Kristian Mccartney Racing

Race 8. 4th time Round at Crazy Port Brillet. 7th June 2009

2009-07-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

The race at Port Brillet has always been a hell hot race but this year it was far FAR from hot. Hail half way through the bike leg gave me harrowing flashbacks to Saint cyr and sent Herman Landermine back to his car to put on a vest…mid race!!!!! I warmed up in my wetsuit, considered swimming with a vest on and hid in Laurent Suppis van for as long as I could. But there was a brief parting of the black clouds, and we all entered the water without getting wet...Insert stupid "hope you didnt get wet in the swim" joke here --- I swallowed a heap of water and got that ‘you will die’ feeling about 200m into the swim so actually stopped and pumped out a little breaststroke (a skill I have seen perfected in every lane of every French pool, without fail). I regained the ‘you have a little air in your lungs’ feeling soon after and recommenced the race, all be it in 30th position. It took me quite a while to get to the front of the swim and longer after the race to explain to everyone I had passed what had happened. On the bike I soon found myself alone in the lead. There was a lead car with microphones on its roof blaring out some horrible music, which was not encouraging to get close to, but was in no means a contributing factor in my less than ideal ride time. The hail storm which felt not unlike trying to catch salt crystals in your eyes, while the rest of you lycra clad body is subjected to a sandblasting treatment that would bring back the hull of the Titanic to new, certainly halted my forward progress. I was actually yelling at some of the 5 spectators ‘you are crazy’, but on reflection they had umbrellas and I was the one with overflowing shoes. I popped my bike in its transition spot with a 1 min lead over Antoine Le soz and did the whole run with a similar margin. It must be mentioned that I was warned the forest section of the race was a little muddy, and it did not disappoint. It was so slippery I felt like I was in a cartoon with my legs going at 200km/hr and me going 2km/hr. Thankfully everyone had the same impression, no shoes were lost in the deep stuff and therefore, no time was lost. I must say it has been 4 years of wins here for me and I think back with great fondness to the first year with our surprise team with Adam, Cam, Herman and Laurent and how sp spe s..p…….oh I just cant go on, im getting all teary.

Race 7. Laval Triathlon 31 May 2009

2009-07-13T02:22:00.000-07:00

After having a less than pleasant cycling experience the week before, the sight of the name Jose Jeuland on the start list, scared me almost as much as his enormously aerodynamic equipment. Enormous is probably not the best choice of word, as he is not some massive giant, but crap can he ride. A 4th place at ironman Nice with the 3rd fastest bike time is one of many results I could use as a weak excuse to attempt to explain the hammering he gave me on the bike. He was a big feature of the race last year (winning no less) so my fears were not unfounded. In the swim I stayed with Max Toin, for about 1km of swim circuit, then swam off on my own, hitting a massive boat, and cut my hand. I had not swam off in front, but rather to the side of Max, thinking I was the brainiest person in all the world by using the current, only to find a massive boat hull, which might as well have had ‘you’re a dickhead’ spray painted on it, blocking my way. I spent the remainder of the swim fruitlessly attempting to get back to Max, and left the water 13 seconds behind him. I had watched the Cesson girls, Claire, Charlotte and Alexandra, in the sprint race that morning and saw many riders get on their bikes on the gravel exit of the transition. It was a little sketchy, but no one crashed (I think!) and it sure beat running 200m over the rocks, so in the race, thinking I was again very smart, I did the same. I had told Max of this cleaver advantage and as we approached the road we were presented with a lovely stop and go penalty. On the first major climb I lost Max so spent the remainder of the bike leg alone (I was almost joined momentarily by some dickhead coming the other way, who cut the course and managed to haphazardly steer his bike head on between the lead motorbike and me, where was his stop and go penalty??). At halfway you follow the course back into the heart of Laval, turn at transition and commence the second lap, giving you, your only real chance to see where everyone is. I saw Max and a guy from Gonfreville tri team in 2nd and 3rd, a few others a little later then Jose with Nicholas Tharreau a fair while back. I was estimating the gap at around 2 minutes, or perhaps more so rode the second lap thinking ‘huh, not this year jose, I am the best bike rider in all the world’. Well, those lofty visions of grandeur were all in my dreams, as I put my bike in my transition place just 15 seconds ahead of a Max and with Jose just behind that!!! Eeeek. On the run I was getting all kinds of time splits that Jose was gaining fast, gaining slow, just behind me or he was knitting a nice wool jumper. I could see him at some points but couldn’t be sure it was him or a lapped runner and I didn’t want to spend too much energy running like a emu with my head turned right around. It was not until the third and final lap that I was given the news he was a bit more than a minute behind, which was great as my legs were feeling as fresh as the baguette I had left to cook on the bus dashboard. In the wash up, I was first, Jose second and Max third. For our team Nicho Leroy claimed 11th, Jerome Louapre 12th and Manu Ripoche 56th, which was enough to get a podium by team…..yipppppy. Please note that at no time did Alexandra put her feet on the ground.

Race 6. Dinan Triathlon. May 24 2009

2009-07-03T01:19:00.000-07:00

With some kind of sadistic irony, the clouds parted and the sun beat down in a mirror of the hell hot conditions from one year ago. Everyone stood encapsulated in their wetsuits listening to the briefing to the Dinan triathlon, centimeters from the tantalizing cool waters, yet compelled to stand in the heat through fear of the red card. The course was the same too. One big swim lap, two transition areas (one at the bottom and one at the top of the massive hill), 3 laps on the bike and then 2 staggering run laps up the hill, to finish inside the courtyard of the .. …well, I don’t know what it is, but its very pretty and very old. The swim went pretty much to plan. I swam with Max Toin, got out the water 30ish seconds behind the freak swimmer from Redon tri, and took off in chase on the bike. By 10km Max and I were in the lead and clear. I had been told the guy from Redon could run quick, so I wanted to clear out. I told Max the same thing and he agreed, so I rode strong on the front, then he did the same. And he stayed there! For the remainder of the 40km bike ride I felt my legs become more and more tired, and watched Max get smaller and smaller in the distance, until he looked a little like a small fluorescent canary on the horizon. Again, just like last year I was forced to pick up the pace and I managed to move my bike forward enough to enter transition as Max was leaving. I passed Raph (our team manager) at the bottom of the hill and he gave me the thrilling news the Nicholas Tardieu was catching me at a great speed. Great now I was tired and scared! Some of the oldies watching the race gave me some bravo cheers, and I questioned if it was because I looked as though I was about to stop and walk, they felt sorry for me, or they thought I was doing some sort of impressionist dance called ‘wounded Panda’. Either way it was around this time I had to assess the speed I was or was not running at. I would like to say I took off and was a great hero bla, bla, bla, but the real story was, as the run continued, Max slowed and I passed him at whatever speed I was creeping at. It was enough to win the race, and I rewarded myself by consuming far too many of the free yogurts, to maintain a normal posture, at the refreshment tent. Max had done enough on the bike to finish second and Nicholas Tardieu (who was not in fact closing in on the bike or run, but scared me none the less) claimed third.

Get all the real results, photos and information without my input by clicking the title!!

Race 5. Triathlon Noirmoutier en L’ile. May 21 2009

2009-05-26T03:17:00.001-07:00

One of the hardest parts of this race was getting into the race itself. It was Thursday and a public holiday in France so everyone wanted in, but with only 220 spots up for grabs there was going to be tears. I was very lucky and gained a spot at the very last minute. The island of Noirmoutier is pretty amazing in itself (not that having a triathlon there is meant to blow peoples mind away), as it has the spectacular ‘passage du Gois’. For people that spend 3 weeks of the year glued to the couch, with a tv remote in one hand and errr … your pump in the other hand listening to Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwan, you will remember the tour de France passed here in 1999, and the race was possibly decided by a big crash that held up all but 70 or so riders. At high tide the passage is a few meters under water, and for a few hours at low tide the 4.5km section can be crossed on foot, by car or doing a handstand (anything is possible). There is also a famous running race where they invite some super fast African runners and pit them against the best French guys. To tip the scales in favor of the Frenchies, the run is ‘contre la mer’ (against the sea), where the runners complete most of the race in shin deep water, as the tide speeds in. If you are too slow then you may need to swim the last bit, and the Kenyans arnt the best swimmers! The passage is slippery with mud and algae, and you can imagine running with heavy wet shoes, yet I saw the winners time on the news somewhere under 12mins for 4.5km!! Check this link for more info http://www.lesfouleesdugois.com/ Having built up all this background of the passage, I must say, we didn’t race over it, so forget about everything I have just told you and refocus on this…. The race site was slap bang in the middle of down town Noirmoutier. Well when I say down town, its not New York but with an overabundance of one way streets, lack of parking places and a few too many disgruntled locals driving their 1946 Renault at 14km/hr between their salt farm and potato shop, it was pretty congested! It was actually a really good atmosphere as parts of the course passed the café strip where a delicate blend of posh latte sippers and groggy fishermen could critique the passing of wet, semi clad, lycra adorned bodies, from the comfort of their alfresco settings. The swim was a straight line affair into the outgoing current followed by a climb out the canal by means of one of three ladders, strapped to the canal wall at the top and driven into the bottomless mud at the bottom. Great for spectators as they could walk along and watch the fight just 20 or so meters away. It must be said that it could be a little discouraging for competitors too, as watching an old lady with a walking frame gliding along effortlessly next to you, could make on feel a little inadequate in the water. The bike was 2 laps of 11km with a mix of wide straight roads on flat, narrow winding roads through the salt marshes and dangerous, technical cobblestone sections through the center of town. Ella was lucky enough to see a few stacks, including one where an unfortunate gentleman abandoned his bike and buried himself waist deep in a flower pot. Thankfully his pants stayed on otherwise his impersonation of a banana tree would have taken all of the attention off the race itself! The run was a 5km loop, where the last kilometer leads you along the swim canal to the finish arch. As for my race, I swam pretty much alone after the first 100m, trying in vane to catch one guy who had shot into the lead. I got to the ladder about 10 seconds behind him but passed him in transition and headed out on the bike in the lead. Before the race I had asked a number of people where the course through the center of the village actually goes. Saying it goes up, around and back, or follow someone else was not cutting it and everyone had a different interpretation of the course. I had warm up around all the streets but there were barriers everywhere and no arrows. So as I headed up the hill and around the little castle thing I was prepared to turn left or right and was even willing to go straight on. Thankfully the marshals kept me on track and I got around the real course without becoming lost (I do hope the guy that tol d me (and kept insisting he was right) to go the wrong way up the wrong road, followed his own directions, and is still riding looking for the turn around). I went hard on the bike hoping to get a big space between myself and last years winner, David Gandon. This happened and by the end of the bike leg I had close to 1 minute of a lead. Having been thrashed more than once in the past two weeks and also loosing races in disappointing circumstances, I decided to run hard and leave nothing to chance. I crossed the line close to two minutes in front with people saying “ah facile” Easy? No it was not!

Here is the swim start. I hung onto the pole just left of the bouy and got a flyer!

A special thank you must go to Elise for not only lending us her car but also giving us tickets to a Sound garden/ Lenny Kravitz concert the night before. What a girl! And dam that Laurent Suppi for stealing my secret girlfriend!

Race 4. Triathlon of Mayenne 17 May 2009

2009-05-18T03:35:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!!!

Race 3. Saint gilles Croix de vie. Sunday 10th may 2009

2009-05-12T07:19:00.001-07:00

After copping a battering on Saturday in Saint cyr, then hitting the Poitiers

discothèque with Charlotte and her team till 5 in the morning, I was starting to question the intelligence of my decision to race the Sunday in Sanit Gilles croix de vie. It had been my suggestion to Laurent Suppi that persuaded him to race there also and when Charlotte woke us up in her caravan on the Sunday morning, we looked more like senile sloths with chronic fatigue, than guys that needed to race in a few hours. It was doing a warm-up ride with Laurent, that I remembered vowing last year, I would not race this race again. With a bike course that better resembles a star pattern on a patchwork of gravel and bitumen surfaces, as black rain clouds consumed the sky, my eagerness to hit the course flat out was lacking at best.

I was unable to do a swim warm-up. Not for the usual reasons of it being un allowed or missing the time, but because the water was so dam cold and, still being haunted from the events 24 hours before, I exited the water just prior to groin depth, and commenced a rigorous star jump and burpie routine on the sand. With everyone at the ready, the gun was fired and a few hundred Frenchies and me sprinted down the beach to get into the 14 degree water. It was after my initial duck dive and further flailing dolphining attempts, that I became acutely aware of the cold water. How could I not? It felt like I had left my head in the car door with nana continuously trying to close it as she crackles “in my day car doors always closed, they don’t make them like they use to”. I think for certain it was the first time I thought my eyeballs would fall out (except for a race I did once in Les Sables where there were a lot of topless girls on the beach…but lets just keep on track). I never felt very great on the swim and had the sensation my pace was slowly deteriorating, but I was able to get a little wave to shore and ran into transition in 4th. A group of 4 was able to form consisting of Benoit Buchard (Les Sables), Nicolas Alloit (Saint jean de monts), Pierre Le Corre (Les Sables), and me (Cesson, fluro Cesson). Beniot and I pushed the pace and with each lap were told the gap to the chase bunch of ten or so guys was getting bigger. With one lap to go our lead was 50 seconds and I was happy enough to stop taking risks to gain anymore time, but not Benoit. If the corners were not dangerous enough, the constant stream of lapped riders certainly were. We were presented many times by scatterings of riders taking up all the road and not even the presence of he lead motorbike, whistles, or me yelling “putain, rester a gauche” (you will have to look that one up!) was going to distract them from their 30km/hr joyrides. We lost Benoit at one point as he shot through the middle of a disorganized looking pack, in the middle of a traffic island, while we hit the skids behind, and it was left to me to get him back. Somehow we all came into transition together. Nicholas was the first to drop, which was of no surprise, as he has been injured and unable to run for a while. Benoit set the tempo and I went along for the ride, unaware Pierre was doing the same, some 5 meters back. I passed Benoit in the last half of the last lap and knowing I was not in great shape made my move for the win with a little more that a km to go. Dam, he lifted and went with me!! So now we were running hard and closing in on a sprint finish, just the two of us, or so I thought. We rounded the final right hand corner and lined up the finishline. Between us was around 300m of the most slippery tiles in France, or possibly the world. I had watched people in the earlier race slipping over on them and now here I was trying to sprint on them. I ran hard, Beniot ran harder, I tried a new technique that gained me nothing in speed but gave me the appearance of an epileptic baboon, in desperate need to go to the toilet. Benoit drew level with me, and then I heard it. Someone in the crowd yelled “aller Pierre” Oh god, he was right there!! Beniot took off like he had stolen something and Pierre passed me like he was chasing someone that had stolen something. I succumb to the pain in my legs and checked over my shoulder for anymore unpleasant surprises. I crossed the line at a walk, 4 seconds behind the two team mates that had gone one/two in a glorious sporting moment, and sat down on the seawall, to think over how I had gone from first to third in 50 meters

Race 2. Grand prix round 1 Saint cyr.....and the rain 12th May 2009

2009-05-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

This was without a doubt the coldest race I have ever had the pleasure of participating in. The water was 16 degrees. Not too bad, and after a few minutes of warm-up it felt fine. It actually was not the lake that made me feel like I was in Antarctica. It was the constant rain and chilly wind, coupled with the obligation to ride in 1 layer of soaking wet lycra, and propel yourself down hills, while the riders wheels in front sprayed a pleasant mix of puddles and mud in your face, that sent me to near hypothermia. After having a fairly clean swim (for grand prix standards) and getting out of transition quick enough to see the lead group forming at a very attainable distance, I climbed the first hill content with how my race was unfolding. This was the last time I would be happy about any facet of this race.

I had noticed it being cold when I was getting my shoes on for the bike, but thought little of it. We had around 700m of straight road before a sharp turn left and the start of the hill. Plenty of time to slip on shoes, yet I still found myself at the lower part of the slope, fumbling with my feat. Towards the top of the climb I could see the pack with Nick (my UK teammate) in it but Max Toin just hanging off the back. When I got to him I started to push him, thinking if I can get him in there it will be 3 Cesson in the front pack, and that is the perfect race situation. Well the intention was good but my legs were not coming to the party and I had to stop pushing. I rode hard for a little then waited a little for Max to get on my wheel, but he was still hurting too much, and I was now 50 or more meters behind the front group on the flat. Things were going bad. I spent 2 or 3 kilometers on my own tantalizingly close to the bunch, but without the legs to get there. I decided to save some energy and wait for the second pack, that would have lots of strong guys, and would probably get to the leaders anyway. With the pace slowed and by myself in the French country side I soon felt just how cold I was. The second bunch caught me around a minute later and by the end of the first lap had tacked onto the front group. I was not going great at all. I didn’t feel like I had any strength to pass anyone and improve my position and with every kilometer slipped further towards the back of the pack, that contained around 50 riders. The hills were fine and the corners at low speed were appreciated, but the descents were hurting me.

Not only was there a horrible mix of riders taking big risks and others over braking but the freezing wind was really starting to get to me. It was at the bottom of the last technical descent that I found myself off the back of the bunch, dropped. Shit. I was with a few other guys that I know fairly well and, although nothing was said (my jaw was not functioning anyway) we all had the look of frost bitten bewilderment. We kept the bunch well within sight and if anything or last 5 km little chase got some blood moving in my legs. We rode into transition about 10 seconds down and racked our bikes as the last guys from the front group that had been whittled down to 35 ran out. My feet were white and functionless, and felt too big for my shoes. It took for what seemed 75 minutes to get just two shoes on and then I started to run, with the sensation of golf balls at the end of my legs. The run course was all on dirt roads that, with the constant rain resembled the swim course. I stupidly spent a good part of the first kilometer dodging the puddles, but gave up this fruitless exercise when I realized in some parts the mud on the edge of the puddles was deeper than the puddles. It was for me like a war. I was frozen, not able to focus or see straight and totally energy less, just staggering to get home. If I was not in the first 3 of the team and counting for points, I would have surely stopped. I finished in 27th. Antoine was not far behind me but in the same state and Rod was just in front of me. To add insult to injury Pierre (our U23 athlete that cant count for points) had a great race and was the first of the team home, but with his points taken away the team slipped from 6th to 9th.

Race 1. The curse of the Cesson triathlon. 2nd May 2009

2009-05-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

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

Race 17. Grand prix race 3. Les Setton

2008-09-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

I can describe this race with as little as two words. Not fun. I nearly drowned in the swim, was next to last at the first buoy and only got it together a little near the end to pass people. I was looking for the boat to get me out of there, when my normal routine of breathing during my swimming part of the race was violently changed to drinking. The course for the bike leg was on pretty good roads but for some reason the French tri federation decided to make it 3 out and back loops on the same road, turning it into a skinny, windy obstacle course. All around lake Setton were perfectly good roads later to be used for the open races, but it must be far more important to keep bunches of 80+ riders in one lane and threaten to disqualify them if they are accidentally knocked on the white dividing line. Add to that conundrum a transition area entrance the width of a paddle pop stick and I think you can see where its all going. The organizers must be thanked by all who made it into the second transition area without crashing, as we were all rewarded with a little rest. I think it is one of the first races where I actually stopped moving altogether, as I could do nothing but wait for my turn to slowly walk through the undersize shute, all the time bumping my bike into the guy in front of me, as he was doing the same to the guys in front of him.....and so on. I got to my place only to find someone else’s bike there, and Antione Le soz was looking everywhere for his shoes that he later mysteriously found in another teams area. I just had to laugh, and say something stupid to Antione as I felt the race was as goo as over. I racked my bike on the other bike, and slipped on my shoes with little rush. The change from bike to run had thankfully spread us out a little and I was able to RUN out of transition, all be it in 55th position. I ran as fast as I could for all of the race and seemed to pass people all the way around the two laps without being passed myself. That is until the final 10 meters when in yet another sprint finish, I came out second best, or it should be said, I came out 9th best as we were hardly sprinting for the win!

