Kyle Glass: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Pro Tri News. I'm your host, Kyle Glass, joined by Mark Matthews and Talbot Cox for what was an exciting weekend of racing. Mark, you got back home from ⁓ from Denmark alright? Yeah, first things. This feels weird doing this without dad. I know. It's like kids are off the leash. Kids are off the leash. We could get cancelled for this show easily. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, just got home from Denmark. ⁓ easy travel, so nice racing in like a close European country. And my my I'll talk about the race later, but my review on Denmark, and I've said it before when I've been there, they're just better than us guys. Like the UK, America, like lots of other places. It's clean, it's efficient, ev like everything's nice. It's just an excellent people are nice. It's an excellent country. And to give perspective, i when you get baggage claim, you like the baggage claim hall, there's like cafes and stuff in there, but there's also a giant hot dog stand in the in the baggage claim hall. where you can get a cup and then you pour yourself a beer from a beer tab and get a hot dog while you wait for your bags. In America and the UK it's like a desolate hall, isn't it, of like aluminium and like nothing. They there's like coffee shops. It's just an amazing country. Anyway, Talbot's been further than I have. ⁓ yeah, I went all the way to the Hyrux World Championship. And I gotta say, I'm quite surprised I wasn't like walking around in like a pro tri new shirt. And do you know how many triathletes came up to me and said they loved the show. So shout out to everyone who came up. Some guy w came up and talked to him for about fifteen minutes. There was a guy a f gentleman from Denmark who massive fan of the show, massive fan of Lionel, and then he I said, ⁓ well, so your favorite so your your favorite athlete is Magnus Ditlev and he like, Yeah, ⁓ yeah, I love Magnus, but ⁓ Christian Hoganhog is my favorite Denmark athlete and I was like, Wow So really, really, really a fun weekend. Learn learned a lot. Also we can chat more about it on the show, but also too the the Hyrox World Championship partnership got a lot of information on that. ⁓ sorry, the HyRox World Triathlon Partnership got a lot of information on that and I think some really cool things for the future of both of ⁓ the sport triathlon and high rocks as well kind of combining. So yeah. You put some stuff on your on your socials, Talbot, about like media stuff. Do you think the media stuff's gonna get better with that partnership or nah? ⁓ Yeah, we'll we'll do kind of a review. Let's review the actual races what people are here for and we and and I'll and I'll kind of fill you in on that because it is quite interesting, but maybe it's just me being petty. So yeah, we'll we'll we'll let the viewers decide. But there was some big race, Kyle. And then also another thing, Kyle went to a wedding this weekend, Mark, and I was gonna ask you your thoughts on this. Kyle I'm starting to think he's signed up for maybe one like a website or something and people h hire him to go to weddings to like be like an entertainer and like that they have a lot of friends and stuff 'cause he is at a wedding every weekend. He's in Wyoming last weekend, Connecticut this weekend. I think he's just like a a less fun version of was it Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughan in wedding crashes. He has got to be on his twenty seventh wedding this year. I don't know as many people as Carl's been to weddings. This this is only the second wedding I've been to this year. I know about it. No, I'm dead serious. I swear. I swear. I swear. This is the second wedding. ⁓ so yeah, it was really and it's almost like family functions in a vineyard somewhere. We do have a lot of we do have a lot of family stuff going on. But I was bummed to miss last weekend 'cause my boy Trevor got the dub. But you guys did a great job So I appreciate you guys. That's not what you told us in the group chat. I changed my mind. You guys did a great job. The listeners don't know, Kyle was proper butthurt that we we left him out of the pod when Trevor won. And he gave us both barrels in the WhatsApp in the ⁓ the chat group because we missed we got some information wrong. But I'm glad you've come round, Talbot, because sorry Carl, because ⁓ we'll continue to get stuff wrong. Yeah. That's the thing that I learned probably the most of I ha it's been a long time since I've sat out For an episode and we're like two hundred and eighty episodes in or whatever. And that's one thing I learned is like there's probably so many people that listen like I did last week and were like, Bro, they got so much stuff wrong or missed so much stuff and like I don't notice that because I'm like on every week, you know? And so ⁓ that's probably one of the things that I learned is like we're never gonna get everything and we're never gonna get everything right. So ⁓ yeah, it was just a hard hard lesson to learn. You had ⁓ one week off and realized how bad we are at this. Excellent. Hey, we still get we still get a lot of listeners, so it's all the issue is the issue is this though. It is for example, I did this triathlon series last year with the feed. You can plan all you want. These athletes have all these race schedules. They they can say it, but a race schedule can change so fast. So we might I might have heard that Cat Matthews was doing this race four days ago and that could change ten times the amount of times. So you might say it with some type of ⁓ I don't want to use the term authority, but like factual that you know this and maybe they move that race to another race and then everyone's like, No, that's not the truth. It's this, it's it and it's just like I this You get into the nuance of things, so still triathlon. And guess what? ESPN gets stuff wrong all the time and guess what? People still listen and watch, so Well, speaking of getting stuff wrong, which race are we gonna start first and butcher? ⁓ Keyberon. Started on a strong butchering there. Love that. Good. WTC Skiberon was this weekend. It was a sprint distance race. I mean, you can go back and rewatch it. It was really exciting. ⁓ I mean, off the gate, I wasn't a big fan of this Hundred and eighty degree U turn like forty meters before the finish line. W what'd you guys think about that? It's too close. It's t it's super league esque, isn't it? I think it works when you want elbows out and whatnot. But I'm not sure about it in like I would I wanna see him run freaking max speed. You got you got two of the best runners in the sport right now, Vasco Volaka and Dorian Conex. Like, let's see ⁓ at max speed running twenty two miles an hour through to the finish line. You know what I mean? Yeah, like the finish lines in like the old days where they they come off the U, right? And that's so they just hold the speed and slip into the finish line. I actually think that's better. I know maybe you put a corner there hoping for a bit of excitement, like a bit of a a dust up round the corner. But I I think it makes it 'cause also if you lead into it, you probably get a win. I'm with you. But I I mean both great races. Like the women's was maybe slightly more predictable. Though I think we slept on Dorian Conicks a little bit because he doesn't lose many sprint finishes and it and on a on a short race he's won an awful lot of sprints. Yeah. Cassandra though, you know, there was this Tilda Manson, let's not put too much pressure on her, but she was being hyped up, having like destroyed Beth Potter. So there was a bit of a Cassandra Tilda, you know, i i is this girl as good as she says she is, and well not says she is, we say she is. And the answer's yes. You know, she still came second. had a really solid race the whole time and she only got one ⁓ only got beat sorry by the reigning Olympic champion ⁓ who is pretty much unbeatable at Sprint like it is it is quite interesting and I think that something that I've learned this last year is I've really started to fall back in love with short course racing. I've I always enjoyed it. I mean I used to do some short course racing in my past. I mean I was never good or a good swimmer or anything. ⁓ but I was so fixated on watching Alistair Brownley and Javier Gomez Noya battle every weekend and we got away from that and it and it kinda I like lost the love of short course and now it's like really tuning in, but it is quite funny how you say even about Dorian Conics, I'm doing my podium picks and I scored very well, not try to brag, ⁓ seventh overall out of six hundred something players. I mean I was I'm going through it, I'm picking everyone and I'm like, Dorian His days are done, ⁓ in this cycle. Didn't even pick him in my top five and I place really I mean, I would have done a whole lot better. But it this is the new like we're sleeping on some of those people. And e even even in the the woman side I was like trying to battle and I was looking at Tilda. I moved Tilda to first and I'm like, No, Cassandra's here. This is the first time they're racing and she's a big I will show you I am the queen of this circuit right now. So I end up putting Cassandra first, Tilda second. ⁓ So I mean this is this is the new crop and the the races are dang entertaining if you watch and ta throw away all the the victory years of Alistair Brownley and Javier Gomez battling out I mean this is some dang good racing. Yeah, 'cause like the men's race podium is split between so they had Dorian Connex, Vasco Velaka and Ricardo Batista, between three seconds, between the top three. Yeah. And then on the women's side it's spread and then third place we've mentioned was Joni Vermielin. ⁓ thirteen seconds back. You know, like the all the races are within their sprint finishes. T at the moment, so often. Even when Vasco's taken his win previously, like a couple of weeks ago, there's so many sprint finishes in these races now. And it's because the standards is generically improved. You know, there aren't these these like one really true hyper professional, then the rest trying to keep up. It it it's making for really exciting racing. