Bonjour mes amis, and a big Yo or the french equivalent of that ( what might that be? ) from the South of France in St Tropez, where i spend a couple of days training in between Luxembourg 70.3 and Challenge Roth.

I had a couple of days now to digest the race physically and mentally and have a good feeling about it. After having arrived on Wednesday, they were in the middle of winterwave in Luxembourg. Relatively low temperatures just below 15C and rainy, windy conditions was the complete opposite of Dubai, with ca. 43 44 45C.

Not really my cup of tea, as my system does not respond very well to anything below 20C. The desert in Dubai has made a complete pussy out of me.

On top of that the airline has cracked my Lightweight disc while transferring from Dubai. The crack was somewhat significant and did not allow to be used with safety in the competition. So i had to use a 404 in the back and the usual 808 in front. A bit of a disadvantage since i like to use the disc at every race.

Going into the race, there were 2 disadvantages against but i am professional enough not to use that as an excuse or to let it bother me.

The race itself was going to be a stacked one from the beginning. A deep field with a couple of world class guys ( Raelert, Lange, Diederen, Degasperi and my teammate Manu Kueng ) plus a lot of other Belgians, some Dutch and many French as well. Speaking in general, any race anywhere nowadays is stacked, worldwide. Thats how competitive this sport has become and thats how deep the density of performances in the field goes.

On Saturday, the weather was sort of okay, no rain, ca. 16C with a dry, cold quite powerful wind, the field was all set. The water start of the ca. 20+ pros went off with the usual greek roman freestyle put cleared out quickly.

I had a good swim and found myself with Degasperi and Martijn Dekker on the bike and we took turns on the slightly changed bike course ( they added 200 altitude meters ), which is really amazing along the mosel and other countryside in luxembourg.

came off the bike slightly cold and numb in my joints in 13th and had a good run with good turnover despite being cold which kept me from going faster, i wanted to, but it did not work out. i passed a couple of guys on the run, including Degasperi and managed to finish 10th and score some good 70.3 KPR points in my second race in a row as a pro at a WTC race. my teammate Manuel Kueng managed to win his first 70.3 race and i am very happy for him. Well done Manu!

At the same time, i also managed to become Luxembourg LD champ for the second time since 2013, which is cool as well.

Thanks and congrats to everyone who raced, to everyone that supported me and i hope to see you soon.

Before i start in Roth, i have a small sprint race in Sempachersee, Nottwil in Switzerland as part of the Swiss Pro Triathlon circuit. Small race with big names: Ruedi Wild, Manuel Kueng, Jan van Berkel, Maurice Clavel and Sven Riederer and others are on the startlist, so it is going to be a fun non drafting sprint outing on the 5th of July.

peace out and take care

O – chien du Sud de la France. Ouai, Ouai, quel heure est-il 🙂