Crystal Palace sprint Triathlon

A week after the Swashbuckler, I was entered in this sprint distance to rack up some points for ESC D3 Triathletes in the London league. Crystal Palace is notorious for one thing: it’s Hill. 9 laps of the bike means 9 times up the hill and 9 times down, plus another 2 on the run for good measure.

Unlike the Swashbuckler, this race was on the calendar for a long time and I was ready :) I had however a big question left to answer a few days before the race: TT bike or road bike?

Having chatted with a few people who raced there and who live in the area, and with some google street-view checks, I decided on the full TT package, although the Aero helmet was probably a bit too much in hindsight. There were indeed 9 laps of a 2.25Km lap, so that was a lot more criterium style riding on a TT bike!

I was there early and the transition side I was directed to was pretty empty.

Swim was in the 50m pool, and competitors had to get under the ropes after two lengths in the same lane. THe only time I had to do this was Thames Turbo race 1 last year and at the time I still didn’t tumble turn, so this time I could practice this in a race and it all went pretty well. The only thing I completely missed was warm up. Usually in open water I can do a bit of warm up in the water before the start, but for some reason I didn’t click at CPT. So I started all cold… Meehhhhh I still managed 13'42" which isn’t too bad for me, although I’m sure I can go a little faster.

Out of the water

Transition over there is fairly long as you have to go around the pool, through the indoor track and all the way to your bike. I managed to almost end my race as soon as I exited the water with a water slide that only handrails saved… Finally in transition I had opted to put some layers on, to be sure I wouldn’t repeat the previous week-end’s mistakes. I’m now sure one layer only would have been enough, but hey, at least I was warm!

The bike went very well. The climb was steep and killing the legs, but I managed to maintain a constant lap time without fading towards the end, which gave me the 5th overall bike time at only 2 min from the course record . I had to shout quite a lot though for slower riders around the course, much to the annoyance of a few. Sorry about that, but I race, I don’t plod around!

Kudos however to the brompton rider and even more to the guy on the boris bike!!! Going up that hill with this heavy weight 9 times is quite an achievement!

T2 was uneventful and I removed one layer. The astroturf was covered in sand though, and that went everywhere. I had opted for my super-light Saucony fastwitch without socks. It went alright, but I could feel the sand in my shoes at some point. I managed a good pace, finishing at 20'18"  for a tad more than 5K, bang on 4 min/K pace. Considering this included the steep bit of the hill twice, I’m happy with it!

I finished 20th overall and 15th in my category, inside 9% of race winning time so I’m happy with my race. After the rain and wind in California (which wasn’t too badd a race after all) and the catastrophic bike leg in the Swashbuckler,  this race brings back a good feeling!

This is also a race to do absolutely! Friendly marshals, no over the top organisation and keep-it cool attitude is brilliant. The place gives you a good workout with the hill and is very enjoyable overall.

Results and data

Photos by myself, http://www.stuweb.co.uk/ and http://www.prosportphotos.com/