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| Lyon, a beautiful city on two rivers |
We are just back from another race weekend, this time close to home in Lyon. Although we had driven around Lyon a few times heading elsewhere, we had not yet take the opportunity to go and see what the city had to offer. The inaugural TriStar 111 race, also the first triathlon to be based in Lyon provided the perfect excuse.
The 111 is a new format of triathlon that Star Productions has come up with to offer something different to triathletes. It incorporates a 1k swim, 100k bike and 10k run. Although I was still recovering from Nice Ironman just 14 days ago I thought that it may suit me given the overweighting of the bike (my current strongest leg) which was in effect done twice over on this course, once in distance and the other in difficulty as the 100k incorporated just under 2,000m of climbing. So a few days before the race as I felt I was recovering well and getting my energy back I decided to sign up.
When I drove the course before the race with Joel Jameson, one of the pro men competing we were suprised by the technicality of the course. Despite having raced in lots of interesting regional races around this part of France, I had not yet seen a course quite so challenging. The roads around Lyon are really rough, even on the flats along the river. Once you climb into the hills it deteriorates further, to the point that on one of the descents there was just about enough tarmac to hold the potholes together! So it was not going to be a fast bike, and that was before the rain arrived.
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| Bike in, ready to roll. In the sun, the evening before race day |
Race day dawned, cloudy and cool. We were underway at 8:30am in the Saône River which joins the Rhone just a little further downstream. I exited the water third woman and ran the 500m or so into T1 to get my bike and onto the main stage of this race.
By the 5k mark I had overtaken the young, talented Swiss triathlete Adeline Rausis, although I was in turn overtaken by Coralie Lemaire just before we headed up into the hills. Before we had really got going on the first hill, the clouds finally gave way and the rain arrived, first a little and then a lottle! OK so it was a deluge. The road became a river and at the top of the first big climb the thunder and lightening arrived to join in the fun. What were challenging descents in the dry became seriously hard work with low light and rain reducing vision, potholes hidden under water, wet surfaces and extra gravel, dirt, leaves etc getting washed across the roads. I backed right off as this was really a bonus race in the season for me and not worth a nasty fall. I was also pretty cold by the bottom of each descent so almost delighted in the uphill sections to warm up again.
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| End of 1 lap, do I really want another! |
Coming back in to the start area just to head out again on the second lap, I've got to admit it was very tempting to call it a day. I am not one to do so easily though so sucked it up a little and headed off for another round. On the second lap I passed Coralie as she had pulled out with a flat tyre but was once again put back to third slot by a Swiss lady, Lisa Stucki who trains with Natasha Badmann so not suprisingly is a strong rider. We had vyed for a while, but I wasn't prepared to chase her pace on the second descent after I hit a pothole that I hadn't managed to dodge so hard on the first lap there, that both my wet hands slipped straight off my bars and I was lucky not to follow them with the rest of my body. So I let her go with the goal to catch her on the way back to town or in the run. Juliette Benedicto who was leading the women's field was far enough ahead by then that bad luck or a withdrawal aside I knew I was racing for 2nd/3rd.
After all the excitement of the bike I was really grateful to successfully negotiate the last cobbled corners into T2 and get out onto the run. The run was 2*5k and weaved up and down along both sides of the river between the barge tie in areas and the footpath/bikepath higher up along the road. It also crossed two lovely old bridges each lap. Even here the surfaces made for some additional challenge as they varied between pavement, big lumpy cobbles, mud, grass and cement. While down on the lower rougher paths I opted to run along the smoother cement river's edge which was about 10-15cm wide but dropped straight into the river on one side. It was better to run on but also kept the concentration up to avoid a second swim! I did manage to close the gap on Lisa but not quite enough as my legs, prefatigued from Nice just wouldn't quite turn over as fast I would have liked. Anyway all good in the end and happy to be finished in 3rd just over 1m behind her.  |
| Fun with the boys at a cafe in the Old Town of Lyon |
So in summary I loved the format as 111 is a different and interesting distance to race. The TriStar crew are a really fun bunch too who just want to make sure everyone there enjoys themselves. The day itself was hard, harder than the distance would indicate, partly due to the course and added to significantly by the weather. Lyon however was a true delight to discover and my wonderful cheer squad (best in the world, and I swear I'm not biased they really are!) loved it too. Outside of race day, the weather was great for exploring. The city centre is stunning, with river's flanking each side of it, there are Roman ampitheatres and relics from when it was the centre of Roman Gaul (and called Lugdunum), beautiful buildings reflecting it's more recent merchant wealth, fantastic museums including good stuff for young kids, a very groovy, narrow cobbled laned medieval old town, good cafes and restaurants and an amazing park, the Tete D'Or which has a lake, a zoo, botanical garden, deer park and just about anything else you could want, especially if you are 4 or 7 years old.
We'll be back!
A bientot
Christine
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