Europe Triathlon

ETU joins with Powerman to deliver the 2015 Horst ETU Powerman Long Distance and Sprint Duathlon European Championships. Medals will be decided for Elite, Para and Age Groups over the tough long-distance of 10k run / 60k bike and a final 10k run. Over the Sprint distance of 5k / 20k / 2.5k medals will be presented to the Elite and U23 athletes.

Powerman and Holland; sort of goes together, doesn’t it ? The region may not have any challenging hills but for anyone who has ridden in the Netherlands you know that the wind is your enemy. With a good weekend’s weather on the forecasts, 17C, partly cloudy but with winds up to 20 kph the athletes will not have an easy ride to the finish line. Well, Powerman – are you tough enough ?
Not only medals but also prize-money will be there for the victors.

PRIZE MONEY DISTRIBUTION
Long Distance Elite men and women:
1st. 1,125 EUR
2nd. 940 EUR
3rd. 750 EUR
4th. 560 EUR
5th. 375 EUR

Sprint Distance Elite men and women:
1st. 625 EUR
2nd. 375 EUR
3rd. 250 EUR

So, which race is up first and who should we be looking out for?

The Long Distance specialists will have an early start, with check-in beginning at 07:30. For those staying at the Park Hotel, Horst, which is the host hotel, you only need to climb out of bed and you are on the venue. Avoiding all the congestion of the cramped town, Powerman now takes you out to a beautiful run course that is in an area of natural beauty. 

Sunday 12 April for Long Distance Duathlon
07:30-09.00 check-in bikes and helmets
09:00 Start ETU Powerman EC (Elite Women)
09:05 Start ETU Powerman EC (Age-Group Women and Men Age-Groups 55+)
09:18 Start ETU Powerman EC (Elite Men)
09:30 Start ETU Powerman EC (Para-duathletes)
09:35 Start ETU Powerman EC (other Age-Group Men)
09:40 Start Open Powerman
12:15 Public awards ceremony, 1 – 3 Women / Men
16:00 Bike check-out closes

Sunday 12 April for Sprint Distance Duathlon
10:30-13:00 check-in bikes and helmets
13:20 Start ETU SD EC (Elite + U23 men, drafting)
13:25 Start ETU SD EC (Elite + U23 women, drafting)
14:25 Start Open Race (non-drafting)
16:30 Public awards ceremony Elite / U23 1 – 3 Men / Women
16:15–17:30 Bike check-out

The National Federations from the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain are all hopeful of a good medal haul over the two distances. With over 800 athletes participating, from 27 countries this is going to be a great celebration of this run / bike / run made so popular by John Raadschelders.

The local and national press has been carrying many stories about the event and if the pre-race build-up is any indication of the success of this iconic race then the sponsors will be happy already. 

The big favourite for the title is the defending champion and twice World Champion Rob Woestenborghs. No longer a “Spring Chicken” his racing in the Dutch Spring at the age of 38 will be a chance for him to once again underline his domination. Perfect tactics took him to gold in 2014 but then an injury at Zofingen took his chance of the big double. It will be interesting to see if fellow Belgian athlete and runner up from 2014, Kenneth Vandendriessche can get anywhere near him. Against these two will be Pieter Rijnders ,winner of Powerman Luxemburg, Glen Laurens, who took bronze at Powerman Geel and Seppe Odeyn, racing his first Horst who just missed out on a podium in Zofingen.

The domination shown by the Belgian athletes will still face a challenge from the French and no stronger will that be than from Gaël le Bellec. The 26 year-old from Bretagne won Zofingen in 2014 in sensational style. The former pro-cyclist turned to duathlon in 2014 and made his mark in style having first won the French title. How this course, with the long exposed areas sections on the bike with the tough winds, will suit him compared to the brutal climbs in Switzerland, only time will tell. Further strength in the French Elite Team comes from Anthony le Duey.

