TSP7: The 1993 France Iron Tour Test-Event
Now I’m sure plenty of you are fans of the Tour de France. For the gripping three weeks of racing. Or. Like me, more for the scenery, history and parallel stories. Well there also used to be a triathlon stage race modelled on cycling’s Tour de France. It was unique. Some experimental race formats were used. And many top athletes of the day attended.
The video above is Eurosport’s 1993 coverage of the Trophee SNCF, with Ian Sweet explaining the two-stage Test-Event that would become a triathlon stage race called the France Iron Tour.
The France Iron Tour was then organised from 1994 until 1998. And a few times in the 2000s. At least that's all I have paper or internet evidence of. Jonathon and Alistair Brownlee even raced for their French club, Sartrouville, in 2010. After the 1994 event Mike Pigg was quoted in the December issue of Inside Triathlon Magazine as saying:
“This is the best thing that has happened to the sport in 10 years. You have to be there everyday, and as I got stronger everyday the rest of the field got stronger. It was awesome”
By far the best Iron Tour available on YouTube is the 1996 edition. There was a team of British athletes taking part, sponsored by Haribo. And I got to race Stage Five as part of a Franche Comte Region composite-team.
I’m going to go through the event year by year from 1994 to 1997. But today I’m covering the 1993 version. That was organised as a kind of proof of concept for sponsors, municipalities, the federation and the athletes.
Image: Triathlete (FR) Juin 1993
The event consisted of a Sprint Distance Team Time Trial on Saturday 26th June in downtown Grenoble. And then a Middle Distance race on Sunday 27th June with the finish at the top of Alpe d’Huez.
The first triathlon that went up Alpe d’Huez took place the year before and was called the TIGRE or Triathlon International de Grenoble. The race was created by Carole Gally, who was also behind the Iron Tour.
Nor was the 1993 Grenoble event the first Triathlon TTT. The world’s first took place in Mimizan in July 1992. It was again a test-event for La Coupe de France that would be held at the same venue in October 1992.
Images: Triathlete (FR) Aout 1993
After the two day Trophee SNCF a race report was published in the August 1993 issue of Tri-Athlete. Above. I’ve done a quick translation. Day 1:
It was a good try but not a total success. The potential format of the Iron Tour had a few problems due to the novelty of the race. These issues will need to be fixed in the future.
It was one o’clock when the first team threw itself into the swirling water of the Isere River. The competitors, who had been told the water was 12 degrees, discovered that the rough water was not much over 9 degrees.
A serious difference in conditions that numbed many athletes and added to the main difficulty of the day. Staying together as a team.
All 11 teams seemed to have a strategy to stay in formation and protect their best runners. Even though they were more used to racing individually.
Most of the athletes got to the bike to run transition without too much trouble. But the difficulties started with the bike.
Despite their skills as cyclists not every triathlete knows how to ride as a team. A few days before the race some athletes were not even aware that they would need to ride together.
Finally, only the teams that had plenty of experience riding as a peloton managed to stay together during the bike leg.
Poissy was easily the best at this. Patrick Girard explained that their plan to “stay together and save the legs of their best runners” was well carried out. So well in fact that the group was clocked at over 60 km/hr on some of the straight sections of the course.
Amongst the others. Except St Quentin, who were slowed by Rob Barel’s puncture, and Caisse d’Epargne, who posted the best bike split, there was total panic.
Some athletes who lost time in the swim never caught their teammates and other groups broke up. The harmony hoped for was replaced by a shambles. Leaving spectators unable to understand the racing.
And it didn’t get any better on the run. The fact that only 3 athletes out of 6 in each team would count for the team’s time must have completely derailed the plans to stay together. So the race just looked like a normal individual sprint triathlon that we’re used to seeing.
Athletes crossed the line one by one. Not in groups. Sometimes with a 3 or 4 minute gap between the first and last members of a team. The only exception was Poissy who again played the team game to the end as all 6 of their athletes finished within a minute of each other.
Was there a lack of experience racing as a team or does the race format and rules need to be changed? This was the question being asked by the officials and the athletes themselves. But was the solution simply what Jacques Laparade, president of the French Triathlon Federation, explains:
The organisers should have trusted the rules put in place by the federation so that everything runs smoothly. The rule put in place for Mimizan worked perfectly and should have been used here.
This is a problem that the organisers absolutely need to fix if they want to have a team time trial in future editions of the Iron Tour.
Now here’s a note from me about what Jacques Laparade was talking about. At the La Coupe de France Team Time Trial in October 1992 the teams finish time was taken after the 3rd athlete of five crossed the line.
This incentivised teams to make sure that at least three athletes stayed together on the run and worked and looked like a team.
However, in Grenoble in 1993 the decision was taken to work out a mathematical average time of the first three athletes across the line in each team. Therefore encouraging the stronger runners to run on ahead.
Which for the spectacle of this exciting new team format. Looked rubbish.
