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Event	Castle Series Chantilly
Distance	Middle distance
Date	21st May 2023
Location	Chantilly, France
Condition	Sunny, warm (17°C and rising). Wetsuit legal.
Kit Highlights	S-Works Shiv TT, Quantum Metric cap, SunGod goggles, Veloforte gels
Entry fees

Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
1.9 km		90 km		21.1 km

Goal	Target	Result
Beat my 2017 time	Sub 5:35:09	✅ 4:59:05
Go sub-5 hours	Sub 5:00:00	✅ 4:59:05
Run split	Sub 1:30:00	❌ 1:39:04

Finish Time	Age Group (V50)	Gender	Overall
4:59:05	3rd	22nd	22nd

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I made the trip solo. An hour and a half to the Eurotunnel, thirty minutes under the Channel, then a couple more hours through France to Chantilly. French motorways are a joy — smooth, 80mph, and lined with nothing but countryside. The only pain is the tolls. With a right-hand-drive car, you have to get out, walk around the vehicle, and pay like it’s 1987.

My friend Jean-Louis had rented a beautiful little house for the long weekend. I arrived on Thursday and left on Monday. Exactly the right amount of time.

Friday was a gentle shakeout ride — just checking Bruno was in one piece after the journey. Saturday, a pool session. Nothing heroic.

Registration was effortless, the volunteers were brilliant, and the race village was already buzzing. The Castle Series runs a whole festival of sport across the weekend, so there’s always something going on. The race briefing was run by Brian — the race director, someone I’ve met a few times now — and it was exactly what a race briefing should be: informative, relaxed, and fun.

Staying in a house with friends rather than a soulless race hotel makes a real difference. Good food, good company, early night. By the morning of the race, I was calm. Focused. Ready.

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The water was cold enough to feel refreshing, and cleaner than I remembered. The last time I raced at Chantilly in 2017, the swim involved multiple loops due to seaweed. Not exactly a highlight. This time, the bassin and the route were entirely different — cleaner, clearer, and far more pleasant.

The swim exit is a bit of a slog though. A long run out of the water, uphill. By the time you reach transition, you’ve already earned it.

Unzipped the wetsuit on the run in. Stripped it off properly once I hit my spot. Socks, shoes, helmet — grab Bruno and go. Three minutes fifty is longer than I’d like, but given the uphill run-in and the full wetsuit strip, I’ll take it.

The Castle Series Chantilly bike course is genuinely beautiful. Quiet roads, police controlling every junction — no cars cutting across you, no potholes, no sitting behind traffic like you’re on Windsor or Outlaw Half triathlons. It feels safe, fast, and properly race-like.

There is one exception. A cobbled section. About 500 metres of honest-to-goodness Paris-Roubaix-style cobbles, ridden on a TT bike. I won’t pretend it’s comfortable. It is, however, mercifully short.

Nutrition was simple: a Veloforte gel roughly every 45 minutes, and electrolytes every 10 minutes. I never drink as much as I should on the bike — a recurring theme — but I stuck to the plan well enough.

By the numbers, a 2nd in the category on the bike. I’ll take that.

Clean and quick. Helmet off, rack the bike, running shoes on. Out.

The goal was 1:30. The result was 1:39. I’m gutted. Funny-kind-of-gutted, not cry-into-my-medals gutted, but gutted nonetheless.

By the time I started the run, the temperature had climbed. Garmin said 17°C. It did not feel like 17°C. It felt considerably more than 17°C.

The first four kilometres were decent — holding around 4:27 to 4:30/km. Then km 5 happened: a necessary loo break (5:56/km, in case you’re wondering what that looks like on a graph). Things wobbled again after km 9. The pace never fully recovered.

I crossed the line in 4:59:05. Sub-5. Goal two, ticked.

Crossing the line just inside five hours — thirty-six minutes faster than the last time I raced this course in 2017 — felt good. Really good. The post-race food was simpler than usual (some supplier issue meant no hot food), but there was a genuinely lovely protein-rich salad and enough extras to keep me happy.

I was getting changed in transition when I heard my name over the PA. Somehow, in the chaos, they were announcing the V50 podium. I pulled a t-shirt back on and sprinted — probably the fastest I’d run all day. Made it. Third place. No photo, because Jean-Louis and Audrey had long since headed back to the house and the race photographer had moved on. There’s a small envelope with a race discount somewhere in my kit bag as proof it happened.

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Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Finish
0:40:22	0:03:50	2:33:30	0:02:18	1:39:0	4:59:05

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Back to the house. Garden. Cold beer. Jean-Louis and Audrey — who had both raced and done brilliantly — were already there. Later, pizza was ordered. Then I crashed out. Exactly the right recovery protocol.

• The swim — clean, controlled, and nothing like the 2017 seaweed edition
• The bike — second in category, well-paced, nutrition on plan
• Going sub-5 for the first time on this course
• 36 minutes faster than 2017
• A podium I nearly missed but just about sprinted to in time

• The run — 1:39 vs a 1:30 target. Heat management and pacing after km 9 need work
• Hydration on the bike — never drink enough, always say I will, never do
• T1 — there’s time to be found if the wetsuit strip is cleaner

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Organisation	10/10
Course	10/10
Atmosphere / Crowd	8/10
Post-Race Experience	9/10
Value for Money	9/10
Overall	10/10

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I raced Chantilly in 2017. I’m racing it again in 2023. There will be a third.

This is the kind of race that earns its repeat visits — well organised, a genuinely beautiful course, a race director who actually seems to enjoy running events, and the bonus of doing it all in France with friends who race too. The cobbles are a character-builder. The heat on the run is a problem I need to solve. The thirty-six-minute improvement over six years? That I’ll take every time.

Would I recommend it? Without hesitation. Especially if you can make a long weekend of it.

Fancy following the journey? Give me a follow on Instagram @oli_le_triathlete.

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