Christmas Update

Hello everyone,

From Christchurch I wish you all a merry Christmas and I hope you are having a great time.

My break has gone very fast and it's already time to think about 2012.
I am sahring with you two short videos (from my facebook page) I made and hopefully they are gonna give you a little taste of NZ.




After more earthquakes last week (Cf. photos below) it has settled down here and I am getting ready to leave Christchurch for a month of altitude training down south in Wanaka.

Kia Kaha.
Laurent

Leading into 2012.

The last season of racing is probably my best so far and all the signs of my Olympic campaign are green.
The Olympic Race is definitely special, I have learnt it from my Beijing experience. It's not just a race, it is THE RACE and I see it as a great opportunity to do what I love in front of the world's eyes.
My 2012 Olympic "build up" started back in november 2008 but as an athlete it has been 15 years of everyday training. I have evolved with time but I always stayed focus on achieving my short/middle term goals without forgeting my ultimate target.
For 2011, I had only one goal: secure an olympic spot as soon as I had an opportunity. This is what I did in London WCS. For the first time in my sporting career I had my fastest race of the year on the race that everybody wanted to win ( this is something I was working on the last 18months).
I had to sacrifice for it, especially in the events prior to the Olympic selection but nevermind... It was what I had to do!
My second target of the year was the end of the season with the World Championship final in Beijing and two weeks later the French National Championship.
Once again I was happy with my performances with a 5th in Beijing and winning my second french champion title.
And finally, I raced consistently all year round ( see World tour 2011) and out of my 17 races I had 16 top 12 finishes including 13 top 7, 6 podium and 4 victories.
These are only statistics and they are just an indicator of how my training is going.
The only thing I keep in my mind for next year's training is IMPROVING as much as possible sticking to my targets, I won't waste my time analysing everybody elses performances.

Anyway, after a few weeks break, I am now back into my training in New Zealand and for the fourth year in a row I will prepare my season of racing in Christchurch with Andrea.
Andrea had a fantastic year, probably a bit better than what she expected. She also qualified for the Games, got 2nd at World Champs, won the final of the World Champs, won in Yokohama and enjoyed the feeling of a victory on home soil at the Auckland World Cup!

Now it's back to normal, we train hard as and I am really looking forward to 2012. I am operating a few changes and I will let you know soon...Surprise surprise!
I wish you a great Xmas holiday, all the best for your goals and never forget that you can't control the performances of others but you can control yours.
Laurent

Auckland World Cup- Wrap up of the 2011 season

Kia Ora everyone!

After 46hr of travel I landed in New Zealand, my second home.
I will be training here in Christchurch until next april but first I had to end up my 2011 season in Auckland for the ITU World Cup.
The build up to the race was awesome, I could feel in the air that this race was gonna be awesome.
The kiwi's love triathlon and everything was reunited the day of the event to give a stunner to the thousands of Aucklanders.

The course was hard and I hope if you watched the race on the national TV of on the side of the road, you enjoyed it.
I wished I was a bit more on top of my game but I had to do with what I had on D-day.
I crossed the finish line in 4th with the fastest run split. Kris Gemmell and Andrea won the races, I am really happy for them and for sure the next year event will be madness.
Now I am enjoying a week holiday after 17 000km, 2 races and 12h jet lag in one week.
All the best.
Laurent
Feel free to watch the video of the race.
Please read here for more infos about the race.

You can also click HERE to read the article of the NZ Herald of sunday 20th of november ( it is the main newspaper in New Zealand).

A week & a win in Morocco

Hello,

It is in Paradise Valley at the bottom of the Atlas that the french triathlon Team chose to do a training camp for the next Olympics.
So we were in Morocco with all the Olympic squad to prepare the logistics for future Olympic Games but also to promote triathlon in Morocco in partnership with the "Moroccan Federation of Sports for Everybody", to do it we all raced the Continental Cup in Agadir.
At the end of warm and fun race, I crossed the line in first with my teammates Tony Moulai and Vincent Luis.
It was great to have such a good time in this country ended by a good team performance and great team spirit as usual!

All the best.

The French team finished their season on a high by almost producing a clean... : More infos about the race including results.

A day with Laurent Vidal / French TV report ( France3 )

Hello,

For those of you who understand french you can watch a report made by the French TV last week in the South of France where I live.
It was a typical day of october, I hope you will enjoy it.

