The season opener of the French Grand Prix took place in Fréjus at the weekend. With some teams missing athletes due to WTCS Yokohama, there was space for a couple of other outfits to steal an early march in the series.
At the same time, Poissy Triathlon arrived with formidable teams in both the men’s and women’s races. Both were looking to set up their campaigns with early wins but faced stiff competition from a number of their rivals.
Women’s race
Lea Marchal of Tri Val de Gray produced a dominant swim to take control of the race. When she emerged from the sea, it would have been easy to forget that there was a race happening behind her, such was her lead. As Marchal made the run into T1, the women behind continued to push to make it to the beach.
Mathilde Gautier was the next woman out of the water, 19 seconds down on Marchal. A large group of women followed Gautier into T1. By now, though, Marchal was already away on her bike.
A trio of Gautier, Jessica Fullagar and Sara Guerrero Manso charged after Marchal and managed to cut her lead to 11 seconds. Further behind, the main pack were a little slow to organise themselves as a couple of athletes checked for team mates in the pack.
Although Marchal continued to push, she could not quite hold off the flying trio behind. They soon swept up Marchal and could turn their attentions to those behind. Or so it seemed.
Fullagar had other ideas.
Having seen Marchal crush the swim, Fullagar decided to drop the hammer on the bike. In an attack reminiscent of her effort at the World U23 Championships last November, she drove ahead with neither Gauthier nor Guerrero able to respond.
Over the rest of the bike, Gautier slipped behind on the bike. There may have been a degree to which she was still recovering from her World Military Championships success last weekend. Despite the best efforts of the main pack, they could not tame Fullagar. As a result, the race leader arrived in T2 with a lead of around 45 seconds.
Out of T2, Sandra Dodet was the first to take up the chase on the run. Kristelle Congi and Lea Coninx were quick to pursue her but Dodet was clearly the stronger runner on the day.
The cat-and-mouse game between Fullagar and Dodet therefore unravelled itself over the 5km. With every few hundred metres, the gap thinned until it was down to single digits. As Dodet brought Fullagar into view, she seemed to raise her level again to make the catch.
After her monstrous effort on the bike, Fullagar could not react as Dodet passed her. Although a medal was still in her hands, Maria Tomé, Kristelle Congi and Lea Coninx were also hunting Fullagar.
In the closing stages they caught her to set up a four woman showdown for the silver and bronze. In the last 500 metres, Tomé made her move. Coninx followed but although Fullagar tried to pump her legs, she had no answer.
Coninx could not quite pass Tomé and the Portuguese woman took silver. Congi came home in 4th while Fullagar took 5th.
With three women in the top-4 (Dodet, Coninx and Congi), Poissy took the team win and asserted their title credentials for the season. Issy Triathlon were the second team overall. Triathlon Club Liévin were third overall. Look out for a full breakdown of the team rankings after Fréjus this week.
Men’s race
The blue caps hurtled down the sand into the sea but with a large field pushing for the best position there was some bumping of shoulders as the men jumped the first waves. Amid a strong field, it was a youngster that led the early proceedings.
Leo Ouabdesselam took the lead in the swim and was the first to exit. Aurelien Raphael was out next, 6 seconds down, with another youngster Joao Nuno Batista and Raphael’s Poissy team mate Anthony Pujades close behind.
Raphael and Pujades used all of their experience to gain a few seconds in transition but a large pack of men had chased them into T1. As Raphael set an early pace on the bike, a familiar face in Pierre Le Corre moved to the fore.
Louis Vitiello also made some early darts to the front on the bike. After his win at the Melilla European Cup, Vitiello would be a man to watch. In contrast to the women’s race, no one could quite force a break in the men’s field. A few nervous faces then began to show.
The reason was simple. Mario Mola had made his way into the lead group.
In life there are three certainties: death, taxes and Mario Mola running a storming 5km in a Sprint race.
Along with his fellow Spaniard, Genis Grau, Mola was on paper the best runner in the field and with him in the front pack the medals seemed a tad more remote. No doubt cognizant of Mola’s speed, Le Corre put in a few strong turns.
Le Corre himself, though, is in form after winning the World Military Championships and was far too experienced to panic. As the field rolled into T2, he marked Mola and was quickly on his heels on the run.
As Mola took off, the rest of the men started their chase. Jeremy Quindos started well; he was coming off a Spanish training camp with Team SPIX. Vitiello, too, had a great first kilometre and kept Grau and Le Corre close by.
Mola, though, took command of the run. Le Corre tried to hunt him down as the two stalwarts of the elite scene battled once more, but the gap did not budge. It hovered between 5 and 10 seconds throughout.
As Mola crossed the line to take the win, Le Corre was only 7 seconds back and already on the blue carpet. With a final sprint, he also manged to hold off Grau to take silver.
Vitiello was next home after Grau while Quindos finished in 5th place.
In the team classification, Saint-Jean-de-Monts-Vendée Triathlon took the men’s win. With Mola and Vitiello in the top-5, it was a great start to the year for the team. Les Sables Vendée Triathlon took second thanks to Le Corre and Jeremy Quindos in 5th. Montluçon were the third team overall after Grau’s bronze medal.
In a slight surprise, Poissy were outside the top-3. They will no doubt look to strike back at the next round in Bordeaux next month.
View the women’s results here and the men’s results here.
