Torbjørn Sindballe

The Early Years

As a kid I spent a few years swimming competitively before entering my first triathlon back in 1991. It was put on in my home town and at 15 I was pretty young for a triathlete at that, but was quickly drawn by the energy and spirit of the sport. Though out my years as a junior I won a few medals at the Danish junior champs, but was often trailing the best in my category. I lived and breathed as a triathlete, but was rarely as consistent in training as my competitors and often ended up just making the national junior squad as the lowest ranked member.

In 1996 I took up sports studies at the university and was quickly inspired by the depth of knowledge I had the opportunity to tap in to. I started taking much more interest in training, set very specific goals for everything I did and the results started ticking in. The summer of 1998 was my break through in Denmark and Scandinavia with a 3rd at Danish short course champs(non-draft) and a 2nd at the Nordic short course champs. The same year I was selected to represent Denmark at the Long distance world champs in Japan and despite the classical way to fast bike – dying on the run mistake, I won team silver together with Peter Sandvang and Allan Månsson.

The Breakthrough

After the experience in Japan I was fired up to take it further and came under the wings of national coach Gabor Klöczl. For the first time in my career I was actually training at elite level and it paid of with an explosive jump up the ladder. In one year I developed form being number 3 in Denmark to winning individual silver at the world long distance champs in the summer 1999. The same year I debuted on the Ironman distance with a Danish record of 8.18.53.

In the following years I was too eager in training and as a consequence I suffered from a string of injuries and it was not until 2002 before I was back in contention internationally. In the spring I won a star studded Half Ironman California, by out running the likes of Craig Alexander, Tim Deboom, Cam Brown and Craig Walton. I was named rookie of the year by Triathlete magazine and in the fall I won my second world championship silver medal in Nice on a not very Viking friendly course.

The Titles

I opened the 2003 season with great expectations but was once again to eager and ended up overtrained in the spring. After 5 years with Gabor as my coach it was time for a change and my current coach Michael Krüger took over. For the first time I got acquainted with big volume training and won my very first title in August when I won the European long distance champs in dominating style on home soil in Fredericia. Once again I felt on road to eternal stardom, but yet another injury struck. In February I had a serious dysfunction in my pelvis and had to take 9 weeks off from running on a very critical time in the base period. The odds where bad, but after a fantastic 3 months of training I won my first world long distance title in the Swedish town of Säter, where everything begun in 1999.

The following fall I debuted in Hawaii Ironman and with a 6 place finish I had one of the best rookie performances in a long time as well as the best ever performance by a Danish male. The spring of 2005 was probably one of my best so far, if you look at performance in stead of prestige. For the first time I was able to put together a world class performance in all of the three disciplines in the same race. Earlier I had shown tremendous strength in either the bike or run segment, but when I won California half Ironman for the second time I did both in the same race.

Once again I was filled with high hopes when injury struck once more, with a nagging jumpers knee. From May till October I could not run more than 1-2 hours a week and even though I compensated with 4-5 hours of aquajogging every week, I was suffering bad on the run in the October Hawaii showdown. After a blistering bike erasing Thomas Hellriegel’s record from 1996, I ran OK for 15 miles before my legmuscles gave up and I had to walk it in. In 2006 I was back training good – too good, since I ended up severely overtrained in the spring and summer. After a long rest period I resumed training steady in September and put all my focus in to the long distance world champs in November. I came back stronger than ever and won the Ironman 70.3 Australia followed by my second world title.

Ambition – Striving for excellence

Early in my career I have often focused my energy into a specific result goal – like becoming world champion. And even though such a commitment is a tremendous motivator and mental exercise, I have often felt frustrated by focusing on a certain result, since triathlon is so much more than that. A result at a race will always be a measure of your competition rather than yourself. You can win with a poor performance over a bad field or come 5th with the performance of your life in strong field.

Instead I am focusing my energy in to all those details that constitutes the perfect performance, turning every stone to maximise the effect of training, nutrition, rest, equipment and mental strength. This is more meaningful in order to maximise my potential as well as winning races.

With in the single disciplines of swimming, biking or running you can see athletes with excellent performances, that transcend the boundaries of sport and almost becomes moving art or a powerful visual expression. Seeing Wilson Kipketer running the 800m or Jan Ulrich riding a TT is a study in pure elegance and efficiency.

As triathletes we can never reach such perfection in a single discipline. To us, the excellent must be defined by the complete combination of swim-bike-run, with no weak spots where everything melts into a whole and the three become one.

In the middledistances of our sports I have come close on a few occasions and my victory in the 2005 Ironman 70.3 California stands out as the one where I made the excellent performance for me. I swam, biked and ran world class and felt a weird satisfaction and fullness after the race, since I could not see anything I could to do better.

I am yet to make a similar performance on the Ironman distance and it is my dream to achieve this in the coming years:

“I feel I have a race in me with a lead pack swim, a record setting bike and a sub 2.50 run. If possible I hope to be pushed to the line and win in a sprint finish, because only then….. I know I have given everything and made the perfect performance”

Results

2007
3rd Ironman Triathlon World Championships, Kona, Hawaii
4th World long distance Champs, Lorient, France
3rd Ironman New Zealand
Winner Vikingman Fredericia

2006
World Long Distance Champion, Canberra, Australia
Winner Ironman 70.3 Australia, Port Macquarie
Winner Vikingman Fredericia, Danish Champion Long Distance
Danish Champion, Sprint
10th Ironman Austria

2005
Winner Half ironman California
2nd Wildflower Triathlon
2nd St. Anthonys Triathlon
Bike Record Ironman triathlon World Championsships: 4.21.36

2004
World Long Distance Champion, Säter, Sweden
6th Ironman Triathlon World Championships, Kona, Hawaii
Danish Champion Sprint and Long distance

2003
European Long Distance Champion, Fredericia, Denmark
2nd Ironman Wisconsin
3rd Half ironman California
6th World Long Distance Champion, Ibiza, Spain
2nd Danish Sprint Champs
3rd Danish duathlon champs

2002
Winner Half Ironman California
2nd World Long Distance Championships, Nice
Winner “Home de Ferro” Triathlon, Ibiza
Danish Sprint Champion
5th World Long Distance Duathlon championships, Austria
Danish Duathlon champion
Winner Lanzarote International Duathlon
4th Powerman Holland
9th Half Ironman St. Croix

2001
5th World Long Distance championships, Fredericia (Ironman dist.)
Danish Duathlon champion
2nd Powerman Luxembourg
5th Powerman Austria

2000
Struck by several injuries, but managed 10th in world long distance champs after just 6 weeks training.

1999
2nd world Long distance Championships, Säter, Sweden
Danish Record Ironman i 8.18.53 , Almeere Holland. Debut Ironman.
Danish Champion, duathlon

1998
First Long distance triathlon: World Championships, Japan 17th

** Author: Torbjørn Sindballe www.sindballe.dk