Stories about the final preparation for the world’s most famous triathlon

When the famous gun went off at the Pier in Kailua-Kona, the 50 professional men sprinted towards the first buoy as if the race was to be decided there. While the ocean showed kindness this year with little waves and currents, the pace of the fastest men was unforgiving. Halfway to the turnaround buoy a split of the field saw Kienle in the second group. After the 3.8 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean, the SCOTT Athlete ran into T1 with a deficit of around 4 minutes. Except for last year, when he completed the swim split right behind the first group, a handicap after the first discipline in the ball park of 3-5 minutes was about normal, so no reason to get nervous.

Out on the bike, Sebastian saw himself in a larger second group trailing the first group by around 4 minutes. Not far into the bike split, the German took charge in the chase and despite the quick pace up front, the gap started to melt rapidly. At the 60 kilometer mark, Kienle and Austrian Michael Weiss closed in on the leading group. Only a few kilometers later, the climb up to the turnaround point in Hawi commenced and the fireworks started. On the climb, multiple surges from different riders were neutralized, however, the group started to fall apart. The descent after the turnaround point then saw more victims of the tremendous pace set at the front and the group quickly diminished to 7 riders. The ride back towards Kailua-Kona on the Queen-K remained uneventful. The group of 7 stayed together and most riders took turns at the front in order to extend the gap to the groups behind. Sebastian tested his competitors with a surge on the last 30 kilometers but quickly decided to keep his energy for the run instead. The well-known “Uberbiker” has explained earlier this season that escaping on the bike becomes more and more difficult and that he works on different strategies to beat those who are able to stay with him during the bike leg. The group of 7 rolled into T2 one after the other. A situation Kienle would not have been comfortable with a couple of years back. 

Kienle ran out of the changing tent right behind 2015 World Champion Jan Frodeno and quickly closed the gap to his fellow countryman. Running shoulder to shoulder the two headed out on Ali’i Drive towards the first turnaround point much to the excitement of the many spectators along the way. On the way back into town, the two were still running together, however, they extended their lead to the rest of the group to over two minutes. Up Palani road and out of the city, Frodeno put in a surge and distanced Kienle by a couple of seconds. On the long straight of Queen-K, Frodeno started to pull away from Kienle and extended his lead to over two minutes by the time he entered the infamous Energy Lab. While Kienle was still running strong, Frodeno seemed to have slightly more left in the tank. With the positions remaining identical, the two exited energy lab and headed back towards town where the crowd was waiting for a German one-two finish. In a time of 8 hours and 10 minutes, Kienle crossed the finish line 3.5 minutes behind the defending champion Jan Frodeno. "Jan is currently the strongest, and that's motivation to push hard next year," said Kienle. "I'm pretty close, not exactly where I want to be, but I have to be happy with it."

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