In the middle of July, Emily and Alexander Milne raced in the Alpe D’Huez Junior Triathlon. France doesn’t use the BTF TriStar categories so Emily was a ‘Pupille’ and Alexander was a ‘Benjamin’.

The race began in the middle of the afternoon making pre-race nutrition difficult. Emily opted for a croissant for breakfast and a baguette and jam for lunch. Alexander persisted with his usual French diet of tasty looking cakes from the local patisserie.

The race briefing was a bit scary. They announced at the start that it would be in French and English. The announcer then spoke for 10 minutes in French before simply saying ‘Listen for you name to be called’. Perhaps something was lost in translation?

There was no obvious start to the swim that either Alexander, Emily or their parents watching on poolside could determine. One person appeared to start swimming and everyone else just followed. The swim was mayhem. It was in a beautiful outdoor 30m pool but with a narrow 2m wide constriction in the middle which everyone had to swim through several times in both directions. After a few clashes of heads Alexander exited first from the Benjamins and Emily was in the mid-pack of Pupilles.

The bike was a multiple lap affair on closed roads around the centre of Alpe D’Huez. The entire town had been shut down all afternoon for a Junior Triathlon- very impressive! The cyclists were led around the course by a jolly Frenchman on a mountain bike. He should really have been wearing a beret with a string of onions round his neck, but unfortunately he wasn’t. Following a mountain bike worked well for the younger age groups but he got a bit of a shock as his lone breakaway was caught within seconds by a large pack of Benjamins. For the oldest age group they substituted the mountain bike for a 3 wheeled electric Renault Twizzy car. Renault along with EDF Energy are major sponsors of the event.

Alexander was third off the bike behind a pair of Dutch boys who worked together well in the non drafting race. Emily finished safely within the main peleton.

The run was a very short but fast affair along the length of a football field and then up a short hill to the finish. Emily finished eighth Pupille and Alexander was fourth Benjamin. Everyone was given medals and then led to a table laden with food of all sorts. There were cakes, biscuits, sweets, fruit, raisins, nuts, Pepsi and loads of other things- more of a buffet than a post race snack. After you had eaten as much as you could manage there were iced spa baths to cool down and let your muscles recover before you could sit on sun loungers and chairs which had been laid out to relax on. Alexander and Emily were able to enjoy the rest of their holiday while their dad still had his event to do the next day.

It was a very well organised junior race piggy backed onto the main Alpe D’Huez triathlon which gave the whole event a huge sense of atmosphere and occasion. Alexander and Emily hope to do the race again to improve their finishing positions and sample the delights of the post race buffet.