Challenge Roth 2013 – back at the heart of Triathlon!

Wrists from left to right: Jürgen Metzler, Tim Stutzer, Julia Ertmer

Roth and I we are going into our 20^th season. It was back 1994 when I first went there to coach my dad in his first attempt to qualify for the Ironman Hawaii. I remember like it was yesterday that we took the borrowed RV to scout the bike course and just how slow the thing crept up the ascent of Kalvarienberg hill. Seven years later I would do my first and Roth’s last Ironman there – the only finish time I still recall to the second (12h 11min 51sec). In 2002 Roth was run as “Challenge Roth” for the first time and we were back as a realy. Since then I have been to the race many, many times and am on a streak as a relay cyclist since 2011. This year Julia, Jürgen and I secured our relay only one month before the event. Nonetheless the thrill was there immediately. We somehow thought we could – if everything went right – podium in the mixed category, but dismissed the thought immediately upon arrival in Roth when we were told just how much money some firms do spend on their relay project. So we went for the fun option and made the best out of it.. until the gun actually went off…

Jürgen as the One-Eyed-Racer

Friday and Saturday saw us going through the usual pre race routines and meet what felt like hundreds of familiar faces. Familiar faces not only from over here in Germany but also from the US. Here we spotted Mr. Slowtwitch Herbert Krabel, there was Bob Babbit of Competitor/Triathlete Magazine and many, many more. It seemed as if Challenge had picked up on the media thing quite a bit this year. We had a great Saturday with an early morning swim in the Rhein-Main-Donau-Canal and a delicious breakfast at Café Schmitt, Hilpolstein and one of us made it into Herbert's "The Lava Java of Roth" picture gallery on Slowtwitch.

 

 

We then hung out with the German Quintana Roo crew and chatted a bit with ABG’s Steve Dunn at their expo booth.

 

Stopping by at the Quintana Roo booth before heading off to the bike check in

When race day came all three of us got a little nervous because Julia had never swum 3,8km in a race, I was a little unsure of my bike legs and Jürgen had increased the run training volume only after we had registered some five weeks ago. Our team started in the last wave of the day at 8:50am. After high fiving Julia one last time the only thing we could do was wait for her to keep her promise of swimming sub 1:06h. And that she did. When she arrived at my and my noble steed in transition no more than 1:05h had passed and off I was. Little did we know that her performance would be the only one that was delivered as promised. I went off in what I perceived a solid effort but still the numbers were telling me something different. As always the adrenalin and little taper does miracles to how you feel in the first hour on the bike. I thus reached the first waypoint of the day – the foot of Kalvarienberg hill in just over 56min which was more than 3min faster than last year when I had posted my best time here yet in 4:26h. It was the wind I thought and took on the longest ascent of the course deliberately easy the first time. From then on I was only looking forward to the Alpe d’Huez of triathlon, my first ascent of Solar Hill. And it delivered! Reports say never have there been as many people as this year and they are right. When I looked up the hill all I saw was a wall of people. And they parted for us athletes like the sea parted for Moses. It gives me goose bumps every time. Full of adrenalin again I continued at what felt like warp speed. So I was still more than three minutes ahead of last year’s split after lap one and began to get a little worried of what would happen. And then it happened: the second ascent of Kalvarienberg hill did not feel at all comfortable and the watts were significantly lower than the first time. Well, temperatures were now in the high 20s on the Celsius grade and that usually weakens me a bit and so I slowly lost the time I had on my time from last year. And I was neither thirsty nor hungry also a sign of the heat effecting me a bit. One thing pushed me though as there were very few spectators when I passed Solar Hill on my second lap in the last years. This year though even when I went up there the second time there were many, many spectators and gave me a final push. Regrettably the wind did not help me this year for those last 10k back to Roth and I lost some time there, too. Bottom line was a net time of 4:28:30h compared to 4:26:38h in 2012.

Power file overview.