Race 16. Feins sprint triathlon (retro Cesson)

2008-09-10T01:56:00.000-07:00

Knowing in the next ten days I had to do a grand prix and then Alpe d’Huez triathlon, I decided to dodge the fight in the Olympic distance race and do the sprint race. This meant no money but no pressure and I could save what little energy my feeble body can hold, for the following races. As I knew I would have little pressure I decided to race in the theme of retro Cesson. Out came the long socks, budgie smugglers, 1986 fluro Cesson top (thanks Pierre for that relic), and head band. I stupidly decided to do the swim in the long socks, under the wetsuit. They were fine for the swimming section, as I was barely able to notice them there, but for getting in out of the water, they were nothing short of treacherous. The Fiens race is in a pretty little lake, but the entry and exit point have a bit of algae present and on the run in I felt like I was on ice. I skidded into my final belly flop horizontal position, hoping people watching would think it was all part of a planned technical dive sequence. At the exit quite a crowd had gathered and by the time I arrived I had a handy 30 or 40 second lead so decided to give them a look at my full out fit that had been hidden until that point beneath my wetsuit. Well they were all clapping and cheering and yelling, so it all felt like a successful strip tease. I was waiting for someone to slip a five euro note in my number belt all the time hoping not to have a horrible wardrobe malfunction with my Engine swim trunks (if you can get what I am saying). Puling off the lower section of my wetsuit I was happy to find all that should be inside my bathers was in fact in there! I was nearing the end of my performance, and people were clapping, laughing and commenting on the outfit that was seductively being exposed as I peeled away my neoprene outer skin when my slippery socks gave way from under me. I fell down so, removed the final portion of my wetsuit in a face down, bum up position, on the swim exit ramp, in some type of caterpillar motion. I thanked the crowd, picked up my wetsuit, searched for my dignity, realized that was lost so ran on towards my awaiting bike. I managed to complete the remainder of the course without too much incident. The only other thing I need to mention is that racing in swim bathers the same size as children’s underwear is not the fantastic idea you have been imaging! Within the first 5km of riding I had noticed that the inside of my leg was a little sore and noted it was rubbing a little on my seat. By 15k the situation had progressed to the point that I had to ride with my knees pointing outwards. I must have resembled some kind of stick insect perched upon a bike, but the discomfort was too great to consider normal riding technique. I even tried squirting water on it for some relief and perhaps create some lubrication, but this did little to aide the current problem, and in fact produced another. The addition of water to the front of my bathers just looked like I, hadn’t made it to the toilet. Thankfully sometime during the 5 km run they dried and the sniggers and giggles from the crowd subsided a little, and attention was again directed to my attire rather than my bladder control, or lack of it. I crossed the line, had a quick interview with the commentator, who didn’t bat an eyelid to what I was wearing, then headed back to the bus, to get away form all the stares.

Race 15. Quimper triathlon

2008-09-10T00:48:00.000-07:00

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.

Race 14. Le mans triathlon

2008-08-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

It feels like I did this race ages ago. I had done the same race for the past 2 years being successful in 2006 and coming in second in 2007. I wanted to win again this year, and at all costs not finish third, as it would represent a backwards slide! There were a fair few guys to worry about this year. Ah, who am I kidding, I worry about anyone wearing runners at a race, but there were a few guys that were higher on the priority list than the 68 year old, one arm guy who was staring me down and doing fancey stretches in his 1977 track suit. One of my big concerns was Jose Juland. He had out riden (or to be more precice, annilated me) in Laval a few weeks before and since then had won a half ironman and then finished 4th at Nice Ironman. He aint the greatest swimmer and so I knew I would be riding all the bike leg with my head backwards looking for him. In the swim I found myself fighting a few guys in aroung 10th but saw that whoever was in 3rd had lost feet to two guys who were now swimming away. I swam as hard as I could and got back to the two leaders, then remained there for the rest of the swim, occasionaly looking back to see the others dropping further and further behind. I got out the water in third, just behind Adam Fitzakeley and the both of us took off up the road and out of sight. It was no drafting so we kept our distance. He was riding strong and after a while he started to pull away. By the end of the first lap he was about 15 seconds infront of me. We did the u-turn and then rode back up te hill passing other guys as we went. And then all too soon I saw Jose. He was hooking along and by my estimates was about 1 minute behind. Well I was woried enough to push harder and for a while Adam was in eye shot. With less than 10km to go I started to die a little, Adam was gone and Nicholas Therreau had got to me and gone passsed. Ok I need to stay focussed! What are your srengths??? ---- Aaalright, what about weekneses? Im skinny, get out of puff easy.... but wait thats not going to help now, what can I do...I once did a Rubix cube. Thats not helpfull, and besides thats a lie, I just changed the stickers. So, with no solution to the bad riding problem I just stuck with Nichola. It was a great move as we entered transition just 30 ish seconds behind Adam and Jose was nowhere in sight. I ran solid but too tired to get to Adam. At the start I thought I could but after 5km I just wanted to finish. I crossed in second. Jose finished 3rd and Nicholas 4th.

Must give a special thanks to Damien in TOCC for being kind enough to take Ella and I to the race. He was a great help as I didnt want a repete of the 2006 journey (refer to Le Mans blog 2006)

Race 13. Pierrelatte. Grand prix race 2

2008-08-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

This was one hell hot day. If you click on the title of this race you will be sent to the youtube video that our team put together. It was quite a funny trip, just a pity our team didnt go too great.

It was for sure a no wetsuit swim. I was about 25th out the water, second to last out the water in our team along with Pierre. I had not had a bad swim (in a good position at the first buoy) and hadn't been beaten around too much either(no more than normal). The group I was swimming with simply lost their way at one of the buoys and we were not strong enough to swim back towards the front. I was not super stressed, as we wernt miles behind but I was still in a rush to catch those in front. After one lap on the bike the situation stood at; 15 or so guys up the road and a chase group of 60, not working well and becoming dangerous on the skinny roads. So feeling pretty good I proceeded to ruin any chance I had of running well by launching a multiple series of unsuccessful attacks. It made life harder for others but nothing was working so a rested again in the bunch and just tried to roll through turns so as not to loose total contact with the group up the road. On the last lap the transition heroes started to push to the front. These guys, who had not seen a bit of wind on the front, started to elbow and cut wheels to get up to the front and have a clear run at the transition. Well I was not so happy about that as I felt that their energy would have better used helping our group reel in the leaders. So I held my ground, swore at a few guys, then surged at the latter part of the final km and took my shoes off skidding to a pace to get off the bike and jumped off first. As soon as my feet hit the ground I knew I was in for a crap 5km run. The only positive that had come from this frantic finish was we came in to transition as the tail end of the lead group ran out. I ran the first 2km in approximatley 16 years, almost died of heatstroke between km 3 and 4, then finally got myself together a little and actually passed some guys to finish 11th. My worst result in a grand prix. A few guys did actually pass out with the heat, so I am not exaggerating when I say it was hot. It was an 11 hour bus trip home that "coach Emric" did solo, only stopping for Mcdonalds (3 times) for a break.

Race 11 & 12 DOUBLE RACE WEEKEND (AGAIN) Saint Calais

2008-08-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

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!!

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.

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.

Races 10 & 11. DOUBLE RACE WEEKEND Les Sables d'Olonne

2008-08-14T03:49:00.000-07:00

Racing an evening grand prix duathlon on Saturday and a triathlon the following day is not a great idea....Dont do this. I was asked by the team to run in the duathlon of Les Sables to make the team 5 so if there were any problem and two didnt finish we would still get points. Stupidly I agreed, knowing full well I was racing the tri of Les Sables d'Olonne on the Sunday. The wind in the Duathlon was nothing short of cyclonic which aided weaker runners like me at the start as we could tuck in behind the stronger guys, but as soon as we turned and the wind was on our backs all hell broke loose. For most of the first 5km run I felt like I was out of control. I got to my bike around 30th which I was content with, but around 40 seconds off the leaders. My feet were a little sore and my legs....well, they weren't great. Swim before bike like in triathlon is refreshing. Run before bike is far from pleasant. It was a 30 km 3 lap bike sort of out and back along the coast with a small loop at the back end of the course. On the way out the wind pushed us at 60+ km/hr making the course a little more technical than normal. By the second lap Myself and Antione Lesoz were in a well established 2nd pack, some 30 seconds behind the lead pack. On the way out for the third lap it all turned to shit for me. Following the wheel in front of me I passed the middle line. I heard the arbitre blow his whistle and 'voila' red card for me. Disqualified! I engaged in a rather heated conversation that got me nowhere and learned another 4 in the pack had met the same fate. Antione was safe and asked me to work for him, so with nothing to loose thats what I did. I went to the front of the bunch and went as hard as I could with Antione yelling at me. I remember thinking this is almost a blessing in disguise as I now dont have to run and can save what little energy I have left for the race the following day. Not to mention my feet felt like I had completed an unsuccessful fire walk. Well our pack joined the lead pack in the final 3km and made for super hectic transition. I parked my bike and just went through the motions running out with some of the last guys. I had run already today and another 5km didnt seem like fun. I passed Laurent (our coach) and he yelled at me to keep running. SHIT. I was tired and my feet were super sore. The last few km felt like I was running on pillows. Oh not those nice soft pillows that you snuggle up to on a cold night, pillows stuffed with broken glass. I finished mid field but was unclassified on results, just gaining a DQ next to my name. Our team managers wife Carin, is an expert podiatrist and after the race she took to my feet with a surgical scalpel that felt not unlike a band saw at the time, in order to get my feet ready for the following day.

The Duathlon team checked out of our accommodation and after presentations (of which we were not required to attend) left for home in the bus. Ella and I had planned to meet Tom and Caleb, the New Zealanders on the team who were racing the triathlon. A late change of mind for them left us standing in the car park of Les Sables holding our bags with no place to go. Charlotte and Julien were staying with her father and asked us to join them along with Felicity Sheedy Ryan, and thus we all piled in with the Lanceraus for a funny night. Ella and I set up a bed in a small space upstairs attached to the second bedroom that was attached to the first, not unlike an attic/closet, with no head room and a small sliding door that Felicity kept crashing into and sending us into hysterics. My feet were hurting during the night and I didnt want to stand on them, but the urge to urinate was persistent, and eventually won the battle sending me on an exhausting quest downstairs to the toilet. It took ages, and all in darkness aided only by the dim light of an open mobile phone. I had to first pass Felicity, then Julien and Charlotte, then her parents then negotiate the tricky stairs to the ground level where I met the obstacle course of bag and chair world, through the kitchen and then select the correct door so a to not use the pantry as the toilet. This was all done employing the side of foot or heal down toes up techniques. It felt like the whole ordeal took close to the majority of the night and I was in such a sweat by the end I was sure I no longer needed to piss, having sweated out enough urine to make visits to the toilet redundant for the next 7 years.

The following day my feet felt a little better and I was again keen to race. A poor start in the swim, a few mouthfuls of water and the realization I was in fact tired from the day before, dampened those feelings. I got it together a little bit in the second half of the swim and got out at the tail end of the lead bunch. I fabricated a few failed attempts at getting away, knowing full well the run was going to be an experience forgettable. The run lived up to all my expectations, and I struggled my way around for the 3 laps hoping all the way the first 6 across the line would magically be disqualified for some petty rule like i had been yesterday. Not to be. I crossed the line in 7th, heaps better than the day before but still nothing to run a victory lap over (not that I could)

Race 9. Triathlon de Port Brillet

2008-07-19T01:33:00.000-07:00

It was all about 3s for me in this race. Third time doing the course, was number 3 and I won for the third time. Caleb Hill (in Cesson team) from New Zealand and Adam Fitzakerley (Saint Jean de Monts) had a slight lead out of the water and I joined them on the bike after 5km. We rode pretty much together for the rest of the 40km, and I was able to run away in the 10km run to win by 35 seconds.

Like with other blog entrys, click on the title for the full results.

Race 8. Triathlon of Jard sur Mer

2008-07-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

Jard sur Mer is a nice little place for a race. South of Saint Jean de monts and Les Sables on the Vendeee coast. There were primes for fastest swim bike and run in the race and for team also. Antione Lesoz and I were our total of representatives for the team so that money was instantly scratched out. I swam so so, and got out the water 4th or 5th ish (no prime), then quick transition got me on to the bike in front (no prime for that either). I attacked from the start but the team of Saint Jean de Monts had alot of guys to chase me including Barrett (American), Adam Fitz (Aus), Max hillairet, Julien Leroy, and Nicholas Alliot were not keen to give me any room and after 6km alone I was absorbed into the mass of yellow lycra. Antione had a great swim and he was in there also. We did a few pace changes but it was quite clear it was going to come down to a run so I was content to stay in the bunch and work enough to ensure groups behind didnt arrive. Julien, the cheeky bastard, had saved himself in the swim, and banked on being the last to arrive in the front bunch. He attacked in the last kilometer and was first in an out of transition, taking the prime for quickest bike in the process. He was quite happy with himself after the race. On the run I soon passed Julien (the prick) and was joined in the front of the race by Antione and Adam. Near the end of the first lap I twisted my ankle on the bottom of some stairs that (for reason that now escapes me now) I had attempted to descend like a crab....sideways!!!??!! Well, it hurt. And for 20 or 30 steps after the stairs, after I had converted my stride from crab to wounded human, I was sure I would have to pull out. I had slowed and toyed with the sitting option but pain did not seem to increase and I was still moving and I was in 3rd so I shuffled on. It took some time and some super ugly running but I managed to regain contact to the 2 in the lead midway through the second lap. Now I thought the run was 3 laps. Antione knew nothing but assumed it was two, thus nearing the end of the second lap and spookily close to the flipen stairs he launched a stinging attack on Adam and I. It took me some time to respond and the stairs slowed me to the pace of a geriatric sloth. Heading to what I thought was the last turn around was Antione some 10 seconds ahead, heading to what he thought was the finish. The finish was not far past the turn around so heading there Antione started high fiving the crowd and putting his arms up. I was confused but also thought if this is the end I better start sprinting to get to him. I then saw the lead marshal bike make the turn and Antione follow. He said after he nearly died when he saw the error. Needless to say, sprinting at the end of the 2nd lap didnt make the 3rd lap a cup of tea. I dont remember much of it other than thinking 'boy Antione is going slow' while at the same time making no impression on his lead. You can do the math. Antione won the race by 6 seconds, and got the fastest run prime by the same time. I ended up second with a fat right foot that stoped my doing anything in the following week. Adam finished third, with Barrett claiming 4th. Just for the record Julien was 16th. There is no prime for that buddy!!

Race 7. Triathlon Laval

2008-06-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-12T02:18:00.000-07:00

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!

Race 5 2008. Triathlon Dinan

2008-05-24T03:47:00.000-07:00

The triathlon of Dinan takes place in the old wallled city of Dinan (funny about that) about 50km North of Rennes. Well thats not entirly true. The Dinan triathlon actually takes place in the village of Taden,.... close to Dinan, but miles away if you are lost and late for a race. It was actually quite a unique little race. There were two transition areas, one for swim to bike near the river and a second for bike to run about one killometer away up the hill and next to an old castle thing. It was very pretty with the finish line actually in the courtyard of the prehistoric structure.

This was my first Olympic distance race for the season, and I had the first round of the Grand prix circut the next weekend, so I went into the race thinking I would take it fairly easy. Gun goes off and I swim, ride and run at 100%, Smart. Well not entirly true. I got out of the swim with a few other guys, but 40 seconds behind some dude that had hammered us in the swim. I rode behind the other guys for some time then thinking I could push a little more took up the pace and made some inroads to the lone leader. Midway through the second of 3 laps, I was 10 seconds behind the leader, with Mathieu Gaudin of my team just behind me, when I caught sight of Laurent Levezu, also of Cesson, catching us rapidly from behind and hoping to join the fluro party. He caught us quick and asked if this was the head of the race. I showed him our leader (in a blue suit!! get with the yellow trend pal) and he took off in chase. Mathieu went with him. I hung back for a while hoping my legs would feel a little better, as sometimes when we think of riding and someone goes "oh if they go faster, just go with them" it sounds very simple, but the reality is my legs felt crap, sore and tired and the contemplation of just going faster was likened to pushing a rusty nail down the end of my di.. kick is what Laurent did to try drop Mathieu and I. Sensing that Laurent was getting away and with it taking the race win I reluctantly upped the pace. By the end of the bike leg Laurent and I were the only ones left on the front with Mathieu just 20 seconds adrift in third.

I got away in the transition and ran out in first. Two laps up a 1km climb made the 10km run solid in its own right but with the unseasonal hot sun it made the whole show pretty tough. I missed the first wet sponge statin as the girl delivering the wet goodies decided this was an oppertune time to brush up on her shot put skills and unleashed an attempt at the world record passed my left ear. I thought it may have been curtains if there was no other aid station but I was happy to see anoter just some 300m after where the next sponge doner used the prefered give the sponge to the athlete approach. (not thet I was the athlete at the speed I was running at that point but you can understand the principals). I tried to exicute some of my dont go 100% tactic, throughout the remainder of the run, but as you are staggering up a long dragging hill in the blistering sun its a little easier said than done. My one resipte was passing my bring your own cheer squad (Ella, Karen and Alexie) each lap where I was fortunate enough to be encouraged with crys of "Kristian is a premiture ejaculator" or "Kristian has a small penis". Thankfully I was runnig close to other lapped compeditors at the time so I could pass them and say go Kristian, removing the shameful pressure from myself.

I crossed the line first with Laurent second and Mathieu third. The Cesson girls went one two three also, causing the podium to be very dangerous for those watching without the safty of strong tinted sunglasses.

1st Me 2:oo'00 (you think they would give me one second!!)

2nd Laurent Le Vezu 2:01'36

3rd Mathieu Gaudin 2:03'03

4th Cyrile Neveu 2:04'12

5th Ludovic Martin 2:04'44

Race 4 2008. Saint Gilles Croix de vie

2008-05-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. I was scared on the first of the five laps of the bike course. This was a race I wanted to win just because the name sounds cool 'sont giles cwar der vee', say it fast a few times. Oh well I like it anyway. Now the race is in the small town of St gilles, on the Vendee coast. The course was all in the center of the town, and on the beach. Swim in the sea, five 4km laps on the bike and most of the run in the sand of the beach. One hour before race start the rain arrived and turned the pretty technical bike course into a slippery slide. Ok so my race started like this. I picked the wrong side of the start line, fought the current and went too anaerobic, did some backstroke, regained my composure swam back to the front guys, turned the last buoy with them, got a little wave near the beach and ran out the water third. Quick transition and I was off on the bike alone and in the lead. How the hell did that happen. The race had allot of guys from the Vendee teams of Saint Jean de Monts and Les sables and I was sure the pack on the bike would end up being big and dangerous. I rode as hard and careful as I could, which was comparative to an injured snail, I soon found as Laurent Suppi passed me on the inside on a corner I thought was surely smeared with vaseline. Speaking of which the new Aussie import for the Saint Jean de Monts team (Adam) managed to get vaseline used to get his wetsuit off quickly all inside his goggles, with no vision in the water he lost the course and any hope of winning the race. Back to Laurent and his death wish. Yes he caught me quick, giving me no option but to follow and corner at stupid speeds. Two guys had crossed the gap with him, Nicholas Tardieu and Sylvan Le Bris, making our bunch four. It was a great number, not too dangerous size wise but enough to push the pace. I was little help for the first lap and little better for the second. In two laps we had gained about 50 seconds, and Laurent took the pressure off. I was so happy, and my fear subsided. Nicholas said to e after the race he felt the same, choosing skin over time, but unwilling to back off at the same time. All of us had our wheels slip out at least once during the course but we never crashed. Laurent went missing for one lap and later told me he had to drop back as had no control over his rear wheel, thinking he may have gone through oil. We approached the last transition together and ran down the slippery little ramp to the beach promonard them alongside the transition area on tiles that felt as slippery as ice. I had to laugh as we were seriously going at walking pace and still slipping. We entered the transition (which was on sand) and I saw two more Les Sables guys just entering the slippery ramp. One was Nicholas Tharreau, who I know can run really fast. They had missed the break and ridden together the whole way, just off the back. Seeing this gave me all the more urgency and I sped out of the transition and headed for the beach, just behind Laurent who must have been in the same mindset. For the whole run I was not super comfortable as I had at least 3 guys chasing me and in the deep sand felt as if I was going nowhere fast. It was almost like one of those dreams where you are trying to run fast but are just slipping. Or is it just me that has that dream?? I Felt better running off the beach and tried to make gains on the lead Laurent had established but as soon as the course lead to the deep sands, it was all about preservation. I finished the race in second, glad to be off the bike in one piece and out of the dunes.

1st Laurent Suppi 1:11'05

2nd Me 1:11'19

3rd Nicholas Tardieu 1:11'31 4th Nicholas Tharreau 1:11'41 5th Sylvan Le Bris 1:12' 24

Race 3 2008. Rennes sprint triathlon

2008-05-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Although I have lived in Rennes for the past two seasons, this year was the first time i had competed in the Rennes triathlon. I had a pretty good swim, got away on the bike and did the rest of the bike alone. It is a fairly technical course so in some ways I was glad to be alone, but with the thought of people grouping together behind and catching me near the end of the 20 km, I was also apprehensive to put 100% into the bike leg. I jumped off my bike, ran in to transition found my spot and slipped on my shoes, grabbed my number belt (to avoid the arbiters whistle) and ran out just as the chase pack arrived. Good, I figured I had at least 30 or 40 seconds. I was able to run easy for the 5 km run, but stupidly didnt, choosing to push hard and make the whole experience unpleasant. The commentator, Jean Michael followed me most of the circuit, calling out exactly what I was doing, fixing my cap, commenting on my new ultra bad hair hair cut, and weather or not I took a drink. I was glad my Cesson suit was not too tight around the groin, requiring some discrete adjustments!

