Kyle Glass: Warning, 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. Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Pro Try News. I'll be your host today Talbot. We got the whole gang here. ⁓ Mark, Pat, and Kyle. Mark, straight. ⁓ straight off of watching a big and busy London Marathon. Did you think about running in it? Oh, God, no. That's the last of the three sports I do as we all know. I'm terrible runner. Yeah, I watched the London Marathon, watched Léa's Bastion on the AGE, watched T100, watched a bit of Samoacan. Sports weekend. We were home. We got home on Thursday morning and we are flying to Italy tomorrow. So, you know, a few days at home, a few days in Italy. For a training camp. Oh Kat's got a new car sponsor, so we're going to Ferrari headquarters in Italy. Nice. Wow. Look, it's product only, guys. It's product only, but... Product only. I was livid. I couldn't get any cash out them, but we'll take two cups. It was product only, and Mark's got to pay the insurance, but at the end the day, he gets a Ferrari, okay? He gets a Tri-Font. After Texas, I'm just having to sell it straight away. Speaking of travel. Pat, you've traveled in from across the world. I did a six day trip to and from Uzbekistan and just for everyone at home on Sunday morning, George, you just stormed in. Hold on. Let's skip to Kyle. All right, Kyle, you were watching all the races. Yeah, I watched all the races. ⁓ Watched the Thunder win again. It's looking like we might win another championship, but I'm not gonna count my eggs yet. And then, yeah, on Sunday we have Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. It's the 25th year, 26 year, 25th year. And Rory Linklater, actually the Canadian Olympian, came and ran it. So it was pretty cool to watch him in the flesh, go and win the half marathon here, but it's always super fun. We usually go down and cheer everyone on. Talbot's brother raced, Talbot's dad did a little bit of the race as well, so. It's always a good time. So if you're ever looking for a marathon to come do, or you're trying to get all 50 states in Oklahoma City, it's a good one. And Pat, you traveled all the way from Uzbekistan. So to make this podcast, yes. So I did a six day trip to and from Uzbekistan. My goodness. We had a 35 hour door to door flight on the way there, a 24 hour door to door travel on the way home. absolutely amazing country. It was exceeded my expectations to put it lightly. ⁓ So I'm super stoked. I got to check it out. Actually, I got really lucky. Our flight was delayed a day, but the night that we were supposed to fly, I got insane food poisoning. And so thankfully I got to deal with that at home versus on the plane. ⁓ I barely made it on the plane and ⁓ Yeah. Then the only other like fun bit of name dropping I'll get to do right here is I literally, we just started the pod and I got Simon Whitfield checking in with me saying, ⁓ wins a pod coming out. So Simon, we're to get to it soon. Don't you worry. And was it from the barbecue that we had in Houston? What, what, what happened with the food poisoning? can't, I can't zone in or hone in on where it came from, but, ⁓ yeah, it was, I made it, I made it home just in time. Yeah. Nice, nice. Yeah, we have a big show. We are going to review Samarkand this weekend, the first win of Vasco Velaasa on the World Triathlon Series Circuit, and then also the return of Beth Potter. And then we'll chat more about, or I guess first we'll chat more about T100 Singapore, our first ever men's edition, men's only race, second stop on the series. Did you guys all tune in? It's kind of a weird time for a lot of us probably not as much mark, but it was at about 4 a.m. For us 3 a.m. For us over here in America, but I mean I watched a very Very big amount of the race. Yeah, I watched most the race. I don't know the background the garage and Yeah, like we'll get back to the summer cameras because it's mad to me that Vasco Valloc has never won one that feels bizarre How many times we've said his name the 200 race? Yeah, well, which is we just wade into it was the men's only race and the hype around it at the start felt a bit quiet because I think it just got a bit shadowed by Texas maybe. But that's going to happen with various races right. I mean straight away off the bat the coverage was the visuals were what you would expect. They're excellent. The swim I thought was kind of like it was race over after the swim. I mean leading out the swim was Sam Dickinson. Only a few seconds back Matt Houser you would expect him to take it out hard but Really surprisingly straight away Hayden Wild comes out of the water like nine seconds back on the leader in that front group. And if he's there straight away with the bike horsepower he's got, you're in trouble. Cause you don't get any chance to get settled in. Hayden Wild's just gonna rip your legs off. And I mean, is anyone surprised? That's exactly what he did. I mean, Hayden Wild put over two minutes, 10 seconds into Mathias Margiela, who he's got covered on the run by like five minutes if he really needs it. Mathias Marger is an absolute monster on the bike. And it was a two form dominant performance from Hayden Wild. And then they got some interesting bits in the second to third places after that because Mika Noot was battling out with Sam Dickinson and there was, and then running in second, you had a very hampered, all of a sudden looking Mathias Marger who hurt his heel I saw. But Hayden Wild just took it home, a second fastest run of the day. Very impressive run from Jake Burt-Whistle to take sixth with the fastest run of the day. And Matt Halser on his ⁓ debut to this sort of racing. I mean, he's done, you know, Noosa and whatever, but this longer distance, he got gapped on the bike really heavily. He lost six minutes on the bike to Hayden Wild and he finished out his day in sixth place, didn't he? Fifth place, yeah. Fifth place. For me, like, I mean, the fact that Hayden won by six minutes and 20 seconds, we've never seen that before in a men's race. Like there was a hot take that was submitted that's like Hayden Wild is now the Taylor nib of T 100 because she's been so dominant. Um, one 70.3 spy, like 10 minutes. It's, it's kind of mind blowing to me. The fact that you have someone like Mika newt who's a T 100 specialist and he, I mean, seven minutes back from Hayden. And we just saw Hayden get third place behind Jelle Geens and Christian Blumenfeld a couple of weeks ago in Geelong. So that to me just speaks that Hayden got really, really fit or was just not really trained adequately maybe for the 70.3, the fact that he was, he was beat by KB and Jelle. You say that though, like if you had a 70.3 and KB or Jelle, beat Sam Dickinson by six minutes or Mika, how surprised would you be? Not really. So I think it's pretty indicative. He's just better than the guys he's racing at T100. And that like amazing second place highest finish for Sam Dickinson yet one of his best results since moving to middle distance. Mika Nu, I want to do a number on. Why is he still just doing T100 only? It seems like because he just gets rolled by Hayden at every race. Yeah, I don't know why he's not doing some other stuff. Surely there's got to be some European 70.3s and and frankly even an Ironman that he's thinking about doing this year, right? I mean, he's on every single podium that he races in super consistent. It begs the question. It's almost like the same long athlete. It's like, but also you hate to use Sam Long because Sam Long would be see this incredibly successful if he was racing the T100 and