speaker-0: Pro Try News is a podcast with different opinions, knowledge, and possibly fake news about triathlon racing. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only and some stories may be dramatized for comedic effect. Enjoy!

speaker-1: Hello and welcome back to another episode of ProTri News. I'm your host Kyle Glass. This week we're going to be discussing Matt Hauser's return to victory at WTCS Yokohama, a new face on the WTS circuit with Tilda Manson outspreading Beth Potter, Michelle Bordelamedi beating Christian Blumenfeld's Eixen Provence course record, and a 21 year old kid from Queens, Jeremy McLean, putting down a 159 bike split faster than Sam Long. I mean, we got a lot of other stuff to discuss and we're going to take you down through the path of triathlon and professional triathlon today. Joined by the usual suspects, Pat Lemieux, Mark Matthews, Talbot Cox, and joined by a special guest, Stanford, to help us out with some WTCS stuff. Non, how are doing?

speaker-2: Yeah, I'm good, thank you. Nice to be back. Coming in from China today, so on a crazy Asian tour with some of the Conti Cup and World Cup racing that's going on with the World Triathlon stuff. So yeah, pleasure to join you. Thank you.

speaker-1: Awesome. Are you so what's been the highlight of your trip? Give us give us the highlight.

speaker-2: The highlight was going to Vietnam. I've never been to Vietnam before. Went to Hanoi, absolutely crazy place, but would definitely recommend it. And where the race was in Tam Chuc, I honestly think it's the most beautiful race venue that I've ever been to. Completely impractical. 35 degrees, 80 % humidity in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Not a shop or anything, anywhere close by. It looked good and as the coach who didn't have to race, I had a great time.

speaker-1: There you go. And your athletes did good, right? You're working for Australia now and coaching and development and stuff.

speaker-2: Yeah, so we had Oscar Wooten and Brianna Moe on the podium for Australia. They were both second or second and third in their races. So yeah, really, really good for them. It's great development opportunity. They get to race internationally, which a lot of them haven't done before. And just experience traveling, to be honest with you, because it's tough when you go to Asia and you've got to eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and you don't know what you're eating half the time. So yeah, no, it's cool. Enjoying it.

speaker-1: Nice. Mark and Talbot, you guys are together. How are you guys doing?

speaker-3: We're doing we are together. We are at the Canyon Triathlon Camp in Austria.

speaker-4: Lionel's come abroad. He's come down with hives from international travel now. Yeah, he's actually really good spirits. It's cool to see him, you know, and in with the crowd. We had dinner with him last night. He's great. I actually thought we've got a bit of a problem because I'm like the time like the Lionel leveler. None like these three are just all diehard Lionel. So I have to bash on Lionel to give the show some level. But then I spent every time I spend time with him, I'm like,

speaker-3: He shingles.

speaker-4: just really like the guy and I don't want to be the Lionel Leveller. So I think it's a four up fanboy. But there's like Marjane Piero here, Katz here, Hayden Wilds here. And then there's a lot of amateur athletes and stuff. It's really cool. It's beautiful place.

speaker-3: Yeah, and it was a little unfortunate. We were going to have all the athletes on and then we told them that we just don't really have time to get Hayden on the show or Lionel or Marjolene. So we figured we could make room next show.

speaker-4: Can we get to Pat? Because Pat, I had a gander at what you were up to on the bike at the weekend. This is getting a bit out of control, Pat. Pat did a race at the weekend. It wasn't a long race, but his 10-minute power... It's a time trial. did a time trial on a road bike with clip-ons. Went hella fast. And a guy his size, like a slightly chubby garner. Pat did 422 watts for 10 minutes.

speaker-0: I didn't

speaker-4: 468 watts for five minutes. He had a 600 watt one minute in this time trial with an overall average of like 390 something. When did you last do a time trial?

speaker-0: ⁓ god, I don't know what 10 years ago, I mean, it would have been something. Yeah, absurd. So.

speaker-4: Mate, you need to churn out, these numbers are getting silly.

speaker-0: It was, ⁓ I had, have a screenshot from the big man Magnus and he said, you've earned yourself a time trial bike now. ⁓ and I sent that to Gwen and I was like, Hey, the big man has spoken. And she was like, absolutely not. No more bikes in this house. He's like, no chance. you getting any more bikes?

speaker-3: Here's a question then. As now we have none of the show so we can put her on the spot. Are you guys looking for Dome Steex for LA for Matt because we saw what Matt did this weekend. He had to get pulled away from Alex. We know it's a little weird that you have to compete against Alex, but you're still team mad as well. Would you like for Pat? We can teach him to swim between now and LA. We might be able to.

speaker-1: you

speaker-3: I mean if the rate is going he could just time trial up to how and then go and then pull

speaker-4: I mean, he's buoyant enough, but I mean, tell me, tell us about it.

speaker-0: No, I think, ⁓ it was, mean, this time trial, was simply just, I mean, it's only, was only seven miles. like 11 and a half K it was just go as hard as you can from the gun. it was funny because I actually, my coach was my person that was in front of me, just the way that the random draw was. And so I passed him within about the first two minutes and I was like, I'm either going to hear like Pat. way too hot or you gotta calm down or like, you know, or just keep going. So anyway, it was a, was an amazing time trial for me. I had a ton of fun. I do want to buy a time trial bike. Sorry, Gwen. ⁓ I'm, working on that actively as we speak. ⁓ I, but in all seriousness, I mean, two things that have changed the game for me. Number one, wove saddle. I can get on the front of my spike seat now and I've got no pain in the crotchal region. Thanks to them. So that's a huge one right there. And then I do this preload with the Precision Fuel and Hydration where I'm going to have, I make a 75 gram of carb bottle and I take the thing 15 minutes before I go. So the preload there is huge. So look, you've got a code for Precision Fuel and Hydration, PTN15. Please note ProTry News in the How Did You Hear About Us. And you know, look, I would suspect that you'll have some amazing results as well between those two products.

speaker-4: We're going to have to keep Pat performing well because otherwise we lose our organic ad reach. Before we move into triathlon, you said about your coach being what we call your minute man, the guy in front. This is a gospel true story. When I was much younger, I did the national 25 time trial in the UK and I was Sir Bradley Wiggins' minute man.

speaker-3: Yeah, that is Damn this last-

speaker-4: I got I got I got about four and half minutes into my 25 mile trial trial before Bradley Wiggins passed me I just thought I just give up I wasn't even trying to compete but I've never felt worse a bigger site. Yeah, I was actually his minute man, which is very cool

speaker-3: That is funny.

speaker-2: mean to have been in the same race as Bradley Wiggins is pretty cool, so...

speaker-4: Call it the same race. I mean, we weren't doing it. Right. Come on. ⁓

speaker-3: Yeah. Yeah, WTCS Yokohama is on this weekend. I mean, both races were absolutely incredible races. ⁓ Let's start with the men's first. mean, they were both exciting, but I feel like that the women's was a little more exciting. ⁓ But ⁓ yeah, you probably you watch the whole thing, too. ⁓

speaker-1: Yeah, I watched both races. ⁓ We did... Like before the race, we did a... I'd say an okay debrief or an okay preview. But the race itself was pretty awesome. ⁓ I mean, you had a pretty much a breakaway on the men's side for the swim. There was a break about... I don't know. What was it in the end? Like 45 seconds?

speaker-2: the swim or yeah yeah 35 from the back yeah

speaker-1: 35. And then they basically they just drilled the front and by the time they're getting off the bike, they had about a minute 40-ish, a minute 45-ish on the chase group, which I mean, we haven't seen that many breakaways in WTCS racing in a long time. What'd you say?

speaker-2: Yeah, it was really, really cool. See, it looked like the Aussies had a bit of a team tactics with Mers and Hauser kind of sharing, sharing the lead. ⁓ but apparently their coach Dan Atkins said they hadn't discussed it beforehand. I don't know how true that is, but, ⁓ that it just kind of happened organically because they trained together and they could kind of read each other. ⁓ but yeah, Braden Mers a phenomenal swimmer, both his parents are sort of legend in the surf life saving space in Australia. So. He's got sort of good pedigree for that open water swimming, but yeah, it was really cool, really cool to see, really exciting, I think, because Alex is in the race. want, everybody wanted to know how much of a gap did they need to keep him at bay? One minute 48, I think he was at the end is obviously a bit too much, but he ran a minute quicker or over a minute quicker than, than Hauser. So yeah, good job to get the pressure on.

