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Challenge Roth – Germany 2009

After a day of packing and cleaning bikes it was finally time to head to Germany for the main focus of this European summer trip. It is always a little harder when you haven’t visited a particular place before to know exactly what to expect. The organisation had arranged a home stay for Elina and I and even that was somewhat of an unknown for us.

Arriving in Munich we picked up our rental car and headed out onto the autobahn to test out top speed – unfortunately, or maybe fortunately if you talk to Elina it topped out at 170kph but even then we were constantly being passed by cars that made us look like we were standing still.

Having forgotten to print a map of the area we relied on the road signs and some well calculated guesses and arrived at the Zupancic’s family home just outside of Roth, our base for the next week.

The next few days involved some reccies of the course, plenty of rest and general exploring of the town and area. One thing that quickly became apparent was how wrong my perceptions of how I thought the course would be. I’d wrongly assumed that the incredibly fast bike times were due to a very flat course and good surface but it didn’t take long to find out there was indeed a very fast road surface but there was also a fair amount of climbing throughout the course.

The course is characterised by seemingly quite short climbs and then very long downhill sections. I still haven’t worked out how for some reason you seem to spend most of the ride going downhill but given you start and finish each lap at the same elevation it must be balanced out somewhere. Compared to the roads in NZ the surface is amazing to ride on and has to be worth at least 1 kph.

Race day and it is a very early start to the day. My alarm went off at 3:45am, but it helps that the sun is starting to rise about 4:30am so it doesn’t feel quite so early. After downing the now obligatory few portions of creamed rice for breakfast there was time to program a few songs into a playlist on the Ipod to get me amped before the start and to block out any unwanted distractions.

While I got a chauffeured ride to the start thanks to Connie and Olaf, Elina headed out with the rest of the Zupancic family, Till and Michael on the MTB’s to avoid the congestion and to make getting around the vantage points easier throughout the day.

The start of the swim was fists and feet as usual – but after the initial clobbering I seemed to be going OK. I could see plenty of the brightly coloured caps around signifying some of the top pros so knew I couldn’t have been too far back. About 500m I started finding myself in the usual backwards drift towards the back of the pack and by the turn around I knew I must be getting pretty close to off the back.

Starting the return leg there were plenty of stern words to myself as I clung to the last pair of feet when all of a sudden the pace seemed to slow and now instead of hanging on I was having to slow down to avoid getting kicked in the teeth. The final 1500m were pretty relaxed for me considering my aversion to swimming and I even started to work my way up through the group. The highlight was spotting a bright yellow cap in the group which meant either Chrissie Wellington or Norman Stadler was in the same group.

I don’t wear a watch on the swim and there wasn’t a time clock that I could see as we exited the water but I was pretty happy with how it had gone. The yellow hat had belonged to Chrissie and they were announcing Stadler leaving the TA as we had entered so there was any chance gone to see firsthand just how quick he could go on the bike.

The crowds were lining the exit onto the bike and it was just a blur as I tried to get settled into a rhythm and set about catching up to some of the better swimmers. A time split was called out at 4 minutes to the front which meant things had definitely gone well so far.

There were plenty of people to chase over the first few kilometres and I passed Gina about 10km into the ride and soon after a bunch started to form. There was a massive difference in both riding styles and pacing as some guys would come flying through and sit up on the hills, others would work up to the front on the hills and then seem to disappear on the down hills and flats only to reappear at the next hill. It’s fair to say the bunch was snot making life more efficient at all, probably the opposite really with the pace all over the show.

For the whole of our first lap we had our own private draft buster who was pretty good at roving through our group of about 10 riders and making sure everyone was keeping good distance. The one exception was on the up hills where the officials seemed pretty happy for riders to be abreast of each other or very close together. I found myself getting recirculated to the back of the group each time as someone would come past and then slot in front of me, so I’d drop back and keep the distance and then it would just keep repeating. It was quite frustrating as it meant a lot more work to get back near the front of the group once we were rolling along on the flat again and the bunch was strung right out

The morning was reasonably cool and although I wasn’t feeling cold my legs didn’t seem to have much power in them and when the pace was really on I was just hanging in there. The roads back in towards Hilpoltstein where the race starts were super fast and there is one descent where we were approaching 90kph. There are also several tight turns on the section and I could smell my brake pads burning and began to hope that there would still be enough of them left for the 2nd lap.

Soon enough we approached the climb at Solar – one point of the course that I’d heard more about than anything else. I wasn’t disappointed. We hit the first of the crowds still on the flat and as we turned onto the climb all you could see was a mass of colour where thousands of people had gathered to cheer on all the athletes.

There was just a small gap that opened as we approached, ala tour de France style and the noise was deafening. The climb is about 500 metres long at the most and not particularly steep but the buzz from going through there almost gave the whole group wings I think and once out the top the hurt was on big time. Luckily my legs had started to respond, whether it was the day warming up or the incredible lift from the crowds I don’t know but it was not a moment too soon as the pace was now noticeably higher.

The first indication we were near the end of the lap was when we crossed over the cannel at the far end of the swim course, it was a mass of white water seemingly filled from end to end and side to side with people still swimming. Then a minute or so later we came around for the start of the second lap we encountered almost a continuous line of athletes heading out on their first lap.

