Now we party, ja?

Wow, World Champs. Gulp. Qualifying and getting to Hamburg was the whole focus of this season. 10 years of training and racing and this is the biggest race I've ever lined up for. So no pressure then!

I actually got a great start. Don't know how -as I was a bag of nerves. No amount of visualisation and deep breathing could hide that! As we waited for the hooter I was starting to dry-retch. Chris thought I was going to be sick there and then, and I actually scared off another competitor to the extent that he swam off and found another start slot further down. Then with 10 seconds to go I finally calmed down.

The swim began with a deep water start, treading water and holding a rope alongside a pontoon. I'd managed to find a pontoon leg, so when the hooter went I got a solid two-foot push off to get me ahead. I then swam about 30 metres head down, warp factor 10, maximum kick to get clear of any of the hand-to-hand combat stuff. When I looked up I was leading the World Championships! There was a pack coming up on my left, and another on my right, but I decided to keep going on my own and head straight for the first bouy. By the time we got there, both trains had caught me up and merged. I needed to turn on the max attack kick back on to get round cleanly. From there to the finish it was a case of following feet, which was tricky due to the very murky nature of Hamburg's Allstersee.

We swam through a pretty spooky tunnel and then up onto the blue carpetted steps. At this point I was 9th in my age group, but who was that just in front of me? Chris Beamish! Every open water swim I do, wee Chris gets the better of me! Still 11:19 for a slightly long 750 was a good result. Now for another 750m. Yes, transition was that long! Up the steps, round the back of the grandstands, round the block, and then you're just getting to the start of transition. With 5000 bikes in there it was a whole 500m long. Chris took off like a scolded cat, and I tucked in behind him, waiting a bit before unzipping the wetsuit so I could run better. No problems finding my bike, suit off, glasses and helmet on and we're off. The scolded cat run and a good change over meant that I'd now moved up to 6th, just in front of Mr Beamish.

This was the bit I'd been waiting for! The bike course was a real power course. Slightly rolling dual carriageways with a good strong crosswind blowing. Time to do some damage! It was dry on race day and the tarmac glassy smooth so I'd put 170psi in my tubs and they were really whistling down the road. Disc wheels make a great noise, but usually you can't hear them when you're the one riding them. There was a tunnel at the start though and all I could hear was the whistling of my tyres, a loud buzz from my deep-dish carbon front wheel and the almight whump-whump of my disc echoing through the tunnel. This was the sound of speed!

I picked up places all the way through, although some were in the next age group up, and some were standard distance athletes on their second lap. Up onto the 'scenic' Reeperbahn and I could see the two guys in the lead. It took me until just before the turn to overtake them, and I was leading the World Championships again!

One of the two, a Swiss chap stuck with me, and I could see him holding position a few metres back. Then it happpened. Someone overtook me! A German guy came flying past me on an uphill section. Now I'm not used to being overtaken, and I don't like it! Ride your own race, Andy. No chance - I was taking that place back. I let him get his 7 metres, then as the road flattened out I stuck it into the 54x12 and accelerated hard at his back wheel. By the time I passed him I was doing about 35mph, and I was off.

About 200m later he came past me again! Ok - same routine and same result. In the end I passed him 3 times, and he did me 4. The swiss guy had been sitting back following us at a sensible pace, so I gave in and decided to do the same. When we came into T2 the German was 1st, I was 15 seconds back and the Swiss guy was right behind me. Which is how the run started.

Ok - 5k to go, and I'm in Silver. Oops, 4.9k to go and I'm in Bronze... My plan was to run on the Swiss guy's shoulder, but he'd sussed me straight away and immediately put a dig in to open a gap. He got about 100 yards up before easing back a bit, and I tried to peg the gap at that while he was still in sight.

After about 2k's to go a domestique came to my assistance. I kid you not! Some random GB guy in the age group below ran up to my shoulder and started chatting away. He'd started in the wave 10 mins before me and wasn't having a good race, but he had plenty left for the run and offered, no insisted, on helping me. My instructions were to tuck in and he'd drag me back up to the Swiss guy in 2nd. Every time I dropped off the pace he shouted at me to keep up. This went on for a whole kilometre and we closed about half the gap, but I was running above myself and couldn't sustain it. My helper disappeared off into the distance, without a word of thanks - cos I was too f*****d to say anything!

With 1k to go the course went through an underpass and emerged back onto lakeside - running down the opposite side to where transition was. It's at this point that I was passed and lost 3rd place - to a fellow Brit. A chap called David Glossy started the run 1 minute down on me, but now he's run me down and caught me. I wasn't giving in without a fight though. For the whole of the next half kilometre I stuck like glue to his shoulder, we were picking up lots of standard distance stragglers now and the course was getting pretty congested. With 500m to go I'm still on his shoulder - see the photo here (the guy with his suit unzipped is David).

I was getting ready to start my sprint for home at 400 to go as we jinked right and left onto the finishing straight. But David had already started and he immediately opened a gap. I gave it everything I had, trying my best to focus on that bronze medal, but going completely cross eyed! At the finish I was 4th - just 4 seconds out of the medals.

Very, very happy with 4th - but, oh so close to getting something shiny to take home!

Stirling TC had some outstanding results: Chris Beamish came in 9th in my age group, Scott Poole 30th in the 35-39, Fraser Arnott 13th and Alex McPhee 33rd in the 45-49 category while Doug Wood was an outstanding 5th in 60-64. Out of the girls, Sarah Hector was 12th, Oona Brooks 10th and Mary Welsh a fantastic 4th.

Ja, now we party! The after-race bash was headlined by the German musical genius who was the real voice of Boney-M and Mili-Vanili. His crowning glory however his mid 80's alter-ego, the original Daddy Cool!!!

See this link for all the photos that were fit for viewing from the Stirling TC crew.

See this link for all the results.

One last mention: thanks to Nikki for holding fort while I was away - Nikki, Callum and Joanne made a real fuss of me when I got home, which was fantastic!