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June 13 2004 - For Rutger, the Supercup in Leuven concludes a series of three short distance races in the middle of his season. Even though this event is not an important objective in his 2004 calendar, Rutger starts, as usual, with the firm intent to win!  However, it is difficult to estimate in advance how difficult this could be. For Belgium, the Supercup formula is something new. It was originally invented in Australia and starts with a 1/8 triathlon as a qualifier, whereby the first 30 athletes are allowed to participate in a 3-part final. Each part consists then of a 1/16 triathlon, but with the order of the different legs always changing. Moreover, winning is not based on the overall time in the 3 mini-races, but rather on the position in the end-result for the three races. Every athlete receives points for every race( 1point for 1st, 2 points for second, etc...) and these points are then added together for the 3 events. The winner is he, who ends with the smallest number of points.

During the qualifier , the better athletes are not trying to win the race, since that is not important for the final result. The objective is to arrive before the 31st athlete and to minimize the energy used.  Teammates Stijn Goris and Thierry Verbinnen, are coming out of the water first, with Rutger following after about 30'. During the bike leg, Stijn and Thierry remain in the front, but behind them 12 athletes, including Rutger, form a first group. This group quickly catches up with the leaders during the run.  From then on, the 14 leaders go into energy conservation mode. Karel Pardaens, a local athlete, sees an opportunity to show himself to his supporters and reaches the finish in first position, after a little end sprint. Kathleen Smet, who in this format is participating together with the male athletes,  is the only women in the group and is allowed to take the second position.

One hour later, the final starts with a run-bike-swim mini-triathlon.  This is the format that Rutger fears most. In order to win, he has to build up enough advance in the first two legs, so that he can survive the end-jump of the better swimmers (like his teammates Stijn Goris and Thierry Verbinnen). Together with his other teammate Stijn Demeulemeester, who in fact is envisioning the same problem, Rutger starts the race like in a duathlon: at a "murdering" pace. He reaches the transition zone together with Verleysen and Pardaens, a few seconds before  a second group of three with Demeulemeester, Bentley and Goris.  The bike leg is quite hilly, thus favoring the strong bikers.  Rutger moves on and reaches transition alone, followed by Demeulemeester and a little further Goris and Verleysen.  His advance proves to be sufficient to maintain his first position in the water. Goris manages to overtake Demeulemeester though and becomes second.

Part 2 consists of a bike-swim-run race. The Arinso-Bik athletes are giving a demonstration during the initial bike leg: Rutger, Goris, Demeulemeester and Verbinnen break away and come into the transition zone together. During the swim, Goris and Verbinnen leave the other two behind and Karel Smet, brother of Kathleen Smet and also a very good swimmer, manages to pass Rutger. But in the final run, Rutger calls everyone back to order and finishes first again, before Goris, Verleysen, Demeulemeester, Pardaens, Smet and Verbinnen. After two of the three races Rutger now leads with 2 points before Goris (4 points) and Demeulemeester plus Verleysen (7points). As he had expected teammate Goris is the one to concentrate on in the third race.

Part 3 is a normal swim-bike-run race again. Goris, Verbinnen and Karel Smet come out of the water with a little advance. Not enough though to keep ahead during the bike leg. Rutger moves to the front and Goris is the only one who can follow him. The two reach the transition zone alone, after which Rutger is able to depart on his own during the final run. He wins the third part and obviously the total race too. Goris finishes second for the third time before Pardaens,  Verleysen and Demeulemeester.  The podium thus goes to Rutger, Goris and Verleysen, who beats Demeulemeester with one little point only.

 After the race, everybody is satisfied: The athletes have participated in a tough but very pleasant race and vow that they will be back next year. The spectators like the format too: they have been watching for about 4 hours and have seen continually interesting duels.