Pete Jacobs: "my legs ended up more tired than in an ironman"

Pete Jacobs accepted the challenge of turning around the Montblanc in a single day.

The Australian Pete Jacobs, world distance champion Ironman at 2012, changed the demands of a triathlon for one day and accepted the proposed challenge of being one of the six runners who took part in the ASICS Beat the Sun as part of the Asia-Pacific team.

Each of the five continental teams that competed was made up of three professional athletes and three amateurs, and Pete was along with the Japanese trail specialist Kota Araki and the Singapore runner Andy Neo the referents of his continental team.

The challenge, a relay race in which they had to overcome 150 km with 8300 of unevenness in them, was to go around the Montblanc with departure and arrival in Chamonix before the sun set.

For this, each reliever ran two relays. Jacobs had therefore to overcome two difficult stages for which he was appointed by the race director, and during which he had to run through the snow, wooded areas and small roads in hard climbs or very technical descents.

Pete, in particular, performed the 4 and 10 stages of his team, in a race that featured 13 sectors.

Stage 4

Notre Dame - Les Chapieux

With a distance of 15 km and a positive height difference of 1.287m. Short but very marked asphalt road of 1 km, with a transition in an alpine meadow of 2 km. It follows a steep climb to the mountain pass Col du Bonhomme, through rocks and snow on its summit before the technical crossing to the Refuge du Bohomme. It ends with a technical descent.

Stage 10

Ferret - Champex

With a distance of 16 km and a positive height difference of 595m. A unique and narrow path along the river when leaving Ferret followed by a quick and short stretch before a sharp ascent of 1 km of paved road towards Champex-Lac.

With 38 minutes ahead of the sun, the teams of America and South Europe were the only two teams that managed to turn the Montblanc around in the ASICS Beat the Sun challenge.

The Asia-Pacific team, where Jacobs was integrated, was third without achieving the goal of beating the sun, taking 19 minutes behind his official start on the longest day of the year.

"My legs have tired more than during an Ironman," he explained at the end. "The descent of my second stage broke them completely and then came a very strong climb in which I finally had to walk," said the Australian who, along with his teammates, toured the last meters with the last reliever of his team.