2nd in Noumea

Well, I'm still trying to calm myself down after yesterday.
Basically I finished second which I was happy with and set my quickest time over a non drafting (for most of us!!) course of 1.50.05.
I came out of the water in the second group about 30 sec down on the leaders with Patrick Verney and John Polson followed by Cam Brown who was about another 30 sec back. Within the first few km we had caught the lead guys and gone straight to the front trying to set a good pace but now we had guys sitting on the back of our group unwilling to take their turn at the front that were just waiting for the run. For some reason the official drafting rule over here is 5 metres but from third place back in our group it was basically draft legal as conditions were reasonably calm and the rule was'nt enforced. So on a pretty flat and fast course, as much as we wanted to we wer'nt going to get rid of the guys that were unwilling to work and it was looking like it was going to be an ITU style finish.
As unfair as this was I had to prepare for the run as best I could which meant doing smaller turns at the front, spending minimal time there and making sure my nutrition side of things was spot on.
We rolled into transition as a large group and as predicted the guys that done nothing on the bike went straight to the front. After doing alot of the work on the bike Patrick made his feelings heard, sprinting the first 100m to catch the leader and letting him know his thoughts. At this time I was about 15m behind just trying to put one foot in front of the other wishing I had a turn of speed like that so I could do the same thing.
I got my legs back quickly and joined the lead group of three.
By the end of the first lap we had opened up a good gap and the three of us seemed to be running comfortably. It was'nt untill about the 6km mark that Ryan Scissons made his move and left John Polson and myself in his wake I chased as hard as possible and dropped John in doing so but the move was enough to give hime the win.
We have some presentations tonight then I begin the trip back to Europe tomorrow morning with a quick stop over in Canberra tomorrow night and my first club race next weekend.
Aaron