Page 44 - Trimax_mag166_UK

CHALLENGE

hours). Finishing in 7:59:07 hours
he was the only athlete in the
3,400 strong individual field to go
under the eight hour mark.

“We had a really close field on the
men’s side and this showed in the run
where there were quite a few position
changes. I surprised myself a little
bit – I am not the best swimmer and
I was alone on the bike most of the
time and I felt the headwind quite a
lot. They say Roth is a fast race – it’s
not that fast! It’s not flat and today
it was quite windy. I know a lot is
possible in the run – it’s long and
hard, especially with the new course.
I had to be patient at the beginning
and then took the risk and pushed at
the halfway point to get the lead and
made it to the finish line. I’m always
looking for great race and I think it’s
going to be hard to find a better race
now than this one!”

While not the fastest race, it
was certainly exciting. Before
the 33-year-old Belgian took the
lead, Nils Frommhold looked
certain to regain his number one
position but a crash with another
competitor at 160km put paid to
this. While it didn’t destroy him,
it did break his handlebars and he
was out of the race.

Frommhold’s bad luck also
benefitted long distance rookie,
Maurice Clavel (GER), who went
from second to first and even
extended his lead during the first
kilometres of the run. However
from the 20km mark it showed
that a middle distance champion
does not automatically become a
long distance champion, at least

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