Race 13. Le Alpe d’Huez Triathlon. 2nd August 2006 The sheer novelty of racing up the famous “Alpe d’Huez” climb had made this race virtually impossible to get into. Race organiser and 2002 world long course champion Cyrille Neveu said “We know for a fact that a good number of international triathletes have entered this event inspired by the twenty one hairpins” He was right, and I was one of those. This was the first full triathlon to use this climb. It would have to be one of, if not the most famous climb to be used in the Tour de France. There are shops everywhere with cycling paraphernalia, photos of winners up the mountain and old bikes once used. The roads of the climb from start to finish are covered in graffiti, done by the hundreds of thousands of fans of the Tour, to support their favourite riders. The 2004 stage of the Tour up Alpe d’Huez was reported to have the largest crowd at a sporting event ever. The ski village itself is probably the only one in the world with almost more bike shops than ski shops. On each of the 21 switchbacks there are small signs that indicate the altitude, the number of the turn, and a stage winners name on it. There are permanent start and finish lines and official Tour route kilometre signs all the way. Every day hundreds of riders have their go at the climb, and all get their photos taken by the two photographic companies set up on the ascent. It is a great place to be for a Tour loving cyclist. Entries were restricted to 550 people and the race entry was closed before any of us had time to think of entering. I gained my start position by sheer fluke. I had been speaking with an athlete from Cesson, Jean Marc, who was telling me how he was injured and had been unable to train properly for the past six months. He then went on to say how it was a real pity as he entered some races including the Alpe d’Huez race earlier in the year. So I ended up getting this spot. My race number was [494], pretty amazing considering he had booked his spot in February! The race course was just shy of an Olympic distance event, but there was no way times were going to be quicker. The swim was in the Lake of Le Verney, which is owned by Electricite de France. It is part of the Grand Mason Dam and is used for energy production. Normally swimming is prohibited in here, but for the race the power company stopped the production of electricity for 2 hours. The ride was a loop around this lake, and then another few kilometres along the national road to Le Bourg-d’Oisans and the foot of the Alpe d’Huez climb. The guide book showed this as 24km of flat riding. From there its only 14km to the end of the bike leg and transition area at the ski station. Only 14km, huh. 21 switchback turns and an average gradient of 7.9%, makes the last 14 kilometres the race that it is. On paper the run looked pretty straight forward, 9km around the ski village. As there were two transition areas, I was required to take my run gear up to the second transition area on the morning of the race. As a team we drove up there and met Raph our team manager. He helped my work a few things out then he and his family joined us, descending the mountain, and returning to our unit for lunch. Benoit Buchard form Saint Jean de Monts tri team also joined us as he was the only member from his team in the race and he was at the same camp ground as us. We had found a cabin in a caravan park in Bourg-d’Oisans, right at the foot of the climb. It was an incredible find actually as the town was full of people, not only there for the triathlon but also the world mountain bike champs in a fortnight’s time. Just before lunch Raph and I went to the park pool. I just wanted to do a bit of race preparation stuff and he just wanted to go over some more things. From the pool we could see the first 3 switchback turns of the climb. Absolutely amazing. After lunch it was time to head to the start of the race. We all crammed into the team bus and departed for the lake. It was a really hot day. Once I had set up my transition area I hid for a while in the Mavic tent, where there was some shade. There were yellow Mavic wheel motor bikes as support vehicles for the race, how Tour de France is that. Sitting in the shade I had a chance to take stock of what was going on in the transition area and to think out my small worries. Although I had been drinking electrolyte I felt a bit crampy in the feet. I was a little worried about the swim in the lake as it was meant to be freezing and I had been finding breathing more difficult in the higher altitude (actually Cam, Tim, Adam and I had gone for a swim on the first day in the Alpes and all asked each other around the same time “is it just me or is it harder to breath up here”) Cold water and lack of air, not the best combination. Every competitor in the race had been given a very large plastic bag, with their race number on it. After the swim we were required to put our wetsuit, cap, goggles and pre race gear into the bag, tie it up and hope it stays together to be collected at the finish. What if I returned to the bike and the bag had blown away??? I ran over and put my bag in it, like ballast. My final small concern was the location of my bike. The transition area was huge and my bike was somewhere in the masses. All the guys I wanted to beat were numbers 1 to 20 or 30, easy racks to locate. I was in another postcode. Everything about the race just seemed huge. Masses of people, enormous mountains everywhere, helicopters circling above us and the deep forbidden waters of the Grand Lake le Verney waiting. The swim course itself was simple, thankfully. Just one lap, two right hand turns, an out and back rectangle. I started on the left hand side of the start line. It was a deep water start and on that side was lots of room. It was about 600m straight to the first buoy, all into a wind generated chop. With officials yelling and the noise of the helicopters and water it was hard to hear anything. I thought I heard a guy, and not being near a rifle range figured it was the start so took off swimming. Everyone else did the same, so yes got it right. It was a tough swim as I was out on my own for a while and didn’t get into the main pack of swimmers