Faris Al-Sultan starts at TOUR Transalp 2017 - Ironman World Champion at the everyman stage race

Over the last decade, Faris Al-Sultan has been one of the best triathletes in the world. The now 38-year-old celebrated his greatest triumph in 2005 when he was crowned long-distance world champion in Hawaii. The Bavarian ended his triathlon career in 2015.

In 2017, the TOUR Transalp is at the top of his annual programme. Faris Al-Sultan will tackle the seven-day ride across the Alps alongside Dr Werner Leitner: "He was a co-founder of my Abu Dhabi Triathlon team. We already completed a mountain bike race together in South Africa in 2009. We are both tough and have a wealth of experience from over 20 years of endurance sports," says the multiple Ironman winner.

However, Al-Sultan also knows that "of course we are not as fast as we used to be. First and foremost, we want to have fun at the TOUR Transalp". The two have not yet inspected the challenging route. And Al-Sultan only knows the horror stories about the difficult passes such as the Mortirolo: "We like to torture ourselves, but we no longer have the knife between our teeth," explains Faris Al-Sultan, who will be competing with his partner in the Master category. "It's hard to believe, but the two of us are already over 80 years old. But we don't want to lag behind," explains the Munich native confidently.

Info: http://tour-transalp.de