Thursday, July 27, 2006

Race 7: Triathlon De La Touraine, Nouatre triathlon 2000m, 38km, 10.9km (24th June 2006) It was a long drive to this place. The two French guys Gwenn Dupas and Frederic Tulane drove the rest of us foreign Cesson members for what seemed like an eternity. We had left Rennes at around 10am in cool overcast conditions but arrived in Nouatre at around 1pm in scorching hot and sunny conditions. By the time we had put our bikes together and got our race gear organised, I had sweated about 4 litres. The whole race was a little quirky. The town itself was tiny, yet the race offered pretty big prize money, paying to 51st and the top five teams. The swim start was 2km upstream, in a river that had such a current that you could only go one way. The transition area was so small that bikes had to be hung vertically to make enough room. We were after a team result, but needed 5 members to finish. Gwenn, Fred, Adam and myself waited anxiously for Laurent Triquet to arrive, which he did, with about 40 mins to spare. After the pre race brief we all hopped on busses and travelled to the swim start. Many guys had their wetsuits already on, but I opted not to as it was so, so hot. There were two busses; and we pushed our way on to the first not wanting to loose valuable warm up time. As it turned out the busses had to do two more trips each, allowing us ample time to warm up in the water. Adam actually swam a bit far downstream and could not swim back against the current. He had to swim to the bank, climb out and walk a few hundred metres back to the start line. The organisers got everyone out of the water and allowed the females to go first. Once everyone was up the steep banks of the river the girls were allowed into the water and a whistle was blown to signal the start. I am sure there was meant to be a few minutes gap between the guys and the girls, however a few unfortunate, but not unforeseeable events did not allow this to occur. We all had to swim down the river but were made to start on the bank of the river, sort of at right angles to the start line. Of course the most downstream end of the start line was packed as it was the shortest line of the swim. So there were about 200 or more nervous guys pushing for that magical start position, the most downstream the better. Everyone was edging bit by bit closer to the water, creeping down the slippery bank of the river. After about 30 seconds of the girls departure, the creeping had for some guys reached the edge of the river. People behind pressured for front positions, and people behind them forced them further forward. 40 seconds (my estimate) after the girls start, was about the time the human dam first broke. I think someone slipped forward rapidly, they guy next to him thought he would jump forward also, and guys further away, sensing rapid movement moved right into the river. Someone fell right in, and the splash created enough panic to start the race. I could hear the officials yelling and then the whistle blew; that was how we started. Not long into the swim we had caught the girls, which made it hard for them and us. The swim was pretty quick with the current. The last 50m were under a bridge and over to the exit chute, through an area that was like mini rapids. I panicked a little in here as it was so choppy I couldn’t see any of the guys I was swimming with, and started thinking ‘oh no what if I am caught in some whirl pool area where the water is not going downstream, while everyone else is zipping by me in fast flowing water. I felt rocks under me and stood to see the guys just meters ahead of me. I walked over the rocks with the others (Yes walking in a race, pretty fun) and then ran to the transition area, helmet on wetsuit off and bike back on the ground. The ride was two laps of a pretty solid course. Most of it was flat or rolling hills, but there was one cracker of a hill just out of the town. It was said to be more that 15%. That is tough enough, but it was also the poorest road surface you could imagine. It was like a very narrow, unused farm road, with holes and heaps of gravel. It was as close to unsealed a bitumen road could be. Stephane Bignet and Paul Amey had taken off on the bike and were out of sight by the end of the first lap. I had found myself in the next group of about 10 guys a few minutes behind. The remainder of the ride stayed pretty much like this with the exception of two guys slipping away about 30seconds in front of us into transition. It was hot on the run. There was no cooling effect from the wind that you get on the bike, and no water to squirt on your head whenever you feel. After about 2km of running I was leading the chasers with another guy right on my shoulder. We passed someone on the side of the road who offered me a big bottle of water. I grabbed it and tipped some on my head then offered it to my limpet friend. He had some also then ran off on me not long later, going on to record the fastest run of the race. I ran alone for the rest of the run, battling cramps from the heat. I caught one of the guys who had taken off on the bike but could not catch the other, crossing the line in fifth. All the members of the team had done well and we ended up second. I was 5th, Adam 9th, Laurent 14th, Gwenn 21st and Fred 27th. All in the top 30 of a race with over 300 shows a good depth in the team. Result from race six = A hot 5th

