firstoffthebike.com - Interviews

Tim Berkel - man on a Kona mission

You’ve had an interesting year; talk us through your year.
I think I’ve raced a fair bit this year, I’ve done a some different races. I’ve done Challenge and I’ve done WTC I’ve even had a crack at one of the Rev3 races this year. But this year’s really opened my eyes, its all about Kona so my coach and my manager and have put a bit of a plan in for Kona. Not next year but 2013 so that’s what we’re looking.

Obviously it’s my swim lets me down so that’s what we’re going to use 2012 to really work. I’m even thinking about cutting out all Ironman racing and just trying to get some speed back in the 70.3s and really just try and focus on my swimming and not worry about racing as much.


So do you really feel that that’s where your weakness lies? Where does your strength lie in Ironman racing.
I know I can ride and run with most of the top guys, it’s just my swimming really lets me down. At Vegas I lost a minute and a half to those guys, but my ride and run were competitive. I really need to be in that front group if I want to go to Kona because it’s that competitive now that you’ve got to be in that front group so there’s no point if I’m going to go there now and come out two/three minutes down and getting a 20th or 30th or whatever. I want to go there and really give it a nudge for like a top 10, a really good result.

Copenhagen for you this year was really, not a coming out, because you’ve won an M-dot before and you’re not a novice, but a really mature race from you because you had to wait out a penalty before you finally ran on for the win.
Yes definitely I learnt a lot from that race. Once I got the penalty I started being all negative and I started running and I was appealing it. And anyway I was not very happy and I was saying some things that I probably shouldn’t have.

Once I calmed myself down, I thought, "this is a marathon, there’s a long way" and I got off the bike in 3rd and then after I served my penalty I was in 7th, so I was still in the mix. I just had to back my running and I knew I was running well in training so I just got on to business and I ended up taking the lead at 21kms. But then Jimmy (Johnsen) caught me with 8k to go, and I only dropped him with 2kms to go. I learned a lot of patience in that race and I learned that it’s an Ironman and it’s a very long day so I took a lot out of that race.



For those us who are never going to see the pointy end of a race, give us a little bit of the skinny on what it’s actually like to be leading a race and some of the emotions that you go through of a big day like in Copenhagen or like in Western Australia when you know you’re out in front and you’ve got the support of the crowd. Do those memories last and keep you going?
Oh yes for sure. It only still feels like last month that I won Ironman Western Australia for the first time. It’s things like that when I struggle with training and struggle with motivations those little things, you know winning a race or leading a race like that, that’s what I think about and that’s what gets me motivated and get me back out the door and doing the training you have to do to be successful in this sport.

We saw Michael Raelert have a bit of a meltdown on Facebook after his loss to Sebastian Kienle a few weeks ago. He was calling himself a wuss and he was really hard on himself and made it public. Everyone knows it’s easy to be up when your’re up, but how do you deal with the lows of being a professional athlete?
I think Michael probably sets his sights a lot higher than I do. He’s a world champion, two time world champion, and he’s got some good results so his benchmark’s probably a lot higher than mine. I try to take the positives out of it and look at the negatives. If you’re not doing that you can’t improve if you don’t get disappointed or you don’t look at it and break the race down or anything like that. I try to take the positives out of the bad races and try to take, you know, just go back and work on the things I need to work on.



How do you respond to criticism; are you one to take criticism on board or do you respond and then filter through it later?
From my coaches and the people close to me, I can take it off them, but I’ve copped a little bit from other people lately who I don’t even know. I’ve been really finding it really hard to deal with that. If it’s constructive criticism, I can deal with it, but some people who don’t even know me, and don’t even know what I’m doing or what I’m about and criticise me, and I struggle to deal with that.

Do you feel like taking the good with the bad, especially these days with digital media meaning that everybody has access to just about everything, is part of being a professional athlete?
Yes, exactly. And that’s one thing I’m learning. I have kind of gone from the no one to winning an Ironman and starting to get a little bit of media coverage to winning another two. This year I’ve started to get a little bit more media attention and it’s one thing that I’ve learnt this year - you’ve just got to deal with it. You’re going to have people that are going to ditch you and you’re going to have people who will love you. So that’s the sort of thing that I’m learning about and I’m starting to deal with that a bit better than I have in the past.

Over your last couple of years you’ve been heading to the States to apply your trade and to train. How has that experience been for you? Do you think that its been a big part of your  growth an an athlete?
Yes, I’ve learnt a lot going to the States and racing in the States. That’s where all the good guys go and I’ve based myself in Boulder, Colorado. This is my fourth year there and a lot of the top Aussies are there - Crowie, Gambles, all those guys so I get to train with them a little bit. I did a few rides with Crowie this year and I’ve really learned a lot from how the professionals live and train.

Who do you see as part of the next wave of dominant athletes in Australia?
We’ve got a lot of great guys coming through. I think this generation now you’ve got guys who are actually not coming from a swimming or running or riding background, you’re getting guys growing up as triathletes so I think it’s only going to get quicker and faster, the guys are going to get faster.  Look at the Brownlees for example.

But for Australia, we’ve got some good guys coming through; Joe Gambles and then you’ve got my coach, Grant Giles who has a handful of good guys - Clayton Fettell and Mitch Robbins and Joey Lampi and those guys, so I think Australia’s in good hands in long course racing.

What is it like to be part of a group of triathletes, such as Crowie, Pete Jacobs, Mirinda Carfrae, who are amongst the best in the world?
I did a few rides with Crowie in between Vegas and Kona (both wins). He’s such a great guy. I sent him a private message on Facebook just saying congratulations and I didn’t think I’d hear back from him, but he sent a really nice message back to me saying this all awaits you too you know you just have to chase it. That meant a lot to me and it really made my mind up that I want to go to Kona.

So for you now the road to Kona beckons and your getting the swim all sorted out, but how tough do you think it’s going to be to get yourself into that top ten?
Oh yeah, it’s going to be very tough. It’ll be good next year too because I’ve got some good sponsorship deals now where I can kind of back the racing off a little bit and work on these things that I need to work on which is my swimming and I’m going to give it a good crack and I’ll see how it goes.
 
We look forward to seeing what you come up with next year as well as in Portland.