World Championships

The Euro trip was excellent up to now, with some good results and a lot of fun, but the time for fun and games was over, it was time for the big one – the World Championships in Budapest within a few days.

We travelled from Slovenia to Budapest in Hungary on Wednesday, checked into the hotel and went for a quick run just to loosen the legs from the long 7 hour bus trip. We noticed lots of other athletes from different countries running and cycling…and then a realised …this is it. After the run we had a brief team meeting and then had dinner where we discussed the plans for the next day.

We got up early and went for breakfast before doing a short swim set. We then went back to the hotel and relaxed while waiting for the afternoon run session. The next day was time to do the course familiarisation on the bike and swim, but unfortunately it was raining and cold. We started with the bike session and it was a very scary few minutes of cycling. We were a big group and the roads were wet and the course was very, very technical. About 99% of the athletes managed to ride without an accident - only a few wanted to taste the Hungarian tar. We decided to skip the swim because of the cold.

Later the afternoon, it was time for our race briefing; there the feeling of being at World Champs finally sank in... Just watching all the athletes and listening to the briefing was the sign that ... this is really it. I didn’t know a lot of the athletes, chatted with some I knew, but everyone was focused and ready to race.

On Saturday, it was time for the u/23 girls and men and elite men to race; I had to wait another, long day… I watched the races and this inspired and motivated me a lot. That night at the hotel I was getting ready, packing all my stuff and checked my bike once again. I then realized that I’m only racing at 5:30 pm the next day, so I relaxed and watched some TV. I slept like a baby that night.

I woke up at 8 and went for a short cycle to loosen up the legs. We then had breakfast and relaxed till 3 pm. I went to T2, put my shoes in the box, got some last minute advice from my coach, Lindsey and went off to T1 where the swim start was.

We only received or race numbers there, because someone stole our original numbers. We were pushed for time to get everything ready and still do our warm up. Somehow (with the help of adrenaline), we managed to do all of that and still had time to “good luck” everyone. We then lined up and when they announced: “number 27 Rudolf Naude”, I knew … now is the time, I felt very good and excited.

Surprisingly I had a super good start dove and wasn’t hit once in the first 50 meters, and then everything changed. The swim turned into a boxing match, everyone was swimming over everyone and I got a few punches and kicks but also gave out quite a few. At the first buoy, it was the worst as everyone slowed down to turn and I caused a mass pile up. The only good thing about getting hit all the way is that you know you are still in the race. After the race to transition, I saw that there were still a lot of bikes left so I knew I had a good swim. We got a good rhythm on the bike and at the turn around, I saw that I was 2nd pack and we were catching the front pack. When we caught them we didn’t let up, it was a flat taps bike leg all the way. Out of very turn and corner on the very technical route, we sprinted to get back up to speed, I tried to remain in the top 5 in the pack just to be safe and have a good, clean transition.

Approaching T2, I was still in the front of the pack, which made my transition easy. My transition went very smooth and to my surprise I was 2nd out of T2. The adrenaline was pumping and I went for it, but sadly I started to die slowly. I went out to fast and blew up at the end. I finished 25th , but was hoping for a top 20 … I missed top 20 by 10 seconds – close, but missed. At the finish line, I collapsed - my legs gave in and I was dead tired but happy.
 

My famous collapse!


Click here to view the 5min of the race highlights

Cheers
Rudolf