Posted: July 7, 2004

Triathlon: Quelle Challenge Roth breaks Eight again, Macca makes the books

German-Aussie Duel as Leder nicks Granger, notches Number Two.

NÜRNBERG/ROTH, Germany (July 6, 2004) – With his 7:57.50 win this past Sunday at the world’s largest and fastest ultra-distance triathlon, Quelle Challenge Roth (3.8 km S/180 km B/42.2 km R), Australian Chris McCormack (AUS, Maxtraining) has broken König von Roth Lothar Leder’s (GER, Deutsche Post) four-in-a-row streak, is the first non-German winner since 1997 and only the second since 1993, and has met two of his three goals in triathlon – to break eight hours, win at Roth and win at Kona.

Equally noteworthy, the three-time ultra-distance winner, an outspoken, smiling, toasted-brown Aussie, put himself among the Germans as he raced for title sponsor Quelle AG, and he planted himself among the greatest Germans ever, tying Thomas Hellriegel for the seventh fastest Roth finish ever. Along the way, he set a personal best triathlon marathon split, 2:40.23, which was the fastest of the day and Roth’s third fastest ever. Macca’s race was not without challenge – he was pushed on the entire cycle course by third place finisher Timo Bracht (GER, Soprema Team) as they pursued the well-off-the-front leader and eventual runner-up, Opel’s Faris Al-Sultan (GER, Tri Team Witten).

Deutsche Post triathlete and 2003 winner Nicole Leder (GER, TV Tria Echterdingen) wrote herself into the books again and kept the family winning tradition alive with her 9:13:57 win – Roth’s ninth fastest ever, supplanting last year’s 9:15:01 to the tenth fastest slot. Leder’s 2:52.46 run was the fastest of the day, besting her 2003 record for fastest Roth run ever by just over five minutes, and it was exactly what she needed.

In the process, this new Königin von Roth swam second fastest of the day, endured the cycle section, and overtook Roth newcomer, Quelle AG athlete and Germany’s newly adopted Aussie, Belinda Granger (AUS, Brat Club), at 40 km on the marathon course and left her with the second-place prize. Leder’s run speed was exactly what Granger and fourth-place finisher Heike Funk (GER, SG Katek Grassau) feared so much and tried to avoid.

How the boys broke eight

Al-Sultan, 25 and Germany’s Next Generation, led the swim from the get-go, but seemed to be more of a domestique for swim specialist Stephen Sheldrake (NZ, Eastland), who won the swim preem money for his 45:33 over the redesigned, spectator-mobbed, 3.8-km, down-and-back course. “I was sure that I would get Steve on the bike and run course because I got him a couple of months ago. I was sure he was going to win the swim money, but I thought at least he would lead for more than the last couple of hundred meters,” said Al-Sultan, who added that perhaps “he was helping his countryman (sic), Chris McCormack, by letting me work hard.”

Al-Sultan didn’t wait long to drop Sheldrake on the bike. “I like being out front riding alone, being with the lead car. I knew I had to come away from Stephen Sheldrake after the swim,” he said, adding that it was in typical form to “just attack and run away from the front. This is what I like to do. I don’t like to play with tactics.”

Meanwhile, Bracht, also 25 and “GNG,” exited the water just over two minutes behind Macca’s 47:59, and pushed big gears with big determination to reel in a potential runaway Aussie. He rode with Leder and the Germans caught the Aussie at about 50 km, but Leder had been struggling since the swim – he was tenth out of the water despite a 50:11 time in the one-loop, wave-less, wetsuit-legal swim. Leder’s breathing was labored and congested as he suffered trying to put on one of his Athlete of the Year-award-winning efforts.

Macca was expecting Leder and Bracht, but when asked if he missed the dramatic rematch of 2003, with a sign of relief he quickly replied, “no!” And when he saw Bracht approaching like a locomotive, he said, “I sorted of waited for him. I looked back and thought, ‘ohhhhh.’

“I’ve been in Bend (Oregon, USA) and I’ve cut back my mileage and increased my intensity,” McCormack said of his training with former professional cyclist and ultra-distance triathlete Steve Larsen. “We’ve been doing some good sets,” and he’d developed a strategy with his riding in mind. “So, I planned to not push so hard on the first lap and then go hard on the second. Timo was going, ‘Come on!’ and I felt bad because I didn’t push the pace. I think on the second lap he was surprised that I started to push it then.”

The two rode together, legally, for some time, and even laughed and talked about the weather conditions and Roth during the last few kilometers. As it went, though, like Al-Sultan did for Sheldrake, Bracht was another German helping another Down Under wonder set up his own race, and ahead of them was the scruffy Al-Sultan himself who later said, “I had some difficulties from the bike to run. I had to stand and eat something and had a couple of minutes before the run.” That tiredness was only a forecast of what was to come later on.

