Sebastian Kienle heads the men’s field at Challenge St Pölten this weekend, bidding to right what he – and others – feels was a wrong – and you can watch how he gets on right here.
The triathlon legend is enjoying a farewell season as a pro, ticking off plenty of bucket list races and he looked to be in with a strong chance of adding another victory to his incredible palmares at Challenge Fréjus last Sunday.
For he’d worked his way into the lead on the bike only to be hit with a controversial five-minute drafting penalty.
‘Tough to swallow’
After paying tribute to eventual winner Bart Aernouts, he said of that episode: “This is definitely tough to swallow, it leaves a bitter taste because I felt really good and I hope I do next week.”
Seven days on he’s lining up in the Austrian countryside in a race you can watch live via the video embed below – with the English language commentary coming from our Chief Correspondent John Levison.
But he’s unlikely to have things all his own way as fellow Germans Nicolas Mann (winner 12 months ago) and Ruben Zepuntke line up against him.
All thrive on the bike and run so the testing St Pölten course should play to their strengths – and Kienle’s.
And Mann comes goes there in prime form following his first IRONMAN 70.3 victory at Marbella a couple of weeks ago where he attacked on the bike and opened up what would prove to be a decisive gap.
Kiley and Iemmolo stand out
In the women’s race, Australian Renee Kiley and France’s Julie Iemmolo, third at Challenge Fréjus, are among the favourites. Look out too for Germany’s Daniela Kleiser. The Age-Group winner at both the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship and Challenge Family’s The Championship in 2021, she was recently third at IRONMAN 70.3 Marbella – and is a very speedy runner too.
And in a break from the norm, ‘ladies first’ is the motto on race day when as the professional female athletes will jump into the Ratzersdorfer See first at 7am local time and open the race.
The professional men and the entire AG athlete field will follow 20 minutes later.
Triathlon’s mid-season report card: Tim Don on who’s raising the bar this triathlon race season
