Race 9 Triathlon de L’Aiguillon Sur Mer (sprint) 15th July 2007
I am just going to come right out and say it. I did not have a good race here. It started out fine, nice sunny day, no 
wetsuit swim and good car park (rare in France). But that was about it. I found that although many people had told me it was no drafting for the race it was in fact drafting. It was not only me with the wrong information, there were a lot of guys at the entrance to the transition taking off their super long tri bars to make their bikes draft legal. The transition area was big enough for 200 bikes but with around 300 in the race, space was of a premium.
Well all was going great for me in the swim. I started on the left, sort of alone and met the main bunch at the first buoy. I went around that with Tom next to 
me then moved through a few guys who were slowing down. I turned the second buoy in third and then passed the two leaders on the way back to shore. I wanted the pace to be fairly quick so not to have too many people in the bunch on the bike. The course for the bike was 5, 4km laps of a fairly technical circuit, so a small group would be good. I ran to my bike first rushed a bit too much, tore my number off its belt as I tried to slip it on and left the rack with my helmet not fully clipped on. As I ran towards the Arbitre I knew it was not good and then the whistle. I stopped and fumbled again with the stupid little clip, while my bike slid down my leg and on to the ground. A few guys ran passed me as I tried to pick up my bike while not knocking ot
hers, all adding to the panic. I got out of the transition in fourth and took off fast as I could. Yohan Vincent from Les Sable Vendee tri team, the race favorite, was up the front pushing the pace with Maxime Hillairet and Julien Leroy, both from Saint Jean de Monts. I went as hard as I could and slowly started to close the gap. When I was nearly there, I turned around to see how far the others were now behind afte
r my display of strength. How far were they? 30 centimeters. About six were right on my wheel! I had gone flat out, breath gaspingly hard and these guys looked like they were able to sip a coffee and take some happy snaps. Bugger. The small lead bunch I wanted, ended up being about ten guys, and I was stuffed, so what did I do? I attacked. Why? I have no idea. 200m up the road with my
legs feeling like a half eaten sandwich (not a honey sandwich, their pretty nice) I questioned my tactic. I was caught within 1km of my effort and nearly spat out the back of the bunch as counter attacks were made. Somehow the bunch all returned to the end of the first lap like a nice ensemble. I managed to sort of get my breath back, slip on my sunnies, and turn to see Tom wearing his massive Oakley M frames all the way from the future of 1985. Veeeerrry nice.
It was at that point we hit the lapped riders. Chaos. The race circuit used both sides of the road meaning packs of riders passing other packs of riders. With only 4km each lap there was a lot of passing. And just if it was not bad enough, some Einstein had popped 
a whole lot of witch’s hats in the middle of the road, in case we got confused as to where that was. On one lap Jerome Joussemet hit a cone, as he had nowhere else to go, and it shot back into the bunch. It was super dangerous (I saw 3 crashes and heard another). All the dodging of cones and of lapped riders was starting to worry me. I tried to break away again but was too tired to do enough and resided in the fact that I would not get away today. It was actually so confusing at points that (as Tom agreed later) sometimes lapped riders would be caught in the lead bunch and you would follow their wheel until you looked up and saw the pack riding away. You then had to sprint around them to get back on a real wheel. After 3 laps I was not sure who was in the lead bunch and who were lapped riders. The lapped guys would stay there for a km or so, just enough to get in the way and then get dropped on a tight corner or with a pace change. On lap 4 I looked up the road to see a few guys trying to break away. There were two or three and a few more shot across. No big worries, but I was not aware Nicholas Tharreau had not only caught us but had ridden through the bunch and broken away. Worse still he had taken Yohan and a few Saint Jean de Monts guys along with him. That group was now strong. 
I tried to bridge the gap, got a little of the way there but was just dragging all the others so backed off. The Saint Jean de Monts guys were riding perfectly as a team. With guys in the break they were blocking our bunch, slowing the pace and covering anyone trying to bridge the gap. I was too tired to go it alone and no one else seemed keen to put in the work to bridge the gap, so we stayed behind for the rest of the bike leg. I came into transition not too happy, knowing there were about 6 guys 
30 or so seconds in front. I may have run in the transition first out of our group but had a shocker in the cramped bike rack and ran out mid pack. It was sunny and I wanted my cap but with all the bikes in the rack I couldn’t actually reach it. Someone’s bike was on my shoes and I think at one stage I may have been cuddling Tom, I don’t know, it was pretty tight! I had a pretty crap run passed some guys got passed by a few guys and by 4 km found myself in 5th. Boyd Conrick was tantalizingly close in front of me in 4th but I didn’t care. I was tired and annoyed how the race had gone, I wasn’t running well and I was not close to getting on the podium. With the line in sight I turned to see if anyone was going to take my precious 5th position and with only seeing lapped runners slowed to cross the line. Total dickhead!!! One of the ‘lapped runners’ was a young guy that sprinted passed me and clamed the 100 Euro for 5th, a fitting way to end the story. Oh but what happened in the race race, well Yohan ran away and won, Nicholas was second, Tom ran through the field to get third and nearly second, Boyd was 4th, and all the Saint Jean de Monts guys in the break were caught on the second lap of the run.
wetsuit swim and good car park (rare in France). But that was about it. I found that although many people had told me it was no drafting for the race it was in fact drafting. It was not only me with the wrong information, there were a lot of guys at the entrance to the transition taking off their super long tri bars to make their bikes draft legal. The transition area was big enough for 200 bikes but with around 300 in the race, space was of a premium.
