Dirk Bockel took the start in beautiful Chieming with precaution. “We’re one month away from the ITU World Championships in Spain, a very important goal on my calendar. I was a bit hesitant to go ‘all-in’, especially on the run, because it always takes you some time to recover from such an effort, but in the end a win is a win, so I went for it.”
Bockel finished the 2km swim in the crystal clear water of the Chiemsee in a fast time and came out of the water with New Zealand’s James Elvery, with the second group of athletes over one minute behind. Elvery, a specialist of the Olympic distance, and Bockel entered the first loop of the 2 lap bike course (80 km in total) together. Bockel: “He set the pace for the first five or ten minutes, but then I overtook him and never let the lead go anymore.”
“My coach had asked me to go hard on the swim and on the bike, so I could save as much energy as possible in the run. In triathlon, you don’t race to get in shape like in cycling, on the contrary. After every race you need to recover, so I had decided not to go in the red in the run.”
The bigger half of the run course went through the forests of Bavaria, a beautiful scenery for Bockel to defend his lead and run at the pace that the chasers set for him. Elvery had been caught by Germany’s Andreas Dreitz, who was pushing hard to bridge across to Bockel. At some point the gap narrowed down to 43 seconds, but Bockel didn’t panic and kept the pace high enough to win. “I was focused on my heart rate the whole time. It’s not an easy strategy, even a bit of a gamble, but my wife Alicia gave me a lot of split times, so it was okay.”
The LEOPARD TREK triathlete finished the 2k swim/80k bike/20k run course around Chieming in 3:45:03. Dreitz finished second, 37 seconds down on Bockel, Elvery was third, 3:52 down.
“I’m in a really good shape right now. I have recovered well from the Ironman Regensburg. My next goal is the ITU World Championships on July 29. I’m going to take it easy for a day or two now, then work on my base condition for a good week and then fine-tune for the race. I’m planning to travel to Spain early, to be able to train on the course as much as possible. My morale is high, thanks to the amazing support of the team I’ve been getting. I’m really looking forward to what is to come!”
