French-born, Bath-based \u2028pro triathlete Leon Chevalier has been quietly making his way up the long-distance ranks. Next goal? Winning \u2028the Ironman Worlds on home turf in September\u2026 <\/p>
Over the past two years, 26-year-old Leon Chevalier has become one of the world\u2019s best long-course triathletes with two top-10 finishes in last year\u2019s Ironman Worlds and winning some of the toughest iron-distance races on the planet. <\/strong><\/p>\n With more success at Ironman South Africa in March, he\u2019s firmly established himself as a contender for the 2023 world title in Nice, in September. But chances are, you won\u2019t have heard of him until now. Well, let\u2019s put that right\u2026<\/p>\n 220<\/em>: Your accent is tricky to place. Is it explained by your upbringing?<\/strong><\/p>\n Leon Chevalier:<\/strong> I was born in Paris and my whole family is French, but just before I turned two, mum got a job offer in New York, so we lived in Long Island for five years. I\u2019d speak American English at school and French at home.<\/p>\n I then spent 15 years in France, but went to an international school where classes were delivered in English, before moving to the UK in 2018.<\/p>\n 220<\/em>: How did you start in triathlon?<\/strong><\/p>\n LC:<\/strong> I ran track and cross country as a teenager and was out for six months with Achilles tendonitis, but was allowed to cycle and swim and, because I had a friend who\u2019d just started triathlon, I joined in for sessions.<\/p>\n In my first year I went to the national triathlon championships and just kept going.<\/p>\n 220<\/em>: How did you end up being coached by Cheetham Coaching?<\/strong><\/p>\n LC:<\/strong> We live closeby and I\u2019d see Susie every day and ask for advice. She could see that I was floating from one idea of a goal to the next, and while I had potential, it wasn\u2019t funnelled in the right direction.<\/p>\n They took me on at the end of 2020, and I was going to graduate in 2022, so I had to show by that point that triathlon was a viable career. We set a goal to qualify for Kona by 2022.<\/p>\n 220<\/em>: How did training change?<\/strong><\/p>\n LC:<\/strong> Every Sunday I received my training for the week on Training Peaks and felt all I had to do was commit 100% to every session.<\/p>\n The training load was way less than it is now, but it was the first time I was being moulded into performing at a given period. It turned into results.<\/p>\n 220<\/em>: Tell us more about the training.<\/strong><\/p>\n LC:<\/strong> Well, we don\u2019t do lactate testing! And for a long time I didn\u2019t even have a heart rate monitor. I probably do between 25-33 hrs a week, which I wouldn\u2019t say is high as I know some athletes do 40hrs. It includes quite a lot of intensity.<\/p>\n Pretty much everything is kind of hard, but this means hard efforts feel relatively easy on race day and my endurance power is Ironman power for a lot of people. I spend a lot of time on the turbo but as soon as I\u2019m in the Alps in summer, I can do so much more bike volume.<\/p>\nOn his start in triathlon and coaching set-up<\/strong><\/h2>\n