Rewind 12 months<\/a> and I didn\u2019t think I was even going to get to the start of Busselton 2014. Last year, in the lead up to the race I was sick and had the whole week off training. As it turned out, on the day I actually felt pretty rested, had a great race and ended up on the top of the podium. So I\u2019m heading into this year\u2019s Busselton 70.3 as the reigning champ.<\/p>\nAs always though, there\u2019s no room for over-confidence – the field for the event is really strong. In fact, the organisers are saying it\u2019s the strongest field they\u2019ve ever had for Busselton 70.3. There\u2019s no doubt there some big hitters in the line up- my old mate Sticksy, Appo (Sam Appleton who came 3rd in 2014), Alex Reithmeier (2nd in 2014) and James Cunnama (all the way from South Africa) will all be there. Add into the mix veteran Kiwi triathlete, Terenzo Bozzone, and you know it\u2019s going to be a hard-fought, hard-won race. I may be going into the race with Number 1 on my front, but there\u2019ll definitely be a target on my back. It will certainly make for some good racing.<\/p>\n
Hustle and bustle<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s always good to head over to the \u2018Wild West\u2019 and the event at Busselton has just got bigger and bigger as time has gone on. The crowd is always huge and vocal, which is awesome for the competitors. Media coverage is good and there\u2019s plenty of pre-race action.<\/p>\nThe course is quick and it\u2019s a great place to compete. Last year the swim conditions on Geographe Bay were glassy- I\u2019m hoping it will be the same this time around. The cycle leg will be fast and furious and then the race finishes with 3 laps out and back on Geographe Bay Rd. There\u2019s plenty of opportunity to keep an eye on the competition, which will be especially handy given how competitive this field is.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m looking forward to defending my title and hopefully hanging on to the course record for another year. And if you\u2019re there, come and join me for the Q&A session on Friday arvo at Chat with the Pros in the Main Marquee. Should be fun.<\/p>\n
Good luck to everyone who is competing. Go hard and I\u2019ll see you at the finish!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1661"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1665,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions\/1665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}