Race 6: Saint Jean de Monts triathlon 23rd June 2007

Race 6 Saint Jean de Monts.

I was second at this race last year and not by very far so this year I wanted to win. Eric the team manager for the Saint Jean de monts club arranged accommodation for all or us again, very kind. The day of the race was super windy and the sea was angry my friend, like an old woman trying to return a used lettuce. There were no nice waves, but rather a horrible wind created chop and a one or two foot inconsistent swell. As with French race tradition the first buoy was to the right of the startline, making choosing a start position a no brainer. During the 14 second warm up I did notice a current going right to left, but it wasn’t until I started swimming that I realized how strong it actually was. A fair few of us had run down the beach to line up with the buoy but as you swam to it you weree dragged further right of it. All the people that had just ran in to swim on the angel actually ended up with the better line. It did certainly spread the field out quite a lot as people were everywhere by the first buoy. Adam was first around it and I was second about 15 seconds later. I had been next to Steve Roy for most of the swim out but as we rounded the buoy he was not with me. I saw no one else for the rest of the swim. It was a two lap swim with a beach run between the laps. I didn’t run as far down on the second lap and got to the buoy no problems. I could not see a lead boat and I checked behind me but there was no one there also so I started to think “was it a one lap swim?” or “did they call the swim off because of the bad conditions?” It was so hard the see the buoys at times, and almost harder to get to them. Coming in after the second lap I didn’t get a wave in at all which made it slow going, so when I stood up and saw people running in front and across from me I got a bit of a shock. They ended up being some of the guys still finishing their first lap, but it again made me wonder where everyone was. I made the long run up the beach alone with everyone yelling stuff at me. A few people yelled out times but they were all different so that didn’t help. At the bikes I could see Adams was missing and replaced with a wet and sandy wetsuit. Was he the only one out on the bike?? I soon found that he was. There in the distance was a little fluro flash with a few motorbikes around it. It was super windy on the bike and not always a good idea to be on aerobars. I worked hard and but 2/3s of the first lap had caught Adam. He had been over 1:20 in front of me in the swim, and I was the same in front of the next swimmer, Steve Roy. So we were really all on our own out the front. It was a drafting race so Adam jumped in behind me and we were off. The lead motor bike was quite far away in front at all times and the back one was constantly beeping at everyone. The first time he did it, it scared the shit out of me and Adam reassured me “he’s been doing that the whole time so get use to it” At the end of lap one of three, just after the U-turn we were able to see the guys in second and third. They were the two Parthenay guys. About 1 min behind them were some pretty big bunches with a lot of the Saint Jean de Monts team. We passed the transition exit and were then in the mix with other lapped riders. Now the lead motorbike was way in front. So far so that it was about 1 min after it passed someone that we would pass them. We did have the beeping motorbike but he was mainly doing it at intersections, so not too many of the lapped riders knew we were the leaders as we came passed them. They were all over the road and some thought they would try join us, or wouldn’t move as they thought we were also on our first lap. It was a problem, and then it was a big problem. At one of the roundabouts we caught two guys both going about 10km/hr slower than us. One on the left of the road and one on the right. I decided to go the middle but as we entered the roundabout they both converged and I had to break. The guy on the out side seemed to keep coming in to take a good line through the turn (fine if you are alone) and the guy on the inside had seen us, but either didn’t care or got a fright or something but he was heading out wide. I felt pressure on my back wheel and my bike move sideways a little then nothing then heard that horrible bike crash sound. I turned to see Adam and the inside guy grappling like Greco roman wrestlers on the side of the road with their bikes mating next to them. I could hear Adam calling him English mean names so figured he was alright. And then I was alone. The beeping motorbike took off up the road and talked to the lead bike, I thought to tell him to drop back a bit but he didn’t. The lead bike kept trying to win, beeping motorbike kept beeping, and I kept dodging riders or wait for them at corners. I was glad to get off the bike and head in for the last run. Olivier the race commentator told me I had a very big lead then started asking lots of questions, about the crash, how will I run, where were we staying this weekend!! The run was much less action packed. Unlike last year where I had chased the whole ten km, this year I had a two minute lead so no pressure. I crossed the line 2:30 in front of Adam who had remounted his bike and joined the two Parthenay guys for the rest of the bike leg.

Result from race 6: 1st