Herbert,
You know that here on ST, we love the guy who rides from T1 to T2 with his nose in the wind and leaves the chasers in his dust. Wolfgang was the original “first to T2” stud…and studly he was…when you think that they guys he left behind were none other than Dave Scott and Mark Allen we’re talking about some serious “first to T2 speed”
So, how 'bout tracking Wolfgang down and giving us some behind the scenes from some of those years?
Dev
I have tried that already. Can anyone assist?
Tell me what you need.
FAC is right around the corner from me. See him at NoBo pool too.
I’ll challenge him to a swim! 
MarkyV and others…Wolfgang is THE MAN who invented first to T2. If anyone can synch me up with Wolfgang I’d be glad to write this piece…I’m on a flight most of the day on Monday to the west coast so if I can synch up on Sunday I can write it up during the flight…same with Pauli Kiuru and Christian Bustos…these guys were studs in the wrong era when Mark Allen was cleaning up in Kona…people need to hear these legendary stories.
Just sent you an e-mail.
Wolfgang is THE MAN who invented first to T2. \
It may have been before your time Dev, but the original hammer to T-2 was not Wolfgang, but my training partner Kim Bushong in the Feburary 82 race. We came out of the water together in a super tough swim year(the worst on record), where only about 5 of us even broke an hour. I went on to my usual blow up in the heat, but Kim pu the hammer down and dropped Dave Scott right away in the howling winds. Tinley who swam a 1:10 or so, caught up to Dave on the bike, and the two of them rode together, while Kim hammered about 8 0r 9 minutes into them to T-2…Unfortunately for Kim, he hadn’t done much running in his life, but managed to hold on for 8th place. I remember this was the year that he decided to do his usual swim taper, and he did nothing for 2 weeks before the race, and I mean nothing(well, watch a lot of TV). On race day it was like he was shot out of a canon, and the taper worked perfectly for him. Funny thing was, he was a drop dead sprinter in swimming, did the 50 and 100yd free. Never would have guessed he had Ironman genes, except that he was not that good of a sprinter I guess. He went around 22 flat and 48 for the 50and 100, but that was ok for the Jr. College we swam at…
Not only was he the original hammer, but coming in 9 minutes of Tinley and Dave was never done again, and is about equal to Normans domination the last year he won…
Camel Boy is on it.
Thanks…just exchanged emails with him offline from ST. This should be a good one!
Awesome. Thanks
It may have been before your time Dev, but the original hammer to T-2 was not Wolfgang, but my training partner Kim Bushong in the Feburary 82 race.
ok so perhaps wolfgang didn’t exactly INVENT first to T2 but he probably/possilby did it with more frequency than anyone else…didn’t he? i didn’t get into the sport until the late 80’s so i’m certainly up for a history lesson from uncle monty.
i know rob mackle was an all-american but wasn’t wolfgang the first olympic-caliber swimmer to turn pro and race? it seems like he was always first out of the water.
I remember that in 1996 Bruce Gennari beat the whole gang of Pros out of the water. 
I think Wolfgang’s best years were 91-92-93 when he backed up the first to T2 strategy with 3 flat or just sub 3 splits…in 1993 he went 8:20 and finishes third to Mark Allen and Pauli Kiuru.
But it was in the 1989 Ironwar between Mark and Dave that Wolfgang perhaps served up the biggest carrot in front of these giants…it looks like he beat them to T2 based on the splits…anyone have the ABC tape?
1989 TOP TEN MEN 1st Mark Allen 51:17 4:37:52 2:40:04 8:09:15 2nd Dave Scott 51:16 4:37:53 2:41:03 8:10:13 3rd Greg Welch 51:39 4:43:43 2:56:53 8:32:16 4th Ken Glah 51:24 4:38:57 3:02:10 8:32:32 5th Pauli Kiuru 53:29 4:43:08 2:56:03 8:32:42 6th Scott Tinley 54:15 4:38:53 3:03:43 8:36:52 7th Jurgen Zack 52:23 4:39:20 3:06:49 8:38:33 8th Yves Cordier 51:20 4:41:50 3:06:01 8:39:13 9th Ray Browning 51:33 4:42:04 3:05:57 8:39:35 10th Wolfgang Dittrich 48:13 4:39:04 3:12:38 8:39:56
and almost 20 years later after all the aero gadgets and powermeters and special nutrition plans etc, the 10 ten are realistically NO FASTER if you consider the savings from the bikes, wheels and helmets alone!!!
