Race report 2nd division season finale – men

Sunday the 10th of September the day was finally there, the finale of the 2nd division. The race was a relay, where every athlete had to do a super sprint triathlon of 300m swimming, 8 km bike and 2 km running. For the male team the athletes were Peter Fick, Gaston Vogel, Lex Habraken and Sven Bams. The team was 1st in the ranking of the season with a comfortable lead of 5 points to the number 2. Therefore, the plan was to do nothing strange and don’t risk anything.

Peter started with an solid swim and exited the water on place 13. His transition and bike (fastest of the day!) were very good so he started the run at the 5th place, during the run he lost 2 places but most other teams had put there fastest athlete first. After the good result of Peter, it was up to Gaston. He had a very solid race, good swim, better bike and a great run. His run was the fastest of the team and one of the few under 6 minutes of the whole field.

So far, so good. Next it was the turn for Lex. From his start he was about 2 minutes behind Sander of EdoSports, the biggest competitor. Knowing Sander is less good of a swimmer he tried to exit the water around the same time so he could follow him on the bike. This plan worked out nicely due to a good swim and a better transition. Together with Sander he started the first lap and they made the turn. About 20 seconds later came the realization, that was NOT the turning point! Due to a funeral procession and some unclear signals from the traffic controller they had made the turn halfway along the course. Lex realized this so the second lap he rode the whole lap. Because the first lap was only a half lap, he decided to do another half lap. Immediately after the turn a judge on a motorbike stopped him to give him a red card, disqualified. This came with the added comment that continuing was pointless and the race was over. After some strong language he rolled back downhill to the transition zone. His team mates were shouting that he had to continue so that was what he did. He finished his run so Sven could finish the race. He gave everything he could which resulted in a 5th time overall (6th swim and a 7th bike time overall!)

We finished 4th as a team which would be enough for the championship, but we all knew it was waiting for the judges to determine if we would stay there or not. The next two hours were a rollercoaster of emotions (especially for Lex). But the judges were in a good mood, we kept the time of Lex because he was several minutes slower on the bike than his teammates (the same applied to Sander of EdoSports). This was enough as a penalty. This meant we got the CHAMPIONSHIP and the promotion to the 1st division, with EdoSports right behind us in second place.