Welcome to my first Yahoo!Xtra blog as I prepare for the Beijing Olympics.

If I went in to all the detail of what I've been doing in the past few months we'd be here for a fairly long time.

So for my first entry I've decided to tell you all a bit about the last event I raced in.

It was the third round of the French grand prix in Beauvais, which is just out of Paris.

The racing is in a team format and is huge in Europe but particularly in France. Many of the world's best are aligned with various teams, using it as a great way to tune up for bigger World Cup and Olympic events but also to base themselves in a good place for training.

As if to emphasise this, there were ten guys on the start line that are off to Beijing, a number of whom can be described as the 'big hitters' of our sport.

It was in effect as strong as a good World Cup race at the sharp end of the field, although perhaps lacking the same depth.

My training had been going really well up here in Font Romeu so I was looking forward to a good race.

My coach and I knew this would be a good race to test me out at this stage of my preparation and the fact it was a really strong field was the icing on the cake.

In the past my biggest struggle when racing directly after training at altitude has been my running speed.

So the real test for me was; could I follow anyone that went off the front of the race? Especially at the start of the run when those 'quick legs' would be called into action!

My swim start was great and I got off the line well. I found some really good guys to follow and was sitting nicely.

But at about half way through the 750 metres I got a nice square kick to the face. Nothing was damaged thank god, but it caused me to lose the feet I was on as I stopped to readjust my goggles.

I then ended up too wide around the first buoy and went from swimming in the top five to exiting the water around 20th or so.

But this is triathlon and if there is one thing I've learnt in these situations, it is 'do not panic'.

I just said to myself quietly 'you'll have to ride harder those first few k's'.

I leaped on to my Avanti and rode directly towards the front.

After a kilometre or so I was in the front group and leading up the first climb.

I felt great the whole time on the bike and was able to cover all the attacks.

Of course the real show was yet to come, the run!

The first few k's were really fast. Former world champion Tim Don set the pace and is no doubt one of the fastest guys over the first few k's in our sport.

I tried to hang on with Tim and we cleared out very early in the run.

I was on my limit trying to follow Tim but we put a nice gap on the rest at the halfway point.

At about 3k Tim started to tire a bit so I moved to the front and took the lead.

As I pushed to the front a gap opened back to Tim and the others.

I felt good at this point and had a lot of control of the race - which was a great sign.

With about a kilometre to go to the finish I could hear someone bridging up to me.

It was Alistair Brownlee, another guy heading to Beijing.

We ran the next 500 metres together until I started to sprint to the line.

I managed to hold him out just as I did last year when I won the World Cup race in Rhodes, Greece.

From a personal point the race was exactly what I was after heading into Beijing.

It confirmed again that I'm on the right track. And even ahead of where we hoped I would be at this time.

I'm now back in my training 'haunt' of Font Romeu doing my last lot of altitude training.

And this weekend - July 20 - I'm going to race my second World Cup event in Kitzbuehul.

So until then, hi back home and enjoy those wintry days....

Kris