For the Alpe d’Huez Triathlon team, it’s Christmas before time! Scott Molina, a legend in our sport, will be on the starting line of the Triathlon L 2024. The American triathlete, a member of the legendary “Big Four”, is honouring us with his participation. Aged 63 and living in New Zealand, the winner of the 1988 Hawaii IM tells us about his passion for triathlon (and for climbing) and shares some vivid memories of his experience in France.
What is your current situation and what about your relationship with the world of Triathlon?
I still love the sport and follow it closely online. My own exercise routine if quite extensive for an old guy who really doesn’t race any more.
I still:
– swim 5x/week most weeks totaling about 13-20km/week, about 1/2 of that with others with plenty of quality efforts
– have a home gym that I get to 5-6x/week or 40-70 minutes per session working every muscle in my body 2x/week and also stretching, body maintenance stuff like foam rolling, etc.
– ride my bike 2-5x/week totaling 100-400km/week, mostly easy! :-) but we do have a lot of great hills to ride here in Christchurch and I also spend a lot of time in Noosa, Australia and Boulder, Colorado where the cycling in the warmth is fantastic.
– run: I have currently taken almost 3 years off from running due to a very worn-out left knee. If I don’t run then my knee is happy! So I’m going to try and figure out a way to do minimal run training to get through the Alp d’Huez Triathlon in July. We’ll find out!
– Other physical activities: a lot of gardening and some hiking and kayaking. I live a very physical life.
– Triathlon coaching: I still do a bit online and also with a few athletes here in Christchurch. Still love that.
When did you first hear about the Alpe d'Huez Triathlon? Have you ever climbed the 21 bends?
I raced the Iron Tour once. I think it was in ’94 and this was before the Alp d’Huez Triathlon came along. That week was a wonderful adventure and so much fun to enjoy on a team with my friends. That race I did ended with the last stage going up the Alpe d’Huez and a run up in the village. I actually crashed quite hard on the stage coming down from the climb out of Vaujany and had to wait a long time for a wheel change as I was using 650c wheels at the time on a Quintanaroo bike. So although my over-all time that day sucked I had the fastest run of the day and the only time in my life I outran Simon Lessing. I have so many great memories of that trip.
You're already registered for the 18th edition of our main event, the Triathlon L. Could you please explain the context of your participation? Are you coming with a group of athletes or organizing a sport trip in Europe?
The trip I am on is organised by my long-time friend John Newsom who took over the Epic Camp business ( https://www.epiccamp.com ) my buddy Gordo Byrn and I started in 2003. John used to race in France many years ago on the French Tri circuit and has put on training camps in France before.
On this tri camp in ’24 including the Alpe d’Huez Triathlon we will be joined with a lot of my old friends from all over the world who have done previous Epic Camps so it’s a bit like a re-union and I’m really looking forward to it and plan on being fit for it.
You live in New Zealand. What is the culture surrounding mountain triathlon there? Is it significantly different from Europe? And what does "Alpe d'Huez" represent in New Zealand?
Everyone here knows of the Alpe d’Huez. We have a very strong cycling culture in New Zealand the NZ professional cyclists on the world tour have a very good following here. We don’t have many mountain roads to ride here in New Zealand but all the best ones are here in the South Island and I ride them all. We used to have some very demanding triathlons here over super hard bike courses but they’ve all dis-appeared mostly because they were too hard! It does seem like the triathlon courses there days are mostly set up to cater to the not uber-fit triathlete. But we do have some amazing multi-sport events here that utilise the mountains to a great degree.
We know you as a member of the BIG FOUR, a winner in Kona, and also an Embrunman winner (the only American triathlete to win in Embrun). We assume you possess climbing skills. Can you share insights into your cycling experience and profile in general?
I always loved climbing on my bike from day one starting in 1979. I was a pretty good runner in school so took to the hills in running too. I moved to San Diego in ’82 to chase my triathlon dreams and rode in the mountains there and started to thrive so I took it a step further to move to altitude in Boulder, Colorado in ’85. I raced at the very first Nice triathlon in ‘82 and that’s where I truly fell in love with riding in the mountains. I always excelled in triathlons that went up hard climbs so always sought them out. We had a fabulous tri in Lake Tahoe in the 80’s called “The World’s Toughest Triathlon” and was very sad when that dis-appeared. When I heard about EmbrunMan I knew I would do it one day and just had to figure out a way to fit it into my schedule. I also raced the ITU Olympic Distance tri there in Embrun and that was an amazing tough course.
How do you schedule your preparation for the Alpe d'Huez Triathlon? What are your objectives?
We always spend some time in Noosa, Australia in May – June so I’ll start to get fit there as that’s a fabulous, warm place for training.
Then I’ll go to Colorado in June-July to prepare there so I’m planning on being in good shape (for an old, worn-out dude) by the time I get to France.