A weekend of racing came to Weyer, a beautiful town in Steyr-Land, Austria. With mixed team relays, Age Group and Elite races it was a busy weekend and a weekend with highs and lows in the weather.
On the Friday the Mixed Relays opened the festivities with a dominant Team GB taking gold. With Georgina Schwiening setting off first, to be followed by GB’s top Elite Phil Wylie, then top-ranked Katie Hewison and the final leg to Danny Russell, it was domination from the first steps. Schwiening was Junior World Champion in the 2013 Ottawa Duathlon and took silver in the Worlds in the next category, U-23 in Pontevedra this year. She has pace and showed the other athletes who was in charge. Wylie, racing now for more than a decade, has always shown promise and held the lead for the Brits. Hewison has had a pretty miserable season so far with DNFs and low ranking but in the mixed relay she pulled a great performance out of the hat and showed her readiness for the Elite race later in the weekend. Russell has raced well as an Age Grouper and it was left to him to hold onto the lead. This he did to take Team GB to a well-deserved gold. Netherlands took silver and Austria bronze.
The mixed team relay for the Juniors saw a strong performance by Italy to take gold. Their team was led by Federica Parodi with Marco Corrà, Cecilia D’Aniello and Riccardo Natari. All would later race the individual Junior event. They were up against an Austrian team of Hannah Moser who, as an Age Group athlete had won European gold in Kitzbühel. She was assisted by Michael Singer, fresh from the ITU World Cross Championships in Zittau. The weather there was good preparation for racing in Weyer. Vivien Ploner and Marcel Pachteu, both having shown good strength in recent races made up the team.
The relays over, the opening ceremony finished and on the Saturday the weather turned. For the juniors it was wet and cold and not at all nice. The rain did not dampen their determination to race and to win and despite the storm some great performances were seen. Junior men and women took the start line together. The course was a multi-lap 5k to begin, then 3 laps for the 20k bike and a final sprint of 2.5k.
GB athletes Richard Allen and George Goodwin stuck close together for the first run with German Maximilian Zeus slipping into T1 in 3rd place. Just behind them were seven athletes running in close formation. Amongst them was the Italian Marco Corrà who had raced in the relays and clearly knew the terrain but it was Goodwin, current British Junior Duathlon champion who had the pace on the run to take the gold and to do so as a special present for his family who were celebrating a birthday that very day. Zeus took silver and Corrà bronze. He later said, “The race was good and the Organisation the best! The weather wasn't the best out on the bike course. It was dangerous on the turns but the race went really good! It was beautiful to get an ETU podium, it was a perfect day for me!”
In the junior women’s race there was a battle between Federica Parodi (ITA) who led the race but had SVK athlete Ivona Miklóšová challenging her throughout. Austria’s Hannah Moser took bronze. After the race Parodi was thrilled, “I'm so happy and satisfied to have won this race! I didn't expect to win. I couldn’t believe it until I crossed the finish line. The weather wasn't good but fortunately the race was organised very well. The course was difficult but I like it. Weyer is a great city with mountains and I hope to come back.” Ivona Miklóšová was also very pleased with her performance, “I didn't expect to be second in the European Championship in Weyer so I'm very happy for it. For the first 5 km run I didn't feel very well, because it was cold and raining. The bike felt quite difficult because the road was slippery and hilly. The organisers were very willing to help us when we needed something. Weyer is in Steyr-Land ... a great place for training on the bike and run.”
The Age Group athletes had more rain to deal with on the Sunday morning but this cleared up in time for the Elite to enjoy more or less perfect conditions, albeit some caution was still needed out on the bike. In the women’s race there was strong local interest in the legendary Andrea Mayr. Holder of the Austrian national records for marathon and half marathon and current World Mountain Running Champion her run pace was clear but would she be able to ride as well? The last time we had seen her race on the circuit was back in Geel at the World Duathlon Championships in 2004. A fourth place showed she was good then but time can play games. Katie Hewison, GBR, had shown strength on the Friday in the relays and they together would be up against the French athlete Sandra Levenez who just happens to be the current World Duathlon Champion as well as part of the winning relay team at the Worlds. This was going to be a real battle. Three athletes clocked 34:16 for the first run. Hewison, Levenez and the Italian Sara Dossena. Mayr was a few seconds adrift but comfortably ahead of the next athlete. Hewison and Levenez commanded the bike. The local support for Mayr, who rode the entire 42k in no-man’s land, grew as she entered T2. Once out onto the run she began to eat up the final 5k run. Her pace was good enough to topple Levenez and to take silver with gold going to Hewison. The U-23 event took place alongside the Elite and it was GBR’s Georgina Schwiening who took command early on in the run and then had to fight on the bike, losing valuable minutes to Pien Keulstra from the Netherlands. A final push on the run was enough to take her to gold, a good time that secured a 6th place overall in the race.
For the men there were so many top athletes to choose from. So much depth and strength in run/bike/run racing that apart from the obvious favourite from Belgium, Rob Woestenborghs, there was also Nicolas Benoit who headed the rankings, Phil Wylie who had raced well in the relays and also from Belgium was Glen Laurens. A swim start is always exciting but in Duathlon the tension that builds up on the start line, the tiny movements to get to just the right position; all these things make it a great thing to watch closely.
With dry weather and glorious sunshine the men set off. From the moment they set off it was impossible to predict who was going to take the title. A blisteringly fast 10k by Benoit saw him establish a lead of almost 20 seconds but with the tough bike and second run would this be enough ? On his heels were Wylie and Woestenborghs but also there was the young Dane Peter Østergaard, who races for Odense. He and Wylie were running sub 30-minute 10ks. Were they going to be too strong for the Belgian? Could they beat the Frenchman ?
Out on the bike and it was a master-class of riding as Woestenborghs pulled away and then secured his title on the run. “Nicolas was fast on the first run. It was quite difficult to stay with him but once out on the bike and it all went well for me,” said Woestenborghs. “It’s wonderful to have a race in such beautiful landscape. In the first lap on the bike I tried to break away but only managed it in the second. From then on I gave it all and just hoped that in the final lap of the run they wouldn’t overtake me. Obviously, that worked!” Benoit had to settle for silver and Wylie took bronze. A fast-finishing Østergaard took 4th, having missed the Elite podium but winning the U-23 title. “After the third bike lap I was in second place. I was not surprised when Benoit overtook me. He is an amazingly strong opponent. I was however surprised that Phil Wylie had such pace. I am European U-23 Champion and absolutely thrilled !”
Many thanks to John Raadschelders (Mr Powerman) and © PHOTO PLOHE for the images.
Age Group Medals were won predominantly by Austrian athletes on home soil. With 12 Gold, 11 Silver and 13 Bronze they dominated the medal table. The usually strong British Team could only manage 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze but held off the German athletes who won the same number of medals but managed only 2 Golds. Netherlands went for gold and gold only, winning 4 top medals. France, Ireland and Italy came away with one Gold, one silver and a silver and a bronze. Full results can be found here. Great video can be seen here.
