Mitch Anderson fires up post Busso!
Sunday, 04 May 2008 09:07
Mitch Anderson had another really solid effort at this weekend's Half Ironman in Bussleton, W.A. But he wasn't all smiles post-race when we caught up with him, taking aim at some of his fellow competitors after some dubious riding tactics. Mitch, known as one of the fastest guys in the world on two wheels, gives us an insight into just what happened at the pointy end of the field and applies the blowtorch to drafting once more to highlight how some athletes just don't get it.
First up, how was your race day? Pete Jacobs really set up the race with a great swim leg.
Yeah, it was the Jacob's show again, as expected. He's had a good two months between IMNZ to get ready for this race so he was out early, and there were only 3 or 4 ahead of me. I had a pretty reasonable swim, which is good and shows I'm heading in the right direction. But Jacobs still had a good three minute buffer which is a long way in a half (Iroman).
That said, I got out of the water fairly quickly in terms of getting into my tempo and I was holding to a really good, even wattage. In fact, for the whole ride I was holding 3-330 watts, so that's certainly good going and it felt pretty comfortable. The problem with this course is though that once you actually go by a bit of a bunch, it's actually very difficult to get rid of them.
Did you have that happening to you?
Absolutely, though Jacobs did his own thing off the front and is riding really well. That's probably the best I've seen him ride.
You were only able to put a minute into him on the bike - proof that Pete is getting stronger?
Yeah, he's always been a better 90 kilometre biker than he has 180 kilometre. I think he's still susceptible over the IM distance. I think I caught back a minute on him in the first 30km, and then took back another 30-40 seconds in the next lap, but he actually took 20 -30 seconds on the last lap. There was a lot of traffic on the road in the last lap. There were 1600 people racing over here, including the teams, and that made it very busy on the course.
How do you feel about riding a course like that?
It can be a bit distracting, particularly the last lap is the hardest one to hold tempo. I didn't decelerate at all. I held my tempo from the first two laps to the third. So Jacobs has obviously had a bad patch in the second lap and then come good in the third. He accelerated rather than rode tempo. I rode up to a group and they were working pretty solid turns with one another so it took me 20km to catch a minute. And then they sat on my wheel for 30km, the three of them...it was so pleasing (laughs).
What happened next?
I did an attack to try and shake them but on a flat course like this....I called one of them on it after they'd been sitting on for 30 km and said "this is ridiculous, I'm not going to drag you guys around for the whole time'. But that said, I have no idea if they were legal or not. We certainly did not have a draft buster with us for the entire bike ride. And after they'd been sitting on for 35 km one of them came round for a turn and my wattage dropped by about 50 watts. So it goes to show it is a huge benefit at seven metres in (the legal drafting length).
And Matt Illingworth had the fastest bike split?
Yeah, he got me by 25 seconds (laughs).
Isn't he 39 years old?
Yeah, but he's been to two Olympics and two Commonwealth Games on the British Cycling team, so he should beat me by more than 25 seconds!
So when you got out onto the run, you've got Jacobs up the road after effectively towing around a chase group. Did you just tap it out?
I'd dropped a couple of them at about 55-60 km mark of the bike and had got a bit of a gap. I didn't come over here with any illusions of grandeur. I knew that my legs were still susceptible after Ironman (Australia). I've been doing lots of short sessions but nothing long and it's certainly hard to get my legs up to scratch for a half Ironman effort, so I'm very pleased to have got off the bike and felt comfortable running around the 80 - 81 minute mark for the half (marathon).
I'm not deluding myself though, half ironman is not my thing. Jacobs was looking very comfortable in first. He certainly didn't look as well as he has done in previous years and I think that is due to the fact that he has not biked as well previously. In fact there is barely a chink in his armour over the half ironman. To be able to bike a 2:07 and run a 77 (minute), that's solid going! And Loveridge came past me like a steam train at about the 10 -11 km mark and then ran another three minutes into me.
But I really do find that style of racing frustrating. It's an individual sport and if you are not doing by yourself, well then it's not really how you play the game.
Now that you're full time, do you feel you have to win all the time or can you designate training races?
This was definitely a 'B' race for me in terms of what I was hoping to do. I'm targeting the Ironman races as my 'A' races for the year and there are four of those this year. This preparation for a half is being hampered training for Ironman, so you've got to be realistic. Even Macca (Chris McCormack) doesn't expect to win each race that he does in the year.
I think to do the right thing by my sponsors and by myself as a professional, then I expect to get onto the podium in pretty much every race I go to. You can't expect to win every race and be in absolutely supremo form all year ... it's just not possible.
So what's the next goal for you?
Thankfully my wife is coming home so that will be great (wife Bridie has been in Italy racing for the AIS Cycling squad). Sharing bottles of red wine instead of drinking them all myself will be a nice change! (laughs)
Then I go to Mooloolaba for ten days of training before heading to Ironman Japan in June. I've made no secret of the fact that it's a target race for me to win this year, sopefully I can pick up a win in Asia which would make my bank manager happy!
Thanks for your time Mitch!
