Welcome to Kona
EuroCycler and Skinfit USA will arrive in Kona on Tuesday, October 11th and I’ll give you daily updates with photos from the race preparations. We hope to share many inside stories with you through this forum. And then of course, we will be all over the race on Saturday to follow our head coach and Skinfit athlete Olaf Sabatschus on what might be his last Kona appearance after more than ten years of triathlon racing. At the same time, we’ll check-in with some of our EuroCycler guests who participated in our training camps, are coached by Olaf, and now race as age groupers at the World Championship. And we will also try to see how many athletes are already racing in Skinfit apparel. As a side note, you will see at least the two Germans Alexander Taubert (last year 4th) and Olaf Sabatschus (last year 13th) from Europe in Skinift gear, and several more athletes from the USA.
Guess where this race preparation was earlier this year....
If you are interested in the Triathlon Training Camps we offer 2006, please click here. Details about the Spain camps in March and April are already on the website. Our head-coach for triathletes with be Olaf Sabatschus of Germany.
But now, back to Kona: Of interest to the general audience is probably what the elite field does. If I can get hold of Olaf during his race preparation, I will get him to share his insights and knowledge about the contenders on this forum. Until then, I will try to get the news from the Kona scene as I experience it. Here we start, still at home at the US-East Coast, on a rainy Sunday, Oct. 9th:
The women’s elite field? Well, let’s not talk too much about Natascha. We all know that at 38 a women’s IM-career is far from over but Natascha knows that she is everyone’s target. Lori Bowden became a mother a few weeks ago so she will be missing in the start line-up.
Let’s have a look at Natascha’s contenders:
Kate Major, third last year, skipped Lake Placid to heal stress fracture from Arizona
Michellie Jones, coached by Paula-Newby Frazer
Karin Thuerig, two-time World Time Trial Champion, won IM-Switzerland
Heather Fuhr, great results this year, trained with Kate Major to keep her edge
Belinda Granger, trained with Heather and Kate and Michellie
Joanna Zeiger, won Ironman Brazil
Lisa Bentley, better rested than in previous years
Joanna Lawn, won IM-New Zealand
Virginia Berasategui Luna, Lanzarote
Rebecca Preston, IM-UK
The above is my personal watch-list. There might be new faces that were less in the spotlight in the past. But if you ask about my prediction, I rather go by nations then names, and being Swiss, I believe the Swiss will bring home a double – first and second. However, it’s hard to say who will be first, my instincts say Karin Thuerig.
And then there are the men:
The main question is probably: how much will Norman Stadler lead after the bike split. Last year it was 21 Minutes. As we know, this is more than enough to crush the rest of the field. Peter Reid trailed him for the whole race and ran 11 minutes faster than Stadler, only to come in second at the end. Conclusion: If you can’t quite keep up with Stadler’s bike, you better be an extraordinary runner. Olivier Bernhard ran 2:41 a few years ago which is faster than Reid’s run last year, but that wouldn’t have shaken Stadler either.
Here is my watch-list
Peter Reid, only if he can get the bike within 10 minutes of Norman
Faris Al Sultan, another German with fast cycling legs, and he runs faster than Norman
Raynard Tissink, won two IM titles this year
Torbjorn Sindballe, very strong biker
Tim DeBoom, won Kona twice, very experienced, probably has a secret tactic for the marathon
Tom Evans, won two races last year
Rutger Beke, from Belgium, strong overall, can mess-up the German party
Mitchell Anderson, great at IM-Switzerland
Cameron Brown, five times New Zealand Champ
Olivier Bernhard, the last Kona race of his career, does he still have it for the run?
Alexander Taubert, 6th on the bike and 3rd on the run last year, another German powerhouse
Olaf Sabatschus, one of the most experienced in the field, won Brazil 04 and 05, third at IM-UK, completes the impressive field of German athletes
Chris McCormack, went to Kona early to get used to the heat
Simon Lessing, strong as usual, but did he digest Canada five weeks ago?
Again, my prediction is not by names, it’s by countries. That seems to be relatively easy with that many strong Germans in the field. So I say Germany makes the top two spots, one of them will be Norman, and the other is either Faris or Alexander.
