Joe Skipper expected his run to be a huge strength heading into IRONMAN South Africa last Sunday, but he came away disappointed.
The British star went into the showdown in Port Elizabeth as favourite as he looked to advertise his claims for IRONMAN World Championship glory in St George next month.
Things did not go according to plan though, as first a mechanical on the bike and then a disappointing run saw him finish fourth behind an all-South African podium featuring Kyle Buckingham, Bradley Weiss and Matt Trautman.
Skipper took time out to write about his performance on Instagram, and says while it wasn’t the ideal result he did come away a wiser triathlete.
Skipper on IM South Africa
“On my way back now from South Africa and while I am disappointed with finishing 4th it was definitely a good learning experience in regards to tactics,” he said.
“I would love to do the race again with the hindsight of how this race ended up and what I could do differently.
“Ultimately though in the race my run legs didn’t show up, from the start of the run I knew it was going to be a slog but tried to push through and hope for the best.”
Skipper was left hoping the home contingent ahead of him would start to struggle, but no dice as the British star finished out of the podium places.
Now, as he sets his sights forward to St George – and trying to derail that ‘Norwegian hype train’ piloted by Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden – Skipper is philosophical about his defeat last weekend.
“Ultimately I was hoping one or more would blow up but unfortunately none of them did. I was surprised my run legs didn’t show up as that was the discipline I was most confident about coming into the race but that’s triathlon I guess. There’s always so many different parts to the puzzle and getting them all to fit on race day is the challenge.”
Skipper clearly retains his sense of humour too, as he referenced that hype train narrative in congratulating the men who beat him on the day.
“Before i go one last congratulations to @kylebuckingham @bsweiss_tri and @mattytrautman for the South African podium you better believe the hype! 😂😉”
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