Dismounting my bike I ran into transition and screamed “Jürgen, Jürgen!” just like last year. Strangely of all first names, my of 2012 and 2013 runners shared first names. We had calculated that a time of 8:30h might be enough to podium in the mixed category and so Jürgen took off like a rocket. With Julias 1:04h swim and my 4:28h bike we were down four minutes on our race plan and Jürgen tried to make up some time. The risk being to blow up badly later on the run. His motto at the time “Pokal oder Spital” (Podium or the ER). He went through 10k at 41 minutes flat and passed the half marathon mark after 1:29h. Even then though he showed signs of trouble. When I saw him at the 22km mark he said something about his heart rate being all too high for the effort he was running at. We waited from him at 36km next and it was clear that he was in serious trouble when he arrived there some 15 minutes down on the 3h marathon splits he wanted to run. He was able to tell us that he had some strange kind of cramps and that running was not at all possible any more. He had to stop several times at that point to stretch his calfs. But when he did this his quads started to cramp. He was in serious trouble for sure but there was nothing we could really do other than to encourage him to “Keep it up!”. When Jürgen went on the final section inth the city of Roth Julia and I headed for the stadium where they have a relay meeting point some 300m from the finish line in order for the relays to be able to run those last meters together. And there we waited and waited and there was no sign of Jürgen. When he finally came around the corner some 150 meters away he was walking or rather limping and obviously in pain. When he reached us he was just barely able to communicate that almost every muscle in his body was cramping up. Thus we trotted along the last 200 meters to the stadium single file and were passed by a lot of athletes as Jürgen had to stop another two times to stretch his calfes. When you enter the stadium to finish your race in Roth this usually wipes away any and all pain you might be in ant the crowds just overwhelm you. You can see from the following picture that this was the case for Julia and I but regrettably not for Jürgen.

 

Two thirds are overwhelmed by the finishline!

He collapsed right after the finish line after what was “The hardest thing I’ve ever done!”. This hardest thing came to an end after 3:43h and a total time of 9:20h for our relay which was still good enough for 16^th place among the mixed relays.

Right behind the finish line he tried to figure out what had gone wrong. He has some 12 marathons under his belt, six of them in between 3:02 and 3:07h and has even run 3:23h in an Ironman. But never had anything like this happened. After some thinking and the obvious signs of a salt deficit we think to have found the reason: A less than sufficient salt intake in the 24 hours before the race. IF you run a marathon on its own your whole weekend is geared towards this thing. If you run the marathon as part of a relay you “only” do one part and perhaps this got us all carried away a bit in those crucial 24 hours pre race. Race day especially was far, far away from an optimal preparation for a marathon. We got up at 5am prepared the swim and the bike, did not have a decent breakfast and for Jürgen the race started right in the heat of the afternoon at 2:30pm. In between breakfast and the start of the run he might not have taken enough salt & water and thus have already started the run in a dehydrated state. That backfired badly. And other than a 3,8k swim or even a 180k bike ride a marathon by itself remains a serious challenge not to be underestimated.

But even though the race did not go according to plan the weekend was just great! Sunday came to an end with some great fireworks celebrating the last finishers of the day and Monday saw one of the most emotional award ceremonies I have ever been to.

Bottom line: We were at the heart of triathlon and will be back in 2014!

 

 

 

 

Fifteen Hours One Minute and Twenty Seconds…

… sometimes is not enough to beat the time limit of an Ironman but still one of your the greatest achievements! Fifteen hours flat is the time limit for Ironman Germany in Frankfurt. And it was close last Sunday for Team Timex athlete Luis Alvarez Gonzalez.

An eye witness account of one great race!
Some say reasonably fast Ironman athletes can’t really imagine how it is to be racing at the back of the pack. For me though that’s not really true as I started out with 12:11h and also have an finish oat 13:26h under my belt. And just this last Sunday I got a first hand lesson just how close it can be when things go seriously wrong in your preparation and your race. Not even back in 2006 when I was shouting at the TV to make Normann Stadler reach the finish line in front of Macca to win his second Ironman Hawaii did I suffer that much stress spectating at an Ironman.

But let’s start from the beginning
The Timex Multisport Team has a few very unique personalities on board and among them is The Most Interesting Man In The World aka Luis Alvarez Gonzalez. He’s the gus who wants to finish his 100^th Ironman at Ironman Hawaii this year. He is combining his crazy race schedule with an even crazier work schedule so he is not always that fast but always finishes. And he told me in Februars “No problem I only have to do another three before Kona this year”. Little did he know that he’s suffer from a herniated disc in his back in mid April and had to have surgery. This resulted in a “No sports for 2,5 months!”–order from the doctors and so he was not able to compete in Ironman Lanzarote in May.
Eighty days after surgery – he was allowed to do some sports now after all Luis flew to France. Not for a holiday but to pursue his second sports project, the Seven Summits. So off to Charmonix he was and up to the top of Europe, Mt. Blanc, he went an Wednesday, July 3^rd. Ans as the sports break had officially had ended he went on the Frankfurt, Germany to do the Ironman only four days later. Train for this he did… NOT!
Race Weekend
That was where I came in when we met at the Ironman Expo Friday afternoon. Luis his legs still a bit sour from all the climbing asked for a massage therapist to work on his legs. So I made a few calls and 20 minutes later he was lying on a bench in downtown Frankfurt receiving his massage of the day.


