06 / 27 / 2009

Xterra Lake Tahoe / California / USA

More than 300 triathletes took part in the competition. It began at 8am on the beach in Tahoe City, surrounded by endless forests and snow covered peaks. The weather was perfect (sunny and warm) but the water was really cold.
After swimming 1300 m. I was in about 10^th place.
The mountain bike part was really good for me, after 22 miles I was in the lead. Unfortunately I got overtaken at the first hard uphill section by US Pro Damian Gonzalez. The gap was always about 300ft. but I was not able to close it.
So I got 2^nd overall after 2:42:51 and won my age group by 3 minutes. Damian was only 9 seconds seconds ahead.

The first place in my age group was never at risk, although 3 competitors in my age group were ranked in the top 4.

I met really nice triathletes and other people there and I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

After the race I had the opportunity to sail a little bit on Lake Tahoe (was my first time on a sailboat) and to drive a Hummer H2 up to the ski area.

Near Lake Tahoe there are beautiful ski areas like Squaw Valley or Alpine Meadows.

I hope to continue my success in the US during my next races.

06 / 21 / 2009

Triathlon – olympic distance – Provo / Utah / USA

On tuesday I arrived in Salt Lake City (via London and Denver) quite tired after a 20 h flight.
The next day I started with my training again at the Salt Lake sports complex. That's an awesome place: cardio- and weight room, 25yd indoor- and 50m outdoor pool. Opening times are from 5am to 9pm.
But I'm not only doing sports here, I started with my half-day job at my dads friends who converts normal cars into CNG cars.

The start in Provo was at 7am, check-in from 5-6pm, so I had to be awake at 3:45am !
About 300 participants took part (about 200 sprint, 100 olympic distance).
My swim was quite good and the gap to the leader was only about 3 min.
My bikesplit was the fastest and I entered first in T2.
With a solid run (I didn't had to run all out), I won with a 4 min lead over the 2^nd.

06 / 14 / 2009

MTB-Marathon Friesach / Carinthia

Back to the roots: I did the Friesacher Mountainbike race for Xterra training. It was 43k and 1200 vertical metres. The weather was perfect and it was (for Austria) really hot. I got 5th overall and won my agegroup.
I used my new SR Suntour Axon ELD fork and it worked perfect

Swim work out Wörthersee

Right after I finished the race I drove to the really nice lake „Wörthersee” were I had an awesome open water swim training (There was no need to use a wetsuit!).

Graduation 06 / 12 + 13 / 2009

Without any problems I graduated school. My English exam was very good and I hope to improve my English during my 2 1/2 stay in the US.

06 / 06 / 2009

Triathlon - Austrian Championships – Vienna / Donauinsel

I was really well prepared for this race but my swimming was really weak. I swallowed a lot of the gross danube water. On the bike my stomach hurt a little bit but on the run part was impossible for me to run fast. That means I had a DNF.

However I'd a very successful week with my sponsors:

Sinner (new sponsor) gave me a really nice collection of sport sunglasses.
Canon sponsored me an awesome objective.
And next week I'll get a new fork from SR Suntour with an electric lock out.

05 / 30 / 2009

Time Trail - Klausen-Leopoldsdorf - 05 / 29 / 2009

This time I won the uphill time trail in Klausen-Leopoldsdorf. (5k / 200m vertical gain).

Unfortunately there were not so many competitors like the last time because of the really bad weather.

Sprint Triathlon - Donauinsel / Vienna - 05/30/2009

Heavy rains, temperatures like in November (8°C air temperature) were not the best conditions for a „summer” triathlon. However hundreds of triathletes took part.

I started in the men's elite race. My swimming was not so good because the check in took so long and I had no warm up. The bike part was okay but extremely cold. I had the 2^nd best run part.