Duathlon European Champioships Soria

My comeback at an international Duathlon Championship

It is now 6 years ago I have attended at an international Duathlon Championships. It was sort of a coming home to what I have been doing in my first part of my sports career. There are still quite a few athletes around that I used to race at the time – and others have switched to the coaching staff. The continental championships were held in Soria in the province of Castilla & Leon (Spain). It is one of the least populated area in Western Europe.

When I checked the starting list, I recognised many athletes from the past. Quite a few of them are excellent runners with an athletic background but are also solid cyclists. It was obvious the first run would be very fast. The 2.5 km running course had five 180° turns and some more sharp corners which made it a bit of a stop and go race. The bike course was quite undulating with two inclines per lap (with 6 laps). With Valentin Fridelance I had a teammate with me, depending on the race development we would be able to work together. It stayed dry during the whole race but it was seriously cold that day.

Right from the start the pace was very fast. And more importantly my legs felt like led. Apart from a few athletes that fell off the pack right from the beginning, I was the last athlete. Different coaches tried to encourage me to hang on but I also knew that it would have been not very smart to try and chase the leading group. Even though it was very frustrating because I did not feel like I could speed up at all. I seriously thought of quitting the race. But at the same time I knew exactly that the race is not over yet. In the second of four laps I started to overtake a few athletes and the further we got, the more athletes paid the price for over pacing. Maybe the splits were normal for them but with all the corners and the few meters up and down it takes its toll. During the last lap I managed to get in contact with what formed the chasing group on the bike.

The transition went relatively smooth and found myself in a group of about 15 athletes. We soon caught 3 Spaniards. We had about 7 athletes from Spain in the group and 5 Belgians. But – they had absolutely no team tactics. I don’t know what their coaches told them but I thought it was quite an odd situation. We were about a minute behind the leading pack but either everybody looked at each other or we closed gaps consistently for these 6 laps. During the second lap nobody followed me on the uphill but I was left on my own and I was hoping a couple of other athletes would bridge the gap so we could work together. Unfortunately, that did not happen and we returned as a very big group back into second transition as the pack behind us with Valentin worked together and caught us. At the front, very quickly a group of 4 strong athletes formed the lead with 4 more strong runners which did not have the legs to follow the others. One gave up with cramps in the legs so we were running now for 8^th position.

The second run was hard again. The pace could have been worse but it just felt terrible. It took me 4 kilometers until I found my rhythm which was just before the finish line. I wish I would have found another gear but that just did not happen. I crossed it after 1:51:07 hours in 17^th position with five U23 athletes in front of me which puts me officially in 12^th position.

It was a hard comeback on this level of racing but overall I probably did what was within my abilities. Retrospectively it was wise to stay at the back of the pack initially. I tried to make a difference on the bike several times and break away but that did not happen. I have to analyse what went wrong but I felt a lot stronger during the run at the Gürbetal Duathlon.