After I finished my Xterra season in Denmark at the beginning of September, 7 weeks later there was still another race on the agenda, this year's European Championships in Ibiza. I came back to Austria a good week after Denmark and needed a break first. I took 5 days off training until the last Block for Ibiza started. I never felt really lively, but towards the end I felt a performance increase. I flew to Ibiza a week before the race, the island is beautiful. I spent the week with family and friends from Switzerland, we trained together, inspected the route and enjoyed good food.
On race day I got up as usual, ate my breakfast and got ready to race. It wasn't until 2 p.m. that I needed a little snack beforehand. We were able to set up the transition area an hour before the starting whistle, everything perfectly prepared I started to swim in. The water temperature was a warm 26 degrees, there were no waves. We had to cover 1000m before going across the beach to the transition zone. I actually felt relatively fast (by my standards) but the watch showed otherwise.
On the bike I was already thinking about my long swim time, and soon I had to realize that the performance I was used to was not there. I wasn't used to being able to keep up with the other athletes, so I hardly made up any places on the bike either. After 20km very fast bike route I was still not even in the TOP 20. Luckily it looked a little different when running, I was able to run at a reasonably good pace and work a little ahead. I ended up finishing 20th in the Elite. My goal was actually the TOP 10, but unfortunately nothing came of it this time. I spent the days that followed in sunny weather on the island's beaches or bars. The sangria distracted me from my last race of the season and ushered in the offseason.