Alpe d’Ouch

So… After watching my amazing mum race at Hyde Park (under 3 hours, yay!), a lovely run with Michelle Dillon and Jodie (number 2) Stimpson, a swim at Imperial College and lunch with my old crew from Battersea and good friend Daley T I got to witness Alistair Brownlee throw everything, and indeed consciousness, at the men’s race. It was an absolutely unbelievable last km, Alastair missed out on this one, but damn, he is one tough cookie and will undoubtedly come back to terrorize his elders many more times. Stuart Hayes was also a complete toughie and made countless attempts to break from the massive pack on the bike. He succeeded in lap 7 and ran himself into a very commendable and brave top 10 finish.

Monday I flew back to Geneva to be greeted by my gorgeous training partner Rebekah Keat. Bek finished second in Roth last weekend and is the coolest and most talented training partner I have ever had. It amazes me we can be friends with how we make each other hurt sometimes; haha.

So… Her with an ironman in her legs and me suffering 48 hour DOMS, we travel to the French Alps and line up on Wednesday; 110km from the top of Alpe d’Huez.
Now, I don’t profess to know any details about this race. My coach texted me on the Friday before London and asked if I’d like to enter. ’Of course,’ I replied – what a bloody martyr

All weekend I’d been getting hints about the race and its challenges but, to be honest, I tried not to listen, I even squinted my eyes as we drove up the 21 switchbacks. My philosophy is pretty simple, just go hard – if that’s up a climb so be it, everyone has to climb the same. The fastest, toughest person will win, and it can’t be as steep as the ‘Athens hill’ (the Athens Olympic hill has never been matched in incline in any race or training I have ever done. It was, in fact, ridiculous but I made it up there 6 times with a hole in my Achilles so I figure I should never doubt my resolve).

2.2km swim, 110km bike with three cols (ending at 2,000m in Alpe d’Huez), 22km run at 2,000m.

I raced how I love to. I hammered the swim with one of my best friends, Harry Wiltshire, and we exited with a large gap on the rest of the field. I was pretty fired up and darted up the first steep incline out of transition. Harry was very funny… ‘Calm down Jodes, we’ve got 110km to ride’…very funny moment when Harry discovered my racing testosterone (if girls get that!), and my foul mouth to boot… Sorry Harry ;} (he said it made his day afterwards!). I raced off only to follow the lead car which had decided to take a different route to the marked course.

I had to turn back and then was a bit behind Harry. The lead men caught just before the first Col which climbed around 20km. There were two descents and another two 20km climbs. It is hell! This course is unbelievable… Beautiful, tough and truly amazing. If I’d had time to observe our surroundings it would have taken my breath away – unfortunately the inclines and descents did that in a different way. It was absolutely thrilling.

The last switchbacks on Alpe d’Huez were not as thrilling, just long overdue, but by that stage I had a large cushion of time on the other girls and just had to run and look after my sugar levels. I won by a 30 mins in 6 hours 20mins. Bek Keat finished second, no mean feat after her Roth effort. Mentions to James Cunnama for his win, Scott DeFilippis on 3rd, Harry Wiltshire 5th, beautiful Lisbeth Kristiansen 5th, Tamzin Lewis 6th and big congrats to Emma Smith on 9th and getting in the prize purse – yay!!.

A great Wednesday it was and hopefully a sign that we’re finally getting to grips on releasing my potential. Next stop is Tizzy World Cup, so I’m back in the mountains enjoying training and loving life … yes guys, even when I have ‘that’ look … haha. Just gonna reiterate to all my sponsors how grateful I am and acknowledge my friends and family in how much support you lot give.