Bled Junior European Cup

The last race on our trip before World championships, was the Bled Junior European Cup. This was a super sprint format, 400m swim 13km bike and 3.3km run, so this race was flat taps all the way.

The start numbers was dished out randomly and I was lucky number 2. In triathlon you always want your finish position to beat or equal your race number. So this would be quite a challenge this time.

The race started at 10 in the morning. We did the entire pre-race warm up like usual and then we waited in the holding pen for the announcer to call our names to the start and get ready to race. It was a pontoon start this time. The start was quite hectic as the announcer called one minute to go and then within a few seconds he called the GO. It caught a lot of the athletes, including me.

The swim was really hard because of the short distance all of the athletes were swimming together - it was more a boxing match than a swim. I luckily had a good swim, had a good position and just a few minor hits on the head. The first transition was not very successful … it took me quite a while to get out of the wetsuit. I could have almost had a cup of coffee it took so long …hahaha. Eventually I got rid of the wetsuit and went off on the bike. We were a huge front pack and everyone seemed a bit on the edge because there was a huge hill in the middle of the bike lap. When we got to the hill you could cut the tension with a knife, everyone was watching and waiting to see who will make the first move.

It was a Belgium athlete Martin de Bolster who made the first move. Myself, Wian, Henri and an Italian athlete followed him and got an away in a small break. But the break only lasted a few km’s then the group caught us again. I could see that some damage was done as the group was smaller and the athletes looked a bit drained. Then we had to hit the hill again on the last lap. Everybody now knew who the danger man was to look out for. Sure enough he attacked again trying to hurt the pack and dropped another few athletes. Yet, all in vain as he did not manage to get away.

The breakaway group that got caught.

We were a bunch of about 13 athletes that got to transition together and we now knew the race would be decided on the run. My t1 was super-slow and I went to a super-fast t2 - I manage to be first out of transition for the run.

I was feeling really good despite having to cycle a huge hill twice. The run was very fast with Wian catching me about 400m after transition, I tried to stick with him, but I could only manage it for about 1km. He then slowly started to pull away from me. He won the race and I held on to second position. The race number thing … well … it worked out this time.

This was a great day for SA triathlon and for myself. I had a good race and felt good with only one week to go before World Championships.

Rudolf Naude, Wian Sullwald, Lukas Gaggl.

Tomorrow we will leave Radovljica (home away from home) and travel to Budapest for World Championships - the biggest race of the year. The past five weeks was really hard work – in rain, wind, heat and cold … but all worth it.

Two quotes to end with:
Don’t be a spectator, don’t let life pass you by.
The greatest gift we have is the gift of life.

Chat soon
Cheers