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ a another thing is if you tuned in on the live stream, I'm not sure if the people at World Triathlon listen to the show. Maybe not. Maybe not even the people who maybe work on the World Triathlon app. But we were very critical of them that you couldn't do picture in picture where you couldn't leave the app and play on your phone, do things on your phone while you're watching the race. But If we critique them when it wasn't working, you gotta give them a shout out and praise when it is working. So they did add that feature. Now you can on the app, click away and watch, because I did it the whole weekend while I was at the HyRox event. ⁓ so yeah. Well good for them. That's reactive, isn't it? I'm sure it wasn't us, I'm sure that they got lots of other feedback, but that's cool. And then we had the relay as well. it's hard to it's hard I mean, Kudos France, ⁓ by far the best team in that race. It's hard to tell though, like what you can take away from this 'cause So few teams had like full teams. Yeah. France is pretty full 'cause that you know, when you when you've got they didn't yes, they didn't use Cassandra, but you've got Leonia Piperiol and you've got Emma Lombardi, both top five, top ten athletes in the world. You've got Dorian Conniex racing for them as well. And Yenis Seguin, like he's a really, really good athlete. They were pretty close to a a very full team. Yeah. And then going down like Italy were pretty strong. But it it doesn't take long Before you get to like Portugal, rolling out a they're probably their best team and dusting off the UK and the US and Germany. You know, Germany had a really soft team with maybe Lauren Linderman in there. So I don't know what you take away from these relays. I think we have to wait till it gets a bit closer or there's a full relay, like where it really matters auto qualifying slots and stuff like that. Also the distances were just short, like really short. You know, you had four thirty runs getting dropped. Four minutes thirty of running for an athlete is just kind of it's it's not enough to excite me. It's barely a run, yeah. Yeah. But any but like w do you guys know w what that does for the qualifying? Does it do anything? Is it just points? There's no auto qualifying these. It I think it's like you get really excited w you're there for the the the everyone's excited it's the first relay, but then it's not what you wanted it to be. So I think it just it's just kinda like selfish intent. I remember Kyle and I went to the Paris test event and we were so excited to watch the relay and counting down the minutes and then like literally like an hour before they change it to a duathlon 'cause the water quality wasn't good, but it was miraculously good the day before when they were doing the triathlon. But you're like there to watch a relay, but then you didn't get in answer any of the questions that you wanted because then it was a doathlon to a complete different form. And so it's the same way with this, you're like Well what if Taylor Nibb was racing? Well what if Morgan Pearson was there? What if French had their full what if Germany actually put together so you're excited, but I don't think you can take much away from it, I guess. No, what you can like you can see which athletes are putting their name in the hat, right? Like G B will have a decision to make on the men later on 'cause they'll qualify plenty of slots and then it's who they take. And someone like Max Staple turns up. I think he had the second fastest total time. only to Vasco Velaka fifteen seconds back, like a really strong performance. Quite early on in the cycle, probably to try and get a bit of favour with the G B team. Same for like Seth Ryder, the USA for the men. So the overall results probably not much to learn, but the individuals where there are the questions to be had Yeah. That will start to get interesting. But anyway, that was keep it on. Yeah, I think that just since you mentioned it, I do think that Seth like had an amazing relay leg and demonstrated that he he's He's part of the reason why USA got a silver medal in Paris, right? Like he's an athlete that you have to look at and say, Well, he's still demonstrating that he's balancing the seventy point three racing he's been doing and still being competitive at the the short course stuff, so you gotta keep him in it. I I'm it's hard for me because man, I'm like I I was the one doing the show notes and I was like, Relay d didn't really tell us much, but then you look at like the men's or like the USA relay team and you're like We kinda played a really, really good team and we got seventh place. Hm. I think what it tells you is you can't afford to have someone in your team that can't ride solo. 'Cause it's very easy to end up in a position where you're five me you know, you're five seconds off the back of the group when you get handed over. And if you can't ride that very short bite leg solo without bleeding huge time, there was quite a few teams where that was pretty obvious. Like that you cannot have them at the Olympics for you b you need someone that can hang tough and ride a solo bike like if they have to. Right. ⁓ like in the women, like Beth Potter, right? You know, she she managed to ride a solo bike like in the Olympics. You wouldn't have a peg does like a necessary that's her real strength. But she can get the job done. Whereas there are some other people they get really exposed for it. Sure. And ⁓ we two two things too. Yeah for those who listening that didn't tune into the race, just too much distance opened up going into T one, stepped off the course and ⁓ on on the run, which was unfortunate. I hate to see that, but also too, it's like he's showing up and he's there, ⁓ and he's doing these races and it's just I don't I'm such a Ye fanboy, so it's like I want to be biased, but also too, it's like I think it's just repetitiveness. I mean you don't see Hayden Wilde at these events right now, which I mean we I would assume Hayden would be in the same position ye would be in. They're kinda like So Yeah, I guess though Hayden like ye would be way better off with Hayden the someone to draw the bike in his group. That's what he's really lacking at the moment. He's just lacking a bit of triathlon fitness. It'll come back, you know. Yeah, yeah. So What happens what happens if Alex does really well at that diamond league race and then he's like mah, triathlon? Not a chance. There's there's there's levels. He'll do really well and he'll be like it'll be unbelievable for a triathlon. But th there are specialists, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I think Jimmy Greaser's doing that one. That's gonna be it'll be tough. Exactly. So ⁓ couple other things, podium picks we had for that race. ⁓ the winner was Jab SF, which I assume is San Francisco, ⁓ that won it. So shout out to him. Actually it was a three way tie. Him, Alberto, and Robin Iaz. So three way tie for first place and podium picks ⁓ this week at Kibaroll. We don't get very many like Joe Smiths winning, do we? No, they don't make it easy for us. No, ⁓ I don't know where the like the all these people come from, but clearly the the like native English speaking American English sounding name people, we're rubbish at this. Every week it seems to be a kind of European, Central American, like they've got this dialed. Yeah. I mean there you go. blue follower. Interesting name. He's a path. ⁓ Nick Nick Thompson fan club. I mean so That could be anyone. That could I could be that could be anyone, exactly. Hey Pro Tri News listeners, it's WynneRepublic co founder Luke McKenzie here, and I wanted to tell you about Wynn's latest collaboration with Aussie Pro Tri Athletes, Ashley Gentle and Josh Air Burger. This all new collection has both cycling and tri suit options and is available on pre order now through june twenty fifth and we're shipping worldwide. As Pro Tri News listeners, you can claim fifteen percent off any Win Republic purchase, including the Pro Series collections by heading over to winrepublic dot com slash pro tri news. Keep listening in the coming weeks for more exciting announcements on all WinRP drops heading your way. See you at the races. Let's go. What do Lucy Charles Barclay, Magnus Ditlev, Harley 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 wove 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 wove 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's got three amazing saddles the V eight, the ⁓ eight, and the Mags. If you have any further questions, please DM me directly at Patrick Lemieux on Instagram. Right, next phrase. ⁓ big big big kahuna's fallen behind though. You i if you haven't played podium picks Go play podium picks. And also speaking of