Le Fruit Triathlon

Yeah, I know. I disappeared from the face of the planet. Just too busy doing other things. So I’ve got some catching up to do on my blog. I’m working on it.

Here is my belated race report for Le Fruit Triathlon 2009. As the defending champion, I couldn’t resist being on the race list again this year. To be honest, I absolutely love this competition. Nothing beats X-TERRA or long distance duathlons/triathlons. Le Fruit is an X-TERRA race that consists of a 750 m swim, 40 km on-road/off-road bike, and an 8 km run on the beach.

Le Fruit triathlon took place, as it has since its first race, in Mue Ne. The organizers had decided to change the course from the previous years due to logistical reasons. Some of the off-road sections used in the past were no longer usable because of construction or newly paved roads. The changes meant there was more on-road cycling this year, but on a hillier terrain. Using a road bike would have been ideal for the first part, but the off-road sections made it impossible for the second part. No big deal as I feel incredibly comfortable on my mountain bike, maybe even more so than on my race bike.

The swim was only 750 m long and I was looking forward to see how much I had improved on my swim. My swimming times have never been better thanks to a change of approach in training. I no longer do workouts which include many short sets such as 10 x 100 m, but focus on long sets such as 4-5 X 700+ m. It has had an enormous effect on my speed. The swim was very chaotic. The waves made it virtually impossible to see the buoys so I was constantly looking up trying to spot them. The organizers had not connected them with a rope, which would have made life a lot easier on the athletes. Nonetheless, I came out of the water in third position.

Transition went lightening quick, and I immediately took over first place by jumping on my bike. The first two guys were swimmers, but had no triathlon experience. I had decided before the race that my strategy was to hammer the on-road part of the race. For some reason, I get much faster in my rhythm on my mountain bike than I do on my race bike. For a large part, I was averaging more than 40 kph. Not bad with 26 x 1.95 tires. I thoroughly enjoyed the on-road section of the course because of the nasty hills, but the off-road section consisted of too much downhill. I used these moments to rest the legs and focus on not doing anything risky. I really didn’t feel like crashing. As I got into transition, I knew I had a huge lead. Towards the end, we had to bike a u-turn section and that allowed me to see if anybody was chasing me. Nobody in sight!

That meant I could take it easy on the run and just get it over and done with. I didn’t have to push myself and treated it as a practice run. Running on the beach is an absolute delight. So relaxing! I won the race by 17 minutes in the end. Le Fruit isn’t a competitive race, but great fun because of its location.

After the race, I had to do the obligatory TV interview. Before, during and after the race, I had a camera crew following me. Always funny to get interviewed by a bunch of journalists and then see yourself on TV.