All the mountaineering gear had lead to Luis not having and airline luggage capacity left for a bike and so he had to borrow one for the race, he told me. So I offered mine for him to at least have a Quintana Roo triathlon bike for the race instead of the road bike he had borrowed. Regrettably my bike was a bit too large and so he went for the borrowed bike in the end.



Then came race day which saw me heading out for a bike ride myself so that I could follow Luis’ race only through the web. 1:15h for the swim looked very good from where I was. On my way back to Frankfurt I crossed the Ironman bike course once and it was meant to be that Luis was just passing by kilometer 120 at that time. We managed a quick exchange of words that was not very promising: Luis had already had two flat tires, the second of which had cost him a precious 20 minutes as he had had to wait for the support vehicle due to only having taken one spare tube. I said “See you on the run!”, he said “See you on the walk!” and I remembered that quite probably Luis would be reduced to walking due to his back injury.

It’s going to be very close!
I put up shop at the 8,5k point of the 10,5k loop of the run course and it took very long for Luis to come by the first time. In the end the 180k bike ride had taken him almost 7:30h. Even though he knew even at this point that it would be a close thing to reach the finishline in time to beat the 15 hour time limit he was still smiling.



It seems the doctors had told him to walk the entire marathon. But that would have meant that he would never be able to reach the finish line in time. He finished the first of four ron laps after eleven hours into the race. So he faced a tough decision and at the beginning of lap two started a run/walk mix to beat the time limit. We on the side of the course did our best to cheer him on every time he came by. And when he headed out to the southeastern turnaround of the run course it was already 9:25pm. His face was a grimace from the pain at that point but he was determined. There are only a few athletes still out on the course but everyone is determined to make it in time. Two of the athletes that were behind Luis going out to the last turnaround come back in front of him. When we spot Luis again he still has 2,5k to go with 18 minutes left. It’s going to be very, very close now.

In the Tunnel
The three of us who are left give our best to give him the final push to the finish line. The other two leave for home at this point and I follow Luis for the last stretch of the run. First I wait for him at the last bridge to cross. Then I follow closely behind. I talk to him all the time for him to forget the pain and focus on running. But even then his mind seems to work better than mine or he is just better aware of the speed he is running at. He mumbles “One minute!” and keeps on running. Not giving up hope we continue on.
We now pass by T2 where other athlete are just picking up their bikes. Those guys are just amazing. Realizing how close it might be for Luis they all scream and shout for him to “Go! Go! Go!” At this time even I am in a kind of tunnel forgetting to look at my watch and just focusing on getting “my athlete” to the finish line in time. It’s funny how the spectators at such an event seem to somehow adopt certain athletes during a race. We always stay until the last athletes finish the race and always there are a few you identify with. First they smile, then they suffer, have cramps, are hot or cold, but they all share this common determination to finish this thing. Right in this tunnel I take a last picture:



It’s only a few meters that I can accompany Luis from there as the red carpet they lay out for those last 150 meters up to the finish line is for athletes only. And just there where Luis turns right and takes his first steps onto the red carpet I hear them ringing. The church bells of Katharinenkirche strike 10pm and I know that Luis is not going to make it in time. He won’t make it into the official results list this time. Nonetheless I think this is one among the almost 100 Ironman he has already done that he won’t forget. And just to prove this Mike Reilly, the voice of Ironman, goes all out for Luis. The PA has to be turned off at 10pm sharp and so he shouts out his trademark line to Luis from the top of his lungs: “You are an Ironman!”
Half an hour after crossing the finish line Luis exits the post race recovery area with a big smile on his face. The pain he is in is very evident but he is so very proud to have overcome so many obstacles this year and on this day.

Congratulations Luis!

Tim

Against all rules – 4th place at Griesheim State League Race



Hide & seek on the podium: Spot the Stutzer.

