After a three-year break, the popular Linz Triathlon took place again this year. About 1,000 athletes from schoolchildren to retirees took part in all distances, including the aqua-bike competition.
It was windy when the starting signal for the middle distance and the aqua bike competition was given at 12:00 noon. Babsi and Stefan Gerngroß, Mormon Dalibor and Thomas Walluschnig plunged into the floods at the mass start, the following obligatory brawl up to the first buoy, which usually doesn’t happen at the Rolling Starts, really wasn’t missed by anyone….
Babsi’s goggles were torn off right at the beginning, the others didn’t fare much better, but after the shore leave at the latest, the last 900m could be swum reasonably stress-free.
Thomas, who completed the aqua bike competition, got out of the water at the same time as Stefan, Babsi was already 2 minutes ahead on the rather demanding bike course, which had to be completed twice. After a short flat section, the course leads up an ascent of about 5 km to Mittertreffling, from there the course continues in a steep slope before a rapid descent to Lungitz gets the adrenaline pumping. The strong gusts of wind, sometimes up to 50mh/h, did the rest, so that the athletes were not bored, especially downhill.
Babsi put on a lot of pressure but was still caught up by the later winner and couldn’t do anything about it without running the risk of completely dismounting. But at least she was able to secure her lead and finish the half marathon after 04h35min on the podium. A huge success and the reward for the hard work of the last months!
Stefan also had a very good race, which served as a preparation for the IM Austria – especially with his run split he is very satisfied, 12th place in his age group and 33rd place overall show that the way is right.
Dalibor reached the finish line after 04h52min and a solid race, also satisfied. Detail on the side: the day after he started at the Challenge in St. Pölten and could also finish there!
Thomas celebrated after a good race with place 3 overall also a great success – a successful day for the pewag racing team!
