After Sam his marvellous win @Ironman South Africa wit a stunning Swim-Bike-Run we didn’t have to wait very long for the next Continental Championships.

This Time Horst(Netherlands) was battle scene! Horst, a flat loop in the run, a flat easy loop on the bike. So no difficulties…but let the lack of difficulties maybe be the only difficulty for our athlete….
For Hans it was his very first showtime at this level, when we set up his macrocycle last september 2014. We had pointed out some races to have a peak of condition for this season, Horst would be the first real peak. After this we would try to aim for 2 more bigger peaks. Despite that, Hans has done 3 2015races, he won 2 of them. Some people already were sure march was peakingperiod for him. Nope, there we just had an ‘easy’ month in fact, with 2 real recovery weeks and some power stimulating training sessions.

I must say, when talking about ‘easy’…’easy’ is a measured word by numbers and heartrates…

Hans signed up for a 2nd run with the same drop in tempo as the 2 best pro athletes (+- 1′ loss vs 1st run). So A well taken decision… *Photo C.Jansseune

For Hans this race went perfect, he did a very good 1st run. Without building up too much lactic acid. ‘Go easy on the first run and unleash the beast once on the bike’. In the week before we talked about the numbers to hit, I was sure he was ready to push very hard on the bike and not have a drop in speed on the run. The longer you work with an athlete, the more you can read his training efforts and consequences… You have to know, a flat pro race in these perfect weather conditions always turns out in small groups …which is logically when you see the densification of the level in the 1st run, that’s part of THEIR race….but as an AG willing to move up front, you just really have to push the numbers. Easy said, harder done…but the cool thing about being a coach with high level athletes…is that we have a super database of numbers to hit in particular races…and how to build up a particular race.

Hans was doing a very steady and powerfull bike ride. He was in shape, fresh and motivated! Analyzing his poweroutput he rode a slightly higher poweroutput than Pro winner Kenneth Vandendriessche. We must consider a weight difference also of approx. 9kg even on a flat course.

Hans never exactly believed he was going for the win, except when he left T2 he knew he had moved up to the important places in this EC. No more time to hold back now…and finish of the race well! Suffertime came, and all went good! Gold medal and a performance he will never forget!

And those last 10K he did great, once again he did a great run after the bike! This is something our athletes really work hard on, for me this is the moment an athlete shows his stamina and how consistent he/her is, but also how smart an athlete races! The lazy workers never get joy in a run after the bike, the hard workers…they do!

Concentration on the bike

Many athletes like to walk on the red carpet, Hans also…but especially on racedays!

Every race Hans did in preparation was NOT won on the bike, despite some articles who quickly read the results. No, the winning of Hans is a combination of being able to race hard and still delay the lactic trash, move up front on the bike when others already went in the deep red zone and take the win with a fast run at the end! No duatlon or triathlon is won on the bike when you can’t run fast! Train Smart perform better!