Race report Challenge France, Niederbronn

The race in Niederbronn-les-bains was the first Challenge event in Europe, aside from Quelle Challenge Roth.
For a race that was organized for its first time, I must say that everything went quite smoothly. Of course there were some little problems, but I am convinced that Guy Hemmerlin (the race director) will solve all these by next year. The Pro athletes were well looked after, so I most probably will put next year’s event on my calendar again.
About my race itself: very shortly, the swim was moderate, the biking ok and the running moderate too.
Now a more elaborate version:
I started quite well in the water, but after 400m, I had to let the better swimmers go. The rest of the swim, I was all alone and hence lost quite some time. Once on the bike, I immediately had a good feeling. I moved into the third position quickly. After 60km, I almost got Twelsiek, who was second at that time. He biked some 20 seconds in front of me, but suddenly I saw him standing at the side of the road with a flat tire. Hence, I came into the transition zone in second position behind an untouchable Chabaud. The run consisted of two tough laps, basically 2km flat, then 4km uphill and finally 4km downhill. The downhill was very spectacular, with certain pieces going down by more than 10%. I started running more than 4 minutes after Chabaud. I felt immediately that I was only able to run at a constant pace. Accelerating was only a far dream. Rather than gaining on Chabaud, I lost more and more time on him. So I finished 2nd, some 6 minutes behind him.
My own evaluation: I still have quite some work to do, if I want to qualify for Hawaii in 4 weeks during Ironman Nice.

Regards,
Rutger Beke