TeamTBB Professional athlete, Stefanie Adam will be joining the start line at this weekends European Championships, Ironman Frankfurt. Coming from a successful age group background, winning her age group at Kona in 2012 and 2013, Ironman Frankfurt will be her first race since turning pro.
Having recently relaunched, teamTBB have helped Stefanie transition from Age Group Athlete to Professional Athlete once she decided to concentrate on making her dreams of racing as a professional a reality.
“On Sunday, I will be racing my first big race as a professional triathlete: Ironman Frankfurt, and I’m very much looking forward to it! After being a successful age group triathlete with age group world champion titles in the ironman Hawaii in 2012 and 2013, I felt that I needed to practice our sports professionally to improve my results. The transition from a real age grouper, combining sports with a job and getting in only 13 hours of training per week on average, to the life of a professional triathlete has not been easy. It is not only the increase in training, but also the art of resting, which I still don’t master, and the changes in daily life. In the past few months, we’ve had several trial and error phases. But slowly, I’m getting mentally and physically used to the increased workload. I’ve done some great workouts in the last few weeks and my running is better than ever before. I’m not sure if these great workouts will show in the race next Sunday, but I will do my very best to race at my best level of this moment.
The field at Ironman Frankfurt, which is also the European Championships, is stacked and very deep. I’m very excited to be out there on race day with some of the big names!
On Sunday, I will be racing in our new teamTBB apparel. Besides the nice and striking print, the race kit is very comfortable. I’m also very happy with my COBB saddle. I wouldn’t have been able to spend the extra hours on the bike with another saddle. This of course would not have been possible without our Corporate Global Sponsor, Singha!”
Loic Helin, Stefanie Adam, coach will be looking for a good result as this will be his first big race since turning coach to professional athletes. As an age group coach Helin has had multiple successes in producing age group champions for both Kona and the Ironman 70.3 Championships. This transition from Age group coach to Professional coach is an important part of teamTBB's vision to ‘create the next generation of champion coaches’. Loic had this to say
“After 41 Kona qualifying performances since 2006 by 22 different athletes on my training squad, I’m looking forward to Ironman Frankfurt this weekend: having an athlete racing as a pro - after a successful age-group career is really special.
Stefanie and I had our first test at Ironman Lanzarote, where illness blocked our plan to go hard on the bike and to see how the run would go after a ‘full throttle bike ride’ we were happy with her 6th place.
After Lanzarote, Stefanie only took a few days off and then we started specific preparation for Frankfurt. Being a pro changed a lot for Stefanie: training and racing is only half of the job. As a coach I try to guide her as much as possible in this career switch as I have also experienced shifting from age group racing to pro racing in 2007 and 2008.
No pressure on result: IM Frankfurt is part of the learning process Stefanie and I are going through and a massive opportunity to race among the world’s best female long distance triathletes.
Also at the starting line in Frankfurt will be triple age group world champion Sam Gydé, who wants to break his personal best (8:45). Dave Lietaert and first timer David Tovar who have put their focus on a Kona qualification in their own age group.
With Francois Humblet defending his National duathlon title on Saturday in Belgium, this will be a very high level weekend for teamTBB Belgium!”
TeamTBB athletes have endured many changes in the last few months with the relaunch of teamTBB but they are looking forward to Stefanie Adam producing a solid performance in what is to be a race stacked with Ironman Champions.
Stefanie, we wish you mechanical luck this weekend!