I have a bucket list of races to do and I ticked a big one off my list yesterday at the Fos International Duathlon (formerly the Val d'Aran Duathlon) in France.
Fos International Du - 8k-90k-8k - 24th July 2011
This is like no other Duathlon I've ever done. It was more like a mega hilly bike race (total of 2045m climbing) with a couple of short but cruelly tough 8k runs either end. The big enemy of the day was the 1349m Col de Menté which was tackled from both sides racing against a bunch of basque climbers who make me look fat.
In Duathlon terms this is as close as you'll get to a TdF style race. After a swift but sensible first run and a good first ascent of the Menté I was in fifth with a motorbike guide giving me regular time gaps to the leaders. OK he didn't have a girl on the back with a chalkboard but it's good enough for me. The leaders were two Basque guys who seemed to be working together so would be tough to catch. I caught the 4th place man, attacked and gapped him on the Col d'Ese then did the same at the foot of the Menté to take 3rd place and came over the top with a good gap to the chasing group.
After a crazy descent and the fastest 10k I'll ever ride I was back on the flat few k's back to transition. I really struggled on the flat back to transition and lost a lot of time on the chasers here. I'm pretty sure what was wrong but I'll keep that to myself. Unfortunatley that meant I came into transition with two other guys and involved in a footrace. I took 4th which was OK. I'm pretty gutted to lose any places on a second run this year but I made a lot of mistakes which didnt help. but make no mistake that this is still a big result in a long running, prestigious French race.
Big thanks to my sister, Helen for driving me on the course the day before and dropping me at the top so I could ride the descents. I could have done that all day!
In Duathlon terms this is as close as you'll get to a TdF style race. After a swift but sensible first run and a good first ascent of the Menté I was in fifth with a motorbike guide giving me regular time gaps to the leaders. OK he didn't have a girl on the back with a chalkboard but it's good enough for me. The leaders were two Basque guys who seemed to be working together so would be tough to catch. I caught the 4th place man, attacked and gapped him on the Col d'Ese then did the same at the foot of the Menté to take 3rd place and came over the top with a good gap to the chasing group.After a crazy descent and the fastest 10k I'll ever ride I was back on the flat few k's back to transition. I really struggled on the flat back to transition and lost a lot of time on the chasers here. I'm pretty sure what was wrong but I'll keep that to myself. Unfortunatley that meant I came into transition with two other guys and involved in a footrace. I took 4th which was OK. I'm pretty gutted to lose any places on a second run this year but I made a lot of mistakes which didnt help. but make no mistake that this is still a big result in a long running, prestigious French race.
Big thanks to my sister, Helen for driving me on the course the day before and dropping me at the top so I could ride the descents. I could have done that all day!