podium picks, you gotta give a shout out to Ironman seventy point three Elsnor. We did have a breakthrough on the podium, his first podium since God knows how long. I think he race used to race back in the nineties. ⁓ Tim Don though. So Tim Don finishes third place on the podium in Elsnor. Not in the race on podium picks. I'll check. I actually hung out with Tim a bit. We went for dinner ⁓ Friday night and a few beers. He's on good form. He's ⁓ he's doing the on the ground commentary for Iron Man. He can tell he kn he's still super passionate about the sport. Me and him actually he was helping me with my Key Bron picks 'cause I had no idea who was gonna do what. We did those together at breakfast. Me, him, Kat and James Mitchell all did our picks together and I will say Tim knew the most. That is awesome. Jan Kapinski, second place. ⁓ so pretty cool. And also pretty cool to see Jillian, the graphics girl, getting ⁓ top five. So but Very, very interesting and exciting race. I do this points me back to why I do love the twenty meters. I just feel like it still makes dang good racing. I I I I didn't I didn't actually tune in but went back and f skipped through the broadcasts after was actually shooting during the event, but I was even confused on cat. I was like Sh she was all the way down and it's so cool to see that I don't know, I feel like it just really splits up the field for Kat to come down off the bike. I know it's like usually in this race you would think Kat Matthews would ride her way through the entire field and then cement her win, but sh she has a lot of tricks up her sleeves, Mark. Yeah. I'm not sure it was down to twenty meters that she came off so down 'cause she rode the whole thing solo. But that ⁓ It does make for good racing. I think the main thing Yeah, I mean they are. 'Cause those girls were I mean co they were riding well. We'll do the men first. ⁓ the the twenty metres definitely came in 'cause Martin Van Riel after the race us in the hotel was saying to me that the driving force behind so if you didn't see the race, ⁓ a group of seven got out the swim first. You had the likes of Martin Van Riel, you had Solok in there who went on to win it. You had Butters, ⁓ Jamie Riddle was in there, Ben Fay and Ollie Turner. ⁓ and then you kinda had a bit of a gap and Carl Smith was already sort of out of the race. He's he's dropped out in the end, he's just just not feeling well. ⁓ he's been ill with some health issues for quite a while now. But it was Solok and I'm I'm sure I'm butchering his name. Should we just use his first name? ⁓ No, I won't try and do that either. So we'll just go with Solok. ⁓ he was the driving force on the bike, it wasn't Martin Van Riel. Now this kid's got a short course background and he's actually lost races previously, through pretty pretty poor riding, but he is Danish. So he's just clearly got on the Danish train of riding. And Martin was saying like he was hanging on for dear life at points. Jamie Riddle said he was pushing periods at like three eighty to try and just get back onto the wheel, close a ten metre gap, and he just couldn't do it. ⁓ and this kid just drove the bike pace. Van Riel did a fair few turns as well. But they sp they basically destroyed the field and came into transition with a two and a half minute lead. If you're Martin Van Riel coming off the bike, two and a half minute lead with one other guy to run against and you've won five in a row, it's only going one way. Van Riel ran away, took the win. ⁓ Solick held himself on for second ⁓ with a really just outstanding breakthrough performance. And then Simon Vane or probably Simone Vane. ⁓ from France. He he had the fastest run of the day with a one ⁓ nine twenty five. This course was not quick, as shown by Van Riel running a an eleven thirty one, you know. I don't think anyone was in the tens. He he w Van Riel was probably the second fastest with an eleven thirty one. Not a fast course, slightly long, wiggling winding through the towns. And this Saman Vein ran a one ⁓ nine twenty five. So incredible running from him. ⁓ on the men's then taking the ⁓ slots you had Jamie Riddle got one and then it rolled down to Ben. Ben Fay? Did you say it? You don't know him better than me? Wouldn't Martin That's Jillian. And Martin and Martin, obviously. Yeah, Mart I would say Martin's whole reason to go to this, and that's why you don't see him doing too much, but ⁓ but was for seventy point three worlds. So he punched that ticket and just automatically makes it more exciting. I'm a little disappointed in Ben Fay though, because why? I I was just like, you know what? When I was doing my pony, I said, I'm gonna believe in my boy Ben. He's gonna come out of the water first and show everyone he's one of the best swimmers there. And I put him on there and he lets me down by two seconds. So a little disappointed, but it's not the end of the world. I can't believe you can ⁓ I can't believe ⁓ I mean the people that don't know graphics girl Jillian, who is probably our most popular cast member, Ben is her boyfriend. And Talbot's just on here bashing him for letting him down on his picks. I mean, I've got a lot of time for that. Yeah, 'cause it actually came down to Christian Hogan how turned down his slot. For this is why he's so lovable, 'cause one of his best friends is getting married. He's like, I'm just not going seventy point three wild. Dude, I'm going to that wedding too. I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised on that. All right, then next race you race, I'll give you a hundred dollar swim bonus if you're first out of the water, but let me know before and I'll put you back up at the top. ⁓ yeah, but that's I saw that he turned that down. Jamie Riddle was super excited to get the slot, so let's just hope that Jamie's working on his descending skills between now and Nice. Is he bad? At the Iron May World Championships last year it was he wouldn't mind me saying this. It was he lost a lot of time. I reckon he would have worked on it, but go on. Yeah. ⁓ women's race. So the woman's race. Yeah, so leading up the swim, there's basically a group of seven. It was actually quite funny. We had the door open in the hotel room and you could hear a couple of the girls chatting. A couple of the names that I'll mention now, talking about how they w they absolutely had to just drill the swim. And me me and Kat were laying in bed 'cause it was so hot being like I wonder why they're gonna drill the swim and sure enough they absolutely spat Cat out the back door after about four hundred metres. ⁓ Natalie Vancouver and Flor ⁓ Fanella Langridge, Lena Meisner, Martha Sanchez, Lottie Wilms, Hannah DeVet. And ⁓ Louisa Pratt were the leading group. And then Audrey Millaire just off the back. ⁓ and the seven girls at the front worked really well on the bike. They pushed on really hard at the start. Audrey Millaire got across to them. They whittle a couple of the numbers down. ⁓ and really the lead group ended up basically being Lena Meisner, Marta Sanchez, ⁓ Hannah DeVert, Lotti Wilms Cat was out about 140 down on them, not too bad, and then never really made any time. ⁓ she was closing but like tiny amounts. And then Katherine Christensen came storming through on the bike ⁓ s and then eventually caught the group ⁓ to come into transition sort of with the league group. and then it it quickly started into a foot race with a massive get to cat. And I'll be honest, I thought it was it was over. So, like heading out onto the run, you had Marta Sanchez, Hannah DeVett. ⁓ at the front of Lena Meisner. And then Lena Meisner took the wooled for a while. Katherine Christensen eventually caught her. But Kat went out like a bit of a rocket ship. And I was for the first time on the run I was worried she might actually blow up. Because she went through five K in like sixteen forty five through the first five K. I think she had some like three fifteen K splits in there. Close to two. It was it was faster than that, Mark. It was like fifteen something. Well, no, no, I'm on I'm talking tr I'm talking training peaks. It was six it was sixteen forty five or something, sixteen forty. It wasn't it w the the time and you know, never trust those. So it was very th which which is like a one ten pace. ⁓ so she caught the two fifty gap in about eight K. ⁓ but then Katherine Christensen fought well. She only finished thirty five seconds down. Really, really strong run from her. another excellent performance in which is turning into a br like a brilliant season for her already. And Lena Meisner held strong, really like just an all round solid result on a day that she said she didn't feel great to take third place. So were you in slots? Yeah, they rolled a tenth. Yeah. I believe ⁓ the slots yeah, the slots went to Hannah DeVett, ⁓ Fennel Langridge and Liana Bissang in tenth. Yeah. Fanel has got to be pretty stoked to both the world championships. She's punched slots in the last one week. Yeah. In two weeks. ⁓ yeah, amazing. Considering we're like you know she had surgery, what it was it early last year, had a really rough year. Like excellent from her. She was she rode really well, you know. She got dropped from the group for a little bit but then really didn't bleed that much time. the so as far as the race goes, boys, ⁓ it's going in my top five seventy point threes I've ever been to. Really? ⁓ easily. Honestly. Swim is amazing. It 'cause it it's all in the dock and so you can actually spectate it. You can