So, one big one is under the belt. I did this race to get a good indication of my level and show what kind of form I have. Unfortunately, this race turned out to be one where it is hard to judge one’s performance by the result I had a pretty good swim and got going on the bike. I got off a little slow but found my rhythm and started moving well. After the first turnaround I sitting aroud 10th but then soon saw a group of around 12 guys riding really tight together only about a minute back, which included a bunch of guys who I had already dropped. Inevitably they caught me around 45km. I went straight back to the front to avoid drafting and to keep the speed up and then soon realized the guys were no happy with there position, and having noticed that there were no drafting penalties given out despite the tight riding, they were all content to sit around for the rest of the ride and save their legs. It felt like i was back in the ITU races and wanted to push to the front but had to drag the posers with. Some of the guys were relatively legal but some were certainly taking advantage of the situation. Then with 10km to go a group caught us from behind who had thrown legality completely into the wind and were practically riding a paceline. I chased these guys into t2 and got off running in about 20th spot. The ’sitters’ took off like it was in fact an ITU race and I was left behind trying to find a rhythm. At this point I wasn’t too much in despair and was quite sure to pick them off in the last 10km. I later realised that i had in fact rode much harder than these guys and simply didn’t have the legs to bring them back. I didn’t feel great the entire run but part of it was frustration and dissapointment and came into the finish 12th. I was not the 12th best athlete even despite a lackluster race and am pretty dissapointed that athletes are willing to so blatantly cheat. There is an honor rule in our sport that has to be upheld and I think that in a race like this a special set of rules need to be made to uphold the rules. Once packs form, they will become tighter and tighter unless there are penalties given and the groups are broken up and some fear is instilled in the riders.
The race was quite a show for a first time event and to be able to hold it in such a location was pretty amazing. I think some things can’t be foreseen and the Spanish Draftbusters didn’t know where to look. They could have penalized 90% of the field but what good would that have done? I think Torbjorn Sindballe has the best idea that within the first 30min on the bike 30sec to 1min penalties should be given out to ANYONE who is too close, no warning, no nothing. This would inhibit the groups from forming and would also put some fear into the athletes.

I know the Challenge race directors were shocked by how the race unfolded and are already working on ways to make these races fair. I think another option for the the Full distance race in October is to send us into the hills and loop it around and then back to Callela on the coast. That would also help to sort out the posers straight away.

What do I do now?? Put it behind me and keeping working toward the my goal race at Challenge Roth. I have a few weeks off from and then will try again at Challenge Kraichgau. This is a tough bike course and will be a better chance for me to show my stuff.

Magic-Sportfood Team Crailsheim was back at it this morning trying to back up the strong performance at the season openner last week. Today was a TEAM race. Based on current stanings, the teams start every 20sec, in time trial format, and swim, ride and run as team. Such a cool idea! There should be more of this kind of thing going on in triathlon. So we lost some time already in the swim because a few of our guys are still a bit off on that leg, but they went alright and we’d only been passed by one team (unfortunately, my x-team Hansgrohe). We got riding pretty well but never a found a good rhythm and didn’t catch the leaders and actually got caught two more team (one of which was the new bike powerhouse Sebastian Kienle’s team who had started almost 2min behind, youch!) A few of our boys took off on the run at a mad pace and I was struggling. This is our team’s forte and the boys wanted to show it. I got my legs under me after 2 or 3kms and was able to keep up with out having to be pushed from behind by the others. We certainly ripped the fastest run time but was only good enough for forth. Not bad though, as we are still sitting 2nd in the overall stanings and have 3 Olympic distance races to go. I think we might give Hansgrohe a bit of a scare yet!!
For me, it was a good tune up for next weekend. These races are for training and for fun (and that they), although winning them makes them more fun, I have to keep on the big picture. Timo Bracht was at the event as well and he will be one of the favourites next week at the inaugural Challenge Barcelona and I could sense some fear in him during our short exchange (That’s right buddy, I can sense these things, hahahh) . This will be a true test of my current form and am very much looking forward to it. My pink Planet X is getting me around at good speeds and I am feeling better swimming and running than I ever have.
Later!
EVENT PIX: follow link -> http://www.flickr.com/photos/67071781@N00/sets/72157618280492195/

And we are off!! Magic-sportfood.de team was on a mission today. We strengthenned our team with ‘New Guy’ and the goal was to improve to top 3 in the league and maybe pick up a team win along the way. The LBS cup has gone crazy by the way, hence the blog title. The top 4 athletes were all foreigners!! This was a sprint race in TimeTrial format: staggered starts and NO DRAFTING!! Thanks to the Waiblingers (the club organizing the race) the bike course was completely closed and good for time trial, lot of room and long rolling hills. I was to start 20sec behind our top gun Aaron Farlow who has been drilling it already this year. I somehow made some time up on him on the swim and thought I might pick him up on the bike… Was not to happen.. Aaran ripped through the entire field and won the event with almost a minute gap on 2nd place. I just tried too keep him and sight as well as Michael Goehner (2nd IM South Africa 09) who started 1min20sec ahead of me. I split him around 1min ahead somewhere on the run and knew I had him. I didn’t really know how I was doing other than that but assumed if I was beating Mr. Goehner I was in good company. I kept er pinned and was stoked to find out I came away with 3rd overall, having ripped one of the best bike splits on my pink Planet X and held strong with some revived leg speed on the run for one of the best splits there too. ‘New guy’ came through with a solid result for his first start for our team finishing somewhere around 15th. Then, to add to the excitement, the live ticker revealed to us a few minutes later when our 4th man came through that we’d won as a team!! I will tell you what.. these races are just training for most of us but to compete as a team and win together (especially as an underdog team) is nonetheless a cool feeling… sends me back to my Calvn College XC days.
In summation I am super stoked with my own performance. Holding off some of germany’s best young talent in a sprint race is more than I can expect to pull off as a long distance athlete. I have improved all 3 legs from last year and as I heap on the strength training the next few weeks I am going to do some awesome racing in the next 2 months.

Next stop is LBS Cup in Forst.