The 2025 Winter Triathlon World Championships

My family has been part of the Winter Triathlon family since the 90s. According to the records on worldtriathlon.org my mum raced winter triathlon for the first time in 1998. She has won 4 medals at Europeans and 5 at Worlds. Yet, non of them are gold. When she decided in 2019 that her time in elite category is up, I felt the obligation to continue this family quest. It's what really started my triathlon comeback. So while winter triathlon might not be the most prestigious sport out there, it has a special place in my hearth.

The golden years of winter triathlon are gone and we are left with one race per year - the world championships. Which makes it special and difficult at the same time. There is no opportunity to practise, there is no space for errors. You have one try.

Knowing I had a consistent winter (something I haven't had since...2012?), my ambitions were high. I progressed on the run, I am consistent on the bike, and, in comparison with most of my competitors, I am a good skier. Finishing second last year, the goal was clear - it's time to bring that world champion title home.

My goal got slightly more complicated just couple of days before the race day when neutral athletes were added on the start list. Not knowing what have they been doing in the last 3 years, left all of us clueless of what to expect. Friday's duathlon, however, gave us a hint - it's not gonna be easy.

The race took off and I found myself comfortably in the front group - exactly where I wanted to be. Last year, I lost more than half a minute on Sandra Mairhofer, which turned out to be too much to catch on the skis. So the game plan was simple - stay with Sandra this time. Given the short distances, I've decided to risk a little and put my mountain bike shoes on my bike. It meant to run trough the transition in socks but the little discomfort was definitely worth it as I recorded fastest transitions splits.

Once we were on the bike, there was no more time to strategize. I went for it straight away, pushing 400 watts when Rogozina passed me...and was gone. We worked together with Sandra but she just kept gaining on us. Quite extraordinary if you ask me. She added some more on the skis and the race was decided. I finished second but unlike last year, I was far from being happy about it.

Looking at it retrospectively, I am very happy with my performance and the obvious progress I have done on the run. I haven't made any mistakes and raced to my best abilities. I finished second in the world leaving some really strong athletes behind. I have a lot to be proud of, yet there is a bit of a disappointment left in me.

Good thing about winter triathlon is there is another chance the day after the individual race. Lucky for us, neutral athlete are still not allowed in team sports leaving us Czechs to be the main favourites. When me and Marek Rauchfuss won our first bronze medal back in 2020, it was literally out of nowhere. I finished 10th in the individual race and we were far from being medal contenders. Even last year's silver hasn't been very expected so this new role of favourites...was new to us. We 'just' needed to do what we did the day before, avoid mistakes and we should be safe. Easy peasy, right?

My body was sore and my mind was all over the place. The juniors starting with us pushed the pace and I was way out of my comfort zone. The mind was protesting but soon enough we were on the bike and I found myself in the lead leaving team Italy behind. I had very little left on the skis but managed to create 30 seconds gap. I did not know how I will manage the second round of this lactate sufferfest but somehow I did recover and recorded even faster time split the second time around. I added additional half a minute leaving Marek a comfortable lead to enjoy his last lap on the skis.

We finally did it!

We won gold!

We are the world champions!

It felt and feels great but it also leaves me even hungrier for the individual title. One day, one day...

With these two races down, the winter season is over and I am returning my xc skis to the cellar. There is one month left until the XTERRA world cup will kick off down under in Australia. Until then I apparently have some work to do on my bike!