French Grand Prix Paris - Kris
8 July 2008
French Grand Prix!
Yesterday I raced in the third round of the French grand prix in Beauvias, which is just out of Paris. Its been a long winding process to get me back into this style of racing. As some of you may or may not know I had some troubles with Licenses and then the change over to my new team Beauvias was stalled for the first races. But now I'm in! and a big thanks goes out to Laurent Chopin for his time and effort on this matter in what is such an important year. Merci Laurent and go Beauvias!
There were 10 guys toeing the start line that were off to Beijing, and some of which "I'll" say are the hitters of our sport. My training had been going well in Font Romeu before the race. Both myself and my coach were looking for a good race to test me out and this was a really strong field to do so. I've said to you all, that in the past a big struggle for me coming directly from altitude was my running speed. So the test for me would be could I follow anything that went off the front of the race at the start of the run?? On a side note in the days before the race I was bitten by a rouge rotten egg that I had decided to have in a salad. Please mental note to all of you. If you are boiling eggs and they explode there is a reason.... so trash them.
The atmosphere when I arrived in Beauvias was great. The team has a really relaxed feel about it which is great in a year where everyone is thinking of one thing. The boys at beauvias were very welcoming of myself and I knew that we were about to have some fun when it came time to race.
The swim start was great and I got off the line well. I found some good feet and was sitting nicely. After about half of the 750 meters I got nice square kick to the head. Nothing damaged, but it caused me too lose the feet I was on and I ended up to wide around the 1st bouy. I went from swimming in the top 5, to exiting the water around 20th or so. This is triathlon! If there is one thing I've learnt in this situation is not to panic. I just say to myself you'll have to ride harder the first Ks now. I jumped on my avanti and rode directly towards the front. After a k or so I was in the front group and leading up the first climb. I felt great the whole time on the bike. I was able to follow all the attacks, and as a team Myself, Tim Don, Fred Belaubre, Slyvain Sudrie and Stephan Poulart controlled the entire race from this point on the bike. We also made sure we all arrived to transition 2 safely and at the head of the field.
Of course the real show was yet to come! and with Donny ( Tim Don ) being one of the fastest guys over the first few k's in the world this 5k was going to be fast. Tim and Myself cleared out very early in the run just as we had done in London some weeks ago. I was on my limit early on to follow Donny but we worked well and encouraged each other to keep the gap we had made. Just after 3k Tim started to tire a bit. He had some hard sessions in the lead up to the race so I moved to the front and took a turn. Come Beijing he will be ready to go I'm sure of that.. As I pushed a gap opened back to Tim and the others. I felt good and had a lot of control at this stage of the race which was a good sign. I tried to keep the gap as it was to the other boys as they caught Tim. Both these boys are also heading to Beijing ( Alastair Brownlee and Will Clark). With about a K to go I could hear someone bridging up to me and Alastair loomed over my shoulder. We ran the last 500 meters together until we ended up in another sprint to the line. I managed to hold him out just as I did last year when I won the World Cup in Rhodes Greece.
So all in all a great day. I was racing for my new team "Beauvias" in Beauvias and I was winning for Beauvias. It was all I could have asked for in this race. Not to mention that the team also ended up winning the overall day so a really dominating performance from everyone.
Of course from a personal stand point the race was exactly what we were after. And so confirms again we are right on track with where we hoped we would be at this time. Having John there to watch was another small important thing that could be valuable heading into these last weeks before Beijing.
I'm now back in my training haunt Font Romeu for my last two weeks of altitude. I'll then race in my second World Cup of the year in Kitzbuehul on the 20th of July. So until then take care
Kris
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