Monday, May 18, 2009

Race 4. Triathlon of Mayenne 17 May 2009

The first thing I must note about this race is that it is almost identical to the race of Laval. It is swam in the same river, just 30km away. Has a hilly two lap bike course and finishes with a 3 lap run around the river. I must say there is a very sharp and quite long hill to drag yourself up each lap on the run, the only key feature to separate the two races. A small group of us Cessonais traveled down to try our luck, which included Erwan, in his second ever Olympic distance race, Elise, who did a 130km bike race the day before, and Jerome who also did the race but also rode there and back, giving him 210km for the day. Ella was there to take photos and get cold and I was just hoping not to get lost. I had heard this course was hilly and with the addition of the chilly wind and cold water, it made for a tough race. With the water temperature just cracking 14 degrees, mine and everyone else’s swim warm up consisted of head up breastroke, some bubble blowing and a lot of “putains” being yelled. This was all performed in the direction of the start line. When 40% of the field was semi ready the gun was fired and the battle to fully submerge your head began. I had opted to swim close to the wall, hoping to dodge a bit of current, but it became clear from early on that the middle was just as good. Three guys in the middle set the pace, I passed one on the way back, but by the time I got out of the water two were well in front. One (Greg Boutier of Les Sables) I would never see again! (that’s not entirely true but I am going for effect here! I caught the guy in second, a man from Redon tri who had lead the swim and stayed with him for the remainder of the first bike lap. I knew the pace was not terrific but, as I had no idea where the course went and I wanted to save my skinny legs a little I was content to follow him around the Mayenne countryside and through its little surrounding villages. A few time checks put Greg a fair bit up the road…Ok, quite a way, alright, alright, he had around 3 minutes. On the second lap I passed my helper and set off in a blistering attempt to cut down this astronomical defecate. I had felt the wind all of the first lap (how could I not it was about 50km/hr) and knew there were some sections of crosswind that were too dangerous to stay on tri bars, but I hoped Greg, who was on full TT bike with disc and aero helmet was having the same, if not worse problems. After around 5km of solid riding the wind really got to me. I got to a small rise that felt like the Hillary step of Mount Everest and while trying to summit at around 12km/hr, turned to see the Redon guy passing me with playful ease. I knew it was time to eat a gel (little too late but oh well) and I watched the guy I had cruised behind for the whole first lap, take off into the sunset, as I dribbled sugary goo down my freshly ironed Cesson suit. The last 15km were a real battle. I was really tired for the distance I had ridden, the hills were extra tough as even slight rises were knocking me, and I was battling to keep second place in sight (forget about where first was). I came into transition alone in 3rd with around 30 seconds to make up to second, and just 8 DAYS behind the Greg (who I will refer to as that bastard (he is actually a real nice guy but that ruins the story)) who had left transition ran out of sight and had probably had time to do a spot of fishing with the local wankers that yelled witty and sophisticated remarks at every competitor as we passed. I racked my bike, happy the ordeal was over but with dreaded apprehension as my lifeless legs still needed to transport me 10km to the finish and assist me up the wall of a hill on each lap. Running to begin with felt ok, and I felt the real pain and suffering was just to come. I moved into second with little fight and actually felt pretty good. After a lap and a bit I was 1 minute in front of third and feeling a lot more chipper. On each lap I could see third getting further behind and out of my hair. I would also cross ‘bastard Greg’, on an out and back section which, aside from the fact it confirmed just how far out of the race I was, also gave me feed back on how I was gaining on him. My new race goal was not to finish 5 minutes behind him, not the most encouraging goal, but I ran with that in mind for the remainder of the run leg. I even heard the commentator saying something French to the effect “here comes McCartney, chasing the win …but…well…..there you go” Hmmmm, should I just stop now??? But he was just being realistic. So in the end I was second. Even knowing its early days training wise couldn’t dampen the disappointment of such a bad ride. I shook Greg’s hand, studied his legs to work out how they had hurt me so much, then complimented him on his catch of fish!! I must add that on our return to Rennes and while pushing my bike back into our apartment I noticed the rear brake pressed against my wheel. Bugger. It explains a few things, like bad braking performance and scraping noises all ride (am I a little slow on the clues??) and makes me think perhaps Greg would have only beaten me by 50 minutes!!!!!!!

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