watch the whole swim. Which is unheard of for a seventy point three. Like it's it winds itself brilliant, it's clean. The atmosphere's really good, the event's really well organized, there's like a giant food hall right by it. Like the organisation was flawless. The bike course beautiful. Run course really nice. I I s like some of the shots look make it look like it's like wiggling through a a random place. But it's to take you into like this old town beautiful yeah, top five seventy point three I've ever been to. Kat got caught behind a ⁓ a horse box on the bike course for fifteen K, which is why she lost a bit of time between sixty five and eighty K. ⁓ didn't slow it wasn't going that slow, so it really didn't not too bad. And honestly, out of all the pros I spoke to, that's the only like the only thing I've heard. And that's really unavoidable. They just pulled out, you know, you can't cl you know, they can't stop ⁓ And it didn't really make much difference to her. Amazing race. I would definitely sign up when it goes live if you fancy a seventy point three in Denmark. A flawless race. I I I I think the biggest thing you can take out of something like this is you look at someone like Cap I think we can all know that Kat did not taper for this race. She probably I mean, I this is my assumption. Someone like Kat who's racing for a world championship later on probably trained through this for Roth. ⁓ and still had a great day. What for a swim to be pushed. Kat usually averages about one thirty out of the water in a seventy point three. She was wide at about one forty and then to claw back a win on extremely tired legs, lots of fatigue going into Roth. ⁓ I would say it's more of like a shot to her competitors, a lot of confidence for Kat, and that's what I would take away out of this, and then also on the men's side of Martin Van Reel punching the ticket and showing that I am ready for Nice. We saw how he attacked the course in Nice and last year. Last year during the Iron Man World Championship and this is the seventy point three world championship. I feel like that we are setting up for a dang good championship season. Which makes me extremely excited. I'm with you. And that solid kid's small as well. I can see him climbing really well. I just think coached by Jens, the same guy that coaches ⁓ Magnus Stitlith. So FYI. That guy can coach some cycling, Jesus. Yeah. The th the one the one thing that I don't want to say concerns me, but I feel like we haven't really talked about it though a whole lot during the year. for the last couple of years, but it's slowly becoming a thing again and I don't know what it is. I don't know if maybe the organiz organizers have let off the gas. But and it's in both styles of racing, but I think that the motos were very, very bad in Happy Valley. Very, very bad. I mean, you look at the front group, they didn't really have motos in the men's race. And then you look at the back group and Sam Long's Trevor Foley group are the motos in their face. And I guess it it is so unfortunate because it's not Sam Long, Trevor Foley, the groups. It's not even when you watch the ⁓ the relay championship. I mean, I think w I That was so bad by the way, wasn't it? World Trathon World World Trath on Relay was so bad. I mean, let's I think we can call it like a call Gwen would have probably got dropped on the bike, but then she's putting time into a group of working athletes. And it's not the athlete's fault though, and we haven't really talked about this in a while because I don't feel like it's been a problem for a while, but it's look like I don't need to see up Sam's nostrils on the live stream. I w I'll agree as well, like that yeah, Elsnor, you could you could raise a question at points of it. 'Cause wait it's these narrow courses. The thing is, like it's the beautiful roads and stuff. It just makes it very, very hard and the the organizers have to decide what they want. Like you don't need three motors with a front group, you know, like it's just ⁓ it's hard for them, but I I will agree. I think we've let off the gas, not just us, but just the community, and people are striving for better and better broadcasts, and there just needs to be a way that both things can be taken care of 'cause I mean World Triathlon at the moment is horrendous. There's some god awful stuff in every race you see, like full on motor pacing. And there's been a few Iron Man races now where it just needs a bit of attention again. an issue with the World Trathlon races for is because in their rule book it says that the ⁓ draft distance behind a vehicle slash moto is thirty meters, but there's no enforcement, there's no kind of reprimand, there's no rule stating if you're closer than that, this is what happens. It just says don't be thirty meters behind. Like, at what point are we gonna st are they gonna start saying Okay, well now it's gonna be a ten second time penalty or we're gonna stick a race ranger on the back of the motor. They can't penalize the athlete. I know, like that's the thing, is it's why is that a rule if you can't enforce it and you're not gonna enforce it. The motorbike should be pulled off the course. Like not the athlete. But it you you you know it's a problem though too when I'm I mean, Jamie was going like this in the race last weekend. Yeah, I think that was pull in front of me, please. And and Hannah Devet did it as well, because they people know on a narrow road and I'm not knocking them by the way, because people know on a narrow road having a motorbike right beside you is actually probably slow and it's really noisy in the trees surrounding it. Like I think that was actually go ahead. It's it's unfortunate because like I got a text from Lionel last week just says how bad are the motos in Kalmar? And it's like that that athletes are wondering before they pick a race how bad are the motos and then also too It's like it's a crapshoot because sometimes the motors are bad at the front and sometimes they're bad at the back. It's like, for example, Happy Valley, they were bad at the back and there was no necessarily motors at the front, or it could be vice versa. And it's just it I think from someone who has been on a lot of courses and been on the back of motorcycles, for those listening that don't understand it, is is usually what it looks like is is Iron Man rolls into a town. And they will contact like a BMW dealership. ⁓ and they will say, hey, look, we're looking for a bunch of experienced motobike drivers, and we want them to drive for our photographers, our officials, and then Iron Man, after the incident a couple years ago, they really upped their moto game and they brought in a company called Media Motos, who, don't get me wrong, does a phenomenal job. But I think that there is no golden standard of a rule book. It is we trust the motorboard driver and that's all that matters. And what needs to happen is is Iron Man is so good they can easily set the standard and I have told this to multiple people on their team and it's not our job to pick up the platoon on everything we see an issue but maybe we can help assist Paton. ⁓ is that there's no rules. They just trust the motorboard driver to go out there and do it. So then you got these Local volunteer drivers who's like they don't spend time driving around at twenty miles an hour motorbike motorbikes. They don't care that an athlete's getting a moto draft behind them. And then you got Media Motos who their sole job is to provide good coverage and get as close to the athletes as they can. And so there's no blanket video that they can watch of a training video that says, These athletes get a draft. We know you have you are h former highway patrol police officer on a motor for thirty bike years, thirty years of bike experience. They don't care about drafting. And so what needs to happen is is I think that Iron Man needs to sit down, get some media motos, make it informational video that requires every local motobike driver that is going to get paid five hundred dollars for the weekend, that an official's gonna be on their motorbike and all that, to help watch a five minute educational video and then the media moto guys Who are the nicest guys in the world, don't get me wrong, and they do wonders for our sport as far as coverage. They need to be also continue to be reminded from their captain. These are the rules. Don't ride when you're riding on the front left wheel of someone, an extra three meters in front of them makes a difference. When when Sam Long's directly behind you, he's getting a draft. Just if there's a group of three guys, get at the back of the three. Like and it's it's I guess it hurts sometimes 'cause like for example, when you watch Happy Valley, they put up the quad box, phenomenal box. Like amazing. They put it up multiple times throughout the race. That back group, the same long group, the motos in front of the athletes in every shot, and then the other three media motos are behind the groups in all the shots. And it's like, can we just get some consistency, Mark? Yeah, I I basically totally agree with you. Two things. One, I just w I wanted like unpick I wasn't suggesting that Jamie Riddle or Hanna Devet were saying, Go in front of me, I wanna draft you. It was just give me some space is what I meant. They they neither of those athletes would do that. Second, I actually had this exact conversation I suggested the exact thing with the guy that's like head of referees for Europe, so