Mittwoch, 8. Juli 2015

The rise of Jan Frodeno, hottest male contender for 2015 Ironman World Championship Hawaii

Prior 2008 Bejing Olympic Games, German Jan Frodeno, raised in South Africa, was on a mission. The beach boy wanted the Olympic Gold medal in triathlon. His hunger was so badly, that he decided to just train-eat-sleep-repeat month over month in Saarbrücken (Germany), Deutsche Triathlon Union's (German sports governing body) training facilities with his training squad. There was no plan B, just plan A. Add another discipline in that training regime: optimize and rethink strategy and efforts. Frodeno, well known as high mileage worker, prepared for a sprint finish during his months in training and every spectator knew what happened in Beijing: "Frodo" won, leaving the biggest names behind him.
Jan Frodeno shocked competition with new course record, new race strategy with focus on the bike. His splits: swim 0:46:02, bike 4:08:43, run 2:50:49. Photo: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images for IRONMAN

In the following years Frodeno fell over the very thin edge of overtraining, got injured and wasn't able to adapt to the new demands of a year long Olympic World Series on a very high level. Bad luck in terms of weather marked a career low in Budapest, where he lost the World Series title after his Gold medal in very cold conditions.

He's a big and tall guy, even beeing one of the skinniest in terms of body fat composition his long extremities add to weight and vulnerabily to injury, but he likes hot weather a lot. The coffee lover with his own brand Frodissimo is a one day peak performer for sure. London Olympics saw him just recovering from injury, but with a very solid Top 10 finish. The build-up was one more indicator, how Frodeno can tackle obstacles. But deep inside the strong swim-runner knew already, that the likes of Alistair Brownlee and his brother Jonathan as well as Javier Gomez are difficult to beat all year long. Time for a change. This change would likely have come a bit later, if Frodeno didn't accepted an invitation to Ironman World Championship from his bike sponsor at the time to spectate. The man was hooked with all that vibrant activity going on during pre-race week in Kona.

His appearances on 70.3 in Wiesbaden and abroad, as well as long distance races in Frankfurt and Kona later were really impressive, despite the fact he had to overcome serious (technical) issues in all of those races: ripped wetsuit, lost drink bottles, lost transition bag, multiple flat tires, bike penalty, etc. The list goes on and on. The pre-race favourite was still able to finish all of these races on the podium. Categorized as talented swim-runner he lost a year of opportunities to win both major titles in Ironman in 2014 already, the European and World Championships. Sebastian Kienle, another German Uberbiker filled the spot very well with his state of the art biking, solid running performances and a steady improvement in his swim.

2015 began with bad luck for Frodeno again, two bike crashes left him with a niggling knee injury, which forced him to focus on the swim and bike parts of his athletic mix. 10 weeks with no or a bit running should convince him, that's it's in Ironman way more important to damage the competition in Kona on the bike and be able to run solid on very tired legs. On 5. July 2015 the audience saw a historic wire-to-wire victory in Frankfurt, close to record breaking performances of Luc van Lierde in Roth and Kona. No weakness at all, minor obstacles (visor on helmet, lost bottle) to overcome, a very impressive race record (7:49:48) and even more astounishing and competion shocking bike record (4:08:43) on very hot conditions up to 39-40°C. How Frodeno crushed competition is similar to Craig Alexander's Ironman Hawii record breaking comeback. The year before fellow Australian rival Chris McCormack took away his title, isolating him on the bike with an alliance working against him in 2009. Crowie came back strong on the bike and killed everyone with his bike-run mix.

Jan Frodeno is the man to beat in 2015 and 2016 and has the opportunity to be the first athlete in the World to win both Olympic Gold and Kona. His competition, including reigning World Champion Sebastian Kienle has to get back to homework how to beat this man. We might see the begin of the Jan Frodeno legacy.

In 2017 or 2018, Ironman Hawaii will likely see the next step of performances and evolution. The triathlon industry evolves, thermal regulation and cooling gets mainstream, bikes get even better, saving a few watts at every edge of the bikes and equipment. Javier Gomez could step up after the 2016 Rio Olympics to the full-distance. The Spaniard proved already, that he can succeed on all kind of distances: drafting, non-drafting, sprint, Olympic, 70.3, XTERRA. He has a similar package like Jan Frodeno as well, with slight advantages on the swim and run segments. A battle in 2017 or 2018 between Frodeno and Gomez in peak performance could be historic and epic. World Triathlon Corporation as business owner should nurture this opportunity having two of the biggest role models in triathlon on their home turf in near future.

