Hubert Nicolle, pictured near the Ironman France finish line in Nice which he crossed as first Sarnian. (0607254)
LOCAL triathletes have been getting in some serious race practice in Europe ahead of the inaugural Guernsey Granite Man event.
Held on Sunday 31 August at Pembroke, a granite man is commonly known as a half-ironman and consists of a 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21km run. With that in mind, seven Guernsey athletes have recently returned from competing in Ironman France.
Centred in the southern beach resort of Nice, the race comprised a 3.8km swim in the Mediterranean, then a gruelling 180km mountainous cycle ride followed by a beachfront 26.22-mile full marathon run along Le Promenade des Anglais. To make matters worse, the temperature hit a sweltering 36C in the shade.
Of the 2,300 starters, only 1,900 finished the race, with the medical services stretched due to the heat. ‘Even the final 30 kilometres of the ride [which was] mostly downhill, didn’t offer much respite from the heat,’ said one of the Guernsey competitors, Mark Naftel.
‘It was like riding into a hot hairdryer.’
Fellow policeman Nick Boughay along with other islanders husband and wife Tim and Shanine Johns, Rob Fusellier, Hubert Nicolle and ironman first-timer Adrian Thorley joined Naftel in the race.
They had all spent the last six months training for the event.
The 6.30am swim saw perfect conditions with a calm sea.
The competitors began the two laps in a massed start and it took the fastest professional athletes a little more than 50min. to complete.
The first Sarnian out of the water was Johns in 68min.
‘Great, warm, calm and not too crowded for an ironman swim,’ he said afterwards.
It was from the start of the bike section that the heat started to take its toll.
With only the first and last 20km of the road being flat, the mid-section of the cycle course took in over 2,000 metres of climbing which is the equivalent of going up Petit Bot hill 20 times continuously.
During the bike section, Johns and Nicolle swapped positions several times.
The marathon run took in four 10.5km laps of the famous Nice promenade.
With the mercury still rising in the thermometer and no shade available, it was Nicolle who held his form the best.
He rounded off his day with a very respectable 3hr 54min. run to give himself a new personal-best ironman time of 11-29.
Also setting personal bests were Shanine Johns with 12-51 and Boughay who took 20min. off his quickest time when he finished in 14-12.
But undoubtedly the Guernsey performance of the day came from Thorley.
In only his second year of triathlon training and having recently been diagnosed as a diabetic, he had to stop at regular intervals to check his blood sugar levels and adjust his feeding and insulin intake.
‘Very, very pleased with that performance, but I couldn’t believe that heat,’ said a tired but elated Thorley afterwards.
Another local has also been pushing herself in a recent ironman on the Continent.
Teacher Rhian Gates raced in EWF Ironman in Switzerland and had to contend with much lower temperatures than expected on a wet course.
‘I found the course tough,’ she said.
‘The run was hard. I think that the cold, wet weather earlier in the day took its toll and the run was all tarmac, which I find hard on the legs.
‘Oh well, all done now and I am very pleased to finish.’
Gates completed the 3.8km swim in Lake Zurich in 1-19 before doing the 180km alpine cycle in 7-25.
She ran the flat city marathon in 5-21 to give her a respectable overall time of 14-27.
‘What an experience that was,’ she said.
‘I felt like Lance Armstrong – wishful thinking – so overall a pleasant route for me’.
And the European action does not stop there for the island triathletes as Commonwealth Games athlete Alan Rowe and Island Games competitor Ian Scholes are joined by Richard Stapley and Jim Spelman for an Olympic distance triathlon in Feins, near Rennes, this weekend.
That will be a warm up for the inter-insular triathlon in Jersey on 17 August.
Meanwhile, in the island the De Putron Summer triathlon series continues on Sunday with a race at Pleinmont consisting of a 1,000m swim, 17-mile cycle and four-mile run.
The start is at 8am at the Cup and Saucer.
Further details of this and the Guernsey Granite Man are available on www.gsytriclub.org.gg.
Article posted on 18th July, 2008 - 2.29pm
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