Race 3. 18eme Triathlon International Laval

My third French race took place in a town called Laval, about 70km from Rennes. Laval was a very pretty and fairly large town, situated on the Mayenne river, which would be the location of the swim leg of the race. In accordance to the ever increasing trend of French racing the start time of the race was late in the afternoon and most aspects of the course and rules remained somewhat of a secret to those not fluent in French. I knew the race was an Olympic distance race, called Courte distance (CD) in France. This time there was 4 non French Cesson Sevigne triathletes in the race. Adam Beckworth and Cameron Bartram form Australia and Brooke Pattle from New Zealand. We all jumped in the water early to make the most of the skimpy 3 minute warm up time. I was actually told off for getting in too early, as the race briefing was taking place. I tried to explain that I couldn’t understand what was being said and time was far better spent in the water, however I too was not understood so not wanting to risk getting disqualified before the start (easy to happen), I jumped out. The course of the swim was North for about 400m to a red turn bouy. Keeping it on your right, go around then South for about 700m and around another bouy (which I was told about but could not see). Another 180 degree turn in your right and into the final 400m back up the river to the swim exit (Natation arrivee). The one big factor in the river was the current heading South.

I had lost the others in the warm up and decided to push my way into a good start position early. As the first section of the swim was into the current I went as far left (against the bank) as possible, where the current would be less. A few others had the same idea. We lined up behind a rope that spanned the width of the river. In a strange moment I watched the rope all of a sudden raise up into the air and then remember a whistle. I took of swimming then looked to my right to confirm if it was the start. It was. Ok, I had not missed it but very easily could have. I went out pretty hard and soon found myself in clean water. Over to my right and the middle of the river was someone flying. “That has to be Beckworth” I thought. He had dropped everyone off his feet and had the lead ski to follow, good position. I noticed a few swimmers move over my way and get on my drag. For now this was ok as I was just happy I was not getting punched and kicked. It also meant I was swimming faster than them. By the first bouy Adam had stretched his lead to about 20m and I still had one guy on my feet.

We turned with the current and really took off. Going under the bridges gave a great perspective as to the speed we were going. Not knowing how well he could ride or run, I decided to get rid of the guy on my feet. It had been easy for him into the current to get good drag. I increased my speed and started swimming to the right (seemingly off course). I think this works well as no one wants to swim further, and it leaves them with a tough split second decision. Stay behind in the drag and swim further (or off course as they don’t know what you are doing), or break your own water and swim the direct line alone. The erratic move worked and I swam back on line again, less the guy getting the easy ride (see photo 2).

The South most turn bouy turned out not to be a bouy at al but rather the bridge. I continued the remainder of the swim on my own and exited the swim in second. Adam had already been and gone through transition so I had that all to myself also. I raced through, jumped on my bike, and took off hard to get back to the front of the race. After about 2 km I could see Adam with the lead motorbike. At 4km, and the start of the main climb on the course I joined him and said we should work together and not allow the guy in third to join us. He was not too far back, possibly 15 or 20seconds. Over the top of the hill Adam started getting told off by the official on the motorbike. To our surprise, this race was apparently non drafting! It was not a lead motorbike but rather a draft official. There was not lead motorbike, so we had to navigate the course ourselves off the arrows on the road. We passed one intersection where an official just had a smile and was clapping next to some hap hazardously placed witches hats. Where do we go? I yelled out to him but he was not going to answer so we rode on, hoping to still be on course. Before long the guy in third had caught us and I gladly let him take the lead. It was a guy called Marc Lepetit from Bretagne Rennes triathlon team.

There were a lot of sharp turns and a few pretty technical descents, which I was not going through all that well. I recall thinking at one point “man I need to spend a bit of training time practicing corners at speed”. The real cause of the problem became apparent after the race. We headed back into town and to the 20km half way turn, which was situated at the exit of the transition and in front of the crowd. This was a bit of fun as I was feeling fresh and there was lots of people yelling. At the turn I looked back the see another Cesson rider with us. It was Herman Landemaine, a French guy who had ridden up to us. That made three Cesson fluro outfits at the front of the race with the lone guy from Rennes. It remained this way for the second 20km lap, and we entered transition all very close.

I took it very easy into the transition, and ran out easy also, some 20m off the other three. I hadn’t raced Olympic distance since Australian titles in Geelong and in that race had to pull out in the run leg with cramps. I didn’t want to have that happen again. I could see the lead three had gone out pretty hard for them but had not put much space between myself and them. I kept ticking along at around 70% of what I thought I could run and within 2km had tacked back on the back of the others. This allowed me to sit back and watch them for a while. The Rennes triathlon team guy tried a few surges which were short and not very strong so after one, I maintained the pace he had set and found myself with a small gap off the front.

I kept the pace and before long had a solid lead on my own. The run was 3 laps of a 3.3km loop all around the river we had swam in crossing bridges at either end. By half way through the last lap I had enough of a lead I was sure I could win, but had also tired quite a bit. I had now been only training for three weeks and my lack of fitness was starting to show. The guy from Rennes triathlon would not give up and kept trying to close the gap, making the last kilometre rather uncomfortable.

I crossed the line a 18 seconds clear of him, with Adam taking third. From Cesson, Herman finished fourth, Laurent Triquet sixth and Cameron finished tenth. We had done very well as a team and won the team section. Five fluro Cesson outfits on the podium, that’s enough to over expose the film in any camera! Brooke was awarded with a drafting penalty, after not knowing about the drafting either. She had to run an extra lap but still won. I found after the race while loading my bike into the team bus that my handle bars had snapped during the race, explaining my poor cornering.

Result from race 3; First