Güstrow Triathlon

As the current leader of the Regionalliga North we, Tri Michels Hamburg felt very confident travelling to Güstrow. With about a 2.5 hour drive from Hamburg we decided to stay at a local bed and breakfast the night before and start this race well rested, defending our first position.

Our line up had changed on two positions as Thilo J. dropped out with back problems, being replaced by Christian J. who had just finished a Half Ironman two weeks ago. Finally in the team was Bruno, who successfully qualified for Ironman Hawaii five weeks ago in Austria. Other Tri Michel starters were Enno, Freddy and myself.

Race morning couldn’t have been any better, with a good breakfast, short drive to the race sight and beautiful weather with temperatures in the high 20’s. Temperatures should change later during the race, moving into the mid 30’s.

The Swim

With high temperatures during the last couple of days the water temperature had climbed to 24c, which called for the first non wetsuit race of the season. We couldn’t have asked for more as all of us are better then average swimmers in this competitive field of 100 starters.

The swim was set up for a two loop swim, with a short land exit and an approximately 400m run to the transition zone. Bruno and I started in the first line on the right heading straight towards the first buoy. Both of us stayed in the first group as we came towards the land exit. I was a little in front of Bruno, Freddy and Enno, which was totally unexpected. Second loop was a little slower, but I managed to stay fairly close to Bruno and entered the transition zone right behind him in probably 15th position. Enno (23:10) 19th followed closely by Freddy (23:15) 20th and Christian (24:59) in 37th position.

The Bike

Coming out of T1 I was able to go pass Bruno and start this challenging 40k one loop bike course in approximately 12th position. As usual I started the chase towards the leaders, not knowing that Freddy was behind after the swim. I moved closer towards the lead; hit the turnaround in 6th position finally realizing that I had been in front of Freddy the entire time. This rolling bike course was very tough and I was not able to set an impressive tone as I have done earlier this season. Still, coming closer to T2 I have moved into 3rd position, less then one minute behind the leader.

Freddy had an impressive bike split of 1:03:44 moving up 15 spots and leaving T2 in 5th place. Bruno, Enno and Christian all made up some ground, as Christian moved into the Top 30.

The Run

A very flat two loop out and back run course was set to for the showdown. Within 500m of the run I couldn’t hold on to third place and lost time from the get go. This was a mental challenge as temperatures rose and a group of five athletes started their charge from behind, which included Freddy and some other fast runners.
I was able to hold on 4th position until the 7km mark as Freddy came flying by. There was no chance to give him a fight, so I had to set back and hope for the race to be over. A late charge by Udo von Steevendal, Team Harburg, came in the right second, for him, as he passed me with 100m to the finish line. A 37:30, 10k run time was not competitive today, as I lost 4 spots and finished in 6th position. Freddy’s 36:07 was good for the 4th fastest run time and also placed him 4th overall.

4 306 Tychsen, Frederick Tri Michels Hamburg 1 HH 1975 M30 1 00:23:15 20 01:03:44 5 00:36:07 4 02:03:06 02:03:06
6 308 Fiedler, Thilo Tri Michels Hamburg 1 HH 1983 M25 1 - - 02:03:40 - 02:03:40 02:03:40
16 309 Belfort, Bruno Tri Michels Hamburg 1 HH 1975 M30 4 - 01:29:22 - 00:38:47 26 02:08:09 02:08:09
28 310 Houtrouw, Enno Tri Michels Hamburg 1 HH 1977 M30 7 00:23:10 19 01:06:35 18 00:41:28 47 02:11:13 02:11:13
37 307 Jahn, Christian Tri Michels Hamburg 1 HH 1973 M35 6 00:24:59 37 01:08:02 29 00:40:15 37 02:13:16 02:13:16

Closing Thoughts

In the team ranking we finished second, losing some ground to Team Itzehoe, who took today’s victory. With one race remaining it is still a close fight and we have all chances to be crowned North Germanys fastest triathlon team in Oldenburg on August 23rd.