on the podium. But Why wouldn't he just go bag some Ws in some big name 70.3s? He's raced two 70.3s and won both of them. It doesn't really make a lot of sense to Not this year though. No, not this year. He won one last year. He won Zell MC and then the year prior he won Augusta. He didn't win Zell MC last year, he won something else. What if I made a website where I could just quickly tap in and load. He won another European race, it like for Tour? Sorry, he didn't do a single 70.3 last year. This was 2024 that he won Zellmsee. Did he just race T100 last year? Yeah, exclusively. Yeah. I would love to see him come. second places, two third places and a fourth. He didn't win a single race last year, but he's that good. It's a temptation. I I strive for like racing at the very top level, but then you could also argue that, you know, there is all equally top level at Ironman and 70.3 with KB with those boys. Like, Shory wants to- Mika's ducking? Mika's ducking Ironman at 70.3? We're gonna say Mika's ducking by racing seven T100 races last year. That's gonna be one of our most optimistic ducking calls, but I find it interesting. Yeah, but you would just think, I mean, just with where he lives, right? Like, he's got access to so many races. that are all relatively like within a two hour flight. You would think that he could even just go and beat up like a soft 70.3 somewhere just to add it in. I mean, I'm obviously a huge Mekanute fan. mean, he's doing ⁓ an amazing season last year. think, yeah, there were just, I'm surprised. Like I guess I won't be surprised if we see him expand a little bit this year, but. I mean, to start it off the year with a podium, mean, he's just picking up right where he left off, you know? Yeah. Is there an element where you've got sponsors like Red Bull and Canyon, like they want to see you take a tape? You know, is podiums, because triathlon is not a massive sport. It's not like where, you know, if you come second in a bunch of Formula One races or something, it's still worth the exposure. Do big sponsors in triathlon want to see the tape at some point, kind of irrespective of what it is? I mean sure, I mean like if let's let's just pretend the four of us are advisors for me can newt We're saying dude like you're obviously in good form ⁓ We think I mean I think it's fair to say this kid could podium at 70.3 worlds So let's get him on track to go and experiment and try that out And like I say he might he might very well go do that He might very well be I'm assuming this year with it with a European with a year another European 70.3 worlds coming We're going to get to that in later the show. But ⁓ I would say, yeah, that's what I'm saying. ⁓ I would sure think this would be the year. But I mean, this is a dude that's absolutely capable of podium at 70.3. Totally. Yeah. Some other notable mentions, Peter Heimerich, DNF, Jonas Schoenberg also DNF, which is shocked he even went and raced. Could have jogged it in for 3,500. didn't even see that as being beneficial, I'm shocked that he flew there in the first place. of them did an Iron Man The Weekend prior. Yeah, yeah. So I think it's, I mean, it's not really on his way home for Jonas. to go that way or Peter Heimrich. Not really. No, it's triple the amount of time. No, not that it's not really on the way home at all. I think if I'm not mistaken, I think Jonas did something very similar ⁓ last year. Don't quote me on the exact, but ⁓ he had a program that was really similar to this where he had a good result on the back of an Iron Man. I think, look, when you have a day like he did in Texas where you're going to be so deeply fatigued and then you got to get on the big bird and do the flight. Look, the flight from San Francisco to Singapore, 17 hours. It's a little different than what he did last. I mean, last year he raced Ironman World Champs and Nice got, what, sixth place. And then six days later, backed it up at, the T100 and Oropeco in Spain with a third place. But it's a little different going east of Spain. Oh, so I think that's what he felt more than anything. And you're exactly right, Kyle. That was the double he did last year. And he had told me, think, basically he did six days or five days of no training and then just opened up a little bit before 70.3, before the T100 race in Spain and then ended up. He did a good result there, right? He podiumed. Yeah, he podiumed. Yeah. That would have been why he thought about doing it and why he looked at it. Yeah. The other interesting thing, and I hate to that we broke, I hate to say that maybe our system is broken. We built an open ranking system that we feel was very adequate. This result from Hayden ⁓ ranks even above both of Yellow Geese 70.3 World Championship places. This is like one of the greatest results ever on our open field ranking. It's because of the prestigiousness of the race and his gap to second place. So now Hayden's... Yeah, the big win there is the gap, right? Because the prestige is still slightly below 70.3 Worlds. But the soft score is really good because all those T100 boys are really pretty well ranked. And it's just that winning margin. And I do think we should recognize that. If you can go to a field of that caliber and roll them by six and a half minutes or whatever, fine. I mean, I don't think it's a bad thing for the scoring system. I hadn't even seen this till you mentioned it, Talbot. He's top, he's number one. He's doing number one now. Yeah. Three points more than Christian Blumenfeld's Ironman Texas performance. We're biased. Pro Ironman News, we're biased. His scores are going to time out unless he gets some more big scores because he's going back to like 2-100 London. So like he will start to drop scores way before Christian because Christian's just got well, he's got enough almost this year. I don't know. I don't think that's true. He's just going to keep he'll win these series every time he in series. He'll just win by the same margin. None of these guys are even in his same playing field. Yeah, I don't think. the worst part about it is no one's even watching. You got 5,500 people on the live stream watching. It's very unfortunate. Because they get a lot of views on other streaming services, Maybe. But I mean, in the end, they got up to like 50,000 on the live stream for the T100 Singapore race on YouTube. You should be clear. That's total views, not at one time. Correct. Yeah, that's like total views. Iron Man Texas had 58,000 people watching live. That's bonkers. I don't want to draw too much into comparison there because we don't, we can speculate, but we don't have the data from, it playing on TNT over here at Vio, like now it's on HBO or whatever, it's on various services. So we don't have the data. I think the main one is, that's mad we're getting a regular season. Ironman race at 58,000 live views on YouTube. That's super. It's insane. The only thing I would do want to say though is if you are a fan and you do listen to our show, I'm sure a lot of people went and tuned in, but a lot of people give us a lot of flack for being pro Ironman boys, but also too, I would encourage everyone. We want T100 to be successful. We want them to continue. I went and turned on the stream at 4 a.m. or I wouldn't have like to be honest, I probably wouldn't even really watch, but also too, I wanted to tune in and see, see if they're up in their game, their broadcasts and kind of all that. even if you don't, I know it was very weird here with the time zone and stuff, especially in Europe and America, go just click on it, let it play in the background. It