The Duo Normand two-up team time trial is held annually in September in the Normandy town of Marigny. My other half Chris had won the tandem category last year and harped on about it so much (in a lovely way of course) that I just had to go and see it for myself! From a British time triallist's point of view, it's a spectacular event - not only because of the number of spectators, but because of the large numbers of competitors from unlicenced to professional on virtually closed roads.
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| You even get your own following car with your name plate on it! Fabulous!!! |
Riding two-ups is actually not as simple as two riders just racing together: you need to be reasonably well matched in ability, and to be able to do the changeovers quickly and efficiently, without unnecessarily varying the pace as the riders go through to take a spell at the front. I partnered up with my TRiKS team-mate Jacqui to form a formidable duo! We have been practising together for the last 4 months or so and have improved a lot since our early outings when we got accused of just pottering around the course having a natter because our times were so slow when the truth was I rode too erratic on the drags and then couldn't descend or corner like Jac on the technical bits.
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| There's always time to clown around when riding the course the day before! |
So off we went with our rather large crew. Amongst us were Chris and Phil (UK tandem record holders, unbeaten on the tandem - aiming to defend their title), Phil's cousin Andy partnering up with Wyre Forest CRC friend Andy O, Jac's husband Mark partnering up with Tony and official supporter and photographer, fellow TRiKS and Team Jewson club mate Anna. We stayed in a gorgeous place just outside of Marigny and really enjoyed some much needed chill out time, with lots of cups of tea, a game or two of scrabble and cheese and wine by night!
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| The Crew! |
When race day came I was really excited to be a part of it but a little worried that all these extra kilos I've put on doing no training would really show on the climbs! The first part of the course was really flat and fast but once you got through the 20 mile marker it was climb after climb after climb and Jac and I have only practiced a 17 mile 2-up together in training so the last 10 miles would be tough! Mind you we needn't have worried....we were absolutely fab! Jac set the pace well and we were pretty much textbook style riding! The sun was beaming making it pretty tough going but we recovered well on each others wheels. Sure enough the climbs did hurt at the end but the cheering from our support car kept us going and we finished a very creditable 6th, just one second off 5th!! Jacqui has been of huge support to me throughout the whole season and it was so nice to ride my final event of 2013 with her, thank you Jac! Mark and Tony blew everyone away with their ride finishing 36th out of 100 unlicensed teams (well done), Andy and Andy also had a fantastic ride a good 4 minutes quicker than they anticipated, and Chris and Phil were finally beaten on the tandem but finished a fantastic second. Chris & Phil's results actually show how naturally talented they are as I can hand on heart say they have hardly trained for this event at all. Phil had recently become a dad (congratulations!) and Chris had lost his mojo without Phil to train with and so you could literally count on one hand how many training sessions they have done for this! I am still really proud of them both (even if they won't let me have a go on the tandem - something to do with my bad bike handling skills?!)
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| Closing in on the girls ahead |
The time away also gave me a chance to reflect on my season. I have done 9 triathlons, 3 duathlons, 1 running event and 1 2up TT. I have podiumed in 8 of those events, with 6 being first places. I have finished 4th (the most annoying position ever) twice. I have won my first ever British Championship medal (gold), my first ever European Championships medal (gold) and had my first elite start (although I did come last!). I have raced abroad 5 times (Holland, Majorca, Turkey, Belgium and France) and made some fantastic new friends along the way. I have had a 5k PB (18:43), a 10k PB (38:54) and a 750m swim PB (11:44). The 3 pictures below sum up my favourite 3 memories of the season:
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| My first ever OW sprint win - at St Neots, I wasn't doing aeroplanes across the finish (honest) |
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| Smiling as I become the 25-29 AG British Champ, the goal had been top 7, the win was the best surprise ever |
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| Celebrating our European AG Golds in Turkey with Jacqui - my seventh attempt to get an Age Group medal! |
Despite all of the above I still think there's a lot more to come. This is my favourite time of year when new plans are written and new dreams are formed. Enjoy the end of season break, happy winter training and if there's one event you plan to do next year.....make it The Duo Normand!