until near the first buoy. By the time I got to the first buoy I thought I was well behind but was happy to see the leaders go around only 10 to 20 meters in front. The rest of the swim was fairly easy, and I was happy for this as there was lots more to the race than this. I exited the water eighth and right behind my old mate Benoit, patted him on the back and sprinted to my bike. Running to my bike I was happy with my position but had a real cramp feeling in my feel and now calves also. Speeding through the transition and on he way out with my bike I realised I didn’t tie my bag. Oh well I though hope someone does because I am not going back now. I exited transition in forth behind Pete Jacobs, Carl Blasco (French Olympian) and Reinaldo Colucci (from Brazil and the eventual race winner). Out on the road we settled into a solid but not crazy pace and round the flatter part I felt good and able to ride with these guys. Just past the dam wall the road started to get hilly. I sequentially changed to easier gears as my pace slowed, then to the small chain ring. This wasn’t on the course map! I lost touch with the leaders and saw a few more go past. I wasn’t willing to go super hard at this stage of the race. Once the lap or the lake was completed it was just rolling road to the Alpe right? Nope, to get from the lake to the national road was another few hundred meter climb, and once again I shifted to the comfort of the small chain ring. On this climb a guy in white flew past me in a hurry. This was Herve Faure. I would see him win the Embrun Man Ironman (the hardest Ironman race in the world) in two weeks, and today he was on his way to a second place finish. With the unexpected hills now behind me I settled into the flat highway road to Bourg-d’Oisans. I was passed this time by Charly Loisel, a rider from Poissy triathlon team and last years French long distance champion. Ok that is the last guy I will let go past I thought and so upped the pace a little and went with him. I rode close to his pace to the foot of the climb and had also been joined by Benoit, who had been behind me all the way since the swim. The two of them attacked the start of the climb and I slipped back. By the second switchback Charly was gone and Benoit was a good 50m in front of me. Two turns later I passed Benoit and just started to get my legs a little. I threw away my drink bottle at around turn five as I knew new ones were being handed out at the first small town of Le Garde. And sure enough I got another bottle, the only problem was it wasn’t water like I anticipated, but rather a lemon tasting carbohydrate drink. There was water also but by the time I realised I had passed it. I must have sworn loud enough for Pete Jacobs to hear me and as I rode passed me he offered some water he had just received. I gladly took some, said thanks mate as Aussie as I could and offered it back. Now all that sounds light and easy but I can assure you for the 55 or so minutes the climb took, it was hot and hard. All the way up I had problems with cramps. I reached transition pretty tired and in 12th position. Out on the run I soon caught and passed a few guys in front of me and kept thinking ok, you cant win but at least get top ten. Now the run was 9km all over the ski resort and said to be flat. Well compared to what we had just done it would be referred to as slightly undulating, but with every kilometre I would find a big hill or part of a ski run and think what the hell is that??? After two kilometres and on ‘a small 300m rise’ I had to stop with cramps to stretch. I looked at my quadricep and it looked horrible, the involuntary constriction of the muscle made it look damaged and foreign. I watched the three guys I had worked hard to stay with on the bike, and had run away from early in the run, pass me and run away. Once I felt alright to run I set off again. I quickly caught Chaly Loisel again but was unable to get to the others for the remainder of the run. I felt really good running but when I had to go up hill it was super painful. I crossed the line in 11th position, which might not sound too bad but the real truth is the winners time (Colucci) was more than 12 minutes quicker than mine. He was nearly 2 minutes in front of second. At the foot of the climb the race organisers had set up timing mats so everyone could have a time for the Alpe d’Huez climb. Herve Faure recorded the fastest time of 46:14 which was about 2 minutes faster that any time ever done by a triathlete. My time of 53:41 put me back in 21st position, but interestingly if I was just 2 minutes quicker I would have been top 10 while 2 minutes slower I would have been 35th.. Benoit had suffered a little on the climb after his rapid early pace and ended up with the 47th time, 57:11. He crossed the line in 21st place. After the race I soon noticed how cool the air was up on the mountain. Where we were all standing at the finish area was next to a big ice rink and the wind was blowing straight of that. I needed some more substantial clothing than just my wet race suit. Sure the Cesson fluro yellow radiates some warmth but I needed more. Bec gave me here jacket and I returned to the transition area to find my own stuff. I searched for over 20 minutes through the sea of numbered bags looking for my 494 bag all the while thinking ‘why didn’t you just tie a knot in the top of it’. Bag found I got all of my stuff out of transition and put it in the team bus. While wheeling my bike I noticed that the front wheel was not moving very well and closer inspection showed the brake was pushed to the side. It had been rubbing on my wheel since the first corner I broke at in the race. I had forgotten to re-tighten it after removing it out of my bike bag when we had arrived in the Alpes. Never a good way to ride a bike, but nothing I could do now. We returned to the presentation area and waited. The organisers would not start the presentation until after the last competitor had crossed the line, over 2 hours after the winner! We were all freezing. Only the top ten across the line were paid, so I missed by one position, and my dreams of winning a set of Mavic wheels in the spot prizes were also unfulfilled. Result for race 13: 11th.