Kuota News |
21-23 October 2005: Kuota exhibits at Bicycling Australia Show.
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10 July 2005: Normann Stadler wins the OPEL Ironman Triathlon.
______________________________________________________________________________ 21st May 2005: Virginia Berasategui Luna wins the Ironman Lanzarote, Canary Islands By Kevin Mackinnon for Ironmanlive.com on Sat, May 21st 2005.  Virginia Berasategui Luna worked hard for her win at Ironman Lanzarote this year, but in the end she accomplished the first part of her year's goal -- to get a qualifying spot for Kona. Last year we shouldn't have been surprised to see Virginia Berasategui Luna win Ironman Lanzarote. She was the defending ITU World Long Course Champion at the time. She had also just narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympic Games. In the end, she said that missing the Olympics was a blessing. "I must say thanks that I am not going to the Olympics," she said after her win. "I have always said my dream is to win an Ironman . now I have realised my dream." Which goes a little way towards explaining why Berasategui Luna was so emotional after her successful defence of her title this year. Ironman racing has been an important part of her family life since she's been a child. Her father was the first Spaniard to compete at the Ironman World Championship. There was more to the emotions, though. After an incredible start to her race in Kona last October, she was forced out with back problems. It turns out that an accident as a child has left her without one of her quadriceps muscles, and with a right leg longer than the left. (Not to mention the huge scar on her leg!) The end result is an imbalance that, when she spends too much time in the extreme triathlon aero-position, sends her back into spasm. She recovered from the back injury soon enough, but then, over the winter, began to feel extremely tired. A blood test revealed that she had mono, which forced her to rest. With just 12-weeks of training under her belt, she arrived in Lanzarote, completely unsure of herself. "It was a hard winter, and I lost a lot of confidence in myself this year," the 29-year-old said after her win. "Thanks to my family, my friends, my coach and my sponsors who believed in me, I'm here and I'm winning again." "It was a different way to win, but it's still special," she said, referring to the fact that her competition was much closer this year, and her time was much slower. The time difference, she says, was a matter of not being as fit as last year, and the much tougher conditions the athletes were facing. "I just wanted to see how I could go," she said. "I've only been training for 12 weeks. Last year I had a lot more competition over short distance. I think I was in the best shape last year. I have been sick - this winter was really hard. The weather was very hard in Spain, too. Lots of rain and snow. But all that's behind me, and I've got my spot for Hawaii." Hawaii remains a very special goal for Berasategui Luna. "Last year I couldn't finish, and I was sad, but also happy because it was my first time there, and a lot of the time I was in second place," she said. "I saw that it's not a dream to be in with the best. I just wanted to finish this part, to work hard and get the slot. Now I can rest and prepare over time, and build some confidence for Hawaii." Berasategui Luna worked hard for her win in Lanzarote this year, but in the end she accomplished the first part of her year's goal. She is heading back to Kona. The next step will be to finish what she started last year. ______________________________________________________________________________ WORLD RECORD! 14th May 2005 - Int. Kraftwerks Trophy - 12h Team Race  Kuota Team made a brand new world record at the 12h in Theiss with "Continental Team Sva Kranj" thanks to Uros Silar and Valter Bonca from Slovenia, Hans Peter Obwaller and Michael Knopf from Austria. The team reached the optimal result of 526km and then, with other 5km, fixed the new 12h world record with 531.05km. The quartet started with a high timing. Halfway trought the race, the avarage wind-speed arrived at 45km/h. It Seemed to slow down in the first night hours maintaining, however, 44km/h. Although some problem with lapped racers and bad weather conditions, the Team succeeded in doing its best with an avarage speed of 44.2 km/h and 531.05km. That meant new world record. KUOTA TEAM: a. UROS SILAR (1978): 15 times Slovenian champion, several times top ten racer during the national tour b. VALTER BONCA (1968): several times Slovenian champion, twice winner of the Austrian tour c. HANS PETER OBWALLER (1971): 16 times Austrian champion, 3 times top three racer in the Austrian tour d. MICHAEL KNOPF (1980): 3 times Austrian Champion, MTB champion, winner of the Austrian MTB cup. PRESENT LONG-DISTANCE RECORDS: 12h TEAM: Kuota team (Aut/Slo) - 531 km (2005) 12h INDIVIDUAL: Markoh Baloh (Slo) 24h TEAM: Infotec, VMC rain, Bama Rad (SUI) - 1018 km (1998) 24h INDIVIDUAL: Daniel Wyss (SUI) - 977 km (2002)   ____________________________________________________________________________ 16th October 2004: Normann Storms To An Impressive Victory In Kona By Nick Munting for Ironmanlive.com on Fri, Oct 29th 2004 (6:17 AM). "They all told me before the race that a cyclist can't win in Hawaii...well, I just won!" Click here to check the results of the race.  