Henri Schoeman | Category Archives: Africa Cup

2013 Cape Town ATU Africa Cup

Posted on 18 February, 2013 by Henri Schoeman Posted in Africa Cup, Continental Cup, General update, International experience, International racing Leave a comment

Yesterday in a beautiful sunny Blouberg I ran myself onto the 2013 ITU Africa Cup podium, behind World Ranked #5, Richard Murray and Current Junior World Champion, Wian Sullwald.

With a strong international field it could have been anyone’s game since it was a sprint distance event. It is really cool to have ITU races in South Africa with a lot of international athletes taking part. It makes racing a lot more fast and exciting without having to travel abroad.

With an 11H30 start, temperatures reached over 30 degrees and water temperature below 16 degrees with some wind.

The swim was horrible for me. The cold was just so bad it made my face, feet and hands hurt! My mouth froze into one position because my muscles were not responding. Nevertheless my brand new Huub Archimedis wetsuit did a very good job and I still got out of the water first with a comfortable margin to get through T1 and on my brand new bike.

I was hoping to see how I could “race” with my new bike compared to my old bike, but I made a mistake of not tightening my saddle enough. It was moving up and down, so I lost power and I couldn’t get into a comfortable position. I decided to wait for the chasing pack of about 13 athletes and not do anything sudden to avoid losing my saddle… however the bike rolls 100 times better!

Coming into T2 I made sure I was near the front and was 6^th into transition. Richard Murray and a German athlete had a flyer through T2, followed by Wian Sullwald, Wikus Webber, an Austrian athlete then myself. I worked to just catch up to the chasing athletes and take it relaxed up the hill. At the top they slowed down and Richard was near so I took a gutsy move and surged to close in on him. I passed the German but soon felt the after effects of a sudden attack that was a little too early and Wian caught me at 3km. I hooked onto him and with just over 1km he started picking up the pace. I hung on until about 300m then he opened a gap and I didn’t have the leg speed yet to catch up.

I am very happy with my performance. It is the first time I have had a good training block since January, recovering from a knee injury. I look forward to my next event which will be the ITU Africa Cup incorporating South African Triathlon Champs in East London next month.

Results can be found on http://www.triathlon.org/results/result/2013_cape_town_itu_sprint_triathlon_african_cup/8892

A special thanks to my support from FINIS, Huub Design, Classic Eyes, Cytomax, Future Life, and Puma. Also a big thanks to my family and girlfriend for their support and to my two coaches, Alisdair Hatfield and Joe Schoeman.

First ITU Win (ITU African Cup, Troutbeck)

Posted on 20 November, 2012 by Henri Schoeman Posted in Africa Cup, Continental Cup, Gopro Video, International racing Leave a comment

On Saturday I had my first ever ITU win in Troutbeck, Zimbabwe. It has been my most special achievement yet.

I left Durban in the early hours on Thursday and arrived in Troutbeck that night at 7.30pm. After a good dinner and sleep I woke up to a beautiful view of the lake and venue where the race was going to be. At 2000m above sea level I was out of breath just by packing my bike. I had good warm ups but felt the altitude affecting me with a sore chest and headache.

On race day I was feeling nervous because of the difficulty of the course we were racing. I made sure I had a good breakfast, fueling up for the hard race ahead and not make the same mistake as I did in Auckland a few weeks ago.

As I started warming up, thick heavy clouds came over the venue and it started pouring with rain. It would be a little dangerous as it hasn’t rained there for a long time and there was lots of oil on the roads, making it very slippery. I was very relieved that it was not sunny because it would have been a killer out there!

In the swim I went my own pace at about 60-70% of max and had a 1m 40s lead over Chris Felgate and Rudolf Naude. The bike course was tough, riding 3.3km uphill and back down again to complete that lap 6 times. I started the first lap easy to see what conditions the roads were in. I saw Felgate and Naude closed down on me so I picked up the pace going harder every lap and they only managed to put a 30s dent into my lead while working together. This put me with a 1m 10s lead going into the tough hilly run course. I started hard and just hoped that I wouldn’t die because I really wanted a win here. After every lap I felt I was getting faster and I didn’t feel any fatigue, so the last lap I really pushed myself and won the race with a 3m 46s lead over Felgate and 5m 47s over Naude.

My splits for the race are as follows:
Swim – 00:17:52
T1 – 00:00:49
Bike – 01:11:37
T2 – 00:00:35
Run – 00:33:22

I was really happy that I had such a strong performance with one of my proudest wins yet.

It was an honor racing Zimbabwean Legend Chris Felgate over the past couple years as well in this race as it was his last International race. He has retired from competitive triathlon.

