Whilst we all can’t await an eventual start of Lance A at IM (most of you wouldn’t like my 2 cents about him racing IM, so I spare that one out), we can at least follow another couple of German roadies testing their Iron-abilities:
Kai Hundertmarck, ex Team-Telekom Domestique, will race the 2004 Ironman Germany in his hometown of Frankfurt. His goals: a new bike record and qualifying for Kona. He plans to make Ironman his profession for the upcoming 2,3 years. He swam as kid, but is only able to do 25 mins/ 1500m right now. Two weeks ago he ran 1:18h at Frankfurt Half Marathon. And: he’s got a potential sponsor, Deutsche Bank.
His record as a pro isn’t that impressive. He finished 5th at 1991 worlds (21 yrs. old) and was one of the most promising German riders back than (and never confirmed that), won Frankfurt Classics once and had a couple of impressive races at Paris-Roubaix (wearing the US “motorola”-dress).
Rolf Aldag is currently racing his last season at T-Mobile-Team, but already announced to toe the line at 2005 Ironman Lanzarote, where he often trained in Dec./Jan… He - like Kai - is one of the most valuable Domestiques, a real horse on a bike. He’s tall and skinny and simply undestroyable.
Whatever they are able to do at those races - they’ll put some excitement and further media reports to Ironman.
Every once in a while someone makes a comment, good/bad, about Lance A and triathlons. I believe he started as a junior triathlete anybody confirm or deny this?
Man the 2004 Ironman Germany is gonna be a f*cking blast. 8 of the top 10 in Kona, and now this bike freak (in a good way). Lets hope we finally have a sub 8:00 performance.
That is true. In fact, Lance was supposed to be a friggin awesome triathlete and a phenominal swimmer. He was supposed to even give Mike Pigg a run for his money back in the day. I would love to see what he is capable of nowadays, especialy with his VO2 max of 90.
His vo2max is 84. The thing that sets him apart is his watts per bodyweight or something which he generates, and his very-high lactic acid tolerance (or low lactic production).
In his “day” at the age of 16, Lance thumped all the top pros at the sprint distance in the late 80’s at the height of their prowess, including Pigg and Allan.
He beat Pigg and Allan at least once at a Coke Grand Prix. Any time a 16 year old beats a pro at the top of his game, I consider it a thumping even if by 1 second
The first time I ever heard of Lance Armstrong was at a triathlon in Benbrook Texas (near Ft Worth). It was in 1985 I think when he was about 15 and finished 2nd in a very strong regional field.
I mainly just remember feeling embarrassed that a kid kicked my butt as easily as he did.
I still hear people in oklahoma talk of this 16yo kid kicking everyones ass and not look back. He apparently finished so far ahead of the top competitors people thought he wasn’t in the race. He did start as a swimmer in highschool in plano(sub of Dallas) and then started biking with the encouragement and support of richardson bike mart in dallas. I believe it was last year he did the dirty du in austin and was beaten on the bike but won the race on the second run. If he does make the leap it will be very interesting and watch out bike split records on any course sprint to IM.
i watched a triathlon on tv way back in the late 80s early90s where lance destroyed the pro field including mark allen. this was about the time that mark was unstoppable at all distances. if memory serves me right he somewhere back the ma won 20 straight races at all distances. for lance to beat him at 16 was remarkable
1991 Challenge of the Champions, Monteray, CA. Lance won.