helps analytics, it helps their views and all that. So I don't know. It's a bit like voting, it? It's like voting. You know, you can make a difference just by ticking the box and turning up. because you're showing interest. And if you don't, don't really comment. Like, certainly don't criticize us for our opinion on it. If you haven't voted with your view, I guess, is one take. But I don't know, maybe everyone, I guess the people that bother to comment and criticize us are the passionate few that do go and watch. I feel, do you know what, think one thing, when you get such a magnificent performance by Hayden, and he's so clearly dominant, that's when it really suffers only having one race on. because there's nothing else. There's no women's race going on. There's way less, because in the men's and women's races, often it's been the other way around, right? Taylor's just been romping off the front or something, or Kate Woff. And then you just watch the men's, because it's more interesting. But if you've only got one, you come unstuck when it gets, let's be honest, a bit boring, because Hayden was just too good. $50,000 to the win to Hayden, $40,000 to Sam Dickinson, $30,000 to Meek & Newt, and then it runs down from there. There's two buzzwords in performance sport that we hear all too often. Carbs and protein. Protein can get super confusing. We can see it in water, snacks, you name it. But what about if we just went back to the original source? Good old fashioned meat. That's right. Visit GoodRancher.com. for your own box of just, it can be steak, sausages, chicken, you name it. I love Good Rancher because here's the deal. I can make my own box and have it shipped to my house super easily. Check them out for yourself. Use code IRENETTCHECKOUT at goodranchers.com, American meat delivered. Trevor, you are a free agent going into this season. What made you decide to go with Wynn for this upcoming 2026 season? Because I push a lot of power and I've never been to the wind tunnel so the least I could do is ride the fastest kit. yeah, 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. And if you want to get 15 % off a win, visit the show notes and use the link to direct you there. Nutrition is important and what's in your bottles actually matters. There's a reason why the Ironman and Ironman 70.3 World Champion all pick Precision Fuel and Hydration. They have a free fuel and hydration plan on their website. So if you visit the link in our bio, or the link in our show notes, you'll be able to create your own fuel and hydration plan. Their fuels are incredible, both the gels, the 100 milligrams of caffeine or the non-caffeinated, perfect for going out on your next workout. Also the hydration, whether it's the tablets of 500, 1000 or 1500, those can get you topped off and feeling hydrated for your next workout. They're going to be on course at every Ironman in the world. So be sure to try these out before race day so then that way you can be dialed as well. The other massive race this weekend, WTCS, first stop in the series with Dubai getting cancelled. ⁓ Sam Arkand and Pat. Dhabi. Abu Dhabi, sorry. Yeah, thank you. Pat, you convinced your wife to fly out there just so you could do research on her birthday. Exactly. So it was a big commitment from pro try news that I was giving there. It just also happened to be my wife's birthday. So lucky for her. I was, I was along. look, this, this venue that they're using in Samarkand in Uzbekistan is one that they've used for a couple of world cups. Now they've also used it for, there's been some challenge races there in the past. So I'd heard about it. ⁓ frankly, nobody told me how great the venue was. This is at a rowing facility. It's the campus around there is all brand new. think it was all constructed basically in 2020 and 2021. ⁓ So all the hotels that are brand new people there were absolutely lovely. ⁓ This was a, it's a great, it's a great venue for a world series race because everything is enclosed. So the bike course is super safe. The run course is all right there. The, and the swim venue, had the cans in the water all week because There's, there's nobody using it. So that was just, I don't know, super cool. ⁓ you know, the, the race for the women, they had the top 10 from last year, all 10 were racing, you know, the big shock on race morning was that Cassandra Bogon became sick overnight. So she didn't race. ⁓ so then, you know, you had a few other women that were like, okay, this is going to be my chance. ⁓ ultimately the, there were two packs out of the water. They became one on the bike. And then Leon Perio took off on the run, and I thought that was going to be game over, right? Georgia Taylor Brown did a big attack and had 40 seconds, but I think it was clear that she was losing time right away. She held on ultimately for fourth place, but I thought this race for first was over. All of a sudden, Beth Potter linked up with her, and then I was standing at what would have been roughly 700, 800 meters to go, and Beth Potter came. flying by me and she had, I don't know, 15 meters on the Oni. that was the women's race, Jean Le Haire in third, which that was, think she, her bike broke in transit ⁓ on the way to the race. And the U S team mechanic did the fiber, the JB weld fiber wrap on the rear non-drive side seat stay where her bike broke. And as someone that had to do that before for somebody else. Like I knew that it was going to hold up. It just looks terrible on the bike. ⁓ But clearly she had no issue. So that was your podium. You know, I think the big surprise was Lisa Church crashed on the bike. not really sure what happened there. So that was the women's race. ⁓ On the men's side, you had Vasco Vallaca, Henry Graff and Charles Poquette. in third. And so that was Vasco Vallaca's first win. I think he'd had nine podiums up to that point before. So pretty incredible storyline there. Charles Poquette, young Canadian in third. That's a kid that was, I was training with him back when we were living in Spain. He was a junior from Canada coming over. And yours truly here was absolutely lighting him up on the bike. So to see him 10 years later. get his first podium at a World Series, I was super, super happy for him. And Henry Graff left off where he was in 25 with a great podium. So I think that kind of sets us up for Yokohama. The next race in Yokohama is the 16th of May, I believe. It's a Saturday. That race typically is the opener for Olympic points. Now I'm not really sure how the dates fell this year, but now the Olympic points start like the Monday after Yokohama. So it's weird. Yokohama, there will be a little bit lighter field there on the men and the women's side because given that the Russian airspace is still closed, the travel to get from Europe to Japan, what used to take 11 hours now takes a solid 14. And so there's quite a few that opt out from that. ⁓ But that's a staple in the calendar and the World Series is underway. So yeah, it was super fun to be on the ground there. The VASCO VELASA, nine podiums. Always ten. Ten rides made. Now he's got ten now. Except one he's got ten, yeah, but with a win now. So it was really, really cool and even emotional to watch him cross the finish line. I mean, yeah, incredible. No, I mean... When he, when they did that, basically hairpin left-hand turned at like 300 meters to go and he punched out of that thing. There was no escaping that he was going to win. mean, he knew he's like today's the day I'm doing this thing. So, ⁓ yeah, there was, know, there was a breakaway attempt in the men's