Hoeks Triathlon, Lommel Belgium, 9 Aug 2026

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Preparation

Injury free leading into this race, targets for this race were:
- swim: was hoping to swim around the same time last time I had a non-wetsuit swim here, so around 28'
- bike: keep my power numbers in check at around 250-260W and be around the same time as last time here, so 1:07ish
- run: hopefully better than 4:30/k, didn't think I had the speed I ran here last times around in me currently.

Location



The swim is a 2 loop Australian exit setup at the Barefoot Beach which is about 8km from the city center. T2 and finish line are both located in the city center of Lommel. 

Stay

As the race venue wasn't to far away and there was no need to leave the bike the day before the race, we didn't opt to stay close to the venue and just made the trip on race day. 

Swim + T1 0:28:51 AG-4/30

  • 4th time taking part in this race, so pretty familiar with the race venue by now, straight 2 loop swim with a beach run in between. 
  • As always I started near the right and not in the front to avoid the starting chaos and madness. Some guy spurted past me on the beach at the start and when hitting the water he started to do breast stroke, I was like are you serious right now??? This time somehow I still did end up in the middle of the chaos, but it wasn't to bad, just happy people their nails weren't to sharp as I felt a lot of nails on my feet. From the first turning buoy onwards I found some good feet to sit on for the rest of the first lap, in the beginning of the 2nd lap the pace of this athlete kinda dropped of so I decided to gap to a next group. When passing that group some faster swimmer past me as well so I jumped on his/het feet and managed to stay on them for the rest of the swim.
  • AG 13%, so not bad at all, my Garmin had the swim time at 26:41 corresponding to a pace of 1:48/100m.
    • 2026: 0:28:51 - AG 13% - 1:48/100m (non-wetsuit swim)
    • 2025: 0:26:40 - AG 29% - 1:38/100m (wetsuit swim)
    • 2023: 0:26:01 - AG 23% - 1:44/100m (wetsuit swim)
    • 2022: 0:28:13 - AG 29% - 1:52/100m (non-wetsuit swim)

T1

  • My helmet and sunglasses did drop from my bike, so I was looking for them for a second as they ended up one behind the next bike. But no big delay there.

Bike 1:06:16 AG-2/30

  • As during past times here, the long straight along the canal is ... headwind! Tried to keep my power numbers in check, around 260W, to save a bit of legs for the run. Near the end of the first lap my behind the saddle bottle jumped from my bike, luckily it was just water + electrolytes and I already had drank at least some of it, the carb bottle was still on the bike. To compensate for the loss of the bottle I took an additional salt capsule. Nutrition taken in was 750ml water + 2 x 50g gels, I think I took 2 or 3 salt caps and maybe 1/3rd of a 750ml bottle which had water + half a hydration tab.
  • AG 6% - 38.1km/h - NP = 263W - 8m of elevation, so power numbers where around where I wanted them to be (250-260), slighty better time compared to previous years on the same bike course:
    • 2026: 1:06:16 - AG 6% - 263W - 38.1km/h
    • 2025: 1:07:18 - AG 23% - 251W - 37.6km/h
    • 2023: 1:07:49 - AG 15% - 271W - 39.0km/h
    • 2022: 0:59:59 - AG 7% - 280W - 40.1km/h (slightly different bike course)

T2 0:01:07

  • Legs felt good hopping of the bike, so had good hopes they would feel good running out of T2.

Run 0:41:21 AG-4/30


  • 2 loop setup of 5k each, through the city center with great fan support.
  • Didn't look at my watch for the first maybe 1.5k, just ran with it hoping it would be better than 4:30/k, when I first looked at my watch it was around 4:15 so I was pleased with that. I was closing little by little the gap to some guy in front of me, I guess he was running 4:20. A little after the turnaround I managed to close the gap and I decided to sit on his feet for a bit to help me save some energy in his draft. Running back into the city center he held in a little and I took the lead. The 2nd lap he stayed on my feet, I just tried to keep the pace around 4:15-4:20 hoping I still had something left for the last 2k. He probably had the same idea as he increased the pace around the 2k mark, I was to scared to blow up and decided to keep running my own pace. For the last 500m I did manage to find another gear and still passed some athletes but didn't manage to still grab him. 
  • Nutrition wise I tried to grab 2 cups of water at each aid station as I didn't had as much liquids on the bike as planned, I also took a 30g gel and a salt cap at around 3k into the run.
  • AG 13% - I forgot to stop my Garmin watch after the finish line, but looking at the splits the pace was around 4:15/k, so my best run to date on this course!
    • 2026: 41:21 - AG 13% - 4:15/k
    • 2025: 43:09 - AG 38% - 4:25/k
    • 2023: 43:35 - AG 37% - 4:24/k
    • 2022: No run due to injury

Overall 2:17:36 AG-2/30


  • Happy with how I felt during the race for all 3 disciplines, never went to far into the red on the swim, managed to control my power numbers on the bike and managed the dropped bottle well and on the run I managed to keep a 4:15 - 4:20 pace for the entire run.
  • AG 6% and first time ever for what I recall that I got a podium spot in a triathlon race!! 
    • 2026: 2:17:36 - AG 6%
    • 2025: 2:18:07 - AG 23%
    • 2022: DNF due to injury
    • 2023: 2:18:19 - AG 20%


Result

  • Swim + T1  0:28:51     AG-4/30
  • Bike            1:06:16     AG-2/30
  • T2               0:01:07     
  • Run             0:41:21     AG-4/30
  • Total           2:17:36     AG-2/30



Tags: Hoeks Triathlon Lommel race report, race report Hoeks Triathlon Lommel

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