firstoffthebike.com - Interviews

Craig Alexander on 2010

With the win in the Australian Sports Performers Awards has your off season been more hectic?
Yes, it’s been good I think. Even that aside, there was a bit more media interest. There was good media interest last year. It was probably better this year and more sustained. So that was nice for me, but also nice for the sport. Yes, winning that award was a huge feather in my cap against the likes of the other athletes who were nominated. It was a bit of a surprise, but yes, it was really nice. Yes, I was busy, busy with media and busy with sponsorship as well.

Do you sort of see yourself now as the unofficial Australian ambassador for triathlon across the Aussie sporting landscape?
I sort of did last year as well when I won in Kona. When you assume the role of world champion, then you are a spokesperson or ambassador for your sport. I think that goes without saying. I certainly feel that I had a duty to represent the sport well and represent my family so I did feel that responsibility definitely. But it’s something that I’m comfortable with.

Given what’s gone on recently with Tiger Woods and the amount of media scrutiny in all sports Do you feel now that everything that you do and say is going to be scrutinised?
Yes and no. Certainly we’re not anywhere near the level that a lot of athletes are, like Tiger and a lot of the mainstream sports. I still think, particularly in this country, triathlon is still a niche sport. But to be honest, I don’t really feel any pressure other than just to be myself. That’s always been the way I’ve done things. Just be yourself. That’s the way you don’t get in trouble. I’ve never really had any problems. Sometimes you get asked to comment on important topics and you should give an honest opinion. I’ve felt like I have been a good ambassador for triathlon and as I’ve said, it’s been my responsibility to do that. I know that Chrissie (Wellington) takes that responsibility seriously, as do a lot of the short course guys. I know Simon Whitfield took it very seriously when he won triathlon’s first gold medal. So I think it goes with the territory. When you win a lot you get interviewed a lot. So I guess people are interested in your opinions and to be honest I don’t feel any pressure. I just try and be myself.

With the 70.3 series getting more and more publicity and then Clearwater was seen so widely last year as a draft fest. Does it really make you think about your race choices and make you more selective of what you pick in terms of your racing?
Yes, and no. A lot of things that determine your race schedule. Obviously I pick how many races I’m going to do a year and I sort of work backwards. I pick the ones that I want to be in the best form for. But as you can imagine, I get a lot of invitations to a lot of races. I like to go back to races that I’ve won the year before, to try and defend. I think it’s nice to try and defend a title at a race.

I won six or seven last year, so it’s always hard. There’s always a bit of me too that wants to go somewhere that I’ve never been before. I tend to like to go to the bigger races that I guess have the bigger prize purses because they attract the most competition. I think my sponsors like that as well. When it’s better competition, and a bigger prize purse, it gets more attention, more coverage. sI think that keeps the sponsorship side of things, the sponsors happy as well. Usually I race Life Time Fitness and St.Croix.. It’s hard to pick. There is so much choice, especially this 70.3 series, it’s exploded.

With the exansion of the 70.3 series and the amount of ITU athletes who are stepping up to race it, do you see it almost becoming one and the same thing, the 70.3 and the ITU?
Yes and no. I think everyone talked about how fast Clearwater was. But if you look at the times, it was the bike time that was quicker and that was probably because you had a huge depth of talent in the field. When there’s that much depth they are all going to ride together, whether or not they are drafting or not, there is still going to be group and obviously there’s going to be a benefit.

For the most part I think most of them did try to ride legally. It’s just when you have that many guys of pretty similar ability on a flat course, it’s going to be hard for them to break up. But if you look at the swim and the run times they were pretty similar. It was the bike time where they all rode around two hours.

But it’s, a four hour race. It’s still a test of strength and endurance, not just an ITU race. I’ve heard whispers they are going to move the world’s away from Clearwater. If they do I think you’ll see that it’s good enough just to be a runner and go in. Not every course is going to be like Clearwater. I did a race, my last race, before Kona up in Muskoka (Canada) on a pretty hilly course and I ran a 1.11 up there. I think that would have been a competitive running Clearwater.

