1985 Avignon Triathlon

This is a report of the first Avignon Triathlon from issue 2 of Tri-Athlete in French. I’ve got them all now. From 1985 until 1996.

I need to go to Avignon. To trace the course of the 1989 race. It might not be safe just to plunge into the Rhone though. I’ll make it part of a belated-50th birthday triathlon history bike tour. Also stopping at Nice, Embrun and staging a re-creation of the 1994 France Iron Tour.

The report says it was a scoring race the French Championship Triathlon Series. In fact, there were three national circuits in France in 1985. The official CONADET one included 22 events across varying distances. The Le Coq Sportif - Arena Series had 12 events over 1500/55/15. And the Phil Team Series had 4 races planned at chic coastal towns.

I’ve heard from athletes that raced back then that the Le Coq / Arena Series ended up being the de-facto national series. And I’ve summarised everything in this table. Super-nerd style.

There’s some back-story about the 1984 national championship series that I’m going to go into in a podcast episode soon. So I won’t touch on that here. But by 1985 French triathlon really was getting organised. There was a bulging calendar, solid prize monies and teams forming.

And Mercier bikes were even starting to imagine what a triathlon-specific bike might need to be like. See below. Prototype 1 offers a rear disc and two bottle cages. Protoype 2 gives you a rear triangle fairing, rear bottle cage and filled-in big chainring. La classe!

So the first Avignon Triathlon took place on Sunday 26th May. The report says there were barriers in place, television cameras, a podium with music blasting, groupies and a helicopter. It seems the race was a big deal.

The distances were to be 1750m / 75km / 20km. And Julie Moss, Scott Tinley and Mark Allen had been invited. Probably at great expense. Mark was already well known to the French public from his 3 wins at Nice.

French contenders would be Jean-Luc Capogna (cover photo above) and Yves Cordier. There were germans too. Marguerite Meyer, who lived in California. And Yogi Hoffman, who would become a regular on the French circuit.

At 11:12 the 200 or so competitors were taken in buses across the river and upstream to the swim start. The water was 17°C. Fresh. Maybe half the athletes seem to be wearing wetsuits. It’s the first year they are officially allowed by the new European Triathlon Union. And Aquaman had started to manufacture a few special triathlon models.

Cordier is first out in 15:23. Super-fast. Due to the strong current. This was way too little time in the water considering the bike and run distances to follow. Mark Allen is a minute back out of the drink in second place. First women is Meyer in 4th overall. Julie Moss is 7th overall.

In 1989, for the first World Short Course Championships in Avignon, the swimming distance was over-corrected in spectacular fashion.

At the 25km mark Moss catches Marguerite Meyer and Scott Tinley goes by Cordier. Tinley has 3 minutes plus at T2. Note he’s using loads of Mercier stuff. Curious to know if his bike and kit were lost in transit. Or if he picked up Mercier as a temporary sponsor for the France trip.

Final results? Moss from Meyer. Tinley, Allen, Cordier and Hoffman together. Capogna in 5th. I got loads more Avignon content to come.

Oh. And check-out Capogna’s bar-bag. Nothing is new.