Race 7. Triathlon Laval

For the last two years I had won this race and this year I was hoping to make it 3 in a row. The short version is..... that did not occour. Why??? Read on. I had a good swim quick transition and jumped on my bike first. I spent much of the first lap near the front of the race with Tom Moyes (Cesson) and Adam Fitzakerley (St Jean de Monts). Midway through the second lap about 30km into the race we were caught and quickly passed by Jose jeuland. My team manager had told me about him moments before the start of the race, stating he wasnt a good swimmer but hes got some power on the bike. Can say that again!!!!! He was really flying and as he got smaller and smaller into the distance I started to think "its now or never to win this race". I reluctently increased my speed and kept him and Adam in sight. He entered transition about 20 seconds in the lead with Adam between us. The first lap of the run was horrible due to the hurt in my legs from the bike. I found more rythem on the second lap and actually felt ok on the third, passed Adam and tried to get back the lead. It was not to be my day however and I crossed the line a little dissapointed and alot tired in second. The difference and distance from my elusive hat-trick was 15 seconds.

Race 6. Charliville Grand Prix round 1

These grand prix races are never easy. The swim is a fight, the bike is chaos and dangerous and nearly always there is a pack of 50 or so out on the run together. Not fun! This was the first grand prix for the year and it went just as predicted. I had an average swim, couldnt get near the turn buoys and came out round 30th. On the bike the group was about 50 before the only big hill on the course and after the 1.5km climb the pack was about 30ish. Still pretty dangerous and I was kind of glad to get back to transition incident free. The run was painful. I was not fit enough to run super fast, but tried anyway. Looking back on the race I think I had enough run in my legs to do 4km.......yep its 5km. In the long finish straight I could see the leader, second, third etc. It wasnt that far (5 to 25 seconds), but at the same time it was all too far. With about 10 meters to run I thought oh well 7th it is then in an instant sensed someone next to me, tried to sprint, but it was all too late. The finish line photo pretty much sums up the day. To cap it off our team finished third, a painful one point off second! I am no math wiz but I am thinking that crushing less than 1 second loss could have been the difference!