Having just completed the Vancouver Triathlon in early September I was quite stoked to find that there was a BCN tri within a month of us arriving. I had put an email in to Demian and not only did he tell me of a bike I could borrow he signed up as well. (and kicked my ass too…but that’s a story that you can read on his blog. Not mine. )

Unfortunately I did not get too much training in and only managed to get out 3x on an unfamiliar bike and only once into the water. This one will be chalked up to ‘experience’ and coming out of the water without seeing a shark was my only goal. (yes, the movie Jaws still scares me!)

The bike (Vitus) was actually very similar to the bike I trained with in Van (Cramerotti). Horribly out of date, limited to 12 gears, and circa 1989. In ‘89 however both bikes were top shelf but today, especially in a triathlon setting with all the aero bikes and carbon-fiber, you don’t get too much street cred showing up with pure steel and shifters still on the bottom tube.

The street cred has to be earned and let me tell you how exhilarating it is to breeze by some dude that is all kitted out in $5000+ worth of gear. My tip to all the gear-freaks out there: If you look the part, you better be fast cause you look pretty funny with your disk wheels, and aero handlebars with me circa 1989 blowing by you. Sucka!!

With a few adjustments the slightly smaller frame would be putting me through the streets of Barcelona and if it could thank me, it would, for there were cobwebs and dust covering the bike for probably a better part of 4 years.

Demian had called up his super-freak athlete friend from Madrid named Nacho to join in the race as well. Why super-freak? Well, for  a guy who had not done a triathlon in a while he finished 25th. 25th out of just under 1000 competitors. I finished somewhere in the middle of the pack and the 1st place finisher was Ivan Raña Fuentes who competed in the Beijing Olympics finishing 5th behind  Canada’s Simon Whitfield. That’s right, I race with Olympians. That’s just the way I roll.

There were a total of just over 2400 competitors which included various distances: Team, Sprint, Super-Sprint, and Olympic. (Olympic – 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run) Needless to say the energy was AWESOME, the day was perfect and our cheerleading squad was in full force thanks to my #1 fan and Mary.

Enjoy the pics. Thanks Demian, Mary, Nacho, and Little G. An aweomse day. And no shark bite….not even a sighting.