Bryce Chong’s Race report from Chengdu China
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Bryce Chong’s Race report from Chengdu China – World Cup Super Sprint 06/05/2017
Luck wasn’t on my side again. I went into this race feeling pumped and ready to go, but on the second lap of the bike lap, a dog suddenly ran in front of me. The road for cycling was very wet (it has been raining heavily the past 2 days prior to the race), and very narrow. I couldn’t stop in time and the only thing that went through my mind was I didn’t want to crash into it. So in a reflex action, I braked and also used my left foot to assist me to a halt. But it was a costly… it caused me to have a strain leading from my hamstring up to my glut and I had to pull out of the race.
It was also raining on race day (race was at 6.30 am), and woke up at 4 am, and most left the hotel at around 4.40 am. The only warm up possible was doing my core and cycling down to the race course which was like less than 5 minutes away. No one expected the rain to last that long, and the race was even delayed 45 minutes. The swim was cut to 900 mtrs instead of 1.5 km because the currents in the river was very strong. No swim warm up was allowed that day. When I was swimming back to shore to go into T1 (which was against the current), a few more athletes and myself swam off course but I managed to catch up to them at the last part of the swim.
We manage to catch a few more people on the bike course and we formed the chase pack on the bike and in front of us were only 4 Japanese athletes. The mistake I made was when I was starting the 2nd lap of the bike, I finished pulling at the front and I was going to the back. While I was moving to the back, we were already approaching the U turn. After the U turn, I saddle up and was chasing back to the pack and it was a down hill. That’s where the incident happen shortly after the U turn.
I am definitely very disappointed because I had been training well and looking forward to do a good race.
Upon returning back to Singapore, I went to see the physio and the physio said that i have a slight tear on my hamstring. The physio report is as per attached for your understanding.
Unexpected things happens during race, like the World Championship I raced in Chicago 2 years ago, a thunder storm 1.5 hours before the race turned the triathlon race into a duathlon event.
I’m recovering well, and doing my physio, and just doing light swimming at the moment. It’s only advisable to recover well before gearing in again.
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