race as well. The, chase McQueen and the, and the Hungarian kid had 40 seconds off the bike. Hungarian kids leading pulls around to one, you know, a U-turn on the run. and completely pulls up. Martin Kropka, is his Yeah, pulled his ankle, some, rolled his ankle or had some pre-existing injury. But you know, to see a dude that was leading the race and then all of a sudden just stand up in place, you know, these aren't, these aren't things that you normally see. So yeah, I thought visually it was a, was a great job, was a great race. Yeah. I mean, them getting Belinda and Will McCoy to do the commentary, it's like night and day difference watching a T1, a world triathlon versus versus years past. The call in to the finish line on both races, I feel like I'm watching a professional sport. I mean, previously I was like falling asleep, and here comes Beth, it looks like that she's gonna run away with it down the finish chute. And trust me, I got no room to talk. If I was commentating, it'd be 10 times worse than that. But the excitement, you know when you see those rowdy gains videos of him calling swimming? and he's like standing up and slamming papers on the table and it just gets you so into it as well. Like that is what Will McCoy does and it doesn't matter if it's Christian Blumenfeld at an Ironman Texas all the way to short course. We need more professional commentators in our sport. I mean, phenomenal. And a professional commentator like there's nothing against an ex-professional athlete. Belinda? Absolutely incredible. need the, Belinda's the color, and a professional commentator. When you merge these, ⁓ yeah, they race professionally in the past, let's have them commentate with another professional. It's, you need that professional, because then he pops, they enhance each other. He makes Belinda better. And so, the best commentating I've ever seen at a World Triathlon race ever. Gets you excited. Yep, yep, I agree. Another thing worth mentioning for me from the women's race is Marc's gonna Marc's gonna love that I'm bringing this up George's Taylor Brown going off the front like that was amazing to watch I mean The fact that we get breakaways and the motos were not didn't seem to be interfering or anything like that like That's kind of the racing that you want to see from the high level of short course and do you want to know? Why there was a breakaway? Cause she looked bored. She looked bored cause they were just trundling around and she was like, no, I'm going to ask, ask, but how many U-turns were there on this course? How many U-turns were there, Pat? Zero. Zero. That's a big goose egg. And so there's just been this misconception for years that the U-turns are what's going to make the race exciting. ⁓ no, this course was fantastic and it was, had the least amount of turning that a World Series course has had in a very long time. So I think let's just take an understanding and appreciation of that. Also just want to give a shout out to World Triathlon. They have a clean and simple policy for how the athletes can get media. They actually provide 90 seconds of video footage for each athlete to use on their social media channels free of charge. So think that's just one thing that they're doing internally to try and grow the sport that I want to give them a big, big shout out on. That's really useful because people don't quite appreciate how hard it is to get race footage out. The reality is you basically have to have either a very friendly photographer that will give you them that happens to be there, or you have to fly someone to capture your own content that you've prepaid for. And heaven forbid you want to give that to your sponsors. So each sponsor then. scrambles around to like Pat or me or whoever the athlete themselves is. ⁓ did you get any content? Or they've got to like pay for videographers and cameramen to go to every race. And I know it keeps some of the boys in business, but it's just not possible if you're coming 10th in a World Series race and you make no money, you just can't afford it. You know, and your sponsors aren't paying huge bucks. So it's just a cost that they can take off. That's the sort of thing that actually, if you want to look after the lower ranked athletes. pays a lot more in the long run than throwing a few hundred quid at the prize verse. That kind of support for athletes is actually worth a lot more. Yep. Yeah. And there was talk too internally that the prize money for the short course racing is going to see a significant bump next year. So more to come on that, but that was reported as well. And is that called T50 or Olympic distance? That'll be called T50. Speaking of some other breaking news in Triathlon though, I think one of the biggest topics of this weekend that we were all pretty shocked to hear is there's a lot of mumbling and people not happy in Nice, France. ⁓ Essentially the new elected mayor came in, Christian Astori or whatever it is, ⁓ recently won his election back in March. ⁓ Eric? Eric, yeah, Christian was the previous one, ⁓ but came in, he's changing a lot of things up, and there was a lot of rumors and speculation that he has completely canceled the Ironman races there. And it kind of hit the ground running and kind of lit a fire. And then Kyle, you spoke with someone at Ironman? Yeah, I just messaged Liv and I was like, hey, what's going on? ⁓ Liv is a part of their PR team. And we spoke pretty briefly, she was like, day was chaos. It's been kinda just like, I guess, misconstrued and it, basically Ironman had to have a conversation with them and they all came to the table and essentially the racing is gonna happen for 2026. Both the Ironman, that 70.3 and 70.3 World Championship. What that means past that now, cause... 2027 70.3 worlds venue is TBD. There's a lot of rumors and speculation. It's gonna be in North America. The venue has not been announced. ⁓ It's supposedly maybe gonna be announced in May. So in the coming weeks, ⁓ but then this nice deal because they are going back to Kona, they signed a three year, three of five year option deal to go back to Nice. So 2028 and then an option for both Ironman and the city for 2030. Personally, I don't foresee 2028 and 2030 happening. 28 and 30, in my opinion, is not happening. I mean, you have very clear messaging from the new mayor of Nice that he wants to save money and he's found an avenue to do it through events. the report- He essentially, what happened on Thursday, April 23rd? He held a press conference and said they were cutting 60 million euros from events, also including the UTMB, the famous UTMB there, Ironman 70.3 Worlds, and another race there. And then Ironman sent a formal email being like, yo, yo, yo, and then he walked back those words on the world championship events. The newspapers reported, the French newspapers, that they are continuing, but they won't receive money from the city. So if that's true, this is a big financial hit to Ironman because you're looking over a million to run the event in Nice, right? Yeah. And I they got about a $1.6 million subsidy. That was from the city. That was from the city being paid to Ironman. So here's what I think happened, right? And here's the game theory on this. So what you have is you have the mayor that says, hey, we wrote a check. We can't cash. We don't want the race to happen here. Ironman might say, hey, well, we have an agreement. Now they might, and I don't know how fun these are to enforce or how, you know, actually enforceable these contracts are that happened with the city. But what could ultimately happen is the mayor