European Triathlon Championships 2006

European Triathlon Championships - 2006

Our trip to the European Triathlon Championships, at Autun Bourgogne France, began with the receipt of the following letter from British Triathlon. 

After I had achieved the necessary results in the qualification races I submitted my application and was selected to represent Great Britain. 

Being Francophiles we decided to make a weeks holiday out of the event and drove to Autun in plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere of the European Championships.

ETU Poster

First item on the agenda was a Friday evening 'Parade of Nations' where the local children lead out the representing triathletes from each country.

At the parade I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to meet and have a long chat about the 'good old days' with Sarah Springman whom I had always admired and hadn't seen in action since the early 1990's. We talked about The British Grand Prix Series and the Ironbridge Triathlon from that era and the size of the GB Team, and of course inevitably how did you qualify?

Sarah Springman O.B.E. C.B.E  and me.

Sarah represented Great Britain at the elite level from 1983 to 1993, competing in the 1990 Commonwealth Games Triathlon, New Zealand. She amassed 20 Elite ETU European Championships, as well as finishing fifth at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships in 1985 (1st Brit.) and in 1987 and at the Nice International Triathlon in 1985. Sarah claims her best achievement was a resting Heart Rate of 28 Beats per Minute. 

Prior to her current position of Vice President of the International Triathlon Union and President of British Triathlon Sarah was a Professor at the Institute for Geo-Technical Engineering, Zurich ETH University. After the European Championships Sarah went on to win the Winter World Triathlon Championships in her age group in 2006 and was a bronze medallist in the Vancouver Sprint Triathlon in 2008. (I hope I got it right this time Sarah)

On Saturday morning we had the official team photograph on the town hall steps.

Where's Wally ?   (5th row from the front, 2nd in LH side)

The size of the British Team, by far the biggest, was a little controversial at the championships, but no doubt reflected the growing popularity of triathlon in Great Britain and the hard work of British Triathlon in promoting triathletes and maximising on the places available in the Championships. This number of people however covered all the categories: Elite, Disabled, Junior, Sprint, Relay, Male/Female as well as the different Age Groups in which I was competing. 

Serious preparation from the support team

I had been out on the bike Friday afternoon reconnoitring the course, the temperature had been 28C and the weather forecast for the weekend was to get hotter and culminate in a thunderstorm some time Sunday afternoon. My race was scheduled for Sunday 3:00pm.

A chance to have a look at the race venue prior to registration and bike check-in.

Race Ready

Psyching-Up for The Event

Sound Advice! I think its that way!

The short course championship event consisted of a 1500 metre open water Swim, 40km Bike and 10km Run. 

Due to the water temperature of the lake wetsuits had been banned, it was so hot that I don't think you could have survived in a wetsuit out of the water. 

Getting into position for the start of the swim and the first clouds of the weekend appear..

It's one of those things that no matter how big the lake or even when in the sea everybody seems to want swim the same line, so the swim was congested. Swim starts have been described as 'an in the water rugby tackle' I think it is something akin to being in a washing machine, but after swimming over one or two others and being swum over, swallowing water and replacing goggles it all settled into a good sprint. I had previously walked round the lake several times to get my bearings and to find some distinctive landmarks, as a result I had no problems navigating the course successfully. 

The bike course consisted of two laps, typically French it included a big climb out to a forest with a fearsome straight fast descent back into town that included a hairpin bend at the bottom. I rode the first lap hard but within my limits, by the second lap thick black clouds had started to amass in the sky so I put the hammer down as no way did I fancy 40+ mph descents, braking hard for a hairpin bend or slippery man-hole covers in torrential rain.

I just got back to transition, racked the bike and set of running when the heavens opened.

Always a grimace!

The run course was 4 laps of the lake and it was just one of those rare occasions that all you runners will know, when you just feel you can go faster and faster!

Grimacing for my country.

It's a great feeling when you feel strong and there is no better time than when you are representing your country.

 The British Team - Allez, Allez, Allez....

At the Finish

I found all these photographs backed up on a disc, and the original results from the event are lost, probably in the great fire. The photographs are not of a great quality, back then cameras were only 2 mega pixels, but they certainly brought back happy memories for me. If I remember rightly I finished 36 out of 55 in the 45-49 male age-group race, with a time of 3hrs 01min 27secs.

It is not often in life you get to experience something like this, I had plugged away at my sport, triathlon, from its earliest beginnings in this country, for nearly forty years a true weekend warrior. I had dreamt like most people do of 'representing their country' but never thought I could achieve it especially in a short course event like this, maybe in a long course, my speciality, but hey that's a story for another blog.

and just like my mate Bob, I scrub up pretty well, now where's that bottle of champagne?