Thomas, Markus and Bernhard at the start in Italy!
Beside our pro Thomas Steger, who could repeat his last year's victory, also two of our agegroupers were at the start. Bernhard Gutschmar and Markus Reiter were top motivated at the starting line and were looking forward to a great race.
A mass start into the 14 degrees cold water of the Adriatic Sea was the prelude to the first discipline and both did very well. Only Markus felt that the stomach problems, with which he already fought at the beginning of the race, probably did not come from the excitement. He had to throw up several times and so the race was over for him before it had really started...
For Bernhard it was all the better - after a really good swim he did three laps on the bike. After that followed a solid run and after 04h51min he crossed the finish line quite happy - congratulations!