speaker-4: Yeah, because I'm not buying they didn't discuss it because even us four idiots on the show said the most obvious thing that will happen is the Australians will push the swim and they'll try and gap Alex early because they have to and he's coming back into the sport right he hasn't swam really like block hard for quite a while I would say he's obviously done a little block coming into this so it was the obvious way to get rid of him I mean Miguel Hidalgo came second in the end a great runner really strong result for him You had Luke Willin in third and then who had fourth? Thorne. Yeah, Thorne straight out of Norway. With Alex here coming in fifth, remember he must have run through like a dozen people to come in.

speaker-2: there were six in front of them so there's six away so he ran down

speaker-4: ⁓ actually, no, right. Yeah. So not, he only ran down two people, but that run split is absolutely crazy. And I think that the shots fired, right? If you don't get Alex in the race and you come off the bike with Alex at the moment, you're in real problems. So I think the fun thing is it means we've kind of back to that Brownlee era where someone is going to have to drill the bike every time. Cause if you just tow, which ironically used to be Brownlee anyway, when he didn't need to. But at least now you've got to have people actually drooling this bite to get rid of Alex, which makes the race more exciting.

speaker-3: And also speaking on that, Alex did not sit in on the bike and was like, I'm just going to save it for the run now. I mean, he went to the front time and time again. And I would say really negatively impacted his run on how much time he spent at the.

speaker-4: Right, well if that's negatively impacted, I'd like to think what fresh is like. was 2908, I mean...

speaker-2: And apparently the course is at least 110 to 140 meters short. that's it.

speaker-3: the 400 meter finish line.

speaker-2: Yeah, maybe it is a long, it is a really long finish line. Actually, so many people have misjudged that when you come around the corner and it's like bloody mile away to the finish line.

speaker-3: to jump on a podcast.

speaker-1: man ⁓

speaker-4: Sorry, Talbot's boss is walking around in his clip-copping about the place. So, non-European, go on, before we move on to the women's car,

speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, I'd say the elephant in the room here is like, there was no one in that second group that Alex was in that was really pushing the pace. mean, usually that's Hayden Wilde and he's not in that race. So it's going to be interesting to see going forward to Alghero, I guess. That's a sprint race. So probably won't see too much there, but maybe the next Olympic distance race, which is, is it France or London that's next?

speaker-2: Kiberon is the next Olympic distance. Yeah. And the other big names sort of missing from that chase pack is Vasco Velache, who won in Samarkand. He is a absolute super power on the bike. So if you'd had him there as well, helping Alex, that deficit might've might've come down a little bit. It's really hard when you're a pack of like 35, 40 people to get any impetus and to catch a group that's working well. of you know small pack up the road so yeah it's it was inevitable really went for you then got out the water together but they weren't going to catch but i guess alex was on damage limitation and people a lot of people say he can't ride a bike but he absolutely can ride a bike very well

speaker-0: You know, Tom, I'm blanking on the name, but who was the Slovak athlete for years that was the Brownleys' domestique? Richard Varga, thank you. My goodness. ⁓

speaker-2: Richard Varg

speaker-4: But his job was different. It was to stretch the race early.

speaker-0: Sure. mean, but, but, does Alex or the British federation just get him some support on the bike so he can just win all of these. And at what point do we see, there a British athlete in the pipeline that would fit this, or is there somebody from another country that they'll just employ to do this work for him?

speaker-2: Well, Sam Dickinson played that role in Paris ⁓ and I guess Sam, I think Sam plans to step back into short course for LA. ⁓ So I think that's what his role will be. Max Stapley could play that role. He's a front pack swimmer, but you know, all he has to do is hang back a little bit and he could support Alex as well. I think there's a few guys that could do that and I would be surprised if they don't implement that. by the time LA runs around. I guess initially Alex just needs to get back racing and prove that the Brits should use that tactic and sacrifice other people's races.

speaker-4: ⁓ I have a slight issue with that though, in that the Brits finally, and we've been waiting a long time for it, to have a bit of a glut of male talent. And we have now some really good young athletes coming through that are exceptionally good runners and all around it. And I think to make that decision too early on in this cycle and kind of sacrifice their medal expectation, I think what we'll see is they'll try and see how close they can get these other young lads to medal contention and potentially use... Because Willis came eighth here and he's not even the best. Who's the other young lad that won under 23s?

speaker-2: You've got Olly Conway.

speaker-4: Conway, thank you. He's actually a medal contender in a couple of years as he matures. I think what we'll maybe see is take someone like Conway for the relay. And once you chuck Beth in with one of the others and you chuck Alex and him in, you've got a gold medal relay team potential. And it would be much closer to the time. Do they think Conway's at a point? Do they sacrifice him on the bike for Alex? Or do they let him race for himself? Which is a much better position for GB to be in on the men's side. Because since the Brownies went away, we've just had Alex, really.

speaker-1: And you got Hugo Milner. I mean, like we're naming all these names on the men's race before we move on to the women. Like we're going into the Olympic qualification and like me as an American, I'm like, frick man, like we missed our opportunity to qualify three men. now we legit, we're only going to qualify two men because Australia is going to qualify three and GB is going to qualify three.

speaker-0: I'm sorry, none. We had this question last week on the pot. Can you you're on the ⁓ you're on the world triathlon. What is the title? What is actually your title? I'm sorry.

speaker-2: I'm the chair of the Athletes Committee which puts me on the executive board.

speaker-0: Okay, so please explain to me how Yokohama was left that the Olympic qualification starts one day basically after Yokohama.

speaker-2: So to be honest with you, I was not on the board when that decision was made. I don't quite understand why it was left out. I guess they have to draw the line somewhere and Yokohama will fall into the end of the Olympic qualification period.

speaker-0: So it's a so it they they catch it on the on the other side basically yeah Okay, so similar similar to two years ago where it was the final one in the like the closing of it as well

speaker-2: Yeah. That would be cool.

speaker-3: Right before right before we move on, Sam Dickinson just bagged 40 grand at Singapore and he will make more and more and more money as this series goes out, because he has shown that he's absolutely incredible to 100 athlete. I. How much does Team GB pay their athletes? Couple million a year.

speaker-4: 40 grand and then if you earn that yourself from prize money in the series they'll take that back off you.

speaker-3: I mean, it's going to get pretty like, are you able to just bring someone like that back once they've made a half million dollars in prize money from T100? I mean, that's going to be pretty hard.

speaker-2: Yeah, I agree, but the flip of it is the Olympics is a lot of athletes dream, right? And I think some people are willing to sacrifice that to chase that Olympic dream. yeah, there's a lot less money in it. And I think that's going to get more and more difficult as time goes on. But I'm more more younger athletes seem to be moving up in distance now. But I think the lure of the Olympics is pretty big for a lot of athletes.

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-4: Women's race, come on, I want to talk about this because Tilda, Kat was super smug when she won because like about 18 months ago she was like, this girl is going to be incredible. I know a lot of people, Non will have seen this coming, but I think for a lot it was like a surprise. I kind of knew she'd win one. I didn't think necessarily it'd be quite so early in a sprint against Beth Potter. Non, can you take us a bit through the women's race?

speaker-2: Yeah, definitely. Again, yeah, super interesting race. The swim must have been so frustrating for the swimmers because the girls just kept bunching up at the front, swimming all over each other. Sean Rainsley kept trying to break away. Lisa Tish kept swimming up on her hip, slowing the race down. So that's why the women's race came together. You know, they just swam all over each other. Didn't sort of, didn't race smart in the swim, I don't think, ⁓ because the front swimmers didn't give each other. of ⁓ each other enough space to move away. The bike became a bit of a non-event. I think some of the British girls, Jess Fullergar, for example, tried to break away a few times, but when you're riding around in a pack of 40 girls or whatever it was, it's really difficult to do that, near on impossible, because they're not gonna let somebody like Jess Fullergar ride away either. She's super strong on the bike. If she's gone, she's gone. And she ran really well in Wollongong last year. So if she comes in with that kind of form, You don't want to be 40 seconds off the front of the race. then, yeah, the run. think where the interesting thing where Beth Potter went wrong, she was pretty much last in T2. So she automatically gave like seven or eight seconds away to those front girls who got in at the front. And when you're racing short course, it's super important that you get in towards the front, you have a good transition and you're of the first out on the run. So think Beth spent the first K chasing super hard. So you can't help but think she spent a few of those pennies getting herself back into the group. And then obviously when it came down to a sprint finish with Tilda, she didn't have what it took to win the race. But I think Tilda Manson was probably running on pure adrenaline. know, when you find yourself at the front of a World Series race at that age, something you've never done before. I think you have that next level when it comes to the sprint finish.

speaker-3: We don't we don't know what it's like to do that, actually. No, sorry. Think any of us know. It must feel pretty quiet.