Said Macca about Al-Sultan, who led nearly the entire day, “he’s the guy who really set my race up today. I knew he won St. Croix and saw how strong he was. I knew he was tenacious and hungry and was desperate to succeed. When you’ve go talent, those are the guys that are tough to beat. I was constantly on the chase.”

Macca explained it also from a bit more intrinsic point of view: “Timo and I were strong on the bike. I felt fantastic on the run. I knew my run would be very strong today. I got a little bit despondent, as it seemed I couldn’t take any more time on Faris. I thought at about 25 or 26 ‘k’ I wouldn’t get him, but I kept pushing. I did have some bad patches, though.” Nothing could have eased the Aussie’s mind more than the meet-and-greet smile, handshake and kind words, “congratulations. Great race today,” he got when he pulled up on the race leader at about 34.5 km.

“When we were at kilometer 25 and Chris was just one minute back, I knew that he would catch up at some point, so I knew that when he comes and overtakes me he will win, because I couldn’t get any faster,” said Al-Sultan. “There were people around saying you can do it you can get faster, but I know myself. This feeling that I have of myself, I know my body and when I cannot go any faster. I was going hard at that point.”

“Not too late in the run did I know I would win, at about 30 km. I can’t believe how well I was rolling, really moving well, and feeling very rhythmic like a runner. I was feeling great. I figured when I caught Faris I would run with him like I did with Lothar,” McCormack continued. “Last year I caught Lothar and we kind of eased up. When I caught him (Faris) I was mentally prepared to back off, but then they told me I could go sub-eight. I knew he wouldn’t catch me. But when people were yelling I could break eight hours, I thought I have to have a go at it. I needed to run 41:30 (to) break eight hours with 10 kilometers to go. I ran a 37.”

With his often in-the-zone closed eyes, Bracht had a most genuine smile on his face during the bike and run, at the finish line and post-race news conference, and he could have only been happier with a win on the day. “I have raced against these boys now twice in Hawaii and now here, and it was a great day for me to be with them,” Bracht said of his first race in Roth.

Germany’s darling digs deep, arrives first from far behind

Nicole Leder didn’t feel great for the first of two loops around the challenging bike course, and her fifth overall bike split, 4:26.54, left plenty of work to do. Leder said, “there are days that are very, very hard, and I thought, well, (now) this is one of those days,” but she dug deep and her ride got better. When she hit her specialty, the run, Deutsche Post’s golden girl passed people “one by one by one,” until there was only one left. “Belinda had a fantastic race. But the people on the course were screaming and screaming and telling me I had 10 minutes ahead of her and I kept going hard all the way until the end.”

Leder went hard, zooming all the through the two-meters-wide, 400-or-so-meters-long approach to the stadium, through the deafening cheers and ratcheting noisemakers, cowbells and whistles from the three-deep fans. And she broke through any armchair analysts’ predictions that the well prepared, Roth first-timer would beat her. Granger, however, raced as brilliantly as the woman who took her down at 40 km into the marathon.

“I started the race and had a terrible swim. I thought I was done until race officials told me where I was, and I knew I could catch them. On the second loop of the challenging bike course, the petite Aussie quadzilla attacked Funk, decisively rolling passed her immediately after they began the Solarerberg climb, and then she powered away off the crest. It appeared as if she intentionally waited behind the German until they reached the climb. It was in every way a Lance Armstrong move. And like so many of his foes, Funk was unable to counter the move.

“It’s funny I didn’t have any intention of dropping Heike on Solarerberg, I went on my own pace. I didn’t look behind. I didn’t know if she was on my wheel. I knew I didn’t want to fall off (the pace),” said Granger. “The whole plan Heike and I had from the beginning was to put time on Nicole, and I thought she would go with me, but she didn’t respond. When she didn’t come with me after the first couple of ‘k’ after Solarerberg, I just switched to plan B and said, ‘OK, you’re riding solo.”

Funk still posted a ripping-fast 5:09:57 bike split, more than five minutes ahead of the next woman and second fastest of the day to “little Lance.” Funk later said, “Belinda was riding so good, and I was having a hard day. I couldn’t respond.”

After training on the Solar hill with no spectators and only knowing it’s Tour de France-like feeling from stories she’d heard and read, Granger said, “it’s an amazing thing. It’s an experience I’m going to remember for a very, very long time. I mean, the fans, they’re right there, so close.” And while she was 25 minutes back getting off the bike, überRunner Leder was closer than she appeared.