Sometimes everything works against you. First a severe cold prevents you from competing in your first Olympic distance Triathlon on May 12^th, then when you have to help out the second team of the club for their first league race the organizers turn the race into a format that just does not suit you. At all! That makes for some very frustrating racing even though the result was alright in the end. Last Saturday I had help out our second team at their first league race of the season. Even though it had rained hard the previous days the forecast for race day was alright. Temperatures of around 15-18C seemed doable as did the chilly but not too chilly water temperature of 15°C. Nonetheless the day before the race I was notified that the race had been changed from an Olympic triathlon to a sprint duathlon of 5k-20k-3,5k. The reason being… no one knew exactly. Late that evening an email from the league coordinator caused even more confusion. We were told that a meeting of the league council at 10am on race morning would decide on the race format. By that time the outcry/shitstorm had already broken out on facebook and the confusion was perfect. When we arrived at the race venue we were told that it was indeed going to be a sprint duathlon. As expected though, no one was able to point at the specific rule that allowed them to cancel the swim. The reason being: There simply is none such rule. Nonetheless we decided not to cause any further confusion and picked up our race numbers and racked our bikes. With two other athletes of our first team also helping out we stood a good chance of winning the race even if they changed the format.


When the gun went off it was the usual duathlon craze: Everyone was running the first kilometer like a madman. Everyone? No, not me! With the two weeks off training due to the cold I decided to take the first run rather easy. I headed out at a pace of about 4min/km and after the first two kilometers started to slowly reel in one guy after the other. I reached T1 in around 10^th place and was quite looking forward to the pancake flat two lap bike course. I caught one guy after the other and after lap one had moved into 6^th position.

 

The only fun part of the day: Putting the padel to the metal ehh... carbon.

T2 saw me arriving in third position with a small margin of only 30sec on 4^th. My teammates were cheering for me to keep pushing hard in order to secure the second podium for our team. The first podium spot had already been secured: Or race horse Florian Brosch was having a lonely day out in front winning the race by some two minutes over second place. I on the other hand started to feel the toll of the lack of run training after only 200 meters of the second run already: My left calf started to cramp up! Damn! I had to stop and stretch it for a few seconds. Perhaps I should not have done that three hour bike ride in the morning of race day after all? There was nothing I could do about this now though and so I kept on going. With about 1.000m to go I still thought that I would be able to finish third. With 500m to go though I heard the characteristic sound of hard breathing behind and with 400m to go had been passed by a guy who seemed to be flying past. No chance to keep up.

 

 

I kept on trotting to the finish line (see below) that I reached about three minutes after Florian th finish a good fourth on the day.

 

50 meter to go.

 

The rest of the team also did quite well: With two other guys finishing inside of the top ten we took out the team win with a convincing lead of more than six minutes in the combined time of the four fastest athletes. 

Litespeed T1 - Work in Progress

Those last 1.000 meters - 5th @ Kinzigtal-Triathlon 2013

“I’d rather be 5h than 4th again!",

  



The Podium of category "Sen1"- I guess he'd like my wig!



That was what I told myself before heading out for the local tri season opener at Kinzigtal-Triathlon last Sunday. I’d been 4th there two times in the past and in the process had been passed by the same guy at the exact same spot in 2009 and 2012. See last year’s RR here.

This year saw me arrive at the race venue a bit more tired than in previous years as we had out 20 year highschool reunion the night before. With no more than three hours of sleep and a few beers the night before even the sprint distance promised to be a chal-lenge this May 5th.

The race is organized by the local tri club my club has a long lasting friendship with and so this race is where the local tri scene gathers and chitchats each spring. Great atmosphere, great people were a given and so it was up to us to make it a great race in addition to that. Our team showed up with a record of 13 athletes that really made an impact. Seeing the triathlon section of our club grow from those five guys back in 2004 to more than 30 in 2013 is a really great thing. The first wave – it’s a pool swim – had all the girls and our race horse, Julia Ertmer took home an impressive win with more than four minutes on second place.

I for my part was set to swim in lane one with last year’s winner, Marcel Bischof. So, would have some great feet to draft off – if I only could hold on to them in the first place. We’d see… Our male race horse, Florian Brosch, was set to race in lane three with Oliver Weber, the guy who had passed me to take third those two times in the past. Oliver is a very good swimmer and so Florian would also have the chance for a new PB in the pool we thought. Before the gun went off all seven of us in the last and presumably fastest wave of the day gave a “thumbs up” and off we went.

