bobthib

17 members of the Austrian National Olympic Triathlon Team and 2 coaches have been here training for the past 6 weeks. The swim each morning at 7 for 2 or 3 hrs, bike after lunch, and swim again and run at night. A member of our club was retained as a massage therapist, and arranged for some group rides. I had the opportunity to ride with them 3 or 4 times, and we had a BBQ at our house last Sunday for the team. I've learned some things I wanted to share.

1. They are a great group of kids. They all speak fairly decent English, but some were a little embarrased and reluctant to try to hold a conversation. They felt more comfortable if there was a few of them together so they could ask one another for words they didn't know.

2. Ages range from 18 - 24, male and female. Some were Juniors, others were U23, and some were Elite class.

3. THey train 8 hrs a day, 6 days a week. Sunday was their only free day.

4. They are all members of the Austrian Military, and as such are paid by the military. Their assignment is to the Team, and their job is "athelete." Most have sponsorships from companies of various types.

5. They ride road bikes, not tri/TT bikes. The reason is that drafting is allowed, so TT bikes would be dangerous. Some have short aero bars, but they must be connected at the end to prevent implement in case of a pile up.

6. They leave their shoes on the bike. Before a ride the mount the bike, and put thier foot in one shoe, unclip, and put on the other shoe, Now this may be standard for triathletes, but since I'm not one, so it was strange to me.

7. I was able to keep up with them on the group rides. I'm a B+ rider. How is this possible? Well, the rides that we were able to participate in were "recovery rides." Some of their rides were "coached" and we could not participate. But other times the coach would assign them to ride for 2, 3, or 4 hrs at a moderate pace, 18 - 22 mph. Those were the rides we could go on.

8. These recovery rides were a time for them to socialize. They liked to ride in areas were they could ride uninteruped and ride side by side and chat. Swiming and running tended to be supervised, and it was hard work. No chance to socalize.

I have friended seveal of them on Facebook, and found them on triathlon.org. I'm looking forward to following their careers, and perhaps see them on the podium in 2012!

bobthib

I got a nice thank you note from Reinhold Garnitschnig, coach of the Austrian team. They left on Friday to head home after their week visit.

Hi Bob,
on behalf of our team, thank You again, first for the the invitation at the nice gathering at Your house and you for the little gifts "coffee press" we all got !!
after a looong day trip, we all arrived back home...


Reinhold Garnitschnig
Coach of the Austrian National Triathlon Team

BengeBoy 

Thanks for the posts -- sounds like you made their training memorable for them. When all the hours training have faded in their memories, they're likely to remember most the folks they met along the way.

George

Man, that's great, I wish I could have been around for that. Thanks for the report. I'd like to see them come over my way, so I could be at some of there gatherings.

John E

A group of paraplegic Austrian handcyclists made a good show in the Race Across America a few years back.

bobthib

I know all of us in the cycling club will be very proud to see one of "our kids" on the podium at London 2012! We'll be tracking them on triathlon.org and Facebook. I gotta learn German!