Triathlon World Championships

Lausanne, Switzerland, Saturday, September 2, 2006

Mike Hall

Elvet Striders at the World Tri Championships

Very few club members have competed at the world championships in previous years but this time we had five! Donna James, Ros Layton, Allan Seheult, Kim and Mike Hall. As none of the others have given a report on the event race so far I will give you some of our comments.

As always we had the advantage of time. There was no rush to get to Switzerland so we meandered across France admiring the scenery (and wine!) and did a little preparation for the coming event. There were plenty of opportunities for running and cycling in lovely countryside with quiet roads but we had great difficulty finding open water suitable for swimming. France had a similar summer to us in GB and most of the rivers and lakes in the eastern and centre of country seemed to be infected with blue green algae and swimming was interdite. We did eventually find a couple of places but ended up not doing as much swimming as we had originally planned.

We arrived in Lausanne on the Monday before the event and we were greeted by stormy weather and Lake Leman (where the swim was to take place) looking like a very rough sea. Fortunately the weather improved steadily during the week, the water subsided, and we were able to test out the swim route without too much difficulty. Although Donna arrived a day after us, Roz and Allan didn’t arrive until the Thursday and therefore missed a lot of acclimatisation time. I think that they will try and get there a bit earlier next time!

Because the cycle route was in the city centre the only safe way to see and test the bike route was in groups escorted by police on motorbikes, which were organised by them on a daily basis. The run route was along the lakeside and it was very flat, so no problems there. The thing which probably caused the most comment from competitors was the transition area. This was half a mile long with space for 1000 bikes along each side. This meant that we had a mile to run between coming out of the water and starting the bike section and a half mile to run in the second transition before the run (no cycling in transition!). Needless to say this also affected everybody’s overall times!

On the day of the race it was a little on the warm side but as the water was only about 18 degrees wet suits were mandatory—I think most people were happy with that. Although it was a bit choppy the water was beautifully clear and most people enjoyed the swim, even Roz who in her eagerness to be involved in the melee collected a black eye! As one would expect the safety cover was excellent.

Then onto the bike which consisted of four laps with the final one extended by about a mile and a half to bring you back to transition. There were a couple of steep climbs and some quite hairy descents with sharp turns and these caused a few competitors to come to grief. This information was passed on to competitors waiting to start the swim so it gave them something to think about! The general assessment of the bike route was that it was quite hard and increasingly so on successive laps!

The run was over four laps and for most people this was during the hottest part of the day so it turned out to be a bit of a struggle, the numerous water stations proving to be very welcome! Overall the crowd support was tremendous, especially around the run course and bike routes near to the transition area, and this encouragement was in a host of different languages.

We all enjoyed the racing (even if only afterwards!) and the results for Durham Tri Club were very good with Donna taking Silver and Kim and Mike getting Bronze in their respective age groups. Roz finished in a brilliant thirteenth position (complete with her black eye) and Allan was 54th—despite miscounting his bike laps and covering an extra couple of miles by having to pass through T2 twice and then repeating the last lap—full marks to him—finishing is probably the most important part of the game!

This was a superbly organised event and will give the organisers of next year’s event in Hamburg a difficult target to live up to. Some of us are already seriously thinking about trying our luck, will any of you be joining the happy band?

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