This weekend I travelled to Avignon in the South of France for the first race of the Division 2 French Grand Prix championships with my team ESMGO Triathlon. ESMGO were relegated from the 1st division last season and I had been signed up to help them get back in the top flight for next year. I really didn’t know what to expect in terms of the standard of racing, with 80 guys racing at the very top level in division 1 I thought they might have run out of guys by the time it got down to the second division. I was wrong, the top 22 athletes finished within a minute of each other.

The swim was very short, but i got a good line and came out first with pete on my shoulder, out onto the bike and the narrow flat course with a strong headwind did not make for breakaways and we ended up as a front pack of around 50. I got a little boxed in heading into t2 but managed to weave my way through the carnage and get out onto the run ok. It turned out that i hadn’t brought my legs with me, these guys where psyched for the first one of the season and headed out with some lightning first kms. With my racing schedule I just couldn’t go with it and after 2.5k was struggling back in around 35th. Over the second 2.5km I was able to pull up a little to finish in 20th. Pete came in 6th 30 seconds up on me.  I’ve had enough of all the travelling which is what takes the edge off my racing and prevents me recovering, so i’m going to have the next weekend off and i’m going to miss out on the Holten ITU points race that I had planned to do.

The plan now is to head to Munich in 3 weeks time for the German Nationals if i’m feeling recovered and then on to Eguzon the week after for the second of the french races.

Pictures from the weekend below.     

Team ESMGO psyching up for the start

Leading out of the swim, we covered the course which was meant to be 750m in under 5 minutes, not really far enough to break up the field 

Headng out onto the run and wondering where exactly I had left my legs.

Places mean promotion in the fgp, hence i’m killing myself sprinting for 20th!