he reports to Jimmy directly. And I said the same thing, there needs to be like a standardized brief. And there's stuff you can do, like You need the front shots. We get that. That's that's that's broadcasting. That's interesting, right? But get the front shots when they're going uphill. You know, g get the like let them know where they'll have the least effect. When there's a really wide lane and you can be the other side of the lane next to them, you can pull in front a bit. Because your draft is then not affecting the athlete. So teach them when they can get those front shots that won't affect the race. Because When you get a when you crest the hill and the the bike's in front of the athlete, and I've I've ridden behind bikes many, many, many times. You go like twenty K an hour faster. It's not n it's not a Mickey Mouse difference. It's ridiculous. So yeah, I don't think we want to bang our w I I think it's time to unroll the pro try and use drum banging wagon yet, but I could see it happening at some point if the if the things slip up slip away again. Yeah, I mean we're about to get into championship season, like this is That's the same thing as a I think the biggest thing is we don't want to see this in championship season and I just think a reminder video on it is what is so important because these are very easy low framing hoot fruit and Iron Man's done so good about it for so long and so I just don't want to I don't know, necessarily let off the gas 'cause man, it i when when it becomes an issue, ⁓ like you sometimes you if you watch a race and I've been on times I've been to a ⁓ a race And there's there's two officials in one group of group of five guys. I'm like, guys, what what what do we like officials should be able to look at each other or that motorbike designed for officials should be able to look for it and see, ⁓ there's already an official at this group. I don't need to be in this group. We don't need two officials in a group of five. So it's just little things like that. If they had ruling and consistency, it would eliminate these problems. I think one point that Carl just said that we can use as the drum is like If you put a motorbike in front of the group going down the descent in Nice, you're giving those athletes two minutes. You're stealing minimum of two minutes off the rest of the field. You're taking that away from them. You're destroying their chance at a world title. If you're if you're in front even even like besides slightly in front going down that descent, you are ruining other people's chances for world championships. Absolutely. Well even even cona like Kona's gonna be an issue just from a standpoint of like there's crosswind. And so like even being beside athletes for an extended period of time on the big island is gonna be an issue. I do think there's there's something to the fact that people that get out the swim in the front group I'm not g I I well 'cause if I say they get out the swim first always come off the bike first, it sounds like I'm talking about Lucy Charles. I'm absolutely not. I mean the people that like that get out the front that have No, we're talking about Sam Laidlow. Yeah, it's ⁓ that's exactly what I'm talking about. So Sam Ladeleigh, right, the only reason he wins bike legs is 'cause he gets out of the front and then he just drafts the bike the whole way. And I hope you listen to Sam. He's not even a good cyclist. Sam is not even a good cyclist. No, not even good on the bike. Yeah. Eric as well. It's a great example because I don't know if people recall, but a couple of years ago when the PTO had the US Open in Dallas, Reese Barclay was the first person there at the moto meeting and it was like about ten athletes and he was saying the motos are an issue when they would directly help his wife in the race, but the issue is is that someone like Lucy always gets blamed. The only reason you want is 'cause you had a moto in front of you. This isn't the that's the biggest issue here is a majority of the time it's not the athlete's fault and they should not be blamed for it. So we can like throw stones at athletes, but this is completely out of their control. So I don't want to spend too much time on it. Except what Can I say a funny one? ⁓ the only problem I have with the Media Moto guys is they're all from like Wales and England and stuff like that, right? Every time I see them, I offer them cash to sit in front of cat. And not once have they taken it. That's genuinely my biggest gripe with those guys. Maybe th maybe they're not motivated by cash, Mark. They just want some wagamamas and nando's on there. That could be that could be it. Speaking of the HIRAC World Championship this past weekend, you probably heard me talk about it a little bit on the pod, but I was actually carrying fuel out there for several of the feed athletes. ⁓ there they had actually had six athletes racing in their championship race, the Elite Fifteen. What stood out to me though was how many of those athletes were actually using precision fuel and hydration. I personally had the Prevision Fuel ninety gels for six of the athletes that we were working with. That's like their big gel. I don't know if you've seen it. It's like ninety grams of carbohydrates in one pouch. It makes it really simple when you're trying to hit big fueling numbers without carrying a bunch of like individual gels with you. 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Once you actually dive into this full lineup, it just makes sense on why they're easy, trusted, and quality products. Visit the link in the description of this podcast to get Fifteen percent off your next order. Right, what we got next. Speaking of medium motos, we do have some races coming up this weekend. Ironman Frankfurt, the headliner, which is going to be ⁓ a bar and burner. I'm actually really sad I'm not going to it. We had so much fun there last year. The Ironman Europe team does such a dang good job at hosting events. ⁓ that's some would say phenomenal. phenomenal event. The funniest thing I remember, Kyle, is we left our hotel last year to go to the race site and Mark has just stepped out to take a piss, so this is probably good that we're doing this right here. Do you remember how many people ⁓ do you remember when we left our hotel last year to the start of Frankfurt how many people were walking home from the bars at four AM in Frankfurt? Walking home from the bars. People were still at the bars when we were leaving to get on the bus, leaving our hotel room. Like it makes sense for mix for such a good event. Mark, you wouldn't even have to go to sleep. It final call, you could just go to the swim start. Right. People think that I actually do that in races, cat's hat. I do not. I do not. I ⁓ commentators have accused me of that. I tell you what though, if it was the men's only race, now that sounds fun. Though I'm not sure I'd make the the run act. I do know No, it is not this year, boys. You will be sweating your tits off if you've been at the bar all night. We have you seen the temperature, lads? I I looked at it today. We could have thirty eight like if not higher. In a city over a hundred degrees. In a city humid. It's it's like genuinely worse than Kona. It it's gonna be absolutely horrendous. It's gonna decide the race. And it's crazy to see athletes like Christian Blumenfeld duck as well. 'cause he doesn't want to get beat by his fellow countrymen. Classic, classic K Skipping races. Between him and Laidlow, they're they're just gonna have a time in ⁓ in Roth. But the race in Frankfurt, we've got a pretty stacked one. I mean, you got Casper and Gustav going head to head, which is gonna be fantastic to watch. You got Vincent Lewis who's supposedly in really good form. His training partner Martin Vinriel just won last weekend, so I'm sure he's in good form as well. Willie Hirsch, who we talked Very little about, but he's the guy who actually won the race in Ironman Brazil. Great swimmer, great runner. ⁓ you also have Kieran Linders, Brock Hole doing the race, Greg Barnaby making his return to to Iron Man Racing. The other Italian, Michelle, who won the seventy point three in eggs in Provence, Fengrosa Frisza who's gone back to Bjorn Giesman to be coached, who has one of the top ten fastest Ironman times ever. I mean it I this is a good one. This is a hard one to make some podium picks for. ⁓ and a lot of people looking for some Kona slots. I believe there's six slots. You got Leon Chevalier gunning for a slot, Jan Stratman gunning for a slot, Antonio Benito Lopez, all guys who have been factors in these world championship races that don't have slots yet that are that are going for ⁓ And will will Jamie Riddle race this weekend or is he not gonna race? Yeah, I talked to Jamie ⁓ today. He said he he said he's all in, he's racing, so Said he's turned up pretty well after the race last weekend and going for it. Last weekend. You mean yesterday? Yeah, yesterday. Yesterday. I love that he's made that decision already. There's eleven guys on the start line that already have slots and a lot looking for some I mean, we we we are coming up on IBM. ⁓ my gosh, I didn't even say I didn't even say Magnus Dilev. That's our position. We we we we don't really talk about Magnus a lot. It's unfortunate, but Magnus has moved so far down in our open ranking system that that's why we don't see him on here. But Leon Chevalier, another athlete who we haven't really seen his potential in the last year or