speaker-4: I'm probably quite nice. yeah, Tilda looks so controlled on the sprint and she even had a little bit of a time to celebrate come the end. She kicked early, I thought that she had maybe gone a little bit early, like Non says, that finish goes on and on and on. But no, she looked strong right through to the end. I won't be surprised if we see a lot more of that. But I think maybe it's bit of an impetus to the front girls, like we can't play this game in the swim anymore. There's maybe back to a bit more communication. Maybe that's gone away a little bit, these team-ups talking to the other fast swimmers, giving a bit of space. The rest of the top sort of field was much as I would have expected with like Jeannie LeHare, Lisa Turch, Emma Lombardi. The one that I was super impressed with maybe was the old girl in the race. Gwen's got to be chuffed with seven, surely. World Series. He's muted because he's also an old boy in the...

speaker-1: Yes,

speaker-0: the ⁓

speaker-4: He's not, yeah.

speaker-0: The dream is still alive. Like I told you guys, so I'm super happy for her. think non can attest to get top 10 at these races is not something that's super easy. And, you know, the Americans have a really high bar to, get funding and, and she's, she's made some great progress on that. So I think, ⁓ we'll see. had a great, she had a great second lap of her swim. You know, I don't, think those are, those are, she's got opportunities to improve still. So yeah, super proud husband here.

speaker-1: I was stoked after her swim because I was like, dude, Gwen's in this front group. That's great. And then all of a sudden, like that front group did get away for a little bit. And then on like the third or fourth lap, the German girls were just at the front and then they brought that whole group back together. And so like I was like, well, Gwen's in this now. And then I was nervous. mean, I was texting with you and I'm like, dude, she's got to move up. She gave me the back of the group. She's got to move up. She's got to move up. And you're like, dude, we can't get greedy here. Let's just let's just see how it plays out.

speaker-2: Yeah. Interesting actually that Franka Rust, one of the German girls, I think she was off the back of that front group and chased for about four laps. And I think on Instagram said that that was her highest 21 minute power ever just to ride herself back into that group. So there's three German girls that are off the back, rode pretty hard to close the group up. And then I think once they were there, it was probably pretty cruisy, but yeah, some impressive bike numbers, I think.

speaker-0: And now I just got to, got to, sorry, I just want to clarify one thing moving forward on the world series. Elguero's Olympic distance. And then Kiburon is a sprint and relay. I think we had just said that opposite in the show at the, at the, the front end. So.

speaker-2: Yeah, it has changed a lot to be fair. There's been a lot of movement with the races, but yeah, Algaris, Olympic, Kiberon, Spring, Summer, really.

speaker-3: I saw a picture of going before the race and I thought it was quite interesting. She did have a sleeved suit on and that rule recently changed. No, maybe you can speak more to it now. The athletes are it's legal to wear a suit that goes to your elbows. Do you see any athlete? Are you guys testing it? Do you see any other athletes doing it? Pat, maybe you can attest to it, too. It looks like when did her pre-race warm up in it? or her pre swim, but then decided not to race in it. Is this an advantage, not an advantage?

speaker-0: the ⁓

speaker-1: I have an answer. mean, okay. I talked to Glenn about it because I was curious and I texted her and I was talking to her about the race, but I asked specifically about the sleeved kit versus the non-sleeved. And she said the sleeves tested a little bit slower for non-wetsuit swims. So that's why she went with the sleeveless kit for this race, because the wetsuit, it was not wetsuit legal. So that's why she was like, I'm just going to wear the non-sleeve. But she really likes the sleeved kits and it looks fresh.

speaker-0: Just go for it then

speaker-2: Yeah, think, I mean, you see more and more of the Brits wearing them. Alex Yee, Jess Fullergar, Liv Mathias, Sean Rainsley, think Jack Willis has had it on as well. So they're all starting to wear them. And I think, you'll see the real difference with the sleeved suit is in the mixed team relay where you're to have athletes riding solo and time trialling. you know, there's, know that sleeved suits are more aero and therefore quicker than the sleeveless. So. countries will more and more start using them and will be developing suits between now and LA to make sure they have the fastest suits in the market and obviously it's different to you know manufacturing cycling suits because they've also got to be able to move in them for swimming and running so it's a bit more complex but I mean GB spent a lot of money on their suits for Paris ⁓ and they didn't have sleeves so now with this new rule I'm sure there'll be even more money being invested in the development of suits.

speaker-4: I think there'll be some stuff around temperature, because what you can do is you can treat the sleeve suit with essentially swim skin coatings, which gives them the water repellent qualities, which should reduce the amount of drag they create in the swim. But then they become quite unbreathable, so they get a bit hot. But you can actually tailor that race to race. I know some long distance athletes do it. I bet Non's right. GB will probably lead the way on that, because we still have this legacy of throwing tech at anything that involves a bike. hence all the velodrome records and medals we get. So I think GBA or basically people will follow that trend on what they settle on. But the relay is a great point, by the way, because you're time traveling way more likely.

speaker-3: And before we move on, I couldn't help but watch and I'm sure a lot of people out there watching till the Manson rundown. I feel like I just was watching Lisa Norton as well. Yeah. And thinking of just the incredible career she had as well. And so I believe Lisa Norton, I don't want to rip. don't know the numbers. I think she might have said that that was her first ever WTCS win as well. So just really. And she. Yeah. Hit on that none.

speaker-2: Yeah, she posted didn't she and said that it was sort of a really great sort of mirror of her career because world, sorry, Yokohama was the first place that she won a World Series race. And I think it was also where she won Yokohama the year she became world champion in 2012. So I think the parallels, that's a really cool parallel, isn't it? know, Sweden aren't necessarily pumping athletes out year on year. It's really cool to see another country step up on the podium and if she has a career anywhere near Lisa's career, I'm sure she'd be pretty happy with that.

speaker-3: Yeah, so.

speaker-1: Before we move on to Aix-en-Provence, there was podium picks for this WTCS race. Winner of that one was AFCMD. Not sure who he is, but had the most points. Actually tied with Charlotte Linsley. 88 points. So much better at picking the men than the women ⁓ for one of them. So and then Golan Kaufman running out the podium. So. Shout out to everyone that did podium picks ⁓ for the WTCS race. For the Season's Sandings, you do have to do two WTCS races.

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speaker-3: Speaking of podium picks, and even people who listen to our show, we actually are, we had dinner last night with the current champion of Axon France, Marjolein, who absolutely annihilated the field and did say a jab that not one of us picked her for the win on our show. So, yeah, it was, it was kind of painful because she's so sweet too. And she Like, what do you think her thought process was to finish at the start line when Philip Seep was just losing its crap over? I mean, he was wanted that swim canceled. He was posted on Instagram. I mean, he was not.

speaker-4: So gotta say, like so Philip was kicking off on Instagram because there are rules around swim temperature. Now normally organizers flex those rules to let swims happen when it's a bit hot. Whereas this was the opposite and the balance basically comes in water temperature and air temperature and a reduced air temperature increases the water temperature point where you cut off the swim if that makes sense. Cause if it's freezing cold outside, even if the water. would be above the line in a warm condition, it should be cancelled. And from the data that they were announcing, it seems like maybe the swim should have been cancelled. The problem with Philip pushing it, which is why I would never push it if it was also the same condition, is Laura's a bad swimmer, same as I'm saying Kat is, right? So when you're pushing that, no one can take you that seriously because there's a massive bias for them in getting the swim cancelled. Laura, do you have fun? Sweet. So like, you can't be that person. You've got to go find someone else that wants to do it.

speaker-1: Yeah, like, like I mean

speaker-3: Canada last year, I made sure to get this one canceled for Lionel. Yeah. So like they should find a scapegoat for no, all jokes aside. Marjolein hit the front of that race and I think was just the most impressive thing on the day. Absolutely decimated the field on the bike as well. Like she's changed some things on the bike. And she said that she had record numbers, but a 219 bike split.

speaker-4: 100%. bike

speaker-3: ⁓ Absolutely.

speaker-4: I mean, she put two minutes into the next best rider on the day. It looked like kind of the vet was going a little bit off the front, but Marjolaine closed it down. there's not Mickey Mouse riders here. You've got Imogen Simmons on the bike. You've got Laura Philipp on the bike. You know, you've got Lisa Perter on the bike. They're really, really good riders. So to absolutely smoke two minutes into those girls on the bike is like, it was a really standout performance of that race for me, Marjolaine. And then she rounds it

speaker-1: venue that you have to actually ride a bike, right?