All the best.

Flashback on 2011

To all of you who like triathlon and follow us across the continents. 

Short fun recap of 2011.

Sharing the good times.

I hope you will enjoy.

All the best.

Laurent

2011 National Champion!!

Hello,
Just a quick update after my second elite national title.
I am very happy to win my national championship especially after such a long trip coming back from Asia.
I am very glad to grab the "blue,white and red" jersey for the second time after 2009.
2012 will be an important year with the summer Olympics and leading into this event as the French Champion is a great honnor but also it is giving me a extra bit of motivation!
Thanks for all your messages!

A bientot.
Laurent


Quick summary of the race:

5th in the World Championship Grand Final in Beijing

 

Hi guys,

After my win in Hannover ( GER), I flew to Beijing for the Grand Final of the 2011 World Champs.
It was the 4th time in China and previously I had some really poor performances there.
The challenge was to end the 2011 World Champs on a high and therefore close my Chinese nightmare ( I mean on the result side!).
Prior the event, I was feeling great and I spent my days training with my team mate David Hauss and both of us were ready to give a great race.
On the same course as the Olympics, I had a way better day than in 2008, I crossed the line in 5th only 30m from 2nd.
I am really happy that I am now able to race my best on the important days, I really well prepared that race after securing my Olympic Spot and it worked again!... Good feeling even if I would have been happy to get into the podium.
The Brownlee bros dominated today but now I can ear their breath, a challenging winter is ahead of me now!

I am not recovering from a stomach bug in order to be ready for the French National Champs in 10 days. Unfortunately, I won't be able to race in Yokohama...
Huge congratulation to Andrea who won the women race!!!

Bye Laurent

Full Resuts: Beijing Results
Photos: Courtesy of Delly Carr

Triathlete Mag French Edition Covert ( Sept 2011)

Hello,
After the New Zealand Triathlete & Multisport in august, I am this month on the covert of the French edition of Triathlete Mag.You will find a 4 pages interview where I am talking about my recent Olympic selection, my training, my plans for the future and a little bit more.
Online version available HERE
Cheers, Laurent

Winning in Hannover Bundesliga.

 

Hi Guys,

On my way to Beijing for the WCS grand finale next week, I stopped in Germany few days to race the last round of the Bundesliga in Hannover.
I had very good few days there and I did some great training in stunning conditions.
The sprint race was the last hit before heading up to China today.
I had good feelings and I crossed the finish line in first with David Hauss my team mate. With this victory, our german Club is crowned German Champion for 2011!

The race went very smoothly,  we had a fast swim with Ivan Vassiliev from Russia leading the pack and we managed to get a small breakaway of 10 guys on the bike.

We raced fast but safely under the wet roads and decided to make our move early on the run leg.

Now I am finishing packing my luggages for my Asian trip. First Stop Beijing before Yokohama.

Full result of Hannover triathlon 2011.

Photos are courtesy of Haree Hajas - 360 Productionz

All the best Laurent

World Championship #6 in Lausanne

Hi everyone,

Last week end I took the 6th place in the sixth round of the World Championship Series in Lausanne.
The 75 athletes started at 12:51am under an unusual extreme heat ( 36degrees in the shade) for the 750m swim.
With the number nine on my shoulders I had a great start, I was a great position around the buoys but unfortunately I got hit with 200m to go and lost my googles. From then my orientering was a bit of a mess and I put myself in trouble by loosing precious time before the bike leg.

I jumped on my bike a few metres back from the lead group and I decided to chase really hard with a few other athletes including Brad Kahlefeld, Steffen Justus and James Elvery.
The four lap bike course had a steep 600m hill ( 10,5% gradient average) where I decided to make a move to catch the leaders. I attacked really hard and I quickly closed 8 seconds but I was still missing a few metres to catch the front. I was at completely maximum effort. It took me almost 4k to recover from that and I realise now that is was a bit silly trying to bridge a gap on my own against a group of 15 guys...
Luckly, after 3 laps of a hard chase, my group caught the leaders and I was again in the battle for a great 5km running fight.
Well, it didn't really worked as planned as I completely messed up in the second transition, starting the run well back in around 25th.
Despite a great come back during the entire run, I couldn't sprint on the last kilometre when Alister Brownlee took off for the bronze medal. Fast racing, I call it fast racing.
Once again I had a solid race and it was wonderful to be in Lausanne.
I had a great time by the " Lac Lément ", visiting the Internationnal Olympic Commitee Museum and disovering the little streets of the swiss town.
On the women side it was great to see Andrea getting bronze!!!

