Day 4 – mini recovery day

Swim 4.5km race

Run 10km race + guess your time (no watches)

Bike 60km

Tack on swim 3km

The swim was more or less as expected although the Albernator surprisingly took down Molina. He dragged us around so it was fair enough.

We backed up the swim with a flat 10km race where you had to guess your time. Given the state of my legs (ie bloody sore, especially quads) I put down 37:24. The pace was firm from the start but everyone was struggling. At the 5km mark I started get head spins so figured I was going sufficiently hard. I ended up 4^th across the line thinking I was over 38mins so was pleasantly surprised that I was actually 16sec under my predicted time so all in all it was a good result. The big man form Rotorua Paul Westwood took the event with Elliott getting closest to his predicted time.

After the 10km I was sitting in 2^nd place in the GC 1.75 points behind Albert, not wanting to let Albert slip into yellow too easily I tacked on a 3km swim but he called my bluff by knocking out 6km and possibly put himself in an unassailable position. Once you’re a few points ahead it’s relatively easy to defend the jersey. So whilst I’m not giving up I’m not going to get into a tack on athon. Tomorrow is another day.