Luke Dragstra

Challenge Copenhagen

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:05:52 +0000

Challenge Copenhagen. A big undertaking for Danes and they did a fantastic job. Upwards of 100,000 spectators on the course and 1700 starters. There was a convenient rain storm the night before, the likes of which they haven’t seen in 30 fricken years! This made for some extra challenges on the bike as there gravelly danish flintstones were washed all over the roads (esp. the backroads) which are almost as good as glass for causing punctures. My race was a factor of bad luck and a matter of how much. My first spell was on the swim, I had worked myself into the top 10 and was feeling good. In the last 800m the entire pack headed for a set of bouys which which I knew we didn’t need to go around, so I veered off and headed for the finish, which would have saved me a good 30s on everyone who didn’t memorize the race map or ask the officials.. however, the kayakers on the course, also did not realize that I was in the right and one blocked my way and sent me pack.. this lost me about 30-60sec and I came in T1 about 20sec behind the group… I blazed through transition and was able to ride up to the front of the main group by 20km or so. There was one guy away and most of the rest of the favourites were in this group of 15 or so. After 30km along the coast we turned inland and rode througha windy, undulating section which had sections where the flooding was not quite drained. The carnage began, I never saw so many puntures and lost water bottles. It was still wet out and it was hard to go on the attack without risking a crash in the corners. When we got back on the main road I decided to make a move up to the front and push the pace as I could see a lot of guys were hanging in there hurting, I made it to the front, and a minute or two later was passed by another keener and no sooner had he overtaken me the Draft buster whistled and gave me a yellow.. unbelievable.. there were definately guys in the group deserving of a yellow card but it seems like the only ones who got them were the ones pushing the pace. Four of us went straight into the penalty box in great moods, one of which was Chris McDonald who had been on the front ALL DAY.. the official was definately doing something wrong. In the end that cost me a top position, Chris ended flatting twice and I rode in with a slow leak on my front wheel, costing even more time.. I came into t2 8 min down on the group i had been riding in quite comfortably. As with Chris, lots of other guys also had punctures and some couldn’t even finish and so I was lucky to get onto the run course. Running was going ok and I started to turn it on in the 2nd lap and it was looking like a top 5 was still in the cards, but lap 3 was another story and I got passed by another few guys and thought i was in for 15th or so as I had lost track of the guys in front. It turned out a few others had it worse than me and I think I passed a few and didn’t even notice and came into the finish in 8hrs34min for 10th place.
All in all, performance was ok.. a little lacking at the end of run. But the race atmosphere was fantastic as the city really came out to see what was going on and i haven’t seen so many spectators on a course other than at Challenge Roth or at IM Frankfurt.
Congrats to all the competitors who made it to the line despite punctures and mechanicals and congrats also to the race crew who managed to put on a fantastic race despite a huge amount of adversity.

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:32:22 +0000

Planet X Rocks LBS Cup Final

Farlow and Dragstra tore the field up yesterday at the challenging LBS Cup Final in the Black Forest, coming 1st and 2nd off the bike. Farlow ran away with the win and Dragstra held on for 3rd leading Magic-Sportfood Crailsheim team to a dominating win for the day and the top of the League tally.
Both were riding the new Exocet, Farlow coming out of the water in the lead and simply riding away from the field, Dragstra coming out out of the choppy Lake Schluchsee down 90sec and riding through the entire field. ‘I have such a great position on that bike and it simply rolls on the flats and is light enough you can kill the hills as well’,commented Dragstra. We asked Farlow for a comment but couldn’t understand his Farm-boy Aussie English…
Farlow continues his summer of dominance next weekend with his Ironman Debut in Regensburg and will see if his amazing form holds out against Faris Al Sultan and Andi Boecherer.
Dragstra has turned things on just in time after struggling all summer and is looking forward to demonstrating his new-found power at Challnege Copenhagen on Aug. 16.

