a triathlon story

[Olivier Mouyau]

This was my post on Trirudy on monday :

Hi everybody,

First, congrats to all for this WE at Tupper Lake ... once again, it was an Ottawa/Canadians parade !!!
Great performances by our all-stars locals and the Ottawa crew .... sure race reports will come !

So what about the rest ... ?
This WE, I got richer of a new experience in triathlon ... I won and got DQ'd ;-)

I thought this would be interested to share so here I go.
But before you read, I need to say that I had lots of fun this WE and enjoyed once again, racing, spending good time with friends and meeting many people from Ottawa and all over the place ...

Really, I'm not upset at anybody, race director, volunteers, USAT officials, racers or myself. Everybody was great and did the job !
Once again Tupper Lake was a great day and I was really happy to be there.


So ... I answer as much questions as I can... (thanks for the emails).

No, I did not start the swim ahead of everybody else ...
No, I did not take shortcuts on the swim course ...
No, I did not hit anybody on the swim course ...
No, I was not using palms or floating devices ...
No, I did not striped naked in T1 ...
Yes, I respected the directions of the police and the volunteers ...
Yes, I stayed on the right hand side of the road and never crossed the yellow lines ...
No, I did not draft ...
No, I did not block either ...
No, I was not racing top less ...
Yes, I was wearing a helmet ...
No, I did not get any outside help ...
No, I did not use any special motorized device attached on my bike...
No, I did not yell or have been impolite or disrespectful to other racers, volunteers, officials ...
No, I did not take any shortcuts on the bike course (there isn't any anyway ;-))
No, I did not stop to pee on the curbside ...
Yes, I did make it all the way to the turn-around on the bike course ...
(gosh it was fun to chase the leading motorcycle !!!) but
No, I did not draft the motorcycle ...
Yes, I dismount at the "dismount line" ...
No, again I did not striped naked in T2 ...
No, I did not take shortcuts on the run course ...
Yes, I have been respectful of others ... even taking a few breathes to say thanks to the volunteers at aid stations in my run.
Yes I did the all run ... and not on a golf cart ... (the run is a wee bit longer now)...
Yes I finished well ahead of the second guy ... and did the all race like all the others ...
No, I did not get tasted positive for drugs (but actually I had a great German yeast beer the night before, kind of a meal in a bottle)

But what went wrong then ???

I was actually wearing an USAT non-approved helmet ;-)
Giro Advantage (2007 European version).
I know that IM and IM 70.3 circuits are allowing them for Europeans athletes, providing that it is not their fault that they bought a legal helmet in Europe ... and should be allowed to race with it when visiting USA.
But apparently USAT is not doing that. OK then, I said to the official. I understand you're doing your job and I don't blame you ...

He was just walking around in the transition area looking at the racers ... and I was left like that in the transition area 20min before the race.

Meanwhile I have already 3 helmets at home (and 2 with me at the race) and they all come from Europe.
So I took the decision to race anyway ... not ready to spend extra $$$ to get a 4th helmet in a hurry and not ready to try to look for to borrow an helmet that fits me.

So if some of you have a Giro Advantage bought in Europe last year ... you're ok on IM and 70.3 but not on USAT !

Apparently, skull needs stronger protection ;-) ... so is the difference between the Euro and USA one.

As one often says :"it is about your safety, sir"
I say ok ...

But what about that guy who was racing the sprint on a "for sure unsafe for racing" .... folding bike ... isn't that not about his and the safety of all of the others around ??? ;-)

When I think about it, triathlon (according to USAT is one of this weird sport where you can race any kind of "UCI not approved bike .... " and many many many little jiggling things on it ... but you still can't wear the helmet you want ... even if it is legal on the other corners of the planet ...

So I was racing in USA and got DQ'd because I was using a helmet from a USA brand and designed in the USA ... I had a good laugh at that one.

Same as you're not allowed to cross the border to the USA with some fresh fruits or veggies ... just bought at the local supermarket in Canada ... but harvested in USA anyway ;-)

Anyway, hope this post might help somebody else not to live the same experience ...

After all it was a little race ...

See you at Meech !

Oli.

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[Carla St-Germain]

Olivier,

This certainly sucks. At least you know that next time you can do really
well and I guess the lesson learned for all is to read the fine print. Some
rules do seem stupid at times. It could be worse though... Imagine being
poor Shelley who trained for two years for a world championship, and 13 days
before we're scheduled to leave breaks her foot while training. And now I'll
be the lone NMSC swimmer among all the Technosport folks, and travelling
without my friend and teammate. I'm certain that this will prime Shelley to
work hard for Rescue 2010, but I'll miss her for 2008.

Carla

Hi everybody,

Oli.

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