Leon Griffin post Xterra

Sunday, 06 April 2008

Listen to Leon after his Xterra race

Leon Grifin is an enigmatic triathlete. Until this season it was hard to know what version of Leon Griffin was going to turn up. The 2007/8 edition is focussed, engaging and one very fast athlete. We caught up with Leon after his day off road at the Xterra Global Tour. Leon had just jumped off the podium after a great battle with Chris Legh.

Leon Griffin second on the day today well done a bit of a challenging day chasing Chris Legh
Thanks Phil. I thought I had to get as much time as I could get on Chris in the swim because he was obviously the man to beat, he’s got a lot of experience in these races. I did a good job getting a bit of a lead on him out of the swim, that went close to a minute but he came flying past me at about 10kilometres into the bike and I tried to hold his wheel for as long as you can but unfortunately in these events you don’t have to get too far ahead and then you are out of sight so he was kind of out of sight out of mind once he was gone I think we were just racing for second place.

When that’s happening and he goes so far up the road are still motivated to hold onto second?
Oh for sure. I came into transition in third spot with a couple other fellas and I guess those guys weren’t noted runners so it was a tactic of mine to go pretty hard for the first five kilometres and I probably built a couple minutes lead over those guys and then I was able to switch off a little bit and conserve some energy for races down the track.

Are you that confident in your ability now? You have had a great Summer must be confident that the package is starting to come together.
I guess I’ve got more confidence in that I can put myself in the mix. I certainly don’t rock up to a race and think this race is mine but utilising my strengths obviously riding and running are my strengths and winning the world championships (duathlon) minus the swim but I have got my swim to a level where I’m in contention all the time. So If I can get off the bike in the lead or near the lead I know I’m always a threat. It’s been a lot of hard work over many years but I always knew that I had the ingredients but it was just a matter of putting them all together.

Is racing fun for you?
I love racing. I’m still holding myself back from doing Ironman because obviously you can’t do too many there are lots of benefits sponsor wise as that’s all the sponsors ask for. But I really love racing every second week at the moment. This Summer I’ve used a couple of races instead of doing a training hit out on a Sunday I’ve just gone down for a race even though I was expecting to win those races. I just use them as a lot of fun. I don’t put stress on myself to win them and that’s probably been a bit of a key to winning a couple but I just love racing.

Are you heading overseas? What’s your plan there?
I’m heading back to America. But this time I’m going to be a little bit smarter than I have been in the past. I’ve gone over previously and come back to Australia and over to Europe and I guess there are lots of things to learn when you are green and I think over the past two years I’ve learnt what works and what doesn’t. I think I’m going to cancel out as much travelling as I can this year. I’m going to stay in America for six months. I have a base in Boulder and I think it’s going to make huge improvements to my results by being more stable. I think that’s the key, being more stable.

Well Leon I think it’s time for a beer, well done today another great effort and you have been the form athlete of the Australian Summer congratulations.
It’s been a long time coming. I have a few terrible years the last couple of years. I’ve taken a different approach this year and it’s worked. It’s just that kind of sport, you have to keep trying new things

Thanks for your time
Thanks Phil