Exactly 323 days after his 5th place in the Ironman Hawaii 2004, Rutger can finally participate in triathlon events again. He has just finished a high-altitude training in Font Remeu, but due to the doping-case that finally was proven not to be one, he has no clue about his current condition. Nevertheless, at the start in Monaco, Rutger is considered as a candidate winner, together with Herve Faure, Xavier Le Floch, Timo Bracht and Stefan Holzner. 
Despite the high temperatures, the athletes are allowed to use swimsuits. Rutger leaves the transition zone in 24th position and 2min20 behind the leader Poulat, who very quickly is joined by 3 more Frenchmen: Pernet, Mainard and Loisel. The bike leg contains a lot of climbing and that's an advantage for Rutger, who is known to be a good climber. Unfortunately, what goes up must also come down, hence there are also a lot of dangerous descents. Descending is not really Rutger's specialty. During the first 67km of biking, delay with the leaders will vary in between 1 minute (top of the first hill) and 2 minutes, at the bottom of the last hill of 12 km towards Nice. Timo Bracht, who came out of the water a little further than Rutger, joins Rutger after 25km and really throws himself downwards in the next descent. Rutger has to let him go, but a little further Bracht has fallen and is just mounting on his bike again, as Rutger comes by. From that moment on the two athletes will stay together in 9th and 10th position. At the front of the race, Poulat drops off, while Faure manages to come back and join the leaders.  At the bottom of the 12km climb on the Turbie, Rutger attacks.  It is a long climb, but the average percentage of increase is only 6%: that's perfect to 'fly' upwards on the big plate. He goes on and soon hears all the others go back to their small plate. If I can keep on doing this for a few more minutes, he thinks, then  for sure  I will be gone from this group.  Meanwhile some spectators shout at him that he has come within 30 seconds of the leaders. Rutger is extra motivated because of his 'doping-affair' and therefore decides to take a gamble: maybe he will suffer because of all this during the final run, but now he tries like hell to close the remaining gap with the 4 leaders. Just before reaching the top, he catches one of the Frenchmen, who had fallen away from the other 3. For once, Rutger also takes some risks in the descent that follows and soon we have 5 leaders. The French do not really understand what has happened to them. All the time they have been told that Beke and Bracht were 2 minutes behind, and now, out of the blue, Rutger has come back.

Rutger comes into the transition zone as #3 and really sprints towards the tent to change clothes. He leaves in third position too, but goes into a terrible pace , so that only Herve Faure can follow him for a few more minutes. After 1 lap he has an advantage of 30 seconds. From now on he systematically will increase his advance. He finishes the difficult 21 km running lap in 1h12min21sec. A fantastic return as a triathlete after 11 months of plane misery!!!  Faure comes in as second, with a delay of more than 4 minutes, and has to hurry in the end in order to keep Xavier Le Floch from the silver.
 

After the race, Rutger gets congratulations from Prince Albert of Monaco.  His majesty even remains at the finish to hand over the medals and to be pictured together with the winners. As usual, a few hours later, the slots for Hawaii 2006 are distributed. Rutger does not want to take any risk en takes his slot. That way he his guaranteed participation in 2006, even if he does not end in the top-10 of the 2005 event. This will take away a lot of pressure one month later in Kona, and that might improve his performance!

Back in Belgium, Rutger immediately starts with the final preparation for Hawaii. He will leave for Kona on September 23.