After my Xterra in Greece I immediately went to Portugal / Lisbon. We drove north with a rental car until we finally arrived in Pontevedra, the event location in Spain, this year's venue for the ITU Multisport Festival. What am I doing there? In the course of this event the world championships of many sports such as triathlon, aquathlon, duathlon, aquabike as well as cross triathlon were held, in which I was at the start.
I was there a week beforehand to prepare for the track. The first two days were rainy weather all the time, but then it got better and we were able to look at the mountain bike route, the running route and the swimming route.
At first I was even amazed by the MTB route, as it had a few single trails built in, but mostly had very fast passages. The running route was less exciting, just a 7km run with about 10% trail share, not particularly technical. The swimming course was tough, although it was only 1000m long, but the current was recognizable and the temperature of 14 degrees was also tough. I lived with friends from Germany and Austria who also started. When I picked up my starting documents, my goal was clear: Number 9 had to be undercut (this time relatively unlikely) and so my goal was the TOP15. The starting field of the elite was bigger than ever. 54 elite starters were named. I, one of them. The current while swimming made me come out even further back, and the cold also bothered me. I finally got out of the water with the last group. My tactics on the bike: all or nothing. With a strong bike performance, I managed to make up a good 20 places, but I mostly rode alone, which has some disadvantages on a fast route like this one. Quickly switched to running shoes, I started with good pace, but it soon became clear that I could not maintain it. My race to catch up on the bike was deep in the bones. I was able to overtake 2 athletes and finally finished in 24th place at the 2019 World Cup. I had never seen such a strong field. It was really fun and we wanted more.