After only 25meters of trying to hang on to Marcel’s feet I realized that trying to do this for the whole 500m held the danger of already blowing up on the swim and so settled for my own rhythm at around 1:30m/100m. Marcel steadily increased his lead and I also saw Florian also constantly pulling away from me at the feet of Oliver. The swim exit saw me in around 10th place at a time of 7:34min. Very good for my standards and the fact that I’d had to swim that on my own. I fumbled a bit with my race belt in T1 which cost me some seconds on the competition and was up on my QR CD 0.1 a bit later than expected. By that time the eventual winner, pro Johannes Moldan had already covered the first kilometer of the bike as ha had mounted his bike some 1:30min before me. Nonetheless I had Marcel who was in second in my sights from the first long straight and steadily gain on him during the first half of lap one. While slowly rolling him in I passed the rest of the competition including two fellow team members. I passed Marcel at the turnaround of lap one but could not distance him any further than 20 meters. He seemed to play a bit with me and passed me at the half point of the bike with a little surge. I repassed again at 15k only to see him make a big surge with only three kilometers to go on the bike. Maybe he did not believe my pre race statement that he would at least run 2min faster than me and tried to get the deciding seconds there and then. As some readers will know “It’s all about the bike” for me at times and I tried my best not to let him gain too much in order to secure a better bike time than his. That at least worked out quite well. Nonetheless Johannes even went some 20sec faster than me so again so best bike split. Grrr… ;)



Entering T2 after the 2nd fastest bike split of the day.



Back in T2 I fumbled for sa second and perhaps deciding time, this time with my right foot, not the left, Mr. Day-Lewis. I had to take the right shoe off again as I had somehow folded the inner sole while slipping into the shoe. This cost a few precious seconds and so Marcel was long gone when I went out onto the run with a deficit of already 20sec.



Right when exiting T2 I saw my two teammates Florian and Jörn Gabler enter it as well as Oliver Weber. I calculated that I had some 1:30min on third at that time and went off as fast as my already tired legs allowed. I lost sight of Marcel pretty early and waited for the turnaround at around 2,5k to take new splits on the competition. There teammate Florian @40sec back had already eaten up half of my lead. As I already started to fade it was clear that he would catch me before the finish. Jörn was a bit further back @ 1:20min and I was quite positive that I could hold him off. My menace Oliver was even further back so at least this time he would not pass me again for third. Even though I expected Florian to catch me earlier I remained in third until right after the 4k marker when I finally heard his breath from behind I extended my left hand for a high … or rather low five during the pass. So right then & there I was in 4th. Again. For a third time! Bummer. Still there was no way to keep up with Florian. Also we did not know whether there had perhaps been some fast underdog in one of the earlier waves so off he went and trotted along behind.



On the home stretch.



When I reached the final 200m stretch Michelle shouted at me not to slow down as there really had been one fast guy in wave three. I must mumbled something I don’t remember but thought to myself that today I’d rather get 5th than 4th again. So I took a look back and without too much of an effort cruised to the finish line finishing 4th in my wave – and 5th overall. Florian had picked up his speed at the exact right time as he beat the guy in 4th by only 3sec and I was some 15sec further back in 5th. So at least Florian did not have to worry about being responsible for my 3rd 4th place at this race. He confessed after the finish that he’d thought about that quite a lot when slowly reeling me in on the run. Had we taken on the last kilometer easy & together – there was no one less than a minute behind us at this point - it would have been a real disappointment as we’d have finished a tied 4th.

Still I was able to bring home first place in my new age group which they don’t call by number any more. They just call it Senjors1, not 40-45. Top 5 – check, AG win – check! So in the end I can be really pleased with the result for the day.

Eight of us right at the finish line.

We had a great time post race with delicious pastries, cakes and pies as well as a great to watch kids race. Of our 13 athletes an amazing seven made it onto the podiums of their AG and we managed to get the overall win by Julia as well as 3rd (Florian), 5th (me), 6th (Jörn Gabler) in the men’s race.

Next week it’s more than twice the distance for me as we head out to Kaiserslautern for the first league race of the season. As my ankle made it through the 5k run at an ac-ceptable speed and without falling apart I seems that I can look forward to that race as well even if the current water temperature in the lake there is reported to at around 14°C.



