[SwissBuster]

Last weekend I rode in the Terrific (official website here), a multi-sport team decathlon. In terms of fun, I guess the name says it all. There are ten different events which you run as a relay in a team of maximum 8. To explain better, here's the layout of the events:

1. Rollerblading 5km.
2. Mountain biking 8km, 750m height gain.
3. Mountain running 4.5km, 650m height gain
4. Downhill skiing (550m course).
5. Cross-country skiing 7km, 110m height gain.
6. Mountain running (downhill, same course and person as event 3)
7. Downhill mountain biking (same course, person and bike as event 2)
8. 'Flat' run 7km.
9. Swim 600m.
10. Road bike 20km, 550m height gain.

Each team carries an armband which is transferred from one competitor to the next as you roll through the events. Sadly, due to bad weather on the mountain the ski events were cancelled - I rode event 2 and passed over to a runner who ran down event 7. This meant I hauled my Enduro up with god-awful hill and couldn't ride it down in anger.

The standard is always very high with a couple of World-class teams. I joined in with my brother-in-laws friends, all of which are decent competitors and yet we finished about 2/3rds down the field.
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[SwissBuster]

Anyhow, some pix:

And they're off!

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Our rollerblader took about 12 minutes to complete the course:</O
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He handed over to me for the 5mile MTB leg. This sign points towards pain:</O
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If 8kms of mountainbiking sounds like something you would not get out of bed for, let me explain that there are 750m (about 2500 feet) of height gain along the route, which includes about a mile of downhill in the middle. The last 4 kilometers were at an average gradient of 17.5%, which for me translates as walking a lot. If fact, I was red-lining most of the time, even when I was pushing the bike. Here's the GPS track from google earth:

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Here's me looking a bit finished at the finish:
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I don't have any pix of the runners as they raced off whilst I was catching my breath. Once I'd done this I rode down to capture this panorama:

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STIL? The road to the right of the river in the centre of the frame is the same road I rode up, and I am taking this shot from near the top. The route climbs this slope.

I did manage to catch up with our team in time for the swim leg. Here's Thierry in a pictoresque landscape:<O</O
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The water was 13 Celcius, unless you dove 50cms under the surface in which case it was 11. No wonder he was so happy to get out the water:
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He handed over to the final road biking leg, but again I missed our rider becuase I was enjoying an authentic moment:

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Obligatory team shot:

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