Full results.
Official photo gallery.
Photo: Courtesy of Delly Carr

Selected photos from London WCS by Delly Carr

Getting ready to jump on my bike after the 1500m swim

The lead group going through transition

On the Olympic City, the bike course is going near by Buckingham Palace.

Getting off the bike in pouring rain before the last 10k run.

On my way to the olympic qualification with Steffen Justus (Ger).

Multisport New Zeland magazine cover

Hi Guys,

As an adopted kiwi I am glad to be in the cover of the latest New Zealand Triathlon and Multisport magazine.
You will find a long interview about my upcoming  challenges.

All the best, Laurent.

ALLEZ LAURENT VIDAL -chat w/ Herbert Krabel from Slowtwitch.

ALLEZ LAURENT VIDAL

Source: www.slowtwitch.com

Written by: Herbert Krabel
Date: Thu Aug 11 2011

With his 6th place finish at the Dextro Energy World Championship race in London, Laurent Vidal earned his ticket to return to that site next year for the Olympic games. He had a few words with slowtwitch.

Slowtwitch: Huge congrats on making the Olympic team for London 2012.

Laurent: Thanks Herbert. It was a gutsy race, very nervous & slippery on the bike and at the finish it was a mixture of relief, excitement and joy of an accomplished goal. It’s not often that you cross the line 6th almost as happy as if you won the race!

ST: You made the Beijing Team in 2008 too - is this time just as exciting?

Laurent: No way, this time is 50 times more exciting! For Beijing it just happened, I qualified as the 3rd French. I was the young gun of the team. This time I prepared that particular selection race for 2 seasons now. In 2008 and especially 2009 I have raced a lot and very consistently (6th on the overall rank of the WCS) but I had never done my best race on the biggest race of the year. So in 2010 and 2011, I changed my way of approaching the season and racing and I really tried to set up a plan in order to have a crack at it in London 2011 and even more so in 2012. So it is very enjoyable to seal the deal so early even if the more challenging part is about to come.

ST: Did you have some extra motivation with Andrea qualifying for the Kiwi team a day earlier?

Laurent: It is crazy but I was nervous watching her race. When I am doing mine I am not stressed at all, but being on the side of the road, without any control, is pretty stressful. I knew she was in good shape and I really trusted her ability to answer the London call and she did, so I was delighted! Andrea showed the way with a classy performance and without saying any word about my upcoming race to me I knew what I had to do the next day.

ST: Had you not qualified would Andrea have given you grief?

Laurent: I am sure she wouldn’t have said anything at first because it is only sport and second because we are both really good separating sport emotions from couple things. We have been together for 4 years and we share a lot, we made our plan in common and assume our choices. I believe to achieve great things you have to take some risks and then the game has to play a bit in your hand and this is what happened in London for both of us.

ST: How confident were you going into the race?

Laurent: To secure the Olympic selection for France, I had to do a top 8 and I was ready to fight against great adversity as the Olympic distance World’s best wanted to qualify there. It was really a 10-month plan, taking a direction and sticking at it, believing it will work well. It was a question about timing and deciding the way you want to achieve your goal. I didn’t have 50 different plans for the race. I could feel everyone around me quite worried, but I was very confident.

I had a long and nice build up, I also decided not to race in July to give myself the best chance, but also to put myself in the same situation of the 2012 year: Nothing mattered apart from this one day race. Ten days before the race I did a very hard day and then I knew I was ready.

ST: Your season until now has been quite steady, but I guess that really did not matter.

Laurent: My base training had been great in NZL and I only did Madrid (12th with 4th fastest run), Kitzbuhel 6th and European 7th as International ITU races prior to the Olympic Test event. It is consistent racing without any crack but I really felt I was getting better week after week. I have learned from the past and my mistakes. I just didn’t say anything but I was putting little piece after piece into London.

ST: Were you surprised by Brownlee’s attack during the bike?