I would like to give a huge thanks to Triathlon Zimbabwe for welcoming us and treating the athletes so well. I felt very honored and special to be a part of the race and competing. I felt that the smooth running and good organization of the event all contributed to my win at the end.

I would also like to thank my sponsors FINIS, Cytomax and Future Life as well as my family and girlfriend for their great support.

I will have a video from the race ready as soon I can so watch this space for an update. It will be a special one!

My next and last race of the year is in Vanderbijl Park for the final of the BSG Triathlon Series.

Africa Cup inc. SA Champs, P.E

Posted on 21 March, 2012 by Henri Schoeman Posted in Africa Cup, International racing, Local racing Leave a comment

Our trip to PE started by waking up at 3.30 on Friday morning and started the long drive. After 14 hours we arrived and I had a quick swim to loosen up a little and a nice pizza to settle the tummy for bed. Saturday was the usual pre-race warm ups and race briefing. Sunday morning I had a good wake up at 6.30 and headed out to the gym for a swim to wake up because the start was only at 12.30.

The race started with a non wetsuit swim and I knew the weaker swimmers would suffer more so I kept the pace fairly hard up in front with Frederick Belaubre (FRA) and got a 20-30s gap onto the bike and attempted a breakaway. We were caught after about 8km when Wian Sullwald (RSA), Wikus Weber (RSA), a German and a Moroccan athlete were working hard together in windy conditions and we all continued working well through to the run. I was struggling through the bike with sore tired legs but a couple of gels made me feel a bit more confident.

We hit T2, dashed to our racks and got ready for the run. I was 2nd out just behind the German and kept a fast but maintainable pace and keeping in touch with Belaubre (FRA). He attacked and I decided not to go with him and kept my pace. Going into the 2nd lap my legs started to feel quite tight and could feel that I dropped the pace slightly and started running with Sullwald (RSA) and the Moroccan. Going into the 3rd lap all hell broke loose and my inside quads felt like they actually pulled and I just wanted to make sure I finish because it’s all about points at the end of the day. I lost 8 places and only a little more than a minute behind a podium spot. I was very disappointed about that but I’ll take it as a learning curve and move on.

Congats to Wian Sullwald for the elite SA title as well as everyone else. Awesome organisation of a great event by TSA and ATU.

I will be racing in Mauritius next weekend for the African Champs and keep you updated after the race. Till then cheers!

ATU Sprint Cup (SA Sprint Champs)

Posted on 21 February, 2012 by Henri Schoeman Posted in Africa Cup, International racing, Local racing Leave a comment

I had a longer travel than normal and arrived in Cape Town after a 7 hour travel from Durban because we flew via PE. Let me tell you when I got to Cape Town it is literally freezing compared to the humidity in durbs! I could easily live and train there. I went for a very short swim to Loosen up after a long travel like that. My preparation for this race didn’t go as planned because of some problems in my outer quads and hamstrings from intense running so wasn’t as sharp on race day as I would have liked.

Saturday was just pre race warm ups with about a 45min swim, 25min run and a bike ride to see if the bike is all fine, and it wasn’t… gears were making noises and I don’t like noises!! Anyway…. then it was race briefing to see how the course goes and a reminder of all the ITU rules in place. Well everything was very simple until the run course. The last 3km is like running a X-country race.

Early 4.30am wake up on Sunday for an early 7am start. It was dark when we got there but fortunately it was okay when we started. The water was 13.5 degrees Celsius and I don’t think my wetsuit helped at all. I never warmed up and my head wanted to shut down from the pain. My mouth actually got stuck in a fixed position because it was too cold to move..!

I exited first, again, comfortably and waited for the main bunch to catch up. Everything was going well until I changed gears over a bump and my chain on my rear derailer jumped off. I was now probably cycling twice as hard and actually struggling to keep in bunch. I really just wanted to get to T2 to see how my running is going! About 1km from T2 my chain jumps off and I struggle to get it back on. After the bunch is about 50m ahead I get it on and sprint back and only caught them going into T2. I was basically walking through transition because of the traffic of everyone in front and by the time I hit the run I was trailing the leaders by 40seconds. I never gave up because I could still earn valuable ITU points in which I did by finishing strongly in 17th and coming 4th in SA Sprint Champs. I had a top 10 fastest run on the day with a 16:11 which means my running is improving and on track.

Cycled like this for 15km! Crazy

Good experience learned and hopefully I can still use my old 2nd hand bike again! Congrats goes to winners Rich Murray and Carlyn Fischer. Two South Africans winning the top podium. Thanks to 11 Global for a well organised and fantastic event in Blouberg.