Yes winter seems to of arrived here in Leysin.  Being British I have an in built tendency to talk about the weather, so here is a blog mainly about the weather here at the moment:)

Infact this morning we woke up to a completely white Leysin. It has been a very wintery day with strong winds, which is quite unusual for Leysin. We spent a while on the turbo today.

Below is some pictures from a few days ago. 

On theway down the mountain, it was a cold morning!

Bella at the track, after a good workout. I don't think there are any tracks in the world with better views. We are surounded by snow capped mountains:)

Nearly back to home. The temperature was a fair bit warmer here than when we left. Beautiful views again:)

Back home. Bella here in her very common postion on the computer.

So the weather here in Leysin is getting pretty chilly.  Time to move on I think.  We head to Ibiza this week.  We will race the Home de Ferro race on Sunday.  Bella and I both won this race 4 years ago.  We also raced there in 2003,  for the ITU World Long Distance Championships, but we didn’t know each other.  Bella finished 4th and I won the 18-24 age group. 

Ibiza is a very beautiful Island.  It is obviously very well known for it’s clubbing.  But it is also a perfect place to do some triathlon.  Especially at this time of the year when it is a bit quieter.  We are looking forward to getting there:)

I wasn’t going to write a blog about my race yesterday. I would quite like to forget about my own race performance yesterday. But I thought I owe a report to my reader, I think I have one:)

So I was very nervous. I think everyone is? But I did all my normal pre race stuff. I felt good swimming to the start.

The gun went off and the stupid paddle board in front of me didn’t move, I had to litteraly climb over it, arrrgggh, I was hoping for a good start. Anyway I swam really hard and managed to get up near the front. It was a fight to stay up near the front till the end of the swim.

Onto the bike and around the town was easy enough. Then the real race starts as you hit the Queen K. I raced down the first down hill section then onto the first drag and BAM I get a red card, immediately, just me, yes I got too close, so did every other in the group it looked like to me.

But I guess if I got too close then that is against the rules. Then to be honest that was the beginning of the end for me.   My head gradually began to implode and then completely disintergrated on me while standing in the penalty tent at 50km watching the race go by. I did carry on for a while after the penalty tent but my will was gone.

It shouldn’t have, I was weak. I decided to quit.

I will regroup and move onto the next race.

I want to say a thank you to all my teammates who I had lunch with today, you all cheered me up it was great to see you all and celebrate your success and of course Caroline’s magnificent performance yesterday. Well done! It has been great to see what you have done this year.

Mum and I arrived on Monday night. We checked in to our apartment, we were very pleased to have been upgraded to a 2 bed apartment. It is a great apartment: Aircon, internet, massive bedrooms and living space:)  It is great, maybe not quite Beks crip,  she has the sea view too, nice!!  But really very very nice:)

Mum doing the cooking, oh yes I am a lucky boy:)

Talking of upgrades, on the flight over from London Heathrow, we were upgraded to World Traveller plus, it was great, extra big seats and much more room. Very good entertainment system, we were much less stiff then usual after the flight. Thank you to Emma and Nigel for arranging the upgrade on the flight. It was very much apprecate by us both:)

Another upgrade was the car. I had found a great deal, $200 for the week in Kona, but it was supposed to be a small crap car, when I picked it up I got this(to us brits this is a massive car, I know still small to you americans!).

My Dodge Caliber:) I like it:)

Here is another picture of me in a typical pose, on the sofa watching TV and on the internet at the same time, oh yes very happy indeed:)

Stephen in typical sofa pose!

Yesterday I had a nice ride up the queen K,  I bumped into Erica,  she had no idea who I was:)  Maybe she has worked out by now who the strange man shouting at her was:) Then I bumped into Bek,  I gave her a fright!  Mainly because she had her earphones in listening to some pumping tunes, naughty!

Mum had a walk down Ali drive, she saw lots of athletes and ask me why they were all not wearing many clothes?  Because they want a nice tan:)

At this moment I am at an airport hotel in Geneva about to start my journey to Hawaii. Bella and I spent the night here in Geneva, Bella has already arrived in Sardinia this morning, it is just a short flight over. Tomorrow she will be racing the Tristar222 race. It is 2km, 200km, 20km.

So I head to London to pick up my mum on route, then By Monday we will have arrived in Kona.

I will have the week to get ready, loosened up and all sorted out for the Race on Saturday.

I am very excited to be racing at the World Championships for Ironman, my mum is also excited, it is great that she can come and watch and experince the race and the beautiful Island the race is on.

I had a nice jog this morning in Geneva, I went down the side of the airport and eneded up going over the border to France, I was a little concerned about coming back over the border as I didn’t have any ID, but there was not a problem and I was alowed back to Switzerland:)

On football news, Crystal Palace are really not doing very well still. Plenty of time left to pick up some points though!!

And Croydon Athletic Football club, who play in the Ryman League(that is about 6 divisions below the Premiership, I think!) Are in trouble too. They were owned by a local Pakistani buisness man who was involved in the Cricket Betting scandal recently, so unfortunately for the football club, all his assets have been frozen so no one has been payed!! All players and staff have left, but they are still trying to carry on with local players who will play for nothing. Maybe I could take a trip back to Croydon every now and then and get a match!!

Sorrry about no pictures, my excuse is the internet in Leysin is too weak and so doesn’t like attaching pics:)

I will be aiming to do a couple of blogs from Kona to update on what I have been doing and seeing. I will see if I can get some picturtes too.

Ok better get packed up and get the shuttle to the Airport now:)