THE DOUBLE IRON

So it was up early the next day for all everyone and after a quick breakfast and scout around my room to make sure I hadn't left anything behind,we headed off down to the race site.All in all the weekend went very well with all eight of the scheduled events going off without a hitch.The double iron had it's problems though,not with the event organisation,but with the weather.It is pretty hard for me to describe this course as tough since it is pretty much dead flat but as we all know,if you throw in some wind,everything can go to hell,especially when you are trying to ride 360k.For me though the thought of doing my fourth double here in Levis left me unconcerned as it was really just a "training day" and not a race.I would be worrying about other events in the year and this weekend I just wanted to get the job done and hang out with all my mates fom Quebec.


The swim was held in a small cove just off the mighty St Lawrence River opposite the imposing citadel in old Quebec City.It was a 12 loop,7.6k crowd free affair with the 27 athletes(24men and three women) having lots of room to splash around without getting in each others way.Due to the huge tides that occur on this river the swim start changes every year to allow us to swim in the calmest water possible and for the first couple of hours everything was going to plan.My swim was always going to be slowish as I had only done a handfull of swims in training this year.I just wanted to get around in about 2hrs 30ish and I would be happy which is what was happening until the last three laps when the current started to take control.

That didn't worry the swim leader Itallian,Frabrizio Botanica(what a great name)who had a speedy 1:57:08 to exit the water eight minutes in front of defending champ and Gatineau,Quebec native Eric Deshaies.Daylight was third as Eric Colbert hit dry land next,some 18 minutes later.They were all way in front of me but I was happy with my 2:37 as I had bluffed my way through another swim in tenth place,unhurt but full of St Lawrence River water.I wandered the 200meters to transition slowly changing into my bike clothes as I went and hit the bike course with 2:47 on the clock.

By the time I got on the bike the pace of the other nine athletes was furious,as was the intensity of the wind.They were all head down and going hard at what to me seemed a near suicidal pace for the start of a 360k ride,especially with a 25kph wind bearing down on us.Eric was going really hard and was ticking off laps at 34kph while German,Marcel Henning and Austrian,Andreas Karral began their long dogfight for the minor places on the podum.I had asked Eric the day before if he was going for the sub 20hr holy grail of the Double Iron and he told me that was indeed his plan but it would depend on the wind.Todays 92x1.92 repeats into the wind would not help his cause one bit.

For my part I was just tooling around on my brrowed bike at a more sedate 29kph just planning to finish in the 12:30-12:45hr range.It was very interesting to check out the boys as they lapped me(which they did regularly) as only Eric seemed able to handle the tough conditions well.I spoke to Andreas briefly and he commented on the tough conditions as he started to slow down in his chase of Eric to concentrate more on staying with Marcel.Fabrizio,the studly Itallian B&B owner seemed on the same program as I and rode up to my only to say " Nick,there are so many beautiful girls here to look at,I don't want to do this anymore".Spoken like a true Itallian and he was right,the endless supply of bikini-cald Quebecers,walking,jogging,skating,riding and sunbathing all around the course was a real treat for the eyes but a even greater distraction for a bunch of guys with their blood already up.

At about 100k I hit pit lane for a food stop.The stuff I had on my bike wasn't cutting it and I craved real food so I pulled in for a hot cup of soup and sat down for five minutes to hang with the crews.I just wanted to finish and had planned to stop three times during the bike to eat and socialise.Little did I know that I would get more than my wish.About 40k after my first stop a huge thunderstorm hit and I just made it back to pit lane in time to avoid the worst of the rain.I knew it would be a brief storm and so waited it out with legendary eight-time Deca-iron finisher Guy Rossi and mutiple world Ultra-tri champ Pascal Joli.While everyone else was getting soaked we stayed dry and headed back out on the course only losing a few mintues.From there ,however things began to go south for me.

My eyesight had statred to go blurry and I was experiencing dizzy spells from time to time.At first I didn't think much of it but they became more frequent and I stated to get a chill before each episode.I continued though and ordered a coke from my crew as I passed thinking that it might wake me up.It didn't.A couple of laps later I blacked out for a second and hit a traffic cone which threw me onto a concrete garbage bin.Thankfully my leg took the brunt of the impact and I managed to stay upright without scatching my borrowed bike.I knew somthing was wrong and pulled up to the medical team at the far end of the course.They told me to go back to the med-tent and the medics wuld be waiting for me.As I rode up to the medics with my crew chasing behind I blacked out for a second time,thankfully into the arms of my crew who had arrived in the nick of time.I was walked to the med tent and my b.p was taken which confirmed my fears,it was very low.I lay there for a few minutes and when I treid to sit up to get a drink my crew were offering me I passed out for the third time,this time with a violent shiver which lasted about ten seconds.Once I came to they told me that a ambulance had been called and that I would not be allowed back on the bike today.My race was done.I talked the ambulance guys out of taking me to the hospital as my b.p was starting rise again but they told me that my blood sugar was really low as well so they gave me some industrial strength gels to boost my sugar levels.They were also concerned about the volume of river water that I had consumed and left me with a warning that I should be prepared for some stomach problems in the next day or so.Man,were they ever to be proved right.I spend the rest of the night in a reclining lawn chair,wrapped in my sleeping bag, watching the race progress in between nap sessions and feeding times.It was fun to hang out with the crews but I was very sad to have not finished the first of my planned events for my trip.

The race continued though and the frantic early pace was beginning to take it's toll on the riders.Only Eric held firm as everyone else slowed into the nightime hours.Marcel was still holding onto second with Andreas not far behind in third.The rest of the field was just trying to stay upright as fatigue started to set in across the course.

Eric had a huge lead of over an hour by the time he hit the 42 lap run and really only had to hold it together for the win but Marcel and Andreas started the run realtively close together and raced for second place.During the run,as the day wore on the heat became an issue and one by one the athletes started to fall by the wayside.There ended up being a record 40% dnf rate for the event which translated to 12 of the 27 starters.That was great for Leslie Holton who remained the only female upright and a certainty for the world championship title.She deserved it as she put together a really solid and smart day for a winning time of 31:11:27 and a nice $2000 cheque.Others did not fare so well and my job for the day was to calculate who would be able to make the 30hr time limit for the men and 32 hrs for the women.Sadly many of them realised that they would not make it and stopped.

The cream did rise to the top and Eric held on to his comfotable lead to cross the line in a winning time of 21:49:40,well short of is record attempt but an awesome effort given the tough conditions.Andreas Karral managed to pass Marcel for second in 23:09:51 and ran almost the indetical time to Erics' 8:59:18.He told me later that if he had been closer to Eric at the start of the run he would have tried to catch him but gave Eric credit for being brave enough to keep up the pace on the bike all day when he had slowed to conserve his legs for the run.Marcel wasn't happy to finish third in 23:29:18 but by the time we were at Jerry's bbq the next day he was all smiles.

I didn't stay around for too long after the first half dozen people finished and figured Barb had seen enough of all the triathletes for one day so she drove us back to the apartments to hang out and relax a bit.The only pronlem is that as the night wore on I started to feel pretty sick.I was okay while I was chatting to everyone outside but as soon as I went to bed I felt the urge to throw up and that is exactly what I did.All night!!Six times I went back to the toilet and by the pre dawn hours I was a complete mess.God knows what it must have sounded like but it was loud as Harn Wei told me he could here me and he was on another floor.It was a really bad way to end what was really a great event all things considered.I just wanted to sleep though and couldn't bear to think of facing the next day.