9th Place with a Top Performance at Challenge St. Pölten

Before the race Michi could already report a great recovery from IRONMAN Lanzarote and the associated travel hassles. He simply rocked it from start to finish!

With a swim split record in St. Pölten he was able to keep the deficit to the leading group with teammate Georg Enzenberger from Schuller Pro Tri Team to just one minute – a wonderful success for him.

Race o’clock
Positive takeaways were that he had clearly made good progress in swim training and took many learnings from this, like the benefits of lots of open-water training in his Blueseventy Helix wetsuit.

Michi was also blessed with strong legs from the very start on the bike course. Continuously reeling in opponents in the Wachau motivated him even more, before pulling away on the climb up to Gansbach. Michi could always master the climbs in St. Pölten with a constant tempo over the last years - consistency is key!

His long-term consistency is also proven by the bike split times, average and normalized power values which have been at a constant high level since 2018.

With the third fastest bike split, the Lower Austrian native came into T2 of his home race in ninth place. On the run he was able to overtake the Italian Giulio Molinaro until he was caught just before the end by a young Dane, who ran the fastest run split.

It was a somewhat sluggish but constant run feeling from start to finish. A highlight was seeing his family on the course who supported him strongly and gave him lots of strength. Michi was able to maintain his pace and activated “beast mode” in front of his home crowd – mission accomplished! 

Fun fact: the winner was just 22 years old, Michi is 41! So big congratulations to the youngster Nicolas Mann on his first victory! Michi is very impressed by the sensational debuts of many young athletes.

Going „all in“ after the torture of Lanzarote paid off! The Gumpoldskirchen native is very happy with the result in St. Pölten – what a performance for the home fans!

What’s planned in June?
Now recovery at home in Gumpoldskirchen is called for before heading to Colorado Springs for a 2 - 3 week training block. At the beginning and end of the block Michi also will be attending ART (Active Recovery Techniques) seminars. The preparation in the USA is clearly geared towards IRONMAN Austria on July 3rd. The goal remains the same: Kona qualification! However there is just one Kona slot on offer in Klagenfurt - winner winner chicken dinner!

 

Challenge St. Pölten in pics