TRIATHLON
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BATHURST triathlon star Tamsyn Moana-Veale returned to action following a lengthy injury lay-off with a couple of hit-outs over the sprint distance in the Spanish Basque Country earlier this month.
And she did it in style.
Racing the short format suited Moana-Veale's comeback perfectly as she won both events, including a momentous effort in Bermeo to not only win the women's race, but to beat the boys home as well after they were given a 10 minute handicap.
Despite being sprints, both races the other being in Getaria tested her injured left leg which had kept her out of action in the preceding months.
The terrain for the bike legs were especially trying, but her rehabilitation routine must have been spot on given how she handled it.
"Both were sprint distance races and both essentially took you out of the water and then straight up. And by straight up I mean the climb in Getaria was three kilometres long, before a fun descent then easing off into the finishing flats," she explained on her online blog.
"That didn't even come close to the bike course in Bermeo. Never climbed a mountain in a race before, but I was greeted with a course that went six kilometres up, six kilometres down, U-turn at the bottom and go back up again.
"To be fair, both courses had the most beautiful views at the top, although to be less fair, I didn't get a lot of time to appreciate it."
The 21-year-old was greeted by a big crowd at the conclusion of the race in Getaria, with what she described as most of the village lining up either side of the road approaching the finish line.
"The final kilometre where the stone buildings are built right up to the road with the narrow cobblestoned streets was one of the coolest experiences I have had the opportunity to be involved in," she posted.
"So many people packed themselves into the tiny space and it felt a little Tour de France-esque with the crowds encroaching as you ran though. I absolutely loved it."
Those races were followed by a comeback to competing in Germany, where she is currently based, in a teams event in Buschhutten.
Racing alongside three other members in the TV Komet Lemgo outfit, Moana-Veale produced a strong bike leg to help them into third spot.
The format of the race saw each competitor swim a 300 metre leg, and it was only once the final member of each team had finished that they could move to the transition for the bike leg.
The bike leg became basically a team time trial over 25km, before a five kilometre run.
Each team's time depended on when their third member crossed the finish line.
Moana-Veale and her team-mates, all three of whom were relatively young and inexperienced at elite level, were third coming out of the water and with the Bathurst star doing the majority of the work, they stayed there in the bike leg.
The other three members were all selected based on their running ability and even though one dropped off prior to the last of five laps in the run, they did enough to snare the final spot on the podium.