Laurent: I actually didn’t realize he attacked until half way through the bike. I thought it was Stuey Hayes. It’s only my fault, it started to rain hard and the course got very slippery. For a while I was quite deep in the peloton so I couldn’t really react right on time. Alistair is an aggressive racer so I am not surprised he would want to get away. Both Brownlees are great athletes but they are not the only ones. They have brought triathlon to a new level but I can feel that some other athletes are reaching them step by step.

ST: Had your team plans to attack the Brownlees, or in general being aggressive?

Laurent: For this race we didn’t have any team plan. It was a bit weird but the goal was not especially to try everything to win it but to get a top 8 finishes. It will be completely different next year. After Beijing, I realized that the Olympic Race is about winning it. I haven’t spoken with David yet but surely we will put ourselves in the best position to bring back home something big for France. And for the first time in my triathlon career I raced the major goal of the year just focusing on achieving a top 8 because there is not point on being the best in August 2012 if you miss the qualification!

ST: With David Hauss the French team has another very strong athlete going to the Olympics. Has he surprised you?

ST: Who is most likely to get that third spot?

Laurent: Well, it’s still very open with 4 guys fighting for it. They all are good athletes and have different strengths. At the moment, Vincent Luis has shown some great form and by his young age he should keep improving a lot in the next few months. Fred Belaubre and Tony Moulai are experienced and they know what it takes to grab an Olympic spot. Finally Aurelien Raphael was junior world champion in 2007, so he has the talent and now it’s just a question of time until work pays off.

Laurent: I was actually very impressed by Vincent Luis, he is on his debut in the WCS (only his 3rd one) and he took 10th on the fastest! As for David, I have known him since we were 15-years old. Since then we have been very close to each other, he is a very good friend. David was always good, it just took him a bit of time to get the consistency but now he has it. Both of us spend our base training outside of France and I think this is making a difference. He spends time on Réunion Island and I as an adopted Kiwi in New Zealand. Now I am used to say that I am 49% Kiwi, 51% French.

ST: So what is next for you?

Laurent: I am now back in my hometown, Sète (South of France) and you will see me competing in Lausanne for the round 6 of the WCS, then Beijing Grande Finale, Yokohama WCS, the National Champs and finally I will race Auckland World Cup before basing myself in Christchurch to prepare the Olympic season.

ST: How are things going in terms of sponsorship?

Laurent: My partners are involved in my project, without their support it would be impossible to perform at the top level. We are working on long/middle term mutual goals. Although, one or two extra collaborations would be perfect, I decided to limit my number of sponsors to have time to best suit each of them.

Lagardère is a French multinational conglomerate headquartered in Paris. The group is divided into four business lines: media, services, publishing and sport/talent management.

I also belong to the Adidas Olympic Team in France. This team includes several athletes from every Olympic sport. Since 2010, I am «all in» representing the brand with the 3 stripes.

Finally, since 2004, I am contracted to the French army as an athlete and representing values like perseverance, commitment, respect and performance.

ST: Anything else we should know?

Laurent: Yes, during my spare time I enjoy composing electronic music. I have been doing it for 5 years but no dance floor for me - triathletes are a bit sleepy past 11:00pm!


The website of Laurent Vidal is laurent-vidal.com

Images 2 and 3 are courtesy of Mike Heydon of jetproductions.co.nz

QUALIFIED for London 2012 Olympic Games

YES, I made it!
I just made the criteria for the French Olympic Team by crossing the line 6th and 1st french in London!
Even if I didn't win the race, it feels good to seal the deal so early.
The race conditions were epic, more news soon.
You can follow me on twitter for more everyday updates!

Thanks for all the cheering and support!
Laurent

Photo: T.Dekeletere

Say No To Doping!

A few months ago, I was pleased to participate to the "Say no to doping" campaign.
It is a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) initiative that allows athletes to publicly show their support for anti-doping.
Olympic triathlon athletes were always up front on the antidoping fight.

For example, since 2010 we are one of the few international federations registered for the blood passport.

Say yes to self confidence, say no to doping.
Laurent

Consistency

Hello everyone.

I am now back in my hometown Sète preparing the London Olympic Test event in 4 weeks time.
I have oriented my season all around this race. To secure an Olympic spot I will have to finish in the top 8.
This race is basically the most important of the year for all athletes from all over the world, as securing a start in London 2012 Olympics is a big deal in order to perfrom there.
I am getting ready to face adversity and I am expecting a very hard race.
My build up is going well and my recent results are going in the right direction.
I have been racing 4 times in 5 weeks and took 12th in Madrid WCS, 6th in Kitzbuhel WCS, 7th at European Champs and 2nd at the Garmin Alpen triathlon.

