First weeks in France

Racing in France races one and two.

Race One: 1st May 2006 Triathlon de Cesson-Sevigné. Sprint distance The first two weeks in France have been a bit of a whirlwind. I had my first race after only 2 days after arriving in Rennes. It was a freezing cold and super wet day. I rode the 10km to the race start (or club head quarters) with all the bike clothes I had packed. The race itself was a lesson in confusion. It commenced with a deepwater, mass start. Thats ok for a small field but with around 300 starters and a few weeks of no training I was a little concerned. Well I missed any chance of a warm up due to a horrendously confusing interview with a French commentator and found myself waiting in chest deep water waiting for a start gun??? Whistle?? Call? Don't ask me as everyone just started swimming. As to be expected my goggles were knocked half way up my face , and everytime I stopped to try and rectify the problem another French guy would belt me or push me under. Pretty freaky. I just wanted to get out. Finaly got the goggles over my eyeballs, full of water, but in the right location never the less. By the first turn can I had lost a lot of time and felt like I was in about 50th position. The swim improved and I was able to give a little biffo back in the latter stages, however I exited the water in 12th position, hardly a dream start for the new team. On the bike a group of us soon formed what was to be the second pack, dangling about 20 seconds off the front pack. While we were still putting our shoes on two guys jumped clear, a good move as one, Laurent Suppi, ended up the winner. I chased those two for a couple of kilometers then decided to drop back the the bunch (50m behind) and work with them to catch the leaders. Wrongo! The pack was disorganized and few were doing many turns. By the end of the first of two laps we had slipped about 40 seconds behind. Not knowing French stuffed me at one corner as I went the wrong way, and watched the rest of the bunch go the other. They didn't wait. Not I was pissed off. I hammered after them and caught back up just before the only real hill on the course, recovered and went to the front to up the pace.

Going into a sharp left hand corner I didn't break, and the next think was looking very closely at the ground. Oh yes big crash. I jumped back up picked up my water bottles and looked at my bike. It was ok, however the front wheel was jammed and the levers were both pushed in. That was the end of my race. So there I was in the back blocks of France, missing some skin, with a few officials just staring at me. It was pretty funny. The only word I could effectively use was "voiture" which is car. They told me "we we we" so all was well. So I stood there assessed the damage to body and bike and watched a bit of the race. A few minutes later another guy fell in the same spot, so now I had company. With the exception of two scratched levers the bike was fine. Back at the race site I was told to go to hospital as my chin had a very deep cut. Thats good, protect the bike with the face!

Race one = no finish Race two: 14th May 2006 Ttrathlon Jard-sur-mer. Sprint distance After two days I could ride again. A week later I was back in the pool and running. Two weeks later it was time to race again. This time it was a 3 hour trip in the team bus to a holiday location called Jard Sur Mer. Massive tidal fluctuations on the coast meant the race had to commence at certain times to allow enough water to swim. With a little more French in my vocabulary I was sure to understand all the in's and out's of the race. NOPE. It was like no one knew where to go, French Russian or Aussie. We were all standing on rocks in knee deep water, arguing which was the first can, when I heard the start gun. I got a super start and lead to the first swim can. I came out third behind Stephan Bignet (former French champ), and again found myself in the chasing bunch. This time I was joined by Laurent Suppi, but did not let him go. The course was three laps on the bike and three on the run. The bike course was super technical, with the worst surface imaginable Very tight corners, hell winds, gravel, you name it. Not what I wanted considering I still had scabs on my left side. Out of the eight in the bunch five held on, with only three of us working. On each of the first two laps Laurent went the wrong way on the same corner, while leading (I know how that feels reff-race one). The second time he ended up well back from the pack, so I sat up and waited. He thanked me. That favour may come in handy some time! I called out "à gauche, à droite, or tout droit" (different directions), any time I wasnt on the front. Five of us came off the bike together, about one minute off the leader. Our few stuff ups and poor work ethic of the two guys who got a free ride, had cost a bit of time, but he had still smashed us. On the run one of the guys who had done exactly zero turns ran up level to me. I had done one week of run training and was suffering so, pissed off, turned to him and aggressively asked "what don't you ride a bike?" (well it made sense at the time) He replied "I know nothing" so I ran away a bit. There were four of us left when disaster struck. We had all run off the course, or taken a wrong turn, or were on the course but the crowd had gone, we didn't know. We all slowed then walked then yelled then doubled back on our tracks and ran about 100m to see the guys from the third pack run around a corner in the distance. Great! So now instead of being 2nd ,3rd ,4th ,5th we were about 6th, 7th, 8th ,9th. After a pretty painful run, I managed to get myself back into fifth position. Laurent Suppi was third about 17 seconds in front of me and Stephan Bignet won by miles. Race two: = fifth