Race 4 2008. Saint Gilles Croix de vie

Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. I was scared on the first of the five laps of the bike course. This was a race I wanted to win just because the name sounds cool 'sont giles cwar der vee', say it fast a few times. Oh well I like it anyway. Now the race is in the small town of St gilles, on the Vendee coast. The course was all in the center of the town, and on the beach. Swim in the sea, five 4km laps on the bike and most of the run in the sand of the beach. One hour before race start the rain arrived and turned the pretty technical bike course into a slippery slide. Ok so my race started like this. I picked the wrong side of the start line, fought the current and went too anaerobic, did some backstroke, regained my composure swam back to the front guys, turned the last buoy with them, got a little wave near the beach and ran out the water third. Quick transition and I was off on the bike alone and in the lead. How the hell did that happen. The race had allot of guys from the Vendee teams of Saint Jean de Monts and Les sables and I was sure the pack on the bike would end up being big and dangerous. I rode as hard and careful as I could, which was comparative to an injured snail, I soon found as Laurent Suppi passed me on the inside on a corner I thought was surely smeared with vaseline. Speaking of which the new Aussie import for the Saint Jean de Monts team (Adam) managed to get vaseline used to get his wetsuit off quickly all inside his goggles, with no vision in the water he lost the course and any hope of winning the race. Back to Laurent and his death wish. Yes he caught me quick, giving me no option but to follow and corner at stupid speeds. Two guys had crossed the gap with him, Nicholas Tardieu and Sylvan Le Bris, making our bunch four. It was a great number, not too dangerous size wise but enough to push the pace. I was little help for the first lap and little better for the second. In two laps we had gained about 50 seconds, and Laurent took the pressure off. I was so happy, and my fear subsided. Nicholas said to e after the race he felt the same, choosing skin over time, but unwilling to back off at the same time. All of us had our wheels slip out at least once during the course but we never crashed. Laurent went missing for one lap and later told me he had to drop back as had no control over his rear wheel, thinking he may have gone through oil. We approached the last transition together and ran down the slippery little ramp to the beach promonard them alongside the transition area on tiles that felt as slippery as ice. I had to laugh as we were seriously going at walking pace and still slipping. We entered the transition (which was on sand) and I saw two more Les Sables guys just entering the slippery ramp. One was Nicholas Tharreau, who I know can run really fast. They had missed the break and ridden together the whole way, just off the back. Seeing this gave me all the more urgency and I sped out of the transition and headed for the beach, just behind Laurent who must have been in the same mindset. For the whole run I was not super comfortable as I had at least 3 guys chasing me and in the deep sand felt as if I was going nowhere fast. It was almost like one of those dreams where you are trying to run fast but are just slipping. Or is it just me that has that dream?? I Felt better running off the beach and tried to make gains on the lead Laurent had established but as soon as the course lead to the deep sands, it was all about preservation. I finished the race in second, glad to be off the bike in one piece and out of the dunes.

1st Laurent Suppi 1:11'05

2nd Me 1:11'19

3rd Nicholas Tardieu 1:11'31 4th Nicholas Tharreau 1:11'41 5th Sylvan Le Bris 1:12' 24