speaker-4: There's some technical stuff, there's some climbing, there's some bad roads, there's some good roads. It's like an honest bike course. And Marjolein showed again, the way she showed in Nice a couple of years ago, that if you throw in something a bit challenging, that's not just a boring out and back time trial, she's a very, very capable cyclist. She rounded it off with a 1.19 run. The second place runs, Laura Philipp was maybe the next best runner with a 1.18.39. So she was only 40 seconds down on the run on Laura Philipp, having Dom Oelster on the bike. So massive win for Marjolaine. Great to see her back racing. Imogen Simmonds second, and I will say a really good run from Imogen Simmonds. 1.18.40. She had Laura Philippe nipping at her heels the whole time, held her off. So they were the podium. Marjolaine, Imogen, Laura, and Anne-Sophie Pierre out of France, another French girl in the top five, and then to finish it off, Hannah Devette. I think Hannah went out a little bit hard on the bike. She was pulling pretty hard early on and maybe paid for it in the back end.

speaker-3: you

speaker-1: According to our data, mean, that's a PR run for Imogen, ⁓

speaker-4: Yeah, yeah, yeah. mean, what I will say though is she didn't ride particularly well for her. And it's bit of a quid pro quo and maybe it's something she's learning. know, potentially she's been over biking in the past. She held a little bit back and really benefited from the run. Because honestly, like after the year she had last year, walking away second here, beating Laura Phillips, I wouldn't be surprised if Emma is over the moon with that result.

speaker-1: and bag the slot for Worlds. 70.3.

speaker-4: bagged a slot for Worlds. I think the big one for me was Lisa Perthra. I know the cold got to her but I think she's having a rough six months in the sport after a breakout year last year. She got the dub in, was it Chattanooga at end of last year? And then didn't get her pro qualification, Kona qualification because she missed the prize giving. Then she gets sick before Texas can't start that race.

speaker-3: So.

speaker-4: She has a pretty underwhelming performance here because of the cold. I'm really keen to see Lisa back in Hamburg racing well.

speaker-0: Yeah, I wouldn't read into it too much. mean, I think the you know what we're hearing the whispers is she's got Reese Barclay coaching her. He knows what he's doing. I think it will get sorted out eventually. ⁓ But that's not one that I'm willing to. She's got a lot left in the tank this year. I'll say that.

speaker-1: Yeah, so

speaker-3: the men's race, I would, I would take it, but I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce these names. So I will let someone else.

speaker-4: A wide uncapped for volunteering.

speaker-1: Okay. ⁓ I mean, leading out the swim was Sven Thalmann. Talvitz texted me like, who's my picks? Who have I got? Stuff like that. Like right before the race is starting. It's like midnight US time. And I like texted him and tell him. And then I forgot that I'd picked Sven for the fastest swim, which he wasn't. It was Jamie, but because Jamie DNF'd according to the podium picks, you have to finish the race. So Sven Thalmann let out the swim. ⁓ I picked him. So, you know. You can check the swim leader board. I'm leading the swim leader board on podium picks. Back to the race.

speaker-4: That's the nerdiest bit as well. No one gets the swims right.

speaker-3: He's always the one to like harping about the swims.

speaker-4: And he literally can't swim himself either, it's weird.

speaker-1: Anyways, ⁓ so Sven Thalmann let out the swim, hot on his heels with juicy sneesh lag. Him returning back to racing, he had a couple surgeries last year and he's bouncing back. So ⁓ the surprise for me was the gap that they had to Rico Bogan. ⁓ In the end, didn't really matter much. Rico was able to close the gap a bit, getting off the bike. And Max Spurl, fast bike split of the day, him coming back into some racing in some form. So huge to have him back. And then fastest run of the day was Lasse Priesters. So huge, huge race in the end. Michel Bordelamedi, who he had a breakout race at one of the T100 races last year. I'm forgetting on which one. I think it was maybe the French Riviera race. And so he had already bagged a 70.3 world slot back from a 70.3 he did earlier the year last year. So him having That performance and beating the names of Rico Bogan, Lasse Priestor, I mean, that's a pretty good result for him. ⁓ Rudy Von Berg, one of those names that I was like, well, he's going to be too good on this course, didn't get as many pro series points as I was anticipating. So someone that's been really good, obviously, at the Ironman distance at Ironman Texas, and then now at 70.3, I mean, he's outside the top 10. And this is kind of a throwaway score for Rudy.

speaker-4: For Rudy, yeah, he needs to write this score off. One of the performances of the day that really impressed me the most, Lasse Priestert, who came third, ran a 1.0705 on this course. Bear in mind, the next fastest run split in the top 10 is like a 1.11. He was running four minutes into everyone else in that race. A 1.07 is like, is KB running? Is not Mickey Mouse running? And I know he lost some time on the bike, but still, that's insanely good running. Not many takeaways for me. for god's sake. Not many real takeaways for me for the pro series because actually the big contenders for the wins on the pro series overall weren't really racing. So it's only a couple of people and those that did race that would have wanted scores here I think basically lost out a little bit. ⁓

speaker-1: Yeah. thing on that race, someone's been messaging us quite a lot about this Xterra athlete, Felix Foriser, who was in sixth place ⁓ in this race. I believe he got one of the 70.3 world slots. were they were hyping him up before the race. And so ⁓ I believe this was his half Ironman debut because he's only done ⁓ like Xterra races and then maybe some European cups back in the short course days. eight years ago so ⁓ probably a name that we need to watch like a french another french name i mean in the end there was three frenchies in the top seven so they they know how to ride on those courses so not not surprised there but yeah as as you said mark the pro series for this race there's not really too much to write home about you had people getting their first scores like laura philip and marjolaine pierre and a couple others

speaker-4: All right, we've done this race. It's like it's performance. Let's hit chatty because there's only a couple of bits to talk about. We don't cover these races too heavily because they're not pro series, but it's a big 70.3 race in America. It's got a lot of legacy. Chattanooga happened on Sunday and we had a pretty damn exciting men's race because like you said, Jeremy McLean is racing for the USA. That kid's English. He's English.

speaker-1: the ⁓

speaker-4: Well, no, he was US on the Ironman app as well. So I'm not sure if he's been a disgusting traitor or not, but I've known him for a few years. He was actually like a junior that was coached by the local bike shop tri coach that got cat into the sport, you know, like a 50 pound a month kind of coach. And he's also helped this kid out who's now gone to America training out there and bags a massive win because of the people he beats Matt Hanson, Sam Long, Ari Klar, et cetera. And this kid rode a 159.47 bike split, fastest split of the day. He missed his cleats, dropped his shoe or something, missed the group, got back on and he's posted all his data and he pushed some big boy power. So he's not even got the little, you know, all the motos at the front of the race. Like he's shared all his data. Go have a look at Jeremy McLean's Insta. It's really impressive to see like the way you ride a course for me was really interesting. He some really big one minute, five minute powers way over his average. showing that he rode the course aggressively in the areas he needed to put power down and he got himself a big enough gap but he only won by about nine seconds or something in the end and that's because Ari Klaar was charging. We've been saying Ari Klaar is over to a win but he saw him on the turnaround and this kid must have seen Ari Klaar coming quite a way out and the video of him crossing the line is great isn't it?

speaker-3: is spent

speaker-4: He is full cooked into the fence, collapsed on the floor. So big shout out to you, kid. What a start, Jeremy. That was a really impressive result. Ari Klar, another narrow miss. Fastest run of the day there with a 1.07. Gosh, that guy can run. Matt Hanson in third at a 70.3, ahead of Sam Long. I'm not sure people would have that bingo cards. And then Sam Long in fourth said he just felt a bit rough. Are we going to talk much more about the men's here? No. The women's right. Yeah, go on, Kyle, you go.

speaker-1: I think we hit it. Grace Alexander won back-to-back weekends. She won Gulf Coast the weekend prior and just had the fastest swim of the day and then just kind of was able to stay away and keep the other girls at bay. Paula Finley had the fastest bike split of the day, came off the bike just a little bit, probably about two minutes down from Grace and Jackie six minutes down from them, four minutes from Paula. And Grace just ran her race, ran pretty even with Paula and was able to get the job done and get the win.

speaker-4: The women's race to me, I don't know how to say it diplomatically, some pretty underwhelming running at the front of the race for their own abilities. Like 126s to win, 126 for second, 123 for third. I'm not quite sure if the course was hard for the women, they were really spread out.

speaker-3: The jackie went 122.

speaker-4: 122.59 I rounded it ⁓

speaker-1: I think just Ari and Ben Randall just ran out of their skin running a 107 and 108 because even Matt Hanson is a great runner. He ran a 111.

speaker-2: What's the usual gap between men's and women's? In World Trathlon you say if the woman is two and a half to three minutes behind the men in terms of run split that's a really good run. What about in 70.3?

