Race Reports
BUCS Olympic 2013 Cholomendely Castle - By Martin Minivelle
Cholmondeley (please pronounce “Chum-ly”, otherwise you’ll pass for a tourist) Castle was the last BUCS triathlon of the 2012-2013 season. Since the date of the triathlon had been changed without notice, quite a few members found out they could not make it for the new date. Thankfully, Jessica Evans, David Cole, Andrew Rendall, Tom Brown, Josh Dack and I were still in.
Hit the road Jack, here we are on a Saturday morning road trip to Jessica’s grandpa’s house. The dinner over there was absolutely spectacular. There was a huge variety of dishes and three types of desserts! Thanks again to Jess, her parents and granddad, we all thought our stay was worthy of five stars!
But the food was not the reason we came (though it could have been…). Wake up the next morning at 5:15am. Josh, Andrew and Tom had their home made beetroot juice for breakfast. For those wondering why on earth they would drink that, it is because it contains nitrates that dilates your blood vessels and is considered as “legal doping” (ask Dave for further details!). This is why at 8pm the night before we found ourselves blending beetroots with apple juice and honey in the garage!
We arrived at the race parking 10 minutes before registration begins. The weather forecast was really bad for the whole day: rainy and windy. We hurried a bit to go to the transition area to park our bikes, set our elastic bands, organise our stuff and wonder every 30 seconds if anything was missing. We eventually put our wetsuits on and walked down to the lake. The six of us were in the same wave since all BUCS participants were all gathered in one wave. Efficient speech from the organiser: two loops in the lake, two loops for the bike and two loops for the run. He told us that his mother used to say “if it starts raining before 7:00, the sun will come up at 11:00”. Please remind me to punch him next time I see him… As you may have guessed, the rain continued until we left in the afternoon, with some short lulls here and there. As we jumped from the pontoon to the lake, we all experienced the sensation of walking in muddy shifting sands. You wonder whether or not you will end up with leeches on your calves (sorry about that, post-race conversation we had) or walk on a fishing hook (you might want to thank Andrew for this thought).
As soon as the start was given, everyone tried to find their way through the others, without swallowing muddy water. Fairly quickly the group spread into a straight line, perfect configuration to practice your drafting skills! The first turn around the buoy is always the trickiest since people are still quite close to each other. Therefore it is worth making a large turn to avoid the crowd. The water was quite warm and the swimming part felt good for everyone. Once out of the water we had to run for 100m before entering in the transition area. This distance is quite useful, it allows you to catch your breath, take off your swimming cap and unzip your wetsuit. The tricky part of the swim-cycle transition was to get rid of the wetsuit as fast as possible. Not a ‘doddle’ with cramps .
The cycling part was a good mix of flat areas and small hills, with one significant uphill slope (with a very nice old man at the top giving you glasses of water. I just wanted to hug him…). However, the road was quite wet which made it a bit uneasy. With the rain and the wind, it was not good conditions at all and most participants suffered from it at one point. It seems that unconsciously I decided to prove that French have the same IQ than worms since I missed the exit of the cycling loop and went off for a third lap. My advice would be: if you’re drafting someone (who knows, it happens), make sure you are not drafting a Frenchy, he will probably have no clue of where he is going…
The bike-run transition is quite easy. For the first time I put socks on because I knew my running shoes would be damp and I would get blisters. I am still glad I did since my feet were frozen after the bike and that eventually I did not get blisters! The run lap was really… interesting. We passed by horses, cows and lamas!!! Even a swan decided to stop right in the middle of the running path, making everyone run faster when they came to its level! The end of the run lap was grass path which lead to the top of a small hill and then went all the way down until the finish line.
This triathlon felt much better than the sprint version. It always takes me time to find a rhythm, especially for the run. On an Olympic version, distances are long enough so that you can find your rhythm and really enjoy the rest.
It was an absolutely amazing first Olympic triathlon experience for Josh and I. Training has paid off! Unfortunately, there is not only good news… I truly felt sorry for Tom who had a puncture just after the 30th kilometre. Dave must now believe he is doomed since he felt from his bike and hurt his knees at the exit of the transition zone. And Jess scared us all by having hypothermia on the bike (body temperature: 34 degrees. Yeah, that’s what we can call hypothermia!). Luckily she was taken care of and recovered quickly. As sad and irritating as it is, Jess, Dave and Tom stayed light-hearted and cheerful as they always are and I congratulate them for this admirable mentality. Well done guys, next year will be your year!