Race 2 2008 Triathlon de Plougonvelin

2008-05-13T14:21:00.000-07:00

All I need to say about this was the water was 12 Degrees!! Now you may say "oh thats cold" just as I did before trying to get my head in, but cold is not the word. I simply could not put my head under for the whole 47 second warmup time. It was shear pain, and I was not alone. Once the gun had fired and we all ran into the water for the actual race pain was forgotten, but my hands and feet still were not functioning too well. I had a pretty crap start, then got my act together and finally got out the water in the lead with about 20 seconds lead over Xavier Le Floch and Laurent Suppi. I rode as hard as I could on the hills and open flat sections of the course but the two of them, caught and passed me on the technical and dangerous section at the end of the first 10km loop. Suppi actually yelled yeee-harrrr as he flew past. I didnt want to go with him as he knew the way and was really pushing it into the corners. Xavier was a little more cautious and we both lost time. Same section of the course on the second and last lap I was joined by Nicholas Martin. We entered transition and exited together about 15 seconds behind Le Floch and about 50 seconds behind Laurent. The run was not what I would class as a fun experience. If the road was not going straight up it was going straight down. For most of the 5km I could see Xavier just ahead, and knew Nicholas was just behind, but could do little about either situation. I felt like I was crawling up the steep hills, giving spectators enough time to cheer, have a break, quick refreshment, power nap, and then cheer some more. The four of us all ran about the same times and finished in about the same staggered formation that we left the last transition area. 1st Laurent Suppi. 58:38 2nd Xavier Le Floch. 59:04 3rd Me. 59:22 4th Nichola Martin. 59:29

Race 1 2008 Cesson Sevigne

2008-05-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

To set the scene for this race we must cast our minds back to my first French race of my first French season. It was here in Cesson that I was beaten and drowned in the swim, nearly suffered frost bite and finished, not under the finish arch, but in hospital getting stitches in my chin, after crashing my new bike in a desperate attempt to catch the guys who had earlier left me behind. Ahhh, fond memories. This year Raph (our team manager) told me they had changed the course just for me. Not true, but sounds nice. It indeed was a different course on the bike, where it seemed they found the only real sort of hill in Cesson Sevigne, then mathematically determined a route that would keep all competitors on it for the maximal time. For a flat town it was a hilly circuit. Well this year I started the swim on the extreme right of the course (as apposed to two years ago where I placed myself in the middle, did one stroke at the start then felt every competitor behind me grab and push me under, while rearranging my goggles into a temporary suffocating device) and got a quick clean start. I stayed relatively fight free for the remainder of the swim, got out third and ran for my bike. It all went very smooth again, as my wetsuit came off trouble free, helmet went on without issue and before I new it I was running out of transition in the lead. On the bike I was joined by some familiar faces that eventually made up a lead pack of 8. This number dropped to 7 at the end of the first lap when we lost Julien Leroy (who everyone in Australia would remember as ‘Frenchie’) in a crash on the most dangerous corner of the course. Not long into the second lap we were joined by two guys who I am sure were riding motorbikes when we weren’t looking (Laurent Suppi and Antoine Le Soz). Not great for anyone in the lead group as these two were without question the better runners of the group. It should also be noted they were the best riders of the day as they bridged a 45 second gap without bringing the 15 strong second pack with them, and got the fastest ride times for the day. Now to facilitate the story a little I will refer to the dangerous corner as ‘Juliens corner’ or ‘JC’. 400 meters before ‘Juliens corner’ Laurent surged off the front and in the final 50 meters of the decent before ‘JC’ (where it preferable to apply the brakes), Antoine did the same. It was Laurent who first began to crash then managed to somehow remount in mid air and find a way through the barriers on two wheels. Seconds later he was passed by Antoine, who gained the lead for half a second then span out, hit the ground hard, and completed a spectacular ninja turtle roll maneuver, that exfoliated much of his left sholder, hip and leg. I went around next, passed Laurent fishing for his pedals and said holy shit that was close. The seven remaining riders made it to transition without further drama. I entered the last transition third and ran out seventh, thanks to my inability to complete the simple task of putting your left foot in your LEFT shoe! The run was a bit of a demonstration by Suppi who scored an easy 26 second victory from me with Laurent’s Les Sables Vendee team mate, Nicholas Tardieu snatching third, just 14 seconds behind me.

France 2008. Equipment for the season.

2008-04-30T07:40:00.000-07:00

I try not to be too much of a gadget freak but its sometimes hard with all the new wiz bang stuff being produced, and with the shear nature of the sport, demanding so many different items. I decided to compile a list of all the important things I use for training and racing, just to justify why my bags are so full when I travel. For the swim as for the last few years I will be using goggles from Engine. For training I use the Psycho or the new Freak. For racing I only use the Weapon. They are comfortable, sit great on my face and stay put when they get knocked…..and that’s pretty often. My race suit is provided by the club and is a flashy fluro yellow, not my first pick (nor my 11th pick). My normal race suit is being produced by the guys (and girls…blush) at Engine. Its still in the pipeline so keep a lookout. My wetsuit as for the last five years is an Ironman blue seventy. Again it fits me great, is quick in the water (making up for my ability) and comes off super quick, for the speedy transition. My new bike for this year is a full carbon BPR. Its a new Aussie made frame by Andy Choy at Bike pro in Surry hills. It handles great and climbs well. What more could you ask for. It’s a new bike on the market and looks great so turns heads. I am now using Sram Force components, which I am finding a pleasant change from the norm. The shift quality is fantastic, and the whole package is very comfortable and neat. My wheels as for the past two years are Gravity Zero. This year I have the latest model rear hub. The mechanism engages just that fraction earlier. For those using the older mechanism, this is just that bit better and worth the upgrade, and for those who don’t use this system, bad luck!! The whole bike comes in around 7.8kg. On the run I only use Brooks shoes. I have run in them for 6 years now and have been injury free. For training I switch between the Radius and the Glycerin. For races I use the new Racer St 3 or for very short races where I think I might run fast I pull out the Racer T5. For the bike and run I use the Oakley Radar sunnies. They don’t improve my looks much but on others they look pretty cool. They actually work really well, in respect to fogging problems or vision in the rain.

Race 15: Triathlon de Quiberon 2nd September 2007. Olympic distance

2007-10-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

The Quiberon triathlon is one of my favorite French triathlons. Its not a super easy course but is very picturesque as most of the course involves the coastline. Last year I was first out of the water and then significantly beaten by Laurent Suppi who won, while Franky Batillier was second. This year I was second out the water behind Chris Felgate. We had quite a good lead not helped that on our way in on the first lap of the two lap swim we were told to swim on an angel towards the beach turn can and not directly in (the fast way). There were some tense moments as we were in waist deep water being told to swim by the arbiters. We ended up dolphining parallel to the shore then running up and around the buoy. On the bike I settled in to my own sort of pace and then a few kilometers later passed Chris to take the race lead. I stayed here for the remainder of the bike leg and I think came in for the final changeover with about 1:50 lead on a pack containing Chris, Jerome Joussemet of Parthenay, Bertrand Siffroy and Laurent Levezu of Cesson and Mathieu Gaudin of Pessac Tri. I needed that lead as it turned out. After the initial 200m of running through the crowd the euphoria passed and the painful sensation in my feet took most of my attention. Normally feet rubbing in shoes is of only minor concern, but the week before my feet had copped a bit of a battering and I still had two big holes on the inner parts of my foot that would not go away. I had used the old socks trick in transition, but strangely they were of no help. I stopped running to check the situation thinking my shoe must be on wrong, but no it was fine. 10 kilometers can be quite far when both shoes feel like they are concealing a bread knife under the innersole, but there was little I could do. At the aid station I popped a bit of water in each shoe, [NEVER DO THIS] but this just converted the shoe or rather sock fabric into painful cheese grater type qualities. All of this was forgotten at around the 8km mark of the run where I totally ran out of energy. On the bike I took one energy gel thing but ate only half of it early in the 40km as the package kept scraping my knee. Now I really needed the other half. My legs felt full of concrete and a little crampy, my head felt full of helium and I had to run almost robotically for the last kilometer, just to finish. I checked behind so many times in the last 500m that running backwards would have probably proved less time consuming, but I was scared that my pace had slowed to such an extent that I was getting nowhere and my energy less state was distorting my perception of time. I crossed the line totally stuffed and was immediately presented with a microphone from the race commentator Jean Michael. I was in three minds, to either throw up on it, eat it or talk into it. I chose the latter, and gave a broken French/English account of the race that had finished nanoseconds before, that not even I could understand. Jerome had run fast to get second, just over 1 minute behind and Chris out ran Laurent to snatch third. My feet and shoes were a bit bloody, and it would take two weeks before I could wear thongs without taping my feet first. Result from race 15: 1st Lesson learned: Eat all your food

Race 14: Sprint triathlon Parthenay 26th August 2007

2007-10-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

Last year our team had raced here in the team timetrial stage of the grand prix series. This year it was an individual race over pretty much the same circuit. Water was much cooler this year but no more deep, as you can almost stand all the way around the course. I didn’t get a real flash swim start then ran out of breath trying to make up for it. I ended up on the inside rope of the course and when we made the far U-turn of the course and headed back the way we had come, at on coming swimmers, combined with the ones already hitting me nearly caused my death. I was hating life and was sure I never wanted to participate in any sport that involved getting wet ever again. Thankfully this anoxic feeling past after about 300m of semi freestyle, semi breaststroke, where I would have jumped in the rescue boat could I have seen it, and I was able to swim better for the remainder of the course. I got out the water in about 8th but pretty far back in the overall time of the race. The bike course is pretty solid in Parthenay and I rode as hard as I could for all but the last few kilometers, passing everyone bar Stephan Bignet, who could have ridden with one leg and still won. I was passed by one guy on a full time trail bike with aero helmet and big pressure socks. Given the set up, I assumed he was part of a team and as he took off up the road and out of sight at a speed I could barely drive at, I kept my motivation from crumbling by falsely believing my misguided assumption. Stephen Nicholson (Aus/Irish guy from Saint Avertin) and Aurelien Lescure joined and passed me and I entered transition just with them. One the run Stephen told me he had a black card for drafting and needed to do a penalty loop. It was not just him. Half his team met the same fate. I had run away from Lescure so after Stephen left I was on my own, puzzled why everyone kept saying I was “troiseme” (third), when in my mind I was comfy second. I crossed the line in this state, went to the refreshment tent only to see Stephan chatting with team guy. Had he done the run also?? It was a guy from Stade Poitevin Tri, Simon Billeau, that had swam pretty bad then ridden 2 minutes faster than me over 20 km and beaten me by nearly one minute. I completed the race wearing a handle bar moustache and aviator type mirrored sunnies toped of with a retro headband. There is a little bit of Tom in all of us. Result from race 14: 3rd

Lesson learned: Know who is in the race.

Race 13. Vesoul grand prix round 3. Olympic distance 18th August 2007

2007-10-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

Tom and I exited the Alpes a little weary and I felt pretty over trained. We arrived to the race site to find it a no wetsuit swim. We got to start far left on the course, a decision that ended up being not so great so I exited the water, further back than I would have liked. On the bike (and with socks again) the group I was in, caught the leaders and it became dangerous so I went off the front in the hope someone would join me. I stayed away for about 15km but decided I was expending too much energy and the pack, Now some 50 strong were just leaving me 30 seconds up the road to burn myself out. I can tell you it is not very encouraging to see a massive bunch behind you, not getting smaller when you are riding close to your limit, knowing it’s a hard and fast 10km to finish the day. When I rejoined the bunch I felt crap. Legs were tired, small surges hurt and were hard to follow and when another, and more serious, attack went up the road I had not the legs nor motivation to follow. I spent the remainder of the bike leg in the bunch that now consisted of about 70 of the 100 strong field. I came in sort of mid bunch off the bike and entered the transition yelling at guys to run faster, but kind of happy to have a little rest at the same time. The run was two dead flat laps around the lake we started in. On the first lap I just wanted to get my legs, not walk and feel better than I did on the bike. I finished the first lap in about 12th position and then got a second wind, passed some more guys ran the last 2km like death was coming and somehow ended up second, 12 seconds behind the winner, Youri Severin, a Dutch guy in team Autun, who had unleashed a race winning burst of speed on the first lap of the run. As for the team; Hermann ran well and finished 9th Tom knowing his points didn’t count cruzed home in the 20s and Laurent Le vezu, running on one lung with some cardiac problem hung on for 52nd. We finished 6th for the day, a painful 4 points off the team in front. Result for race 13: 2nd Lesson learned; It would have to be something about not attacking on he bike but I am too stupid to stop.

Race 12. Le Alpe d’Huez Triathlon. 2nd August 2007

2007-10-05T14:36:00.001-07:00

This was one race I was going to take pretty seriously. I was still not super happy with my result last year, 11th, largely a result of my own stupidity (having my brakes resting on my front wheel, see previous blog for details), and felt that this year I could hopefully match it with the top guys on the mountain. So who did I have to beat?? There was Herve Faure, Patrick Bringer, Sebastien Berlier, Nicholas Lebrun. As far as I know there are at least 3 world titles and a host of national titles between them. Faure was the big threat, last years 3rd place then went on to win the Embrun man (the hardest Ironman in the world) 2 weeks later. I was able to get my good mate Andy Gruetter from Switzerland into the race, so he was someone else I had to look out for, as after a few years not competing very seriously had bounced back to form by winning the Swiss national long course champs. He and Anita had joined us at the top of Alpe d’Huez in their big blue camping bus, from which within bestows the average camper a myriad of storage holes and dual function areas, transforming this simple bus into a masterpiece of Swiss craftsmanship. I don’t want to get off track from the story of the race but it’s a pretty amazing van. The day of the race was pretty windless and cool, a little rain in the morning but nothing out of the ordinary. Raph our team manager drove us to the race site the back way from the top of Alpe d’Heuz, quite an experience with the danger of a wet, skinny, twisting road being extenuated by 1000m drops and nothing to stop the bus taking a severely vertical route but a rusty guard rail made in the early 1900s and good driving on Raphs part. There were a few nervous passengers, and I was one of them. Not because of the route we were taking, just because of the pending race. All the way to the race start we passed athlete after athlete riding to the start, all on their new flashy bikes with oiled muscley legs that looked like they belonged on racehorses. For reason that escapes me even now, a large majority of them had their race numbers already around their waists, and seeing numbers like 526 then 644, set my mind to the race start where 650 of so athletes would start together in an elbow flying drown-athon. I remained quiet for the remainder of the trip. In transition it was pretty hectic as there were people everywhere. Andy and I were numbers 8 and 7 respectively, which was pretty cool, and nice of Cyrille Neveu (the race organizer, and Cesson team member) to put us together. Tameka was number 18 and Chris Felgate (from Zimbabwe, who had made the journey across France for the race with our team) number 20 so we were all close in the massive transition. Andy drew a lot of media attention being a Swiss star with his flashy red bike and race outfit to match. I have a flashy Giant bike but it hardly matched my fluro race suit so I dissolved away into the sea of anonymity, and enjoyed the comforts of slipping on my race suit without a camera 17mm away from my bum as I did it. To me everyone wearing a yellow swim cap looked like a fast swimmer, which encompassed the entire field, and hastened my eagerness to get in the water and have a good warmup. I rushed to the swim start area then spent the next 5 or so minutes lingering at the waters edge like a hesitant wilder beast at a crocodile infested river crossing, terrified to get in but compelled by the masses behind to do so. For me it was not crocodiles. It was far worse. It was the cold. Just 4 days ago we had plunged into the fridged waters off the coast of North France and now here we were, about to jump into a glacier filled hydro electric dam. The choice to get in was kind of made for me as I stumbled on the slippery rock bottom and fell in all the while trying to look like I meant to do it. Very classy. The cold hit my head first then my neck and then arms, like lots of tiny people all over you wheilding small chunks of wood and repeatedly hitting the same spots. My warm up swim consisted of 12 strokes, lift the head some back stroke and breast stroke (all head up) and a mad scramble up the other side of the dam. I was not alone. There were a lot of grown men cowering on the slippery rocks around me. Needless to say it was the coldest swim start I had entered. As the course was a oblong shape with just two left hand buoys to negotiate I opted to start on the far right of the start line. Here as long as I didn’t run aground on the rocks I felt I possessed the most direct line to the first buoy. Chris was going to be the fastest swimmer in the race (we had checked the start list) and buggered if I could find him. I thought he would be on the right or close to that but he was nowhere to be found. It was a very broad start line and dotted along it were officials on kayaks. I was ‘fortunate’ enough to have one plonked right in front of me pushing me and my swimming friends (I figured they must have been friends as they kept holding and grabbing me) around me back, while others just out of oars reach surreptitiously floated forward. I had asked a few times if before the race gun went off he would move, and he assured me he would. I was still thinking of this as I pulled myself along the side of his craft. . . moments after the start siren was blowen!! Start pictures show countless kayaks being besieged by foggy goggled swimmers as they passed the start line. All things considered I had gotten a pretty good swim start and after a few hundred meters found myself near the front of the field. Chris had dashed off solo in the lead and I was second about 10 meters adrift. As I approached the first buoy I was joined by two other swimmers who slotted in just in front of me and provided me with a nice ride all the way to the swim exit. I got out of the water in third right behind Sebastian. I knew it was him as his name was printed on the rear of his wetsuit. In transition we were instructed to place or wetsuits, cap and goggles into large, numbered, plastic bags. Then tie the bag so it could be transported to the top of the Alpe without precious belongings being lost on the journey. Chris and I had a little secret tactic that we were sure would out stealth all of the swiftest guys in the transition. The night before we each carefully selected an elastic band (from my extensive collection) with the appropriate size and stretch properties, that could withstand the rigors of the swim on our wrist then slip off in a flash onto the neck of the bag, alleviating the need to manhandle a time consuming knot in the end of the wet and slippery bag. Sebastian had trumped us with an even more crafty method, just don’t put anything in the bag and run off with your bike. I had also opted to try another thing for this race, socks. Not for warmth, and only partially for comfort, I had thought it through and decided that the few seconds lost slipping two pre rolled socks on in transition would be rewarded with time saved putting running shoes on in the next changeover, and the sock itself would stop my shoes rubbing further through my feet, a weekly phenomenon in races for me. The sock decision cost me little in time and was a blessing for the run. Out on the bike I went past Sebastian on the first rise and then Chris who was in the lead at the time, so then I was in the lead. This lasted for around 2 minutes then another guy caught me and set the new, and considerably quicker pace for the race. It was not known to me at the time but this unknown guy was part of a team. His swimmer was with us out the water an even me putting socks on in transition was not slow enough for me to gain a small advantage on the in the transition. I sometimes wonder what people do in there. Not knowing he was a team rider, in hindsight, proved to be an advantage as I treated him as a threat and marked his every move. As we entered Bourg d’Oisans we were joined by Sebastian again, which was fine by me as I had been riding strong but well within myself with the steep slopes of Alpe d’Huez looming. It had beaten me twice last year, once in the race with my brakes on and then again a few days later when I tried to time trial up it, and paid for setting a too quick pace. I was fearful of its steeper slopes, particularly the first 3km which are the most severe. For those who have watched the Tour de France as the riders swoop left off the flat roads and hit the first gradients of the climb with panash, erase those pictures from mind as you read this section. There was no lead out or attack or lift in pace. Phil liggett would not be commentating too excitedly at this section. I was so eager to remove my chain from my large chain ring I had nearly done it too early, and for the initial stages spun my legs out of control. Sebastian and team guy (for lack of a proper name) shifted down gears accordingly and we all settled in to a climb that for the best in the world would take 40ish minutes and for us closer to 50. I was amazed to feel the pace I wanted to ride at a little to quick for Berlier and within the first 300m he had slipped back some 50 meters. Not long before the first turn Herve materialized out of no where. I had been ticking along with team guy in my own little world that his presence gave me such a shock I yelled out “here we go” or “here he is”, I cant remember the exact string of words but it would have sounded pretty stupid. Herve had no intention of riding with us on he climb and made his intentions very clear surging to the lead and trying to drop us. Being less intimidated with the mountain now I was climbing it I was more than willing to respond and follow his wheel. The 3 of us rode the next 500m together then, in what can be only be likened to the famous ‘look’ in the tour de France where Armstrong looked in the face of Ulrich then attacked, Herve turned looked at me and then changed gears and upped the pace. I kid you not this happened at the same spot as ‘the look’ in the tour and for some reason I wanted to let Herve know. I followed his surged again then went along side him and said “that was just like the look”. He had no idea what I was talking about, but the camera guy who had been shadowing us the whole climb did and gave a knowing chuckle. Well I was now riding about as fast up the mountain as I felt I should go and Herve still had a bit to give. Out of the 3rd turn he gave the pace a nudge and I reluctantly responded again, changing gears and standing up. As I did this my chain popped and jumped off my gears making a bad noise and causing my pedaling to slip. I swore and Herve turned and asked “Ca va?” (Are you ok??) I replied as composed as could be “oui ca va”, but this was far from the truth. I didn’t know what was going on with my gears and I was at the limit of what I could ride. Through the first small town of the climb, La Garde, the race changed. It was the first of two drink stations and the drink bottles looked pretty fancy so I grabbed two. Herve and team guy took none and just after were the road reduces in severity from 10% to 7% Herve launched a big attack. Team guy went with him for a bit then slipped away and I, knowing my limits, did what I could to minimize the defecate. After a kilometer or so the gap was 30seconds. I was having more and more trouble with my gears and then after 8km of riding and while in second in the race my gears finally broke. Within seconds my speed dropped from race pace to a dead stop and I was compelled to dismount my bike. One of the motorbikes with me stopped and a guy asked if I was ok. I said I had a “problem mechanical” and he figured flat tire, checked it, and feeling it was inflated gestured for me to remount my bike and he could push me back up to speed. Out of pure hope I did this. He pushed hard and he pushed well but it was in vein, as the bike was still stuffed and as soon as my helper removed his assistance from my back, my speed returned to zero. Motor bike man saw the dilemma I faced but not being able to help and with and exciting race to still photograph he left me like a small child would leave the wrapping paper of a new gift. I was alone, very mad and baffled as to what to do. As if to mock me it started to rain, then rain hard and then finally hail. I could see the funny side of it all as I ran along the rode in my bike shoes. There was a spares motorbike and Mavic car for the race, but neither were with the leaders, smart!! Raph in the team bus had been passing me at different points but he too was nowhere to be seen. I figured I was still in the race, hell I was still in second, just doing it a little tough. After a few minutes of running along some of the others started to pass me, indicating I had, before the malfunction gained a significant advantage on all but Herve. Another motorbike stopped and asked if I had a flat, I said mechanical and they took off. I met some spectators huddling in a car at one of the 21 turns. I asked for a spare wheel, but on receiving a negative response continued trotting. A little while on Sebastian passed me and gave me a “bravo” I smiled and said “merci” all the while wishing I could get his bike. After 650m of running (I know this as we later measured it in the bus) I found my knight in shining armor. He was some poor spectator sheltering from the pelting rain, holding his bike. . . yes bike. My eyes lit up like I had found a pot of gold and I quickly told him what he was going to do. When I say told him, I mean I was desperate. I asked him for his wheel he said no so then I pleaded then grabbed the bloody thing. I swiftly got mine out and gave it to him, took his out and put it in my bike all the while he was going “no no no” and “it wont work its 9 speed” I didn’t care, I wanted to participate in the race that was transpiring on he road behind me. I told him I would meet him at the Casino supermarket at the bottom of the mountain at 8pm and took off on him wheel. I am sure he would have thought I was crazy as he was left holding an expensive top of the range carbon wheel (tyre inflated) while I rode off with his old clunker. 20 meters up the rode I discovered my next problem, through the means of a near crash, as I had started off the rode in a big gear and my front wheel hit the side of the rode and, I lacking the raw power to over come the inertia came to a dead stop. Off my bike I got again. I changed down the gears and watched the chain vanish off the cassette and into the spokes. A further 30 seconds and the removal of some superfluous finger skin realigned the chain with the only gear I could effectively use for the remainder of my ascent. Not only was my bike effectively a single speed, it also resented my attempts to stand (just to change position) and reacted by slipping gears, giving my testacies an all too close glimpse of my top tube. I would sit and grind in the one gear for the next 8km, passing who I could and lamenting on what could have been. The only positive was as I remounted I was caught by Andy and we rode together for a while, he setting the pace and dragging me through the field from about 12th to around 8th at the top of the mountain. A good way to finish off this story would be for me to run out transition like an animal, and have a super sonic run. If you want to believe that is what happened then stop reading now, well done your story is over. The hard reality for those non believers is this. A combination of bitter cold, altitude, inability to change position while riding and pure fatigue had turned my leg muscles into coffee table legs and I ran out of transition accordingly. . . like a small table. Fortunately this whicker leg sensation did not persist further than the confines of the transition area, and I was able to participate in the remainder of the run bending my knees and running like a human being. The course initially took us through the roads in the ski village then out onto some flatter sections of access roads. I use the term flatter very lightly as when you are running at 1800m on the top of a 3000m mountain nothing feels or in fact is flat for much longer than the distance of good stone throw. And there was no shortage of these crude measuring tools under foot. I had run past one athlete not far from the exit of transition and then closed in on another at the bottom of a long straight uphill stretch. I figured that passing this combatant would elevate my position inside the top ten, mmm top ten sounded pretty good considering the events that had transpired on the lower sections of the mountain. Further up the route were other athletes, but as the terrain required most of my attention to maintain a upright running position as apposed to a flat on my face position (much less favorable) I was unable to properly ascertain who they were, how many there were or even if they were able to be caught. At one of the two U-turn sections of the run I was finally able to gage the exact position I was in. The first three Faure, Lebrun and Berlier were out of reach for me and I was sitting in 7th about 300 meters adrift of the guy in fourth. Well I battled with what legs I had left and by the end of the 7km run had changed my position to fifth, about 10 seconds behind the guy in 4th. This guy, who I did not recognize ended up being team guy (transformed into runner form), and thus did not contribute to the overall result, meaning I ended up 4th overall. The first 3 received those big cheques you see in movies or game shows, so I was a little melancholy I had missed one of those. Just to answer some other questions. . . Andy ended up 9th, Chris ended up 22nd, and Tameka ended up 1st for the girls and 24th overall, pretty amazing! As for my friend with the wheel. Yes he did arrive, spot on time at the supermarket, with my wheel in hand. What a guy. I think he was from Germany on holiday and seemed so much more happy to have helped me once our wheels were re-exchanged, than at our initial encounter. He asked how I went then showered me with Bravos and whacks on the back upon the answer. I know this has been a very long and arduous story for those who are still conscious and reading, but I felt it had to be explained in full detain to fully grasp the events of the day. Result from race 12: 4th but no big cheque