Arrival...some earlier...some later...Tuesday, Oct. 11
Well, getting to Hawaii from the East Coast is not easy - it's not just around the corner. And when you fly coach, bring plenty of food and drinks, there is no longer free service. That was a hard lesson and I am still recovering.
Arrival on Kona with a small propeller plane from Maui. Most important thing, my bike is on the luggage cart. Thanks to everybody who made sure it arrived with me.
Kona, as well as Maui a couple hours earlier, are real out-door places. Baggage claim is just under one large roof, so are the other airport installations. No windows, all is open - you feel the fresh Hawaiian breeeeeeeeze.
On the way to the hotel you can see several IM-athlets in training.
Nice sunset, by the way.
After a pasta dinner with some German athletes, we watched Elbir's slide show of a German castle.
It's all still quite relaxed. From the pro to the age-grouper.
From left: Bobby, Randee, Elbir and Olaf
Besides all that, we also saw the end of the parade of the athletes, the race village with representation of all the IronmMans venues (or most of it) and then at 10 PM the village was almost dead. Hey, IM go to bed early.
Wednesday, October 12
Wake up early man, get used to a being in the Ocean by 7 AM! The world championship is coming up soon, no reason to sleep in.
Eearly morning, the view from the balcony of the Kona Seaside Hotel down to the pier with the finish line, the transition and the water start.
Not much action yet at 6:30 AM.
In front of the hotel early morning, almost more bikes than guests....
At 7 AM sharp, the pier area starts to fill with athletes. They drop off their pack pack....and...
....test the ocean for an easy swim....
....and head out the actual race cours which is already marked.
After about an hour or so, one gets breakfast, chills out, adds in a smooth bike ride or maybe a swim and just socializes or relaxes. It's almost like vacation. Some of course, are quite intense. They lock themself into the hotel room and only show for some workouts. Then they go back to their room and try to focus on Saturday.
Olaf and I went on a bike ride and later I met Bobby and Randee at their hotel where we enjoyed lunch at the beach. Francois should come in today and tomorrow we have a casual breakfast meeting with some of the Skinfit athletes at 8:30 AM. See you then.
Tuesday, October 13th
Rules change? Not everybody is happy at the moment, particularly the pros. We will get more information and keep you in the loop. An update should come later this evening, after meeting several addational athletes.
Later, from Kona.
Here we are again, it's 10:30 PM Kona time, this time more copy, the pics are at the end.
The training routine was similar to the one from pervious days. Easy workouts, no extra stress, everybody is tapering. The pier was packed again with plenty of swimmers as of 7 AM, and the Underwear-IronMan race took place at 8 AM. That is a fun run in which competitors are dressed in undies only or just wear minimum coverage of certain bodyparts. Despite these fun little events, there seems to be a certain anxiousness to have set in. The small talk is reduced, and after the undie run the area did not see many athletes anymore.
The big surprise was the announcement of the rule change which bothered several professional athletes, particularly the ones who are not in the lead pack of swimmers swimmers but strong cyclists.
The distance between bikers is now measured differently. It’s no more 10 meters between two bikes from nose to nose, it’s now 7 meters from the rear wheel to the front wheel. Well, this adds up to pretty much the same distance than before - at least for age-groupers. The rule for elites is 5 meters - and this comes very close to drafting.
But really new is the passing rule. What used to be a 15 second limit to pass a rider is now a 20 second limit, the attempt to pass can be stopped and the rider can drop back again. This means that someone that comes from behind can suck wheel and then drop out of the drafting zone. Then he can start a next attempt to pass, staying as much as 20 seconds in the drafting zone before dropping back.
This is seen by many athletes as an almost draft legal race and it comes close to what we know from ITU Olympic distance races. That means for a professional athlete that is not really an individual’s race anymore. Tactics change to the extent that the ones who come out of the water in the lead pack will have a massive advantage over the second group leaving the water. The second pack has hardly a chance to move up to the lead group unless they organize a team effort and agree on drafting off each other. At the same time, the lead group can exclude one or another athlete by letting him lead all the time and then pass him when he is exhausted. These sort of tactics are well known from the peloton in road cycling. The question is, can some of the main contenders build a team around them to get support? Or do they all wait for someone to take the lead and then suck on one racer?