Would you like to see them sync the calendar to make it a little bit more easier on the athletes so you could get to race 70 point 3 world title and to Kona?
Definitely. I’ve always said it should be 4 or 5 weeks before Kona and then you get the best of both worlds. You get a lot of the ITU guys and Ironman guys and also the 70.3 specialists. It just makes sense to have it before Kona and you know in 07 I tried to do the double I got second in Kona and fourth at Clearwater. It was my first year doing Ironman in 07 and I didn’t recover that well. I struggled because it was flat course. I only got beaten by a minute in the end but it was just a hard day for me. My body was still recovering. Last year 08 and 09 I feel I could have been very competitive particularly 09, because there was an extra week between them this year. They were five weeks apart instead of four.

When you are winning Kona it becomes a huge roller coaster of media and sponsorship and it just became out of the question for me. Both years I’ve won in Kona we’ve come back to Australia and done a whole host of photo shoots for sponsors and media stuff and there is no way I could have concentrated on the things I would have needed to do to be competitive four or five weeks later, which is recovery.

I actually didn’t get any time to do any of that. You wouldn’t have needed to do much training but you would have needed to do something. I just didn’t get an opportunity to do anything. I think that was the hardest thing for me the last year, not the recovery aspect in terms of physically but just the time. The time to devote to a little bit of training and proper recovery.

So speaking about that, your plan for this season Are you only going to do one Ironman this year?
I’ve had a couple of invitations. I’m still tossing it up to be honest. A lot has been made of the fact that I only do one (Ironman race) and I don’t think it would hurt to do another one earlier in the year at all. Especially the way I think I’ve recovered in 08 and 09 from Kona. The recovery was a lot quicker than I thought it would be. I think every time you race over that distance you learn something. So there’d be an advantage in doing another one.

The advantage of only doing one a year is I guess mentally you are very fresh going into Hawaii. It hasn’t been a planned thing. Last year my wife gave birth to our son and it didn’t really make sense to do one just before that. Then when we travelled to the US I didn’t really want to leave the family especially with a new born and go off to Europe or whatever. I wanted to stay close. So thinking about it, I’ve had a couple of invitations but I’m still tinkering with the schedule.

I’m hoping to race in Geelong 70.3 in four weeks. But I’ve only been back training three weeks, so I’m going to give myself a little bit more time just to see. As I’ve gotten older, I certainly don’t need to train as hard or as much to get in good shape, that’s just all the years of base you’ve got. I’m hopeful of racing in Geelong, because I started my season there last year. But you know I’m going I guess reserve judgment on that one, give it another two or three weeks before I make a decision one way or the other.

All roads obviously lead to Kona. How hard you think this year is going to be to three peat?
It will be very hard, It’s hard to win once, harder to win twice and it’s even harder to win three times. But every year it’s different. It’s a different challenge. I certainly felt my race last year in 09 wasn’t as good as my race in 08. It was definitely more of a struggle. Who knows why? I thought I was in better shape last year going in. Physically and mentally I was very motivated. I just didn’t have as good a day. 08 I had a really good day, I thought I was totally in command. Whereas, it was definitely a bit more of a struggle in 09. But you know once again, being only my third trip there (Kona) I think I learnt a lot.

But I don’t just like to hang my hat on one result of season though. I pride myself on the fact that I’m pretty consistent. If you look at my racing last year I think I did 11 races from memory, and I won 7 of them, or something like that. So I got a second and my worst result was I had an 8th in Vineman. I had a bit of a blow out there I was crook and I had a 4th or a 5th in Life Time.
But everything else was a 1st or a 2nd. Definitely the main objective will be Kona, but I never just use that as an excuse to just meander through a season. I like to be competitive each and every time I race. Seeing that I only race 12 times a year, so I want every hit out to be a good one.