Race 11. Sprint Triathlon Plouescat. July 29th 2007

2007-10-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

Another race marred by rain. Jean-Louis, the friendly race director had promised to provide accommodation for Ella, Tom, Tameka and myself close to the race and also sunny weather for the start of the race. Well he was good for the first thing as we had a great little bungalow right near the beach, but he was unable to deliver on the sun. The whole day was wet, a bugger for all the organizers who had done a great job, and quite frustrating as the preceding and following days were fine and sunny. The race was in a little town called Poulfoen, just a few km north of Plouescat in the far west of France. The sea was super cold and I had an ice-cream headache right from the start. It was a pretty unique swim course as we were marched about 500m from transition to the swim start then swam our way back through the marina of the small fishing village. It was then a sharp run up a steep boat ramp and in to the transition. I managed to do all that first, and got on the bike in that position. The bike course was two laps of a narrow, super flat course with more corners than kilometers. Those factors coupled with rain, muddy roads and heaps of lapped riders and you had yourself a pretty dicey little course. I pushed hard on the bike and with the costal wind found it pretty tough. I was glad to hear that by transition had a big enough lead to win the race. Tameka had done similar except for one of the last corners where she slipped on the muddy road and came of her bike. Her lead was so great she was able to remount and retain the lead of the race. I passed her on the run and she looked a little sore. The run itself was very scenic and pretty solid as there were sections where we ran over the top of the beach dunes, while 4 meters to the left sat a perfectly nice strip of untouched road! I crossed the line pretty heavy legged and was immediately greeted by Jean-Michel the commentator for the race. He got me up on stage so quick I was able to call the second (Tom) and third (Marc Lepetit) across the line. For our efforts, along with the trophies and prize money, we all got a big bag of artichokes, a specialty of the region. Result from race 11; 1st

Race 10. Eguzon Grand Prix round two 22nd July 2007

2007-09-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

Fact. Eguzon is hilly! This was my first grand prix race for the team. In our team were Pierre Guilloux, Hermann Landemine and Cyrille Neveu (world long course champion with the stripes on his suit to match). Cesson had finished 10th in the first round grand prix so we were 10th pick of the start boxes for the swim. At first glance the best start position was on the right and the first 9 teams assembled in these boxes accordingly. When it got to our choice we went to the far right and watched the middle boxes fill by teams after us. In my mind we had one of the best start spots, out of the fight with little extra to swim. Tom and I were laughing at the choices of some of the earlier teams to go for the middle. It was a pretty standard swim, few hits at the first buoy…. and for the rest of the course. Being a no wetsuit swim helped a bit as I could distinguish who was actually hitting me. I got out of the water in about 15th and started the climb to the steepest transition area I have ever seen. Many of the guys chose to put there shoes on then run their bikes, as it was all up hill out of the transition for about 2km. I think this sort of helped me a little and I passed a lot of them and got a clear passage out the crowded transition and on to the bike course. After the first climb a lead bunch had already formed and would remain about 15 strong for the rest of the bike course. I was happy to be in it but worried at the same time as on some of the descents riders were pushing stupid speeds and taking unnecessary risks. I saw Benoit Bouchard over shoot a corner and do some mountain bike riding on one of the many aggressive corners. There were a few crashes in bunches behind (including Gareth Bannon and Aussie for Saint Avertin, who exfoliated a lot of skin from his back after hitting a patch of gravel at the bottom of a steep descent) but none that I saw. Our bunch all came into transition together less one guy who had skipped of the front in the last 2km, and no one cared as he was engulfed 8 paces into the run. Like in many races the last 1km on the bike was stupid and again dangerous, as guys who had done no turns and could not run faster than a 4 year old girl pushed to the front, cut up the road, and clipped wheels. The entrance to the transition was a steep downhill narrowing road, and although all the officials were yelling to slow down we all came in as fast as possible. There were a lot of horrible breaking noises a few skids and then we were all off and running. You can probably gather that I was pretty happy to be of the bike and those shitty, skinny, gravel filled, winedy roads. The run in this race was super long. Perhaps the distance was 5km but the times were extraordinarily slow. I blame two geographical features for this. 1, the whole run was either steep up hill or steep down hill, and 2, about 1.5km of each lap was up a creek (water and rocks included) then through ankle splintering cow paddocks. Ridiculous! I know there were other normal roads to put the race on, I saw them, so why the organizers decided on the xterra format is a mystery to me. With 1km to go and all the rocks, mud water and holes behind me, I found myself in 6th position with 3rd 4th and 5th all in eyesight. The last 1km was all downhill and although I was running as fast as I could with a stride length of 8 meters (well my groins felt like it) I was unable to gain a meter on any of the runners in front. I crossed the line 25 seconds behind the two winners, Vincent Luis and Nicholas Bolon, who shared the victory, and a painful 2 seconds behind the guy in 5th. Hermann finished 34th and Pierre 38th, giving our team 8th on the day. Cyrille had competed in the world long course champs less than a week before and said he was pretty tired for the race. He finished 51st, and I think did well just to start.

Race 9 Triathlon de L’Aiguillon Sur Mer (sprint) 15th July 2007

2007-08-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

I am just going to come right out and say it. I did not have a good race here. It started out fine, nice sunny day, no wetsuit swim and good car park (rare in France). But that was about it. I found that although many people had told me it was no drafting for the race it was in fact drafting. It was not only me with the wrong information, there were a lot of guys at the entrance to the transition taking off their super long tri bars to make their bikes draft legal. The transition area was big enough for 200 bikes but with around 300 in the race, space was of a premium. Well all was going great for me in the swim. I started on the left, sort of alone and met the main bunch at the first buoy. I went around that with Tom next to me then moved through a few guys who were slowing down. I turned the second buoy in third and then passed the two leaders on the way back to shore. I wanted the pace to be fairly quick so not to have too many people in the bunch on the bike. The course for the bike was 5, 4km laps of a fairly technical circuit, so a small group would be good. I ran to my bike first rushed a bit too much, tore my number off its belt as I tried to slip it on and left the rack with my helmet not fully clipped on. As I ran towards the Arbitre I knew it was not good and then the whistle. I stopped and fumbled again with the stupid little clip, while my bike slid down my leg and on to the ground. A few guys ran passed me as I tried to pick up my bike while not knocking others, all adding to the panic. I got out of the transition in fourth and took off fast as I could. Yohan Vincent from Les Sable Vendee tri team, the race favorite, was up the front pushing the pace with Maxime Hillairet and Julien Leroy, both from Saint Jean de Monts. I went as hard as I could and slowly started to close the gap. When I was nearly there, I turned around to see how far the others were now behind after my display of strength. How far were they? 30 centimeters. About six were right on my wheel! I had gone flat out, breath gaspingly hard and these guys looked like they were able to sip a coffee and take some happy snaps. Bugger. The small lead bunch I wanted, ended up being about ten guys, and I was stuffed, so what did I do? I attacked. Why? I have no idea. 200m up the road with my legs feeling like a half eaten sandwich (not a honey sandwich, their pretty nice) I questioned my tactic. I was caught within 1km of my effort and nearly spat out the back of the bunch as counter attacks were made. Somehow the bunch all returned to the end of the first lap like a nice ensemble. I managed to sort of get my breath back, slip on my sunnies, and turn to see Tom wearing his massive Oakley M frames all the way from the future of 1985. Veeeerrry nice. It was at that point we hit the lapped riders. Chaos. The race circuit used both sides of the road meaning packs of riders passing other packs of riders. With only 4km each lap there was a lot of passing. And just if it was not bad enough, some Einstein had popped a whole lot of witch’s hats in the middle of the road, in case we got confused as to where that was. On one lap Jerome Joussemet hit a cone, as he had nowhere else to go, and it shot back into the bunch. It was super dangerous (I saw 3 crashes and heard another). All the dodging of cones and of lapped riders was starting to worry me. I tried to break away again but was too tired to do enough and resided in the fact that I would not get away today. It was actually so confusing at points that (as Tom agreed later) sometimes lapped riders would be caught in the lead bunch and you would follow their wheel until you looked up and saw the pack riding away. You then had to sprint around them to get back on a real wheel. After 3 laps I was not sure who was in the lead bunch and who were lapped riders. The lapped guys would stay there for a km or so, just enough to get in the way and then get dropped on a tight corner or with a pace change. On lap 4 I looked up the road to see a few guys trying to break away. There were two or three and a few more shot across. No big worries, but I was not aware Nicholas Tharreau had not only caught us but had ridden through the bunch and broken away. Worse still he had taken Yohan and a few Saint Jean de Monts guys along with him. That group was now strong. I tried to bridge the gap, got a little of the way there but was just dragging all the others so backed off. The Saint Jean de Monts guys were riding perfectly as a team. With guys in the break they were blocking our bunch, slowing the pace and covering anyone trying to bridge the gap. I was too tired to go it alone and no one else seemed keen to put in the work to bridge the gap, so we stayed behind for the rest of the bike leg. I came into transition not too happy, knowing there were about 6 guys 30 or so seconds in front. I may have run in the transition first out of our group but had a shocker in the cramped bike rack and ran out mid pack. It was sunny and I wanted my cap but with all the bikes in the rack I couldn’t actually reach it. Someone’s bike was on my shoes and I think at one stage I may have been cuddling Tom, I don’t know, it was pretty tight! I had a pretty crap run passed some guys got passed by a few guys and by 4 km found myself in 5th. Boyd Conrick was tantalizingly close in front of me in 4th but I didn’t care. I was tired and annoyed how the race had gone, I wasn’t running well and I was not close to getting on the podium. With the line in sight I turned to see if anyone was going to take my precious 5th position and with only seeing lapped runners slowed to cross the line. Total dickhead!!! One of the ‘lapped runners’ was a young guy that sprinted passed me and clamed the 100 Euro for 5th, a fitting way to end the story. Oh but what happened in the race race, well Yohan ran away and won, Nicholas was second, Tom ran through the field to get third and nearly second, Boyd was 4th, and all the Saint Jean de Monts guys in the break were caught on the second lap of the run.

Race 8 Triathlon De Saint Nazaire 8th July 2007 (750m/ 20km/ 5km)

2007-08-14T00:30:00.000-07:00

Not knowing where the race site was, not booking any accommodation and renting a Renault Kangoo (one of the ugliest cars on the road) were some of the factors that determined our sleeping arrangements before this race. After arriving in Saint Nazaire in the dark and reading race signs and bus route maps in the rain, Ella and I finally found the race sight. Soon after moving some barriers and sneaking our Kangoo into the race area we were caught by Said Moulai (the race organizer, and Father of Tony Moulai, who’s photo was on all the race signs as he had won the last few years). Said was happy to see us as I guess he was expecting thieves or vandals at that time of night. He told me some stuff about the race and that we could not stay where we were so off we went again. A little longer searching brought us to a car park close to race sight and we set about converting the car into the Hilton. For some crazy reason the design of the Kangoo allows a person to almost stand up while inside but not lay down! This excessive headroom is of little benefit or comfort while sleeping, but enough of that on to the race. The day of the race was warm and rain free. The two lap “australie”swim (called that because of the run out of the water between laps) was timed to start when the tide was slack, as the current is so strong people may start and never return. Even at slack tide the current was incredible, as anyone who took a direct line to the first buoy could have found themselves well off course and with an enormous task to swim into the current just to round a buoy. Just for fun there was a false start. I was happy about that as I copped a punch in the eye and my goggles were all over my face. Start 2 was better for me, I got some clear water and headed way left of the direct line to the buoy. It paid off as the current brought me nicely to the buoy like a perfectly weighted putt in golf (yes you can picture it cant you). Now what would have been good was if I had have applied the same principal to the second buoy. I didn’t, and like a brainless piece of seaweed I was soon whisked well off the mark and out to sea. Well it felt like that. It was a battle to get to the second buoy and I was glad to finally get to it. After lap one I was second 15 seconds behind Adam and after lap two I exited the water still in second 30 seconds behind Adam, with 3rd and 4th over 40seconds behind me. The current had really scattered the field in the swim. It was a two lap bike course and it took me the majority of the first lap to catch Adam. I pushed hard on the second lap and came into transition with about a 1:50 lead on Adam and over 3 minutes to the guys in 3rd and 4th. The first 1km of the race takes you over the beach and through some deep sand then up a whole lot of stairs. Not the best way to get the legs going. After that demanding section I was joined by a lead bike who traveled with me the rest of the way. Where was he on the beach huh?? I crossed the finish line with my arm raised in the air, not because I’m cool but because I had seen all the pictures of Tony Moulai doing just that so figured I better keep with tradition. After that it was time to go back to the Kangoo/Hilton for a shower and lay down. That’s a joke of course. . . . . I wouldn’t have a shower.

Result from race 8 – 1st

Lesson learned – False starts help fix goggles.

Race 7 19eme Triathlon International Le Mans (1st July 2007) 1500m/40km/10km

2007-08-10T02:28:00.000-07:00

Now before you read on about the gripping events of this race I just want to state that I did this race far from feeling good. I am not making any excuses but the night before I had a little too much to drink and coupled that with about 3 hours sleep. It was all fun at the time (a party for a few girls in the club) but as I laid in the front of the bus, with one hour before the race start, and my guts churning, I was questioning my party decisions. I was hoping that no one would turn up to this race. I was number 1, but I soon found out that 2 was Xavier Le Floch (French long course champ), 3 was Stephan Bignet (Olympian), and there were a heap of guys from the Saint Avertin team all there. Great. I felt good to be in the water and had a pretty good swim start and as the field found their places settled in behind Boyd Conrick and Gareth Bannon (two Aussies from St Avertin). I stayed here for the rest of the swim, and we got out of the water 3rd, 4th and 5th about 30 seconds behind Adam Beckworth and Bignet. I rushed through transition and went hard out on the bike to catch the two swimmers. I got passed Adam but couldn’t see Bignet. And then (and you may smirk) I went the wrong way. I got to an intersection with a guy standing to one side and he looked to be pointing for me to go straight ahead. I went straight ahead and he just watched. The road soon became skinnier then turned to gravel and at around the same time I heard Boyd (who had just made the same mistake) yelling for me to turn around. I made a little u turn and rode my way back to the course, thanking my mute official friend on the way (on the second lap he was standing in the middle of the road). It was a non drafting race but I soon found that I was now in about 7th behind a pack of guys. I had probably only lost 30 seconds but it was enough to put me back in the field. I caught and passed them again and tried to go on alone but turned to find them still with me. They were not blatantly drafting but getting enough to stay with me. I could feel in my legs that I did not have the strength to get away. I decided to save what little energy I had left for the run and rode controlled with them for the rest of the bike leg, keeping well back as a few had been carded for drafting. 5 of us entered the second transition way WAY behind Bignet. He had rode about 2 minutes faster than us and had pretty much won the race there and then. All the guys took off for the first one kilometer much faster than I wanted to go (actually the way I felt walking was exceeding the limit at that point, but I digress), but after that started to slow so I just maintained the same pace and by two or three kilometers completed found myself alone comfortably in second. I actually had the thought of running really fast to try catch the leader, but two factors made me change my mind. 1- I felt pretty crap when I went too much harder, and 2- at the u-turn I saw just how far he was in front. I would have to run as fast as a car to get to him. My decision to hold back on the bike may have cost me the chance to win the race or it may have saved me enough energy to get second, who knows. I finished the race second and got the fastest run time, and a spiffy trophy to boot. Adam out sprinted Bignet out of the water and got himself an . . . .interesting trophy. Stephan Bignet could have got fastest in all legs but certainly deserved the fastest bike trophy.

