After my race in Olsztyn last weekend I was very excited to see how I would get on in Dnipro after some high level race experience. It was a stressful week leading into Dnipro as I only decided to race when I was in the airport on my way back from Olsztyn, therefore there was a lot of planning to do last minute. Training in Dnipro was also quite challenging with busy roads for cycling and a very bad few days of weather which was unfortunate.
I knew before the race that I had a great opportunity to get a medal but I tried to keep my focus on the process goals and things that I could control to make sure I was in the right mindset before and during the race. I had a good swim coming out in 6th place and getting onto the bike 4th. After a very hard first 3 minutes of the bike we caught the 2 guys that got a gap out of the swim, we then settled into a hard tempo so increase the gap to some quick runners in the second group. There was an attack on the last lap going up the small climb on the course, I responded but couldn’t close the gap and dropped back to the front group. After a few 100m on the run we caught to athlete who broke off the front and it became a pure running race between the front 12 athletes. After 1.5K there was four of us off the front of the race with a large gap to the rest of the race. I was feeling good but kept tucked in and let the more experienced athletes take the pace on. Once we got towards the last lap of 3 we dropped one of the athletes after there was a surge in pace. The start of the last lap of the run the pace slowed right down again and got really tactical going into the wind, I decided to go to the front and continue pushing the pace on because getting on the podium was important to me for potential World Cup starts and World Champs qualification. I payed the price for this in the last 200m where I had no legs for the sprint finish meaning I came away with 3rd place.
Very happy to get my first International podium, lots learnt and if I find myself in the position again I will be better prepared with how to deal with it.