could go, hey, look, if you're going to stick us for that 1.6 million bucks, we're going to pay it. But now guess what? We're going to be pain in the ass sending John Darm and police and road closures. We're not helping you out with those. So they kind of bite the hand that feeds them there. So the most realistic thing to do would, if you're Ironman, not to mention Ironman's got a problem where they've already got presumably four or 5,000 people that have qualified for this event and plan to go and intend to go to Nice. Already bought tickets, hotels, et cetera. I don't think that they can change the venue for 26. I think that's off the table. So the most realistic thing to do is you go on your knees to the mayor and you say, Hey, we'll let you keep the 1.6, but we need full support elsewhere. And I think if you're the mayor, you get a big W by saving the money and you still get the event. And then you say, Hey, we're not going to do this in 28 or 30. I think that's realistically behind closed doors what happened. ⁓ The 1.6 that Iron Man doesn't get now, you know, maybe this expedites what happens with the new shoe sponsor that we believe is coming for the series now. So what you're going to see is presumably they try and move another sponsorship announcement up in the year to try and recoup this money that they've lost. That's what I think would happen. Not Hoka? It won't be Hoka moving forward, no. Will it be a brand that is headquartered in France? I would presume so, yes. Well, the... Let's not get carried away, guys. The amateur athletes listening to the show will like this though, because their mayor came out and basically said, I struggle to understand why we subsidize an event that costs 700 euros to register and they sell out. And not only that, it's a sponsor World Triathlon Championship or World Triathlon event. And why are we subsidizing this, yet all these American cities pay, like Lake Placid pays like 90,000 to 100,000. And Nice is paying 1.6 million? mean, people, you gotta, These are the kind of politicians that people in the cities probably love, but it is very unfortunate for people like us. That's a little bit disingenuous in my opinion, because here's the thing, Lake Placid is not the same thing as the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Ironman can come in and say, hey, here's the economic impact that we're going to have. And I think what have the studies been done? In Kona, it's 30, 40, 50, 60 million bucks. per year basically. So they can go to a city and say, hey, look, we're going to bring you this amount of income to your hotels, to your airport, to the Airbnb economy, and we're going to help subsidize that, and we're going to pay $1.6 million for it. Now, could they get it for $800? Maybe. I don't know what other city was bidding for it that year, right? So I think that's those are fair questions, but they're also like you got to look at it at a case by case business. The fair market value on this is based on however many cities they have bidding for a 70.3 world championships. If it's one, well, then that's whatever that city is going to pay. But if they had 10 that want to try and get it, then, hey, our man's got a little bit of leverage there. I, ⁓ economic impact. for Nice from 2019 is estimated to be around 20 to 25 million dollars. that's bringing money to your city. So I feel like the mayor's not gonna sit here and be like, put his hand up, basically say, no, we're not doing that anymore. Yeah, but that's one of those costs, cost in, cost out that he can't show easily on a piece of paper. Whereas he can show cost savings by slashing a 1.6 million outgoing. Whereas he can't easily quote a profit made from hosting an event there. And there'll be an equal number of people in Paris that are not, sorry, nieces that don't like events because they're miserable and they want to drive their pointlessly small cars around the place and eat croissants in the morning. And they don't want the traffic from an Ironman event to get in the way. And that is me ⁓ pandering to the comment I really enjoyed, which is Mark's going to love bashing on the French for this one. because I will take any opportunity to bash on the French where I can. It's my God given right as an Englishman. So what do I think will happen? I'm totally with Pat. think 26 will happen and the events will go away in 28 unless something changes. Let's not forget though that UTMB is also owned by Ironman. So this affects them with more than just one race. have the normal Ironman niece, they have UTMB, they have this. It's not easy. Ironman has to be gentle here. That's what I'm saying. This isn't something where they get to barge in the room and say, have an agreement, we're enforcing this thing, damn it, like we're doing it this way. They got, I personally think they've got way too much at stake here and they've got it, they're, they're walking around gently right now. If there's anyone though that knows how to deal with this, it is Matthew there. I think he's their CFO or CMO or whatever and Diana Birch. They're kings and queens at this. The tourism industry, and going after that and so I it's gonna be worked out and there's gonna be phenomenal world championship events so I'm not concerned and I think that this one will go unhitched perfectly. just think the x factor here is you've got a new French mayor and who's clearly who's clearly making waves right? And the old mayor was the mayor for like 16 years so let's not forget he has a very rich relationship probably with Ironman. this new mayor probably doesn't. Yeah, I think the perk of getting out of a French race like this is you get away from the 50-50 chance that there'll be a strike on the race will be canceled anyway. So that's, know, that'll be a perk to get out of a race in Mark, are you trying to get the race to move to Swansea or something? What's going on here? No one's striking in Wales and you can get Swansea's venue for 50 quid. So that's a perk as well. Wait, should we send, before we move on. Should we send an informal invite to the mayor to our live show? 100%. I think 28th's back on the table if he comes. I think we're in good shape. Can I tell you someone who is super happy though? ST100 because their race is in Frays use and not in Nice district. they're like, hey, we don't have a problem with this. How many Middle East races have they got to get through this year? Well, yeah, that's a whole lot of I mean, the problem is, Ironman's in the same boat. I they're series sponsored by Oman. Yeah, but they're not going there this year. Only they're big pro races. but... Yeah, fair point. What do Lucy Charles Barclay, Magnus Ditlev, Holly Lawrence, Rudy Von Berg, Sam Long, Trevor Foley, Morgan Pearson, Gwen Jorgensen, and yours truly, Patrick Lemieux, all have in common? That's right. We all ride Woeve saddles. This Boulder based company has been an absolute game changer for, especially me and my wife. Look, my wife, Gwen tried over 40 saddles during her career, never found one she liked. Last March, she went out for one bike ride on a Woeve Mags saddle, looked at me and said, this is the first time I have ever ridden my bike without pain. At that moment, I knew we had to become investors in this company. Look. Whether you're looking for a saddle for your road bike, triathlon bike, or your gravel bike, Wolves got you covered. This Boulder based company has got three amazing saddles, the V8, the M8, and the Mags. If you have any further questions, please DM me directly at Patrick Lemieux on Instagram. Here's the deal. I haven't been