A gutsy effort from James Elvery at the ITU World Champs in London made many stand up and take notice, despite the Cantabrian finishing in 41st place.
With Olympic selection spots up for grabs, Elvery decided before the race that he was going to leave absolutely everything out on the course.
LISTEN TO JAMES ELVERY'S TRI-CAST – 12/08/2011 (10:53)
He was off to a fast start on the swim, sticking to the front of the lead group and coming out of the water second behind German Jan Frodeno.
Knowing the run would be tough, Elvery forced the tempo on the bike and engineered a big breakaway on the flat London bike course.
"I wanted to have a really good swim and bike. There are so many fast runners out there so for me to have any chance I had to do something on the swim and bike,” he said.
"I was riding at the front trying to keep the pace honest and stay away from the chase group. They didn't want to hold my wheel at one point and [Alistair] Brownlee jumped away with me and we were gone.”
Elvery's efforts saw him come into transition alongside the Brownlee brothers, but he simply couldn't match it with the faster runners over 10km.
"At the end of the day triathlon is three disciplines and you've got to get all three right to come away with a result. It would've been better if the run went my way but it was definitely pleasing to see all the hard work I'm doing is paying off.”
Despite being overrun and finishing way down the field Elvery is pleased that he at least took a punt on challenging the Brownlees, who ended up first (Alistair) and third (Jonathan) in the race.
"If you let them get away you're not going to beat them so you have to at least keep up.
"The guys are just letting him [Alistair] go or not paying enough attention. If they don't at least try and go with him they don't have much chance of winning the race.
"The way everyone else is racing at the moment they're still a long way away from taking the next step and attacking them. It's interesting and they're definitely changing the way races go.
"I looked at the results and if I sat in the pack the best I could've hoped for was about a 25th I think with the running shape I'm in. Better to have a go and not quite make it, at least you're in with a chance.”
Elvery is now back in Sigmaringen, Germany where he will base his training efforts before competing at the ITU Sprint World Champs in Lausanne, Switzerland.
From there his attention switches to the World Championship Series Grand Final in Beijing, where the Kiwi men have another chance to qualify an Olympic selection spot.
