Epic Camp France — Lack of Hustle

As part of my 2016 Kona training, I'll be participating in Epic Camp France.

For those unfamiliar, Epic Camp is a stage-race style camp that, over the years, has drawn an international crowd of triathletes as strong as they are crazy. The camp has a points system and doles out leader jerseys, rewarding fastest climbing on the bike, overall daily swim/bike/run volume, and other feats.

Epic Camp France, which kicks off on Monday June 27, will be 12 solid days of nutty swim/bike/run volume following much of the Tour de France path. We travel up Mont Ventoux on day 1 then snake through the Alpes to Morzine, hitting Alpe d'Huez and other iconic climbs.

Here's a cool video pulled together by The Col Collective that provides a little taste of Alpe d'Huez

For those who want to geek out on the details, here's a thorough outline of the points system. Note that bonus points are also given for keeping a blog. Given that I expect to be off the back on nearly every bike climb, I'll be blogging my ass off...

CATEGORIES

Yellow Jersey = Overall points leader
Red Jersey = leading Vet over 50 years
Polka Dots = King of the mountains
Bellwether Jersey = performance of the day

HOW TO SCORE POINTS

Daily

Swim: 3km or set daily minimum swim = 1 point
Bike: every 30km = 1 point (eg 179km = 5pts, 180km = 6pts)
Run: 10km or 60mins = 1 point

Daily Bonus Points

Any athlete who completes the daily set swim/bike/run minimums (usually swim 3km / bike the set distance / run 10km) on any particular day gains 3 pts

Any athlete who completes the daily swim/bike/run minimums for the entire camp gets 20 bonus points. This should be everyone’s main objective.

Swim:

Swims of 6km get 2 extra points. Limit of 2 per camp to get the bonus points
An additional 3km swim just gets 1 point (ie AM & PM)
Special swim sets for bonus GC points are:
- 1km nonstop bands only
- 200 fly nonstop (needs to be continuous, two hand touch each end)
- 12 x (100IM + 150 freestyle) = 3km nonstop
- 10x200 on 3:20 = 1 point, on 3:00 = 2 points, on 2:40 = 3 points
- 100 x 100 (long course 50m pool in Morzine)
  - every 20th can be recovery
  - 4 bonus points (you don’t get the 6km bonus points)
  - on 1:45 = 3 points, on 2:00 = 2 points, on 2:15 = 1 point
  - so if you do on 2:00 you get 3 pts (3x3km) + 4 bonus points for 100x100 + 2 points for doing on 2:00 = 9pts

Bike:

Every 30km gets 1 point
Rides over 200km get 2 bonus points (limit of 2 times per camp – that doesn’t mean that you can’t ride over 200km more than twice but you won’t receive special bonus points)
King Of Mountains:
- Selected climbs will have the following points 1st = 48, 2nd = 43, 3rd = 39, 4th = 36 then dropping by 2pts per place. If there is a group that leaves early you will contest the points from the last place of the main group
- At the end of the camp KOM standings will be placed from 1st to last (1st = 21pts then dropping by 1 point per place) and transferred to the GC.

Run:

Each additional 10km or 1hr gets one extra point
Runs over 2hrs get 2 bonus points (limit of 2x per camp as above)
Special run sets for bonus GC points are:
- 7x1km with 1 minute rest between reps <4:30/km = 1 point, <4:10 = 2 points, <3:50 = 3 points
  - AKA <7:15/mi = 1 point, <6:43 = 2 points, <6:09 = 3 points
- 10km run: <42mins = 1 pt, <40 = 2 pt, <38 = 3 pt
  - AKA 10km @ <6:45/mi pace = 1 pt, <6:25 = 2 pt, <6:07 = 3 pt

Other Bonus Points

There will be a number of special events, races, TT’s etc through the camp that will have points allocated to them. Some of these will be mini competitions with a select few being maxi competitions
- Premium races are with 6.3pts (dropping .3pt / place)
- Minor races are worth 3.15pts (dropping .15pts / place)
If you keep a daily blog during the camp you will get 3 pt (YEAH BABY!!!)

*In addition to this blog, I'll be keeping a photo journal via Instagram @followmetokona*

Robert Mohr