sleeping well since I had to pull off the start list for 70.3 New Zealand. And frankly, it's been eating me up. But something that's been helping me sleep is this triple magnesium from Pillar Performance. This new flavor that they have is an absolute game changer for me. This lemon lime, listen, I love the coconut, but this lemon lime one just takes it up to another level. So if you're training for your races, if you're having a hard time sleeping, recovering, two products that you need to try is the triple magnesium from Pillar and also the collagen repair. These are two game changing products and if you're having a hard time still getting sick, the Ultraimmune C. If you visit the show notes, the Pillar link is listed below. If you use code PTN15 either on Pillar's website or on the feed, if you're in the US, you're to get 15 % off. These are three products that you got to have in your cabinet. Let me know what you think. This episode of ProTry News is brought to you by Rhythm Health, the monthly at-home blood test designed for people who actually want to understand their body and not guess about it. Here's the truth. Most athletes get their blood done once, maybe twice a year, and that leaves huge gaps in understanding what's really going on internally. Rhythm helps fixes that and sends you a simple at-home test every single month. No lab visits, no big needles, just a quick sample at home and then you mail it back. Within days, you'll get a full digital report with insights on the things that matter most to triathletes. Hormones, recovery markers, inflammation, iron levels, metabolic health, all those things that quickly can derail your training if you're not tracking it. Because it's monthly, you can actually see the trends over time so that that way you can adjust your training and nutrition and recovery before the small issues become big ones. So take control of your health and performance and the data that actually matters. Head to the link in the show notes to learn more. Upcoming race this week and there's Not too many races this weekend. There is Ironman 70.3, Western Sydney. You have the likes of Jake Burke Whistle is racing. He's pretty much the frontliner. Trent Thorpe, Henry Rouge. Cam Wurf's on the start list. Who knows? What? Henry Henrik. That means nothing. No, I'm saying Cam Wurf on the start list. Yeah, that means nothing. doesn't matter. I just assume he's on I didn't think he was going to go. ⁓ Ellie Saltosco and and Natalie van Coburn and so that will be oh Ellie verse Natalie. Yeah, there we go I'd to an iron war, I'd like to see like an iron war between those two. What was it called? The iron battle or what it was the line or what was the the line or yam thing? Just let's get one those. Yeah, try battle. Yeah, it's a try battle. That'd be funny That's good. Oh, let's move into hot some hot takes though Hold on one second. was an iconic race this weekend. St. Anthony's Oh, we've got to talk about this. Oh, yeah. We have to talk about this. Sam Appleton won in a sprint finish against Greg Harper. That was incredible. You mean the Triathlon Hour grand final? Yeah. on the Triathlon Hour as sort of co-hosts or whatever. And it came down to a sprint finish. What was Trevor doing there? How does Trevor get outrun by Greg Harper by like two minutes? What's going on there? You had some bike issues, the positive we're taking away from this is 90 seconds down out of the swim. that's the positive. On Greg Harper and Sam Appo as well, by the way, that's a really quite good swim, even over 1500 meters. I take that every day of the week. But Trevor did get clapped by four other people, so Trevor's got to be better. And who won the women's race? Women's race was won by Annie Fuller, who has not raced very well as of late. She had a surgery and injury. Good to see her back to getting a dub. And 10 grand spending money. Take it, girl. So take it. That was a big one. There was another. Is there another independent race last weekend or something? I don't think so. Let's let's have some hot takes. No war. And like I said, if you go to pro try news dot com, click on podcast, there is that is where you can submit hot takes and then you can fire the ones that you like. They want to bring this back up. Mark, what's up? I can't believe we're not going to cover the absolute monster race that Julie Durand premiered her season at, which is the famous and incomparable Challenge Taiwan half. Julie Daron took a huge dub, a monster race to open her season up in dominating style. Why is in Challenge Taiwan? She beat her sister. I don't know. Why is Julie Daron in Challenge Taiwan, somebody tell me? She's doing training camps in China and then she's going to Taiwan and then now she's on the start list for the T100 in Spain. Little shakeout race in Taiwan. Sure is is that is that start list out? Yeah, it's out Kate was on it on you posted on pro try news calm and Kate Woff is on that start list as well both on our Instagram nice Shadow also to Katie Redmond. She raced Ironman, Texas last weekend and got fourth at challenge Taiwan. So Cool. For a race that has a low soft score, since we're going to mention it. Sorry, I didn't mean to get into touch down shot when I was sort of taking the piss, but let's move on. We're gonna rank these hot rakes. We'll always visit the top 10. Someone I think wanted to resubmit this one because Pat and Mark are on the show. Kyle and I already voiced our opinion last week. Revisiting last week's hot take. If an age grouper beats a pro, they have to pay the entry fee. pros pay an entry fee anyway, what does that mean? Yeah, what are they talking about? They have to pay like the actual entry fee to the race, like 400 bucks or whatever. No, they pay like 400, the actual entry is like 750. Yeah. Now it's submitted by Tri Guta. I like it, a bit of a cost or something for it, whatever. Or if an age grouper beats a pro, can the age grouper never enter an age group race again and has to race as a pro? Or the producer to the finish line has to Venmo hundred bucks. That's good. You have to you have to go around and Venmo every age group that beats you a hundred bucks. That's more. That's more. That's more. Yeah, I like that. That's Number nine, Mumsy Try said next to 100 men's race, they should split them into teams of three and do each leg and see if they can beat Hayden Wild. I think Singapore they're still struggling Yeah, I do too. is not a guarantee because he's won by six minutes. He could have had more in the tank Yeah, a hundred percent. Well, I messaged I talked with Hayden after the race and he said if anyone went to the well in Singapore They messed up the rest of their season. So Maybe Hayden didn't even go to the Number eight Matt Hardy, and I just want to let everyone know we are not submitting these, we are answering these. T100 is boring and splitting the men's and the women's race makes it even worse. The mid-season is already over unless Hayden gets another injury and gets tired of winning every race and then focuses on short course instead. Yeah, so I'm gonna say this. There's been a big shakeup internally at T100. The person that was in charge of this season long narrative that championed this is no longer there. We had said that we had wanted this and the athletes wanted this to be a four race style open with big prize money like they had done in 23 or whatever the last year they did it was. I'm at this point predicting that they're gonna go back to that now and they're gonna just have these four opens. that are huge money. And I think that they'll get people to show up. But we knew that this year was going to be a bridge year and it's going to turn into a lost year. And you know, they're still going to have athletes that, mean, Hayden Wilds is still going to show up, make 50 clicks. Whoever got second is going to get 40. Like they're still making good money, but they've got to have a product that's a bit more compelling. Yeah. I think they have to go back up to $100,000, which is what the original one was. It doesn't matter what you're to But they can't. There has to be a tangible product. Sorry, it doesn't matter what you go back to. can't, like, $100,000 is fine, but at the moment, people want to go to Kona and they want to race Ironman races for some reason or another. Honestly, it doesn't matter what money you put online, you ain't getting the Norwegians unless they want to do it. That's who you need right now. You need KB. You need the Norwegians. Number seven, 2025 T100 wins best triathlon broadcast with unmatched commentary. 