speaker-4: think at the really top end, you're looking maybe six to seven minutes. say, maybe more like seven. So say you've got to have a KB running a 107 dead on a course. Really good women's run split would then be a 114, 115. That's like there's only a few that can do that. So let's say a man's going to run a 107, a KB. Maybe at a World Champs, you've got the female winner who's ridden really well, is going to run a 10 minutes slower, a 117 dead. So like a 10 minute window. is probably more normal. think maybe because often the women get more spread out, so they probably override as a percentage of their category capacity compared to the men in general. The top girls tend to spend a lot more time in the wind than the top men because they're kind of running from a group. But yeah, 10 minutes on is about right, I reckon. So like, so we're here, we're talking like 19. no, that's totally wrong. ⁓ Yeah.

speaker-1: Yeah, 19 minutes. Yeah.

speaker-3: So speaking of some inside knowledge non we would like to know what debrief you got being on the ⁓ Being the chairman of the board when you sat down with world triathlon this last week on what all the president of world triathlon went to ⁓ Tampa for to meet with Ironman

speaker-2: The first I knew about it was a picture in the WhatsApp group, the same picture I think that's been seen. So I don't have much insight for you. We're meeting tomorrow night so maybe I'll find out tomorrow night. So you're 24 hours too early. But I mean it's no secret that you know the Deloitte report that Walter Raffon spent a lot of money on. really encouraged World Triathlon to unify the sport more because it's too splintered, hence this partnership with PTO. So I believe it's probably an extension of that, trying to bring the sport together a bit more so that it's more saleable, you know, to the viewers because it's pretty splintered. It's pretty difficult to understand if you're from outside the sport. yeah, that's, I guess the motive behind it, the result, I don't know.

speaker-0: Okay, so what let's let's break it down this way. What benefit does Scott Daru have from having this meeting? What can Scott gain from World Triathlon?

speaker-4: He posts the photo just to shit Samra and Oof up a bit for a laugh and chuckles to himself.

speaker-0: And that's okay. that, that thank you, Mark. That wasn't exactly what I was teeing up, but I wanted to give you.

speaker-3: To be fair, posts a lot on his LinkedIn, pretty much everything, everywhere he goes outside of him and his relationship. ⁓ I think the most interesting thing on it though, was he said, had a very productive meeting and interesting. So, to add in the interesting word in there, it could just be a language barrier thing. But to write interesting on there on that post was what is so like, are they working on something? Are they going to work together on something in a perfect world? We would see World Triathlon T100 and Ironman work together like that would be a

speaker-0: I think to call them Mickey Mouse is to put it lightly, right? So there's a big bridge right there that's got that needs to be built. it, and my thing is, is why does Scott need to take the time to have this meeting other than to just G up Sam Renouf? What can they gain? And I'm actually trying to say, telling you, let's let me be the mediator right here.

speaker-2: Is

speaker-0: Do you want it? Well, the easy, the easy one for me, non would just be the rules, right? How do we just get on track and have one thing of rules that's unified across the board? That would be the easy one. No, there shouldn't be a lot of conflict there. Right. Then what's the next big one, right? Would be, Hey, is this, is there ever a world where we can create some sort of broadcast product that we could sell? I think that's like the big one that I know a lot of people that are that were in the previous group at Ironman said there will be no world where they make money from the broadcast on ⁓ a scalable level like a like a tennis or golf or the major sports. Right. Yeah. So, so then what are they talking about of substance?

speaker-1: I just hope it's not how can we get 70.3 worlds to Spain every single year like what World Triathlon does with having the grand final in Spain every other year. That's what I hope it's not.

speaker-4: No.

speaker-3: No, I think I think I think I think the most important thing is, and as much as I made a joke earlier, dialogue and conversation, he wrote this in his post dialogue and cooperation between the leading organizations in our sport are essential to continue strengthening the international triathlon community. And he said it very well right there. That is true. It is really, really good to see dialogue between the two, because when there's not, it's not good. So I think more importantly than anything, it's But it's good to see them talking. We'd love to hear more. What about? ⁓ So.

speaker-0: Well, I've yet to we've yet to come up with a reason why does Scott Daru need the world triathlon?

speaker-3: Scott Daru, I would say listens and he's a team player and he does a phenomenal job at working with community. And so I can see Scott. I mean, I could be wrong in this. have no idea. I could see him the one that extends the handshake and says, come to Tampa. I mean, that's just the person that Scott is. So I don't know. It would be interesting to see what comes out of that.

speaker-4: It doesn't take strong.

speaker-1: Scott meeting with Antonio

speaker-0: that's what I'm saying so what of substance are they going to unlock there?

speaker-4: While it's even, could not just be, it could just be industry insight. It could not be like a planning to make any changes. It could be like exchanging the demographics they're being successful with areas of weakness, like understanding what we're performing well in this region, you're performing well in this region, why a bit of a mutual benefit. I don't want to dig too much into it because it gets boring without actually knowing some outcomes. That's my prediction.

speaker-1: I'm bringing a world triathlon race back to the US. mean, we're doing it for the Olympics and there's going to be a test event, I'm sure next summer. But like we haven't had a WTCS race in the US in a long time. I don't see a world that they're doing paired with an Ironman, but it would be cool. like Antonio saying, which venues have you guys... found that is good, but it's just not performing well. then that way they can maybe put a WTCS race there.

speaker-4: turn it

speaker-1: We still have the broken spoke from the Collins Cup. Trevor, you are a free agent going into this season. What made you decide to go with Wynn for this upcoming 2026 season?

speaker-0: Because I push a lot of power and I've never been in the wind tunnel so at least I could do is ride the fastest kit. Save some watts. yeah and I have Sophia and I also have a big age group team like mainly in America but all around the world and as we build that team and community it's really important for us like to make it you know all encompassing of a team like we really want to have team kits and shirts and hoodies and all that fun stuff and Winter Republic is like a really easy option for us so now All the Foley Athletics people have like sponsor correct kits that are same as mine, purple, white, win, blah, blah, blah. Super cute, fun, it's awesome.

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speaker-3: ⁓ Speaking of Spain and World Triathlon T100 World Tour next stop for the women's field is this week.

speaker-4: Yeah, Talbot can't tell but still doesn't know the difference. It was very close. No, it's women's there is

speaker-3: That was it.

speaker-1: See you in the next

speaker-3: women's thought about him for two guys. You know what's so funny? I get so much slack for it and I'm like, let's make low key making a joke, but I'm also kind of like, dang, how do I not get this? As one of our listeners is like, hey man, look here. Here's this is the best way to explain it.

speaker-4: it's really easy non is a woman but she races in women's sport sorry non sorry

speaker-3: women's race is this weekend. ⁓

speaker-4: Non, talk to me right. Georgia Taylor-Brown, you've known her forever. She's on the start list. I'm super unsurprised that she's a bit of a gun when it comes to T100. I was always surprised it took her this long to be really good. Would you have just predicted her to be great at this from the get-go?

speaker-2: Georgia's good at everything she does, honestly. Triathlon, everything outside of triathlon, Georgia just excels. So no, not surprised at all. And yeah, she kind of took a while to find her feet with it, I guess. But that's also Georgia. She's super calm, super chilled, not on a rush with anything. She kind of was just playing around last year because she wanted some time out of taking triathlon seriously. So I think we'll see. a very formidable Georgia this year and I'm really excited to watch her race over T100. She had a great race in Samarkand, her running wasn't quite where she wanted it to be, hence the attack. But yeah, I think we could see Georgia going well at the weekend and I'm really excited to see her race against this field, which is pretty good by the looks of it.

speaker-4: Yeah, so then let's just carry on with some of the short course girls and throw them to you that you know that are the big names. So Kate Waff, I know I would say a pretty underwhelming China race for Kate. Like she hasn't really tapped it out. Great sprint finish at the Conti Cup or World Truck, whatever that was. Do we think she's fit and fighting fit?

speaker-3: Well, she's really sick from Yokohama. She posted that she wasn't feeling well and it was just not, didn't have a good day.

speaker-1: think it's gonna be She's raced already two weekends in a row. This will be the third weekend in row.

speaker-4: to turn it around.

speaker-2: Yeah, sorry I wasn't. Yeah, I think it's gonna be hard for her. She's sick as well and to back up the weekend after and travel from Asia to Europe. I think that's a tough ask and I think she was like destroyed when she finished that race in Chengdu. I think it was the deepest and hardest she'd had to go for a long time and that isn't easy to recover from and I think that's maybe why she struggled this weekend as well. So I mean, never right, Kate, off. She absolutely destroyed the field in Wollongong, didn't she, last year and obviously Did well in a lot of the races, so she's going to be up there, but maybe not the best Kate Wath that we've seen.