Result from race 7- second + running man trophy Lesson learned – Pretty easy to work that out!!

Race 6: Saint Jean de Monts triathlon 23rd June 2007

2007-07-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

Race 6 Saint Jean de Monts.

I was second at this race last year and not by very far so this year I wanted to win. Eric the team manager for the Saint Jean de monts club arranged accommodation for all or us again, very kind. The day of the race was super windy and the sea was angry my friend, like an old woman trying to return a used lettuce. There were no nice waves, but rather a horrible wind created chop and a one or two foot inconsistent swell. As with French race tradition the first buoy was to the right of the startline, making choosing a start position a no brainer. During the 14 second warm up I did notice a current going right to left, but it wasn’t until I started swimming that I realized how strong it actually was. A fair few of us had run down the beach to line up with the buoy but as you swam to it you weree dragged further right of it. All the people that had just ran in to swim on the angel actually ended up with the better line. It did certainly spread the field out quite a lot as people were everywhere by the first buoy. Adam was first around it and I was second about 15 seconds later. I had been next to Steve Roy for most of the swim out but as we rounded the buoy he was not with me. I saw no one else for the rest of the swim. It was a two lap swim with a beach run between the laps. I didn’t run as far down on the second lap and got to the buoy no problems. I could not see a lead boat and I checked behind me but there was no one there also so I started to think “was it a one lap swim?” or “did they call the swim off because of the bad conditions?” It was so hard the see the buoys at times, and almost harder to get to them. Coming in after the second lap I didn’t get a wave in at all which made it slow going, so when I stood up and saw people running in front and across from me I got a bit of a shock. They ended up being some of the guys still finishing their first lap, but it again made me wonder where everyone was. I made the long run up the beach alone with everyone yelling stuff at me. A few people yelled out times but they were all different so that didn’t help. At the bikes I could see Adams was missing and replaced with a wet and sandy wetsuit. Was he the only one out on the bike?? I soon found that he was. There in the distance was a little fluro flash with a few motorbikes around it. It was super windy on the bike and not always a good idea to be on aerobars. I worked hard and but 2/3s of the first lap had caught Adam. He had been over 1:20 in front of me in the swim, and I was the same in front of the next swimmer, Steve Roy. So we were really all on our own out the front. It was a drafting race so Adam jumped in behind me and we were off. The lead motor bike was quite far away in front at all times and the back one was constantly beeping at everyone. The first time he did it, it scared the shit out of me and Adam reassured me “he’s been doing that the whole time so get use to it” At the end of lap one of three, just after the U-turn we were able to see the guys in second and third. They were the two Parthenay guys. About 1 min behind them were some pretty big bunches with a lot of the Saint Jean de Monts team. We passed the transition exit and were then in the mix with other lapped riders. Now the lead motorbike was way in front. So far so that it was about 1 min after it passed someone that we would pass them. We did have the beeping motorbike but he was mainly doing it at intersections, so not too many of the lapped riders knew we were the leaders as we came passed them. They were all over the road and some thought they would try join us, or wouldn’t move as they thought we were also on our first lap. It was a problem, and then it was a big problem. At one of the roundabouts we caught two guys both going about 10km/hr slower than us. One on the left of the road and one on the right. I decided to go the middle but as we entered the roundabout they both converged and I had to break. The guy on the out side seemed to keep coming in to take a good line through the turn (fine if you are alone) and the guy on the inside had seen us, but either didn’t care or got a fright or something but he was heading out wide. I felt pressure on my back wheel and my bike move sideways a little then nothing then heard that horrible bike crash sound. I turned to see Adam and the inside guy grappling like Greco roman wrestlers on the side of the road with their bikes mating next to them. I could hear Adam calling him English mean names so figured he was alright. And then I was alone. The beeping motorbike took off up the road and talked to the lead bike, I thought to tell him to drop back a bit but he didn’t. The lead bike kept trying to win, beeping motorbike kept beeping, and I kept dodging riders or wait for them at corners. I was glad to get off the bike and head in for the last run. Olivier the race commentator told me I had a very big lead then started asking lots of questions, about the crash, how will I run, where were we staying this weekend!! The run was much less action packed. Unlike last year where I had chased the whole ten km, this year I had a two minute lead so no pressure. I crossed the line 2:30 in front of Adam who had remounted his bike and joined the two Parthenay guys for the rest of the bike leg.

Result from race 6: 1st

Double Race Weekend

2007-06-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

Race 4. July 16th 2007 (Saturday) 20eme Triathlon de la baie du Mont st Michel. Sprint Now this would have to be the weirdest and wettest race I have ever done. Due to the race being its 20th anniversary the field was full and I went to the race unsure if I could even start. The weather was appalling and I was told by the organiser that I would have no problem getting in, just wait at the inscriptions tent with my stuff ready and when everyone has signed in then I could enter. Well 20 minutes before race start and they still would not give me a number. I was stressing. It was pissing down rain, transition was closing and I was not even close to getting ready. Then a man who had a friend that had pulled out of the race gave me a number and the officials accepted the exchange. It was now last call for the transition to close and the whole preparation thing went as a bit of a blur. I got in there, racked my bike and then we were off to the swim start. For this race it is no ordinary swim. Due to the massive tides in the region the start of the race has to coincide with the start of the rising tide. When I say massive I mean 14 metre rise and fall (yes meter) and it comes in at around 30 km/hr. You have to start the race standing on the side of the estuary and when they see the water moving inwards the gun goes. Its pretty nerve wracking as everyone is anticipating the start, jostling and slipping on the muddy banks. My heart rate is increasing just writing this and reliving the ordeal. Ok, I am calm again! Well I didn't see the tide swing but as soon as I heard the gun I leaped and dove into the frigged water. . . . . Black. It was so so muddy that every time I put my face in the water it was like the lights were turned off. As we had no swim warm up at all, my dive had sent a surge of cold water down my back and this and the fact my arms felt like lead after the first 50 meters made me feel like I was mad for trying so hard to even get in the race to begin with. After around 200 metres I found myself in a lead bunch of about 4 guys then my hand hit the bottom. Being super cleaver I thought 'oh I will stand up and run'. I went to stand and that is when I felt the full force of the current. I could not get my feet under me to stand and I felt it would have been quicker to just lay there as opposed to running. I went back to normal swimming and told myself I was an idiot for trying to out run the 30km/hr water! 100 metres or so later problem two presented itself. Due to the winding nature of the estuary, it was always a concern that I would end up in an area of less current and loose time to guys in 'the sweet spot'. The lead pack had broken up. I was in the middle with another guy, two were on the inside and one out wider. I was keeping a check on them all and then to my horror I saw the inner two guys getting to the bank and starting to run!! I swam at almost right angles to the shore to do the same but not long after my course change I heard a bunch of whistles being used to their full capacity and the two runners jumped back into the water to swim again. I then looked to my right and saw that the guy in the middle of the river was a good way in front and I took off after him. Well for the rest of the swim I pretty much zig-zagged up the river chasing others and we all came together at the exit. There were people there to help you out and stop swimmers missing the exit and being taken down stream. I ran into transition third and was first on the bike. That was to be the driest I would be for the remainder of the race. It bucketed down on the bike, so much so that at points I could not see holes and rode through them. I was joined by another guy on he bike and I gladly let him go in front, thinking he can set the pace for the first lap of two and sort of show me the way, then I can pass him when I know the course and get away. Nope! He was strong and I spent the whole bike leg hurting just to keep with him. I took a few more risks in the corners and could gain on the hills but he was better than me on the flats. I was glad not to crash in the wet as some parts were technical and very bumpy. Entering the final transition in was pretty tired and about 15 seconds behind the leader Nicholas Le Hir. As I racked my bike he was running out and third was still 1 minute 30 second out on the road, so the race was between us. I took the first part of the run out strong but very controlled as I thought he would tire after the hard ride and I still had 5 km to get past him. Well he did not tire. The run was 2 2.5km laps on wet muddy grass that crossed little streams and was as slippery as ice. By the end of the first lap I was 5 seconds behind Nicholas and sure he would falter at any moment. He was looking behind lots and hurting himself all the way. I felt crap but wanted to win so kept the pressure on. Its like one of those dreams (well not THOSE dreams!!!!) but the ones where you want to run faster but just keep slipping on the spot. I just could not make my body get closer to the little blue guy in front of me. He kept looking back and I though he was probably thinking "whats this guy doing?" Well I tried but to no avail. I hoped my head would fall of in the last km to take the pain away and I eased up before the line tired and beaten. On a lighter note, as a reward for finishing second I won a nice bag of biscuits! Now that's the race story, but there is more. The race is "The Mont Saint Michel Triathlon" (I have the T-shirt!) But it is not held at the Mont Saint Michel. I know this because Ella, Adam and I drove there and asked "where is the race?" and the parking guy laughed at us stupid tourists and said it was 30km away! Panic. We found it in the direction he sent us, after following lots of skinny winding roads, in the paddock of a tiny town called Le Val Saint Pere. It was a little bit of a let down as I thought a swim at the foot of that place would be super dooper. After the race we left Adam (as he was racing the following morning and the Olympic distance event) to spend the night with the local doctor and his pretty twin daughters (it speculation but I am sticking to the story in my head), and headed back to Rennes for a quick sleep and then off again to race the following morning. Now this race started at a bit after 8:30 PM!! so by the time presentation, pack up, kiss Adam good bye and pack up the bus was over we didn't get out of there till well into the night. Being so close to the Mont St Michel and having not seen it at night Ella and I decided to pop over. Its pretty! But the extra kms had put the gazzole situation into the critical zone and or attention shifted from 1000 year old churches to petrol stations. We pushed it as far as the petrol light would allow and stopped at a petrol station still 50 or more kms from home. At the later hour we were there (1am ish) it was closed and only accepted card in exchange for precious fuel. You guessed it you cleaver cookie. Our cards would not work! So here we were in some tiny town out of fuel, totally soaked, in the middle of the night and having to get the team bus back to Rennes by 9 the next morning to go race again. At least I was sort of ready as I still had my race suit on! After the longest 40minutes I can remember, contemplating the bus as a bed, a car load of A platers (P platers) stopped and we gave them money for fuel they could obtain by using their (not rejected 70 times) card. And everyone lived happily ever after, until the next day anyway!

Result from race 4. 2nd Lesson learned. Enter races early. put more petrol in the bus.

Find out how Adams race went at: www.beckworthracing.com

Race 5. July 17 2007. Brittany Championships Contre la Montre par equipe (Sprint) Early wake up for this one. Now I have done one of these races before and it was not all the fun it is cracked up to be. This time I was in a team of just three. Gwenn, Pierre and myself. It was important for our team to finish in the top 3 in this race as it was the last selection race for the club to qualify for the French cup in October. In the French cup every club that can get a team represented races and it sets the ranking for all the clubs in France by where they finish. It had rained all night and the trend continued on our way to and at the race site. By the time we got racing it had thankfully cleared and the roads were near dry. Our team was last to start out of about 80 or so teams, as last year we were the best (I didn't race). Each team starts one minute apart and race together with a maximum of 5 guys, and a minimum of 3 to finish. Starting with only 3 is a big disadvantage as there is fewer people to work on the bike and it can be a risk if something goes wrong (flat tire, leg falls off, someone dies). The team one minute in front of us were the raging favourites, Rennes. They are a division one team with many strong guys to pick a good team. In the swim I struggled, for air and ability as Pierre set the pace. I hung on and swam next to Gwenn most of the way so we all got out of the water as a little group and headed up to transition. And I mean up to transition. It was about 300m of uphill to the bikes, and it felt like it took 8 minutes. I needed food on the way I'm sure. We got on our bikes having taken 10 seconds out of Rennes in the water. The bike course was run over part of the world titles bike course so had paint and writing all over the road. It was a three lap course with one 2 km climb and another shot and super steep climb. Pretty tough. It was also very windy and a bit technical, Oh great! On the bike Gwenn found the going pretty tough so it was Pierre and I that set the pace. It cant of been too much of a pace as we got off the bikes 1 min 20 sec behind Rennes!! I felt good in the body but angry to be so far behind in the race so took off solid in the early part of the run. After about 300m I turned to see Gwenn had fallen behind so I told Pierre to run at his own pace and I will go get Gwenn. I pushed Gwenn, which might sound mean, but it was an assisting type of push, and it made him run much faster. It also made me much more tired. At one stage Gwenn built up so much momentum he ran passed Pierre, so I stopped pushing him and pushed Pierre back into the lead. I was very happy with how we ran as a group and when we crossed the line, thought we must have eaten some of the time back to those Rennes wankers (actually real nice guys, but it sounds tuff to call them wankers). Nope. They had ran 40 seconds quicker than us. There was not much else to say really. I tried to steal a prize off one of the girls in the winning team and later we gave our trophy to a drunk guy who looked like joining us in the bus for the trip home. He was stoked and kept shaking our hands and smiling. We passed him 15 min's later as we were driving off and he was still clutching it. He didn't recognise us at first (it had been a long 15 min's and we were all in camouflage fluro Cesson yellow!!), but when it registered he gave us a big wave and blew a few kisses. As with tradition, on the way home Pierre made us stop at "Mc do" for some well needed hot food.

Result from race 5. 2nd Lesson learned. Avoid this sort of race at all costs. Drunk guys love second place trophies. Pierre is addicted to Mc Do.

Race 3. Port Brillet (1500/40/10) 10 June 2007

2007-06-15T07:17:00.000-07:00

It was not hot when we left but it was sure warm when we arrived back in good old Port Brillet. Much like one year ago the small town had come to life and was as hot as ever. All the boys from Saint Jean de Monts team were there strutting around in their flashy team outfits. They are a funny bunch of guys and girls, I just hate that they have nicer uniforms than us. . . . and they know it.

The course was the same as last year, which I was happy about as I didnt have to spend 20 minutes asking where the course goes only to find out the guy I asked doesn't really know and is telling me where a good bread shop is. I got in the water nice and early just to keep cool and once the others joined did a small warm up and made my way to the start line. It was a deep water start and there was a fair bit of jostling for position for the extreme left of the start line. I opted to move about 15m right, more towards the middle of the line. It was a bit of a risk as I had to swim a little further to the first buoy and was away from all the good swimmers, but I thought it would be ok as I could get a cleaner start and then push over. Well for me there was no start gun. I just sensed everyone swimming and took off also, in fear of being swam over and pushed to the back of the race. It all worked out pretty well and when I finally moved over I was in about 5th position, just a few body lengths off the leader, who was Adam. At the far turn it all sort of broke up and I found the guy I was following started to loose contact with the leaders. I surged past him and tried to bridge the gap but as I drew level with him he started swimming into me, forcing me off course and knocking my head and arm each time he took a stroke. I had a little think, looked behind and saw no one on his feet so slipped behind him and took it easy for a little while. Once I felt good I sprinted past him and went out wide so he couldnt get my drag (he still did) and kept the pace on until we exited the water. It was annoying because we both used allot of energy, lost time to the leaders and swam further than we needed. I got out of the water in 4th 40 seconds behind the race leader Benoit Buchard and had a pretty quick transition. On the bike I got into 3rd passing Maxime Hillairet (Saint Jean de Monts) pretty quick and within about 6km was close enough to the lead two to be happy again. I choose my moment and hammered past them, kept the pressure on and didnt look back for the next 5km. When I did look back I saw I had aa good sized lead so kept the pressure on for the rest of the bike leg. I didnt see the drafting motorbike very much at all which made me think the pack behind were all riding together and the bike wanted to keep a close eye on them. I knew one guy form the team Les Sables D'Olonne, was strong on the bike and could run well off it as well. He had beaten me in Saint Jean de Monts last year so I hoped he wasn't pulling a big pack of riders up to me (my suspicions were founded on inspection of race photos a few days later). I really hoped he got lost in the swim, but that's pretty mean!

I jumped off my bike with a 1 minute 25 second lead. And I used a fair portion of that before I even got my running shoes on! I ran into transition and to were my bike rack was, popped by back wheel in the rack then heard the arbiters whistle. I had not gone around one of the bike racks, shaving off 2 or 3 seconds of time illegally. I picked up my bike and ran back to the entrance of the transition, then ran the way the official wanted me to run, some 3 meters left of my previous path! Adam did the same thing when he arrived in transition and Penny his wife had to explain what the whistle was all about. On the run I found my legs were pretty tired but not bad enough to make me struggle. All the drinking I had done on the bike came back to bite me as at the end of the first of three laps I started to get a stitch that kept me company for the remainder of the race. On the second lap I caught Laurent Triquet (who was in our team last year). He was on his first lap and seemed happy to see me. He ran with me for the whole lap, talking a bit running into me and stuffing up the drink station. It was crazy. At the end of that lap my lead was reduced to 20 seconds. Benoit was the one doing the chasing. I had not been running too hard but was far from fresh so had to really lift the pace on the last lap. I passed Max in the forest section and he was spent. We were together at the start of the bike and now here he was walking and more than 3km behind. I slowed and asked him if he was ok. He didnt answer me but it looked like the heat had really got to him. I didnt have time to stop, his team mate was chasing me, so I patted him on the back, said "bon chance" (good luck) and kept running. I crossed the line happy to be finished and just over 30 seconds clear of Benoit.

Result from race 3: 1st

Lesson learned: Dance better in transition, dont run with Laurent.

Race 2. La Rochelle triathlon (750/20/5) 3rd June 2007

2007-06-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

Team Cesson all piled into the team bus for a journey to the coast to take on the La Rochelle triathlon. Adam, Tom and I were the last 3 to enter the race which took some time to happen due to some minor communication breakdowns. I had eaten far less Ravioli before this race so felt good as we lined up on the start line staring at the first buoy that (common place in France) was not straight out but over to the right of where we started. The crazy arbiter (race referee) made everyone keep all parts of their toes behind the line and kept walking up and down, delaying the start and threatening to pull out red cards to anyone you even looked like slipping a toe nail on the line and gain a precious 2mm advantage. Never mind the guys pushing from the back or the fact the line was not straight, he stuck to his guns. As soon as the gun went I pushed off the guy who had been molesting me from the second row and took to the waters to swim and wash. By the first can I was in about 4th position and stayed that way until shore. It was a rough swim as the course made us swim across the path of the waves and I spent allot of the last part of the swim leg hitting a guy that was doing the same to me.

Adam had lead out the swim by 20 seconds and I put in a bit effort at the start of the bike leg to get to him alone. It was in vain as the guys behind me profited off my drag, but refused to help. Before long there was a lead bunch of ten guys, of which I would say 5 were legitimately working. I did a bit of swearing, knocked a few guys who tried to cut in on me, then tried a few times to get away. It was a two lap flat but technical bike course with pretty strong winds. By 2/3Rd's of the way around the first lap I was stuffed. And then it all happened. There were a few weak attacks and then one guy went up the road and I went with him. we got a small gap but not enough, so I sort of sat up a bit as we passed the crowed and finished the first lap. Another two guys form Saint Jean de Monts joined us and we were a group of four. They seemed intent on keeping the pace going and it wasn't until I looked back and saw the lead had actually increased, that I understood why. That was it a good break was made and we all worked hard for the remainder of the lap, coming into transition just over one minute in front of the chase pack of 6.

I let the French guys lead in on the bike so I could copy the way into and out of the transition, and as I put my shoes on watched them go the wrong way. As I ran out my friendly arbiter from the start line blew his whistle in my ear, reminding me to turn my number to the front. What a nice chap! After 300m I had caught back up to second and just behind the lead guy from the division one team of Parthenay. He lead over the hill past the crowed and then hit the wall, leaving me in the lead almost by default. I pushed the pace for the next km and found myself with a comfortable lead and a lead bike to boot (less chance of getting lost). The guy on the bike was in for a big chat until I told him I couldnt understand much of what he was saying, he then kept the chit chat to a few key French sayings I could understand. Little changed from then on and I won the race. The end.

