Aix En Provence 70.3

Mark Roberts

Good morning — I have my first race of the season this weekend so I might as well do a little planning although this weekend is more about travel and fun with my wife then trying to set a PR.  Fitness is about where it usually is given that I spend more time traveling and working then training.  Katy and I left this morning from Luxembourg on the TGV (high speed train) to Provence for the weekend.  Much better than driving or flying!  ITs about a 6.5 hr trip and we should arrive sometime this afternoon.  Currently we are passing through Metz, France home to a beautiful cathedral with one of the largest collection of stained glass in the world.  
I spend a week at the Mallorca camp cycling so I’m feeling good about my bike fitness.  I was home for 1 day after Mallorca before traveling to Denver for a Dental meeting where I was only able to run a handful of times.  I’ve been in the pool a few times in the past month — Literally maybe 3.  Lucky its a wetsuit swim and only 2100m.  Run training is getting better but I’m a long way from where I need to be before IM Frankfurt in July. Should’t be a problem for this weekend though as Katy was looking to race a half marathon soon and we were able to transfer to the relay division!  I’ll be doing the swim and the bike and she’ll be closing it out.  Team Roberts!  Not sure if we’ll still earn club points that way but I’ll check at the Tri Club booth at check in.  No real goals for the race except to swim smart, and get in a good hard ride.  I figure since I don’t have to run there’s no reason to hold anything back on the bike.  Bike course should be fun as it is one of the more challenging 70.3 courses in Europe.  After Wiesbaden shut down a few years ago I believe it has the most climbing of any 70.3 over here a 1300m (Just over 4,000 ft of gain).  I’m planing to ride at an IF around .88 or .89 and climb at or just above FTP.  We’ll see what happens.  Best bike split has me around 2:40  at a NP of 215 or so.  We’ll see.  Plan for the run is to relax, grab a beer and cheer on my wife Katy! She ran a 1:43 in Bonn a few weeks ago but didn’t have great day (she’s telling me she will bury herself to break 1:40!) Should be a fun weekend!  Will try and get some pictures to post! Hopefully the relay teams will show up on the tracker.  “Team Roberts”. Race will be done by the time most of you wake up anyway though.  Cheers!

Al Truscott

Sounds like fun! I did a similar Swim/Bike, Run with my wife @ Wildflower a few days ago. To keep her motivated all the way to the end, I popped in and did the last mile or so with her, and we finished together. Don't know if that's an option in this race (Wildflower is non-WTC, and a pretty loose scene)

