DAY 8 - Triathlon Day.

DAY 8 - Triathlon Day.

We’ve had a broken triathlon up ADH but today was the first of two proper tri’s

Bike 31km easy to Lake Annecy

Tri – Swim 1km (eyeballed to near perfection) / Bike 31km back to the chalet (31km with 800m elevation) / Run 6-7km.

Like yesterday my legs and body were feeling fresh as anything today. It’s hard to believe that I’ve done 50hrs training in one week and I feel better than ever on day 8! Not that I’m competitive or anything but I wanted to smash today’s race to smitherines.

I opened up well in the swim to have a bit of gap to Shannon but I nervously did some backstroke  to ensure I was on course after my recent discretions. It was bloody hard to see the buoys as a sailing school decided to set up mid way through out swim blocking our sight of the buoys. As we came past there I though they were yelling at us but apparently it was a bunch of kids and they were cheering us on.

Onto the bike and I was on fire. The power was coming so easy and the pace was fast. With the road surfaces being so smooth over here you just motor along. I really didn’t feel like I was moving out of 4^th gear but my power was close to Olympic effort with plenty of wattage in the 280-300w range. I felt sure than I would have a handy lead off the bike and I’d run more than 1km before Adam and John B (who was on fire) came past in the opposite direction. The Philinator, Rob Mohr and Peter Mills came next in quick succession.

With a lead of what I figured was 7-8mins I eased off and just ran a nice gentle tempo to take line honours. The others had been held up at lights a bit which worked in my favour slightly.

1. Me
2. Adam
3. Rob Mohr – who drilled the run to nab 3^rd
4. John Ballard – nice work
5. Philinator – coming home strong

I felt invincible today, if only those days come exactly on time at our peak races rather than 8 days into Epic Camp.

I decided to let the yellow jersey slip today. I figured Adam would tack on which is all within the rules of the game. I certainly had the energy to do more but I really want to nail tomorrows ride and the final race. It’s been disappointing that I have not ridden the famous climbs as well as I would have liked and tomorrow is the last chance. I would rather crush two climbs and the race than take home the yellow jersey, who knows when I will get another chance to ride in France.

The red jersey is heating up with Peter Mills running 3hrs this arvo to put the heat on Murray, especially given Peter will pick up a couple more KOM points at the end of camp. Both Peter and Adam have IM races coming up post camp so it's descision time for them on what they really want. 

So instead of tacking on we wandered into town for ice cream and beer before another magnificent dinner with Piet & Eva at Chalet 4 (this place is AWESOME)

Tomorrow we are off to Morzine