Edmonton ITU World Cup – Gavin & Bryan in action

Irish elite triathletes Gavin Noble and Bryan Keane were in action at the Edmonton ITU World Cup triathlon. Gavin and Bryan finished 15th and 39th respectively.

The results shows how the difference a 30second after the swim can lead to a huge difference at the finish. Bryan was dragging around the 2nd bike group (see photo above), whereas Gavin was with the leaders in the larger lead bike pack (photo right).

This moves Gavin from 58th to 56th in the olympic rankings, which would give Gavin the 41st slot out of the 55 slots in the 2012 olymics. See the men’s olympic simulation here for more detail.

Gavin Noble in the first bike group

The race in Gavin’s words

“a quick update before I board my Aerlingus flight to Chicago . .
Yesterday I came in 15th in ITU World Cup Edmonton and I have a mix of emotions about my race. I led the swim in my TYR Hurricane wetsuit and I was comfortable in the lead bike pack – although we had a steep hill on every lap the course was fast and ‘sweeping’ and with a large enough number in the lead group my average watts were actually quite ‘steady’ at only 295.
Onto the run however and I was too relaxed going through transition and I lost too much time – as I left transition some runners in my pack were already 100m ahead ! That is something I have to work on as I feel the Edmonton was an opportunity lost for a higher placing. When you leave transition in the last 1/4 of the pack a lot of energy is lost trying to make up the ground in the first 2km. I was never running in a pack and places 6th to 14th were running together for most of the run.
15th however still boosts my ranking and I guess is the minimum position that made the trip worthwhile in terms of London 2012 qualification – there is always a part of an athlete that wants more but when my team of coaches and I sat down in January we set the goal of consistent of picking up ‘points’ in every race – and in Edmonton i still achieved that. I am still very much in control of my bid for London.
This week I will also be in London with Vodaphone Ireland and we will join Jenson Button from the Mclaren F1 team for some video and photos. From Thursday onwards I will have nearly 4 weeks of focus before the ITU World Championship Series event in London which is also the test event for the games
I hope you all had a great weekend
gav”

Pos	Name			Finish	Swim	T1	Cycle	T2	Run
15	Gavin	Noble	IRL	01:48:05	00:16:55	00:01:08	00:58:55	00:00:24	00:32:14
39	Bryan	Keane	IRL	1:50:12	00:17:27	00:01:10	00:59:45	00:00:26	00:32:59