My season up to now has been mixed to say the least with endless setbacks the most recent of which a small supinal fracture from a crash at the Bristol 12. So I was not really in perfect shape to take on a field of 17 nationailities in an event which I had also blagged my way into the pro field...I loaded up my shaky old Saab with camping gear, pasta, bike stuff, wet suit some French House to set the mood and an armery of Clif products to keep me going. I headed out of Brighton; destination Xonrupt. Rolling across Northern France a number of realisations happened these included a relief I'd had my heated seat disconnected, that driving on non-fee paying roads in France is extremely slow going and that packets of Shot Bloks are actually like taking two gels and should not be eaten as sweets.
It was an unusual but peaceful experience going to a race alone and the lack of distraction meant less fooling and more focus something I am usually missing..
After the two day drive I checked into the municipal campsite which was right next to the beautiful lake in which we were to swim. Not having camped in France for 15 years I was pleased to see nothing had changed - a babyfoot table, a bottle of ricard, poulet frites and French people playing boule.. Yet the campsite also was the base for the budget end of the Xterra scene with all European nationalities represented. That said the overall difference in outlook from the mountain bike one was quite marked... in a word "serious!" Lots of very buff people walking round in compression socks and skinsuits with their names across their behinds! By contrast my 14 year old physique described by some as the embodiment of "inverse buffness" and my stock indy Fab cycling kit looked somewhat out of place.. and that was before anyone has seen the race's only 29er!
I was itching to check the mountain bike course. I must admit I wasn't expecting much as some previous conversation had told me that Xterra Mountain Bike courses can sometimes be a little tame... within seconds I was proved wrong with the opening gambit being a technical off camber singletrack climb which would have left those twin ring riders wishing they had a granny. The course continued through beautiful woods on incredibly steep trails... in fact it was akin to Newnham Park but with a lot more elevation - cue lots of smiling! The French certainly know how to lay on a good course and they had saved the best until last a super fast 3km twisty downhill with a few technical touches but nothing too out of hand.. just the way I like it!A quick rest and it was on with the running shoes to check out the last discipline and to my relief there was quite a bit of flat!
Saturday evening saw a pasta party which in France involves a sit down meal.. nice! Here I bumped into a pretty large British contingent... Sam Gardner looked in shape and there were a number of others including expert xc racer Llewellyn Holmes also ready to race the pro class. I managed to stay off the beer.
For the first time ever I was actually ready ahead of time! I took in the excellent children's race and then set up my transition area surrounded by the largest collection of Cannondale Flash Ultimates this side of the factory.
The start of a triathlon can be akin to a fist fight in the water. I have raced once previously at the South Africa Xterra and I had been totally unprepared. From the off 600 SAFA's had channeled all their aggression seemingly on me and I had wanted to swim in the opposite direction to the race and call it quits. This time I was much more measured having a nice outside line and a number of mental notes not to go too hard. The feeling of being in a shoal of human fish is a bit of a strange one but this time out I quite enjoyed it. The thing with swimming is that when you look ahead the end never seems to get any closer and there also seem to be about 1000 swimmers in front. When the end did come I was faced with hundreds of shouting supporters and surprisingly just 61 racers ahead of me. After looking at the splits I decided that maybe for a newbie I am not such a bad swimmer after all.Transition in triathlon is key and my decision to put socks on "for comfort" was without doubt rank amateur - I lost a minute..! Heading out on the bike it was a case of immediately taking those big buff swimmers that couldn't climb whilst making sure not to get too carried away. Immediately I knew my legs weren't really playing out - I had trained into the race and they had no zip.. that said I was passing people at a rate and before long I passed a South African Ryan Redman who told me that Sam was just up ahead. I settled into a pace then had my usual crash before taking in that fantastic descent and heading through the baying throngs around a large jump into lap 2. A number of the Brits had support and as such I got some good info and support myself.. thank you! .. Despite the so so legs I was loving the event.
As I was climbing up the field it became increasingly hard to catch people and lap 2 was a head down and enjoy the ride affair.. Into transition 2 and I knew I was around the top 20.
This year has shown me that my run is in fact my strongest card. However the back injury from Bristol meant I was super rusty.. having run twice in six weeks leading up to France. I took it conservatively in all but shoe choice, my ultralight numbers making time on the flat but causing a big fall as I headed down from the course high point. All the while the French provided great support, feed stations and atmosphere. Coming into the finish I was pretty happy even found myself doing that triathlete hand slap thing!... I'd taken 14th place just behind South African Liuewe Boonstra and was 2nd Brit in behind Sam Gardner in 8th. Graham Wadsworth came in 18th, Jim Mcconnell 36th and Llewellyn Holmes in 38th. The big dogs Franky Batelier and Nico Lebrun were around 15 minutes ahead after 3 hours of racing so still plenty to do but a good start!
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