It may have been a late call to defend her IRONMAN World Championship title in Nice but Lucy Charles-Barclay is relishing the chance to pin on the number one bib on Sunday.
The Brit finally got that deserved IMWC crown last year in Kona after four successive second places on the Big Island.
But she said at the start of the season that the T100 was her priority in 2024 and she wasn’t initially going to race the IMWC in Nice, but instead wait for next year’s return to Kona.
However a change of heart saw her recce the course when winning IRONMAN France Nice in the summer, and speaking at the pre-race press conference on the French Riviera it was clear that the decision has already paid dividends.
LCB on Nice course challenge
Sunday will be the first time the women’s IRONMAN World Championship will be held in Europe and asked how it feels to come into the race as defending champion, Charles-Barclay said: “It definitely feels pretty special to wear bib number one. It’s been a huge journey from racing Kona in 2017 for the first time as a rookie, to come second that year and then have a feeling that I could win the race, but never think it would take so many years, so many injuries and the [COVID] pandemic to finally get the win at the end of the day last year.
“I’m just super happy to be here, really proud to be on the start line and, yeah, I can’t wait to see what happens on Sunday.
“It feels really different. I mean, year on year, you get used to doing the prep for Kona, the heat prep, you know how it all works, whereas this year is a complete unknown.
“None of us women have raced together on this course, so we don’t know how it’s going to play out. In Kona you get used to each other’s tactics, you kind of know what’s going to happen. But here we’re almost racing blind, so I think that makes it a lot more exciting.”
Positive energy
A training block on the Cote d’Azur prompted the decision to race IRONMAN France Nice, and she’s enjoyed pretty much all aspects of the preparation since then.
She explained: “When I came here in June, I did a three-week camp before the race and it was during that camp that I was going to make the decision whether I would race the IRONMAN or not. And pretty much on the first bike ride, I was like, I love this. This is so fun. This is definitely a course that I’m going to enjoy. So we made the decision straight away to line up and race IRONMAN France Nice.
“And I think for me, the main goal of that race was just to enjoy it. I felt like I enjoyed every part of it – I think sometimes in Ironman racing, there’s always a point where you’re struggling or it’s hard or you don’t think you can continue. And I never experienced that in June. I just loved the whole day. So I’m really hoping I can just take all of that positive energy into the race on Sunday.”
And that mindset has translated into training too – in stark contrast to the intensive heat preparation she did in London before flying out to Kona.
She added: “I’ve really had a lot of fun in the training leading into this race. I think last year I did a really intense block at home. I did six weeks where I trained completely on my own, and I didn’t really enjoy it.
It was brutal and it paid off. But if it hadn’t paid off, I don’t know if it would have been worth it.
“This year, we just had a lot of fun with training and I felt like I enjoyed it more than I ever have. So even if it doesn’t pay off, I had a great time training for this race. I definitely feel very relaxed coming here.”
And though she won IRONMAN France Nice by over 15 minutes, she knows a lot more will be required on Sunday, adding: “When I raced here in June I made a lot of mistakes. I learned a lot. So I do hope to perform better than that.”
Triathlon’s mid-season report card: Tim Don on who’s raising the bar this triathlon race season