2026 T100 no longer has Jan Frodeno. They don't do race buildup. Terrible sound delay with commentary teams. Obviously not on site anymore. Rumors are of a different production team. Hot take. Do we have any hot takes? Improving. Do we have any hot takes? This is submitted by anonymous. And I actually let me I think I can unhide it Scott Daru. What the? All right. Next. think number six. Love what they've contributed to sport, but I couldn't care less about the T100. ⁓ come on. Sorry. We just have to read these. These are these are submitted hot takes. Number five. It's another negative one. So maybe we should just move on. Number four, Kyle Glass. Should we talk about the fact that Ironman limits, that if Ironman limited start lists, everyone would lose their mind, but T100 does it, and they are exclusive. That is a very interesting hot take, because could you imagine if Ironman came out and said, all right, we are capping our start list at 50 people. It would be uproar, blasphemy. Now, I'm agreeing with you, but don't we think that Ironman should get to a point where they are actually like there is some sort of credentialing to get into these things? agree 100 % for pro series races. For top 18 races that they do, there should be, I mean, a pretty, you know, a pretty tight rope to get in. There should be a red rope that you got. There should be a red rope to get into them. I tell you, if you're in the top 30, 35 of the pro series, you're guaranteed to start to race. I mean, this is after that. You can fill it with the remaining 15. Yeah, but do you want to fill it? That's the point. Do you want 70, 80 people there? The thing is, they do pay to race. Don't forget that. So Ironman do make money off these back end pros, but they still has a cost to hosting a pro race. So they kind of have to balance that out. This is, this is for, I'm going to interrupt Mark, I'm sorry. This is, I thought about this on my ride a lot today where there's a professionalization that needs to happen with Ironman in my opinion. It kicked off, it got really exposed with the neutral service with the wheels, right? There's no system in place for that. There's effectively no system in place for start lists, right? These are some easy things. that you could just go through and go, how do we make this side of the sport a little more professional and tidy it up? And I think they have the product now to say, hey, look, well, we're going to just do this. The easiest way to step into this is we're going to pick 18 races. Mark, when you're clicking, the audience is going to kill us at the keyboard, the audio. And so I think that's just where we're going to be. Looking for an opportunity to improve. Yeah Number three Ali submitted I think that all that needs to be said on YouTube Iron Man, Texas has five hundred and eighty one thousand views T100 Singapore has 56 Number two Ari drops out for blisters meanwhile Taylor chafes so bad. She's bleeding significantly down her legs and still finishes an Iron Man This is why women have children and not men. I mean, 100%. 100%. It is true. mean, it's a bit less debilitating on your feet. I don't want to be the one that sticks up for Ari. It looked gnarly. She is tough as hell. think I honestly, I don't see Taylor's blood running down the front of her legs. but like there's water in that and you know, it was chafing. Ari ran past Kyle saying I could have died. Well, yes, he was being a drama queen. I didn't see any blood on his socks. Just FYI. I love Ari and I hope that he does pop off one this year because I've been calling it. But there wasn't no blood on his feet. I'm most baffled with our voting system because there are some way better hot takes lower down. Let's read them. Like, no, Talbot, do this last one, and if you have to dip, me and Pat and Kyle can back through Do we even read this last one? It's just the truth, and that's the problem that, like, I know we say it on here, but we just get bad for saying it. It says, at the start of the year, T100 said they wanted to create a series that attracted world-class fields outside of world championships. Fast forward, Ironman has done that three to four times this year already, and T100 has become the non-drafting Olympic long course with Hayden spanking the same field. over and over and over. Actually, should we just put that as our podcast? OK. So sorry. Let's just pretend for a second that we're the new Chris Cremode. How would we advise him? What's the solution we would give him? your start field to 20 and. Increase the price purse back to a hundred thousand dollars. I think that you will get- We can't play Monopoly money with them. They have a budget. So we're- Well, my problem is you have to flex. So I don't think limiting the start field is the problem here because no one cares who finishes 11th down to 20th. And so they certainly don't care who finishes 20th to 30th. You need the big athletes. This was half of my sort of problem with the inception of T100 because I never really believed it was an athletes union in the first place. So I didn't really buy into that. And then I was a bit negative from the start, which I've been called out for lots of and I've kind of admitted it, is that it dilutes. a field when there aren't that many great athletes already. It's like saying there's the NFL, let's have two NFLs and we'll double the number of teams, but we'll show just as many games and the standard all drops because you just have them spread fewer and farther between. So then it becomes an arms race to who can get these few available big athletes and diluting the racing doesn't ever make it better. What you want is around, I don't know, 10 great races a year in the sport of long distance triathlon. there aren't enough athletes to feel 10 great, it's race years. So the truth is athletes choose where they want to go and why do they choose that? And the answer is money actually is not proving to be the most effective. So I'm going to, I'm going to interrupt. I'm going to interrupt. I'm going to jump in Kyle. So now it's time. Now it's time. Sam has been an incredible CIO. He needs to take that talent to iron man. No, I've already I've already I've already laid the groundwork We're we've got up there's a professionalization that we've done with world trial. I'm gonna merge world triathlon t100 and Ironman together That's there. That's that is that is the t100 only path. Well, it's not it's next year and they can try out this mass participation model They're going after yeah, and they they have a four-year plan to get the T100 and the 2032 Olympics for Gold Coast. It's