Adam came in fourth and Tom fifth, after both running away from anyone they came off the bike with. That elevated our team to the number one position, and made for great success on the podium.

Race 1. Laval Triathlon (1500m/40km/10km) 26th May 2007

2007-06-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

The first race for my New French season was back at good old Laval. The day was super wet and windy, not the best way to ease back into racing and almost spookily like my first race in France one year ago (where I ended up in hospital).

Laval is about 70km away from where we are staying in Rennes, almost a local race feel. As with the year before the swim was in the river around two very old and pretty bridges, the bike was a solid 40km 2 loop course with about 450m of climbing and the run was 3 laps on each side of the river. Well I had a pretty poor start after being told we didnt need to go around the first buoy and then in the first 10m getting told but the race arbiters to swim sideways to . . . . yep, go around the buoy! I completed the remaining 1450m of the swim in fourth position all alone glancing up occasionally to see the lead three (Adam Beckworth, Benoit Buchard and Chris Felgate), draw further away. I exited the water over one minute behind and set off in chase of the lead 3. After about 6km I reached the foot of the first long climb and could see the fluro back of Adam half way up it. By 10km I had caught him and had the other two in sight. I passed Felgate at around 15km and by the half way turn was close enough to Buchard to keep him in sight. The second lap went much like the first and I entered transition about 10 seconds behind Buchard. He went the wrong way in transition, I said Mercy and we left for the 10km run together. Now before the race I had been speaking with Benoits coach for running and learned he had improved through the winter. I thought little of it until about 2km in when I surged a little and he effortlessly responded. For the next 6km we ran side by side and would have knocked elbows at least 76 times. All this time I was thinking of how I could beat him? how well can he sprint? will I make it at this pace? what is that French official saying? Should I have eaten 50 cent ravioli for lunch?? It was all pretty mentally and physically straining. With two km to go he finally faulted and as soon as I felt him struggle I took off. After 100m of surging away I was stuffed by I had played my card and had to pretend I was ok. I ran just a little faster, played with my sunglasses and waved to Raphs son Paul, hoping Buchard would see and think 'oh hell hes cruising!' The last 1km was actually pretty easy as the damage had been done and the gap was big enough. I crossed the line 22 seconds clear of Benoit who looked pretty tired and 37 seconds ahead of Jerome Jussemet, who rode and ran his way through the field. Adam was the second Fluro Cesson home in 5th.

Results: Laval triathlon: windy, wet and cold, 1st

Lesson learned: Go easy on the ravioli, swim faster.

2006-09-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Race 13. Le Alpe d’Huez Triathlon. 2nd August 2006 The sheer novelty of racing up the famous “Alpe d’Huez” climb had made this race virtually impossible to get into. Race organiser and 2002 world long course champion Cyrille Neveu said “We know for a fact that a good number of international triathletes have entered this event inspired by the twenty one hairpins” He was right, and I was one of those. This was the first full triathlon to use this climb. It would have to be one of, if not the most famous climb to be used in the Tour de France. There are shops everywhere with cycling paraphernalia, photos of winners up the mountain and old bikes once used. The roads of the climb from start to finish are covered in graffiti, done by the hundreds of thousands of fans of the Tour, to support their favourite riders. The 2004 stage of the Tour up Alpe d’Huez was reported to have the largest crowd at a sporting event ever. The ski village itself is probably the only one in the world with almost more bike shops than ski shops. On each of the 21 switchbacks there are small signs that indicate the altitude, the number of the turn, and a stage winners name on it. There are permanent start and finish lines and official Tour route kilometre signs all the way. Every day hundreds of riders have their go at the climb, and all get their photos taken by the two photographic companies set up on the ascent. It is a great place to be for a Tour loving cyclist. Entries were restricted to 550 people and the race entry was closed before any of us had time to think of entering. I gained my start position by sheer fluke. I had been speaking with an athlete from Cesson, Jean Marc, who was telling me how he was injured and had been unable to train properly for the past six months. He then went on to say how it was a real pity as he entered some races including the Alpe d’Huez race earlier in the year. So I ended up getting this spot. My race number was [494], pretty amazing considering he had booked his spot in February! The race course was just shy of an Olympic distance event, but there was no way times were going to be quicker. The swim was in the Lake of Le Verney, which is owned by Electricite de France. It is part of the Grand Mason Dam and is used for energy production. Normally swimming is prohibited in here, but for the race the power company stopped the production of electricity for 2 hours. The ride was a loop around this lake, and then another few kilometres along the national road to Le Bourg-d’Oisans and the foot of the Alpe d’Huez climb. The guide book showed this as 24km of flat riding. From there its only 14km to the end of the bike leg and transition area at the ski station. Only 14km, huh. 21 switchback turns and an average gradient of 7.9%, makes the last 14 kilometres the race that it is. On paper the run looked pretty straight forward, 9km around the ski village. As there were two transition areas, I was required to take my run gear up to the second transition area on the morning of the race. As a team we drove up there and met Raph our team manager. He helped my work a few things out then he and his family joined us, descending the mountain, and returning to our unit for lunch. Benoit Buchard form Saint Jean de Monts tri team also joined us as he was the only member from his team in the race and he was at the same camp ground as us. We had found a cabin in a caravan park in Bourg-d’Oisans, right at the foot of the climb. It was an incredible find actually as the town was full of people, not only there for the triathlon but also the world mountain bike champs in a fortnight’s time. Just before lunch Raph and I went to the park pool. I just wanted to do a bit of race preparation stuff and he just wanted to go over some more things. From the pool we could see the first 3 switchback turns of the climb. Absolutely amazing. After lunch it was time to head to the start of the race. We all crammed into the team bus and departed for the lake. It was a really hot day. Once I had set up my transition area I hid for a while in the Mavic tent, where there was some shade. There were yellow Mavic wheel motor bikes as support vehicles for the race, how Tour de France is that. Sitting in the shade I had a chance to take stock of what was going on in the transition area and to think out my small worries. Although I had been drinking electrolyte I felt a bit crampy in the feet. I was a little worried about the swim in the lake as it was meant to be freezing and I had been finding breathing more difficult in the higher altitude (actually Cam, Tim, Adam and I had gone for a swim on the first day in the Alpes and all asked each other around the same time “is it just me or is it harder to breath up here”) Cold water and lack of air, not the best combination. Every competitor in the race had been given a very large plastic bag, with their race number on it. After the swim we were required to put our wetsuit, cap, goggles and pre race gear into the bag, tie it up and hope it stays together to be collected at the finish. What if I returned to the bike and the bag had blown away??? I ran over and put my bag in it, like ballast. My final small concern was the location of my bike. The transition area was huge and my bike was somewhere in the masses. All the guys I wanted to beat were numbers 1 to 20 or 30, easy racks to locate. I was in another postcode. Everything about the race just seemed huge. Masses of people, enormous mountains everywhere, helicopters circling above us and the deep forbidden waters of the Grand Lake le Verney waiting. The swim course itself was simple, thankfully. Just one lap, two right hand turns, an out and back rectangle. I started on the left hand side of the start line. It was a deep water start and on that side was lots of room. It was about 600m straight to the first buoy, all into a wind generated chop. With officials yelling and the noise of the helicopters and water it was hard to hear anything. I thought I heard a guy, and not being near a rifle range figured it was the start so took off swimming. Everyone else did the same, so yes got it right. It was a tough swim as I was out on my own for a while and didn’t get into the main pack of swimmers until near the first buoy. By the time I got to the first buoy I thought I was well behind but was happy to see the leaders go around only 10 to 20 meters in front. The rest of the swim was fairly easy, and I was happy for this as there was lots more to the race than this. I exited the water eighth and right behind my old mate Benoit, patted him on the back and sprinted to my bike. Running to my bike I was happy with my position but had a real cramp feeling in my feel and now calves also. Speeding through the transition and on he way out with my bike I realised I didn’t tie my bag. Oh well I though hope someone does because I am not going back now. I exited transition in forth behind Pete Jacobs, Carl Blasco (French Olympian) and Reinaldo Colucci (from Brazil and the eventual race winner). Out on the road we settled into a solid but not crazy pace and round the flatter part I felt good and able to ride with these guys. Just past the dam wall the road started to get hilly. I sequentially changed to easier gears as my pace slowed, then to the small chain ring. This wasn’t on the course map! I lost touch with the leaders and saw a few more go past. I wasn’t willing to go super hard at this stage of the race. Once the lap or the lake was completed it was just rolling road to the Alpe right? Nope, to get from the lake to the national road was another few hundred meter climb, and once again I shifted to the comfort of the small chain ring. On this climb a guy in white flew past me in a hurry. This was Herve Faure. I would see him win the Embrun Man Ironman (the hardest Ironman race in the world) in two weeks, and today he was on his way to a second place finish. With the unexpected hills now behind me I settled into the flat highway road to Bourg-d’Oisans. I was passed this time by Charly Loisel, a rider from Poissy triathlon team and last years French long distance champion. Ok that is the last guy I will let go past I thought and so upped the pace a little and went with him. I rode close to his pace to the foot of the climb and had also been joined by Benoit, who had been behind me all the way since the swim. The two of them attacked the start of the climb and I slipped back. By the second switchback Charly was gone and Benoit was a good 50m in front of me. Two turns later I passed Benoit and just started to get my legs a little. I threw away my drink bottle at around turn five as I knew new ones were being handed out at the first small town of Le Garde. And sure enough I got another bottle, the only problem was it wasn’t water like I anticipated, but rather a lemon tasting carbohydrate drink. There was water also but by the time I realised I had passed it. I must have sworn loud enough for Pete Jacobs to hear me and as I rode passed me he offered some water he had just received. I gladly took some, said thanks mate as Aussie as I could and offered it back. Now all that sounds light and easy but I can assure you for the 55 or so minutes the climb took, it was hot and hard. All the way up I had problems with cramps. I reached transition pretty tired and in 12th position. Out on the run I soon caught and passed a few guys in front of me and kept thinking ok, you cant win but at least get top ten. Now the run was 9km all over the ski resort and said to be flat. Well compared to what we had just done it would be referred to as slightly undulating, but with every kilometre I would find a big hill or part of a ski run and think what the hell is that??? After two kilometres and on ‘a small 300m rise’ I had to stop with cramps to stretch. I looked at my quadricep and it looked horrible, the involuntary constriction of the muscle made it look damaged and foreign. I watched the three guys I had worked hard to stay with on the bike, and had run away from early in the run, pass me and run away. Once I felt alright to run I set off again. I quickly caught Chaly Loisel again but was unable to get to the others for the remainder of the run. I felt really good running but when I had to go up hill it was super painful. I crossed the line in 11th position, which might not sound too bad but the real truth is the winners time (Colucci) was more than 12 minutes quicker than mine. He was nearly 2 minutes in front of second. At the foot of the climb the race organisers had set up timing mats so everyone could have a time for the Alpe d’Huez climb. Herve Faure recorded the fastest time of 46:14 which was about 2 minutes faster that any time ever done by a triathlete. My time of 53:41 put me back in 21st position, but interestingly if I was just 2 minutes quicker I would have been top 10 while 2 minutes slower I would have been 35th.. Benoit had suffered a little on the climb after his rapid early pace and ended up with the 47th time, 57:11. He crossed the line in 21st place. After the race I soon noticed how cool the air was up on the mountain. Where we were all standing at the finish area was next to a big ice rink and the wind was blowing straight of that. I needed some more substantial clothing than just my wet race suit. Sure the Cesson fluro yellow radiates some warmth but I needed more. Bec gave me here jacket and I returned to the transition area to find my own stuff. I searched for over 20 minutes through the sea of numbered bags looking for my 494 bag all the while thinking ‘why didn’t you just tie a knot in the top of it’. Bag found I got all of my stuff out of transition and put it in the team bus. While wheeling my bike I noticed that the front wheel was not moving very well and closer inspection showed the brake was pushed to the side. It had been rubbing on my wheel since the first corner I broke at in the race. I had forgotten to re-tighten it after removing it out of my bike bag when we had arrived in the Alpes. Never a good way to ride a bike, but nothing I could do now. We returned to the presentation area and waited. The organisers would not start the presentation until after the last competitor had crossed the line, over 2 hours after the winner! We were all freezing. Only the top ten across the line were paid, so I missed by one position, and my dreams of winning a set of Mavic wheels in the spot prizes were also unfulfilled. Result for race 13: 11th.

2006-09-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

Race 12: Coupe Oxygen open sprint race 30th July 2006 This race was held during the course of the Coupe Oxygen triathlon tour. Our team had travelled to the race site as Adam Beckworth was racing in one of the teams there. The location of the race was pretty much smack bang in the middle of France, about 60kms South of Bourge. We arrived to find a paddock filled with tents and camping cars, belonging to other teams in the O2 tour. While setting up our double room, 8 person tent it rained. After a few hours of raining and confusing tent construction, we were wet and the paddock was muddy. We needed a push from about 10 helpful athletes to get the van out of the paddock and into town for dinner. The whole weekend was a lot of fun for all of us, except maybe Adam who was required to do about three races a day over the three days we were there. I lined up for the sprint race with Cesson team ring in Tim Prowse, another Australian who was not actually racing for the fluorescent squad, but was travelling with us on our journey to the Alps and high altitude training. I had the race up Le Alp d’Huez in three days time so did not want a hard race. We both thought that given the out of the way race location and with the O2 series on at the same time, few athletes would race. Well about 250 lined up for the start, more than expected. Tim and I started far left for the 750m swim. It was a deepwater start and I didn’t want to get caught in the fight in the middle of the start line, regardless of how much further we had to swim. I got a fairly clean start and after about 70m had stoped hitting or being hit by other swimmers. At the far turn buoy I found myself in second right behind the lead swimmer, so settled onto his feet. He was surging a fair bit and I found it hard to hang on towards the end of the swim. When we stood up and started running to our bikes I noticed he didn’t have a top on and also had a bright pair of swim training shorts on. I was thinking he can’t possibly ride and run in those, they are just used for pool swimming, and then looked up to see his team rider waiting. Big relief. I exited transition for the bike leg about 10 seconds behind the team rider, passed him after a few minutes and spent the remainder of the bike leg on my own. With Le Alp d’Huez foremost in my thoughts I eased off a bit on the last of the three bike laps and jogged in to the transition area eased on my running shoes and jogged off for the final five km run. I turned back to see if I was still alone and noticed another rider had entered transition. This made my panic a bit as I had been a little complacent at the end of the bike leg and through transition, and before the race I had noticed a few guys that can go quick. I didn’t want to waste energy with a hard run but I did want to win the race. I’m an Idiot! making life hard for yourself I thought. So I ran the first bit solid but not too hard. I figured that if this guy was running really quick he would get to me after about 2km and then he would be more tired than me. If he wasn’t running as quick he wouldn’t catch me and I wouldn’t have an unwanted super hard run. I was thinking it was a guy from Vendome tri team, who are a division one club, but when I finally got a chance to see who it was, I was quite surprised. It was Tim. He had come out of the water about 30seconds behind me and then ridden a similar time, gaining a lot through transition and was now 20 seconds behind. He and Cam had been doing some very hard ironman training in the days prior, so he was racing really well for someone who was meant to be tired. I yelled out and waved at him. He did the same back. This was pretty good for us, being one and two in the race. I crossed the line in first and then waited for Tim. And I waited, and waited. Had I run that well that he was now this far behind? My selfish hopes of grandness we soon dashed as I saw Tim heading out for his 4th lap of the 3 lap run course. He had been sent out for the extra lap by an over excited official. She had given me the same direction (away from the finish chute) however as I had the lead bike just in front of me I followed that to the finish line. Not so for Tim. By the time he had relised the mistake, made his way back and crossed the line (from behind) he was in sixth position. He was then disqualified for not finishing. The guy who was in third met the same fate. In what seems now to be an all too common theme in French races it is not just the other competitors you must beat. You must endure the hazards of the cryptic courses, stupid rules, and over zealous officials, to not just win but finish the race. Result from race 12: 1st and off to the Alps

2006-09-06T04:02:00.000-07:00

Race 11: Division two. 2eme etape Parthenay. Contre le montre par equipe (750/20/5) July 23rd 2006 This was the scene of the second division 2 race. It was not a normal triathlon format but rather a time trial by team. Each of the 42 division 2 teams would start one minute apart. Five team members could start with only three required to finish. As our team placed third in the first round, we were the third last team to leave. Behind us was Saint Raphael, the powerful team of former world champion Olivier Marceau. In front of us was the team Sainte Genevieve tri. This was the team of Aurelien Raphael, who had won the first race in Mimizan. Pretty good company. The team we had gone for was Pierre Guilloux for his swim and bike ability, Fred Tulane, super strong on the bike (he just needed to hang on in the swim), Laurent Triquet for the run (and it was imperative he hung on in the swim), Herman Landemaine and myself, both to do everything. We had trained the weekend before in Lorient, without Herman, practicing different formations for the swim to see which was the best for Laurent, as he was the weakest swimmer. In Lorient we had used Gwen Dupas, however he would be replaced by Herman for the race. The best formula ended up being (and remember this as it plays a part in the story later); me leading with Laurent directly behind on my feet and Fred then on Laurent’s feet. Gwen and Pierre would flank Laurent and if he dropped too far behind Gwen would grab my leg and Pierre would fill in the hole and tow Laurent back up. Fred just had to hang on. I had to swim a steady pace and continually check if Laurent was alright. After about 45mins in the water we had it pretty down pat. The pace was good and everyone knew their spots. We also practiced working as a team on the bike. On the day we did it Fred was super strong and blew half the team away before we even got into formation. He had told me before the session that he wanted to show how strong he was and that he could do all the work on the front. I was starting to believe him. Fred and Pierre did not have to run so they could spend 100% of their energy on the bike. I also had to work with them on the bike to leave Herman and Laurent as fresh as possible for the run. Similar to the swim training, we eventually found the right rhythm. I was still a little concerned about how hard Fred would go and Laurent had also told me in French, “We will run 15 minutes for five kilometres and then spew at the finish”. That sounds super I thought! On the start line of the race we lined up so everyone was in their correct place. We got a clean start and found good rhythm and pace straight away. I could feel Laurent on my toes, a good sign, and looked to see Fred was still there, great. After a few hundred metres we had gained a little bit of time into the Sainte Genevieve tri team in front. The formation (the one you can remember) was working. As we rounded the far turn buoy and swam back down the course, towards the transition area, a crack appeared in the formation. I rolled to breath to my left and there was Herman! He was meant to be next to Laurent. Ok there is nothing to worry about he is probably just giving Laurent some more drag, I thought. Nope, he kept on swimming and after a further 100m, was a few body lengths ahead of or team. Alright we had lost Herman, but there was no problem as everyone else was where they should be. Wrong! Pierre had moved up on the other side and was swimming next to me. I looked back and saw Laurent had dropped back, out of the drag of my feet. I slowed, Pierre continued and within 10 seconds he was gone also. Fred was further behind as he had lost the safety of Laurent’s drag. I was starting to freak out. What we the other two doing? I swam backwards to Fred then swam him back to Laurent’s feet then went around both of them and set the pace again checking their progress every few strokes. Then problem two occurred. The team of Saint Raphael tri caught us and swam straight over the top of Fred and Laurent, causing them to drop off. We only had about 100m to go so I did the only thing I could think to do. I sprinted up next to the lead swimmer of Saint Raphael tri and pushed him off course (remember they had just smashed over my team). I then surged in front and reached the exit ramp before them, at the same time as Pierre. Then I just perched there. The Shaw brothers told me to move and shouted “what the f#@k are you doing” as they pushed past. Once Laurent and Fred were there I stood up and ran to the transition (Its quite a funny video). I trained with one of the Shaw brothers a few weeks later and we laughed at each others tactics. He couldn’t understand why or how this Cesson swimmer, that he had just swam over could pass him back. He said sorry for dunking Fred and Laurent and I apologised for getting in their way. It was probably one of the easiest transitions I have had. No chasing the bunch or trying to get away, just cruse through and keep the team together. Fred had had a hard swim and took a few kilometres to feel alright on the bike. We had waited for him at the foot of the first hill and the pause in tempo had allowed the Saint Raphael tri team to gain a few hundred meters. I drove the team for as long as I could, let someone do a turn then jumped back on the front to keep the pace high. It was no good. After 5 km the other team was gone. For the remainder of the 2 lap bike course we did not see another team. I had worked as hard as I could. Fred did a very big turn with 4km to go, with Laurent right on his wheel yelling French at him to go as hard as he could. With all his energy used on the front for the team he swang off, his job done, and rolled back to the transition area at his own pace. Pierre with 3km to go did the same. In the final few kilometres we had passed a lot of single riders from other teams who had done similar. I lead Herman and Laurent the last few kilometres back to the transition, and the three of us headed out on the run. I know for the first 4.5km of this run I was the weak link. It was just survival for me, as I had come off the ride pretty tired. Herman had the run of his life and stayed right behind Laurent until 500m to go where I gave him a small push and he was right again. I didn’t think we were running very fast, it was just hard. When we crossed the finish line I was sure we had completely stuffed up the race. A few minutes later Fred ran over with a big smile, and said we were 15th. That’s pretty good I thought, considering our crap swim and poor bike ride, we must have run well. Then Pierre came over and said he thought he heard we finished 5th. Fred’s

head nearly fell off. Within a minute of this there was an announcement that the first three teams were Saint Raphael tri in first (no surprise, they hammered us), Metz (who won in Mimizan) in second and TOC Cesson were third. I couldn’t describe in words the size of the smile on Fred’s face. He said to me as we stood on the podium that it was pretty special for him to be standing up there next to Olivier Marceau. The run that felt slow and hard ended up being the quickest by any team. We had one of the quickest bike rides and had also swam in the top 20 times. Result for race 11: 3rd (a team effort)

