Last weekend in the glorious sunshine of Zofingen, some 50,000 spectators cheered athletes around a 10k / 150k / 30k course that is ranked Number 1 in the world of Duathlon. This weekend, in the windy and exposed course of the 2014 Almere-Amsterdam ETU Challenge Long Distance Triathlon European Championships. There is only one triathlon older than Almere and you have to travel to the Pacific to race that one!
With a much-improved course this year and delivering the ETU-Challenge partnership, the entries were high and the quality of racing was assured. The Twittersphere and Facebook were busy all day on Saturday with regular updates on who was where and how it was all going. In the race build up, we noted that last year’s event winner Bart Colpaert (BEL) and a strong duo from Germany, Markus Fachbach and Georg Potrebisch would be on the start line. Along with them would be the legendary Gerrit Schellens (BEL), once one of the fastest runners on the long distance circuit and from CZE with a chance for a podium position was Petr Vabrousek.
It was last year’s winner Colpaert who led the swim with a massive 44:25. His time was an easy 2 minutes ahead of a chase pack led by Russian, Georgy Kaurov, the two Germans Georg Potrebitsch and Markus Fachbach and then a second Russian Andrey Lyatskiy. Nearly three minutes behind them came a larger group containing Schellens and the Dane Chris Fischer who had raced previously as a duathlete showing some speed and stamina on the bike.
Everyone reported back that the bike course was, as expected, a “nowhere to hide” place and the winds were muscle-sapping for each of the 180ks. At the 40k point it was still Colpaert leading the bike with Fachbach some 15 seconds adrift and then almost 90 seconds behind him was Potrebitsch. Sadly for Colpaert, who was suffering badly with an Achilles injury, his lead was soon lost to the powerful Fachbach who had extended his lead over Potrebitsch to some 2 minutes. The Russian, Lyatskiy was 3.36min back. The lead was maintained but behind this powerful German positions were being traded. At 98k it was Fachbach, Potrebitsch and Fischer. At 115km it was still Fachbach, Potrebitsch at 3.30min but then, fighting for 3rd were David Näsvik SWE and the event organiser from St Petersburg, Evgeniy Nikitin who was to celebrate his birthday on the Sunday. By 135 km that third place had been snatched by the Swede leaving the German duo still ahead. Fachbach had a clear and dominating lead.
Out onto the 42k run Fachbach consolidated his lead as first one then another of his rivals felt the pain. Fellow countryman Potrebitsch pulled out, Näsvik, former gold medal winner in his AG category at this distance, began to fade and was to see his marathon time slow to over three hours. Yes, those in front of him were all running sub-three hour marathons after a tortuous bike. The Dane, Fischer was running strong but the fast-running Dutchman, Dirk Wijnalda was hearing the local supporters cheer him along and was running faster than anyone else. With the gold pretty much in Fachbach’s hands, the 41 year-old Dutchman kept up the pace and it was in the very last lap that he swept past Fischer to take silver position. New European Champion Markus Flachbach said, “it was a tough race because of the wind but to win such a legendary race is awesome!”As expected, Belgian legend, Gerrit Schellens at the tender age of 48, popped in the second fastest marathon time, 2:48:33. His time was just 39 seconds slower than Wijnalda and gave him a top ten position.
For the women it was a 53:21 minute swim for Zeljka Saban CRO that took her comfortably into T1. The elite women were not bunched in the swim and out in second position was Corrie Nelen NLD, over two minutes down. Further down the field and with swim times over the hour were Victoria Gill GBR and Tinneke van den Berg NLD. They were followed a few seconds behind by Heleen bij de Vaate.
Out onto two wheels and pretty soon the crowds were going wild as Heleen bij de Vaate was seen hammering the pace and in less than 40km had made up a 5 minute deficit. As the athletes fought against the wicked wind it became a masterclass in cycling from the dominant Dutchwoman. At 100km she was still there with van den Berg in second and Rahel Bellinga just behind. By 135km there was no change and it was a solo ride with crosswinds for bij de Vaate. She later reported that she was never sure of the win until the last few km of the run.
The Dutch crowds were crossing their fingers for a fully Orange Podium but that wish was a fading Bellinga and a fully-charged Gill that delivered a British bronze with Gill recording the third fastest run of the day amongst the Elite Women.
This is the 32nd race held in this iconic town and the Challenge Amsterdam-Almere ETU European Championships was held here for the third time. It is the oldest triathlon in Europe and over the weekend a grand total of 2,200 athletes participated in various distances of triathlon, staging the biggest triathlon ever held in The Netherlands.
ETU had its own man on the inside. Alexander Kochetkov, LTU was racing Elite. One of our own Technical Officials who is no stranger to long distance events. 'Race is complete, only God knows how much pain one triathlete can take. Swim went almost as planned but got lost in last 200 meters and that might have cost me 1-2 minutes. All I can say about bike is wind. Riding against strong winds, every pro athlete was talking about it and on top of that I had one stop to fix a technical issue with my bike and one stop to fix a flat tyre. The Run was pain, pain and more pain. Had it not been for my wife and my coach who put me in the right frame of mind before the race and three coaches: Rik - coach of the national Dutch team, Sergey - coach of the national Russian team and the German coach of another pro athlete who shouted support to me during the race and encouraged me to continue I wouldn't have finished today. I hope that next year it will be the entire National Lithuanian triathlon team doing the race. A big thanks to a very professional team of TD and TOs who were not only working during the race but also helping athletes after the race. I admire their professionalism and hope to become as good as they are.'
Age Group medals were up for grabs and we hope later to run an article on some of their experiences. For further information on the results and for more photos, visit www.challenge-almere.com
Credits for the photos go to: Charlie Crowhurst / Getty Images