Race 1 2008 Cesson Sevigne

To set the scene for this race we must cast our minds back to my first French race of my first French season. It was here in Cesson that I was beaten and drowned in the swim, nearly suffered frost bite and finished, not under the finish arch, but in hospital getting stitches in my chin, after crashing my new bike in a desperate attempt to catch the guys who had earlier left me behind. Ahhh, fond memories. This year Raph (our team manager) told me they had changed the course just for me. Not true, but sounds nice. It indeed was a different course on the bike, where it seemed they found the only real sort of hill in Cesson Sevigne, then mathematically determined a route that would keep all competitors on it for the maximal time. For a flat town it was a hilly circuit. Well this year I started the swim on the extreme right of the course (as apposed to two years ago where I placed myself in the middle, did one stroke at the start then felt every competitor behind me grab and push me under, while rearranging my goggles into a temporary suffocating device) and got a quick clean start. I stayed relatively fight free for the remainder of the swim, got out third and ran for my bike. It all went very smooth again, as my wetsuit came off trouble free, helmet went on without issue and before I new it I was running out of transition in the lead. On the bike I was joined by some familiar faces that eventually made up a lead pack of 8. This number dropped to 7 at the end of the first lap when we lost Julien Leroy (who everyone in Australia would remember as ‘Frenchie’) in a crash on the most dangerous corner of the course. Not long into the second lap we were joined by two guys who I am sure were riding motorbikes when we weren’t looking (Laurent Suppi and Antoine Le Soz). Not great for anyone in the lead group as these two were without question the better runners of the group. It should also be noted they were the best riders of the day as they bridged a 45 second gap without bringing the 15 strong second pack with them, and got the fastest ride times for the day. Now to facilitate the story a little I will refer to the dangerous corner as ‘Juliens corner’ or ‘JC’. 400 meters before ‘Juliens corner’ Laurent surged off the front and in the final 50 meters of the decent before ‘JC’ (where it preferable to apply the brakes), Antoine did the same. It was Laurent who first began to crash then managed to somehow remount in mid air and find a way through the barriers on two wheels. Seconds later he was passed by Antoine, who gained the lead for half a second then span out, hit the ground hard, and completed a spectacular ninja turtle roll maneuver, that exfoliated much of his left sholder, hip and leg. I went around next, passed Laurent fishing for his pedals and said holy shit that was close. The seven remaining riders made it to transition without further drama. I entered the last transition third and ran out seventh, thanks to my inability to complete the simple task of putting your left foot in your LEFT shoe! The run was a bit of a demonstration by Suppi who scored an easy 26 second victory from me with Laurent’s Les Sables Vendee team mate, Nicholas Tardieu snatching third, just 14 seconds behind me.