After a moment of shock before the finish line: Frodeno pulverizes the triathlon

Jan Frodeno dropped to the floor, put his hands over his face and couldn't believe it himself.

After a few minutes he got up again to the thunderous applause in Burgberg.

With a terrific performance, the triathlon superstar pulverized his own world record of 3.8 kilometers of swimming, 180.2 kilometers of cycling and 42.2 kilometers of running and pushed the boundaries of his sport anew.

Frodeno completed the distance on Sunday in the Allgäu despite a moment of shock with a fall on the running track in 7:27:53 hours. In the duel with Lionel Sanders, he was the first person to stay under seven and a half hours over this distance and undercut his previous world best five years ago and one day in Roth by more than seven minutes (7:35:39). "It was great to do something like that," said the three-time Ironman world champion, who also holds the course record for the classic in Hawaii. "I tried to run as fast as possible while running."

The Canadian Sanders could not keep up with the rapid pace that Frodeno set from the start.

In the spectacular “Tri Battle Royale” in the Allgäu, he only crossed the finish line more than a quarter of an hour after Frodeno in the still world-class time of 7:43:32 hours.

Despite the clear backlog, he said: "This is something I will not forget in my life."

One month before his 40th birthday, Frodeno demanded everything from himself in his relentless hunt for records.

The conditions could hardly have been more difficult, regardless of the specially selected super-fast route.

Temperatures well below 20 degrees, plus hours of precipitation.

"That wasn't Frodeno weather," he said.

It was almost only dry when warmth lovers Frodeno and Sanders made their way to the swim start in the Großer Alpsee.

A boat went out onto a pontoon.

"I'm super nervous, it's surreal that this is happening now," Frodeno said before the race.

The two duelists had no time for the impressive panorama.

With the starting shot, the wild hunt for the fastest time that Frodeno had set on July 17th, 2016 began.

As expected, he immediately escaped the Canadian opponent in the water.

Four laps had to be swum, the buoys were placed in such a way that both came around the curves as quickly as possible, and a line was stretched one meter under water for better orientation.

Frodeno needed 45:58 minutes. It was 45:22 minutes in Roth. Sanders got out of the Alpsee five minutes after Frodeno. Everything was perfectly prepared for the first change, in the morning Frodeno and Sanders had parked their high-tech bikes in the specially made boxes on a small podium. And then that: Frodeno's helmet slipped out of his hands, the visor flew in a high arc through the air. Frodeno briefly raised his arms in disbelief before he hurriedly packed everything up and got on his bike.

Less than four hours for the 180.2 kilometer long bike course - that was the goal. A stretch like under laboratory conditions: almost straight ahead on a cordoned-off federal road. Five laps and a spectacular banked curve accelerated the turns. With a good 300 watts of power, Frodeno raced through the meanwhile heavy rain. Sanders only came into his field of vision on the other side, the North American could not shorten the gap, he continued to lose. Frodeno's time on the bike: 3:55:22 hours.

Frodeno was clearly on course for the fastest time in the world, but again the change took a little while because he pulled a pad out of his racing suit. Then it started, the marathon and the rain got heavier again. Frodeno but not weaker, with a heart rate of sometimes even less than 140 beats and per minute and at up to 15 kilometers per hour he hammered over the 10.55 kilometer long circuit.

The audience caught their breath in the finish area when Frodeno slipped on the soaking wet carpet there after his first lap. In the Spanish adopted home, the children were already worried about the promised play tent, reported Frodenos from the sunny Girona connected wife Emmma: "We can't wait until he comes back home." His face contorted with pain, he had picked up the pace again and was that rushed towards a new fabulous time.