Denmark’s Kristian Høgenhaug credited his in-race strategy adaptation on two wheels for his success at Challenge Family’s The Championship in Samorin over the weekend.

The 33-year-old produced a sub-two hour bike split – the fastest of the race – to propel himself from 10th to first following a shortened swim, before holding steady across the half-marathon.

Høgenhaug’s work on the bike allowed him to stave off the advances of the fast running Henry Raeppo of Estonia and Kieran Linders of Great Britain to take the tape in a time of 3:23:53.

Effort on the bike took its toll

Following the race, Høgenhaug explained how his bike split of 1:56:21 was key to his success on the day, and how a plan developed through the race to put minutes into his rivals prior to embarking on the concluding half-marathon.

“Yeah might not have been the plan,” he said, “I could see it [the lead] was extending through the guys that jumped off the bike behind me and then I told myself that I could ease off when I had like a four-minute lead on them and yeah I did that but, I also would be lying if I said that the effort on the bike didn’t take a little bit out of the legs as well.”

Conditions were cold, wet and windy in Samorin – which forced a truncated 750m swim compared to the usual 1.9km due to water temperature – with the field battling a headwind.

Early in the bike, Høgenhaug had planned to stick with the advancing German Frederic Funk but he was forced to re-adjust on the fly following a mechanical issue and a lack of pace in front.

“I was very careful and if he [Funk] overtook me, I promised myself I would go with him and then when he attacked I would go with him and that was kind of the plan.

“I then lost my chain after a few kilometres so I lost Frederic and but I got the chain on pretty quick and then the first turn after that I think Will Draper crashed I was like “oh it’s one of those days.”

Overcoming drama

Following that drama, Høgenhaug closed the gap once more on Funk before deciding to move to the front and open up a race-defining lead.

“I managed to close up to Fred and then after a few kilometres I could feel my jaw was shivering a little bit so I was like ‘OK that just means I have to go a little bit harder’ so yeah decided to push quite a bit – comfortably hard – but then and then it happens so that I think I Frederic is with me and then I caught Hannes Butters at the front.”

Høgenhaug managed to open up a gap of 2:32 to the field heading into T2, which ended up being the decisive factor in the race.

The Dane then produced a 1:13:19 run but his exploits on the bike meant ‘The Hawk’ earned victory in a time of 3:23:53, winning by 1:59 from Raeppo.

Hogenhaug also posted further reaction on his Instagram channel: “Just a happy guy. A win is a rare occasion for me. So they all feel incredible special. Thanks to my team and partners.”