Alistair Brownlee's withdrawal from SUB7 was initially a great disappointment. So much work and effort had been put into this event, this dream, this endeavour. Yeah, we fell back in our chairs, held our heads in our hands and took a deep breath; we were lost for words and frustrated over what we would no longer get to see… But it is amazing what a cup of tea, a chat with friends and a little bike ride can do for our thought process.
Let us look at this in a different way...
This isn’t about us, it’s about Alistair.
This isn’t about us, it’s about the sport.
But this did involve us, and if Alistair were racing, it could have been a little about us.
Our thoughts are with Alistair and how gutted this competitive athlete must feel at not being able to compete in this wonderfully unique challenge.
So, let’s look at the challenge, let’s look at the attention drawn to our sport and see how we can support it. Joe Skipper is another British-made incredible athlete. An athlete robust and ready for the challenge. Do we sponsor Joe? No, we don’t. Do we have any responsibilities to Joe? No, we don’t. But we do have a responsibility to the sport of triathlon and this upcoming jubilee weekend we do have a responsibility to fly the Union Jack proud and come together to get Joe over the line in SUB7 and in first place. Patriotic? Yeah. Too patriotic? Maybe, but this is the weekend for flag waving and backing our athletes.
The HUUB express train of riders will still be appearing. Decked out in their red, white and blue kits, the British team of Watts will drag Mr Skipper around the circuit at a pace only imaginable to 'super athletes' and this makes us proud. If it cant be Alistair, then let it be Joe. Our cycling lead Jacob Tipper has spent countless days formatting, training and piecing together a team like no other. A team so good that this isn’t going to waste.
So for us let’s get out there and let the numbers and the athletes do the talking…