Beauvais Triathlon L Distance - 19 June 2016
by Ionut Pirva
Sun, country side landscape, feet in the sand ... Beauvais Triathlon L (1.9Km lake swim, 90Km bike, 21Km run).
The competition is organised by the town hall and the Triathlon Club of Beauvais. For those who have never been to Beauvais, the city is nearly 85Km away from Paris. The race place (Plan d'eau du Canada) is at 4Km from Beauvais railway station (down town) and you can reach it by bus or by bike.
If you come by car, the parking is free and is located 1Km away from the race start and bibs pickup place.
I picked up my bib at 8:50AM on the race day; everything was quick and well organised.
This year the race took place on the 19th of June. A bit worried because of the previous days' bad weather. The D day proved to be a sunny spring day, just perfect for the race.
The race was not too crowded, we must have been around 1000 participants.
The start was given at 10h AM for women (red caps) and at 10:10h AM for men (green caps) and relays (yellow caps) on the shores of the Plan d'eau du Canada lake.
The water was the way you would like it to be, clean, clear (nearly clear) and warm (19°C). The swimming was a one loop L-shaped course, well signalized by huge buoys. The most difficult part was getting through the transition area without slipping over the swimming caps thrown on the ground :)
The transitions were on soft surface, grass or carpet, with a ramp to get out of the water and bibs' numbers at the end of each bike row, on each side of the bike park :) Both transitions happened on the bike park.
I was pleasantly surprised to find in the transition area a chair, a place to drop your wetsuit and plenty of space for your bike and running stuff.
The bike course went through small villages and forests N-W of Beauvais. The race had 3 loops mostly on good road surface. The course had small hills and fast descents (900m of elevation gain). Maybe the hill to remember was the one at the beginning, around 300m and 9%.
The run was a 3 loop course around the lake, completely flat and combining trail surface with a bit of road. Luckily the sun was not too powerful, if not, the long straight lines under the clear sky would have done a lot of damage.
There were more than enough refreshment stations. I appreciated that they offered bike water bottles during the bike race, very convenient.
The public was cheerful and encouraging. At the end of each bike loop there was a small hill and people were sitting along the road and encouraging you as we are used to see during Le Tour de France ... it just gave you that boost you needed to start over, begin a new bike loop :)
Plenty of reasons to enjoy the end of the race: sun, cake, fruits, deck chairs, music, massage .... french fries, beer and merguez!
It was my second time at Beauvais. Looking forward to participating next year!<:>
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