Andy Stutz returns with his huge experience of 8 Powerman victories and having never taken the Horst title will surely be hoping to add this race to his portfolio. Also from Switzerland comes the powerful climber Gabriel Lombriser.  From further north comes Søren Bystrup.

No Dutchman has won here since Armand van der Smissen who took gold ten years back. Dutch hopes will be on Dirk Wijnalda National Champion Middle and Long Distance triathlon and Thomas Bruijns.

British hopes were dealt a blow when Matt Moorhouse pulled out “Hi John. Just thought I'd let you know that I won't be at Horst next week but will be wishing I was come race day. I'm currently injured and have not run for over a month and it's not looking like I'll be running anytime soon. I hope the event is a great success in its new location. I'd like to thank both yourself and Marjan for all your support over the past 10 years racing on the Powerman circuit.” This simple message goes a long way to show how much a family Powerman Holland has become. ETU is proud to be part of that family.

For the women, the defending champion from Germany, Jenny Schulz. It will not be an easy defence of the title as once again she will face the vastly experienced Susanne Svendsen DEN, Isabelle Ferrer FRA and Katrin Esefeld GER.

Having been away for a few years it is good to see Britain’s Vicky Gill back on the start list. Having taken bronze in Almere last year at the ETU Challenge Long Distance Championships she certainly has the stamina for Horst. From Sweden Eva Nyström will be hoping for a good race and perhaps a medal. Her last world title was back in 2008 but with a silver in Zofingen in 2014 she knows there is still fuel in the tank. From Switzerland comes Laura Hrebec, making her debut in Horst.

The Sprint is going to be a flat out battle with Portugal and Russia featuring strongly in the men’s race. Sergio Silva POR  will be seeking to defend his title from 2014. Having taken time out to support the development of athletes in Russia and often being seen cheering on his athletes, Sergey Yakovlev will hope to find some of his old pace.

For the women and with a solid performance at the Commonwealth games, comes Leeds-based Danica Bonello Spiteri. From a little closer to Horst comes German athlete Franziska Scheffler and Dutch hopes will rest upon Jony Heerink and Jessica Oosterloo.

It’s not just the elite though. This is a European Championship and that means medals for Para Athletes, U23 and Age Group Athletes too.

The U23 field is quite small but Dutch hopes will be sure on Jorik Van Egdom who won the sprint race here convincingly in 2013. He will be up against Pedro Afonso Gaspar POR who will be hoping to put to sleep the ghosts from Quarteira and show his true run and bike strengths.

Age Group teams from around Europe will make the weekend a colourful and busy spectacle.

The German National Team counts some 40 athletes. In that team are two para-athletes Andrea Thamm. As three times European Champion over the middle distance she will be happy with this course. Lars Hansen
is the European Champion for Sprint Distance and will of course be hoping to defend his title here. There are amongst the Age Group athletes a few medal hopefuls. Lothar Bathe is one to watch. He has won here for the past three years.

Team GB will of course be there. British Triathlon will be supported by their own Team Manager, Barron Medelssohn will manage a team nearly double the size of that in 2014, which returned to Great Britain with 13 medals in tow last year. BTF reported, “We have a great team travelling out to Horst this weekend, hopefully kick-starting the season with some equally fantastic performances. With a mix of newcomers and experienced duathletes on the Great Britain Age-Group Team, we’re sure to see some top quality racing and hopefully a repeat of the medal tally we amassed in 2014. The course brings with it some challenges, so our duathletes will have to have their wits about them along the route. I’m looking forward to a great weekend of competition.” Having competed in Horst on two previous occasions, this will be Barron’s first opportunity managing the Great Britain Age-Group Team. “It will be strange not being on the start line, but having raced here myself, I think I’ll be able to offer some good advice to the team and have a good idea of what’s going on at different parts of the course.”

So – for those of you not able to be there, follow the race on Twitter

And as soon as the results are out you can see who got the medals on the ETU HomePage

Good luck to all – wish we could have been there.

Thanks to Powerman and DTU for the images.