so, he's definitely coming to make a statement. ⁓ but it is gonna be a barn burner this one. I I'm Leon's made a lot of changes. He's he's one of those athletes that I'm I'm wondering if he's scratching his head and wondering if making a coaching change was a good decision. I mean, if if he done have a good result here, he he has to be wondering that. Yeah, I don't I don't know. I think a couple of athletes left his previous coach at the same time, so I'm not sure if, you know, it wasn't viable for ⁓ some reason or other. yeah, he's got he's he's like the most talented athlete that hasn't really banked the result in a while, you would you would think on that list. Like this race is interesting. The swim's gonna be I d I'm worried that I don't know what temperature the swim is gonna be. Like it there is a world that this could be shortened. Yeah. It's possible. Depends how hot it is this week. It's possible this swim could be shortened because the lake gets hot there anyway. and the it's quite a fast like swim. The bike has a few decent hills to separate things. You know, last year we saw Hogan Haug ride off the front. you know, there was impact some other stuff, but you can ride extremely fast here. It's just gonna they're gonna need to like approach it more like a cone. This is gonna be a massive attritional race. But the men just have a habit of racing full gas. And You just get complete you either win or you just get complete explosions. And I wonder who's willing to risk that and who's not. ⁓ with slots on the line, with pro series points on the line, some of these guys are looking for a second score, right? And if you just go full gas hunting the win in thirty eight degrees against Kaspar Stornez and Magnus Detlev, you your whole world could unravel there. Yeah. And then you have the likes of Jonas Hoffman last year, who got fifth place and That was to a stacked field. Super stacked field. The only people on this start list that beat him was Casper and Gustav and he was about three minutes behind them. So home I don't want to say hometown racing, home country racing, gotta be super, super exciting to watch. That will be We've got a we've got to pick these. We gotta do picks, boys. We gotta do p this is such a big race. It's Iron Man Frankfurt. We've gotta I'll go first 'cause I've just thrown that out there. ⁓ Reigning Iron Man World Championship, Storness. He's gonna grab the dub. ⁓ you know, he's got KB's out the way. I reckon he's strong. I'm gonna take I'm gonna take Vincent Louis for second. I was just overwhelmingly impressed with his Texas performance. ⁓ I don't know where I'm willing to put Gustav yet, though I would love to give him a podium. I'm gonna go a bit rogue and gonna go Magnus Dillon, not rogue, I'm gonna go Ditlaff third. And I'm gonna go Antonia Benita Lopez fourth. I'm gonna I know I'm doing five now 'cause I was just thinking of my podium picks, but I'm gonna do a fifth anyway, and then I'll give it to Gustav Eden. Kyle's fucking Team Norway t shirts out. How many how many how many ⁓ people do you pick Mark? Sorry, I had to take my headphones off real quick so I'd get my shirt on. I did five because I got carried away with my podium pick, because you have to pick five for the podium picks. That's why I got carried away. We just do three though, don't we? We can do five I mean, we do five for podium picks, so. ⁓ as you can see if you're watching on YouTube, I got my Team Norway kit on. I got my Norway pants on as well. So, you know I'm gonna go I listened to Jack Kelly's podcast he did with Gustav Eden on my run this weekend. I'm back running again. and I'm it's hard because I also messaged Casper and I'm like, Hey, can I what kind of shoes do you recommend? So I'm gonna try out some Solomon shoes. But I think I'm gonna ride and dive with with Gustav for this one. I think Gustav's in pretty good shape. and coming into form really, really well. I don't know how Casper's feeling after his little crash he had in the rain a couple of weeks ago. So ⁓ could could be a factor later on. So I'm gonna go Gustav for the win. I'm gonna go Casper second, basically doing what they did last year in ⁓ in this race. It was Norwegian one three four. So it's gonna be Norwegian one two and then third place I'm gonna go Vincent Louis, fourth place, ⁓ Greg Barnaby in his return to some Ironman racing. And then random out the top five, I'll go Finn Grossa Friza. Yeah, he's good. I think Magnus is gonna go to get the slot. I think he's gonna go into maybe some some heat prevention mode. That's just my opinion. ⁓ For me it's a bit different if I was gonna pick who I was gonna hang out with versus if I was gonna pick the podium, because I'd pick ⁓ Casper and Gustav up at the top, but So they kept replying to your text messages, you mean, like Carl does. Yeah, exa exactly, exactly. ⁓ I just don't think they're unlike K B. They don't they care about the win one time of the year and that's at the World Championship. I don't think Casper and Gustav like they're they're here to do the work. The w if the win comes, they're content. They don't really care, but there's one guy here who's gonna get that win this weekend. It's gonna be his first ever Ironman win and it's Vincent Louis. Whoa. ⁓ Fourth place in Texas. He's ready to stamp down. He's gonna he's gonna swim at the front. He's gonna have there's there's not someone like Hoganhog who's gonna push the front. I I I think that we can see him towards the front the whole day. ⁓ twenty meters, I think Magnus is gonna have a phenomenal day as well. Phenomenal day, second place, and then I think Casper rounds it out for third. So different story for Kona. Different story for Kona, but this is Frankfur for you. I think the world of Triathlon would celebrate if Vincent Louis won, don't you? ⁓ my gosh. That'd be that would be awesome. It's just such a nice bloke. Yeah. I'd ⁓ I'd be really happy with that pick as well. It's gonna ⁓ basically none of us have any idea. This could go anyway. I think it's gonna be a really good race to watch. It's like totally worth tuning in for. ⁓ I watched the whole You know you know who's gonna be the struggle to pick fastest bike though, because if you look down the list you got Ruben Zapuncta, who usually has the fastest bike split, but then you also have Cam Worf. And Magnus. I don't I don't think Cam's gonna race, he's gonna save it for placid. He doesn't I was talking to him earlier in the week and he said that ⁓ this year since he got his slot early he doesn't need to chase that slot and so he was just gonna be kind of a game time decision, so he said he wasn't gonna race in this one. Fair. I've got 'cause we're talking about Kyle and his messaging people. I was I saw Mikhail Eden and his actual his as ⁓ his second child as well. he said Kyle that before every pod you message him. Just to check in Just to try and get some gossip before every pod. I wouldn't say before every pod. I didn't message him this week. Okay, good. He also said that I I give Solve Glossath a hard time. What? I think Pat gives Solve a lot harder time. Because Pat's always like, Her bike's heavy, her bike's heavy. And I'm like, Yeah, while he's on the same Pat on this felt bike. Trevor's on the same bike and the guy wasn't he's a bitter at this bike or something. Like what it we probably need to do like he Pat needs to take the Felt IA to one of his ⁓ counseling meetings with a psychologist and they need to work things out. Pat is not like that bike. No, that's true. I never really noticed that. That's really true. Yeah, I've I was like I don't give so I'm a I'm a huge Sophie fan. But apparently I bagged her off for looking really tired on the end of her last two runs. You can't talk about something. The girl can't stop winning. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, I'd say I'd say Pat I'd say Pat gives her gives him more of a hard time. Good. Right. I I'll I will I will say one thing though about Kyle is I do a lot of random stuff. I have these weird things I like to do. Like every day I think maybe even during this podcast I went to MacRumors dot com just to see what Apple is gonna come out. It's either I'm going to MacRumours dot com or I'm trying to text Jordan Blanco and see The one thing I'm not doing is is I'm not on the Georgia County roads seeing which roads are getting replaced. So pays off. Shout out to Kyle for his investigative journalism on figuring out that trying to text us in the group months ago, I think like in January, it's gonna be Chattanooga. We're like, bro, chill out, they're not going back to Chattanooga. It's gonna be Chattanooga, I got this, I got this. Do you have a war room in your house that you've done like these strings and pins and all that? Yeah. Yeah, with the seventy point three logo at the as the center of it and then strings off. ⁓ yeah, I could see that. It was it was really just luck to be honest with you. I mean, i if you look at how many people do road work in America, like it's it's astronomical. So it was really just luck in the end. But I'm pretty proud of myself to get get that one right about Challenge. Yeah, but I mean what do we think about it? We're we're we're stoked about it, right? I'm pretty excited. That was my first ⁓ that was my first world championship to ever go to. ⁓ Seventy point three worlds when it was in Chattanooga. It was the first year of the split, whenever they started doing men on one day, women on the other day. so that was a really cool