And now here’s Day 2 from the same article:
Rob Barel, with the effects of the Nice Triathlon still in his legs, couldn’t hold off Mike Pigg in this high quality race.
Note from me here. Nice was two weeks earlier. Over 4km/120km/32km. And Barel finished 3rd behind Mark Allen and Simon Lessing.
After the Team Time Trial, Ben Bright, the young Australian, spoke about five names as possible favourites. Himself, Mike Pigg, Rob Barel, Nick Croft and Jean-Luc Capogna. He wasn’t wrong because these were the five athletes that chased each other up the climb.
From the start of the swim Bright and Croft got themselves to the front and stayed there. They came out of the lake with a 30 second lead on Pigg, Capogna and Barel. But quickly Jean-Luc Capogna, pushing a huge gear, caught up to and eventually dropped Bright. Rob Barel and Mike Pigg were just about hanging on.
Behind these four a group of about 15 athletes was getting organised. Ignoring the no-drafting rule and chasing as hard as possible. This lasted until the bottom of the climb. When the 21 mythical corners caused the groups to explode and the rule of everybody for themselves took over.
Tired from his earlier efforts, Jean-Luc Capogna left the front of the race to Mike Pigg at the bottom of the climb. Pigg stayed in front until the top, pushing 39*23 or even 39*21 from time to time.
Rob Barel racked his bike a minute behind the American. But this time gap was quickly reduced like melting snow in the sun. And although Barel overtook Pigg he couldn’t completely drop him.
The two men know each other well but running a half marathon at altitude after having ridden one of the hardest climbs in France is a perilous exercise. And Rob Barel paid for it as Mike Pigg, with a last effort, came back past him to steal the victory.
In the Tri-Athlete article there was also this side-bar. Where the magazine started to envisage a longer event in the future.
France Iron Tour. Myth or reality? Even if we ignore the organisational errors that we saw. Is a france iron tour actually possible? Finding venues, getting the media interested and attracting sponsors is not easy.
But the main problem is maybe finding athletes willing to take part in a potentially 10 day event. Will they be motivated to give it their best shot? Or is it too hard to race well everyday? The organisers need to think carefully about this before going ahead with the project.
Images: TED Septembre 1993
The September issue of Triathlon et Duathlon. Or TED Magazine. Above. Was a bit more positive about the team time trial fiasco. Saying that the athletes didn’t really have enough time to prepare for it.
The Tour de France of Triple Effort is a sea snake that has been emerging from the deep since triathlon has been triathlon. We’d love that in 1994 Carole Gally, helped by her technical consultant Jean-Luc Capogna, can finally give us a triathlon tour de france worthy of its name.
They finished by asking some other questions about the hoped for 1994 race that, they said, weren’t really answered in the post-race press conference.
When will the plans for the 1994 race be made public?
What are the conditions for entry into the event? I guess they are referring not only to entry fees but also the composition of teams.
Which towns will welcome the race? And what’s the motivation for a town to apply to host a stage?
How will the athletes be looked after? Hotels. Transfers etc.
Will the race be open to amateur athletes? And / or female athletes.
What will the prizes be? Referring to prize money and leaders jerseys,
How will the race be publicised and / or televised?
How many stages will there be? Will there be rest days?
And finally … with the ITU, ETU, TPT and Ironman circuits. Will this event not just be another thing to slot into the calendar?
Now 1993 and 1994 really was a golden age of triathlon for me. I was getting stronger and my results were getting better. I was winning local stuff and featuring a bit nationally. I was also starting to think about moving to France after I’d finished my degree at the Univ. of Brighton.
In the summer of 1992 I found myself in France on a family holiday with entries into two Grand Prix events. Bujaleuf on the 1st August and Chervais Cubas on the 8th August. I didn’t race the second weekend as I didn’t fancy the cold, wet, technical bike course.
But at Bujaleuf I got a taste of the French scene and the Grand Prix circuit up close. I saw the matching team bikes racked up and the loud club kits covered in sponsors. And then racing in the afternoon on closed roads, through villages packed with spectators.
I also listened to well-known but also the journeyman pros talking English in transition. Overhearing conversations about joining teams, racing every week, sometimes twice a week. Epic travel stories to get from event to event and racing hard for cheques made out in French francs.
I knew then that I wanted to do something similar. But more on that in later episodes. So did the France Iron Tour happen in 1994? Check out Episode 8 of The Streak Podcast. Which is out right now. To find out.
Links:
1993 France Iron Tour Test-Event
2010 France Iron Tour. Stage 2. Stage 3.
1996 France Iron Tour
1992 Triathlon International de Grenoble
Sources:
Inside Triathlon December 1994
220 (UK) August 1992
TED (FR) Mars 1993
TED (FR) Aout / Septembre 1992
TED (FR) Novembre / Decembre 1992
TED (FR) Juillet 1993
