Saturday in Hamburg has been a wet affair. Grey, low hanging clouds brought rain for most of the day – as you can see on this photo from the “Binnenalster” where the swim will happen on Sunday:
The buoys in the foreground are for the second part of the swim, the first part will go into the bigger “Aussenalster” and swimmers have to pass under the bridge next to the white tents on the right hand side. The weather for race day is supposed to be much better, but the rain added to the tension most athletes feel at bike checkin.
Starting with bib #1 will be Kristin Möller, she had a wide smile when dropping off her bike (before packing it into a number of orange trash bags to protect it from the rain):
You can see Kristin’s bike in the foreground, the picture shows bib #2 Daniela Sämmler who has focused her summer racing on Hamburg and seems confident but relaxed:
Eva Wutti (bib #4) was among the first to drop off her bike – it was setting unprotected in the rain, collecting a number of water droplets as the day progressed. Hopefully her electronic shifting is water-proof!
Dutch Pro Sandra Wassink-Hitzert (bib #14) came prepared – her kids helped her pick out some princess-themed pink plastic tablecloth in a discount store that she used to build a makeshift tent for her bike:
Mike Schifferle has finished more than 70 Ironman-distance races so far – of course he is “Thumbs Up” for the first edition of Ironman Hamburg:
Horst Reichel took some extra care to protect his chain from the rain – he’s hoping for a good, solid Ironman finish after a couple of not very satisfying races:
Carlos Lopez Diaz is going to be one of the fastest swimmers tomorrow, he’ll need a good finish to make it to Kona. I didn’t particularly like the color scheme of his bike, but that won’t impact how fast he’ll finish:
James Cunnama is the pre-race favorite on the men’s side – he was all business when he quickly dropped off his bike. It didn’t take too long for the bike to be drenched, with some droplets forming on the seatpost of his P5X.
Happy racing to all starters at IM Hamburg tomorrow!