Race 5 2008. Triathlon Dinan

The triathlon of Dinan takes place in the old wallled city of Dinan (funny about that) about 50km North of Rennes. Well thats not entirly true. The Dinan triathlon actually takes place in the village of Taden,.... close to Dinan, but miles away if you are lost and late for a race. It was actually quite a unique little race. There were two transition areas, one for swim to bike near the river and a second for bike to run about one killometer away up the hill and next to an old castle thing. It was very pretty with the finish line actually in the courtyard of the prehistoric structure.

This was my first Olympic distance race for the season, and I had the first round of the Grand prix circut the next weekend, so I went into the race thinking I would take it fairly easy. Gun goes off and I swim, ride and run at 100%, Smart. Well not entirly true. I got out of the swim with a few other guys, but 40 seconds behind some dude that had hammered us in the swim. I rode behind the other guys for some time then thinking I could push a little more took up the pace and made some inroads to the lone leader. Midway through the second of 3 laps, I was 10 seconds behind the leader, with Mathieu Gaudin of my team just behind me, when I caught sight of Laurent Levezu, also of Cesson, catching us rapidly from behind and hoping to join the fluro party. He caught us quick and asked if this was the head of the race. I showed him our leader (in a blue suit!! get with the yellow trend pal) and he took off in chase. Mathieu went with him. I hung back for a while hoping my legs would feel a little better, as sometimes when we think of riding and someone goes "oh if they go faster, just go with them" it sounds very simple, but the reality is my legs felt crap, sore and tired and the contemplation of just going faster was likened to pushing a rusty nail down the end of my di.. kick is what Laurent did to try drop Mathieu and I. Sensing that Laurent was getting away and with it taking the race win I reluctantly upped the pace. By the end of the bike leg Laurent and I were the only ones left on the front with Mathieu just 20 seconds adrift in third.

I got away in the transition and ran out in first. Two laps up a 1km climb made the 10km run solid in its own right but with the unseasonal hot sun it made the whole show pretty tough. I missed the first wet sponge statin as the girl delivering the wet goodies decided this was an oppertune time to brush up on her shot put skills and unleashed an attempt at the world record passed my left ear. I thought it may have been curtains if there was no other aid station but I was happy to see anoter just some 300m after where the next sponge doner used the prefered give the sponge to the athlete approach. (not thet I was the athlete at the speed I was running at that point but you can understand the principals). I tried to exicute some of my dont go 100% tactic, throughout the remainder of the run, but as you are staggering up a long dragging hill in the blistering sun its a little easier said than done. My one resipte was passing my bring your own cheer squad (Ella, Karen and Alexie) each lap where I was fortunate enough to be encouraged with crys of "Kristian is a premiture ejaculator" or "Kristian has a small penis". Thankfully I was runnig close to other lapped compeditors at the time so I could pass them and say go Kristian, removing the shameful pressure from myself.

I crossed the line first with Laurent second and Mathieu third. The Cesson girls went one two three also, causing the podium to be very dangerous for those watching without the safty of strong tinted sunglasses.

1st Me 2:oo'00 (you think they would give me one second!!)

2nd Laurent Le Vezu 2:01'36

3rd Mathieu Gaudin 2:03'03

4th Cyrile Neveu 2:04'12

5th Ludovic Martin 2:04'44