When Henri Schoeman heard he’d earned a wildcard entry for the PTO 2020 Championship at Challenge Daytona on Sunday 6 December he shifted into training overdrive. He had six short weeks to show what he was made of.

It wasn’t just the chance to race for a share of $1,150,000 – the largest prize purse in triathlon history – although the money is certainly welcome in a very lean year. It was the chance to measure himself against some of the best triathlon talent on the planet. And, crucially, to answer some high-performance questions in the long run-up to the postponed Tokyo Olympics next year.

The odds were stacked against him. Daytona was two layovers and a 45-hour flight away from his hometown of Durban, South Africa. There were COVID-19 protocols and regulations to adhere to all along the way. It was being held over a strange distance: 100km. A 2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run. Not quite a half-Ironman, yet almost double the total distance of Henri’s Olympic triathlon specialty. The bike course was non-drafting and pan flat, which typically exposes smaller riders unable to work with a jostling peleton or use their weight advantage to power up a climb.

Nevertheless, Henri found himself standing on a submerged pontoon waiting for starter’s orders, excited to unleash his trademark swim on a heaving gathering of world-class triathletes of short-course, middle-distance and ultra-distance fame. This was a last chance to squeeze something meaningful out of a challenging 2020.

The plan was simple enough but some heavyweight swimmers were always going to make it tough. “I tried to split up the field with the swim and so I led it out and although I didn’t over-exert myself I wanted to have one or two guys in front of me on the bike so I could follow them for as long as possible,” he admitted.

Henri’s typically humble summary belies the furious pace that he set, moving to the front early in the first straight of the two lap swim route on Lake Lloyd. There he stayed, unable to shake a group of about seven followers, but stretching everyone to their limit.

The live commentary team had started to write off Henri’s chances of staying in contention on the bike leg early in the swim. The many celebrated bikers were expected to easily chase down smaller riders like Henri and take a sizable lead onto the run.

Luckily, Henri couldn’t hear the pundits, preferring to listen to his body and draw on his experience. “I surprised myself a little bit… I found that I was in my comfort zone and I wasn’t over-exerting myself. There were times when I had to make a few passes and that really does put a sting in the legs, and I may have overdone it once or twice,” he said.

“In the last 10-15km I did start feeling it in my legs. Then I got a puncture with two laps to go, about 5-10km out from T2. I lost some time but was still able to roll through thanks to running Schwalbe tubeless tyres. The flat put me a bit further back than I would have liked. But I didn’t give up and I knew that there was still a run to come and that my running was in great shape.”

“As I started the run I used the first 2km just to stretch it out. When I got into my rhythm I was feeling amazing and running so easy, like I was just doing a long training run. I was catching up to these guys really quickly. It was really exciting. I knew I had to stay calm and go through the motions as it was still a long way to the finish line! I ran myself into second and that was an amazing feeling. In the last two laps though I started cramping and lost all those positions and dropped down to seventh.”

“All in all, I’m still learning with this distance and I’m happy with how I executed. I could change a few things with my nutrition and how much I ate before the race. But there are a lot of positives I will take out of this, and so much to learn from it. I’m really excited to improve and battle for the wins against these athletes in the future.”

Henri’s seventh-place in Daytona was the culmination of one of the most frustrating seasons of his professional career. As with many pro athletes it’s taken a Herculean effort just to stay the course. 

“The year started out exactly as I wanted it to with preparation for the Olympics in Tokyo in July. But then lockdown in South Africa and the pandemic made it incredibly tough as an athlete. Mentally it’s been challenging because we are geared around the Olympics and everything is focused on that, so when that was postponed and taken away I was left wondering, what do I focus on?”

“I decided to take a step back and focus on some of the smaller things that don’t get attention when I’m training for the Olympics or racing triathlon. I focused on running and I got my running to the best shape of my life. I also learned new things about myself and my capabilities. I realised that there is no limit to my running and that I can keep pushing it.”

“I also learned how to train in isolation. How to train with a swim belt on a chord in a pool. How to adapt to running on a treadmill. How to train indoors on my Wahoo Kickr. And I built my home training set up.”

“The Wahoo has been really beneficial. Especially getting into online virtual Zwift racing which has really helped my bike strength.”

“Although it’s been a quiet year in terms of racing there are a lot of positives that I can take out of it and I’m coming out of this year stronger than I came into it. I’m really excited at how I have adapted as an athlete throughout this period and I’m in a better position for the Olympics next year.”

Henri has seized the racing opportunities with both hands, tasting international racing with two ITU World Cups in Italy and Spain in October and November, respectively. “They weren’t my best performances, but I’ve got to remember I had just emerged from a positive COVID-19 diagnosis in July, so I was just happy to race.”

“The COVID-19 experience wasn’t pleasant. I got a fairly mild version of it but it was still worse than a bad flu. It took me out of training completely for a few weeks and it took me from July to December to get back into decent form, just in time for Daytona. That’s when I really felt myself for the first time. Daytona was the first race this year that I could control and not just feel on the limit the entire time like I did my two World Cups.”

“Daytona was a good confidence boost. I really executed the Daytona race well. First of all, it was the biggest race in triathlon of the year – mixing up all the biggest triathletes across all formats. It was a great showdown and to be part of that race with such a big prize purse – I was really honored.”

“I was just keen to see what I could do. I mean, I love a challenge and it was going to be a challenge from the beginning on an extremely flat course with a lot of big athletes with a lot of power who would be able to cruise through.”

“I handled it really well… the training had gone really well beforehand and like I said, the Zwift racing really did help with the strength.”

“2020 has reminded me that it’s about taking all the positives… and trying not to dwell on the negatives.”