*DIETER HEYCKE* Our Super Senior Ironman

Dieter and Betty Heycke are two of the many athletic Bike Friday owners in Hawaii where triathlons and marathons are extremely popular. All that sun and sand, you gotta look good! Dieter rides an Air Triday, Betty, a Pocket Rocket Pro.

UPDATE October, 2007: My races this year on the BF included the Kona 70.3 Ironman qualifier in June (2nd place) - I had to quit after half of the (full) Kona Ironman bike ride at Hawi due to my knee. Other races were the ITU long course worlds in Lorient, France, July (4th place - missed a bronze medal by 64 seconds and had to see the medics after the race for my knee), ITU intermediate distance worlds in Hamburg, Germany, Sep 3, (20th - asthma, cold and knee).

Altogether I have started with the BF at 4 ITU duathlon world championships, 5 ITU indermediate tri (olympic distance) and 9 ITU long course tri world championships. Also completed the Ironman tri world championships in 2003, '04 and '05 getting a podium finish there in 2005 for 4th place. At Kona, the first 5 get awards on the podium).

At the International Triathlon Union races, only the first 3 get medals; I got a silver in 2000 in Nice, France; a bronze in 2002 again in Nice, and gold in 2005 in Fredericia, Denmark. Last year I had to cancel out on both Kona and ITU long course due to Betty's surgery ...

UPDATE 2006:

Dieter Heycke of Hawaii just emailed us the fantastic news:

I just returned from Fredericia, Denmark, site of the LC Tri world championships last Sunday. (LC stands for Long Course; the standard ITU (International Triathlon union) distances since 2002 are 4 km swim, 120 km bike, 30 km run. Olympic distance (1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run) used to be called Short Course, and is now changed to intermediate distance.)

The USA team did OK, winning 7 medals, and I was able to get GOLD in my new age group 70-74, riding as usual my Bike Friday. Results are on www.usatriathlon.org and www.fretri.dk under "WC results". See Dieter's win here

It was the 15th time I have started at a world's with the Bike Friday, also winning a silver in 2000 and a bronze in 2002, both at LC tri worlds in Nice, France.

I have been doing duathlons and triathlons for the past 21 years and started competing for the US team at world championships in '95. Denmark was my 21st participation at a world's and the 8th long course in a row.

I will be on the team for the Olympic Distance Worlds coming up in October in Honolulu, as well doing the Ironman in Kona a week later again (I hope I can recover enough in that short time).

Aloha, Dieter

UPDATE October 2004

I just got back to Honolulu from the Kona IronMan. I had to ride the whole 112 miles of the bike in my running shoes (on Speedplay pedals) as I stupidly had left my bike shoes at the condo, but still managed to have the 9th best bike time out of the 28 starters in my age group. I ended up 11th out of the 22 finishers in 65-69 with 6 dropping out or missing cutoff times. If I had been 6 months and 2 days older, I would have finished in 2nd place in the 70-74 age group.

I used the Schwalbe tires again and think that they are almost as fast if not as fast as the Primo Champions.

The Primos with their thin profile probably are more aerodynamic, but since they are so thin, I feel more vulnerable to flats on them (they also wear out much faster). My son, Jens, saw some comments on the web about various bikes at the check in and among the "odd" bikes, my Bike Friday. On the web talk somebody mused how anybody could even qualify for the IronMan on such a bike. Jens answered him: "Keep on laughing, the person riding it finished 11th out of 28 in his last year in the age group." He did not know, that to top it off I did it in my running shoes!

Aloha, Dieter