Race 11 & 12 DOUBLE RACE WEEKEND (AGAIN) Saint Calais
If you read my last blog post, you will remember, I reluctantly raced twice in the same weekend, gaining little more than a disqualification and sore feet. Well, less than a week later and my brain still had refused to turn the self preservation feature on, and I was back for a weekend of sports stupidity. I had actually agreed a long while ago to do the team time trial on Saturday and sprint tri on Sunday at Saint Calais, and I was not at all tired from the week before so I shouldnt make it out to be so much of a drama..........But in the end it was nothing less!!
As for the races. It was a team time trial te first day. Our team started as 4; Antione, Max Tion, Nicho Leroy and me. We had a solid swim worked good on the bike loosing Nicho on the second lap and ran scared of the Saint Avertain team that were always around 20 seconds behind us. We ended up winning by 19 seconds from the SAS team, so it was all happy days, and we all got pizzas for tea. It was Cesson/ SAS pizza and tent night, and a funny night at that.
The following day was far warmer, not that means anything but it is a good way to start off a story and that is what you are about to embark on if you so chose to continue reading. (I shall tell the race form my perspective) I had a standard sort of swim, rushed through transition and found myself leading onto the bike. I pushed hard early to see if I could get a gap, but it was soon evident on the skinny roads and with the amount of guys that were up the front of the race a break was not going to be easy to achieve. The situation was exacerbated passing transition where the skinny road was halved to allow competitors cross one another. I had early on asked one of the three Arbiters on a motorbike if the distance I was keeping behind was ok, knowing some of the guys were getting a little close and watching a few get black (penalty lap required on the run of some 400m)cards for indeed getting too close. I was reassured that I was fine, so pottered on with the race. 
With around 3km to go I decided to move to the front of the race and get into transition before the some 15 others. It took all of those 3km, as the road was thin and we were passing lapped riders. I took a few risks and just got my shoes off in time, but had left the slowing down thing a little too late and skidded onto the dismount line level with Nicholas Tharreau. I ran into transition happy not to have crashed but was grabbed by an Arbiter who was going apeshit with his whistle and flashing his black card. He was physically grabbing me so I stopped thinking I had crossed the dismount line but upon hearing him say "Carton noir, drafting pour tout le monde" (everyone in the front group has a penalty for drafting) , I broke his grip and racked my bike with the others. He was going crazy and calling out all our numbers. I got my shoes on and waited to see if I was allowed to start running. I noticed a few guys had sped out, so knowing I wasnt drafting I ran out also and thought little more of it until the finish. Adam Fitzakely (Aussie on Saint Jean de Monts team) won the race. Jason Crowther (Aussie on SAS) was second and I was third. This of course was not the final standing. I mentioned earlier that I would write the race from my perspective, being on a pushbike I figure gives me a pretty good idea as to what was going on in the front of the race but I was wrong. Apparently the Arbiter that spent the whole race in the transition area and only saw the lead group as they passed and came in to rack their bikes, had a much better vantage point of the course. 
Not only was he able to decipher which athletes were drafting, he was able to disregard ones that had gained black cards on the course. Amazing. To add to the confusion, as the whole front group ran out we all heard "tout le monde" (everyone). Only some athletes did the penalty lap, including ones that were not listed as drafting. As we all sped out only some numbers were written down and so those that were missed were seemingly forgotten. Nicho Leroy did the penalty lap but didnt have to. Max Tion was disqualified but didnt have his number on the list. I was on the list, so was Jason and Antione. In fact 6 of the top ten were disqualified with 5th getting 2nd and 11th getting 3rd. Our team was stuffed as our only legitimate finisher was Nicho but as he did the penalty lap was pretty far back. The scene after the race was pretty crazy, lots of yelling, separate meetings with athletes and officials and the podium was a bit of a farce, with the guy in 2nd (Guime Edely from SAS) refusing to accept the trophy. 
The matter is still with the French tri federation. The irony of it all was, this was my first drafting offence, although of all the 3 draft buster motorbikes that followed the leaders I did not get a penalty, while an athlete I did see get a drafting penalty from a motorbike, took my spot on the podium!!!!! I fucken hate the rules.