Because of that new rule I believe that we will not see a race like last year anymore when Norman crushed everybody with his amazing bike split. The only chance for such a strong cyclist to win is to race fast enough for others not be able to draft off him and hope that the chasers don’t organize a structured team effort to catch him. It is known that drafting can safe as much as 30% of energy, even when it is only 20 seconds at a time.
Conclusion: The new rules will reduce the chances of an individual who is an outstandingly strong bicyclist to win the race. It might boil down to being in the lead group for the swim, protecting yourself on the bike as long as possible and then go all out on the run with the energy that was saved during the bike split. Neither the athletes nor the sport has that experience so we are likely to see new tactics of long-distance triathlon.
That is the Kona pier under construction...what eventually will become the grand stands and the finish line.
Discussing the new rules with the photographer from InsideTriathlon Magazine
Food buffet on the Body Glove. Body Glove is a boat. This evening we were invited to the Sunset Cruise by Inside Triathlon Magazine.Thank you very much Kyle and Lars.
The probably largest Pasta Party under the sky. With lots of very inspiring presentations by IronMan.
Friday, October 14, 2005
The day before the race. Morning as usual, lots of construction down by the pier and the roads around it are closed down to motorized traffic. More and more IM-staff is running around. Many athletes used that last morning for another swim in the ocean. Bike check-in is later this afternoon, we will get news from there.
Overcast yesterday, nice and blue today. The swim start down by the pier, not as croweded as during perivious days.
Chit-chatting with race-buddies. Here a bunch of Germans.
You can hear languages from all over the world. And believe me, these athletes are all really fit.
Yup, it's dangerous. There is that big yellow sign in the middle of the crowd that nobody respects.
....DANGER....
do not swim near pier...
Tomorrow we will have 1,800 athletes doing exatly this.
Olaf lining up for check-in. His bib number is 13, a lucky 13.
Everybody racked in. We are looking at over 6 Million Dollars worth of bicycles.
Saturday, October 15, 2005: RACEDAY ON HAWAII
A day as usual for an IronMan: get up at 4 AM, eat and move down to the start area. Let's not go into further details, we all know the drill.
I got up at 5 AM and positoned myself with video and photocamera all over the place. It was a gorgeous day. Quite hot, but not humid, and not a lot of wind. Sunny all day - well, I got sunburned.
We know already that Faris and Natasha won, so my predictions were 50% correct. Olaf was not happy with the rule change and decided to simply enjoy the day and take it as a good race practice. He finished 44th in 8:57 and crossed the finish-line together with Jason Shortis from Australia. The race is still going on as we speak, Randy and Bobby are now most likely on the return from the EnergyLab to Kona town. The winner, Faris Al-Sultan from Germany, told us that he still had some potential. The only problem was that he did not get enough to eat and drink. Why? Because he approached most food stations as the first athlete and the staff was not expecting him yet. So he woke them all up to make sure his contenders behind him had the supplies handed out. During the race we met many EuroCycler guests and Skinfit athletes. Here are the first few photos of the day:
Very, very early morning in Kona: The sun just about to rise, the race clock still on zero.
IronSpectators:Dan and Takami, EuroCycler guests from this year's Tour de France. Dan also raced at EagleMan 05 in just over 4 hours.
Faris on the way back to Kona. Here he has about a 3 minute lead, mile-point 72.
Olaf, about 20 minutes behind Faris, about 7 minutes behind the lead-pack.
Not a happy camper.
Natasha, in aero-position also in the uphills.
Andrea, German Champion, on her first Kona race.
Olaf Sabatschus and Jason Shortis, AUS, running across the line together.
Nobody is to young to be a volounteer, and it would not work without them. A big THANK YOU to all of them.
Randee and Bobby cross the line well under 16 hours, accompanied by their families.
YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
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