The competition

This year’s edition of the Ironman World Championship starts at 6.45 am local time with some 140 professional triathletes, women and men together. For each category there are only 3 spots on the podium and I want to take one of these spots. In order to finish in the top-three, I will have to fight at least some 10 other podium candidates.
If you will follow the race live on http://www.ironmanlive.com/ , then you can watch my most important competitors together with me. I will give you 5 names , not in any specific order.
- Faris Al-Sultan: winner of edition 2005, super swimmer, excellent biker, good runner.
- Cameron Brown: All-rounder with excellent running capabilities.
- Norman Stadler: Winner of the 2004 edition, Moderate swimmer, super biker.
- Chris McCormack: Most complete triathlete of today, but he has not found the correct formula for Hawaii up to now.
- Marino Vanhoenacker: colleague from Belgium, could surprise after a very strong season.
My personal favorite is Faris Al-Sultan. Everybody thinks he will be under a tremendous stress, as the winner of last year, but I fully disagree with that. During this morning’s press-conference, I saw a very relaxed Faris. For him nothing is a must, every new victory is an add-on.

Some information about the race:
Race Date: Saturday October 21
Starting time of the Pro Men and Women: 6.45 pm Brussels time
Start Age groupers: 7 pm Brussels time
Bib Number Rutger: 4
Bib Number Stijn Demeulemeester: 28
Live info on http://www.ironmanlive.com/
We will also update this blog with the latest information during the race: http://rutgerbeke.blogspot.com/