Riding the pink zebra – Mallorca 2013, Part II

Even though I had been to the island five times before, 2013 was the first time that saw me “working” as a tour guide. Generously, Arne Dyck of triathlon-szene.de had taken me aboard as the guide for the fast bike group of his two week training camp. We had some 80 athletes stay with us in those two weeks and especially the first week was a blast. We flew over to the island and in this one two hour flight left winter behind for good. For the first four days we could not spot one cloud in the sky and some of us got severely sun-burned. “My crew” in camp week one as we came to call it followed the “Pink Zebra”, my soon to be replaced 2004 ABG-made Merlin Fortius. “Pink Zebra” was the bikes code name in camp this year as it was pink zebra style with a Pretty & Strong hub set from Chris King (http://chrisking.com/prettyandstrong ) as well as some pink tires, cable housing and zebra style handle bar tape and saddle.





The regulars in Group 1 from left to right: Seven, Steffen, flo, Ralf, me & Peter

This “beautiful” bike lured a group of around six to eight riders into riding with me during camp and it seems they seemed to enjoy it quite a lot. We had some serious fun chit-chatting about just about every tri or bike related topic you could imagine as well as other topics that are not quite fit to be made public here. Sadly, not everyone could stay for the whole two weeks and so we had to let them go. Thanks Peter, Ralf and Steffen for the fun… and the massage voucher which I made good use of on the second rest day. As they were Tims Ex Team I thought it only fair to hand each of them a small good bye goodie from TIMEX. They really laughed at that! The second week then presented a real challenge in the form of a new guest: Markus O. I had already been told that he’d arrive in shape as he’s taken some down time from his job in investment banking and put some energy in a good race at Challenge Roth this summer. In addition to Markus three other guys were added to our group and so there was some new and fit legs among us. Arne had told me beforehand that Markus would bring a competitive edge to the rides and even though succeeded in taming the dynamics of the group most of the times we still attacked the longer hills “every man for himself” to wait at the top. Markus and I then tackeled the longest climb on the island together. And just as I was told, is was quite an event. I averaged 303 Watts for 48min climbs which saw me arriving a the top only 20sec after Markus. Cudos to him! Regrettably the second half of camp week two was dominated by bad weather and we had adjust our rides accordingly.


Still, over the two weeks Seven, the most consistent rider in my group and I got in just under 1.500km in on the bike. And just when I considered another 30k loop around the hotel in really wet conditions I received a sign: Just 50 meters before we reached the hotel I got the first flat of the whole camp. Right then and there with a big smile on my face I called it a day or rather a “camp”.



The first flat after 1.470km right in front of our hotel.



„There is always a bigger fish!” - Mallorca 2013, Part I




 

The quote above was taken from Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace. And it sums up the funniest experience of my 2013 training camp on the island of Mallorca. It was at the end of the first of the two week training camp that I was talked into participating in a bicycle drag racing event called Thunder Wheels Racing (http://thunder-wheels.de). So only 20 minutes after finishing a five hour bike ride through the Tramuntana mountains of Mallor-ca I was facing a one on one elimination competition over a course that was just 400 meters long. Never before had I started any race whilst already clicked into my pedals and someone holding onto my saddle for a sprint start. Adrenalin kicked in when we lined up for the first round. My opponent looked like a real bullet: a few pounds too heavy but equipped with mighty thighs! So when the countdown commenced 5-4-3… my adrenalin kicked in. When it ended with …2-1 Go!, he was already five meters ahead! Damn, I had put on the wrong gear and within the first 100 meters the guy got a lead of around 10 meters. Finally I got my gearing right and caught and passed him after around 300m. From then on it was full throttle until the end. I crossed the finish line first, the max effort recorded by the SRM at 1.200 watts. I was glad to really have survived the first round and with thus had reached the quarter finals.

When we lined up for the heat I was told to be careful as my opponent would be a real sprinter and quite probably go for a late pass from behind. Well, I thought, we’ll see how this goes. I then decided to start the race from the drop bars instead of the top of the STIs. Like a real sprinter, I thought! Big mistake! The gun went off and I was leading. I was leading until my opponent decided that it was time for me to move back one spot. And that was at around the 250 meter mark already. He went by in a blitz and I tried to get behind him. I grabbed the bars tighter in one last ditch effort and nearly… hit the barrier on the right side of the race course. Puh!, that was close! And no more chance to catch the guy. I then decided to give him the credit he deserved: I got into an upright position and applauded him for his win. The picture below shows me in the process of. But hey, a max effort of ~ 1.200 watts was not enough to even get on his rear wheel. He deserved to win!

We stayed to watch the semis as well as the finals of the races and just like the guy who had beaten me every guy among the top four was a real road racer not a wimpy triathlete like me.