So GP number four has come and gone already! This year is flying by! The fourth race of the French circuit was at Paris, with transition set right underneath the Eiffle Tower, and credit to the organisers for staging both our GP race and the age group race after, in one of the busiest cities on the planet with closed roads, Iconic location and crepes on stand by, what more could one want!?...maybe a wetsuit on the pontoon actually, but otherwise thumbs up Frenchies!
So Paris, as beautiful as the location is, the weather dished up the opposite. Kicking off at a slightly more friendly hour of the morning this year, girls were to take the plunge at 9 am into the Sein. Just before we were due to start, the clouds rolled over and let themselves go, dishing up the rain. Not the most "rain friendly" course is Paris with lots of 90 deg corners on white slippery paint. Corners + zebra crossings + rain = crash :(
Anyhow with the rain came a drop in temp, and as you have to swim out to the pontoon and wait for all the other teams to come out too, it was quite the site to see teams of skinny girls huddled on top of each other teeth chattering just trying to stay warm before the plunge back into the current, and the current was strong!
Rounding the first buoys of the out and back course it was insane to see just how fast the water was moving! By the time you'de taken 2 strokes left you were 5 metres down stream already then battling just to go forwards back into the current and make it out to dry land! With a couple of unsportsman like encounters in the water from some other girls, and finally managing to swim out and stop having fist fights in the water, it was out on the 4 lap bike course.
Personally I felt like absolute rubbish race day, fatigued and smashed from training it was always going to be a battle at Paris. Battle it was in the water literally, and then the bike was much more mellow. With all the girls including my self creeping round the wet white lines prefering to eat the pancakes post race than be a pancake in race. We hit soggy running shoes about 15 and 40 seconds down on groups ahead.
After a very painful 5 kms on my already sore legs I felt like a wet cement block running. Not a fun way to race, but definately makes you dig deep! Myself and Tamsym from my team manage to run up a number of places in the end to finish 10 and 11, and Poitiers finished 4th ..one finishing place off a podium! (and that is people in the race, yes obvoiusly 4th is one place off a podium! ) ha
Au revoir!
So Paris, as beautiful as the location is, the weather dished up the opposite. Kicking off at a slightly more friendly hour of the morning this year, girls were to take the plunge at 9 am into the Sein. Just before we were due to start, the clouds rolled over and let themselves go, dishing up the rain. Not the most "rain friendly" course is Paris with lots of 90 deg corners on white slippery paint. Corners + zebra crossings + rain = crash :(
Anyhow with the rain came a drop in temp, and as you have to swim out to the pontoon and wait for all the other teams to come out too, it was quite the site to see teams of skinny girls huddled on top of each other teeth chattering just trying to stay warm before the plunge back into the current, and the current was strong!
Rounding the first buoys of the out and back course it was insane to see just how fast the water was moving! By the time you'de taken 2 strokes left you were 5 metres down stream already then battling just to go forwards back into the current and make it out to dry land! With a couple of unsportsman like encounters in the water from some other girls, and finally managing to swim out and stop having fist fights in the water, it was out on the 4 lap bike course.
Personally I felt like absolute rubbish race day, fatigued and smashed from training it was always going to be a battle at Paris. Battle it was in the water literally, and then the bike was much more mellow. With all the girls including my self creeping round the wet white lines prefering to eat the pancakes post race than be a pancake in race. We hit soggy running shoes about 15 and 40 seconds down on groups ahead.
After a very painful 5 kms on my already sore legs I felt like a wet cement block running. Not a fun way to race, but definately makes you dig deep! Myself and Tamsym from my team manage to run up a number of places in the end to finish 10 and 11, and Poitiers finished 4th ..one finishing place off a podium! (and that is people in the race, yes obvoiusly 4th is one place off a podium! ) ha
Au revoir!
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