ITU WORLD TRIATHLON LEEDS

Want to smash the new course at the ITU World Triathlon Leeds on 10-11 June? Coach Simon Ward shares his tips for training and race day

The Columbia Threadneedle

World Triathlon Leeds is in its second year with a new age-group course, where, if you pace yourself smartly, you can race like the elites all the way to your blue-carpet finish.

Starting with a lake swim,

you’ll want to practise your open-water drills to gain advantage early on. The swim familiarisation at Waterloo Lake on Saturday 10 June is a good opportunity to practise sighting, breathing and group swimming (see training sessions 1 & 2).

Coming out of transition and onto

the bike you have to gain 30m in the first km to hit the road, so leave your bike in the small chainring to exit and climb smoothly. There’s a couple of downhills, such as the long and wide Stonegate Road, so you need to be comfortable descending fast. When you turn it’s then a long, sustained effort for a mile or two back up the hill, so get your gearing right before the turn points to accelerate away without losing speed and momentum (see training sessions 3 & 4).

Practising your cornering in

training will also help you gain advantage on the u-turns, corners and roundabouts. It’s downhill into the dismount so it’s worth practising transitions on descents. Make sure your feet are out of the pedals for the dismount before the flags to enter transition smoothly. The run on the sprint course has been increased to 7.5km to allow for the single transition, so be prepared to take on this distance on foot. Learn to run fast downhill to gain advantage on the 5% gradients. In the city centre, take a wider line and approach the corners like you would on a bike to keep speed. A lot of people flag in the last 25% of the race, so try and hold something back for this final push (see training session 5). Entries are available for the Columbia Threadneedle World Triathlon Leeds at leeds.triathlon.org. Next month: The Outlaw on 23 July 2017.