Race 5. 16 eme Triathlon Des Etangs Port-Brillet CD distance 11^th June 2006

We drove to the race with Bertrand our team director. It was a 45 minute drive in a nice air-conditioned car. When we arrived at Port Brillette (pronounced poor b-rr-eay), we were greeted by a super hot day. After the normal registration, numbering and transition set up, Adam Cameron and I entered the water early, missing the all French briefing. We were lucky enough to have a translated version by one of the arbiters. This early swim was a bit of a mistake as we were yelled at and asked to get out of the water. Adam had swam way out into the lake so everyone watched as he was escorted back by a ski paddler. Once we had joined the other couple of hundred competitors in the transition we turned heal and everyone walked back in to the lake for the skimpy 3 minute warmup. I don’t think half of the French even got wet before the gun went off. I chose to start on the far right of the course. It was not the most direct line to the first buoy but I was certain to keep out of trouble. The swim course was a straight line swim to one buoy (about 600m), a almost 180 degree left turn and back down to another left turn of 90 degrees and straight into shore. I took of pretty quick and deliberately stayed wide to avoid the chaos of the first 100m. After about 2 minutes of swimming I was pretty much alone, with just a few guys on my feet. To my left was Adam. He had dropped everyone and was swimming fast and direct to the buoy. I had a look behind and realised the guy directly on my feet was Laurent Suppi. Now he can ride fast, so I did not want to tow him around the swim course then watch him ride away. I changed directions. Not over to Adam (the best line of the course) but to the other side, way off course. After about 15 seconds I had another look and sure enough Suppi had left me and gone alone to the first buoy. I picked a new line to the buoy and reached it about 20 seconds behind Adam, alone with Suppi about 10 seconds behind me. He asked me after if I was lost or just didn’t want him on my feet. I told him the latter. The water was very warm. Too warm for wetsuits. On the way back I started to feel I was over heating so every now and then dove under and let water in the neck of my wetsuit. I exited the water second to Adam, 45 seconds adrift with the third swimmer coming out 25 seconds behind me. I felt positively awful on the bike. Hot, tired, sickly, heavy and all in all just very sluggish. For the first 10km I just waited for Laurent Suppi to catch me. He never came. I, through all my problems had still managed to catch up to Adam so by the end of the first lap we were leading the race together. The bike leg was very tough. It was never flat, very technical and all the hills were short but pretty steep. Add the 30 plus temperature and it was no picnic. I ran out of water by the end of the second lap, around the same time that our team mate Hermann Landemaine joined us. I was a little surprised to see him and even more puzzled as to the whereabouts of Suppi. The 3 of us in our Cesson fluro yellow entered the final transition together, under the watchful eye of the draft official, and departed onto the run as a small group. I was so happy to see the first drink station only a few hundred meters into the run and grabbed what I could. The run was three loops of 3.3km. Each lap went through a very pretty forest then doubled back, somehow crossing to the bike course then passing the crown on a bridge twice per lap. Sound a little confusing? Well it was. We had over one minute advantage to the next group, however did not know this at the time. I had no intention to lead as I had no real idea of the exact run course. I wanted Hermann to lead, especially through the forest section. I think Hermann had hurt himself on the bike too much and his pace had dropped to the point I was concerned we would be caught from behind. I reluctantly passed him and entered the forest in the lead, to find the way alone. The whole run circuit was very well marked. I had no trouble finding the way, a great relief. The out and back run section over the bridge enabled us to see where we all were on the course. I had a good size lead over Adam who in turn had put some time into Hermann. As I was leaving the bridge I noticed Laurent Triquet, another of our Cesson team. He had run very fast in Mimizan, beating all of the guys he got off the bike with (he was in the big bunch with more than 80 riders) and had run through some of the lead bunch. He looked like he was running fast, and all of a sudden I didn’t feel so comfortable with the lead I had. I pushed hard for all of the second lap, did the loop on the bridge and kept my eye out for Laurent (Triquet this time). I did not see him. Could I have not seen him and he is now just 20 or so seconds behind me? I was now a bit concerned. After exiting the forest for the final time I found a point on the course where I had a clear view behind me. I turned to see………. nothing. Open road. I had at least 30 or more seconds to the next runner. This was a big relief. I only had about 2km to run so started to ease of a little and save my legs. Adam had run strong and nearing the finish had eaten into my advantage. I crossed the line in 2 hours and 4 minutes, 19 seconds in front of Adam in second, with Hermann crossing third 90 seconds later. Times were pretty slow, but we later learned the ride course was a few kilometres longer than the 40 advertised. Laurent Triquet finished fourth nearly two and a half minutes behind. I had not missed him, he had just lost time on the second lap. Rounding out the top five was Cameron Bartram, making it all Cesson. Bertrand told us after the race, with a smile, that team points are given to the first five members of the club, but it is not necessary to finish in the first five spots.