Angers "Heatathlon"

The main difficulty of the Angers Triathlon which took place in La Rochefoucauld square on July 20th had for main difficulty the heat. With temperatures Angers didn't faced since a long time, the first part of the trial was surely not the worst : the Maine temperature was 26°. Given that level, the competitors were forbidden to wear swimming suit. "The start in the river didn't pose any problem", reminds Percy who finished with his brother James in the first thirty swimmers after 750 m.

Credit French  Federation of Triathlon

Then started three loops of 21 kms by bike throughout Angers. "The real difficulty was there because that part of the trial makes the difference between the members and the no members of a triathlon club : some competitors have ultra light bikes and others unfitted bicycles for such a trial. The fighting spirit is difficult to maintain when you loose untill 200 ranks during that part".

The trial finished with a 5 km run. "We felt as if the heat had doubled because we had no wind coming from the speed on bikes. Hopefully the organizers had added one restock more and above all some people have had the good idea to refresh the runners with hosepipes". Nevertheless "we had many difficulties to find again a good pace for the foot run after the cycle run", says Percy. With the finish line comes the moment of glory, the speaker giving the names of those who ended their run. After that, they had moments to do the Angers triathlon again, but, that time, only in their mind...