Race 15. Quimper triathlon

The Quimper triathlon is indeed held in the pretty French village of Quimper (pronounced camp-air). The swim starts the race in the main river of the town, that has high walls on either side of it, so if you wanted to get out, you couldn’t. You swim up stream, against a moderate current then at the third bridge turn 180 degrees and flow back down to the exit. The bike course is pretty hilly. The first 4 km are all up hill and the remainder of the course is up and down before you descend back into town and the transition area. I must also add that the last few hundred meters are over some brutal cobbles, with a few 90 degree bends put in, tricky but fun. The run is two laps around the river and goes through an old part of the town and a small forest type area. As for my race there; Pierre and I attempted to get in the water early but got told off and so walked with everyone else about 500m to the swim start. As the current was pretty strong, there was no real warm up and the real battle was keeping people from floating away. I swam just behind some young guy for the whole swim. I was right against the far wall for the start and for some time had two guys next to me so at times I was hitting the wall. I was glad when they dropped back and left me to hitting the wall on my own accord. I was second out the water and first onto the bike, rode the hill hard, and stayed in first for the remainder of the race. This was actually a race I got to enjoy the run a little bit, as I had some time to spare.