BACK TO DRAWING BOARD FOR AUSSIE TRIATHLETES
TRIATHLON, June 6: The Australian contingent will head back to the drawing board in preparation for the next leg of the 2011 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series in Kitzbuhel after a disappointing weekend's racing in Madrid.
Defending women's world champion Emma Moffatt was the best of the Australians, finishing in 13th place after a spirited run leg in Sunday's women's race which saw dynamic Canadian Paula Findlay score back-to-back wins after her opening round title in Sydney.
Queensland's Annabel Luxford was the next best of the Australians in 19th, followed by Olympic champion Emma Snowsill in 21st with youngster Felicity Sheedy-Ryan 46th.
Saturday's men's race, dominated by British brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, with Spain's Javier Gomez third, saw Australian Olympic pair Courtney Atkinson 38th and Brad Kahlefeldt 51st while rising star and recent Monterrey World Cup winner Brendan Sexton recorded a DNF, dropping out soon after the swim.
And in a truthful admission Australian head coach Shaun Stephens isn't convinced his squad can turn things around in two weeks.
"Our training certainly hasn't transformed into our racing that's for sure; I knew we weren't right on our game, with the plan to be ready for Hamburg (in July) and London (in August), but we were well off the pace all weekend," said Stephens.
"Everybody's swim was off, we were certainly found wanting in the water and that's against our strengths, we are normally strong there, but we didn't have one athlete all weekend in the front pack.
"And in the short term I'm not sure we can turn it around in a fortnight. I think it will take a little longer. I'm just glad it's this year and not next.
"The mood in the camp is pretty sombre but there are no excuses - it's a case of re-assessing and heading back to the drawing board."
Moffatt had given away too much after playing catch up for the entire race, held in perfect 28 degree conditions over the Casa de Campo Park course, just outside central Madrid.
As hard as the Australian girls ran over the final 10km there was no catching the leaders with Findlay proving too strong again over the final 500 metres to keep determined British girl Helen Jenkins with Frenchwoman Emmie Charayron overtaking New Zealander Andrew Hewitt to grab third.
Their races were all but washed up after the 1500 metre swim leg.
The Australian girls were all left well back after the two 750m swim laps, with Moffatt 22 seconds behind, Luxford 25 seconds 
back and Snowsill giving away 52 seconds to the leaders, British girl Abbie Thorrington and the USA's noted swimmer Laura Bennett who led out the 65-strong field.
It left Moffatt and Luxford in the second chase pack on the first of eight laps of the 40km bike, some 34 seconds behind the leaders after the first lap with Snowsill over one minute behind and stranded in the second chase pack.
The gruelling hill climbs through the scenic Park saw the likes of Sweden's Lisa Norden, eventual winner Canada's Findlay, gallant Kiwi Hewitt and another great swim-biker in Jenkins dominate a lead group that grew to 17.
Moffatt and Luxford tried desperately to stay in touch through the combined efforts of the first chase pack, but Snowsill found herself without any of the top flight bikers in her group, forcing her to do the majority of the catch up work through the entire bike course.
After three laps the first chase pack was just 28 seconds behind but the second chase group had fallen back to trail by one minute 40 seconds.
Luxford worked hard through the second half of the bike, determined to do her share of the work to chase down the leaders and although they dropped to 45 seconds behind at one stage they were quick to cut the lead to 25 seconds after six laps.
But the further the bike went towards its 40km finish the tougher it became for Snowsill and her group to bridge the gap.
They dropped from two minutes behind to 2 minutes 50 towards the second last of the eight laps before heading off on the 10km run some 3 minutes 33 behind and at that stage Snowsill's race appeared to be as good as over.
The Olympic champion recorded a solid run leg but she and the entire Australian contingent know they can't reach the podium if they are not in touch with the lead pack out of the water. - Ian Hanson.
- Round three of the 2011 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series will be in Kitzbuhel, Austria on June 18 and 19.