Leon Griffin on how to win Geelong 70.3

Geelong’s a tough race. It’s fairly new on the WTC landscape. You’re a past winner. On that particular race day, what was the secret?
I think taking out most of your competitors. I just got lucky, Phil. Obviously Crowie didn’t come down in the first year. My key was to staying as close as I could at the swim and mixing it up on the bike, having a real crack. There’s a hill out at the turnaround point so the best advice I could give to anyone to shake some people is to shake them on that hill out there. Get a bit of a gap and there’s usually a tailwind blowing back to transition, so get as much time as you can and be conservative on the run because there’s some hills in there as well.

But I’m one week ahead of where I was a few years ago and I really didn’t think I was that fit so even after winning today (at the Gatorade Triathlon Series Race 4), even though it’s a different kind of race, it gives me a little bit of confidence going into next week but you still have to have done your work, like you said, it’s a tough course.

Lining up next to someone like Craig Alexander his reputation in 70.3 racing speaks for itself. Is it for you then, just measuring what you can do? What do you do to shake someone like him?
I think that’s where this sport’s going to become interesting in the next couple of years. People are going to have to come up with different strategies and obviously people like Lieto has shown his hand. He’s given some other guys something to think about that maybe if you can get 10 minutes on Craig, in an Ironman, you’re a chance and that’s probably your only chance.

But, hey look I’m still not bad on the run. I’m not in fantastic shape now but Crowie often has a bad day or something like that. but at some point in time. Crowie is the benchmark now and you have to change your training around to match him on the run, because he is a conservative bike rider and blitzes everyone on the run.

So you’ve got to work out whether you’re a good runner and worker harder on your run or if you’re a good biker work harder on your bike and try and get as much time as you can.

Craig is still a fantastic bike rider but he’s just smart, he probably doesn’t go above 80% on the bike and he leaves something in the tank for that run. So it’s going to be an interesting couple of years to see how people go about racing Craig because you have to do something different, something out of the box to beat him no doubt.

When your form’s up like now is it tempting for you to get on the bike and just see how much damage you can do?
It is. I did today where I got a little bit of a gap on the young guys. But just kind of analysing what Chris Lieto does is interesting because he doesn’t take off at the start. Everybody is talking about this power stuff these days and people stick their power metres on. These endurance events have shown that if you can conserve a bit in the first half maybe you’ve got a few minutes up your sleeve in the second half to really give it a go.

Are you scientific though? Or are you more just ‘I’ll ride how I feel’?
I am a ‘Ride how you feel’ kind of a person but it’s the way the sport’s going. You still go out there and just go your hardest and whatever and see how you go but I think that the sport, as it gets older and it keeps getting more professional, with all the coaches and these technical kinds of things.

I am a bit of an old school person but I’m coming around to the thought that training with power metres and all that can really assist you. It’s got to be in an event of at least four hours. I mean you would throw that out the window in an event that’s two hours because you do just go as hard as you can. But there’s definitely some merit to the theory of sticking to your limits and always leaving something for the back half.

You’ve won a couple of 70.3’s so you know how it works. Knowing Geelong like you do does road surface play on your plans? It’s dead road and it’s pretty horrible?
For sure. Riding on these roads in Melbourne, they’re pretty well surfaced but I’m actually moving up the country to Bendigo and I went for a ride with just my old age group mates last weekend on just dead, dead roads and they had me on the rivet. I could beat them in a race but take me out on those tough roads, I’m just not used to it and if you haven’t been riding those tough roads it will definitely play a factor. Come that second half (of the Geelong bike course) your legs are just going to be absolutely stinging if you’ve just been riding up and down Beach Road or something nice like that. So the tougher the better. I like it.

So what’s the plan for you for Geelong for you personally? How are you going to go and race this weekend?
I took about five weeks off at the end of last year, I just had a bit of a hip injury so I got stuck into my swimming. It’s always a work in progress my swimming so whenever I get a chance to throw in a big block of swimming I’ll do so.

My goal will be just to hang in as much as I can. Usually that’s everybody’s goal but today showed, I think I was 5th out of the water and all those guys are just primed for that sprint distance racing. My swimming is just getting that little bit better all the time. So I’ll get as close to the front as I can.

In Clearwater I took a bit of a different tactic where I did conserve some energy, I spent more time at the back of the pack than the front. I’m kind of letting the ego go a little bit I suppose, and that’s purely based on looking at Craig (Alexander). Craig does it the best. He’s a strong bike rider but Craig doesn’t sit on the front of the bike packs. So if I’m in that pack with Craig and all those guys I’ll be trying to conserve as much energy as I can. I think I’m in about a 1.15 shape for a half, which Craig seems to knock out 1.12 consistently so if he’s going to run 1.12 there’s not much I can do about it. It’s just too early in the season to go out and nail yourself I think.

I’ve only had four weeks of training under the belt after that five weeks off so I’ll conserve as much as I can and if I can get a podium place I’ll be pretty happy with that.