I decided not to do the German leg of the WCS in Hamburg in order to prepare London at my best. This is not an easy choice and I know I will lose places on the world ranking but I want to put myself in the best position to have an olympic ticket.

I am currently training for it and I don't need to say that the hammer is down.

All the best.
Laurent

2nd in Garmin Alpen Triathlon

I just spent an outstanding weekend in Schliersee (Ger) to compete in the prestigious Garmin Alpen Triathlon with EJOT Team managed by Rainer Junge.
It was the toughest course I have ever experienced in a race situation including a 10k run at 1200m altitude on very hilly trails.
I finish my racing block quite tired but with a very good feeling to build up towards London Olympic selection in 5 weeks time.
For more photos of the weekend you can go on my facebook fan page otherwise you can watch the video below.

7th at Europeans

Just a quick update to tell you that I just got 7th at European champs last weekend in Pontevedra (Esp).
Six days after Kitzbuhel WCS, European athletes challenged themselves in the north east of spain in front of a massive crowd to claim the European title.
Unfortunately I felt pretty flat on the run and was unable to play with the medal contenders.
I reached the line in 7th, another solid race before my last one next week in Germany for the Alpen Garmin Triathlon which will end my block of 4 races in 5 weekends.
Check results on triathlon.org/pontevedra

Bye
Photos: Courtesy of C.Guiard

That's better: 6th in Kitzbuhel WCS

Kitzbuhel is one of my favorite places to race on the ITU circuit, the atmosphere is great and it feels so quiet and relaxing when you stays in the Tirol.
I also have my routine as it's my 5th year there so I kind of know where to eat the best Austrian dishes such as the Kaiserschmarrn and where to have a pleasant ride or run in the trails.


Anyway, this time I didn't miss anything in the swim as I was straight into the lead group for a solid ride ( for numbers lovers follow my twitter account).


I started the run at the front and I crossed the line near the front and frozen in 6th unable to sprint against Brad Khalefeldt (Aus) and Will Clarke ( Gbr).
I am happy to have a solid race at this time of the year only a few weeks from the Olympic selection race in London.
Surely, I will have to adjust a few thing to be really sharp in a months time.

Back on track after health scare

Words by John Whiting and photos courtesy of Mike Heydon
Full Article on triathlon.org.nz


French triathlete and adopted Kiwi Laurent Vidal is back on track and hungrier than ever before.

It comes after weeks of testing and countless visits to health specialists following a scare during the Sydney leg of the ITU World Championship Series.

During the Sydney race Vidal blacked out while in the lead pack and momentarily lost consciousness, prompting huge concern from medical staff.

"Within two seconds I moved from being in the lead pack and feeling great to collapsing,” Vidal said.

"I guess the feeling was a bit like when you stand up too quickly after a day in front of the computer and then waking up a few seconds later like after a sleep.”

It wasn't the first time the 27-year-old had fainted while exerting himself, so once back home doctors ran him through the full range of testing to try and find a cause.

During the gruelling testing process he stayed in hospital for over a week and upon completion his results were sent off to the best specialist in France for analysis.

Then, finally, the full story became clear.

"I have to be honest I was quite nervous when I went for the second time in nine months to the hospital. I had a full heart check-up including MRI, electrophysiology, stress testing and 48 hour Holter monitoring.

"I wouldn't wish it [testing] on anyone, firstly because the feeling of the unknown of your health is not nice but also for the pain of the electrophysiology. That was a tough one, they opened my femoral vein and put cables through it until they reached my heart and then sent electrical impulses to my heart while I was on a drip of drugs (a sympathomimetic).

"From that the doctors tell me I am not suffering from any disease or any dysfunction but from what they call Neurocardiogenic Syncope. It is an over adaptation of the vagal nerve and in some circumstances this nerve is causing a sudden drop in blood pressure and eventually I collapse.”

Vidal's condition is not a sickness and not dangerous for his overall health. It is frustrating however, as doctors are unable to determine why it happens or provide a sure-fire cure.