speaker-4: Yeah. And then the third, the third kind of short course lady that I think is the other outright favorite is Julie Durant. Now, we've all felt that kind of in the eight months before the Olympics, or maybe a year before the Olympics, she sort of came out of nowhere to be this huge contender. While she's been in the sport an awful long time. Did it surprise you or has she always been as good as she has been since Paris?

speaker-2: I mean, she wasn't a big contender for Paris. don't think anybody probably even thought about Julie other than if she's out behind you in the swim, great, because she rides really well and she could get you back to the front group. I don't think anybody could have predicted how Julie ran in Paris last year. And, you know, she's obviously gone on and had some great races two years ago now, some great races since then. So I think Julie's just one of those athletes that You don't quite know what you're going to get sometimes. Like she blows quite hot and cold. But yeah, there's absolutely no reason why she won't be right up there and running fast and challenging for the podium or even the win really.

speaker-4: I'm so I'm led to believe Judy to run is going to race Ironman Hamburg in a couple of weeks time. So I wouldn't be surprised if she's entering this race pretty loaded up on training. I think I saw her post a 40 K run the other day. So I think if she is on the start line, which again, you don't always know with athletes from her camp, sometimes they can be a bit sporadic. I think she's, I think we'll see a pretty fatigued Judy to run on the start line and she'll use this almost like a last session. before calming down towards a massive Ironman Hamburg, which is a huge field. She's going up against Solveig Losseth, Laura Philipp, Lisa Perthorne, so she's going to have to be on her A game there. And there's a real sub-eight on the cards if that race goes well for someone. So I think for me, we've got a lot of other names, but it leaves Georgia Taylor-Brown in a really good position to get her first T100 win.

speaker-1: Yeah, I think so. Other names. Go ahead, non. Go ahead.

speaker-2: She's also been a-

speaker-4: No, no, no, no, no,

speaker-2: She's also been at the altitude in Sierra Nevada with her training group there. Obviously training with Vince who had a great result a few weeks ago. yeah, provided she's got altitude right, which is sometimes difficult. ⁓ Yeah, I think Georgia could be on for a great one. She's responded really well to altitude in the past and Glenn clearly knows what he's ⁓ with that. ⁓ yeah, I would pick Georgia for the win, but I am a bit biased, so.

speaker-1: I mean, for me, there's another name, Kathea Shar. She's 3-0 at the middle distance since starting. She's won two challenge races and then just won 70.3 Valencia last month. She's a name that I think that she's going to be a really good middle distance athlete. She's coming from short course as well. ⁓ That's definitely a name to watch. Nicole Vandeke had a great race at the T100 in Gold Coast. Another name that you probably should watch. And then Holly Lawrence has returned to... ⁓ to some quality racing after she raced. She raced a fair bit last year, but ⁓ her being on the start list also excites me quite a bit.

speaker-4: I would like to add Indy Lee, because I know that she's now fit and healthy and happy. I think Indy races really well when she's happy. She likes the T100 circuit. She's obviously building towards Hamburg as well. But I know she's going well and she feels, I think, pretty happy in the way that her training and stuff's gone. If she swims well and she rides at the very front of the bike race, she probably can't run head to head with Georgia, but there maybe isn't anyone else. And they could easily gap for lights in due to Ron. significantly enough that Indy can run herself onto a podium there as well.

speaker-1: And got Sophie Evans coming off second place at 70.3 Valencia. This race is going to be good. ⁓ There's one, a couple of things worth noting on the course itself. It is a point to point bike and it is quite shorter than a 80 kilometer bike. I was looking at the GPX files and stuff that T100 posted and it's like a 72, 73 K bike. So it is a fair bit shorter. There's quite a bit of climbing. I mean, I assume that it's pretty similar to how X and Provence was last weekend. Like it obviously wasn't a true 90k bike course, but it had enough climbing that it made it pretty tough and made the times seem similar to a half distance. So I'm sure that's probably just how it goes. And then it's a three loop run course. The white. Pretty good. Are you guys you guys excited for some podium picks this weekend for the straight? Mark, are you doing some podium picks for this race? Do you need some swim advice?

speaker-3: I'm gonna have a beer in probably a year.

speaker-0: Austrian Wi-Fi

speaker-1: I doubt. We'll move on to Ironman Lanzarote this weekend. Not a huge field, but you got Lucy Charles Barclay racing ⁓ going for her validation. And then on the men's side, got Sam Laidlaw versus Patrick Lang versus Leon Chevalier versus Dylan Magnan, who won last year. I mean, there's only three slots at this race. So someone's going to be going home without a slot. Maybe. mean, Laidlaw's just got to finish, right?

speaker-4: I think what we're so spoiled by now, thanks to T100 and then Ironman Pro Series, is the fields we get. Because then any other year before all this, people forget that if you saw Laidlaw Langer and Chevalier line up on the start list with Mignon there, with Moir and some other alpha horseshoes, had some great results here, that would be considered a good field back in the day. Whereas now it's like, it's a cheap race for someone. But like you say, there are only three slots. Are any of those validating? No, they're not. They're all after the time. They're all after the validation window. So they all have to qualify. Does he have to validate or qualify?

speaker-1: Yeah, you just have to validate. There's a lot of confusion going on. So Ironman changed the qualification in 2024 to where if you won the world title, you automatically get to defend your title the following year. Before that, you had five years worth of validation. There was the Kona stuff. So I think that that's probably when they changed the you can qualify for five years type of thing. Just validate and... Unfortunately, Patrick Lang just he won the world title in 24 and not 23. So he has to qualify outright.

speaker-4: and they're timing out those validations. They're honoring the five-year validation window that they gave those athletes, which is right because that's what you were racing for on that day. So Laidley gets a little bit lucky there. Not that I think he's going to need the luck. This course, we've spent a of time in Lanzarote. I know everybody, Boulder by every road on this course. I stand by it's the hardest course in triathlon. If the wind blows, people talk Kona, they've never ridden Kona if they think that's actually a hard bike course. Wales is right up there as one of the very hardest courses in the circuit. There's some of the climbing in Switzerland and whatever, but this course is horrible. If the wind blows, it's an absolutely horrible course. If the wind really blows, it's a 430 bikes but men's course, let alone in the women's field. If the wind is absolutely howling one end to the other, you just haven't ridden anything like it. I hope we get the win because it's exciting. I imagine Langer's hoping there isn't any wind. There's a lot of climbing. It's a tough race and also it can be hot this time of year. In the women's race it's a bit tame because if Lucy Charles Barkley doesn't win then it's a complete drive for Steve to be honest because their next competition is Nina Turon, Angela Neaf. There's some others on there that aren't showing up. You've got some good riders there. There's a couple of other girls that are really good riders that we haven't got in the women's to watch. But in the overall, Lucy's got it hands down. The men's gets interesting for me. know, Ladello's only doing this probably because he wasn't really fit earlier after his marathon. So how good actually is he? Leon Schiavalli, now he's now coached by Ben Reisel. He used to be a shoe-in. You you put Leon Schiavalli on the Hard Ironman start list. He's getting a top podium, but we haven't seen it last year. So it'd be interesting to see how good he is again. And then... You know, there's some others like Arthur Horseshoe. He's coached by Lodlo's dad. They train together a lot. He's a really good athlete. And then of course, Patrick Langer. Langer's whole day will revolve around his bike peg. Can he limit the gap and how much time has he run into everyone else? There is unfortunately a world that Langer doesn't qualify for Kona, which would be mind blowing. Because of course, if you then just had the Kona race, he'd be a top podium contender because that's why he races so well. It's going to be an exciting race in the men's. It's not broadcast, it? So we'll just have to follow the track here and hope for the best.

speaker-3: I am while you're following the tracker. It is a long day considering we just talked about someone going sub eight in Hamburg and considering Lucy went nine seventeen here last year. It is a long non

speaker-4: Long. Did you ever train in Lanza?

speaker-2: Yeah, I was thinking that and thinking how horrendous it would be to ride a hundred and eighty K in Like it's brutal. You get blown across the road out of nowhere and yeah, I can't imagine doing it there. if you go well in Lanzarote, it's a good sign for Kona.

speaker-0: What's the- What's rule on disc wheels in Lanzarote, Mark?