Daniela Ryf proved to be ready for 2015 Ironman World Championship Hawaii

Daniela Ryf, another raw diamond from Switzerland in the hands of coach Brett Sutton is ready for a serious attempt to win the 2015 Ironman Hawaii World Championship title in her 5th Ironman race. Coming from Olympic distance racing, where she faced skinny and very light athletes optimized for swim-runn performances the young swiss athlete was trapped in the whole bodyweight-power-ratio mindset leading into these races. Switching coaches opened opportunities to rethink goals and strategies. One result is the Ironman European Championship title from last sunday in record breaking time.
Daniela Ryf has already the swim-bike package to show off in Kona. Where the run would be is the big questionmark on race day in October. Her splits at Ironman European Championships: Overall time 8:51:00, swim 0;52:46, bike 4:47:50, run 3:06:06. Photo: Nigel Roddis/Getty Images for IRONMAN
Ryf proved on 5. July 2015 in Frankfurt am Main, that she is ready to follow the likes of Chrissie Wellington and is able to perform in extreme hot conditions. She was able to crack the course record in Frankfurt from a time, Wellington was close but not on top of her peak perfomances and so is the strong biker. Solid on the swim, very strong on the bike her "weak" discipline, the run is improving very fast. She was able to nail with temperature up to 40°C the very first time in an Ironman her nutrition. This gave her enough opportunities to tackle the course record, even this goal was forbidden in the earlier stages of the race by her coach. He was afraid, that an all out performance in these conditions relatively close to Ironman Hawaii World Championship would compromise her build-up and race in Kona. Communicating in the last quarter of the marathon the gun went off a second time the last 5k grabbing that record.

Ryf, only beaten in Kona 2014 in all major races she attended, will be strong and a serious contender for defending champion Mirinda Carfrae and all the other podium candidates like Julia Gajer, who had a stellar performance as well, but has yet to prove she can ride a bike on a Kona day with gutsy head- and crosswinds.

Dienstag, 9. Juni 2015

PowerBar und STRAVA präsentieren die #powerbartour zur Tour de France 2015

Die Sportnahrungsprofis von PowerBar haben gemeinsam mit STRAVA, dem führenden Anbieter von GPS-Dienstleistungen für ambitionierte Ausdauersportler eine virtuelle Radstrecken-Rundfahrt geschnürt. Wenige Wochen vor dem Start der Tour de France 2015 können sich teilnehmende Radfahrerinnnen und Biker untereinander und mit den Profis im Peloton und abseits davon messen. Neben ewigem Ruhm, winken den Kilometer- und Höhenmeterfressern Preise wie ein Trainingslager auf Mallorca und täglich limitierte Radtrikots. So geht's:
PowerBar und STRAVA laden zur diesjährigen  Tour den France unter einem Hashtag zur virtuellen #powerbartour ein. Als Belohnung winken tägliche Preise und ein Trainingslager mit Marcel Wüst. Logo: PowerBar

Im Juli noch nichts vor? Dann fahr die Tour.

Dass Amateursportler genauso stark sind wie Profis, können sie dieses Jahr bei der PowerBarTour unter Beweis stellen. Der Gedanke hinter dem Wettbewerb, der sich an die Tour de France anlehnt, ist ganz einfach. Statt als ambitionierter Sportler den Profis in Frankreich nur zuzuschauen, gibt PowerBar, als offizieller Sporternährungspartner der Tour de France, Radfahrern die Möglichkeit, selbst aktiv zu werden. In Kooperation mit der Rennrad-App Strava, können sie sich mit Rennradfahrern aus ganz Europa und sogar Profis messen und dabei tolle Preise gewinnen. Die PowerBarTour läuft ebenso wie die Tour de France vom 4. bis 26. Juli 2015.
Persönlichen Eindrücke, Bilder und Tweets der Teilnehmer mit dem Hashtag #powerbartour werden auf der Website gezeigt. Photo: PowerBar

Welcher Rennradler möchte nicht einmal in seiner Karriere bei der Tour ganz oben auf dem Treppchen stehen? Mit der PowerBarTour kann sich diesen Wunsch jeder Sportler erfüllen. Wie das geht? Nach der Anmeldung auf der PowerBar Website können Teilnehmer ab 18 Jahren in ganz Europa 21 herausfordernde Etappen vor ihrer Haustüre fahren, ganz wie die Profis zeitgleich bei der Tour de France. Jede Etappe kann innerhalb von 24 Stunden gefahren werden, in denen die Teilnehmer so viele Kilometer wie möglich zurücklegen, diese tracken (mit der STRAVA Smartphone App oder einem GPS Gerät) und anschließend auf die PowerBar Website hochladen. Dort präsentiert PowerBar ein Männer- und Frauen-Ranking für alle Fahrer.

Hier kommen auch die Profis ins Spiel. Dank der engen Zusammenarbeit von PowerBar mit Profi-Athleten und Teams können sich die Teilnehmer mit Profis vergleichen, die selbst an der PowerBarTour teilnehmen. Darüber hinaus gibt es im digitalen Fahrerlager bereits zur Vorbereitung auf die Tour Tipps von Profis, spannende Einblicke von der Tour de France sowie Ernährungstipps für die einzelnen Etappen. Außerdem werden die persönlichen Eindrücke, Bilder und Tweets der Teilnehmer mit #powerbartour gesammelt und auf der Website gezeigt.



Und auch wenn als Preis keine Champagnerdusche auf dem Champs-Élysées winkt – mitmachen lohnt sich. Für jeden Etappensieger, der die meisten Kilometer zurückgelegt hat, gibt es ein exklusives Rapha Pro Team Jersey. Der Tour-Sieger mit den meisten Gesamtkilometern fährt für eine Woche in die Casa Ciclista auf Mallorca zum ehemaligen Radprofi Marcel Wüst.

Ab 1. Juni sind die Anmeldung sowie die Vorinformation auf www.powerbar.eu/tour möglich.