Last weekend the beautiful town of Weyer played host to Powerman Austria. This was the fourth time I competed in this race. The first three times were a succes and I hoped that I could win this time as well. After a not so great race two weeks ago at Powerman Belgium I hoped that I could show that my current form is good. This week I was a little bit worried because I have had some problems with my back, but this was solved by Friday. At the start there was a very strong field, with among others Andy Sutz (SUI), Jason Spong (RSA) Anthony Leduey (FRA), Karl Prungraber (AUT).

The first run was two laps, which made 15,6 kilometer in total. Leduey took the lead from the start and we were quickly seperated from the rest of the field together with Spong, Sutz and myself. Spong had to let us go after approximately five kilometres and a bit later Sutz was also dropped, after an acceleration from Leduey. It seemed that Leduey took off a little to fast because after eight kilometers I took the lead and he was not able to follow me. I continued at my own pace and came into the first transition with a 40 seconds lead on Leduey, shortly followed by Sutz and Spong.

The cycling course was changed this year, and this made the race quite a bit harder with the total distance longer at 82.4 kilometres spread over two laps, and more testing hills. Immediately after transition I felt really powerful and I used this to extend my lead. Shortly after transition there was a steep climb of a few kilometres with some parts at a gradient of 18%. Once over the top my lead was almost two minutes. The bike went very smoothly for me and I came into second transition with a very comfortable lead of 8 minutes.

I could afford to take the second run of 7.3 kilometres very easy and enjoy my win. I reached the finish very satisfied after 3h27min, 7 minutes before Anthony Leduey and Andy Sutz.

The next race is the Powerman World Championships in Zofingen on 6 September, and this is my main goal of the season. This will undoubtedly be a very hard and tough race because it is the first time that I will have competed over this kind of distance, which comprises of a 10 kilometre run, followed by 150 kilometeres on the bike, and a 30 kilometre run to finish. But I am ready to go for it!

Many regards,

Joerie.