I kept the best part for the end: Andrew literally smashed everything on his way. A spectacular overall time of 2:16:37, which brought him up to the 17th place! On behalf of Air France-KLM, I nickname you the “top 20 guy” since you have always ended up in this category on BUCS triathlons. :D
Cholmondeley (please pronounce “Chum-ly”, otherwise you’ll pass for a tourist) Castle was the last BUCS triathlon of the 2012-2013 season. Since the date of the triathlon had been changed without notice, quite a few members found out they could not make it for the new date. Thankfully, Jessica Evans, David Cole, Andrew Rendall, Tom Brown, Josh Dack and I were still in.
Hit the road Jack, here we are on a Saturday morning road trip to Jessica’s grandpa’s house. The dinner over there was absolutely spectacular. There was a huge variety of dishes and three types of desserts! Thanks again to Jess, her parents and granddad, we all thought our stay was worthy of five stars!
But the food was not the reason we came (though it could have been…). Wake up the next morning at 5:15am. Josh, Andrew and Tom had their home made beetroot juice for breakfast. For those wondering why on earth they would drink that, it is because it contains nitrates that dilates your blood vessels and is considered as “legal doping” (ask Dave for further details!). This is why at 8pm the night before we found ourselves blending beetroots with apple juice and honey in the garage!
We arrived at the race parking 10 minutes before registration begins. The weather forecast was really bad for the whole day: rainy and windy. We hurried a bit to go to the transition area to park our bikes, set our elastic bands, organise our stuff and wonder every 30 seconds if anything was missing. We eventually put our wetsuits on and walked down to the lake. The six of us were in the same wave since all BUCS participants were all gathered in one wave. Efficient speech from the organiser: two loops in the lake, two loops for the bike and two loops for the run. He told us that his mother used to say “if it starts raining before 7:00, the sun will come up at 11:00”. Please remind me to punch him next time I see him… As you may have guessed, the rain continued until we left in the afternoon, with some short lulls here and there. As we jumped from the pontoon to the lake, we all experienced the sensation of walking in muddy shifting sands. You wonder whether or not you will end up with leeches on your calves (sorry about that, post-race conversation we had) or walk on a fishing hook (you might want to thank Andrew for this thought).
As soon as the start was given, everyone tried to find their way through the others, without swallowing muddy water. Fairly quickly the group spread into a straight line, perfect configuration to practice your drafting skills! The first turn around the buoy is always the trickiest since people are still quite close to each other. Therefore it is worth making a large turn to avoid the crowd. The water was quite warm and the swimming part felt good for everyone. Once out of the water we had to run for 100m before entering in the transition area. This distance is quite useful, it allows you to catch your breath, take off your swimming cap and unzip your wetsuit. The tricky part of the swim-cycle transition was to get rid of the wetsuit as fast as possible. Not a ‘doddle’ with cramps .
The cycling part was a good mix of flat areas and small hills, with one significant uphill slope (with a very nice old man at the top giving you glasses of water. I just wanted to hug him…). However, the road was quite wet which made it a bit uneasy. With the rain and the wind, it was not good conditions at all and most participants suffered from it at one point. It seems that unconsciously I decided to prove that French have the same IQ than worms since I missed the exit of the cycling loop and went off for a third lap. My advice would be: if you’re drafting someone (who knows, it happens), make sure you are not drafting a Frenchy, he will probably have no clue of where he is going…
The bike-run transition is quite easy. For the first time I put socks on because I knew my running shoes would be damp and I would get blisters. I am still glad I did since my feet were frozen after the bike and that eventually I did not get blisters! The run lap was really… interesting. We passed by horses, cows and lamas!!! Even a swan decided to stop right in the middle of the running path, making everyone run faster when they came to its level! The end of the run lap was grass path which lead to the top of a small hill and then went all the way down until the finish line.
This triathlon felt much better than the sprint version. It always takes me time to find a rhythm, especially for the run. On an Olympic version, distances are long enough so that you can find your rhythm and really enjoy the rest.
It was an absolutely amazing first Olympic triathlon experience for Josh and I. Training has paid off! Unfortunately, there is not only good news… I truly felt sorry for Tom who had a puncture just after the 30th kilometre. Dave must now believe he is doomed since he felt from his bike and hurt his knees at the exit of the transition zone. And Jess scared us all by having hypothermia on the bike (body temperature: 34 degrees. Yeah, that’s what we can call hypothermia!). Luckily she was taken care of and recovered quickly. As sad and irritating as it is, Jess, Dave and Tom stayed light-hearted and cheerful as they always are and I congratulate them for this admirable mentality. Well done guys, next year will be your year!
I kept the best part for the end: Andrew literally smashed everything on his way. A spectacular overall time of 2:16:37, which brought him up to the 17th place! On behalf of Air France-KLM, I nickname you the “top 20 guy” since you have always ended up in this category on BUCS triathlons. :D