Disqualified from 3rd round of French Grand Prix

The Montlucon team are in Les Sables D Olonne on the Atlantic coast of France for a multisport festival featuring round 3 of the Duathlon Grand Prix and the first round of the Triathlon Grand Prix.

Unfortunately, yesterday I was disqualified for a transgression in the second transition and this meant that the team finished the day ranked 11th rather than 5th it would have been had I been able to complete the race. In France, the officials are very strict and I must admit I was very disappointed at the penalty I suffered and the effect it had on the team. On a positive for the team, Martin “Bib” Reyt improved from 56th place in Lucon to 36th in this race and helped bring the second pack up to the leaders on the bike.

In the last race in Lucon, I got off the bike in around 20th place and the leaders had a 10 sec lead out of transition, I figured this cost me 2 places. For this race, with an even shorter run at the finish (2.5k), there was no room for error and I was determined to enter transition near the front of the race and attack the second run hard. I was 7th or 8th onto the second run (2 leaders had a 15sec break on the bike) and was just exiting transition when I was given a yellow card for “throwing” down my helmet. From there, a misinterpretation occurred with the official, my lack of understanding in French contributing and the red card was produced in the wash up.

I was very disappointed at not being able to finish off the race. My race instincts were sharp and aggressive and running legs strong. Next week I will be lining up very confident of being in the mix up at the world championships in Hungary.

Cheers
Radar