to duck under a turn buoy, and the current pushed me against it and trapped me for a moment. Next race I stayed clear of the turn buoys!

Funny things about Spain:

- I walked to the supermarket at 3 pm. It was closed for siesta. Spain shuts down in the afternoon.
- Saturday night after my race there was a very loud street band playing outside my apartment. They played non-stop until 4 am!
- Pontevedra lies on the NW coast of Spain. Most people did not speak English. I could not even order a taxi in English.