Pamplona European Middle Championships - DI2 Front Derailleur Guard Legal

Ben Redman - EZ Gains Director

I love racing for the GB triathlon age group team – it’s always a really friendly affair, easy to meet people and well organised!

This time it was a middle distance race in Pamplona, Spain – 1.9km swim in a mountain lake, 84km ride from the lake, through some beautiful but mountainous terrain, then a 3 lap hilly half marathon to finish. I knew this wasn’t a course that would suit me, so I wasn’t holding out hope for defending the silver medal I got at the previous championships.

I stayed in the heart of the old town, which was very close to the finish, but maybe not the quietest place!

The course started with a swim in a beautiful lake in the mountains, followed by a ride through the mountains to the old town centre, then the run was three laps around the town and up to the castle. I drove out to the lake and went for a swim and ride the day before the race.

I checked my bike in – after the recent rule changes I’d made some changes to my bike set-up to comply with them; I’ve removed my rear toolbox and instead now have a double bottle setup behind my seat. One of the “bottles” now has my toolkit in it.

Apart from that my bike is unchanged, including all the EZGains goodies; rear disc cover, Di2 cover and chainring cover. The officials were inspecting bikes closely and taking photos on entrance to transition, but didn’t have any concerns with my bike.

The rear bottle mount has the bottles high and flat and is very aerodynamic. It’s the prototype for what is now a new product for EZGains.

The next day there was a bus journey to the lake. The race was a rolling start with a slightly odd order for age groups, which, coupled with a bit of faffing, meant I started almost at the back of the men.

The course was a single loop with buoys just at each corner, so a long way between them. Starting at the back though it was easy just to swim in the same direction as everyone else! It also had the benefit that I was overtaking and not being overtaken. I did have to weave my way around people, but the mental boost of overtaking was nice. I went hard to start with, so by the first turn buoy I was struggling for breath and had to back off.

At about half way round I realised I’d been swimming next to someone for a bit. We came apart to overtake, then I decided I might as well draft. This was slightly tricky with all the overtaking, but definitely made the pace easier. Arriving at the finish in just over 30 minutes was good, with the course being slightly long (my route around it was anyway!)

Strava link

There was a steep climb up to transition, about 450m with a gradient up to 30 degrees. The transition area involved a large tent, where you had a numbered bag on a hook with your bike stuff in it. You take that out, put your wetsuit etc in it, then hang it back up. This was a squash and a squeeze, with narrow isles and people everywhere! I got through without too much drama, then out onto the bike course.

There was a bit of a rise, then a dramatic steep descent with multiple switchbacks. I was a bit worried about this section so I worked hard here to position myself away from other athletes on these corners.
Then the course started showing its true colours – the majority of the rest of it being uphill. I was overtaking on the flatter sections, then basically going flat out on the uphills whilst still losing places.

I knew I was working too hard and took it easier on the downhills and flats, but there just weren’t enough of them and my normalized power was a lot higher than planned. I overtook a lot on the flatter parts, and lost places on the hills, but not many. Over time, the number of bikers thinned out and I spent a lot of the ride by myself.

The scenery was dramatic; at one point we were cycling towards a sheer cliff face, another cycling up to a little Spanish village perched on top of a hill. I caught up with one of the female professionals who had a motorbike marshal with her. Despite this being mainly a closed road course, there were 6 cars in a queue behind her. I thought I’d be stuck behind this for a while, but a Spanish athlete I’d recently overtaken came up beside me, looked at me, shrugged and then pulled out onto the other side of the road and started overtaking! This didn’t seem dangerous as it was on a very long straight bit of road, but I thought it might lead to disqualification for crossing onto the wrong side of the road. But… seeing the Spanish athlete do it, it seemed like it might be okay so I shrugged and did the same. The marshal didn’t seem to care.

Coming towards the end of the race there were some “interesting” route choices along a rustic path, over a humpback bridge, then up a very steep cobbled incline. I just about had enough gears for it. Immediately afterwards there was a bit of downhill where you built up some speed, then a section with marshalls signalling to slow down. I wasn’t sure how much to slow down as I couldn’t see why, but then it became clear – two vicious speed bumps about 50cm apart. I was still going too fast to just roll over them, so I tried jumping, but wasn’t going fast enough to clear the second one. I bashed down hard on it, but fortunately stayed upright and my bike didn’t seem damaged.

There was then a section through an industrial estate, before a little cobbled bridge into a park. There were little fluffy white seeds in the air blowing from the trees in the park, so many it was like cycling through a blizzard! Through the park and I was done. In more ways than one.

Strava link

I got into transition and could hear shouts of support from friends Rob and Helen, but I knew I was in trouble. I’d over-biked with a higher normalised power than planned, but more importantly that has included a lot of long power spikes well over my threshold power.

I didn’t want to run. It was hot and sunny, I knew it was a hilly run, and I was wiped out already. A half marathon did not seem appealing. I jogged off, but despite not moving very fast I was hyperventilating.
I slowly calmed down as I descended some steps that joined the transition to the lapped section.

The course took in the old town with crowd-lined cobbled streets, went up to the castle walls, down to some parkland with more of the seeds blowing around, then up a seemingly never-ending hill back up into the town.

I plodded along, being overtaken by the pro men’s winner just before his finish, along with plenty of other athletes. I had a few firsts; I actually had to stop for a pee, I walked on the hills, I whimpered on the final hill and I think I ate 5 pain aux chocolats after the finish…

Strava link

I finished in 15th place in my age category, and this was a big lesson in pacing for me. I didn’t have any fade in the power on the bike across the course, which I’ve always thought was a sign that I’d paced things well in the past, but I’m going to have to dial it down in the future, and avoid large power spikes.
Interestingly, I knew the hills on the bike course wouldn’t suit me, but even with the overdoing it, I was only just around the top 11% overall. On flatter courses racing at this level of competition I’ve been top 1 or 2%. Swim was also around top 11%, which is about as good as it’s been at this level. And I’ll not mention where I was on the run…

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