experience to watch. I remember me and Talbot went out onto the bike course both on the Women's Day and the Men's Day, and on the women's day we watched as as Holly Lawrence, who is the defending champ, like pull off the course that day and we were like, Dude, Daniela is just unreal. And I think at that time she had just won her third world title. And then we went out on the men's day and Javier was like dangling off the back of the group. Ben Canute, who we had known for a long time, like went off the front and we were like, Javier's done and then Javier came back and won that race, ran like I think it was like the first one ten half marathon off the bike at that time. Yeah, it was a record, wasn't it? Yeah, it was crazy. Twenty twenty meters, Ben Canute was the outright winner of that race. ⁓ yeah, if it was twenty meters, Ben Canute would have probably won that race. What have we done it wasn't? ⁓ the swim course will be. Is it gonna be the down river or will they block it off and do the thing where you do the square? Then it's kind of I don't think they believe I I saw TriMemes posting I saw TriMemes posting about this and I I d I don't think that they're not gonna do a downriver swim. I that's not that's not what they do. When when if you look at Iron Man historically and ⁓ Scott Drew's been doing a lot of good things for the sport, they're not doing an easy leather up fast course. They're gonna make it a very challenging course. Everyone's asking for the old bike course. I can bet you money. They're gonna make it a hard, hard climb and it's gonna be an into the current swim, turn around and come back. Because I'm hyping for. What? Fifteen hundred meter downriver. They'll they'll do if they do it downriver, they make it they do make the swim longer when they do it downriver. They make it like a one point four, one point five ⁓ swim rather than like a one point two. So they I don't think they even decided if my memory serves me right, when we went for seventy point three worlds, I don't think they decided what swim course they were doing until like the day before or the day of. Huh. So it could be something that they don't even decide until until race week. So you and you and here's a money marketplace. Yeah. We were out there with this coach, ⁓ Javier. So it's Javier Gomez's coach, Javier, and they spoke very little English, but Kyle and I had like we were just trying to like chamoisniff any pro that we knew there, so they started talking to us probably 'cause we were just Americans that would help them out there, translators or something, I don't know. They went and got a a a it was like a grocery bag and they filled it with leaves and we were with them and they walked out onto that bridge, that big bridge. And they just sat out there. And just scattering the leaves and watching and scattering the leaves and watching it. What geniuses. Yeah. I would have never in a million years I I'm a dumb American, but I mean I would have never in million years went to go scatter leafs on a bridge and see which one went the furthest fastest to find out where the best current is in the river. Yeah, that is actually really good, isn't it? Yeah. So when now when we go next clear ducks, we're gonna see all these we're gonna see Pro Trius rubber ducks. Yeah, we could do a thousand rubber ducks across the river and then we could just watch which ones win. That's what we can do. And we can put Pro Triese rubber ducks. Jack no, no, Jack Kelly's face on it. The triathlon hour. So then when they just go down the river and everyone complains, we could just be like on the bottom proper property of Jack Kelly, right across the bottom of each thousand rubber ducks. Made in Australia. Made in Australia. ⁓ there's there's probably gonna be some people that are like ⁓ frustrated that it's in America or whatever, but Chattanooga does host one a really, really great race. There's a lot of stuff to do. ⁓ also if you're following the World Cup at all, that's where Spain did their entire training camp building into the World Cup this season. That's not the one that where there was a shooting just down the road. That was the England camp. No, that was the England one. That was the England camp. Wanted to make it feel like you were actually in South London. Yeah, all right. No, that'd be knives. That'd be stabbings going on down the road. Don't worry about that. ⁓ So But Chattanooga will be fun. It'll be a good time. So ⁓ we're already scoping out some live show venues. So if you're gonna be in Chattanooga, be sure to get your qualification early. Dude. Mate, what are you doing? I got a sick venue. I got a sick venue I was looking at last weekend. On the weekend I was looking at it, relax. Carl sent us this house, I think 'cause a joke, 'cause it's got a giant slide through the middle of it. And we were like, sick. I want that house. And he sent it to me as a joke. I just booked it there and then then told her. Not sure. Well messaged Luke I messaged Luke McKinsey and I was like, here's some sick houses in Chattanooga And then he was like, ⁓ mate, we gotta be close to the venue and I was like, Yeah, same. I like, I'll send it to Captain Mark, they'll book it. We'll be able to just hang out there the whole weekend. There there is some more racing on this weekend. The Tizzy ⁓ World Cup, I believe. Taylor Nibbs on the start list right now, as well as ⁓ the European Triathlon Cup Wells. You have the likes of ⁓ Hayden Wilde on the start list, so who knows? These these start lists change quite frequently. You may ⁓ You mean the US national time trial champions on the start list? Taylor Nib. Taylor Bosco two time national time trial champion now. Hell of a ride, girl. Congratulations. Yeah. I mean we're looking ⁓ I don't think there's gonna be rain in LA, so we might get to see a proper showing of Taylor ⁓ in the time trial. It's starting to look like that it might ⁓ feature up to be that way, so Oof, that'll be good. ⁓ There is one more race this we can tell, but I know that we don't really talk about ⁓ other seventy point threes that aren't pro series races, but this is the last qualification for the women for seventy point three worlds for this year for Nice. And you got a pretty good start list. ⁓ Marjolaine Pierre, Lizzie Rayner, Danielle Kleiser, ⁓ couple of women on here. I mean, last year's podium, ⁓ Tanya Newbert is on the start list gun and first slot, so T B D if she'll be able to get it. But then in the end it'll be the last last qualification for seventy point three worlds for for Nice this year. Has Marjelaine said if she's gonna do Placid yet? I don't think so. I haven't heard that yet. I hope so. Yeah. Because I'm going. And she's always fun. Yeah, she's lovely, isn't she? Yeah, I wonder if Yeah, maybe that would be for the series, but I I would be surprised if she'd be doing this before it, having done Hamburg. You would think she wouldn't squeeze a seventy point three, and so it makes me think maybe not. I mean it just it You're sleeping in your own bed, it's just a training day. Yeah, true. Good cast. You live there on the course. It's one thing to travel to it, but then you I mean, I would bet it's probably just a game time decision she'll make. She'll look at the start list and just say, I think I can score some easy money here. So and she's running pretty hot right now too. Like running very hot. Axon France race. Could be a easy, easy payday. Between Axon Axon France and Ex in Provence and Eggs en Provolone, we got we got all your races covered. ⁓ before we get into hot takes, I want to give shout out to one of our listeners, Eric Engstrom. It is his fiftieth birthday this weekend, so shout out to you, Eric. Keep training hard and ⁓ look forward to seeing you on the race course sometime. Hot takes. Are we selling are we selling show outs now? Are we birthday shout outs? Yeah, it's ⁓ weddings and birthdays now is what we're doing on the on Pro Train News. We've got a lot of listeners. We'd be doing if we do seven days, we'd be doing like forty eight birthdays. No, it'd be more than that. It'd be r we're not doing that. Okay, carry It's good. Whatever. Carry on. Okay, this is a hot take I want to tell No, I know. Shout out on the pod, happy the wedding. No, no, no. He's happily married. It's all good. It's all good. Okay, this is a hot take that I I put in a couple weeks ago, but it may have gotten lost, so I'm gonna lead with this one and then we'll get into some of the listener ones. There is a massive battle going on. We would do almost a thousand birthday shout outs each week. I've just worked out. Anyway, carry on. People already complain about how many adderies we do. I can't imagine what birthdays people be complaining about. Go on. ⁓ so there's a big battle going on behind the scenes that I don't think a lot of people know about is going on. So T one hundred PTO with their ⁓ world tour starting next year, they are now essentially having to court the challenge race directors to keep races to be challenge races is what I've been able to deduce. So what happened was is pre COVID, there was a 70 point three race in Austria that was an Iron Man, strictly Iron Man, Saint St. Poulton. Since COVID, that's been a challenge race for the last six years. They have now decided they want to go back to Iron Man. Totally within their rights. They can do that. And so now the Saint Poulton race that's been a triathlon forever and ever and ever, now is back to being an Iron Man race. Where this