Triathlon World Cup

Olympic Hopeful Gavin Noble kicks off the 2012 triathlon season at the Bridgetown ITU Pan American Cup in Barbados this Sunday 12th February.

Under the guidance of Triathlon Ireland’s High Performance Director, Chris Jones, Noble along with the rest of the squad have spent a number of weeks training in Aguilas Spain followed by a gruelling 3 weeks at altitude in the Sierra Nevada.

“Gavin and the rest of the squad faced some of the most challenging training conditions I have ever witnessed” commented lead cycling coach and former RAS winner, Tommy Evans. “On numerous occasions over the 3 week camp they climbed the 32 kilometres up to the training centre in a 4 hour ride, having already done 5-6k in the pool that morning. Gavin would then finish the day off with a 50 minute uphill run to an altitude of 2550 meters.”

This weekend’s race has a small but high quality field and will consist of a 750m swim in clear calm waters followed by a flat 20k bike and 5k run.

“Preparations have been good but it’s still only February and so my endurance is there but it’s still too early to be working on any speed” commented Noble. “Having said that I’m confident I can come away with a top 10 placing and that’s the mission.”

Noble will then race the Cape Town ITU African Cup the following weekend before taking stock and putting in another block of training in the triathlon Mecca of Stellenbosch, South Africa. All focus will then turn to the first World Triathlon Series race in Sydney in mid March where some major Olympic Qualification points will be up for grabs.

Gavin Noble is currently ranked 42nd on the ITU Olympic Simulation Rankings with the top 55 Qualifying for the London Olympics.

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