Transition Time

You're tired, you're jetlagged, you want to be home. You come around the corner...and the mountains greet you...

What a great week! Everything from the testing opportunities, to the camaraderie to the final race up Ventoux - loved it!

With the formal part of Advanced Week having ended, a few runners decided they wanted more, or maybe they just wanted to postpone their return to 'real' life...hard to say. As for me, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to enter a true trail running experience, le Trail du Ventoux, where 1,200 fanatical trail runners were eagerly waiting to get their season underway! The main event, featured a 44km run up to the summit of Mt Ventoux, with 2,500m of gain...

As much as I wanted to torture my body with this early season challenge, I figured the 'tourist' version, a 24km, 1,200m+ of gain circuit would be good enough for this guy...and really - Why wouldn't the guy?

Pre-Race photo op: The Gripmaster and yours truly, ready to go...more or less. Stephan ran the long course (44k), while I settled for the short course (22k).


Ricky Lightfoot (UK) leading the field about 45min into the race. The course was a 10/10, taking us up along the main ridge to the summit. Beautiful open singletrack, technical rocky terrain, steep grinds and amazing views - perfect really! Unfortunately for me, I was suffering too much to look at the stunning vistas - Note how far we've already climbed from the valley bottom...


What a way to quick off the season! Francois D'Haene showed great form , winning the main event, 44km, in 3h37min. Francois was in my test group all week so we had a chance to chat quite a bit - A super friendly guy, races ski mountaineering races in the winter and a new member of the French Salomon Trail Running Team. Canuck teammate Jen Segger finished 3rd in the Open Women category! Full results: 24km and 44km

Post-Race: My stomach was quite upset from the effort (dehydration maybe?), so I just found a chair at the finish line and tried not to move...Ricky, on the other hand, was more intend on spying on the local residents of the nudist camp - our finish line venue for the Trail du Ventoux! I was told by a local that this 'nature' camp swells to over 5,000 in the summer months...

So what now...Well, it's back to business for me. My 'to do' list still has a few unfinished items in the Nordic department, but otherwise, it's transition time - And with all this running in my legs over the past week, I'm ready for the trail running season to get under way.

Now if only this white stuff would go away...