Cassandre Beaugrand has revealed that her less regimented approach to this season was born out of the pressure she placed on herself while chasing last year’s WTCS world title.

While becoming world champion again remains a dream, Beaugrand admits that wanting it so desperately left her struggling to cope with the demands of a season that ultimately unravelled at the final race.

Heading into the WTCS Grand Final in Wollongong last October knowing that victory would ensure series success, she and fellow favourite Beth Potter both blew up when it mattered most, leaving Germany’s Lisa Tertsch to take full advantage.

Chose not to compete in Birmingham

This season has seen Beaugrand follow a less orthodox racing schedule, successfully combining three WTCS events with road and track athletics – winning all of her triathlons and setting new French records over 10km, 5,000m and 3,000m.

It wasn’t even certain that she would even contest this year’s WTCS, even though her victories at Alghero, Quiberon and London have lifted her to within touching distance of the series leaders.

Such is the strength of her track running that she could have competed for France at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham last week but, in the end, chose to focus on the WTCS and has entered her required fourth race in Weihai on August 29.

Currently altitude training in Font-Romeu in the French Pyrenees in preparation for her trip to China, she explained her more flexible approach in a video posted on her YouTube page, which has been embedded into this story below.

‘Mentally, I’m in a different place’

“At the beginning of the season, whenever people asked me about triathlon and the World Series, the truth was that wanting so desperately to become world champion last year caused me so much pain,” she revealed. “This year, I approached it with a completely different mindset.

“I’m genuinely not joking when I say that I don’t care quite as much about my result in the series this year. I’ve constructed my calendar one race at a time, based on what I feel like doing. Mentally, I’m in a completely different place. I feel much fresher.

“Of course I want to be world champion, but will it change my life if I become world champion or not? Probably not. I’m simply going to enjoy myself. The results often come when I’m enjoying myself and feeling happy.

“Last year I didn’t win the title, and it didn’t change my life. I was sad for a few weeks, but once again I had focused exclusively on that. I don’t think I had the right motivations. Now I feel relaxed and happy. If I win a title, it will be a bonus. If I don’t win, it won’t really change my life.”

‘I still made mistakes in my race’

While she also admits that she is still trying to understand herself better, one thing is for certain, and that is her love for running and the enjoyment she has had in testing herself in different competitive environments.

Her most recent track appearance came at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco, a venue which holds a special place in her heart, having competed there as a youngster while progressing through the athletics ranks.

“After Monaco, I had two weeks before racing in London,” she adds. “London went pretty well in terms of the result. However, it wasn’t really a brilliant performance across all three disciplines. I still made mistakes during my race, so it wasn’t perfect, but the result was there.

“That gives me three victories in the championship so far. I need to complete a fourth race before competing in the Grand Final, because it’s four races plus the Grand Final.

‘I’ll probably do athletics again next year’

“I decided not to compete in Birmingham. Even though Monaco hadn’t originally been part of my season plan, I eventually decided that I wanted to do Monaco more than the European Championships.

“Racing in Monaco actually made me want to race more. But I was also realistic because I had very little time to prepare again. It remains difficult to juggle triathlon and athletics like that.”

And while this year will now revert to WTCS, the door to more track and road running is most definitely not closed, and she is already looking forward to planning more races next year.

“I’ll probably want to do athletics again next year,” she confirmed. “We realised that it was beneficial for me. It was a genuine bonus, and mentally it did me a lot of good to compete in those races.

Altitude training will help rebuild volume

“It worked well this year, so perhaps I can do it intelligently again next year, with a few more outings on the track or road.

“Part of me thought, ‘Okay, I’m disappointed not to be going to Birmingham’, but on the other hand, it’s pretty cool because I can go all-in at Font-Romeu. My next race is in China, and the idea is simply to rebuild some training volume.”

The best four scores plus the Grand Final in Pontevedra determine the WTCS title, and Beaugrand is currently in sixth with 3,000 points, but only 641.45 behind leader Potter – despite having raced only three times to Potter’s four.