Saint-Raphaël Triathlon: Victory for Australian Hauser, French off the podium

It's 2:45 p.m. this Sunday. The world's best triathletes set off from Veillat beach, watched by a crowd of curious onlookers who gathered on the beaches and seawall. A 750-meter swim in 22°C water kicked off the race, and Matthew Hauser, the eventual winner (see opposite), was already in the front row ahead of his 53 competitors. In the leading pack, two Frenchmen, Dorian Coninx and Tom Richard, competed and emerged from the water in the top ten. The triathletes then embarked on a 20km bike ride and five laps through Fréjus and Saint-Raphaël. The two Frenchmen did what was necessary to stay at the forefront. Dorian Coninx set off at breakneck speed and led the first lap.

"Fourth is very good."

Given the small gaps of three seconds between the first and tenth-place finishers, the French simply had to stay in this group to compete with their rivals. Mission accomplished, Coninx and Richard started the race in fourth and fifth place respectively, their final ranking a few minutes later.

A success for them. "I'm quite happy, I corrected all the technical points I had failed on in Hamburg. I made two very good transitions which allowed me to come out ahead of the second pack," says Coninx. "Finishing fourth, objectively, is very good, it's also a little frustrating because I would have preferred to be on the podium."

Further back, the third French rider of the stage, Yanis Seguin, did not disgrace himself with his ^24th place, ahead of Pierre Le Corre, only ^27th . "In the swim, I went out a bit between two packs so it was hard to make the connection. I rode a lot at the front of the second pack throughout the bike section and put them down with a delay of 40, 45 seconds. On foot, I started off a bit strong, it cost me at the end, but I had a great time," he said.

A well-known route

Yanis Seguin and Tom Richard are experts on the route, having trained on the roads of eastern Var.

"I live in Saint-Raphaël. I come to the nature base every week. The ring is my playground, it certainly helped to know the course," says Tom Richard.

He chose this home stage to achieve his best ranking of the season. "I had finished sixth twice. Now, in fifth, I'm improving little by little. There are still a few stages left before the podium. I'm super happy after a really tough year and a half," rejoices Richard, absent from the list of those selected for the Paris Olympic Games, after less good results.