Pre-event press release, Winter Triathlon World Cup, Nove Mesto

Tricky conditions are expected for tomorrow´s Winter Triathlon race in Nove Mesto. After the snowfall of this morning, some rain showers surprised both the organisers and athletes - the course had to be prepared once more to guarantee good conditions for the competitiors.

49 men and 17 women registered for tomorrow´s competition, among them local favourite Patrik Kuril, Sigi Bauer from Austria, current European Champion Sigrid Lang from Germany, silver medalist Marianne Vlasfeld from the Netherlands and youngster Carina Wasle from Austria. A very tight match is expected at the men´s race, with lots of Czech and Slovakian athletes in the favourites´ circle, while it´s gonna be quite tough to beat the Lang-Vlasfeld-Wasle trio at the women´s competition, if they can repeat their tremendous performance from the European Championships in Freudenstadt.

Most of the athletes arrived earlier this week to have more time to prepare for the race. A training session was set up today to practice on the race course, afterwards it had to be prepared once again due to the unexpected rain showers later on. As race organiser Jirka Chalupa explained at the technical briefing at 7 PM, there won´t be any changes in the 3-lap running course (7 kilometres) and the 10 kilometres long ski course, but the 4-lap bike course might be shortened for tomorrow because melting snow makes it impossible to ride some parts of it.

The weather forecast reports some more snow for tomorrow, but there is a chance for some rain showers around noon as well: to tell the trouth, that wouldn´t make it easier for the athletes to race this already difficult course…

So let´s hope that the athletes, spectators and organisers get lucky with the weather tomorrow to have another fantastic competition in the Winter Triathlon World Cup series!

12th of February 2005, Nove Mesto, Czech Republic