Our athletes are known for not working hard, but working smart and correct…we race hard, we party hard (and correct ;-))! It’s all about fun, no?

Today was marked in my agenda since October 1st, because of some fine races this weekend. Not necessarily for winning them…but for putting a good result, the rest follows from that point.
Not so long ago someone asked me why are athletes are capable of being good around the year, the answer I didn’t give and I won’t give. But I might say this about this: ‘Never train in panic, never train as being someone frustrated to perform…and always keep your cool’.

Jens, an athlete (as so many others…) which I started working with in May ’16 after having severe injuries and underperforming  the level he has in his body had his first Multi-event coming up…the Eschweiler duathlon, a sprintduathlon in Germany with  over 200participants. Duathlon, a great sport, is alive…only not in Belgium. In Belgium it’s dead. Dead as never before. A good proof are the ETU Short distance championships of past saturday. Ridiculous Belgian results for a country with a great past in this sport. (OK, critics I can handle…no worries, my back has become strong past years…let it come to me). Whatever, in some countries this sport is alive…at least in Eschweiler it is! 201finishers for sprintduathlon…and in the end one of our athletes winning the race!

Jens wins this race after running personal records, but also cycling personal records!

Jens running to victory in Germany!

Still I would like to give a small point to work on, 2nd transition was slightly off 😉

And that duathlon is alive abroad also shows the 200registrations for the famous Duath’long and  100 for the Sprint duathlon in Douai (France).
In the sprint duathlon our master Wim, working towards the national and ETU (European) championships long distance takes the win in the masters race by becoming 5th (!) overall among some explosive youngsters!

The Long Distance duathlon…promissed fireworks. Maris (Pro World champion 2007) and Neyrinck (8th World championships Duathlon 2012 – Pro’s) definitely were the 2 athletes who were to beat today. Behind them, outsiders such as De Paula (Fr), Thesse (Fr), Billemons (Bel) and our Jan and Hans. Jan, last week winner in the Netherlands and Hans both are in shape. Ready to deal with the Douai-winds and putting down a good performance. For Jan this races leads towards the National and European Long distance championships. For Hans this race was an A-race, topping off his spring.

Further in the peloton a few of our other athletes had gotten the mission to race this tough duathlon in preparation towards their Irondistance coming up!

The first 12K went super well for our athletes, Jan and Hans and got into T1 almost together within 1’30 of the leaders, not losing too much energy and ready for a steady bikeride.

Jan in his first 12K, running 3’30/km pace, Hans following shortly behind and both already in the game for a nice result!

The racecourse in Douai (Fr) is full of variation: Road, gravel, grass…all in it!

On the bike Hans immediately layed his card on the table, ‘La Machine’ (his nickname in the North of France) went hard immediately and was capable of taking the lead already after 25km! It wasn’t a possibility to wait and see. Every mile had to be focussed and hard to upgrade the advantage. It went so hard that other athletes had to take risks…going in overdrive, or losing terrain.
Unfortunately Neyrinck (Bel), already on 2’30 after lap1 crashed later in the race and broke his collarbone. The wind, roads and turnings make Douai a very demanding racecourse. We wish our friend a good recovery, and he’ll be back in shape for the World Champs later this year. Jan really feared this bikecourse, not his cup of tea…but he knows he needs to work on these kind of races to take advantage in his A-races. And it’s obvious his Italian training camp and the race in the Netherlands last week did well for him. Jan could manage to keep up with the top 10 and putting down the bike ‘relatively’ fresh!

Hans only focused on his strengths during this race and builded up his race, he normalized a +300watt powerfile and it was enough to make a gap with former world champion Maris (Bel)…but was this gap big enough. Or does Hans can run?

The focus we give our athletes to kill it on the off-bike run, because yes…once again I will say ‘you don’t win a race on the bike, you always win it on the run…always’, seemed to pay off again! Hans was capable of keeping an advantage of Maris, definitely the better runner, who suffered a bit from the hip at the end of the race. Jan was closing down mile by mile on other athletes and was fighting himself towards 6th position!

Hans practicing his French again, La Machine takes it all!

Jan cycling towards 6th in France!

In the end both Jan and Hans told me they suffered on the 2nd run, at that moment just after the race they didn’t know the runsplits yet. And if we look below, it’s clear why they suffered. The plans worked, races were build up well and they took 1st and 2nd runsplit overall ;-)!

Hans winning the race, after winning Belman, Chtriman, Half Iron Roeux, EC AG Duathlon he wins the biggest long distance duathlon in the north of France and Belgium.

Hans wins this beautifull race and puts another big race everyone would like to win on his resume!

Maris and Hans, 1st and 2nd in France! Maris being 2nd makes this win even better, our deepest respect for this champion.

People know I’m quite a maniac when it comes down to analyzing races, and knowing full results of races out of the head…(and maybe thinking the opposite of the common sense sometimes…but this might be making our >150wins/year)  well I want to share this thought: ” Hans  always, over and over again…is looked at as being an athlete winning or making his races on the bike” I TOTALLY disagree with this. I will not write too much about this, but everybody can count 1+1…so make the count of the top 10’s RUN1 + RUN2. Tell me…who are the 3 fastest runners of the race? T1 is part of the race, but there NEVER is a finishline at T1…Also tell me whose bikecourse affects it’s 2nd run the less in % to run 1 (min/km)? I know the results, it are FACTS.

That being said, duathlon is alive among Belgians…only not in Belgium 😉

Our cyclists today were racing a bit across the country and it’s Svenne again who takes his 5th podium of the season by getting 3rd at Les Bulles (Belgium).  Arne, on trainingcamp in ‘Les Vosges’ could top off his trainingcamp (5H bikeride yesterday) with a 23K Trailrun on Grand Ballon, and despite a full box of chocolates yesterday, he managed to get 3rd in the mountains! Future is assured, our athletes are alive.

In Germany Anthony raced in Frankfurt and could win the race around the Feldberg (11K climb), with a breakaway started on the Feldberg and a final attack in the downhill…Anthony could ride towards his 2nd victory of the season!! A great victory!

Anthony wins the race by hitting the pedals on the Feldberg and its downhill, giving it all lead to victory in Germany!!

I would like to close with a proof of A. Einstein that one of my athletes posted on the internet last night: “All is relative to your own point of view, changing that point of view brings a big insight with it”.

A message maybe to not loose feet from the ground the moment you win or succeed towards your point of view, but keep the passion and spirit to train smart, and if possible to even perform better ;-)!

Ciao,  and be aware…tomorrow once again RACEDAY, and I feel it in my fingers some are keen on…!

Oh, and Jan and Hans…what are they training? Well, tomorrow they have a 200K bikeride planned…nothing comes easy 😉

Jesse