"So the good news is that it's not a sickness and it's not dangerous on the health side. But as you guess it could be pretty dangerous in a traumatic point of view during racing (bike crash for example).

"It is a rare problem but there have been athletes reported with it. There are some risk factors - as an athlete I know I push very hard during racing, I train for this and my mind is ready to go super hard while I compete.

"Without a bunch of little factors added to each other, this problem wouldn't happen. That is exactly what I am working on with the specialist. I am now doing a weekly test to check where my autonomic nervous system is. On the treatment side there is no pills to take but many little changes in my everyday life.”

Vidal is the partner of New Zealand's top ranked female athlete Andrea Hewitt, and the pair split their time between Christchurch and Sète, France.

He stole the spotlight earlier this year with a thrilling win at the Wanaka round of the Contact Tri Series, defeating a world class field in front of a huge crowd.

 Vidal refers to himself as "51% French, 49% Kiwi” and has a huge fan base here in New Zealand, which has become his second home.

"I really enjoy being in New Zealand almost half of the year. I think, eat and drink Kiwi most of the days.

"New Zealand is in my life now and I am very respectful about it. I have met great people in New Zealand and I still do, so I am happy if any Kiwis support me because I am really proud to be part Kiwi. My English is not perfect but I am good at using the Kiwi slang - mean as!”

Vidal is now back in full flight and announced his comeback to the ITU circuit with an impressive 12th place finish at the Madrid round of the World Championship Series.

The race was dominated by Great Britain's Brownlee brothers Alistair and Jonathan, but Vidal showed the fire was back with the fifth fastest run time of the day (30min 40sec).

"Finishing 12th in Madrid is feeling like a victory after the last seven weeks. I ran one of the fastest times chasing down the breakaway. My hat off to the Brownlee brothers.

"During the past month I have been forced to really think about what was happening. I never thought about giving up but that made me realise that problems like this don't happen only to others.

"Now, I have to live with it and at the end it's always the same question....

"Are you ready to dare to challenge? Guess what, challenges don't scare me so I am back on tour with the same motivation and an extra bit of anger.”

Look out world, Laurent Vidal is back!

12th in Madrid World Champs Series

Hi guys,

"Vamos Vidal, vamos, vamos vamos!"
It was pretty exciting to hear so much support from the spanish crowd during the Madrid legs of the World Championship Series.
I was quite nervous before the race as it was my first "big one" since the Sydney scare.
I must say it went quite well apart from my swim, a few second too slow to make the 12 athlete breakaway on the bike.
I worked my hardest to chase the leaders but it didn't work, the Brownlee brothers and Javier Gomez were to strong yesterday.
Fortunately, I had a great run ( 4th fastest of the day) alongside Steffen Justus ( Second at World Champs last year) and David Hauss, my team mate from France.
Full results on triathlon.org/madrid
It felt quite good to be able to stretch the field and catch some athletes from the lead group.
Well, it seems I am back even if I am looking for better results towards the season.
Ps: Andrea got 4th in the women's race and stays 3rd in the WCS ranking! 

Next stop, Kitzbuhel in two weeks.
Cheers
Photo courtesy of Delly Carr

Big races coming up/ 10th in Dunkerque FGP

Bonjour,

I just finished a 5 week block of training and I am now leading up to Madrid WCS next week.
I achieved some great sessions and have done a massive amount of work.
I feel very good despite a bit of muscle tightness.

At the moment I am on a block where I am building up my tresholds and this is demanding training so it is impossible to keep the massive hours of the base training.
There is time for everything!

I also finished 10th in Dunkerque French Grand Prix, I could have done better as I dropped back one group on the bike losing 30 seconds after a plastic bag got caught in my chain ring.

Anyway, I had one of the fastest run there but still a bit slower than the Brownlee Brothers who finished 1st and 2nd.
Full Results on ipitos/dunkerque
It's always great to race with the Lagardere team alongside cool athletes such as Will Clarke , Jamie Huggett, Ryan Sissons, David Hauss, Steffen Justus or James Elvery.
Next stop: Madrid.