speaker-4: ⁓ they're fine, Pat. Lanzarote is a safe bike course. Kona, lethal. Lanzarote, where my 90 kilo pump has been blown off the road on 50mm wheels, that's fine. Disc wheels all day long. That's fine. Kona, lethal, Pat. ⁓ actually, sorry, no, shit. Sorry, cancel that. Cat now has a really deep rear wheel. I think they're dangerous in Kona as well in this.

speaker-3: I think that there's a- I gonna didn't I just see a prototype wheel that you had out there on Kat's bike?

speaker-4: Yeah, yeah, this should always be banned in Kona. ⁓ yeah, you're right.

speaker-3: Another race going on this weekend. Challenge Samara at the championship.

speaker-1: I just want to give a quick shout out to Steph Clutterbuck. She's also doing Lanzarote. I don't know why our website hasn't updated that. I talked to her little bit about... ⁓ She's had quite a battle to get back on the StartList healthy and she's feeling really, really good. She did quite a bit of stuff. So go give a listen to Buck the Trend, their podcast and listen to kind of Steph's journey on getting back to the StartList.

speaker-4: I actually think she's in really good shape now. She's been out there for about a month. She's been training really well. She seems really happy with it. We love Steph. Obviously she's been a host on the show for many times. Yeah, well remembered, Carl. Thank you.

speaker-3: The challenge championship on this weekend, it will be live streamed. So have a race to watch this weekend. ⁓ Pretty stacked filled. You have the likes of Freddie Funk, Will Draper, Peter Heimrich, Kieran Linders, Florian Engart and Daniel Backyard ⁓ shown up to challenge Samorin on the women's side of things. Caroline Paul. Another stacked field not as deep as the men's field but ⁓

speaker-4: I disagree. think you're kind of reminiscing on these names like Bakagard and Funk and stuff, but in terms of results they've actually bagged in recent years, Marta Sanchez has done more than both those boys, Katie and Kristianson has won a whole shedload of races as well. And then you have the fun thing to watch. God, I hope there's a sprint finish between Carol Ann Pohl and Lena Meisner. Because if you guys remember last year, that was the drama of like the 70.3 year, disqualified, not disqualified, re-disqualified, Lena Meisner rewarded European champion about three months late. So I think that's going to be a...

speaker-3: Are they going to be sprinting for second place because McDonald will win?

speaker-4: It's big McDonald race. I hope Meg has a great race. That would be a breakout performance with her if she's up with them. I don't know. I'm looking forward to seeing. I think Marta Sanchez is overdue a really good result again. If she gets shifted on the bike, she's good. Actually, do you know what? I'm going go catering Christensen for the women's race. I think she's just won a lot of races and goes under the table. She can be really dangerous. Caroline Poehle is cooking for Roth. She's Ironman debut distance in Roth. She's won some really big races. know, she's smoked Cat in Tallon a couple of years ago. Like she's beat some of the big girls. She's had decent performances, T100. I think like the pedigree is between her and Miza. And I'll be intrigued to see how well Pohl goes. Honestly, it's a bit of a selfish interest for how good she's going be in Roth.

speaker-3: and 100,000 euros on the line at this race pays 10 deep. is a better.

speaker-1: Let's just do it the broadcast on that one.

speaker-3: ⁓ nice. Nice.

speaker-4: On the men's side, Daniel Bakkergaard. He's got, he's hungry. know, there's people like Harry Palmer there who won Swansea. They're these kind of athletes that do go a bit under the international radar and Daniel needs to prove himself against these non, like you wouldn't call them top A tier athletes. And I think he's pretty hungry. There's the Yannick Schoffer as well. It's a hard one to call. James Tegel in the men's race. He ⁓ won the Cambridge half marathon, which is like a really, really competitive half marathon recently. I think he ran like a 104 dead, something like that. So he's clearly in serious shape as well.

speaker-1: Will Draper is the one for me that like he's won like five or six challenge races that people still don't really know who he is. They think he's just like the guy who swims at the back of the T100 races with Sam Long, but like he's a good athlete and he's put down some monster performances. So he's one the,

speaker-4: You must know him, don't you?

speaker-2: Will? No, I don't know Will super well. think he was, was he in Cardiff for a while?

speaker-4: Yeah, but then he's been up in Leeds, hasn't he? Because he was doing a bunch of stuff with Ali in Leeds as well. I you might know.

speaker-2: Yeah, didn't cross over that often actually to be honest. There's a lot going on in Leeds, lots of fraction groups.

speaker-1: and Fred.

speaker-4: Sorry, you're right.

speaker-1: Fred Funk's also had pretty good success here in Samorin. mean, he's been on the podium here. He's been... I think he's maybe won it before. ⁓ So this men's race, it's pretty good for a non-pro series or just because it's a challenge race. There's going to be a broadcast. It's going to be a great race to watch.

speaker-3: Yeah, the other broadcast on this weekend is Super Try Austin, which will be a fantastic race that used to be formerly known as Cap Tech's super famous race.

speaker-0: Yours truly is going to be on the ground. I might fire up the Instagram just to log into ProTry News and do a little bit of live reporting, but I will be on the ground in Austin. ⁓

speaker-3: What are you going down there for? Are you going to Melodony's bike shop to do a quick little ride with Lance or what?

speaker-0: No, I'm doing, ⁓ one, I'm going to probably do some, testing for these time trials that I'm now, I guess, super good at. So that'll be the big one. And then, there's going to be some barbecue that I'm going to eat. And then third, my CFO from Lemieux group is, is going to be racing. So I'm going to be there with the whole family. We've rented a big house. We've got a pool, the whole thing. And the kids are going on a vacation to watch mom race.

speaker-4: It would explain a lot if Pat was on the Lance Armstrong blood bag, wouldn't it? Because his performances these days, I'm not sure how he's doing it.

speaker-3: the ⁓

speaker-0: ⁓ the

speaker-3: When was racing?

speaker-1: That's all natural.

speaker-4: Let's try.

speaker-1: Yeah, there's like 20 women racing. I have this Heartless here. It hasn't been published yet. You guys want me to leak it now? Yeah.

speaker-4: Yeah, come on

speaker-3: Just the top.

speaker-1: and ⁓ a whole lot of people know Joy Gill who won a Conti Cup last weekend in Mexico and then I mean that's pretty much it like not there's Slovakian athlete Suzanne

speaker-3: Thank

speaker-4: When not rice.

speaker-3: Anon, do you want to come out of retirement real quick? ⁓ 100k would you fly there? 100k would you fly there right now?

speaker-0: the

speaker-2: ⁓ I'll take second, that'd nice.

speaker-1: The men's side you got... This men's side is pretty good. You got Seth Ryder, Tim Hellweg, Aurelien Jem from France, Carter Stuhlmacher, ⁓ and then my boy Cole Jamison from Arizona. That's pretty much it. ⁓ From like, I would say big names. So with these 200 races, ⁓ they will have the largest prize money, prize pool. It's like 800,000 for the win at the Grand Final. I believe you qualify 3 athletes from this race. So they've changed a lot of the formatting and stuff like that, but it will be broadcast. You will be able to watch the race.

speaker-4: That level of final prize money, we're going to see a better field than this somewhere else later in the year that works better.

speaker-0: yet and just a just a clarify these are back this is a traditional sprint distance race is 750 20k 5k so this is not a you because people are asking what what's the order of my no no this is a straight up triathlon

speaker-4: No, surely those big hits are going to be wanting a piece of 800 grand.

speaker-2: Well I think the top 10 from last year are guaranteed to start for the final so they don't have to trial. The Blenheim one which is the UK qualifier is looking, if you believe the Instagram picture, is looking pretty strong. I know for sure Jess Fullagar is racing amongst others so I think that may be bit more of an exciting race in the final. definitely be exciting. I love the Endura format. think it's really cool. I think it's a great product. So yeah, they'll definitely have people that have already qualified for it.

speaker-4: Yeah, good. Because if you read that start list, it's a bit like, gosh, Super Tri is dead. No offense to the few big names there. But you know, we've had sprint battles between Yee, Brownlee, Vincent, Louis, KB, like the biggest. Yeah, so at least okay, fine. So the top 10, they can all get back. Good. Because it is fun. Like you said, the endurance format is something the sport's missing a little bit, like a bit of carnage.

speaker-3: Yeah, let's let's dive into some hot takes. We have some pretty good ones here. We'll lead off with non cancer. This first question submitted by anonymous ⁓ suggests full guard been short course racing and switch the long course racing, giving her Olympic chance.

speaker-2: think Jess has got Olympic ambitions and there's absolutely no way she's going to step away from that. She's obviously got a lot of potential on long course. She showed that on the Gold Coast and I think has plans of racing more T100 later in the year, but I don't think she'll fully commit to long course until after 2028.