Sixteen years ago another German triathlete first tried to win the Hawaiian Ironman off the bike. Last week, Normann Stadler comprehensively proved it"s possible. He's know worldwide as the "Norminator", but he came to prominence, "down under" as "Stormin' Normann". This young German, following in the footsteps (or cycle shoes) of other German cycling greats like Wolfgang Dietrich and Jurgen Zack . . . ripped off a "double" in twice winning the Ironman Australian Triathlon. He followed luminaries such as Peter Reid and Lori Bowden, who had both used that race as stepping stones to bigger things in Hawaii. On another very tough day in the lava fields of the Kona Coast, this 33-year-old native of Mannheim produced an incredible 54.27 swim, biked an even more incredible 4:37:58 and cruised home in an ever so strong 2:57:53 to win $US100,000, the 2004 Ironman Triathlon World Championship, and the hearts and minds of those who have followed his already long career. He's been both a pin-up boy and the bad man to the media in Germany. He's had good seasons and bad, run injury free and lived through frustrating niggles to survive and conquer. He's an everyman of the sport made good. Real good! A true insight to Stadler was to be had in his speech at the Ironman in Kona, the presentation speech both mature, funny, serious and sensitive. The well rounded professional nature of the man showed in his skillful payback to sponsors present, and his cry for future sponsorship as well. The winner was up early post race; already in and gone from the Ironman Media centre long before most media had indeed risen to complete their stories. I caught him there, congratulating him on victory, something I've been able to do twice before, but not on a stage as big as the Hawaiian Ironman. He took us back, 17 years ago to 1988, and his first German National Triathlon Championships (won at his first outing too) and explained how he had converted from cross-country running. "I won many titles, but never a title such as this." Normann told a mesmerized audience. "I rang my father before the race and he told me, "in 1984 you won the cross-country championship. In 1994 you won the World Championship for Duathlon in Tasmania (Australia) and now in 2004 you will win in the Ironman in Hawaii." And it happened so - but I don't think I'm doing another race in 2014" he joked. Normann went on to explain how he stayed with triathlon to chase Olympic glory, pursuing that distance for much of the next 10 years. "But then they changed the rules and I wanted to go to the Olympics, but I said "I'm a triathlete, not a drafter, so I decided to change to the Ironman." His forthright admission was greeted with tumultuous applause from the assembled age-group competitors. He explained the crossover was not that easy. "Is Simon (Lessing) here tonight," he joked, a friendly jab at the pre-race favorite making the big step up to Ironman distance racing after a tremendous career at the shorter distance events. "So you can't do the race right away. It was hard to train for the Ironman. My first race in Switzerland was in 1997 and I was fifth but it was a very hard time." "Then I had some good races, two wins in Australia (2000 and 2001), but in 1999 I was only 15th in Hawaii with a big fight with Ken Glah. I beat him because he went maybe 20 times to the toilet on the run!" There's some great humor in this winner and his jokes were lost on no one in the audience. Rolling on from his first victory in Australia he was third in 2000 in Hawaii and Peter Reid welcomed him to the podium club. This was something that surprised Stadler. 2001 was not so good and he had a bad year, but bounced back to place fourth twice in 2002 and 2003. "I thought OK, now is my time to go one higher or maybe two higher, I know I can go better." Stadler told his audience. "Early this year I was in Majorca. I trained with Team T-Mobile, " with Jan Ulrich, (Santiago) Botero and (Alexander) Vinokourov. They killed me on the bike!" "And Kai Hundertmarck was also there, the (German) Age Group winner here." Stadler's understated summary of the cycling camp from hell was not lost on this audience. But his problems didn"t end in chasing the world"s best around Majorca! "So I injured my knee, I got an ITB problem. The I did Ironman New Zealand and I dropped out on the bike because of those problems, then I switched my (seat) angle six weeks before Ironman Germany but I couldn't run for five weeks and then I dropped out with stomach problems!" What Normann didn't tell his audience was at this time the German press, ever his friends, were now starting to turn on him. He'd also had some other hard races, including Ironman Japan the year before. It's hard to be a national hero. He again took us further into his journey however. "The two weeks later I did Ironman Switzerland and I finished second with a personal best. I said "OK, lets go to San Diego and get ready for Hawaii" and I did a six week training camp in San Diego . . . and then four weeks before the Ironman here I broke my toe on the way back from the toilet to my room." His deadpan comments broke the audience into fits of laughter, but totally in sympathy with its wounded hero. "I said OK, it's not my year" and I went to the doctor the day after he said "It's broken and you need four to five weeks rest." I said "that's not possible, I have to race on October 16." And so I started aqua jogging and cycling and now all my shoes have holes." To allow him some comfort in his continuing training program, Stadler cut holes into ALL his shoes, bike and running" and he found comfort. "So, I was riding and running with shoes with holes in and yesterday too (in the race) and so, it works." He said matter of factly. His race summary was short, to the point, and funny. "Yesterday, especially, I had a very good swim. I was swimming very easy behind some legs. Yes! And I saw all those guys in the transition, and that's not normal for me because usually I see them at Waikoloa but yesterday I saw them in the transition and after 30 kay I catch the leading group with Peter and Tim and I said "OK, lets start the race now, not in Waikoloa." "So I tried very hard and it was very tough conditions yesterday and I did my best and I suffered a lot and I had 18 Powergels and 2 bars but I think they saved my life" "And then off the bike I saw the first splits at the turn around at Alii Drive, and I had 15 minutes to my team member in Germany, Alexander (Taubert) and 22 minutes to Peter and I said "maybe they did the wrong way or I did a short cut on the bike". "Yesterday was very fair on the course. There was no coaching outside and no times so it was very fair for me and also for those guys. Then at the energy lab I see I still had 17 minutes on Peter - and then I was cruising home and so I won the World Championships in Triathlon." For those who didn't know Normann Stadler, before his Hawaii victory, his speech gave definition to the new Prince of the Ironman. To those who have known him throughout his long career, this was the confirmation of his crowning achievement in a long, and at times arduous journey to the top of the Ironman podium. And it's a safe bet we're going to see a lot more from Normann Stadler, the man from Mannheim! |