Well all was going great for me in the swim. I started on the left, sort of alone and met the main bunch at the first buoy. I went around that with Tom next to 
me then moved through a few guys who were slowing down. I turned the second buoy in third and then passed the two leaders on the way back to shore. I wanted the pace to be fairly quick so not to have too many people in the bunch on the bike. The course for the bike was 5, 4km laps of a fairly technical circuit, so a small group would be good. I ran to my bike first rushed a bit too much, tore my number off its belt as I tried to slip it on and left the rack with my helmet not fully clipped on. As I ran towards the Arbitre I knew it was not good and then the whistle. I stopped and fumbled again with the stupid little clip, while my bike slid down my leg and on to the ground. A few guys ran passed me as I tried to pick up my bike while not knocking ot
hers, all adding to the panic. I got out of the transition in fourth and took off fast as I could. Yohan Vincent from Les Sable Vendee tri team, the race favorite, was up the front pushing the pace with Maxime Hillairet and Julien Leroy, both from Saint Jean de Monts. I went as hard as I could and slowly started to close the gap. When I was nearly there, I turned around to see how far the others were now behind afte
r my display of strength. How far were they? 30 centimeters. About six were right on my wheel! I had gone flat out, breath gaspingly hard and these guys looked like they were able to sip a coffee and take some happy snaps. Bugger. The small lead bunch I wanted, ended up being about ten guys, and I was stuffed, so what did I do? I attacked. Why? I have no idea. 200m up the road with my
legs feeling like a half eaten sandwich (not a honey sandwich, their pretty nice) I questioned my tactic. I was caught within 1km of my effort and nearly spat out the back of the bunch as counter attacks were made. Somehow the bunch all returned to the end of the first lap like a nice ensemble. I managed to sort of get my breath back, slip on my sunnies, and turn to see Tom wearing his massive Oakley M frames all the way from the future of 1985. Veeeerrry nice.
It was at that point we hit the lapped riders. Chaos. The race circuit used both sides of the road meaning packs of riders passing other packs of riders. With only 4km each lap there was a lot of passing. And just if it was not bad enough, some Einstein had popped 
a whole lot of witch’s hats in the middle of the road, in case we got confused as to where that was. On one lap Jerome Joussemet hit a cone, as he had nowhere else to go, and it shot back into the bunch. It was super dangerous (I saw 3 crashes and heard another). All the dodging of cones and of lapped riders was starting to worry me. I tried to break away again but was too tired to do enough and resided in the fact that I would not get away today. It was actually so confusing at points that (as Tom agreed later) sometimes lapped riders would be caught in the lead bunch and you would follow their wheel until you looked up and saw the pack riding away. You then had to sprint around them to get back on a real wheel. After 3 laps I was not sure who was in the lead bunch and who were lapped riders. The lapped guys would stay there for a km or so, just enough to get in the way and then get dropped on a tight corner or with a pace change. On lap 4 I looked up the road to see a few guys trying to break away. There were two or three and a few more shot across. No big worries, but I was not aware Nicholas Tharreau had not only caught us but had ridden through the bunch and broken away. Worse still he had taken Yohan and a few Saint Jean de Monts guys along with him. That group was now strong. 
I tried to bridge the gap, got a little of the way there but was just dragging all the others so backed off. The Saint Jean de Monts guys were riding perfectly as a team. With guys in the break they were blocking our bunch, slowing the pace and covering anyone trying to bridge the gap. I was too tired to go it alone and no one else seemed keen to put in the work to bridge the gap, so we stayed behind for the rest of the bike leg. I came into transition not too happy, knowing there were about 6 guys 
30 or so seconds in front. I may have run in the transition first out of our group but had a shocker in the cramped bike rack and ran out mid pack. It was sunny and I wanted my cap but with all the bikes in the rack I couldn’t actually reach it. Someone’s bike was on my shoes and I think at one stage I may have been cuddling Tom, I don’t know, it was pretty tight! I had a pretty crap run passed some guys got passed by a few guys and by 4 km found myself in 5th. Boyd Conrick was tantalizingly close in front of me in 4th but I didn’t care. I was tired and annoyed how the race had gone, I wasn’t running well and I was not close to getting on the podium. With the line in sight I turned to see if anyone was going to take my precious 5th position and with only seeing lapped runners slowed to cross the line. Total dickhead!!! One of the ‘lapped runners’ was a young guy that sprinted passed me and clamed the 100 Euro for 5th, a fitting way to end the story. Oh but what happened in the race race, well Yohan ran away and won, Nicholas was second, Tom ran through the field to get third and nearly second, Boyd was 4th, and all the Saint Jean de Monts guys in the break were caught on the second lap of the run.
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