Cervelo Presents The Road To Beijing: Part 4
Hello Slowtwitchers!
So it has been a while since my last post in this Road to Beijing series chronicling my journey to the start line in Beijing. I have just been so busy with all the endorsement deals that I have been signing and the commercials that I have been shooting… man it's been CRAZY! OK, well that was all a lie. Training has just been taking up all my time and when I am not doing that, I am eating and resting… not much more energy to put a couple of words together. But now that I am on taper and resting for my race tomorrow at the Hy-Vee Triathlon World Cup in Des Moines I have lots of spare time.
In case some of you have not heard, last week I was selected to the Canadian Olympic Triathlon Team! It is probably a good thing or else writing these articles would have been all for naught! I am officially now on the Road to Beijing.
Going to the Olympics has always been a goal of mine right from when I started competitive swimming when I was 7 (I do not know how "competitive" we actually were back then barely knowing how to swim). I have always dreamt of one day being able to represent Canada on the biggest sporting stage on the planet. It is just a huge accomplishment for myself, my family and friends, my girlfriend who puts up with me, my teammates, and my coach. There is no way that I would have been able to make it this far without having the support and encouragement of everyone of these people. I have one HUGE support system!
My selection onto the team did not come without lots of controversy, which was to be expected because of the lack of understanding about ITU racing, as well as Triathlon Canada's philosophies and their goals. It is no secret that I was chosen to be a "team racer", someone who will increase the odds of a podium performance from our "team leader". This is a role that I have been training for specifically for quite a long time.
When I found out that Triathlon Canada was expressing an interest in applying team racing tactics in the Olympics and then later wrote it into their Olympic Selection criteria, I knew that this would be my best chance of making it. So I sat down with my coach Joel and we developed a plan that would put me in the number one spot if the selection committee were to go down the team racing path.
Over certain races in the past year I have raced as a team racer in order to show the selection committee the various way that going forth with this concept can be beneficial. It was a risk that I took to put my running on the back-burner and just concentrate on my swim/bike combination but it paid off HUGE!
Canada is only one of 5 nations that was able to qualify a full team for the Olympics (3 men and 3 women). As you may or may not know, I was not one of the athletes that qualified Canada a spot on the mens team. Although it is irrelevant who earned the spots for Canada because of the way our selection criteria was written, it is not without a grand effort from each of the guys that was going for the spot. Without the efforts of Brent McMahon and Kyle Jones to get Canada that third spot, Canada would only be sending two athletes to the start line.
So now for the next two months there is lots of swimming, even more biking, a little running, and a few races. I am racing this weekend in Des Moines as I said above and then two more times in the Lifetime Series races in Minneapolis and New York. I am also currently working with Jordan Rapp to build a perfect bike for the Beijing course. Of course it will be built around the Cervelo Soloist frame which I have been riding for the past couple weeks. If you have not tried one out yet do yourself a favour and go test ride one, they are absolutely amazing.
Until next time!
Colin Jenkins
2008 Olympian
