Schaffhausen International Triathlon, Switzerland - August 12, 2007

#1 at Schaffhausen International Triathlon, Switzerland

Bryan Rhodes continued the great news for New Zealand triathletes as they dominated racing in Europe with the Taupo athlete winning the Schaffhausen International Triathlon in Switzerland overnight.

In its 24th year, the event is the longest running triathlon in Europe and is raced as a half ironman with a 5km river swim, 90km bike ride and a run, the majority of which is through the forest. Rhodes dominated throughout, leading out of the water by two minutes to set up the race.

"I used today as a hit out for next Sunday's Ironman UK Triathlon were I'm seeded number one and hope to repeat what I did in 2005 were I won this race here and then went on to win in the UK by a staggering 28mins!

It was a wet and rainy day for the race so I made sure I swam as hard as I could to build a big lead I had two minutes after the five kilometre down river swim. Then on the bike I worked hard on the up hills and descended very carefully as the roads were wet and very slippery so didn't want to come off pushing it to hard.

"The run is 90% forest running and I ran strong, having the second fastest split and coming in the winner by nine minutes, breaking the course record by four minutes in clocking three hours, nine minutes."

In a further continuation of the great results, fellow Kiwi Hamish Johnson came home in second place in the shorter Olympic distance race at the same venue. This backs up a superb day for New Zealand athletes after three podium finishes at the BG ITU World Cup in Hungary.

The women's Olympic distance race was won by multiple world Ironman champion Natascha Badmann of Germany.