70.3 Nice - a spectators view
Ah Nice is nice. More than that. The Cote d'Azur. Promenade des Anglais. Monte Carlo casino. James Bond. Monaco....bars restaurants, glitz and glamour........NOPE.
What do the supporters of a spectacular event like the Nice 70.3 World Championships get? Early start. 5.45am out of bed to support our Tritons buddies at the culmination of their endeavours this year.
Really stunning start to both the race day, 7am for the Elites to cheer on Lucy Charles and Alistair Brownlee of course. Perched above the beach we stoic supporters then watched our team mates string out in the water over the stunning bay in front of Old Nice. Beautiful. A quick decamp back to T1 located behind the beach to catch a wee glance of the Tritons as they unracked their bikes (some more sucessfully then others), with just enough time for us to scream encouragement to them all. Then time for breakfast whilst the athletes negotiated the Col de Col de Vence before they came back from their cycle into Nice for T2.
Strategically we planted ourselves with picnic bags in hand, on the promenade in front of the historic Negresco Hotel to cheer them all along. Some grass, some shade, and more importantly a good view as the athletes passed by MANY times as it was loopy course! Many phone batteries went dead trying to catch photos everyone as they flowed by and of course following the very useful Ironman app as our guys passed and repassed! With so many Tritons on the course it was at times hard to follow, especially after a glass or maybe 2 of rejuvenating rosé! What an AMAZING race.
Really great to see Tritons new, old and ANCIENT members in Nice. A great meet up and very much recommended for those Tritons who may not be as active racing as before but are still very much Tritons at heart. We Altons had an amazing time supporting, encouraging others and BEING ENCOURAGED to get involved again with racing, that was until I had bit of a discussion with a kerb AFTER the race was over and now have hand in a brace for a couple of weeks. Anyway that's sport.
Great meeting with Coaches AM, Fen, Mike and Georgia. Nadine also made the trip out from Germany to voice her support (please look more carefully at the dates next time). The girls were also all out in force on Sunday having already raced the day before. Sam (ace supporter), Mandy Tik (Cae who is SOOOOOO easy to spot in a race with beard). And let's not forget to mention all of the family and partners who came to support too, Corine, Connie, Tracy, Stephanie, the Turnbulls, the Weis, Oh yes and it was fantastic to see my hero race, er. Jesus (sorry Raynard Picard) and the very lovely Regina. What a competitor he is. Manages to keep on smiling even in the middle of the race, we nearly missed him passing by as we were being SOOOOO social amongst ourselves! Then after Cleaning Up Nice, he even came to join us on our little patch of grass to cheer on the others.
GREAT GREAT GREAT weekend. I only have one problem. Now Paul wants to do another one next year......HELP!
Hope to see you all in HK in November when we will be visiting YEEEEAAAAHHH