2006-08-28T02:54:00.000-07:00

Race 9: 18eme Triathlon International Du Mans, Le Mans 1500m/40km/10km. 9th July 2006 The story of this race is far more about the journey there than the race itself. It began at the Rennes train station, where Adam and I purchased two rather expensive train tickets to Le Mans. We boarded the train with our bikes and thought all was ok, until one of the train conductors saw and told us the bikes had to come off. Was he joking? We started telling him a rational reason for having the bikes, and showed him the race entry information, but he kept cutting us off and repeating “NO VELO”. Stage two, I pulled out the train timetable that has indicated which trains allow bikes to be carried on board, there was no train for the whole Sunday. I showed him and yelled back “find us a train and we will take it”. He replied with his old favourite “no velo”, really pissing me off. I then swore at him and told him he would have to drag me off. He then went into train conductor overdrive, used more English, and said “ok I call the police, that’s it I call the police”. I told him that’s a good idea, as I couldn’t imagine getting arrested for trying to get a bike on a train for a 1 hour journey. The time till departure was now about 5 minutes. Adam had given up trying to rationalise with the guy, and had found a second conductor, who had heard the commotion and was assessing the situation. He offered a better solution, another train we could catch. Adam took his bike off the train and told me to do the same. I reluctantly wheeled my bike off the train and less than one minute later the train shot off. Our new helpful conductor showed us the train we could catch. We now had to go to Laval then catch another train to Le Mans. The train from Laval departed at about the same time our race was scheduled to commence!!!!!!!!!! Nooooo. We thanked him for the help (??) and proceeded back the ticket counter for a refund. I called one of the guys on the team, Gwen Dupas. We knew he was driving there, but he has a super small car, too small for bikes, I thought this option was better than walking. When he answered his phone he was not far from Le Mans and was a little shocked we were in Rennes still. He then told me the team bus should be available (we had been told it was still on another trip). I called Bertrand Helluix, one of the team managers and explained what had happened, and asked about the bus. He told me to leave it with him and so I hung up. We eventually reached the front of the huge ticket line and explained to the girl we were kicked off the train could we have our money back. Well the answer to that was no. And the logic behind this phenomenal decision was that the train had already left. Adam and I entered our second argument with the SCNF train staff. This time I wasn’t going to loose. She offered us just under half our money back, still some $50 short of what we had payed, and said there was nothing she could do. Madness. She was now looking behind us for the next person in line, like the matter was over. Now lets just recap the events so far; We now had far less if not no time to get to Le Mans, and were, at this point $100 worse off. I demanded to speak to someone else and she did this came back with the same answer so I sent her off again. This time she said nothing when she returned, scribbled something on the tickets and handed back all our money. Hooray, finally a fair decision. Being Sunday no car rental place was open and getting a taxi was out of the question, so we were pretty much out of options. Then my phone rings and it is Raph, our team manager. He tells us the bus is free and he can meet us at the Cesson clubrooms with the key in 20 minutes. We were of on our bikes in a flash. With this fantastic news we were laughing and cursing the train line and recapping our story, all the while riding as quick as we could to the club some 10 km away. We met Raph as planned and got the key. He told us we had to leave right away if we were to make the race of off we drove. We arrived at the race 40 minutes before the start thanks to some great navigation from Adam and some disregard to the speed limits.

Everything from here went according to plan for me but not for Adam. It was an Olympic distance race on the outskirts of the town famous for the 24hour car race. I was third out the water about 30 seconds behind Adam and Benoit Buchard. I rode the first 5 km very hard, caught them and then hung back, letting Benoit set the pace. Nearing the end of the first of two laps Adam was shown a black card for drafting. He was pretty close but it was a pretty harsh decision. I took off after this, fearing the same fate and worrying the chasers were gaining. I went super hard for most of the second lap and with about 5km to go the TV motorbike told me I had 1 minute lead. The run was solid but not super hard and I did what I needed to win the race, finishing about 50 seconds ahead of the next finisher. Adam was required to do a penalty lap on the run, but when he passed the area and asked the officials they said nothing so he just ran on. He finished third and went up on the podium, got his trophy and flowers, posed for the newspaper and was then disqualified. Our team members were very disappointed as we had clearly won, and now missed our on the team money. Result from race 9: 1st

Race 10: Dinard Aquathon 700m/5km. 10th July 2006 The Following day I travelled with some of the team and a heap of other club members to a place called Dinard. Dinard is right on the North coast of Brittany and is a popular summer destination, famous for its historical houses and quirky beach tee pees that you can hire for the whole summer. I thought we were doing some aquathlon training, however learnt it was not training but a race. I made a number belt and ran with no top. It was only a small and a lot of fun. The swim was about 700m around some permanent buoys and the run was 3 laps making 5km along the promenade and up a steep hill to an old house. Very scenic. I felt pretty good considering I had raced in Le Mans 24 hours before and ended up winning. Rodolphe Boutier from Rennes triathlon was second and Pierre Guilloux from Cesson was third. Raph jokingly told me a while after that it is very important for a Cesson international to win this race as they have for a number of years. My prize for the race was a lovely Dinard jumper with some of the famous beach tee pees embroidered on it. Result from race 10: 1st with a jumper

2006-08-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

Race 8. 2nd July 2006 Triathlon Saint Jean de Monts. 1500/40/10 Yet another scorching hot day greeted us for the start of this race. The swim was a 2 lap triangle in the sea with a run out of the water between each lap. After the swim was a massive run up the beach (the tide being right out byrace start) to an enormous transition area on the esplanade of St Jean de Monts. The 40km bike was three laps of a pretty flat circuit, and the final10km run was four laps of 2.5km, including a 3-400m run through the soft beach sand, delightful! The organisers of the race had been happy to have two Australians race so gave us a few nights accommodation for Adam and I right on the course. We were the sole representatives of team TOC Cesson, so no team prize money today and also no bus. We rented a very nice station wagon and found our own way there. I feel the team from Saint Jean de Monts were too strong anyway as they had all hands on deck for the race, and even formed a group huddle and chanted before the race. Adam and I did the same but with just the two of us it didn’t quite have the same effect. On the crowded start line over 300 nervous athletes pushed and toed for some precious front row sand. As with all of the French races there is no wave starts, just one big start, and there is never enough room for everyone on the start line. I chose the extreme left of the start line so as to not get caught in the crush in the middle. Stretched between the two ends of the line was a rope to keep everyone back. It was tied to the pole I was starting next to and I remember thinking that when the start happens and the rope is lifted it will not go up high enough, still tied to the pole. I was still nutting this problem out when I heard a siren. Must be the start I thought, so without hesitation I ran around the pole, pushed through the arbitrators (race officials) and started running for the water. A few seconds later was the official start gun, but this meant nothing as the entire field had already started sprinting down the beach. Adam told me after he had been caught momentarily by the rope, putting stock in my round the pole decision. I have a video of this start for anyone who is interested. You can here the two starts quite distinctly. I ran into the water towards the front of the field, swam as quick as I could and rounded the first buoy in about 7th right behind our French swim coach, Roman. I had seen him swim1:58 for a 200m the week before, so with that in mind was happy to be with him. I have conveniently excluded the fact he was not swimming in a wetsuit, but I was still happy with my position. I moved up a few positions over the course of the first lap and exited the water in 4th for the start of the second lap. Adam and St Jean de Monts number one guy Benoit Bouchard had got themselves a little gap off the front by about 15seconds then came Roman and myself. I passed Roman on the run back in and spent the remainder of the second lap on my own, unable to catch the two in front but pulling away from those behind. I got out of the water 53seconds behind Adam who had Benoit 9 seconds behind him. It was so hot that I may have already been dry by the time I reached my bike in the transition. On the bike I felt pretty good and worked hard to get to the front two. I didn’t think I was so far behind so really pushed to get to them quickly. After about 10km I reached a straight section of road and could see them way off in the distance. Oh crap I thought they are getting further away from me. I persisted with the pace I had established, not because I thought it was effective but because it was all I had to offer. Surprisingly, by the end of the first lap I had almost caught Adam and Benoit was not too far in front of him. This was better. This out and back section of the course allowed people to see exactly where others were. Then I passed the guys behind me, and saw a big bunch of around 10 guys. They were all sort of but sort of not drafting. Please note this was a non drafting race. I figured they would probably catch me within the next 5 km the way I was riding. I caught Adam and went off in search of the leader on the road, Benoit, but I couldn’t see him. At the cross over section of the second lap he had a very similar sized lead, and I, to my relief had extended my advantage to the chase pack. I really pushed the last lap. Partially to get more time on the pursuers but predominantly to catch Benoit. My tactic was based solely on my own stupidity as I had no idea where the entry for the transition was or how to finish the last lap, so figured if I follow Benoit I could copy him. I did it. I caught him with about 3km to go in the bike leg. When I reached him he looked very very tired, and was not moving too quick. I yelled that he should lead as I didn’t know the way properly, but he told me afterwards he had know idea what I was saying. I soon realised I had to lead as the pace had dropped significantly. As I neared transition I took my feet out of my shoes and turned to see Benoit doing the same. That must be the right time I thought. Its his home race, he would know. Wrongo! We still had about 600m to ride, 300 past transition, a u-turn then 300 back to the dismount. We both had to do this section out of our shoes. At the u-turn I passed Bertrand, one of our team managers. He was yelling at me "well done" and "allez allez trez bien" (go go very good), and I yelled back "I have got no idea where I am going". I didn’t. I rode at a slower pace back to what I thought was the bike dismount line. Benoit followed. I jumped off my bike and started to run it, but we had to run for a very long way. Benoit still followed. We ran a big square, first away from transition then back towards it. I looked across the square area to see the guy who was in third…..Still riding!! I jumped back on my bike but 10m later arrived at the actual dismount line. Benoit admitted to me after the race he also had no idea where to go, so just copied me. We both had a laugh at how much time we had squandered. I exited transition on the run in second. Not behind Benoit but behind Nicolas Tharreau from Les Sables tri club. He had caught us in the end of the bike leg as we were running our bikes. He ran out of transition hard and sped over the soft sand section. Weary of the heat I ran out a bit easier, although I don’t think I could have gone as quick as he had over the soft sand. At the end of the first lap he was about 25 seconds in front of me, Benoit had retired with exhaustion and the next competitor was over 1:30 behind. Gaps didn’t really change a lot after that. I put I a big effort to reach the lead on the third lap, but Nicolas was too strong and crossed the line 17 seconds in front of me. Marc Lepetit, who finished second in Laval triathlon, was third 1:27 behind the winner. Result from race 8 = 2nd

2006-07-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

Race 7: Triathlon De La Touraine, Nouatre triathlon 2000m, 38km, 10.9km (24th June 2006) It was a long drive to this place. The two French guys Gwenn Dupas and Frederic Tulane drove the rest of us foreign Cesson members for what seemed like an eternity. We had left Rennes at around 10am in cool overcast conditions but arrived in Nouatre at around 1pm in scorching hot and sunny conditions. By the time we had put our bikes together and got our race gear organised, I had sweated about 4 litres. The whole race was a little quirky. The town itself was tiny, yet the race offered pretty big prize money, paying to 51st and the top five teams. The swim start was 2km upstream, in a river that had such a current that you could only go one way. The transition area was so small that bikes had to be hung vertically to make enough room. We were after a team result, but needed 5 members to finish. Gwenn, Fred, Adam and myself waited anxiously for Laurent Triquet to arrive, which he did, with about 40 mins to spare. After the pre race brief we all hopped on busses and travelled to the swim start. Many guys had their wetsuits already on, but I opted not to as it was so, so hot. There were two busses; and we pushed our way on to the first not wanting to loose valuable warm up time. As it turned out the busses had to do two more trips each, allowing us ample time to warm up in the water. Adam actually swam a bit far downstream and could not swim back against the current. He had to swim to the bank, climb out and walk a few hundred metres back to the start line. The organisers got everyone out of the water and allowed the females to go first. Once everyone was up the steep banks of the river the girls were allowed into the water and a whistle was blown to signal the start. I am sure there was meant to be a few minutes gap between the guys and the girls, however a few unfortunate, but not unforeseeable events did not allow this to occur. We all had to swim down the river but were made to start on the bank of the river, sort of at right angles to the start line. Of course the most downstream end of the start line was packed as it was the shortest line of the swim. So there were about 200 or more nervous guys pushing for that magical start position, the most downstream the better. Everyone was edging bit by bit closer to the water, creeping down the slippery bank of the river. After about 30 seconds of the girls departure, the creeping had for some guys reached the edge of the river. People behind pressured for front positions, and people behind them forced them further forward. 40 seconds (my estimate) after the girls start, was about the time the human dam first broke. I think someone slipped forward rapidly, they guy next to him thought he would jump forward also, and guys further away, sensing rapid movement moved right into the river. Someone fell right in, and the splash created enough panic to start the race. I could hear the officials yelling and then the whistle blew; that was how we started. Not long into the swim we had caught the girls, which made it hard for them and us. The swim was pretty quick with the current. The last 50m were under a bridge and over to the exit chute, through an area that was like mini rapids. I panicked a little in here as it was so choppy I couldn’t see any of the guys I was swimming with, and started thinking ‘oh no what if I am caught in some whirl pool area where the water is not going downstream, while everyone else is zipping by me in fast flowing water. I felt rocks under me and stood to see the guys just meters ahead of me. I walked over the rocks with the others (Yes walking in a race, pretty fun) and then ran to the transition area, helmet on wetsuit off and bike back on the ground. The ride was two laps of a pretty solid course. Most of it was flat or rolling hills, but there was one cracker of a hill just out of the town. It was said to be more that 15%. That is tough enough, but it was also the poorest road surface you could imagine. It was like a very narrow, unused farm road, with holes and heaps of gravel. It was as close to unsealed a bitumen road could be. Stephane Bignet and Paul Amey had taken off on the bike and were out of sight by the end of the first lap. I had found myself in the next group of about 10 guys a few minutes behind. The remainder of the ride stayed pretty much like this with the exception of two guys slipping away about 30seconds in front of us into transition. It was hot on the run. There was no cooling effect from the wind that you get on the bike, and no water to squirt on your head whenever you feel. After about 2km of running I was leading the chasers with another guy right on my shoulder. We passed someone on the side of the road who offered me a big bottle of water. I grabbed it and tipped some on my head then offered it to my limpet friend. He had some also then ran off on me not long later, going on to record the fastest run of the race. I ran alone for the rest of the run, battling cramps from the heat. I caught one of the guys who had taken off on the bike but could not catch the other, crossing the line in fifth. All the members of the team had done well and we ended up second. I was 5th, Adam 9th, Laurent 14th, Gwenn 21st and Fred 27th. All in the top 30 of a race with over 300 shows a good depth in the team. Result from race six = A hot 5th

2006-07-25T01:29:00.000-07:00

Race 6. 11eme Triathlon International Des Sables D’olonne Sprint (18th June 2006)

This race was over for me before the first swim buoy. I ran into the water ok and started swimming fairly well then found myself totally out of breath and unable to get any air in. I pushed out a bit of breaststroke and at some points backstroke then just swam slow for a while. I had been pretty fortunate not to get swam over as the last thing I needed was to be pushed under. By about half way I was back to fairly normal swimming and breathing so pushed a bit harder, mistake. Back to the desperate gasps and panic. When I took it easy it went away again, and the pattern continued until the last turn buoy about 200m before the beach. I exited the swim in 16th position nearly a full minute behind the leader (Adam Beckworth, another Aussie on team Cesson) and alongside Taryn Mcleod from New Zealand, the first female. In transition my bike was waiting alone as all the other guys in the top ten numbers had been and gone. I had a nothing special transition then ran my bike out. The layout for transition was just two rows of bikes about 100m long with a central corridor to access bikes. This required you to run with your bike down the transition area past all the bikes in the race (200 exactly) then around the back of the transition and along the whole length again on the outside. I had missed the part in race briefing that said once out of the central corridor you can mount your bike (Adam and I had actually missed the entire briefing, as it is all in French, and we just went straight to the swim start) so continued to run with my bike until I heard Penny Beckworth yelling "get on your f@#n bike Kris" Oh that is a super idea I thought! So I had just lost more time.

On the bike I could see a few guys from St Jean de Monts team way off in the distance, a good 600m. I had to get to them now and work with them to get to the lead pack, as it was a drafting race right??. I went all out for the first 5km, only slowing to go on the footpath to avoid a car that had got on the course!! I had made pretty good progress and caught the two St Jean de Monts guys but there was something odd. They were not working together and had let another guy ride up the road on them. Oh well, perhaps they have just been dropped I thought, so as I passed them I said aller aller (lets go) and signalled for them to get on my wheel and come with me. They didn’t. I turned to see if they would take a turn and they were about 50m behind. Damn, I had used a lot of energy to get to them quick and they were too weak to stay on my wheel let alone work with me. I went all out and caught the next guy. He too did not come with me, crazy.

The bike course was an out and back along the costal road. Not very technical or hilly but the road was rolling rises and constantly curved around the cliff tops, meaning it was difficult to see too far in front and it wasn’t until the turnaround that I saw the leaders. There was no lead pack. They were close but not really drafting. Ok so this is not a drafting race. It had taken 10km on the bike for the penny to drop, and I was amazed when entering transition that they had not checked the legality of my bars. It all made sense, but not a good thing for me as I had really hurt myself thinking I could get into a bunch. I suffered on the return section of the bike leg. I was tired and a bit dejected with how the race had panned out thus far.

With about 3km to go a entered a confusing part of the course, as the run and bike legs were both conducted on the same stretch of road. We had ridden out the sea side of the road and were returning to the same transition so I thought we would run on the other side, the non sea side so bikes and runners would be separate. I got to a large intersection where a median strip began and ran all the way to the transition area. There were cones and bunting on both sides and a large crowed all yelling. I yelled out which way and got no real answer so went on the left (sea side). That must be the way as the crowd were still clapping and no one was going "no no". About 30 seconds later a motorbike on the other side of the median strip rode up level with me and yelled lots of stuff, in French. From what I could decipher, I was on the wrong side. The official on the back of the bike they pulled out a black card and blew his whistle at me. Oh, shit this is bad, disqualified I thought, and it was just a mistake, no advantage gained. It was actually a disadvantage as I had slowed to ask which way to go and slowed again when the motorbike was yelling at me. Ok now I was really pissed off! Ahead was a small pedestrian crossing, my chance to get to the correct side of the road. I zipped through it and sprinted as hard as I could to the motorbike. The guy was a little surprised to see me along side him but I just started yelling that there was no official to tell direction and I was on the correct side now so no harm done. He just shrugged his shoulders, perhaps to indicate he didn’t understand me or perhaps as I thought at the time to say tough luck! I said "no, you will have to pull me off my bike". They didn’t and I entered the run without any trouble. I was tired and unmotivated on the run. The leaders had the race to themselves, and I was just happy to run the course without being told off.

I finished the race in12th and ended up 11th as Laurent Suppi was disqualified, after finishing second but with no number belt! Now that’s rough. Laurent told me the black card was not disqualification but rather an indicator I needed to run a penalty lap. I must have been let off as I was too far back to worry about. I had to feel for Laurent as he had a number on his swim cap, each arm, bike and helmet, yet this was not enough. He had lost his number belt after the swim while taking his wetsuit off, a simple mistake that cost him about $1000 in lost prize money.

