The village of Roth, Germany, is home to buildings that are hundreds of years old that spill over rolling hills criss-crossed by roads and cobbled streets that twist and turn in a crazy-quilt pattern. This gorgeous region of Bavaria is dotted with forests and produces a host of agricultural products including wheat, corn, fruit, and flowers. Roth has been a triathlon city for 16 years, since Detlef Kuhnel traveled to the Ironman in Hawaii to race and returned to Roth determined to bring a race of that scale home to Germany. For years it was home to the wildly popular Ironman Europe, bringing out the region's top competitors year after year in a battle for supremacy that, for German triathletes in particular, carried at least as much weight, if not more, than a win in Kona. Two years ago the race split with the World Triathlon Corporation, giving up its Kona slots but retaining a top pro field and the passion of its thousands of spectators and competitors. That's what happens when you have mystique and history on your side.
That record has not been touched since, but this year talk of another sub-8 race has been resurrected with the entry of fiery Aussie Chris McCormack to the race. McCormack, in his second year of Ironman racing, is one of triathlon's superstars over all distances, with a short-course world championship to his name as well as multiple titles at most of the major races in the U.S. and in his homeland. He has already won Ironman Australia two times, and one torrid win streak saw him notch a host of consecutive wins at some of America's premier races, including the Wildflower half-Ironman and the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. McCormack will challenge four-time Roth champion Leder, who is also hungry for a good showing on the course he loves and has dominated for so many years.
At Thursday's press conference, McCormack said he was upset at criticism he's received from some quarters about his unabashed pursuit of a new record here in Roth.
"A lot of the new generation of athletes are getting criticized about the slower times in Hawaii," he said. "I think that the new generation of Ironman athletes are stellar athletes; it's my duty and the duty of the other guys coming along to better those standards… To get criticized for publicly saying you'd like to better the record—that's ludicrous.
"The mark has been set at 7:50 but I want to go quicker," he said. "Some people think that's arrogant but that's just me being me."
McCormack promised that he wouldn't get caught up in any tactical battles—he just plans to go out and race at a pace he believes will gain him entry to the coveted sub-8 club. An avid student of triathlon history, McCormack was on hand in Roth as a spectator when van Lierde set the record, and says it has long been a dream of his to race here.
"I'm probably the best tactical racer around," he said. "I know my strengths. Lothar may want a tactical race because he's been under eight hours, but I'd like to join that club and get under that eight-hour mark. I'm going to set a tempo out there that I believe I can sustain. I'd love to be a member of that club."
McCormack's training partner of late has been Kiwi Bryan Rhodes, who laid down the fastest Ironman time of 2002 last year at Ironman Malaysia. He also believes that if the conditions are right, the strong field at Roth can power to a sub-8 time. "I'm just going to go out there and smash it," he said.
"For sure, eight hours is the mark that everyone wants to go," he said. "There's been a lot of talk about the new generation of Ironman athletes not going fast, but I believe we have the field and the capabilities of going fast. I think eight hours is definitely possible. I think that's the time everyone is going to shoot for."
Leder, for his part, said he has a simple plan: to swim and bike with McCormack, and then to run his best. He said he has his doubts about the eight-hour mark as the race could become a tactical one. "The danger is that the race could become too tactical and the speed could go down," Leder said, "or one athlete [could] try too hard to get away and blow up. That would open up the opportunity for someone else to win."
Seated near one another during the conference, the pair have a clear respect for one another and their friendly rivalry has drawn a great deal of media attention.
But there are a host of other fast guys in the field, including Rhodes, last year's fourth-place finisher Mika Luoto of Finland (this year accompanied on the trip by training partner and first-year pro Tom Soderdahl, who was 11th in Kona last year), Alex Taubert of Germany (fifth in Hawaii last year) and France's Francois Chabaud, who won last year's brutal Ironman France with a scorching bike and run and was sixth in Hawaii. Chabaud's bike split in Kona last year, a 4:39, was second only to Germany's Thomas Hellriegel 4:34 among the top ten finishers. But he downplays his abilities on the bike, saying he simply hopes to have a strong overall performance. Luoto, for his part, says he feels this year he may be able to challenge the top athletes for a step or two up the podium.
The women's race is an intriguing one, too, with top European athletes facing some challengers from faraway locales—including Japan's Yoko Hori, making her first trip to Europe, and New Zealand's Karyn Ballance, who was slated to race here last year until injury scrubbed those plans. Ballance, last year's Ironman New Zealand winner and a second-place finisher there this year, will be looking for a strong bike and run while Germany's Nicole Leder and Hori will have fast closing speed on the run as well.
Also in the mix, and seeded No. 1, is Hungary's Erika Csomor, the former world duathlon champion who raced here in Roth in her first Ironman last year—and finished second behind winner Nina Kraft of Germany. Csomor, sidelined for much of last fall and winter with a stress fracture, said she's hungry for a good performance.
"It was just my first Ironman so the first is always something special," Csomor said of last year's race. "Now I have some more experience at the long distance so I will try to push it a little bit harder."
Asked whether the women were eyeing the sub-9-hour mark, or perhaps the record set here by Paula Newby-Fraser in 1994 of 8:50:53, Nicole Leder said she believes setting fast times can be a bit tougher in Roth because of the wave starts. The women start with the pro men, with succeeding waves following at five-minute intervals due to size constraints in the Main-Donau Canal.
"Those [fast times in recent years] were in races where there were around 1,500 participants," she said. "It's possible to hide somewhere in the field. Here the women start alone with the pro men, and everyone is trying to run more or less his or her own race. It's going to be hard to reach 8:50 or come below 9 hours, but this race here is one of the fairest, or fairer than many of the other triathlons."
What will happen come Sunday? It's going to be an interesting day. To watch the action live, visit the Quelle Challenge Roth website at http://www.challengelive.com. The ambitious website will feature live commentary in four languages (German, English, French and Spanish), streaming video of the lead athletes and audio color commentary from legendary German pro Wolfgang Dittrich. The coverage is being organized in cooperation with the German triathlon website and e-zine, tri2b.com, run by triathlon journalist and webmaster Jens Richter—who also happens to be a pretty fast triathlete in his own right.
"ChallengeLIVE had basically no problems last year, but even so, we’ve improved our back-office framework to handle even more spectators as well as the MPEG audio and video files for the big day," said Dan Miessen, webmaster for both the challengelive.com and challengeroth.com sites. "The experience will be as close to the race course as you can get without actually being there."
Live TV coverage on race day will be provided on BR Television in Europe and via satellite, while the "Sportschau" program on Germany's ARD-TV plans a broadcast throughout the afternoon, and race-day coverage is also planned by Austria's ORF station and RTL Luxembourg.
The race has drawn more than 2,670 athletes from 32 countries, including relay teams.
