Guest Blog- Nocturne du Grand Duc

I did another night relay race on Tuesday, it was the same format as the Nocturne de Chamrousse that Jane and I raced in a few weeks ago.

Jane was unavailable to race so I teamed up with fellow DSA member Stepane. I made contact with Stepane well before arriving in France, so it was pretty cool that we got to do this race togeather. Here's Stephane's race report he wrote for the DSA web site (he was nice enought to translate it in to english for me!)-

"For this 2° Nocturne I teamed up with Grant (aka The Flying Kiwi). He starts like a Skud and I see him 8 minutes later in the relay zone in Third position. All the pressure is on my Shoulders now ...

Starting quite quicky, avoiding to reach ultra-red to keep some energy for the next laps. I catch-up a bit on the previous one (good surprise !!). Suddenly my back is heated-up by the 200watts of a Silva headlight. The RGV Stephane Brosse is passing ...I feel the huge draft ...
A bit further, Marc is passing too. The first transition a bit messy for me and I rush down in the dark seeking for tiny red 'luciole' to reach the skating zone (it kills the rest of energy you could have spared). Passing by the relay zone our team-mates are noisyly encouraging us .
Transition again (skins ON) to run in a Nordic style until we reach the Arch of the relay zone. At this stage the Final Ranking is well drafted. We keep on fighting together with Thomas Warnier and Olivier Cordeuil, Grant having the task to catch-up for the precious seconds I wasted during my laps. After 1 hour, we are done, our lungs are devastated & white mulled-wine is healing them back up. Then comes a nice meal in the old Hotel du col de porte chatting about gear, training, next races and more ...
The evening end up with the Traditional Podium and prices.
Special Thanks to Grant."
-Stephane Mougin