The inaugural Abu Dhabi Triathlon (3-200-20) is under 24 hours away and I am really looking forward to race the first race of the season!

My build up has been a little unusual when the race is in hot conditions like here. Most of my competition has been here for several days or even weeks to adapt to the heat. I on the other hand have yet again been to Italy for a serious patch of cross country skiing.

I usually perform very well in the heat, so I am not that anxious about having only a couple of days to adapt to the environment here. I took some training sessions on my Specialized on the turbo trainer inside wearing more clothes and a rain coat just to get into the mind set of 200 km in the heat in Abu Dhabi.

So my usually good heat adaption combined with the cross country training which also always gives my form a good boost and that I usually also performs good in the beginning of the season makes me confident in my chances.

I haven’t trained as much on the bike as I would have liked to, but have had some good long sessions and I must admit that my Transition works like a charm. I have high expectations for this bike throughout the season and I am already loving it.

This long 200 km bike section combined with a relatively short run (20k) makes it very difficult to predict a winner. Both Triathlete Magazine and Slowtwitch has me as one of the favourites along with Faris Al-Sultan, Eneko Llanos and Philip Graves.

I am one of the best runners in the field and if some of the uberbikers don’t get too much on me before the run, I think I will be able to run them down even though it is only 20 km.

I will get back with a post race report.

Best,

Rasmus Henning