Race 1. The curse of the Cesson triathlon. 2nd May 2009
To get a real feel for this race please read my Cesson triathlon blog entries for 2006 and 2008 seasons.
For the lazy readers…a brief run down of this race history goes like this;
In 2006 it was my first race with the team Cesson Sevigne, and I ended up crashing. In 2008 it was Antoine le Soz who was the debut Cesson athlete and he stacked. Can you see where this story is going???… ok, read on.
Big race this year and for the first time two starts to split up the field. Girls in the first wave and guys 5 minutes behind in the second wave. 40 girls and 380 guys….Anyone see a problem with this? With no fear of making an over exaggerated comment, the start line was crowded. Its not a great feeling standing waist deep in 14 degree water, being yelled at to get back, while your feet are getting stood on and 10 guys behind you are the thickness of a wetsuit away from being more than just competitors with you. Amazingly I was pretty calm. If I die I die, no point stressing about the almost certain drowning. Well I didn’t drown, got a fairly clean start spent a little time with someone swimming on my back, then the rest of the swim, swimming with some team mates, got out the water, trouble free and out of transition in 3rd. On the bike course a group of 4 of us formed the first pack. Benoit Buchard (Les Sables), Julien Leroy (Saint Jean de Monts), Nick Beer
(English guy in his first race for Cesson….but don’t get ahead of me!) and of course me, cos its my story. We stayed away for 1 and a half of the two lap bike course, before getting absorbed into the first chase group, lead by you guessed it Mr Suppi. I am sure, had he not ridden 5 hours the day before, our little group would have be swept up in the first 10km, but lets not harp on these depressing facts. We were now a group of 12 or so, with all the pre race favorites looking at each other and protecting their legs for the run. It was at the finish of the bike leg, (where things always get a little hectic) that the curse of Cesson struck. For those that are switched on, yes, it was Nick. For reasons that escape us both, he fell to his right, where I was. I felt a sharp shunt from the left, and then saw the gutter, barriers and spectators rapidly approaching. I hit the gutter out of control, went through the barriers, and into the crowd, terminating my little adventure with someone falling completely on top of me. I rushed back for my bike, tried to keep riding with the chain off, realized the error of my ways and jumped off. I took of my bike shoes and ran like semi drunk emu carrying a suitcase or moldy oranges 
on an ice rink, back to transition. Nick had managed to head butt a small girl in the crowd, and scrape himself up pretty bad, but with little time for sorries, grabbed his bike and followed me. On my journey back I could hear the commentator yelling about a “chute spectacular”, which it was, and then he started to real off all the names of the guys running out of transition. This made me panic all the more and I took off out of transition way WAY too fast. The 5km run was certainly not the funest thing I have done in he last few weeks. After about 1.5km I thought I may well get back to the leaders (Suppi, Buchard and le Soz) but the lactic revenge of my early sprinting, and inability to remove myself off the couch to train, soon kicked in and I had to watch the race for podium positions unfold some 15 seconds in front of me.
For full results click the title link
Monster Suppi 55:18
Benoit Buchard 55:27
Antoine le Soz 55:32
Me 55:46
Max Toin 56:03
For the lazy readers…a brief run down of this race history goes like this;
In 2006 it was my first race with the team Cesson Sevigne, and I ended up crashing. In 2008 it was Antoine le Soz who was the debut Cesson athlete and he stacked. Can you see where this story is going???… ok, read on.
Big race this year and for the first time two starts to split up the field. Girls in the first wave and guys 5 minutes behind in the second wave. 40 girls and 380 guys….Anyone see a problem with this? With no fear of making an over exaggerated comment, the start line was crowded. Its not a great feeling standing waist deep in 14 degree water, being yelled at to get back, while your feet are getting stood on and 10 guys behind you are the thickness of a wetsuit away from being more than just competitors with you. Amazingly I was pretty calm. If I die I die, no point stressing about the almost certain drowning. Well I didn’t drown, got a fairly clean start spent a little time with someone swimming on my back, then the rest of the swim, swimming with some team mates, got out the water, trouble free and out of transition in 3rd. On the bike course a group of 4 of us formed the first pack. Benoit Buchard (Les Sables), Julien Leroy (Saint Jean de Monts), Nick Beer
(English guy in his first race for Cesson….but don’t get ahead of me!) and of course me, cos its my story. We stayed away for 1 and a half of the two lap bike course, before getting absorbed into the first chase group, lead by you guessed it Mr Suppi. I am sure, had he not ridden 5 hours the day before, our little group would have be swept up in the first 10km, but lets not harp on these depressing facts. We were now a group of 12 or so, with all the pre race favorites looking at each other and protecting their legs for the run. It was at the finish of the bike leg, (where things always get a little hectic) that the curse of Cesson struck. For those that are switched on, yes, it was Nick. For reasons that escape us both, he fell to his right, where I was. I felt a sharp shunt from the left, and then saw the gutter, barriers and spectators rapidly approaching. I hit the gutter out of control, went through the barriers, and into the crowd, terminating my little adventure with someone falling completely on top of me. I rushed back for my bike, tried to keep riding with the chain off, realized the error of my ways and jumped off. I took of my bike shoes and ran like semi drunk emu carrying a suitcase or moldy oranges 
on an ice rink, back to transition. Nick had managed to head butt a small girl in the crowd, and scrape himself up pretty bad, but with little time for sorries, grabbed his bike and followed me. On my journey back I could hear the commentator yelling about a “chute spectacular”, which it was, and then he started to real off all the names of the guys running out of transition. This made me panic all the more and I took off out of transition way WAY too fast. The 5km run was certainly not the funest thing I have done in he last few weeks. After about 1.5km I thought I may well get back to the leaders (Suppi, Buchard and le Soz) but the lactic revenge of my early sprinting, and inability to remove myself off the couch to train, soon kicked in and I had to watch the race for podium positions unfold some 15 seconds in front of me.
For full results click the title link
Monster Suppi 55:18
Benoit Buchard 55:27
Antoine le Soz 55:32
Me 55:46
Max Toin 56:03
posted by Kristian at 12:44 PM
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1 Comments:
Retour de Kristian en terre Bretonne et donc retour de ses récits de course toujours aussi sympas
Vivement le prochain !
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