I knew I was losing time, but not as much as I thought I would. I decided at this point to start swimming very slowly using an easy breast stroke without immersing my head. Panicking that I could not swim! Fortunately, I was still 30 secs or so ahead of the pack, so I did not totally panic, but I was definitely getting stressed by the second. I was badly suffocating and unable to get enough oxygen. As the race started, after swimming about 100m at my CP of roughly 1’20/100m I had to stop because my breathing was totally out of control. It felt tight, but with sufficient mobility, “performance fit”, or so I thought. The water was at 17C, chilly but nice, and the lake has sufficient visibility for swimming (except in the start/finish area which is very muddy).īecause of work and travel (excuses) but mostly laziness, I had only bought my wetsuit in early September, and I had not gone for a swim on open water with it. It’s an extremely scenic swim, one of the best I have ever done. The swim starts at the lakeside Loggia and goes on a loop around the Sixteen-Acre island, by a beautiful Japanese Teahouse on Hever’s lake and on River Eden. I had a to pass several times packs of 2 or 3 riders invading the opposite lane. Which, for the record, I really wish it were true and enforced on the course. The BTA also gets a chance to remind us that this is a non-drafting race. What do I know …Īt 9am I headed up to the brief area by the swim start, where the director walks through all the race details. Surprisingly, most competitors did not warm up. I finished setting up at 8:30am and went for a warm-up run on the grounds of Hever Castle, which by the way I can only highly recommend.
But as I could later find out, most athletes were overweight, and almost nobody kept steady in their aero position on the flats and the descents.Īnd here I was, with a heavy (10kg+) non-aero cross bike happy to take on these guys (naively perhaps). As we know, the gains in weight savings come first and foremost from the athlete, and the savings in aero are only really meaningful if the rider actually keeps the aero position. There are two arguments for expensive: weight and aero. Which is probably good news, as it means the sport is still open to those with less financial means to buy such high-end gear. I felt a bit intimidated, but also made me reflect that money cannot buy performance.Īll this gear in display barely makes a 1% difference for 99% of the competitors.
Pretty much everybody was on aerobars, and maybe about 50% were showing fantastic aero wheelsets. After going through registration, getting the stickers, and collecting the freebies, I went to set up in transition.Īt this point, I noticed that a lot of competitors had bikes several times more expensive than mine. When we booked my entry, I did not notice there were separate competitive waves from 8:00am till 9:00am, but in any case waves were sorted by expected finish gun times, so my wave was supposed to be the fastest of the non-competitive ones. I was due to start on the first non-competitive wave at 9:20am. The BTA rules are designed in theory to ensure a fairer and safer competition, and they were really highlighted by marshals and BTA inspectors on course. There is also a new layout this year for registration, transition and race control, which is much easier to navigate for both competitors and spectators.Īdditionally, the Castle Triathlon Series have joined this year the British Triathlon Association, which you could actually see with BTA inspectors on transition, during the course and on the race briefing. Parking, registration, setting up in transition, race briefing, racing and post-race amenities were superb this year. Unlike last year, which was a bit of a disaster because of the weather conditions and overcrowding that created a total organizational chaos.
Hever’s is the UK’s second largest triathlon, and the largest for children (in fact, our two daughters also competed this weekend, and I am a very proud dad).
Hever’s triathlon is part of the Castle Triathlon Series that have been happening for few years now on the highly charismatic grounds of castles across the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. This Sunday I raced my first Olympic (international) distance triathlon at Hever Castle.
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