This Saturday, February 18th, Sebsatian Kienle starts his farewell tour at one of the most scenically spectacular triathlon events: Challenge Wanaka (middle distance) in New Zealand. The race features one of the toughest, most honest triathlon courses in the world against the breathtaking alpine backdrop of New Zealand's Southern Alps and Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site. It is New Zealand's largest triathlon festival with 11 different race formats.
Kienle starts as one of the favorites, the strongest competitors include the Australian top athletes Matt Burton, Caleb Noble and Fraser Walsh. But a number of young New Zealand talents also want to make life as difficult as possible for "Sebi": Jack Moody, Mike Phillips and Sam Osborne, as well as Matt Kerr, one of the best AG athletes of 2022, who is having his first professional season in 2023 The young guns are really keen to demonstrate their skills in front of their home audience.
Endurance test for thighs and calves
Both the cycling and running routes are very selective. The 90-km cycle route has "only" 500 meters in altitude, but these are spread over many short, crisp ramps and make the course very unrhythmic, inviting you to "gamble over it". After that, however, it's off to the hard running course. This runs almost entirely on the trails of the Glendhu mountain bike park - unique in terms of landscape, but at 368 meters in altitude a real endurance test for thighs and calves.
The race begins on Saturday February 18th at 7:05am NZ time.
Please note the time difference: Wanaka/New Zealand is 12 hours ahead, ie German time starts on Friday, February 17 at 7:05 p.m.
Live timing and race updates are available at http://www.challenge-family.live .
Sebi - we keep our fingers crossed for a nice and successful start to the last season.
