Race 3. Port Brillet (1500/40/10) 10 June 2007

It was not hot when we left but it was sure warm when we arrived back in good old Port Brillet. Much like one year ago the small town had come to life and was as hot as ever. All the boys from Saint Jean de Monts team were there strutting around in their flashy team outfits. They are a funny bunch of guys and girls, I just hate that they have nicer uniforms than us. . . . and they know it.

The course was the same as last year, which I was happy about as I didnt have to spend 20 minutes asking where the course goes only to find out the guy I asked doesn't really know and is telling me where a good bread shop is. I got in the water nice and early just to keep cool and once the others joined did a small warm up and made my way to the start line. It was a deep water start and there was a fair bit of jostling for position for the extreme left of the start line. I opted to move about 15m right, more towards the middle of the line. It was a bit of a risk as I had to swim a little further to the first buoy and was away from all the good swimmers, but I thought it would be ok as I could get a cleaner start and then push over. Well for me there was no start gun. I just sensed everyone swimming and took off also, in fear of being swam over and pushed to the back of the race. It all worked out pretty well and when I finally moved over I was in about 5th position, just a few body lengths off the leader, who was Adam. At the far turn it all sort of broke up and I found the guy I was following started to loose contact with the leaders. I surged past him and tried to bridge the gap but as I drew level with him he started swimming into me, forcing me off course and knocking my head and arm each time he took a stroke. I had a little think, looked behind and saw no one on his feet so slipped behind him and took it easy for a little while. Once I felt good I sprinted past him and went out wide so he couldnt get my drag (he still did) and kept the pace on until we exited the water. It was annoying because we both used allot of energy, lost time to the leaders and swam further than we needed. I got out of the water in 4th 40 seconds behind the race leader Benoit Buchard and had a pretty quick transition. On the bike I got into 3rd passing Maxime Hillairet (Saint Jean de Monts) pretty quick and within about 6km was close enough to the lead two to be happy again. I choose my moment and hammered past them, kept the pressure on and didnt look back for the next 5km. When I did look back I saw I had aa good sized lead so kept the pressure on for the rest of the bike leg. I didnt see the drafting motorbike very much at all which made me think the pack behind were all riding together and the bike wanted to keep a close eye on them. I knew one guy form the team Les Sables D'Olonne, was strong on the bike and could run well off it as well. He had beaten me in Saint Jean de Monts last year so I hoped he wasn't pulling a big pack of riders up to me (my suspicions were founded on inspection of race photos a few days later). I really hoped he got lost in the swim, but that's pretty mean!

I jumped off my bike with a 1 minute 25 second lead. And I used a fair portion of that before I even got my running shoes on! I ran into transition and to were my bike rack was, popped by back wheel in the rack then heard the arbiters whistle. I had not gone around one of the bike racks, shaving off 2 or 3 seconds of time illegally. I picked up my bike and ran back to the entrance of the transition, then ran the way the official wanted me to run, some 3 meters left of my previous path! Adam did the same thing when he arrived in transition and Penny his wife had to explain what the whistle was all about. On the run I found my legs were pretty tired but not bad enough to make me struggle. All the drinking I had done on the bike came back to bite me as at the end of the first of three laps I started to get a stitch that kept me company for the remainder of the race. On the second lap I caught Laurent Triquet (who was in our team last year). He was on his first lap and seemed happy to see me. He ran with me for the whole lap, talking a bit running into me and stuffing up the drink station. It was crazy. At the end of that lap my lead was reduced to 20 seconds. Benoit was the one doing the chasing. I had not been running too hard but was far from fresh so had to really lift the pace on the last lap. I passed Max in the forest section and he was spent. We were together at the start of the bike and now here he was walking and more than 3km behind. I slowed and asked him if he was ok. He didnt answer me but it looked like the heat had really got to him. I didnt have time to stop, his team mate was chasing me, so I patted him on the back, said "bon chance" (good luck) and kept running. I crossed the line happy to be finished and just over 30 seconds clear of Benoit.

Result from race 3: 1st

Lesson learned: Dance better in transition, dont run with Laurent.