Interview with Fabian Lachenmair (Team Skatertreff - Germany). - Obviously it wasn't the best weather during AIC-2 race. Did you still enjoy it? - It was actually a little disappointing that we had to race in the rain, but I really enjoyed it very much, especially since my last race has been more than one year ago. - You was one of the strongest skaters through the race, many people expect you to be on the podium. Did you spent too much energy for intermediate sprints (2nd, 1st, 1st and 1st placement) and did not have enough gas left for the final sprint? - Thank you for the compliments. Speedskating is a team sport similar to bicycle racing. There are workers and winners in a team. The workers are skating in front, blocking the wind while the winners hide behind the workers to conserve their energy for the final sprint. I worked together with my friends from Italy (Michele and Carlo) during the race. They helped me to win the sprint classification and I helped them to initiate the breakaway on the last lap. I brought them about 800m before the finish line on the top of the peloton and then I skated at full speed with the both Italians directly behind me to about 200m before the finish line (not really sure to phrase this properly, perhaps you can edit this portion) when I gave way to the Italians - who were conserving their energy till this point behind my draft. They sprinted to the finish line and finish in the 1st and 2nd position. At this point, I was already exhausted and only managed to finish in the 6th position. - Do you prefer to skate on the track or on the road? What is your favorite race distance? What kind of weather condition suits you the best? - I prefer to race on the road, because skating on the road is more demanding physically and on the track it is more demanding technically. As my strong point is in endurance, I prefer long races like marathons. I prefer to race in temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius. During races in the cold (in the range of 15 degrees and lower) I have real problems because my legs will start to ache suddenly. - During the coaching clinics and after the race you have been always smiling. It seems like you have been having a very good time here - is our observation correct? Haha……you are right! I enjoyed it a lot. For us Europeans it is absolutely great to be skating in March under summer conditions. - We have noticed you are on very good terms with skaters from Italy. Why is it so? - When I was pursing my studies, I decided to study in Italy for a year because I always felt a love for this country. Therefore in 2004/05 I was living in Bologna where I've trained everyday with the local skating team and we became really good friends. I did a lot of racing during my stay in Italy and I got to know the style of Italian skating and many other skaters from other Italian teams. - Besides German and Italian are there any languages you can speak or planning to learn? - My English is still improving and I know how to speak a little bit of Spanish as it is very similar to Italian. I would like to learn Japanese but even learning how to speak this language seems to be impossible to me, not to mention writing it. - Tell us a bit more about yourself and your club - we understand that you have been part of professional teams in the past? - I've started very late with regular training. In 1996 I began with athletics, specializing in 400m and 800m, where I built up my basics fitness. In 1999 when I was 18, a guy from my area organized a speed skating half marathon close to my home in Germany. As I was a very enthusiastic fitness skater at that time, I enrolled immediately. A speed skating club was founded there under the guidance of Stefan Hackenberg (former Roces and Powerslide Racing Team, the guy who organized the first race). I joined the club immediately and we started off as a group of men and women of different ages to train seriously. In the beginning I had real problems following the 40 year old ladies, but after some time, I improved my technique and my endurance. The following years I trained really hard and did not let discouraging voices hamper my strong will to improve. In 2003, I finally made it into one of the German top teams, the Rexton Speed Team. I stayed there for 2 seasons and we skated the Bavarian Inline Cup and the Jever blade challenge which could be seen as a German inline cup. In addition, I did the regional and national championships. In 2005 I joined the Alpa Speed Team which was later renamed into Subaru-Bont Team. I stayed in the team until 2007. The organization of the team was more professional and we could surprise the other teams every year with our results. After the 2007 season, I retired from the Subaru Bont Team as I realized that it is not possible to keep myself in a good shape and perform well at work as I was required to travel frequently for work. Now I just skate to have some fun and to keep my body healthy. - It looks like Italian skaters took AIC races very seriously while for you it was more of having fun if we are not wrong. What is your current approach to skating? Do you still train as much as in the past years? - Unfortunately I have almost no time to skate anymore due to high work load in my job. I am away for more than 200 days a year on business trips which makes serious preparation for races impossible. Nevertheless, I enjoy the moments when I get to skate more than ever before. As I cannot achieve the results of the past, I skate just for the enjoyment now. - What makes the Italians such good skaters? What can we learn from them? - The Italians learned to skate on the tracks. Skating tracks are the place where you can learn the technique in the best way because a coach can see his athletes the whole time and give advices. Furthermore the bends you have to skate on a track will help you to improve your technique a lot. Another important issue is that the Italians concentrate on the final sprint and attacks during the race. They focus a lot of their training on intervals and skating at maximum speed. Fabian winning another points sprint in AIC-2. Photo by Lawrence Ang - You are living in Italy now. Are you going to stay there for good, planning to move to another country or going back to Germany? - I have absolutely no clue about that at this point of time. Maybe it will depend on where I find my next girlfriend : - How many times have you been to Singapore? How do you like it here? - I think I have been here 5 times, but unfortunately my stays have been always for a few days only. I like the city very much because everything is absolutely clean here and the crime rate is very low. You can do almost every kind of leisure activity as it is summer throughout the whole year. - Any plans to come back for AIC race in June? It will be in the heart of Singapore prime sopping district with good prize money too. Will you ask your friends to come along? - Actually I have already checked the flights and they are quite cheap during this period. I am quite convinced to come back to Singapore also because of the breathtaking location. Hopefully some friends will join me. - Have you noticed performance of young skaters from India in AIC race you took part? Yes I have observed them. It seems that they are quite skilled and very motivated. I think if they continue training hard they can get really good results. - What about guys from Singapore? What do we need to do in order to be competitive against best skaters in the world? - What you need is a fixed place, a fixed time for training and a fixed person as coach as first step. After that, a little bit of advertisement is required so that people can discover the relatively low profile sport and join the club. It is important that the skaters can improve their skill and gain experience at competitions. It seems a little bit more difficult in Singapore as compared to European countries because the distances to other countries practicing speedskating are very far in Asia. However, you have to see this as a special challenge and not as a good excuse for eventual unsatisfying results. - Do you think Singapore can be promoted as Skating destination in Europe and other countries? - Well, I think the main problem for European skaters is the long distance to Singapore. Only a few skaters are crazy like me and take an intercontinental flight just to skate a marathon. In my opinion, if Singapore were to offer an entire week of well-organized training camp with a concluding marathon, it would attract skaters from abroad in the month of March or early April before the skating season in Europe starts. I also think that the top skaters of the world would come to Singapore if there would be a marathon imbedded in the World Inline Cup. - Anything to say to skaters who will be reading this interview? Come to Singapore for the AIC race in June. I believe that it will be a great adventure for everyone! - Thank you very much, Fabian, we are looking forward to see you racing in Singapore again. Fabian (in yellow) in 42 km AIC-2 race. Photo by Lawrence Ang Back to Media