Mark Roberts

Team Roberts Strong had a good showing at 70.3 Aix en Provence.  It was a wonderful weekend despite a cold, wet race day.  After arrival on Friday, picking up our packet and checking into the hotel, we a had a lovely dinner in a small off the beaten path place that only held maybe 25 people in a open air courtyard.  3 course meal w delicious French food and a bottle of Cote de Provence rouge from a local vineyard all for about 65 euro!  Saturday was busy as we went to the race briefing and then it took a few hours for me to ride the bus out to the lake and check in my bike.  Dinner the 2nd night was also at a small restaurant that had some outdoor seating but we sat inside as it was a bit cold.  Another great dinner out and we got to bed a little early.  I was up at 4:30, the hotel had arranged breakfast early for the athletes.  Katy got to sleep in as there was no point for her to trek out the swim start and back by bus given the forecast for mid to low 50’s and rain.  I got the bus out to the start, checked my bike, pumped tires as lined up in the <36 coral.  They wouldn’t let any relay teams start any further up. Probably a good thing given my lack of swim fitness.  It was a crowded start.  I think they had over 2500 athletes.  But the rolling start that they do at European races, 6 people every 8 seconds really works well.  It spreads out the swim and all of the ones I’ve done over here are surprisingly easy with very little contact.  I also think people take the rules and recommendations seriously and people seed themselves appropriately.  The swim was one big rectangle about 900m out with then 2 right turns and back.  I settled into a good rhythm and by the time I was on the way back I was mostly by myself as people were so spread out.  I think I swam a 34:50 or something which was not too bad given my training.  T1 was very long.  Probably ran for 2 -2.5 minutes just to get to the bag.  There was no tent at this race, just folding chairs setup by the transition racks.  I had a very slow transition (7 min) as I had to pull on arm warmers and put on a vest.  Clothing was a good call given the temperature and forecast for rain.  The bike was crazy for about the first half.  Very crowded, difficult to space out leagally, and apparently over here there is no penalty for blocking or passing on the right.  While they did say we were supposed to ride on the right and even though the course was closed to traffic, crossing the center line was forbidden or Verboten as they say in Germany.  That being said people rode like idiots! Routinely 2 and 3 abreast and many times people would be riding right in the center with nobody on their right forcing me to cross the center line to pass or pass them on the right,  Road conditions were generally bumpy and bad and about halfway through the bike it starting raining.  I was aiming to ride 205-215 watts, about .87 to .88 which I chose to do given that I was not running.  That being said, with 4000 ft of climbing on the course and some of the climbs had short sections of 10-12 percent that required 290-300 watts just to keep going, it would have been difficult to pace this course.  I think I had a VI of 1.24 which would certainly not win any execution awards.  At about 70km it started pouring down rain, I’m talking buckets.  Water was washing over the roads like a flash flood.  At 70k is the Cat 3 Col de Cengle.  About 4 km climb at 7% average w small stretches of 10-12%.  The climb was good, but the descent was absolutely terrifying.  It was probably 48-49 degrees at this point and pouring rain.  My hands were so numb I had trouble squeezing the brakes.  I was passed by an ambulance on the descent. They were going to find a guy who I think went off the road and down into woods as he missed a corner on a switchback.  For those who went to Mallorca picture descending Sa Calobra in a downpour, in the cold with gusty wind on a tri bike w a disc and 808 front.  It pretty much sucked.  I was fortunate not to put the bike on the ground one time as I grabbed too much brake and slid the back wheel in one of the corners.  Once at the bottom and heading back to town I was so cold I was shivering on the bike and having a hard time just riding.  I made it back to T2 after giving up a ton of time in the last 20k. Finished the bike in 2:59 but was just glad to be back in transition without an accident.  Katy was at the exchange and ready to run.  She got the chip off my calf and was gone.  T2 was at a school and they had opened up a small room where people were trying to warm up. There were literally 100’s of athletes wrapped in Mylar blankets trying to warm up and then decide if they were going to run or not.  Katy had an amazing run.  The course was up and down with very few flat spots.  It was a 3 loop course, Katy said she had fun running especially the first lap with only top age group men on the course.  There was a 1 mile section through a park with a sandy and rocky trail that was more like a small river.  By the 3rd lap the grass along the edges became a shoe sucking mud pit and she decided to quit avoiding the puddles and run straight through.  I eventually made it back to the hotel for a hot shower and wanted to get back out there so we could finish together.  The tracker indicated that she was due at the finsh line in 20 minutes with a sub 1:40 run! I put on a dry EN Kit, grabbed a hotel umbrella and went out to meet her on the final finishing straight.  I found a spot about 600m from the finish and saw her coming.  I had to sprint to get along side her and get her attention that it was me as she was so focused! She told me to pick it up because she was not slowing down.  She about killed me! We passed many people in the finishing straight and finished together.  It was great to cross the line and both get medals.  She ran a 1:35 half!  The post race food was generally disappointing so after we warmed up back at the hotel we went out for Belgian beer and burgers.  We went to post race awards to see where we ended up.  We went 5:20, and were the 9th team out of 30 (male, female and mixed).  I believe we were the 4th or 5th mixed team although the top 3 all had a female swimmer and fast male cyclist and runners.  I think we earned some EN points though!  The awards ceremony was good.  It was fun to see all the winners and their fast times.  Laurent Jalabert (multiple polka dot jersey winner at the Tour De France) won the 50-54 age group by a ton with a 4:24 or something.  Ridiculously fast although he is an ex pro cyclist.  It was a great weekend in France, and its not over yet.  I found out late last night that our direct train back to Luxembourg was cancelled due to the ongoing rail workers strike, so we are currently on a train to Paris, then have to navigate the subway, 2 changes, to get to a different train station to get a train back to Luxembourg. Hopefully we make it home today.  Great weekend though.  3 weeks to train and then 70.3 in Kraichgau, then 5 weeks til IM Frankfurt,  Lots of training and fitness to be gained in that time.  Thanks for reading.  

Robert Sabo

Congratulations. Sounds like team Roberts had a successful and fun adventure in France. Great report

Derrek Sanks

Congratulations to Team Roberts, especially your wife...great run!

Tim Sullivan

Awesome Team Robert's!