Quelle Challenge Roth Gallery
Written by: Timothy Carlson
Added: Mon Jul 13 2009
Last Modified: Tue Jul 14 2009
Quelle Challenge Roth is a lot of things, but it starts with a small town in Bavaria, population about 20,000 located 15 miles south of Nuremberg. Roth's history begins in 1060 with a mention in a document written by bishop Gundekar II regarding the consecration of a church. Roth had a market place in the 12th century, in the mid 14th century it became a city and by the 16th century it had a castle - Ratibor - and a Gothic church that stands today. By 1988, Detlef Kuhnel brought Roth an Ironman, which was taken over by the late Herbert Walchshofer and run today by his son Felix and the Challenge organization as the biggest and most prestigious independent Iron-distance event in the world.
In the past 21 years, this first European Ironman became the stage for some of the most dramatic encounters in the sport of triathlon. It's where Thea Sybesma in 1992 became the first woman to crack the 9-hour barrier, and Paula Newby-Fraser set a women's record of 8:50:53 in 1994 that stood for 14 years. It's where German star Lothar Leder in 1996 became the first man to crack the Ironman 8-hour barrier. It's also the race where in 1997, an epic duel was waged and Belgian star Luc Van Lierde passed Germany'/s Jurgen Zack with 2 kilometers to go in the process of setting a still-standing Iron-distance record of 7:50:27. Zack could console his disappointment with the fact that his second place finish remains the second-fastest men's Iron-distance time ever. To wrap up that incredible year, Lothar Leder took third and Thomas Hellriegel fourth and also broke 8 hours. In 2003, Lothar Leder beat Chris McCormack by three seconds after an Iron-distance race long war that had the crowd at the finish going mad. In 2008, the women took their turn in a mass assault on the old barrier, with four breaking the 9-hour mark and the Netherland's Yvonne Van Vlerken broke Newby-Fraser's old mark and setting a new women's world best of 8:45:48.
And just this year defending two time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington took a quantum leap for women when she smashed the old mark like Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier with an incredible 8:31:59 finish. The race now serves 4,200-plus triathletes from 51 countries and is embraced by Roth and the surrounding towns so that there is more than one volunteer for every racer.
While it has the numbers and the history, anyone who goes to Roth sees this race is about passion. Standing along with 10,000 other screaming fans on the hill called Solarerberg, cheering each rider as they power up the incline, is race director Felix Walchshofer. All along the route , in 20 or so villages, are fans with brauts and bier, holding their children all cheering these amazing endurance athletes.
All photos © Timothy Carlson.
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