not, 2032 is not happening. That's a complete pipe dream. And the other thing, can I just say what we've been tiptoeing around here? Like, I've talked to so many professional athletes that did the race series last year. Guess what? You want me to tell you why they said they're not doing the races? Because they haven't been paid. They haven't been paid. That's why they're not doing the races. They don't know when the paychecks come in. People are doing their taxes. They have no idea where the money's at. That's why people aren't doing the T 100 races. Allegedly. I mean, Tell any athletes stressing out about their taxes. Don't worry about it until you don't have to worry about the taxes until any money comes. So whether the money comes, whether that came in February or today, it doesn't really matter. So like that window for 25 is just been closed. that's going to just be a next year's problem now. So I would tell them to rest easy on that. I just think The events business is really hard. Sam has done an incredible job of raising money. I think they gotta have a big boy conversation with Iron Man. And Iron Man's gotta listen. ⁓ Can I do, there's two, I'm just gonna go through some hot takes that sort of cover the feeling that we've said on the show. ⁓ Mikanut is ducking Ironman. Yes, he's making a lot of money, but it's no KB. So that was one we covered. Someone has already submitted that. And then can we talk about the pros? Different person, Aaron H. Can we talk about the pros ducking the sport of triathlon by hiding in T100? That was another one. This is an interesting hot take. Pretty harsh. Aaron H. again, he was clearly on form on the keyboard. Patrick Langer won't qualify for another Ironman World Championships I'm not ready to ever say that yet Patrick Lang could show up to Lake Placid and just Kind of decimate everybody. Or Lancerati. Lancerati has three slots like It's never that So what would you do? What would you do if you were advising Patrick? Because he had a, I mean our understanding is he just had a bad day. He's not injured. Go to Lanzarote! Go to Lanzarote, there's three slots! He hates it there, but he knows the roads very well. He's trained there enough. It's not really a course for him, but I also think it kind of is. He actually climbs really well. I'd go and get a ⁓ qualified mate. This Pro Series is gone, so there's no real point in Frankfurt. He's also got the slight issue that he was banking on Roth. Banking on the Texas slot. he he kind of then has to Decide does he do that all Roth and he signed up for Roth. They've announced him. So I Think he goes to Lanza Yeah, because he can do Lanza fairly shortly and then still do a good Roth Yeah, yeah, agree. I think that that's what he goes to do ⁓ Next another one that I really liked was RM Cook said how long until KB says enough is enough and walks in the T100 race Right, the only one that he could do would be San Francisco because that doesn't really conflict He's not doing it, but he could do it because you know We talked about he was taking two weeks off and I mocked him for it. Dude, couldn't he make it a week? He made it one week and then had to go do a half marathon He won a half marathon and I won away and it won't Honestly, he did he did it in like he looked like he was out for a joggy and a cap on backwards and a long-sleeve shirt on And I saw he had been doing some mountain climb on the bike and then I saw her a couple of hours riding today that was on his Instagram. The dude, well that is a rest week for him, that's what's mental. But he's not a human. Where's Chelsea Sodaro been since her, where's Chelsea Sodaro been since her Kona win? She's been a scarce commodity. I actually don't know. She's bounced around I think a couple different coaches. I think she's bounced around a couple different philosophies maybe. I believe she's destined to race 70.3 Happy Valley and either Lake Placid or Calmar or both. ⁓ we'll see her race again this year. But ⁓ I believe she had maybe a surgery or some things what I heard through the grapevine, but she's back again. So she's destined to race next month. Yeah, fair enough. I could want to go and I'll throw one more out because it's a pro t-100 one in it. That's a bit of balance I'd rather what I'd rather watch world-class athletes in isolation all day as per a t-100 as per Hayden Wilder at t-100 then have to endure the sight of age group athletes on an Ironman course I tuned in to watch the world's best not age groupers to an outsider t-100 is more pro looking 100 % Well, yeah, I agree. looks more pro. 100%. It still doesn't make it more exciting in my opinion. I'd rather tolerate a slightly less pro looking pro. But also Ironman can't get away from that. They are a mass participation business and part of the selling point is you race alongside the best. But it's a valid point that the transitions, all that sort of stuff looks better. We've said that before. This goes back, I'm sorry, I'm just going to go back on this because I forgot my, this was a point I missed around the professionalization of the sport. they could be doing pro aid stations to just somehow to improve the look and then also enhance the product for the professionals, right? They could do one pro eight station, two on a bike course, one on the run or something. These would just be some of the things ⁓ that don't really add a huge expense to the sport. If we're looking at realistic stuff that doesn't add any money to it, that would be an easy one. Josh Spencer came in with a fun one I quite like. Kat Taylor and Solvig are off to a great start, but they still aren't at the level of the number one ranked athlete. Julie de Ronde in Little Star Marks said sarcastically, well, Josh, I'll give you two comebacks on that, even though I do like your hot take, mate. First comeback, she isn't ranked number one. On what rankings this? The outdated Luddite ranking on the Professional Triathletes Organization or the PTN ranking where Solvig's number one, Cat's number two, Taylor's number three, Cat and Taylor might have swapped, so I'm not sure. So just change your ranking system, Josh. We've got that covered for you. And the second, Challenge Taiwan, like I said, that's why she's ranked world number one on the PTO website. That's insane. mean, like, if you need any reason to question a ranking system. Okay, same point. Christian Blumenfeld being ranked seventh on the men's side and I'm sorry, but Julie Duran is not the number one ranked female in any world that I live in. I think we're gonna need to hop on TeliRx after this and get some... Ibuprofen because we hit we're gonna be really sore tomorrow from all the body slamming we did on this podcast guys Get a lot of text from this one. This is just normal jogging for me boys. Welcome to the gang This is this is every week for me as you know, it's keep up ⁓ I think that's it for hot takes Someone someone was talking crap again on Trevor said what is what does Kyle make of Greg Harper smacking his boy Trevor around? ⁓ Well Trevor doesn't really race Olympic distance races and Greg Harper's just, he's a good athlete. So, we'll see once we get back to 70.3 racing. So, with that being said, thank you all for listening to this week's episode of ProTry News. If you enjoyed this one, share it with someone that you know and love. Even if you hated it, share it with someone you know and love. Be sure to leave us five star ranking. If you prefer the YouTube versus the podcast audio version, let us know and message Jackie Herring and tell her. That YouTube is king. See you next week.