Ardres Triathlon Report - 26th Sept

Paul and Barbara Mason, BTS' most travelled Triathlon family, had a day trip to Pas de Calais last weekend for the triathlon at Ardres, about 15km from Calais. Their report is below:

The weather didn’t bode well as we got off the Tunnel with strong winds and heavy showers, but the rain stayed away for most of the day only one shower hitting Paul on the run and Barbara still out in the country on her bike.

The contrast with events here is huge, every junction on the cycle is marshalled and all traffic stopped, no need to contemplate slowing at all and able to use both sides of the road. The event has a duathlon running simultaneously so that competitors from both hit T1 together and do the rest of the race as one. The French triathletes, voted with their feet at the briefing by walking away back to the beach during the talk from the official, obviously nothing they hadn’t heard before!

The event, as always in France, was delayed, we have learnt to allow extra time when booking the return trip. The 1200m swim start was busy to say the least with a turn about 25m from the beach. The 30km cycle was superb even the 10% climb seemed good, complete with hairpins, roadside crowds and writing on the road. The 5km run went by very quickly even in the rain.

The prizes, cash, went down a long way but we just missed out. Paul was 27th overall and 8th vet in 1:38:39 and Barbara was 92nd and 3rd female vet in 2:17:46. As always the standard was high but there was a lack of women only 6 in the tri and 12 in the duathlon.

This is a super little late season event with good organisation and lots of cash available to the quick chaps and chapesses. Oh yes the entry fee was 10€, with a small goodie bag and all the oranges, cake and chocolate that you can eat at the finish.