Challenge Kraichgau and Niederbronn

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:36:10 +0000

Its time to write one of these blogs that I really don’t feel like writing.

The plan was to write a two in one blog - as Kraichgau was a real disaster - as i had then hoped Niederbronn would be much better, as my form is great. Unfortunatey, fate played out differently and Niederbronn went even worse.

Kraichgau - the short story -
Had a bit of bad luck at swim start as the guys lined up on the right side had a clear 15m advantage, and I noticed too late. I got out ok and followed aaron until we merged with the main group. When we reached the first bouy I was feeling pretty comfy, cut it nice and tight on the inside and found myself at the front of the group. However to my dismay, there was about 5 guys 50m ahead.. and I wasn’t feeling good enough to bridge the gap. I came out with most of the major players, Kienle, goehner, cunama, chabaud, etc and feeling strong. I hammered the first bit of the bike absolutely nailing it.. but the big bikers, chabaud, kienle and stadler and co. still managed to disappear off into the distance.. unreal!! I was holding about 44kmh!!
assembling behind me were beke, cunama and luoto. Beke was helping out on the flats at the front and Cunama was practically attacking the hills.. which was ok because we managed to drop Luoto at about 20km. Anyway, I did my best to keep the pace on and we managed to pick up uwe widman and adam molnar at about 40km and then Farlow and Jarmo Hast at 50km.. to my astonishment some kid in K-swiss attire came around to the front a few kms later. It turned out to be Nils Goeke who was riding bloody good, however he dragged Luoto back up up which kind of pissed me off!! We’d already taken care of him, and now we were a group of about 10 guys and some of them were really taking advantage of the draft zones and the busters unwillingness to give out penalties… I won’t mention any names (achoo -FINS)!!
Anyway, i was still feeling strong on my new Planet X Exocet prototype and went for a few attacks on the last hills to see if I could shake things up a bit.. they were to no avail and we rode into t2 10 strong in 6th-16th place..
My legs felt like mash and I couldn’t get going on the run at all!! Painfully I watched Farlow, Cunama, the Fins, and Goerke simply disappear up the street. uh!! I lost more and more time came to the finish 13th! with a 1h23min run split!! uh!! that is 4min/km pace!!

Anyway, I was obviously rather disappointed but sure that this weekend in Niederbronn would be much better.
I recovered quite well and was ready to rip sunday. I went in with a menacing game face (as Tissink later told me) and nailed the first bit of the swim.. I had a good body length on the entire field and my stroke felt fantastic. Farlow came up to my left and It looked like a Magic-getaway, then suddenly someone turned the power off and I felt weak as.. from one moment to the next.. unreal. I slowed down the entire swim and came out a minute down on the leaders.. I was still in good postion and the guys in sight, but I simply didn’t have and fire or power to ride up. I strugged simply to keep the intesity up the entire ride heartrate in the mid 140’s which is only 75% of my max which I can sustain for an IM distance! A bizarre and lousy feeling. The run was more of the same, I had some rhythm and felt smooth but absolutlely no power. I came into the finish a distant 6th place.

Anyway.. there it is.. that was almost as painful as the races.. what is the moral of the story? Don’t know yet.. I am sure things will come out good for Challenge Copenhagen. Last year I was in much worse shape and managed to come up with a big result in Roth. Gonna get a blood test done this week to make sure iron levels etc are all in order and then stay on the program with eyes on the prize.

stay tuned.