Luckily there was in most cases quite a speed disparity and so we were able to weave our way through the course without too much trouble but it was very hard to see where everyone had got too.

With about 30km to go we finally caught up with most of the first swim group that we’d been chasing since the start. Reigning Roth champion Patrick Vernay, Thomas Hellriegel and Tim Berkel were among the pack. The pace was briefly slowed by another surreal but rather more crowded trip up the Solar Berg and think it was somewhere in here that a few guys managed to get away off the front, among them eventual champion Michael Göhner.

I have to admit at this stage I was wondering how I was going to fair on the run, I was feeling good but the surging and hills had definitely not made the ride easy, not to mention the fact we were still averaging over 40kph.

It was a relief to finally split off the man course and head for the transition, up ahead I could see the guys that had managed to get a jump earlier and somehow I’d managed to do the same to the rest of the group although I’m not really sure where. I was catching up pretty quickly and hit transition just behind German legend Thomas Hellriegel.

I was now in about 8th place – roughly 10 minutes behind Norman Stadler who had ridden a phenomenal 4:14 Bike split to start the run with about a 6 minute lead over Aussie Pete Jacobs.

In the 3 races I’ve now done I’ve always been amazed at how quickly you can run straight off the bike, maybe the legs are just so used to going round fast from the bike but whatever it was a very nice surprise to look at my GPS watch and see my pace at 3:30 as we headed down the small hill away from the transition. It quickly slowed though as I passed a couple of people and made my way up the hill towards the cannel.

About a km from the cannel Patrick Verney caught me up. Last year Patrick ran away from everyone so I just tried to stay relaxed and ran stride for stride with him. Going through the crowds the noise was mind blowing and the kilometres were just ticking by. I was keeping an eye on our pace and noticed it was dropping slightly. I was feeling pretty good and in keeping with my pre race decision to give it everything I accelerated slightly and incredibly started pulling away from Patrick.

There were another two competitors up ahead in the distance and I set off in pursuit. One of the great things about the course is there are quite a number of turn-a-rounds where you can see how far behind or in front you are, but also the crowd gets a very good indication and they were just going nuts whenever it was getting close to another competitor.

I caught up with the next two guys just before the halfway point, about the time the energy was flagging a bit but each time you passed through a crowd you got a lift and as we made a short detour away from the cannel and through the crowds I got some splits to the lead. It was apparent I was taking some good amounts of time out of Stadler but the amount was quite different depending on who I listened too! I heard 3, 4, 5 and 6 minutes all in the space of about 100 metres. Whatever the actual time was I was now in 4th and it gave me renewed motivation to try and haul in at least one more place.

Back on the cannel I could hear as the guys in front went through each drink station as the crowds erupted in cheers. They still seemed a long way off but as each km ticked by the support got more and more enthusiastic and the splits got smaller – although still somewhat random. I got a real kick when Faris Al Sultan yelled some encouragement and said I was catching Stadler fast and I was able to up the tempo just a touch again.

At the last turn-a-round I first saw Michael Göhner and then Pete Jacobs come through, Michael especially looking very strong. I was probably only 400m from the turn when Norman came past in the opposite direction and it gave me huge motivation to keep the pace up. It was now down to about 3 minutes and now I really thought there was a chance to catch him. It was also still very close behind me with Raynard Tissink, Patrick Venay and Olaf Sabastschus all within a few minutes.

As I arrived back on the cannel for the final time I could see Norman now only a few hundred metres ahead and the gap seemed to be closing fast. With about 6 km to go I went past into third which was incredible. I was a little worried about having some cramps in the last few km’s and was also very concerned Stadler would be able to pick the pace up or someone would come through late in the race from behind so I was giving it everything for the last 4 km’s, and having a pretty regular check over the shoulder – not that I could see much for the crowds of runners and spectators.

Running into the triathlon park there was a long chute there were just so many people and the once into the stadium it was just mind blowing. I could see Pete Jacobs just finishing with a big Aussie flag and as I finally ran through the finish banner I could see the race clock reading 8:02 – Holy cow – how did that happen!

Stadler and Vernay had a sprint finish for 4th with Norman just taking it. The atmosphere at the finish line was great, and it was pretty funny as they had no idea about who I was. One announcer hadn’t turned his microphone off and was heard asking someone “who the f#@k is Richard Ussher?”

The day was still a long way from over with 2 hours in doping control, then media. We also made it back down to the finish for the final couple of hours to see the last of the athletes coming in and the fireworks at the end. Was great to see so many kiwis there and the support from everyone was extremely humbling.

So all in all, an unbelievable trip.

A huge thanks has to go the Zupancic family, Michael, Connie, Till, Olaf and Heiner for their amazing hospitality and information about the race, Michael also took hundreds of pictures of the race for us and some are attached, so another big thank you.

Also to the race organiser Felix who took a bit of punt to even allow me to secure a spot at reasonably late notice.

Now it’s time for a little R&R and maybe see if I can still stay upright in a kayak

Thanks also to all of our Sponsors who make things like this possible and to everyone who follows our adventures and offers support in many different ways