After a frustrating start to the season, Daniel Bækkegård bounced back brilliantly with a podium spot at T100 London and that has set up him perfectly for his big targets for the rest of the campaign, starting with T100 Ibiza on Saturday.
In the second part of an in-depth interview with TRI247 [the first is here], he tells us why he thinks the T100 Triathlon World Tour has been a game-changer – so much so that Kona and the IRONMAN World Championship isn’t quite as special as it once was.
The Dane lines up in Ibiza ranked number nine in the PTO’s world rankings and once again this weekend he’s part of a stacked start list. It includes reigning IRONMAN World Champion Sam Laidlow, who topped the podium last time out at T100 London, double Olympic champ Alistair Brownlee and the winners of T100 San Francisco and T100 Singapore, Marten Van Riel and Youri Keulen.
Spoilt for choice?
But for the athletes it’s a real balancing act picking their races – Kona’s now not far away for the men and the likes of Kat Matthews and India Lee are racing the women’s event in Ibiza just six days after their IMWC in Nice.
Baekkegard told us: “Obviously, we’ve had the WTCS scene going from point to point for many years, but I still think it’s kind of a different stress on the body to actually do a half distance.
“There are some athletes who will struggle a bit and also some athletes who will see opportunities. And that’s how I view it right now, that you’re in that position where you just need to figure out the perfect way of planning a whole season where you have to be close to 100% in at least four races to be fighting for the whole series win.
“You can see right now we’re in a position where the whole series is wide open and you don’t really know who’s going to win and also who’s going to be on the podium. I think that’s kind of unique, not something we’ve had before in the sport and everybody has to learn how to navigate through it.”
‘The best time ever to be a triathlete – and a fan’
There have been four different winners of the men’s races so far and Baekkegard adds: “The fact it’s very open and very exciting is also something that helps promote the series and the sport.
It’s not like Formula 1, where you can kind of see from the first couple of races how good the cars are.
“You don’t tend to have many of our races won by 10 or 15 minutes these days. It’s like there are way, way more guys who can be in contention for the podium, and that’s, I think that’s really cool.”
The theme of the best racing the best on a regular basis appears to be raising the bar for everyone too, as Baekkegard acknowledges: “I think it’s just about being professional, to be honest. It’s about perfectionism in some ways, where everybody’s looking for gains.
“It keeps everybody on their toes, and it’s great for the sport, it’s great for the spectators.
“And I think one thing PTO has been very good at is obviously making the series and making the races, but also putting pressure on IRONMAN and Challenge to deliver some very good races with good prize money too.
“So other athletes – not only the contracted T100 ones – can benefit from that kind of change. We’ve seen it in races like IRONMAN Frankfurt where you had 80 guys or so on the start line and there have been massive fields for other IRONMAN Pro Series races.
“It’s evolving all the time – right now is the best time ever to be a triathlete and also to be a fan of the sport.”
Not all about Kona
But a potential quirk of that is the IRONMAN World Championship is suddenly not the be all and end all of the season – and it’s now definitely not the only race of the season where all the big guns take each other on.
Daniel told us: “I think that’s a huge change. On the whole, I don’t view myself as one of the old guys [he’s 28], but I’ve still had quite a few years on the circuit so in 2018 or 2019 Hawaii was the only thing everybody was talking about.
“And now it’s not really because there’s so much other great racing out there.
“That being said, it’s still a huge target for me and something I really build up to but it’s [just] one of the highlights of the season. Because I’ve had two horrible experiences there, I really want to come back and just deliver something I can be proud of.
“And even though the course is probably the most boring course you will ever find in triathlon, it’s still so mythical. You know all the best athletes in the world will be there and obviously that’s something that triggers us because that’s what we seek.
“So after Ibiza I go to Hawaii and then have the last two last races of the T100 [Lake Las Vegas and Dubai] – that’s been my main focus the whole year and still remains that way.”
Inspiring the next generation
Along the way Baekkegard will continue to produce some of the most engaging YouTube and social media content out there.
And when asked why that aspect is so important to him, it’s a simple and heartfelt answer from the man who started out as an elite swimmer before moving into triathlon: “When I was younger, I looked up a lot to Michael Phelps.
“But there was no channel where I could get much information about him. I took small bits from interviews where I could learn things from him. I loved the sport and the stuff he did and it provided a whole lot of motivation. But I missed the whole persona and how his life actually worked behind the scenes – and what the struggles were.
“Now that I’m in a position where I can actually try to inspire some younger athletes to not only start triathlon or start sport or go for their dreams, no matter they are. But I can also show that you can have – obviously do have – struggles. You can be injured, have bad races and so on – but you can always bounce back.
“It is actually a really nice life when you chase your dreams, no matter what kind of position you’re in.”