Could she hold off Leder? “No, I couldn’t respond. I was on the rivet, absolutely on the rivet,” Granger said about her run. While she ran strong throughout the first 10 km, she indeed looked a bit labored in the legs. Nonetheless, the Aussie bike specialist posted a 3:13.57 run. “I think I broke my fastest Ironman marathon by more than six minutes. It was the closest and hardest race I’ve ever had. I did the sums in my head and thought I had enough. I wasn’t expecting (Nicole) to run a 2:52.” Granger explained further, “when I got to the turn around and knew I had six minutes, I hoped it would be enough to hold her off. I pushed her and she pushed me.”

“Kona is a big race, but the main reason you go to Kona is just because it’s the world championships. I mean Australia has a better finish line than Kona. Both Roth, well, it’s, I mean, you come Roth for this kind excitement,” she gushed. “And I’ve never been to a race with this kind of support. It’s unbelievable. You know they are for everyone…I got lots of support calling on me, and really believing in me to win. I expect that at home, but when you come to a race where you don’t know anyone, you don’t expect that. And on the last 15 ‘k,’ that made a big difference.”

Will there be a rematch, as McCormack scheduled with Leder? “Now that I know the course, I’m definitely coming back and sussing it out. Hopefully I can do the same next year as Macca did this year. If we follow what Chris has done today, that means today, that means next year I’m gonna win.”

To that, McCormack primed her, “and that means you’re gonna go sub-nine.”

Quelle Challenge Roth’s sponsors include: Quelle AG, Deutsche Post AG, N-ERGIE, DB Regio, Opel AG, Newline, Nürnberger Nachrichten (Nürnberg Newspapers), Bayrische Versicherungskammer, Maxim, Phillips, Erdinger Alkoholfrei, Sparkasse Mittelfranken-Süd, ADAC, Arndt, Recaro, PowerBar, County of Roth, City of Roth, City of Hilpolstein, Coca-Cola, Frankenbrunnen, Zeus Copy, Paladin, Hofmann, Jura Kaelte, Lorenz & Partner, INKO Energy, Flor & Sohn, Spedition Heinloth, and BIESTMILCH.

For more post-race results, news and photos, visit www.ChallengeLive.com. For more information on the July 4, 2004 Quelle Challenge Roth and Triathlon Festival, Deutsche Triathlon Union (DTU) ultra-distance International German Championship and Long Distance Triathlon World Championship for Firefighters, the on-line forum and the event’s newsletter, visit www.challenge-roth.com.

Quelle Challenge Roth 04 July 2004, Roth, GERMANY (3.8 km Swim/180 km Bike/42.2 km Run)

Men:
Chris McCormack (AUS)                                    7:57:50.37 (47:59.14/4:26:54.76/2:40:23.33)
Faris Al-Sultan (GER)                                   7:58:57.57 (45:45.69/4:24:04.89/2:45:57.59)
Timo Bracht (GER)                                                       8:08:03.84 (50:05.71/4:25:05.47/2:50:46.15)
Michael Lovato (USA)                                    8:21:45.25 (50:05.43/4:40:49.91/2:47:53.13)
Lothar Leder (GER)                                    8:25:14.18 (50:11.16/4:31:02.18/3:01:18.48)           
Christophe Bastie (FRA)                                    8:26:38.80 (50:25.70/4:35:37.97/2:57:47.78)
Swen Sunberg (GER)                                    8:32:36.64 (51:41.52/4:37:18.50/3:01:09.12)
Bernd Eichhorn (GER)                                    8:35:04.39 (50:10.93/4:45:03.43/2:57:37.15)
Dave Harju (CAN)                                              8:37:56.37 (50:23.22/4:37:06.92/3:07:21.39)
Norbert Huber (GER)                                    8:39:55.49 (59:17.75/4:43:07.15/2:54:08.52)

Women:
Nicole Leder (GER)                                              9:13:57.67 (52:42.06/5:25:41.72/2:52:46.32)
Belinda Granger (AUS)                                    9:16:00.18 (55:05.89/5:03:11.96/3:13:57.31)
Ute Mueckel (GER)                               9:34:26.62 (50:01.27/5:15:24.19/3:24:00.57)
Heike Funk (GER)                                               9:42:26.05 (52:44.44/5:09:57.24/3:36:36.07)
Heidi Jesberger (GER)                                    9:45:25.90 (55:16.56/5:21:52.40/3:25:20.83)
Viola Schaeffer (HUN)                                   9:46:49.03 (01:13:51.61/5:32:11.08/2:54:33.40)
Yoko Hori (JPN)                                                  9:48:36.05 (58:49.49/5:27:47.22/3:18:29.16)
Isabella Jungfer (GER)                                    9:57:23.49 (01:06:30.94/5:26:08.74/3:20:26.04)
Marie Danais (CAN)                                    9:58:13.80 (53:03.76/5:28:37:81/3:32:51.71)
Astrid Osterburg (GER)                                    10:00:04.08 (59:38.65/5:29:15.01/3:27:20.56)

From: Steve Handwerker, slhcomm@hotmail.com.