Season in Full swing!!

admin — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:32:29 +0000

Well, the race seaon is in full swing over in Allemagne Magic-sportfood Team Crailsheim is off to a bloody good start. In the first round on the 9th we were able to take down the Heuchelbergers in the final leg of a supersprint relay (1stguy: 3kmrun, 7kmbike-3km run - tag 2nd guy: 300m swim-7km bike-3km run - tag 3rd guy - same as 2nd guy) for the win.. I was the fortunate soul who anchored us home but thanks to Super strong legs by Stefan Schmid who got us into 2nd, and Stefan Vuckovich (2000 Olympic Bronze medalist) who broke the field apart leaving only Heuchelberg in the same zip code. I underestimated the amount of pain this 20min-balls out effort would invoke on this overused bod.. 19 Ironman distance as of now in the legs and here I go one full out assault.. Anyway, it ended up good and I surely got a good training effect out of it. Both us and Heuchelberg were ecstatic about the outcome as my ex team Hansgrohe rolled in well behind in 3rd with team manager breathing fire in the stands!! hahahah

Anyway, due to some terrible weather and the bit of stress the week before (flight to england, with problems with the swiss customs, and a Treadmill test) I caught a nasty virus during the week and wasn’t able to do a lot of training. I came out alright this morning and lined up for round 2 of the LBS cup.. this being a Team Time Trial 1km-30km-8km where with staggered start based on last weeks result, each team 20sec apart. Our big Gun from Down Unda Aaron Farlow begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting is back in town and ready to fire, however Heuchelberg also upped there game as Sebastian Kienle (in my opinion the strongest rider in the sport at the moment.. incl. Lieto) which made it a little difficult for us… anyway, we were off first and two of our guys were a little off the pace in the swim and Heuchelberg AND hansgrohe-team were both able to swim past.. uhhhhh!!! or game plan of following the Kienle train (of course legally) on the bike was foiled as we stood there in transition waiting for our 4th and 5th man to arrice while H-berg rode off into the distance.. We were rolling tho.. I finally got my new Planet X Exocet TT bike on the rode, with a Lightweight prototype disc in the back… we ripped past Hangrohe team from a minute down 10km in and were holding the Kienle train in our sites.. We rolled into t2 almost 2min down but also had a good 90sec cushion behind so we were clear for 2nd. The best we could do despite a hard fought run was to close 20 sec on the Team Kienle but there was much celebration in the finish chute as once again Hansgrohe came in well behind well behind in 4th losing a few more points in the overall team tallies.

That’s 2 down and we are sitting even-steven on the charts with Heuchelberg so it is gonna be exciting late in June as rounds 3 and 4 are normal Olympic distance events. To follow the charts and results follow the link:
http://bwtv.nrds.de/upload/News995/FORST10_TEAMS_1Liga.pdf

l8r

Before round 2 I got some dirty work to do at Challenge Kraichgau and Niederbronn in early June.. getting up for those two but in the mean time, got to get some strenth work done the new TT.

First one under the belt.

admin — Sat, 01 May 2010 21:01:30 +0000

So got lined up for the Oberursel City Duathlon (also german du champs) this morning and really didn’t know what expect. Training has been good but we are still in the earlier phases of training so haven’t done much intense stuff… but my last lactate test was really good so thought I would have a go.
The race was, of course, 10km run, 40km bike and another 5km run…. The first run went off like rockets… the first 2km I was hurting but was at the back of the front bunch and was determined to hold them. I was doing the Whitfield and yo-yo-ing a bit the second half but managed to reach transition only a few seconds down.. I ripped the first few km’s on the bike and was on the back of the group again and safe (this was a drafting-legal race btw). So it was a group of 10 with most of the favourites on board the Kienle-Stadler express. And we were in for ride! The attacks started coming straightaway and my legs didn’t like it. I was hurting but also feeling stronger as we went. Each of the 4 bike laps had a dirty little climb and into the second lap Kienle really wound it up on the hill and 5 guys were straighaway off the back.. I was swinging like barn door but was still on. Then I left a small hole of maybe 5m but I was sure I could fill it as the hill flattens out for a bit and then goes up again.. so I tried for a short acceleration in the big gear but I must have put the pressure on the pedal at the wrong moment and I was stuck in the small gear.. ahhhhhhh!! I had to shift back and forth 2or3 times and by the time I was on it the hole was too big and hard I could ride, I couldn’t fill it anymore and had to let the train go.. The was the race.. the top 5 were up the road. So I regrouped with the other guys and tried to organize them but they were useless so I told Pupkes (at solid short course kid I know from cologne) to launch and attack and I would pick him up.. he went, I waited till he had about 25m, and then I attacked and picked him up.. and it worked, we left the others behind and were off sitting 6th and 7th and riding well together. That lasted another 15 km or so.. until we hit the hill for the last time and glanced back.. A group of 20 guys were about 50m down… totally unexpected.. and that ruined our chances and our energy completely.. there was no point pushing to stay away as they had 4-5 guys rotating well on the front so we retreated into the group and hoped for the best on the last 5km run. But my legs were hurting bad as I rode 15km balls out with attacks and another 15 swapping out solid with Pupkes while the other guys in the pack had a nice easy 40km sitting in so I ended up outside the top 10 and lost to a good bunch of guys who I had already dropped.. but you gotta expect that that can happen in drafting race sometimes.
At the end of the day, the form is good and things look great for june, where I have a bunch of important races after which it will be full-on for Copenhagen.

