Kristian Blummenfelt picks up. The Norwegian and current champion of the Ironman Frankfurt started on the marathon route. The sun breeds above it, more than 30 degrees Celsius has it on the track. Kilzenfelt literally melt the 9-minute lead of the Danish Kristian Høgenhaug. At kilometer 34 there are suddenly only 30 seconds that separate him from defending his European championship title in Frankfurt. He is focused.
It has already swums 3.8 kilometers through the Langener Waldsee and has laid 178 kilometers on the bike. Now he has to end his marathon as quickly as possible. Without forgetting a face, he runs past Kristian Høgenhaug at the top and is now in the first place. He keeps looking at the clock. Will he break the course record of 7:27:21 hours, which he set up last year?
The 23rd edition of the Ironman Frankfurt took place on Sunday, which is also the European Championship of the male professionals. In addition to the more than 50 professional triathletes, around 3000 athletes from the hobby and amateur area also start.
“It was tricky on the bike”
Blummenfelt is now on the home stretch and is received by the masses of cheering fans. After a total of 7:25:57 hours, he runs to the finish line, new route record. It lets himself sink to the ground, begins to pour water over his head, which he shakes incredulously. The Norwegian defended his title as a European champion.
He is 31 years old, Olympic champion and now two -time winner of the Ironman in Frankfurt. “It was tricky on the bike,” he says to an ARD reporter. He kept looking around Magnus Ditlev. The Dane was acted as a favorite and is considered a strong cyclist. Leapfelt left him off on the running track. He went into the race anything but confidently.
In October, at the Ironman World Cup in Hawaii, he had to take a bitter defeat. He landed in 35th place. Almost an hour behind the winner Patrick Lange. “What happened in Kona put me down,” said Blummenfelt before the race.
The victory today was very important for him, he says afterwards. For his mentality, but also with a view to the points in the Ironman Pro Series, which he earned with his victory on the Main and the Ironman Texas in April. Next he wanted to focus on the upcoming World Cup in Nice.
In Frankfurt, the podium shares itself with two other Scandinavians. Høgenhaug finished second with a good two and a half minutes behind, then the two Norwegian Casper Stornes and Gustav Idn. Jonas Hoffmann was the first German to finish fifth.
Idling for red for ditlev
For a long time it also looks good for the Danes Magnus Ditlev. Over the last kilometers of the bike route, he fights from the front midfield to the top behind Høgenhaug and comes second on the running track. Then he gets the red card from a judge. He can continue and can contest the disqualification later. For a long time there is ambiguity over the reason for the red card.
Later it is clarified that Ditlev had previously received a yellow card because he had fallen out of his pocket and he did not stop. Because he did not pay attention to the judge’s request, he showed him red. Later the red card was withdrawn that Ditlev had not seen the previous yellow card. Later he is overtaken by the two Norwegians.
It could also have been the race of Jonas Schomburg. He is actually a newcomer on the long distance. He completed his first Ironman in South Africa in March. The 31 -year -old German described the race, which he ended in third place, only a longer training stage. He also wants to secure the podium in Frankfurt and is considered a secret favorite. The race was dominated by the start from the start. And he succeeds.
Right at the start of the swim on Langener Waldsee, Schomburg takes the lead, takes pace, pulls the field apart. Then he lets himself fall back, as third in front of the transition zone, gets out of the water to put on again on the bike. He drives over several kilometers at the top and continues to expand the distance from the favorites Patrick Lange, Blummenfelt and Ditlev.
Then the shock: After an hour and a half, Schomburg suddenly holds the loose stem of his handlebar in his hand. He has to make a stopover at a mechanic station, loses the lead over several minutes and sees his opponents pass by. The handlebar is attached. Schomburg finds the race again, drives a few kilometers in a group with a long, Ditlev and Blummenfelt, until the steering stem is completely said goodbye. A judge asks Schomburg to end the race.
He wants to continue driving first, then it slows down. “I had a good leg, I was good at it. It can be that fast,” says Schomburg, who is now on the track, a reporter of the Hessian Radio (HR). He is visibly frustrated. “I easily sat in the group of Patrick. When I run, I wanted to turn up the rooster again.” He has already secured the qualification for the World Cup in Nice in South Africa. Now he wants to focus on the Challenge Roth this weekend, as he later says in an interview with HR.
“I felt really bad”
The race also runs anything but optimal for triple world champion Patrick Lange. He comes into the race much better than last year, in which he already had problems when he started swimming. On the bike route he goes on it calmly, can assert himself well in the field with Ditlev and Blumfelt. Then he gets stomach cramps, has to take back and does not go with Ditlev as he wants to attach to the top.
In the transition zone to the running route, a time penalty of one minute has to serve for a long time because it did not properly put his swimming suit. There he complains about pain in the bale. “I think I cheated on it when I went swimming,” he says. “It hurts very much.”
Long, in 18th place, has a struggle with back pain and gastrointestinal problems at the beginning of the running route. Later he looks agile again, his run rounder, he claps the fans on the edge of the route. But it is not enough for victory. For a long time as a seventh comes to the finish. “I felt really bad,” says the thirty -eight year old shortly afterwards.
“May be good that it was the last time”
Despite numerous successes, the triathlete from the North Hessian Bad Wildungen in Frankfurt has never won. “Something is just right with this race and not me.” He must now analyze it carefully. His injury to the adductors that prevented him from preparing him could have played a role, he says. Nevertheless, he enjoyed the mood: “Although I started in 18th place, I was celebrated like the leading one.”
It could have been the last time that long in Frankfurt, his home race, starts. For him it feels like a farewell. “Then of course the heart bleeds, but I don’t get younger. It may well be that it was the last time,” says Lange.
Now he wants to prepare for the World Cup in Nice and fight for his fourth World Cup title. He had to be so honest, Lange said at a press conference before the race that he would prefer the fourth World Cup title to win in Frankfurt, even if the Ironman Frankfurt means a lot to him as a North Hesse.
