Race 13. Vesoul grand prix round 3. Olympic distance 18th August 2007

Tom and I exited the Alpes a little weary and I felt pretty over trained. We arrived to the race site to find it a no wetsuit swim. We got to start far left on the course, a decision that ended up being not so great so I exited the water, further back than I would have liked. On the bike (and with socks again) the group I was in, caught the leaders and it became dangerous so I went off the front in the hope someone would join me. I stayed away for about 15km but decided I was expending too much energy and the pack, Now some 50 strong were just leaving me 30 seconds up the road to burn myself out. I can tell you it is not very encouraging to see a massive bunch behind you, not getting smaller when you are riding close to your limit, knowing it’s a hard and fast 10km to finish the day. When I rejoined the bunch I felt crap. Legs were tired, small surges hurt and were hard to follow and when another, and more serious, attack went up the road I had not the legs nor motivation to follow. I spent the remainder of the bike leg in the bunch that now consisted of about 70 of the 100 strong field. I came in sort of mid bunch off the bike and entered the transition yelling at guys to run faster, but kind of happy to have a little rest at the same time. The run was two dead flat laps around the lake we started in. On the first lap I just wanted to get my legs, not walk and feel better than I did on the bike. I finished the first lap in about 12th position and then got a second wind, passed some more guys ran the last 2km like death was coming and somehow ended up second, 12 seconds behind the winner, Youri Severin, a Dutch guy in team Autun, who had unleashed a race winning burst of speed on the first lap of the run. As for the team; Hermann ran well and finished 9th Tom knowing his points didn’t count cruzed home in the 20s and Laurent Le vezu, running on one lung with some cardiac problem hung on for 52nd. We finished 6th for the day, a painful 4 points off the team in front. Result for race 13: 2nd Lesson learned; It would have to be something about not attacking on he bike but I am too stupid to stop.