ripner

German DU Champs

admin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:52:39 +0000

Training has really been coming along soze I signed up for an early season tester. I have had some pretty good success against zee germans at there Championships in the past so I thought I would have a go again. It looks like Mr. Stadler is gonna race again so it will be a bit of a rematch from 2004 where I gunned him down on the second run.
Looking forward to firing up and seeing what the form is really like.

Will post the results straight after… keep posted.

Podcast with Krelli

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:20:31 +0000

Podcast with Triathlon.de

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:17:35 +0000

Training Camp 2

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:41:42 +0000

I am down in mallorca for the second big training camp of the year. We are staying in the sweet as Finca and conditions have been great. The kitchen crew have been cooking up a storm and we have had fabulous weather… apart from today of course. Riding has been really coming around the last few days and Susanne had me rip a 14km Mtn TT yesterday which went really well… 14km with 860m elevation and I ripped it in under 40min which is a good sign that I am getting some good bike legs. The Tricamp crew has been a lot fun and the Netzathleten.de guys added some good humour. Check out michael-krell.blogspot.com/ for a good video interview we did… although it is in German, of course.
Anyway, training is on schedule, the Dragster is coming into good form and will be ready for the first real show in Kraichgau in June where I will be taking down Michi Goehner in style. Plan is to bring back some of the snap from a few years back for the early season races and then to build it up for Challenge Copenhagen in Mid July.
adios

Rampin’ er up

admin — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:17:47 +0000

finished an 18 day stint in Fuerta Ventura and getting ‘er rolling! Had some beauty swim sessions.. all the ez technique training has really paid off…, a few reality check rides on the bike with Captain Kienle and Hell on Wheels. Running is going esp. well at the moment despite not doing much of it. I am cruising 400m repeats in 67 sec. and with a little more gas can pop 64’s which isn’t too shabby for an old geezer with 19 IM distance events under his belt. It feels really good to have that snap back in the legs and having done a lot of technique work I also feel more stable and powerful. Was able to win a local 10km run in the snow last weekend as well with 2:30 lead over the best local guy…. so watch out in the LBS cup this year to boys, cuz I will have some of my old short course form back and would be nice to add a few more wins to my tally.

I am back in Crails in the meantime but head down to mallorca soon to keep the ball rolling. Training is pretty laid back right now, being in between camps but definately hungry for few more hard weeks out there.

My bro and sin-in-law are the proud parents of Maddox John Dragstra which makes me an uncle once again and I look foward to seeing the little nipper in action at some point this year!

Also a shout out to my old buddy Dirk Bockel who has once again established himself as a major force to reckon with in long distance Triathlon with his 2nd place at the Abu Dhabi Triathlon last weekend in a stellar field!

that is all for now folks.. will try to keep these rolling and maybe link up a twitter account here.. have to talk to some techno peeps to try and hook that up!

Peace out!