From Holten I travelled down to Lemgo with Flemming Neuman and my German team. The Lemgo squad is strong, with double Olympian Lucy Zelenkova doing the coaching and athletes like Garhard Wolfhard from South Africa and Mike (whos second name I cant remember but who finished 4th at Ironman Roth and rides like an animal) in the squad. I was looking forward to spending a week with the group and experiencing a bit of Germany.

By Tuesday I realised what had been up in Holten, I’d come down with a cold type flu thing and the only German culture I was experiencing was watching the tour complete with the German equivalent of David Duffield in between trips to the toilet and an unsuccessful mission to find Lemsip or extra strong vitamin C. As a side note, it’s a travesty that eurosport have got Duffield sat in a studio in Paris, how’s he meant to make witty comments on castles and cheese from there?

I was worried about racing the German Nationals but having agreed to race for the team I would have left them a bit in the lurch if I had decided not to start. I figured that even off form I should be able to sit in the front group on the flat bike course and run ok to count for their Bundesliga team result. I should have reconsidered when we started the 6 hour drive from Lemgo to Munich and I still had a fever, but the mind is a funny thing and I’d convinced myself that I would be fine. I’ve raced before not feeling great and gone well; sometimes you don’t know how you are going to fare until half way around the bike. The race didn’t start till 6pm and it was still above 30 degrees. I’m not a fan of racing in the evening as it involves sitting about in a hotel room doing nothing all day. There were 150 guys on the start line and I knew from doing the German nationals a few years back that they like a fight. I got a really good position at the start and dropped into second place without too much work. The German guys were taking turns on the front of the swim, four or five of them each went through hard for a couple of 100m before moving back into the group. I held my position until the last 50m when the Germans got a bit excited and sprinted through to lead out at there nationals. A soon as we got out of the Swim my lungs were really tight and I couldn’t get the air in. I got out onto the 8 lap bike course with the front group. The course had 8 turns per lap and as it turned out was more like 48km than 40km I really couldn’t ride my bike and even though the course was pan flat I ended up in the third pack by lap 5. I knew that I was way way off where I should be even on a bad day so I gave Mike Cornes also racing with Lemgo a hand to get up to the third group then jogged 3km of the run to make sure that the other guy in the team were all going to count before stopping. It’s the first time I have ever decided to stop during a race, I’ve done a few where I have been injured and new I wasn’t going to run, but this is the first time I’ve started planning to race and had to stop, it’s not a nice feeling. After the race I spent two days staying with Suzie and Marty Vivien founder members of North Dorset Triathlon Club who live just outside Munich. Suzie and Marty have been helping me out and looking after me almost since I was in nappies. 48hrs being stuffed with suzie’s cooking watching the tour and sleeping was exactly what I needed to help me get over my cold…thanks guys!!! Next on the wacky races schedule was trying to get to Eguzon for the second round of the division two French grand prix. Ideally I should be back in the U.K taking a few weeks off, but as I said I’ve made commitments to the team and I should be a counter to help them get promoted even if I am not on top form. Its really not a good situation to be in, but it is the reality of trying to make a living as a fulltime athlete. The middle of France is not an easy place to get to especially when you are starting in Germany. The answer was a 14 hour train trip, to Clermont Ferrant via Strasbourg, Zurich, Bern Lausanne Geneva and Lyon. I’ve spent the last few days staying here with Jono Grady from Ireland (via Australia, but he called his gran back in Aus to prove to me that she has an Irish accent) I’ve been mostly sleeping and eating but have managed a couple of paddles in Clermont’s 50m swimming pool with a fully retractable roof (very cool) and a couple of spins on the bike and easy jogs. Tomorrow I’m heading over to Eguzon with Yann Canoui. Yann raced with me for a French team a few years back and has kept an eye on me ever since, he’s a legend for sorting me out when I get stuck in the middle of nowhere. After the weekend it’s a drive up through France and ferry back from Le’Harve. On Wednesday I’m in Loughborough to do some talks as part of a National Youth Sport Trust “Believe to Achieve with Kelly Holmes” camp. Then I’m in Salford next weekend to watch the Salford World Cup as part of the B.T.F Talent Identification Work. Then its on to London where driven to tri are going to do a talk at the trade expo on the Saturday and I’m going to race on the Sunday.According to one of the French Triathlon websites ESMGO should be feeling the pressure with a good performance this weekend being essential. All I’m feeling is the need to go back to bed… I’ll let you know how it goes when I’m back in Blighty on Monday and I might even find some pictures from the trip to brighten things up.