Verslag van Chris Webb, triatleet van het eerste herenteam triathlon:
Triathlon season is back Ladies & Gents, Time to find our wetsuits, try to remember how transitions work and to blow off the ‘fitness’ dust with our favourite format, the Team Time Trial. And guess who is back, none other than Captain Kleinjans (maybe it should now be Papa Kleinjans – Congrats on the birth of beautiful Julie), Jorén ‘The Dolphin’ Kroon and myself, The Buitenlander aka 9-Toe Chris.
We assembled ourselves on the sandy beaches of Almere Haven coupled with our road bikes, a sense of excitement and for the first time in a few years the awesome AV Clytoneus Womens Team!
Being just a team of 3, we knew that the challenge ahead would be tough but the best approach was constant communication – which seemed like a good idea until I got a mouth full of water in the swim. The Dolphin was once again making an absolute mockery of the water leg – performing a cheeky backstroke for the majority of the 500meters and pulling our small train along at a brisk pace coming out the water with the 5th quickest swim time!!
BIKE TIMMEEEE!! The problem with the first race of the season is, not only are you unsure of your own fitness, you are also unaware of the potential of others. Well, let me tell you, despite fathering another human, our Captain has not lost his incredible ability to cause a tremendous amount of pain on a bicycle. Pulling for the first 2/3 K’s at about 380w, he did the thing we were fearing most…. flicked the elbow : ( “no Lennart, please don’t make us go on the front” I thought. Jorén obliged by spending the next 20 seconds on the front, before Lennart came back and did about 18 of the 20K’s towing our sorry asses along with him – TAXI for Chris.
Onto the ‘Loop Deel’, finally something I can do without seeing stars and feeling like I was going to throw up. An incredibly controlled and consistent run effort, led by Jorén, who learnt there were 0.0% beers at the line so just wanted to get there quicker – we finally came into the finish, still as a tremendous trio in 1:07:20 for 13th place of 20.