Result for race 6 = well back

2006-07-04T14:10:00.000-07:00

Race 5. 16 eme Triathlon Des Etangs Port-Brillet CD distance 11^th June 2006

We drove to the race with Bertrand our team director. It was a 45 minute drive in a nice air-conditioned car. When we arrived at Port Brillette (pronounced poor b-rr-eay), we were greeted by a super hot day. After the normal registration, numbering and transition set up, Adam Cameron and I entered the water early, missing the all French briefing. We were lucky enough to have a translated version by one of the arbiters. This early swim was a bit of a mistake as we were yelled at and asked to get out of the water. Adam had swam way out into the lake so everyone watched as he was escorted back by a ski paddler. Once we had joined the other couple of hundred competitors in the transition we turned heal and everyone walked back in to the lake for the skimpy 3 minute warmup. I don’t think half of the French even got wet before the gun went off. I chose to start on the far right of the course. It was not the most direct line to the first buoy but I was certain to keep out of trouble. The swim course was a straight line swim to one buoy (about 600m), a almost 180 degree left turn and back down to another left turn of 90 degrees and straight into shore. I took of pretty quick and deliberately stayed wide to avoid the chaos of the first 100m. After about 2 minutes of swimming I was pretty much alone, with just a few guys on my feet. To my left was Adam. He had dropped everyone and was swimming fast and direct to the buoy. I had a look behind and realised the guy directly on my feet was Laurent Suppi. Now he can ride fast, so I did not want to tow him around the swim course then watch him ride away. I changed directions. Not over to Adam (the best line of the course) but to the other side, way off course. After about 15 seconds I had another look and sure enough Suppi had left me and gone alone to the first buoy. I picked a new line to the buoy and reached it about 20 seconds behind Adam, alone with Suppi about 10 seconds behind me. He asked me after if I was lost or just didn’t want him on my feet. I told him the latter. The water was very warm. Too warm for wetsuits. On the way back I started to feel I was over heating so every now and then dove under and let water in the neck of my wetsuit. I exited the water second to Adam, 45 seconds adrift with the third swimmer coming out 25 seconds behind me. I felt positively awful on the bike. Hot, tired, sickly, heavy and all in all just very sluggish. For the first 10km I just waited for Laurent Suppi to catch me. He never came. I, through all my problems had still managed to catch up to Adam so by the end of the first lap we were leading the race together. The bike leg was very tough. It was never flat, very technical and all the hills were short but pretty steep. Add the 30 plus temperature and it was no picnic. I ran out of water by the end of the second lap, around the same time that our team mate Hermann Landemaine joined us. I was a little surprised to see him and even more puzzled as to the whereabouts of Suppi. The 3 of us in our Cesson fluro yellow entered the final transition together, under the watchful eye of the draft official, and departed onto the run as a small group. I was so happy to see the first drink station only a few hundred meters into the run and grabbed what I could. The run was three loops of 3.3km. Each lap went through a very pretty forest then doubled back, somehow crossing to the bike course then passing the crown on a bridge twice per lap. Sound a little confusing? Well it was. We had over one minute advantage to the next group, however did not know this at the time. I had no intention to lead as I had no real idea of the exact run course. I wanted Hermann to lead, especially through the forest section. I think Hermann had hurt himself on the bike too much and his pace had dropped to the point I was concerned we would be caught from behind. I reluctantly passed him and entered the forest in the lead, to find the way alone. The whole run circuit was very well marked. I had no trouble finding the way, a great relief. The out and back run section over the bridge enabled us to see where we all were on the course. I had a good size lead over Adam who in turn had put some time into Hermann. As I was leaving the bridge I noticed Laurent Triquet, another of our Cesson team. He had run very fast in Mimizan, beating all of the guys he got off the bike with (he was in the big bunch with more than 80 riders) and had run through some of the lead bunch. He looked like he was running fast, and all of a sudden I didn’t feel so comfortable with the lead I had. I pushed hard for all of the second lap, did the loop on the bridge and kept my eye out for Laurent (Triquet this time). I did not see him. Could I have not seen him and he is now just 20 or so seconds behind me? I was now a bit concerned. After exiting the forest for the final time I found a point on the course where I had a clear view behind me. I turned to see………. nothing. Open road. I had at least 30 or more seconds to the next runner. This was a big relief. I only had about 2km to run so started to ease of a little and save my legs. Adam had run strong and nearing the finish had eaten into my advantage. I crossed the line in 2 hours and 4 minutes, 19 seconds in front of Adam in second, with Hermann crossing third 90 seconds later. Times were pretty slow, but we later learned the ride course was a few kilometres longer than the 40 advertised. Laurent Triquet finished fourth nearly two and a half minutes behind. I had not missed him, he had just lost time on the second lap. Rounding out the top five was Cameron Bartram, making it all Cesson. Bertrand told us after the race, with a smile, that team points are given to the first five members of the club, but it is not necessary to finish in the first five spots.

2006-06-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

Race 4 Division 2 Grand Prix rendezvous Mimizan.

Ok let me just give a little background, then tell the race story.

In France the first division grand prix series consists of 16 teams. After the 5 race season the bottom two teams are kicked out for the following year. The 13^th and 14^th teams must prove they belong in the first division, by racing in the grand finale at La Baule. In La Baule the remaining division 1 teams are joined by 2 teams from the second division. If one of the second division teams beats the 13^th or 14^thteam they gain entry to the first division, and relegate the bottom team to the second division.

Last year the French Triathlon Federation decided to consolidate the second division, as previously it had no real structure. They invited any interested clubs to submit their teams for a revamped, similar to first division grand prix series. To the horror of the French Federation 42 clubs submitted teams. Way more than they anticipated. With no exclusion criteria set for this season they have left all 42 clubs in the division. As with the first division, the top 16 will stay. The top two teams after 4 races gain automatic entry to the first division while the 3^rd and 4^th fight it out at La Baule.

As you can well imagine it is very cut throat.

Race conditions in Mimizan could only be described as flat fast and hot. It took until the final hour before the race to work out if it was a wetsuit legal swim and a further 15 minutes to locate my wetsuit and the rest of my race kit, which was in the team van, which was conveniently bogged in the car park. None of the team knew where it was! This left a rushed preparation, which included my tri bars being rejected from the race for an inadequate bridge piece. I was not too worried by all of this as my biggest concern was the start of the swim. I had been thinking of this for a while now. 42 teams of 5, makes 210 athletes on the start line. Now that may sound ok as many triathlons have this many or more, but there was a difference. In this race there were no hack triathletes. No guys who would be taking it easy in the water. In division 2 this year were actually 5 teams from the last years first division, Olympians, and world champions. If the first turn can was less than 200m off shore there may be death!!

In the team brief by our manager for the race (Rodolphe Boutier) I learned that the swim start area would be divided into 42 boxes. Each team could select which box they started in and due to the numbering, we were the second pick. We eventually agreed that the far right box had the best line to the first swim can and would give us some free space. It was after the warm up and while standing in our box that the unfairness of French racing really hit home. The turn can was off to the right, and the start area was like a concave type shape, not a straight line. Not the best, but nothing to really worry about. It did make it very difficult for the teams in the middle bays. Some of the teams decided not to take their box choice, but rather start on the right of us, outside the box area. One team was ok but then another and another came over and before we knew it there were at least 30 guys standing to out right, out of the start area. The youngest guy on our team, Pierre Guilloux said something about the situation to one of the many officials, and was nearly disqualified. Madness! Why have the boxes at all?

No one was permitted to warm up in the start area of the swim, not a problem for most of the French as they do no warm up anyway. When the whistle blew I ran to about knee deep water and then dove out as far as I could. I did not know the depth but thought it may drop away pretty quick. It did, leaving a bit of a pile of athletes mess behind me. I sprinted, mostly due to fear of being drowned, and tried to head to the right as quick as I could. To my left I could see a few guys leading that side of the swim and to my right was no one. At about 150m there was a guide buoy that I thought I had to stay the left of. I was way too far to the right so changed course to get around it. About 2 meters from the buoy I was still too wide but was trapped by a guy who had moved up on my left. I pushed into him, lost some speed and was instantly swam over by the person who was on my feet. And then I think by the next. Now I was under the water and under the can, desperate for air. I pushed to the surface and found I was smack against the inside rope of the swim course. Still getting hit I grabbed it and pulled myself along it to get back to some clear water. I got around the main turn can without incident and sat on the back of what I thought was the lead pack, exiting the swim in 15^th.

I had a pretty ordinary transition, slow may be a better word, and headed out on the bike further behind. After about 2km of all out, kill yourself riding I tacked on to the back of four others. In the process I had dragged one other guy who, as much as I yelled at him, would not help. The six of us were now the second pack, with nine guys about 15 seconds in front of us. For the rest of the 20km ride this gap stayed about the same. In the last 5 km I was of the mindset that there was no need to catch this group as I was feeling comfortable in the small group, and

everyone was working. Catching the lead pack may instigate a serious breakaway, and we had put time into the packs behind us. When I say packs behind us, that is what I thought at the time. I learnt after the race the ‘packs’ behind were actually one massive peleton, with about 90 riders taking up the whole road for about 250m. (the 3 small photos are the first 3 of 5 photos that Cameron took of this bunch)

We entered transition for the run just as the last guy from the front bunch was running out,

about 10 seconds behind him. I ran out quick, but not stupidly quick. I felt good and wanted to build into this run. I was second out onto the run from our group, lead by a guy from Czech Republic. I did not see the other guys from the second pack again, and after about 1 km was starting to catch and pass the slower runners from the front pack. I was happy with the strength I felt on the run until the last 1km where I really started to tire. I had now been training for 5 weeks, not a great deal of time, and I could feel that. I think I ran the last 500m looking back more that to the front. This was a common sight as people are trying to keep their place and care little for time. The gap to the guy in front of me was about 3 seconds, painfully just too far, while the gap to the guy behind me was 8 seconds, just painfully too close. I crossed the finish line in fifth. Not overly happy, but happy to have lived through the swim.

I later learned the winner of the race had finished third in the world under 23 last year, and had beaten the French champ who was fifth in the Olympics. The Czech, Premsyl Svarc, from the second pack ran his way up to second, while former world Champion, and duel Olympian Oliver Marceau was third.

The French guys in the team were stoked. They had all been in the big bunch, watching guys crash around them. Places were sorted on the run with Laurent Triquet running into 12^th,

Herman Landemaine 39^th, Pierre 64^th and Guen Dupas 79^th. Team points are calculated by the first three across the line, so the French boys were even happier to learn that as a team we had finished 4^th. They packed their stuff up and rode back to the hotel for showers, chatting and laughing. As there was still another race with Adam and Cameron racing, I stayed to help them then rolled over to the race site to look at the results, now posted. TOC

Cesson Sevigne were third! I asked an official and he confirmed it, we had placed third. He then proceeded to tell me that the team had been fined for not being present on the podium. Love those French rules.

2006-06-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

Race 3. 18eme Triathlon International Laval

My third French race took place in a town called Laval, about 70km from Rennes. Laval was a very pretty and fairly large town, situated on the Mayenne river, which would be the location of the swim leg of the race. In accordance to the ever increasing trend of French racing the start time of the race was late in the afternoon and most aspects of the course and rules remained somewhat of a secret to those not fluent in French. I knew the race was an Olympic distance race, called Courte distance (CD) in France. This time there was 4 non French Cesson Sevigne triathletes in the race. Adam Beckworth and Cameron Bartram form Australia and Brooke Pattle from New Zealand. We all jumped in the water early to make the most of the skimpy 3 minute warm up time. I was actually told off for getting in too early, as the race briefing was taking place. I tried to explain that I couldn’t understand what was being said and time was far better spent in the water, however I too was not understood so not wanting to risk getting disqualified before the start (easy to happen), I jumped out. The course of the swim was North for about 400m to a red turn bouy. Keeping it on your right, go around then South for about 700m and around another bouy (which I was told about but could not see). Another 180 degree turn in your right and into the final 400m back up the river to the swim exit (Natation arrivee). The one big factor in the river was the current heading South.

I had lost the others in the warm up and decided to push my way into a good start position early. As the first section of the swim was into the current I went as far left (against the bank) as possible, where the current would be less. A few others had the same idea. We lined up behind a rope that spanned the width of the river. In a strange moment I watched the rope all of a sudden raise up into the air and then remember a whistle. I took of swimming then looked to my right to confirm if it was the start. It was. Ok, I had not missed it but very easily could have. I went out pretty hard and soon found myself in clean water. Over to my right and the middle of the river was someone flying. “That has to be Beckworth” I thought. He had dropped everyone off his feet and had the lead ski to follow, good position. I noticed a few swimmers move over my way and get on my drag. For now this was ok as I was just happy I was not getting punched and kicked. It also meant I was swimming faster than them. By the first bouy Adam had stretched his lead to about 20m and I still had one guy on my feet.

We turned with the current and really took off. Going under the bridges gave a great perspective as to the speed we were going. Not knowing how well he could ride or run, I decided to get rid of the guy on my feet. It had been easy for him into the current to get good drag. I increased my speed and started swimming to the right (seemingly off course). I think this works well as no one wants to swim further, and it leaves them with a tough split second decision. Stay behind in the drag and swim further (or off course as they don’t know what you are doing), or break your own water and swim the direct line alone. The erratic move worked and I swam back on line again, less the guy getting the easy ride (see photo 2).

The South most turn bouy turned out not to be a bouy at al but rather the bridge. I continued the remainder of the swim on my own and exited the swim in second. Adam had already been and gone through transition so I had that all to myself also. I raced through, jumped on my bike, and took off hard to get back to the front of the race. After about 2 km I could see Adam with the lead motorbike. At 4km, and the start of the main climb on the course I joined him and said we should work together and not allow the guy in third to join us. He was not too far back, possibly 15 or 20seconds. Over the top of the hill Adam started getting told off by the official on the motorbike. To our surprise, this race was apparently non drafting! It was not a lead motorbike but rather a draft official. There was not lead motorbike, so we had to navigate the course ourselves off the arrows on the road. We passed one intersection where an official just had a smile and was clapping next to some hap hazardously placed witches hats. Where do we go? I yelled out to him but he was not going to answer so we rode on, hoping to still be on course. Before long the guy in third had caught us and I gladly let him take the lead. It was a guy called Marc Lepetit from Bretagne Rennes triathlon team.

There were a lot of sharp turns and a few pretty technical descents, which I was not going through all that well. I recall thinking at one point “man I need to spend a bit of training time practicing corners at speed”. The real cause of the problem became apparent after the race. We headed back into town and to the 20km half way turn, which was situated at the exit of the transition and in front of the crowd. This was a bit of fun as I was feeling fresh and there was lots of people yelling. At the turn I looked back the see another Cesson rider with us. It was Herman Landemaine, a French guy who had ridden up to us. That made three Cesson fluro outfits at the front of the race with the lone guy from Rennes. It remained this way for the second 20km lap, and we entered transition all very close.

I took it very easy into the transition, and ran out easy also, some 20m off the other three. I hadn’t raced Olympic distance since Australian titles in Geelong and in that race had to pull out in the run leg with cramps. I didn’t want to have that happen again. I could see the lead three had gone out pretty hard for them but had not put much space between myself and them. I kept ticking along at around 70% of what I thought I could run and within 2km had tacked back on the back of the others. This allowed me to sit back and watch them for a while. The Rennes triathlon team guy tried a few surges which were short and not very strong so after one, I maintained the pace he had set and found myself with a small gap off the front.

I kept the pace and before long had a solid lead on my own. The run was 3 laps of a 3.3km loop all around the river we had swam in crossing bridges at either end. By half way through the last lap I had enough of a lead I was sure I could win, but had also tired quite a bit. I had now been only training for three weeks and my lack of fitness was starting to show. The guy from Rennes triathlon would not give up and kept trying to close the gap, making the last kilometre rather uncomfortable.

I crossed the line a 18 seconds clear of him, with Adam taking third. From Cesson, Herman finished fourth, Laurent Triquet sixth and Cameron finished tenth. We had done very well as a team and won the team section. Five fluro Cesson outfits on the podium, that’s enough to over expose the film in any camera! Brooke was awarded with a drafting penalty, after not knowing about the drafting either. She had to run an extra lap but still won. I found after the race while loading my bike into the team bus that my handle bars had snapped during the race, explaining my poor cornering.

Result from race 3; First

First weeks in France

2006-05-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Racing in France races one and two.

Race One: 1st May 2006 Triathlon de Cesson-Sevigné. Sprint distance The first two weeks in France have been a bit of a whirlwind. I had my first race after only 2 days after arriving in Rennes. It was a freezing cold and super wet day. I rode the 10km to the race start (or club head quarters) with all the bike clothes I had packed. The race itself was a lesson in confusion. It commenced with a deepwater, mass start. Thats ok for a small field but with around 300 starters and a few weeks of no training I was a little concerned. Well I missed any chance of a warm up due to a horrendously confusing interview with a French commentator and found myself waiting in chest deep water waiting for a start gun??? Whistle?? Call? Don't ask me as everyone just started swimming. As to be expected my goggles were knocked half way up my face , and everytime I stopped to try and rectify the problem another French guy would belt me or push me under. Pretty freaky. I just wanted to get out. Finaly got the goggles over my eyeballs, full of water, but in the right location never the less. By the first turn can I had lost a lot of time and felt like I was in about 50th position. The swim improved and I was able to give a little biffo back in the latter stages, however I exited the water in 12th position, hardly a dream start for the new team. On the bike a group of us soon formed what was to be the second pack, dangling about 20 seconds off the front pack. While we were still putting our shoes on two guys jumped clear, a good move as one, Laurent Suppi, ended up the winner. I chased those two for a couple of kilometers then decided to drop back the the bunch (50m behind) and work with them to catch the leaders. Wrongo! The pack was disorganized and few were doing many turns. By the end of the first of two laps we had slipped about 40 seconds behind. Not knowing French stuffed me at one corner as I went the wrong way, and watched the rest of the bunch go the other. They didn't wait. Not I was pissed off. I hammered after them and caught back up just before the only real hill on the course, recovered and went to the front to up the pace.

Going into a sharp left hand corner I didn't break, and the next think was looking very closely at the ground. Oh yes big crash. I jumped back up picked up my water bottles and looked at my bike. It was ok, however the front wheel was jammed and the levers were both pushed in. That was the end of my race. So there I was in the back blocks of France, missing some skin, with a few officials just staring at me. It was pretty funny. The only word I could effectively use was "voiture" which is car. They told me "we we we" so all was well. So I stood there assessed the damage to body and bike and watched a bit of the race. A few minutes later another guy fell in the same spot, so now I had company. With the exception of two scratched levers the bike was fine. Back at the race site I was told to go to hospital as my chin had a very deep cut. Thats good, protect the bike with the face!

Race one = no finish Race two: 14th May 2006 Ttrathlon Jard-sur-mer. Sprint distance After two days I could ride again. A week later I was back in the pool and running. Two weeks later it was time to race again. This time it was a 3 hour trip in the team bus to a holiday location called Jard Sur Mer. Massive tidal fluctuations on the coast meant the race had to commence at certain times to allow enough water to swim. With a little more French in my vocabulary I was sure to understand all the in's and out's of the race. NOPE. It was like no one knew where to go, French Russian or Aussie. We were all standing on rocks in knee deep water, arguing which was the first can, when I heard the start gun. I got a super start and lead to the first swim can. I came out third behind Stephan Bignet (former French champ), and again found myself in the chasing bunch. This time I was joined by Laurent Suppi, but did not let him go. The course was three laps on the bike and three on the run. The bike course was super technical, with the worst surface imaginable Very tight corners, hell winds, gravel, you name it. Not what I wanted considering I still had scabs on my left side. Out of the eight in the bunch five held on, with only three of us working. On each of the first two laps Laurent went the wrong way on the same corner, while leading (I know how that feels reff-race one). The second time he ended up well back from the pack, so I sat up and waited. He thanked me. That favour may come in handy some time! I called out "à gauche, à droite, or tout droit" (different directions), any time I wasnt on the front. Five of us came off the bike together, about one minute off the leader. Our few stuff ups and poor work ethic of the two guys who got a free ride, had cost a bit of time, but he had still smashed us. On the run one of the guys who had done exactly zero turns ran up level to me. I had done one week of run training and was suffering so, pissed off, turned to him and aggressively asked "what don't you ride a bike?" (well it made sense at the time) He replied "I know nothing" so I ran away a bit. There were four of us left when disaster struck. We had all run off the course, or taken a wrong turn, or were on the course but the crowd had gone, we didn't know. We all slowed then walked then yelled then doubled back on our tracks and ran about 100m to see the guys from the third pack run around a corner in the distance. Great! So now instead of being 2nd ,3rd ,4th ,5th we were about 6th, 7th, 8th ,9th. After a pretty painful run, I managed to get myself back into fifth position. Laurent Suppi was third about 17 seconds in front of me and Stephan Bignet won by miles. Race two: = fifth