Europe Triathlon

Almere, there can be few athletes who have not heard of this place. For over 30 years this venue has seen swim, bike, runners push themselves around the course. After Hawaï, The Holland Triathlon is the oldest Triathlon in the World. Most famous as a long distance venue, the “nowhere to hide” bike course that seems so easy but which hurts so bad when the wind is in your face, Almere is no stranger to big events. Several European Championships and World Championships were held here. The fastest winning time, 7 hours and 57 minutes, was notched up by Jan van de Marel back in 1999.

When you race here, you race a unique course. You will be 4.5m below sea level as this area used to be the Zuidersee.  In 2012, the 30th anniversary of the race, the LOC gave the event a facelift. The start and finish locations were moved to the new city centre. The swim, bike and run courses all start and finish on the Esplanade.  It is not only triathlon that will keep you busy this weekend as the city is hosting all sorts of cultural festivities.

The LOC is providing a massive purse of prize-money for the Elite athletes amongst whom we see one of our very own Technical Officials, Alexander Kochetkov from Lithiuania and Vitaliy Nikitin, event organiser of a classic long distance race in St Petersburg. It will be interesting after the race to hear their comments. These two will have to race against last year’s event winner Bart Colpaert (BEL) and a strong duo from Germany, Markus Fachbach and Georg Potrebisch. The legendary Gerrit Schellens (BEL), once one of the fastest runners on the long distance circuit is also there and from CZE is also a podium chance with Petr Vabrousek.

Amongst the Elite Women is 2013’s silver medallist from Germany, Celia Kuch. Local athlete Helen bij de Vaate, winner in 2008 and 2012 here in Almere will know the course well.

The Age Group athletes will be battling for medals and of course we wish all athletes a safe journey along those long, long kilometres.

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So, Challenge Almere, Challenge yourself!
How do you win here? Well,