International Weekend Roundup 9th & 10th June

The international triathlon season continues, and this weekend Russell White, Ailbhe Carroll, Darren Dunne and Brian Glynn were racing at the 2018 ITU World Triathlon Leeds and the 2018 Weert ETU Triathlon European Cup.

2018 ITU World Triathlon Leeds

In Leeds, Russell White had a tough day but showed his incredible resolve to finish the standard distance race. As Russell said himself:

Now that was brutal #WTSLeeds . Not one to make excuses but I knew it was going to be a hard day with a lot of sickness post Bermuda WTS and taking time out of training to recover. Leeds has always been good to me so it was worth a shot today. Found out you can’t bluff a WTS! 1/2

— Russell White (@russellwhitetri) June 10, 2018

Still happy I left everything out there today, I could have easily DNF’d but it’s not in me. Now time to head to Girona w/ @ORIGINperform and get that fitness back. I’ll be ready for the next one!!! 2/2

— Russell White (@russellwhitetri) June 10, 2018

A post shared by Russell White (@russellwhite6) on Jun 11, 2018 at 2:07am PDT

2018 Weert ETU Triathlon European Cup

Darren Dunne had his best international performance to date with a 13th place at the Weert ETU European Cup race in the Netherlands, putting in a 10km PB in the process. Darren had the following to say about his race:

The race went well this week. I got left behind a little bit in the first 200m of the swim but fought hard all the way to the exit to get out just behind front pack. I ended up with 3 other strong bikers and we just smashed ourselves and bridged up after about 4/5k so it was the first time I’ve been safely in the front pack. More strong bikers came from behind so it was a massive bunch of 50 or so on the bike.

A couple of guys made some little breakaways but it was basically just a big warm up for a running race. Still averaged 44kph for the bike though! I got out of T2 near the back of the group which was a bit stupid but I managed to have the 10th fastest run of the day with 32:25  to get up to 13th. I measured the run course with the garmin the day before and it was bang on 10k so that’s a big PB run off the bike.

I moved up 235 places on the World Rankings from that so overall it was a good day out. Time to recover for a day or two before a couple of little quality sessions leading into the Antwerp World Cup this Sunday.

Good day out in Weert ETU Cup yesterday. 32:25 for 10k to get into 13th place. Moving in the right direction. Having fun in Belgium with the @SquadraTri group too! pic.twitter.com/0mf3tz1gE6

— Darren Dunne (@DunneDarren) June 11, 2018

Brian Glynn gained more experience at international level this past weekend in the Netherlands, finishing in 57th in a time of 2:01:01.

Ailbhe Carroll was also on the startline but unfortunately a puncture on the first lap of the bike put her out of finishing the race.

It’s not often as easy to ‘pin point’ where it all went wrong but today, it was easy. Overwhelming emotion after the race had me in tears, but once I had that release I was OK again. You build into a race, and expect to give it what you have. When the unexpected happens, it is exactly that… Unexpected. Takes ya by surprise a little. I have two more races over the next two weekends, to include a debut World Cup in Antwerp next weekend where my parentals and brother will fly over to watch… Hopefully, that’s the bad luck out of the way now and it will be better next weekend 🍀

A post shared by Ailbhe Carroll (@ailbhedoodle) on Jun 10, 2018 at 10:22am PDT

Next weekend Chris Mintern, Darren Dunne, Ailbhe Carroll and Con Doherty will be racing at the 2018 Antwerp ITU Triathlon World Cup. Stay tuned to the TI social channels and website for the updates.