Sebastian Kienle has started his ‘farewell tour’ with two races: two weeks ago he finished third at Challenge Wanaka and this weekend he fell just short of the Ironman New Zealand podium with a fourth-place finish, for sure not the results the German former World Champion was hoping for. “A good swim, an absolutely horrible performance on the bike, where I asked myself all the questions that you should’ve answered before you toe the line of a race like this.”
It’s a painful situation for Kienle, who by his own admission had an ‘absolutely horrible performance on the bike’ and he is right, as initially he seemed to catch up with the leaders of the race, but once back in T2 he had lost about 15 minutes. “Digged myself a pretty deep hole. Then built myself a ladder to climb out of it. Felt good and then bad again.”
