One Sleep To Go

After skipping the planned morning ride due to rain, we had a little rest before heading out in search of a good coffee (a very rare find in London). Other members of the Australian Team had recommended a cafe in Soho - a long way from our apartment. We headed off on what was scheduled to be a 45 minute bus ride (on a double decker). However London traffic meant we spent most of the time stationery. After 30 minutes of not travelling very far we decided to get off and go to Harrods instead, surely they'd have to make good coffee. We found a nice little cafe area and were shocked to see a standard cappuccino was 4 and a half pounds ($7.70 AUD). But we were desperate for a good coffee and at that price it must be magnificent. The coffee itself was pretty good, by far the best since we'd left Melbourne. But on paying we discovered there was an additional 1 pound 30 pence service fee, so the 2 coffees (regular size) ended up costing us $17.70 AUD. I would not have expected to pay that much for 2 glasses of champagne.

Once we'd recovered from the shock of the coffee bill, we headed back to the main Team Hotel for the Race Briefing. Unfortunately they went over all the details that were already very clear and could not answer the questions we wanted to know. My race starts at 10:10am and Elaine's starts at 11:20am, but it seems transition will only be opened from 6:30 to 7:30am. So we have to arrive at the race venue over 3 hours (4 for Elaine) before our race starts. There was confusion about this rule in some of the wording, but we couldn't get an answer to confirm the situation. Our friend Martin who is also racing the Sprint starts around 11:00am, so he has the same issue. Looks like we're all in for an early morning start.

While at the main Team Hotel we picked up our bikes that had been left overnight for the mechanic to check over. Anthony from CBD Cycles performs the Team Mechanic duties every year and without fail he is definitely the standout achiever of the whole organisation. He checks over 400 bikes, answers 4 million questions and resolves 1,000 disasters in about 3 days. Nothing is a problem and he always has a smile on his face. Everybody always walks away feeling a little calmer after a meeting with Anthony.

Riding back to our apartment was so much better than walking. This confirmed the need to organise the hire bikes for all future commuting to and from the race site. Once back home we had lunch before riding our bikes to the Race Venue to check our bikes into transition.

The transition area is huge and the routes we have to run are a bit complex. Hopefully tomorrow we'll run the right way (and be able to find our bikes). Having such late wave starts means we'll get a chance to watch the earlier competitors navigate transition which should make it easier to understand. After racking our bikes we headed over to the grandstand and watched the Elite Male Under 23 race which gave us a good preview of where the swim course goes.

On the way home (after another coffee), we signed up to use the London hire bike. The bikes themselves are very basic, quite heavy and often not in the best working order. But again riding back to our apartment was a 1,000 times better than having to walk. And now that we've worked out how to hire the bikes it should be easier to use them tomorrow morning.