I started June with the 4th World Series of the year in London – a place I have very special memories of after wining U23 Worlds there last year. I didn’t have a great race – finishing 23rd but there was a lot of positives to take and sometimes the end result doesn’t tell the full story.
The next weekend I raced for my French team, Parthenay, in Valence. It was a relay format and we had a really strong team, and we ended up finishing in 2nd. It’s the first time I’ve been in a team that has made a podium so it was pretty exciting!
Next up was Lekeitio Triathlon. Lekeitio is a coastal town an hours drive away from Vitoria. It is one of my favorite races as the atmosphere is crazy! The Basque love sport, and the crowds at Basque races are always huge. The bike course is basically a long climb, shorter and sharper descents, U Turn and back the way you come. It’s a tough bike course which normally works in my favour, and I managed to get away early and take out the win and the famous ‘Txapela’: a traditional Basque hat of the champion!
The next day Gwen and Pat organized a wine tour at a nearby Winery – Eguren Ugarte which our whole training group went to. I don’t drink a lot of wine, but it was very cool to learn the process of making it . We also had lunch out there and they even catered for myself being a vegetarian 
Brendan and I at the winery in La Rioja
A couple of days later we began our travel to Chicago for the World Series. My boyfriend Brendan and I had our flight cancelled and changed at the last minute due to air strikes, and we had to leave a day later. When we turned up at the airport we found out that we had been upgraded to business, which was a first for me and quite exciting! It all worked out well in the end and we both had good races both finishing in the top 10. I loved Chicago and we had a good time playing tourist post race – There’s still so much left I want to visit and I’m already looking forward to next year!
Thanks for all the support!
Char
Eguren Ugarte winery with the Wollongong Wizards