Cheers

Back on training aiming for London spot

Hello everyone,

First I would like to thank you all for your support and messages after I collapsed during the Sydney WCS.
It happened again like in Kitzbuhel last year!
Following this health scare, I have spend 10 days in hospital with the best specialists to explore my full body.
Fortunately, they didn't find anything wrong with me apart from a strong vasovagal response!
The last few weeks have been pretty mentaly intense but I quickly went back to my momentum and training.
I am now sure to be healthy, I love triathlon and I really enjoy competing against the World's best.
I enjoy everything of what I am doing: A outdoor lifestyle, meeting new people and discovering the World through a challenging performance goal.

Apparently, to be a true champion you have to go through adversity, you have to be able to manage complicated situations and take opportunities when they come to you.

So I am back into my training, motivated to get back to good form building up towards London Olympic Qualification this August.
Cheers Laurent

12th in Mooloolaba World cup season opener

Hi,

I had a solid race last week end in Mooloolaba ( Sunshine Coast of Australia) and crossed the line in 12th.
Despite a penalty on the run ( for a mistake in transition), I am quite confident on my form as I felt pretty strong considering the time of the year.

I raced agressivly, with 3 laps breakaway on the bike, to test my legs after my long base training and it gave me indications to build on the right way towards the Olympic selection in London this August.

All the best Laurent

All the results on triathlon.org/moololaba
Photo: Courtesy of Delly Carr

2nd in Aussie Sprint Champs

Hi guys,

Just a quick message from Geelong where I took silver in the Aussie Champs.
Brad Kahlefeldt broke me on the last km of the run but I managed to run away from Brendan Sexton (Aus) who claimed 3rd.
I had a good agressive race and it shows some promising signs for the upcoming international season.
I am now back in NZL for a 3 week camps at Altitude in Wanaka.

Results:
1/Brad Kahlefeldt (Aust) 53.54
2/Laurent Vidal (Fra) 53.58
3/Brendan Sexton (Aust) 54.03
4/Will Clarke (Gbr) 54.12
5/Cameron Good (Aust) 54.23

Cheers
Laurent
(Photos: Courtesy of Delly Carr)

Contact Tri Serie Race Wanaka- The video

Hi,
Short recap of the Contact Tri serie Wanaka for the ones who don't live in NZL!
I hope you guys enjoy it.
Cheers

2011 starts in Wanaka with Altitude Camp (...& Back racing)

After a couple of weeks in Christchurch training around the bays. I head up with Andrea, Kris Gemmell & Dylan McNeice to the southern Alps of NZL for a serious training block at atltitude.
It's my second time at the Snowfarm and I must say I am still amazed to train in such a great place. The trails are endless for running and we have really good swimming facilities in Wanaka which is 30min drive from the top of our mountain.
The triathlon World was on fire last weekend as Wanaka city was hosting over 2000 triathletes to compete.
Tony Dodds, NZL team member and racing in his home town made up a little challenge doubling the prize money to anyone able to beat him in the Tri NZ series Elite men... Dare on!
Media involved, the race venue was packed when most of the top kiwi olympic distance athletes started in town at 8:10pm.
I was the only foreigner in the race and I was excited to kick off 2011 after a 2010 season made of injuries.
The race went well and we did it the hard way. To be honest, I wasn't really excepting that for this time of the year.

I excited the water in the front after 750m wetsuit swim in choppy lake wanaka. Straight on the bike, Kris Gemmell, Tony Dodds, Aaron Barclay and myself put the hammer down and we were happy to see we made a gap with all the rest of the field.
We ended up the 20k bike with a 30" lead a little bit exhausted but surrounded by the huge crowd.
Kris Gemmell dictated the pace early on the run. After 1,5k I decided to surge, a good move. I held the lead and crossed the line first in front of local Tony Dodds followed by Kris Gemmell.
I really enjoyed the race and I am happy to be back racing at this level early on the season.
I am now back into my altitude training in the middle of the mountains. From here, I wish you an happy new year.

Take care.
Laurent

Results:
Finish/Name/Swim/Bike/Run/ Overall
1er Laurent Vidal 09:08 / 29:54 / 14:13/ 53:15
2eme Tony Dodds 09:06/ 29:56 / 14:29 /53:31
3eme Kris Gemmell 09:10 / 29:51 / 14:46 /53:47
4eme Ryan Sissons 09:16 / 30:24 / 14:08 / 53:48
5eme James Elvery 09:12 / 30:28 / 15:05 / 54:45

Press Release from TriNZ
Frenchman steals the show in Wanaka