Ella and I traveled with Antione Lesoz and camped out in Laurent Suppis tent for the Friday and Saturday nights. I may add that had I been asked to construct this mystifying tent properly, I 
would still be standing in the grass scratching my head, and turning the instructions upside down, waiting for the penny to drop. We had a great spot which ended up being in, yes IN the course, and were joined by a few other teams for the Sat night, making a bit of a tent city.
would still be standing in the grass scratching my head, and turning the instructions upside down, waiting for the penny to drop. We had a great spot which ended up being in, yes IN the course, and were joined by a few other teams for the Sat night, making a bit of a tent city.
As for the races. It was a team time trial te first day. Our team started as 4; Antione, Max Tion, Nicho Leroy and me. We had a solid swim worked good on the bike loosing Nicho on the second lap and ran scared of the Saint Avertain team that were always around 20 seconds behind us. We ended up winning by 19 seconds from the SAS team, so it was all happy days, and we all got pizzas for tea. It was Cesson/ SAS pizza and tent night, and a funny night at that.
The following day was far warmer, not that means anything but it is a good way to start off a story and that is what you are about to embark on if you so chose to continue reading. (I shall tell the race form my perspective) I had a standard sort of swim, rushed through transition and found myself leading onto the bike. I pushed hard early to see if I could get a gap, but it was soon evident on the skinny roads and with the amount of guys that were up the front of the race a break was not going to be easy to achieve. The situation was exacerbated passing transition where the skinny road was halved to allow competitors cross one another. I had early on asked one of the three Arbiters on a motorbike if the distance I was keeping behind was ok, knowing some of the guys were getting a little close and watching a few get black (penalty lap required on the run of some 400m)cards for indeed getting too close. I was reassured that I was fine, so pottered on with the race. 
With around 3km to go I decided to move to the front of the race and get into transition before the some 15 others. It took all of those 3km, as the road was thin and we were passing lapped riders. I took a few risks and just got my shoes off in time, but had left the slowing down thing a little too late and skidded onto the dismount line level with Nicholas Tharreau. I ran into transition happy not to have crashed but was grabbed by an Arbiter who was going apeshit with his whistle and flashing his black card. He was physically grabbing me so I stopped thinking I had crossed the dismount line but upon hearing him say "Carton noir, drafting pour tout le monde" (everyone in the front group has a penalty for drafting) , I broke his grip and racked my bike with the others. He was going crazy and calling out all our numbers. I got my shoes on and waited to see if I was allowed to start running. I noticed a few guys had sped out, so knowing I wasnt drafting I ran out also and thought little more of it until the finish. Adam Fitzakely (Aussie on Saint Jean de Monts team) won the race. Jason Crowther (Aussie on SAS) was second and I was third. This of course was not the final standing. I mentioned earlier that I would write the race from my perspective, being on a pushbike I figure gives me a pretty good idea as to what was going on in the front of the race but I was wrong. Apparently the Arbiter that spent the whole race in the transition area and only saw the lead group as they passed and came in to rack their bikes, had a much better vantage point of the course. 
Not only was he able to decipher which athletes were drafting, he was able to disregard ones that had gained black cards on the course. Amazing. To add to the confusion, as the whole front group ran out we all heard "tout le monde" (everyone). Only some athletes did the penalty lap, including ones that were not listed as drafting. As we all sped out only some numbers were written down and so those that were missed were seemingly forgotten. Nicho Leroy did the penalty lap but didnt have to. Max Tion was disqualified but didnt have his number on the list. I was on the list, so was Jason and Antione. In fact 6 of the top ten were disqualified with 5th getting 2nd and 11th getting 3rd. Our team was stuffed as our only legitimate finisher was Nicho but as he did the penalty lap was pretty far back. The scene after the race was pretty crazy, lots of yelling, separate meetings with athletes and officials and the podium was a bit of a farce, with the guy in 2nd (Guime Edely from SAS) refusing to accept the trophy. 
The matter is still with the French tri federation. The irony of it all was, this was my first drafting offence, although of all the 3 draft buster motorbikes that followed the leaders I did not get a penalty, while an athlete I did see get a drafting penalty from a motorbike, took my spot on the podium!!!!! I fucken hate the rules.
posted by Kristian at 3:32 PM
+031.jpg)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home