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Race 6. 11eme Triathlon International Des Sables D’olonne Sprint (18th June 2006)
This race was over for me before the first swim buoy. I ran into the water ok and started swimming fairly well then found myself totally out of breath and unable to get any air in. I pushed out a bit of breaststroke and at some points backstroke then just swam slow for a while. I had been pretty fortunate not to get swam over as the last thing I needed was to be pushed under. By about half way I was back to fairly normal swimming and breathing so pushed a bit harder, mistake. Back to the desperate gasps and panic. When I took it easy it went away again, and the pattern continued until the last turn buoy about 200m before the beach. I exited the swim in 16th position nearly a full minute behind the leader (Adam Beckworth, another Aussie on team Cesson) and alongside Taryn Mcleod from New Zealand, the first female. In transition my bike was waiting alone as all the other guys in the top ten numbers had been and gone. I had a nothing special transition then ran my bike out. The layout for transition was just two rows of bikes about 100m long with a central corridor to access bikes. This required you to run with your bike down the transition area past all the bikes in the race (200 exactly) then around the back of the transition and along the whole length again on the outside. I had missed the part in race briefing that said once out of the central corridor you can mount your bike (Adam and I had actually missed the entire briefing, as it is all in French, and we just went straight to the swim start) so continued to run with my bike until I heard Penny Beckworth yelling "get on your f@#n bike Kris" Oh that is a super idea I thought! So I had just lost more time.
On the bike I could see a few guys from St Jean de Monts team way off in the distance, a good 600m. I had to get to them now and work with them to get to the lead pack, as it was a drafting race right??. I went all out for the first 5km, only slowing to go on the footpath to avoid a car that had got on the course!! I had made pretty good progress and caught the two St Jean de Monts guys but there was something odd. They were not working together and had let another guy ride up the road on them. Oh well, perhaps they have just been dropped I thought, so as I passed them I said aller aller (lets go) and signalled for them to get on my wheel and come with me. They didn’t. I turned to see if they would take a turn and they were about 50m behind. Damn, I had used a lot of energy to get to them quick and they were too weak to stay on my wheel let alone work with me. I went all out and caught the next guy. He too did not come with me, crazy.
The bike course was an out and back along the costal road. Not very technical or hilly but the road was rolling rises and constantly curved around the cliff tops, meaning it was difficult to see too far in front and it wasn’t until the turnaround that I saw the leaders. There was no lead pack. They were close but not really drafting. Ok so this is not a drafting race. It had taken 10km on the bike for the penny to drop, and I was amazed when entering transition that they had not checked the legality of my bars. It all made sense, but not a good thing for me as I had really hurt myself thinking I could get into a bunch. I suffered on the return section of the bike leg. I was tired and a bit dejected with how the race had panned out thus far.
With about 3km to go a entered a confusing part of the course, as the run and bike legs were both conducted on the same stretch of road. We had ridden out the sea side of the road and were returning to the same transition so I thought we would run on the other side, the non sea side so bikes and runners would be separate. I got to a large intersection where a median strip began and ran all the way to the transition area. There were cones and bunting on both sides and a large crowed all yelling. I yelled out which way and got no real answer so went on the left (sea side). That must be the way as the crowd were still clapping and no one was going "no no". About 30 seconds later a motorbike on the other side of the median strip rode up level with me and yelled lots of stuff, in French. From what I could decipher, I was on the wrong side. The official on the back of the bike they pulled out a black card and blew his whistle at me. Oh, shit this is bad, disqualified I thought, and it was just a mistake, no advantage gained. It was actually a disadvantage as I had slowed to ask which way to go and slowed again when the motorbike was yelling at me. Ok now I was really pissed off! Ahead was a small pedestrian crossing, my chance to get to the correct side of the road. I zipped through it and sprinted as hard as I could to the motorbike. The guy was a little surprised to see me along side him but I just started yelling that there was no official to tell direction and I was on the correct side now so no harm done. He just shrugged his shoulders, perhaps to indicate he didn’t understand me or perhaps as I thought at the time to say tough luck! I said "no, you will have to pull me off my bike". They didn’t and I entered the run without any trouble. I was tired and unmotivated on the run. The leaders had the race to themselves, and I was just happy to run the course without being told off.
I finished the race in12th and ended up 11th as Laurent Suppi was disqualified, after finishing second but with no number belt! Now that’s rough. Laurent told me the black card was not disqualification but rather an indicator I needed to run a penalty lap. I must have been let off as I was too far back to worry about. I had to feel for Laurent as he had a number on his swim cap, each arm, bike and helmet, yet this was not enough. He had lost his number belt after the swim while taking his wetsuit off, a simple mistake that cost him about $1000 in lost prize money.
Result for race 6 = well back

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

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