1st in Erbach!

Yesterday was my third club race in Erbach (Germany) and I won it after finishing second the past couple of years.It was'nt my best race and  my form is still improving leading to the end of my European trip next month but I was really happy to win this one.
From the gun I was off to a slow start in the swim and came out at the back of the front group and managed to lose more time from the long run to the transition so I jumped on the bike about 15sec behind a bunch of 7 guys who were working togeather as the race was draft legal and 5 of the guys were all on the same team. From there I had to kill myself to get into the lead pack but once I was there it was quite easy to roll through and take turns on the front but something didnt feel right on the bike, the gears were'nt changing like they should and I just didnt feel comfortable in the group through any technical sections and the hills, about 25km into the ride I found out why...my rear wheel had come lose some how and as I got out of the saddle to climb one of the hills it locked against the frame causing a bit of chaos in the bunch and making more hard work for me to catch the bunch again which had now grown in size to about 20 guys and was cruizing along close to 45km/h. Once I had that problem sorted out I had to make up close to a minute again on the group and try and compose myself for the 10km run.
Straight out of transition I felt good and I was running well but 5 or six other guys had sprinted off and the leaders were about 100m in front. From here I really thought I would be racing for a top 5 position but as we rolled through the k's everyone seemed to be tiring and soon I had only one person in front who I was catching. My thoughts when I ran into the lead with about 3km to go went back to France where it was reported that the winner simply wanted to win more than me. I was determined this was'nt going to happen again and I had enough respect for all the other athletes in the race to know that they wanted to win just as much as I did and knew they would be chasing me as hard as possible to do so.
Gradually the gap between myself and second opened and I held on to win by about 20sec. I collected one of those big winners cheques (Happy Gilmore style!) that was probably worth more than the amount of money on it and I worked out that the problem with the wheel was simply the Skewer.
We made it home to watch Germany demolish England in the soccor and had an easy afternoon at home.
Now a few days recovery and back into some solid training leading into my last 2 races over here.
Aaron.