speaker-1: But did you know that non used to coach her? So why you asked her that? Yeah

speaker-4: No, he didn't.

speaker-3: No idea. I just shook my head until Mark called me up. Josh L. 2009. Having a WTS race and Ironman Pro Series race on the same weekend just shows how bad Ironman commentary coverage is. I don't know. I think we've talked about this.

speaker-4: We've talked about it. I think it's two very different challenges. One is like commentating on an hour long team sports event in a way. And the other one is commentating on a game of baseball or test cricket. Like they just go on and on and on. And it's very hard to deliver. It's the same challenge with the coverage, right? Because you've got age group athletes on these courses, you can't just run 10 laps around town for an Ironman. So you have to space your camera coverage out, you have to space it out. The point is right. The world, the WTCS stuff is better. Like it is, it's a visually better product and the commentary can be more exciting. Yeah. But the challenges are extremely...

speaker-3: Although I don't want to beat this like a dead horse. I've repeated myself 100 times on this. Will McCoy compliments other athletes. Marinda Carfrae is a phenomenal commentator when she's called. It's what will you not see Belinda and will will. It doesn't matter where will goes. He's phenomenal when he will commentate. I just I think when you have to just because they were former pro athletes, you need a.

speaker-4: Bye. The WTCS one is still better.

speaker-3: ⁓ a hundred percent. mean, and Belinda ⁓

speaker-1: think the other couple things are you're talking about a WTCS race, which is a 10k venue and you're talking about an Ironman race or a 70.3 race, which is a 120k venue. Like you're covering much more stuff. Granted, I don't know what toaster they were using as a router to do the broadcast to take to Provence, but you couldn't even watch that race. It was like 480 bit. Like it was bad.

speaker-4: Yeah, the only thing I will say Tim Don was good. Quite liked having Tim on. He was solid across it. I quite like this from Adam Levy. My wife claims bragging about being successful at podium picks is insane. Please change her mind. Based on our performance, like you sound like Kyle. So I think I'd much as hard love to like back you up. I think your wife is right. If that's the only thing you've got to brag on in your life, like maybe you maybe look for other hobbies and interests. However, Big kudos for you for playing and well done for being good at it because we, except for Kyle, are terrible.

speaker-1: I'm bad at the overall picks because I try and just do too many wild cards but the swim and the bike and the discipline stuff I'm pretty good at.

speaker-3: to the pigs I watched him do it and he was like who do I talk to on a daily basis? Yeah. Everyone here first. ⁓

speaker-4: I can't spend all day messaging pro athletes, CEOs, Pat's wife.

speaker-1: I have a big bid that I'm working on my real job. So, a little bit of that. I pros claim... I'm gonna say one real quick. I want to say one real quick. Over the weekend, there was a lot of fuss from my age group friends about Ironman Jacksonville. Now, it wasn't a pro race. However, there was some stuff that went on. The winner of the race was Pedro Gomez, who used to be a pro athlete. And

speaker-3: And do. ⁓

speaker-4: When did he retire?

speaker-1: I believe five years ago.

speaker-4: There are age groupers now, hundreds of them, training harder, more professionally, with better kit, with faster everything, than Pedro Gomez ever had in his whole career. He is just better than you. And he also made about 40 quid racing trial from his whole time career. So I guarantee he's working now.

speaker-3: going to be honest, I care more about what non-Stanford's athletes are going to be doing for their workout this afternoon than that.

speaker-4: Yeah, and she needs to get off to them. I know what you mean. If KB retires tomorrow and comes and races a group like in Texas, yes, I'll be on board you. But Pedro Gomez coming up and sweeping Jacksonville doesn't float my shitometer.

speaker-1: Yeah, there was also some bad motos on the course. The was supposedly not great. There was a drunk driver on the bike course and stuff like that. that venue... The mayor seems to think this venue is going to keep going for another two to three years and is very excited about it, according to his press conference after the race.

speaker-4: Is he the guy in the car drunk driving by the sounds of it?

speaker-3: No.

speaker-1: But that's just some things I heard about Jacksonville.

speaker-3: So let's get on to some real hot takes. ⁓ It's remarkable how few short course athletes the U.S. produces given they have maybe the deepest swim talent group of any country in the world. Why is the U.S. so inefficient ⁓ swim to triathlon pipeline?

speaker-4: non-Stanford.

speaker-2: Well, the rest of world is saying, taking a sigh of relief that they haven't worked out yet how to convert talent because when the US work it out, it's like they're going to dominate, right? It's a huge nation. It's a game of numbers. But yeah, I just think the geography is part of the problem. It's so spread out. So it must be really difficult to hold. development races that athletes can go and regularly compete against a big pool of young developing athletes. They're probably constantly racing small races in their states, never being exposed to proper competition. I think that's part of the problem to be honest with you and a good swimmer doesn't necessarily make a good triathlete. So that's not a great addition.

speaker-4: That's actually a really, really good answer. the actual real world geographical challenges of it.

speaker-0: and ⁓

speaker-3: Do you think a rebranding of the logo and like new kits would change and help like it's US?

speaker-4: ⁓ Talbot's pulled up an Instagram post of Gwen's current USA tri kit and it is honestly it looks like the kit the US wore to compete against the Soviet Union before the war came.

speaker-3: thought Kiwami

speaker-1: That's the No, no, no, no, no, USA Triathlon rebranded their Elite, Pro, and Para. Basically, their Elite division has been rebranded to USA Tri.

speaker-3: I'm

speaker-4: What did they do to make the graphics use paint? It looks like 1998 word, someone drew that.

speaker-3: gotta give them little more credit now. think they probably had an intern that got on chat and probably like just like hey we need to do some changes here.

speaker-4: Honestly that looks like the shirt Rocky Balboa walked out to fight Ivan Drago in.

speaker-3: They even canned their really good videographer Trevor Witt. They're like, ⁓ we don't see eye to eye on what we're doing. so they're like,

speaker-4: None, thoughts on the kit? Come on.

speaker-2: I mean, it was a hot topic. So many people have said to me, have you seen how awful it is? So many of the athletes, the athletes were willing to wear it.

speaker-3: ⁓ my god

speaker-1: on

speaker-4: Yes, no, I'm big fan of that. One more heart take, come on, we've done a good long show here.

speaker-3: ⁓ I really like this one. Boards Sports reports. He seems to always get the most likes. Do you think he's like made a bunch of accounts and liked it? I like this one a lot. The best individual battle at Ironman Lake Placid this year will be Lionel and Yellow Gaines. Dooking it out for 19th place while they both walk the marathon.

speaker-4: Hey, he's an interesting guy. Well, I think Lionel is going to be dialed for it. I think, much as I now have just said I won't bash on Lionel, ⁓ Yellow surely is not having us give that hot take any credit. Yellow is, you know, he just over biked a bit probably. That would be the race of the year if Lionel is even close to him. Do I think Lionel can bang out another good Ironman this year? Yeah, absolutely. Do I think Yella can bang out a really good eye man? Yeah!

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-2: put the yellow in the same box.

speaker-4: Of Lionel has come second at the Iron Man World Championships twice. Ella's DNF'd one of them.

speaker-3: Did you?

speaker-2: I'm

speaker-4: Yeah, but I just will shoot anyone down for the fun of it, not even if you're supporting me. Sorry, mate.

speaker-3: ⁓ Yellow and Lionel have raced each other. Hold on, we actually have a website now. I believe they raced each other twice. I could be three times and Lionel's won all three.

speaker-4: ⁓ head to head.

speaker-1: As you

speaker-4: That's incredible, by the way. Is that one of those texts where Lionel walked it in? Yeah. Yeah, okay.

speaker-3: So we got Ironman Texas, Ironman 70.3 Oceanside, and Ironman 70.3 Luke.

speaker-4: I could have called it, it's two domestic 70.3s. Don't take Lionel on a low tier domestic 70.3. ⁓

speaker-3: Oceanside's pretty stacked.

speaker-4: He's

speaker-2: With a Compty Cap!

speaker-4: ⁓ yes, no, no you're welcome back anytime.

speaker-3: No, it will be this is going to be a good one with ⁓ where we're super excited. Yela is a phenomenal athlete and it's been really, really cool to see him come up. And we thought that he was just going to give it a go once at the Ironman distance, but he liked it so much, probably similar to Sam Dickinson that he'll probably just come over and stay.

speaker-4: Well, he's definitely over for the middle distance now. I mean, he's absolutely weapon at it. Do you want to close the tub?

speaker-3: Hope you guys enjoyed the show. Mass thank you to Nan for taking time out of her day all the way over in China to come and join the show. We hope you guys enjoyed it and we'll see you on the next one.