2008 TOP TEN MEN 1st Craig Alexander 51:43 4:37:19 2:45:00 8:17:45 2nd Eneko Llanos 51:39 4:33:26 2:51:48 8:20:50 3rd Rutger Beke 54:44 4:34:44 2:47:49 8:21:23 4th Ronnie Schildknecht 54:56 4:34:25 2:48:19 8:21:46 5th Cameron Brown 51:50 4:36:46 2:53:39 8:26:17 6th Patrick Vernay 51:58 4:42:49 2:51:40 8:30:23 7th Andy Potts 48:40 4:46:00 2:54:31 8:33:50 8th Mathias Hecht 51:42 4:36:55 3:01:12 8:34:02 9th Michael Lovato 52:58 4:45:20 2:52:11 8:34:47 10th Eduardo Sturla 54:47 4:34:26 3:03:19 8:36:53
Don’t forget Rob Mackle the beef! Product of the I.U. swimming program!
Dittrich was always one of my favorites. Got more air time then most for 4 or 5 years. It seemed like Wolfgang was ready for a big race in 94 when a knee injury forced him out. If there had been as many Ironman races then as now he probably would have probably snagged a couple of nice wins.
I have every year since 1986 on tape and have watched that 89 videotape more than a few times. Wolfgang was out in front along Alii, and Mark and Dave go by him, as Sam Posey says, “like he never even existed.” Great rider…and I think he was on the 650’s sooner than most. Monty would know…
…
But it was in the 1989 Ironwar between Mark and Dave that Wolfgang perhaps served up the biggest carrot in front of these giants…it looks like he beat them to T2 based on the splits…anyone have the ABC tape?
No, but it is on youtube. It is great to watch if you have ~40 minutes to spare. Dietrich gets a bit of airtime as he hammers the swim/bike.
and I think he was on the 650’s sooner than most. Monty would know…\
Back in those days, almost everyone was on 650’s. I think in one Hawaii, 26 of the top 30 men were on them, it was a given. Most countries had a QR copy, and the Germans brand was Principia… 80 degree, 650c wheels, and one of the most popular bikes at Ironman because of the German army that would show up every year…
And to the top olympic caliber swimmers before Wolfgang, there was Paul Donahue, and Djan Madruga from the early 80s…I think Djan was an olympic finalist, and Paul was a top distance guy that became the best open water swimmer in the world for a time…Those two would swim side by side the entire swim, and Paul would sprint him up the beach. He had the lifeguard knowledge on how to finish for that popsicle stick… In the very first Ironman on Kona in 81, the guy that won the swim was 5th in the world in the 1500 at the time, name escapes me now. I was just happy to be within a couple minutes of him, he would have beat me by 5 minutes in the pool over that distance…Gotta love open water…
I have another Wolfgang story.
I was racing Roth 1993…I was starting in Wave 3, with a number higher than 2000, 30 min behind the pros. Anyway, long story, but I flatted twice with only 1 spare…Roth was 3x60K loop. I was closing in on 120K point feeling miserable about my day, when suddenly I hear a lot of vehicles…Wolfgang goes flying by…he must have been riding 50 kph through this small town…then Jurgen Zack blows by with his own motorcade…then a minute or so later, with no motorcade, Christian Bustos from Chile pulls through…hang on …Christian Bustos, closing in on T2 only a few minutes behind the German T2 specialists…I knew that the game was over for the German studs if Bustos was so close.
Bustos went on to win Roth 1993, in an era when you were either German and won, or if you were a foreigner, you were only brought there to be served up as cannon fodder. I’ll have to pull up my results, but I remember then all went 8:0x.
Dev