World Marathon Championships, Villabassa, Italy

More to follow on the race at the front, but to see what happened for yourself you can find it all on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_DnXB_B6H8 - what did Susi do wrong that had him relegated to second?? Note: The youtube post has been removed.

The good news is that Susi is ok with more reports to follow.

All photos courtesy Gary Perkin

Susi and Roel hit the ground 

Now to the rather story unique story of the day: Between feeds 1 and 2 (i.e. 20km to 50km) Liam Killeen crashed pretty bad on one of the descents. He was in the lead group and was feeling good. I was located at feed two, while Liam’s mum Kay was at feed three (67 km point). A medic gave Liam his phone and Liam phoned Kay to say that he was ok, but needed some stitches, but he would continue. While the leaders flew through feed two, I remained and remained and waited some more – Kay called to say he was ok and was continuing! Finally, a motorcycle arrived and I asked “where’s 98 – Killeen”. He had no English and I no German, but we agreed on “fini” and “hospital”. I was not concerned because I suppose after the phone call was relieved to know Liam was ok and I figured he would be back at the truck with a few stitches to keep him together!!! I soldiered on to feed four (80km point) to support Susi who was at the front in a battle with Leonardo Paez and Roel Paulisson.

Liam on the wheel of Miguel Martinez, Olympic Champion 2000 (courtesy Gary Perkin)

Liam pushing the pace with Martiniz and Heymans on his wheel

That night at team dinner we got the full Liam story and it made us all laugh! Liam’s mum turned up at the hospital to find Liam following Susi’s finish. “Is number 98 here, she called and the reply was …. he is racing”. This did not make sense!

So Liam got a lift to the hospital where he needed 7 stitches and some bandages to his shoulder, all superficial, which was good. There was a queue of weary mountain bikers, but Liam managed to skip the queue by saying that he was still racing?? What the hell he was talking about, I am sure the medic was not sure, but further up the queue it was for Liam. All bandaged and stitched up, Liam got a lift from the same volunteer who brought him to the hospital back to the exact point where he crashed. At this point he was a least an hour down, but Liam jumped back on his bike and finished ……. We all asked, did you catch anybody and to all of our surprise Liam said I passed quite a few!!! What went through Liam’s head when he crashed ………. “Susi would continue, so I am going to continue”. Liam ………….. RESPECT. Liam finished 85th of 101 finishers!!!!

The never say die Liam Killa Killeen!