gets interesting, this was my hot take a couple of weeks ago to talk about like why would a race director decide to be an Iron Man, then go to Challenge, and then now that Challenge has been purchased by the PTO T one hundred, why would they then now go back to Iron Man? Like maybe it was ⁓ maybe there was some behind the scenes stuff. Iron Man was like, we're gonna put a race in the same venue, same place, blah blah blah blah. Iron Man has put this race on the same weekend as the challenge championship in Samarith. That's probably on purpose. That's probably by design. That's I Iron Man used to do this back in the old guard, like they used to try and win athletes and professionals and all that to to get to do their races versus others. They've done that for years and years and years. But I have heard Through the Grapevine, that seventy point three world championship last year that was in Marbella. Supposedly that's gonna be T one hundred Spain next year. So now the T one hundred has done what Iron Man's done with the St. Poulton race, and then they've said, Well, we're gonna have we're gonna bring Marbella under our umbrella now. Thoughts? Well, I didn't know Marb yeah, I guess I c well that would be quite funny, wouldn't it? I mean, it's quite amusing to see the like each of these race directors actually now probably have a bit more power than they thought they did. Like if you've got the two big dogs vying to take possession of your races, you've just got to show healthy numbers and you've probably got leverage. I don't know how ⁓ like Iron Man's probably has a cap of how many races it actually wants to run at the moment. Like the background staff it's probably scaled for X amount. The infrastructure that they move between the races, the branding and stuff like that. So I don't know how quickly they want to scale, how quickly they want to start a race war. But that's a much more fun race war than what race war normally means. Like it could be interesting. I bet it's the big ones, right? I could see Iron Man going for challenges, big events, the fun ones. They're like popular locations. Say Poulton is beautiful. Amazing, great race. Huge race. Amazing, beautiful, amazing course. I th I think I think the most important thing is No one as a as an amateur athlete don't really care as long as there is still a vent. What I have problems with is when Iron Man comes and they put a race on the same weekend to compete and take away and crush a race where it doesn't go into existence. I don't really care who owns the licensee of the race. I think what's more important is that the town still has the race. If that makes sense. So As long as they're continuing is what's the most important. Challenge Salmon is a staple. The Challenge Championship race. They do a phenomenal job. The X Bionic Sphere is an incredible place. ⁓ I don't see something like that going away, but it would be one thing if they were trying to cancel and the race was cancelled, but I don't see that being the issue here and so I hope that it promotes good competition like what Mark said. It ⁓ gives the power to the race director almost. So I think that's a really good point. I think like I don't know if you remember maybe was it last year? Super unpopular thing Iron Man did and they introduced Iron Man UK up in your ⁓ Leeds and it was the same day as Outlaw Full, which is one of the few independent, full distance, kind of local feeling i like independent races, right? And it was the same day. And that felt very big, bad corporate company coming and stealing competitors from small business. I have a problem with that and so where they can avoid it or they should. What I don't have really care about is if T one hundred want to try and poke a post poach a race off Iron Man or Iron Man want to poach a race off T one hundred, they're both big boys. Like that's fair game. That's just that's just two corporations battling it with each other for market. That I don't really care about. I I would just be amused by it 'cause I bet there'll be some petty in fighting over it. Yeah, yeah. So just one of the things I that has kind of piqued my ⁓ My interest recently speaking. Speaking of events and race, there was some drama going into the Hyrux World Championship of P these brands couldn't get media passes and ⁓ the media couldn't get media passes. I was a bit butthurt and upset and over the ten years of covering events I actually filed for a media pass under Pro Tri News. But once I got there and kind of understood, they put on a dang good show. ⁓ and everything was centralized and they didn't want to give any of the media access to the middle of the arena. And it would be the same as if I you went to a proper football game at the World Cup. Y they're not letting you on the field to take photos. Here's the parameter and stay on the outside and bring a zoom lens and take your photos. So it was I think a lot of people were upset, but at the end of the day that that that is what it is. But did have some good chats. Don't want to maybe mention a name ⁓ don't know if it's allowed to or but about if you're aware, World Triathlon and Hyrux are in ⁓ cahoots and are working together. And they are g basically gonna be the governing body of Hyrox. And here's where it helps. Pat talked about it on the show a couple months ago, couple weeks ago, on We gotta stop comparising comparing ourselves to tennis or the MBA. Like we are a small niche sport. And where ⁓ I walked around the event this weekend, ⁓ like one out of ten people you see was wearing a Ironman shirt, was had an Ironman backpack. I mean, these are all athletes. I actually met a g a super nice guy that listens to every one of our podcasts and he just said he's at a season in his life where he has I believe it was three kids at home And he doesn't have the time to train for triathlon, Hyrox gives him an outlet that he can still chase the fitness lifestyle, stay in good shape, and compete with his wife, and this is just a season of his life that he's gonna return back to Iron Man. ⁓ but he listens to the show every week, super nice guy. And so where I think that this really benefits is what they're gonna do is is of course Hyrox they want Hyrox to get into the Olympics. But it would be impossible to set up a federation. So they're gonna use each other to basically set up federations across all the globe, and then they can be like the governing body or the federation of the HIROX USA. But if you were to buy a membership for HIROX Federation, like a USA triathlon membership, or buy a USA triathlon membership, then you could go do one of the events or the other. So then it would encourage HIROX athletes to go do a local sprint triathlon. They could get their marketing, they could get their email lists, and it would do the same thing for like UK. If you bought a membership through the UK Federation of Triathlon, you could go do a Hyrux event or vice versa. So I think that together is better and stronger, and then also governing it, and then they will move into hopefully drug testing and things like that. I do s I do see ⁓ an issue here. That is pretty urgent. So they are doing ⁓ World Triathlon was taking care of all the in competition drug testing for the pro races. It is quite interesting to look at their amateur field. ⁓ it was about ⁓ however ⁓ thirty thousand, twenty thousand Greek gods, like usually I would say coming from Oklahoma, I'm like one of the maybe one percent fittest people here in Oklahoma, and then you go to this event and I'm in in the one percent of the most unfit people at this event. insane. ⁓ I just wonder how many of those people at the event are on peptides, are on testosterone, are on and I'm not talking about the pro athletes, I'm talking about the amateur athletes. And it's and it begs the question and it's the same thing for Iron Man as well. And I'm not saying it's sometimes you need things to promote your health. I do think it's wrong that you're going intentionally to your doctor and saying, Hey, look My freaking marathon time at fifty years old is only three fifteen and I need to be running sub three hours. So I need some peptides, I human growth hormones, I gotta get my Kona slot. That's where I think it's wrong. If you're wanna take that to live a healthy lifestyle, go do it. I don't I have no problem with that. But it is it does beg a bigger question, I think, for should you be paying more money and being able to qualify for the world championship and use race ranger and you're also subject to drug testing at the finish line versus just you're automatically entered into a open category division where you're like I'm just trying to go and have fun and do a five hour half iron man and I'm on peptides and I'm on human growth hormones and I don't really care because I'm fit and I live my life. You know what I mean? And so Yeah, there's a there's and it's just gonna get worse because more and more and more people are moving to the And ignoring it and ignoring it is the wrong answer as well. Yeah, totally. Because you just won't be able to be competitive and then it will just be a recreational sport rather than a competitive sport. Like the amount of people now taking testosterone, T R T, peptides. And then, you know, I think sport will probably ban ⁓ GLP ones and stuff like that at some point because cyclists will use it to cut down. So your Azempics, your ⁓ whatever the other one's called, all those drugs, they're all gonna fall into the same bracket. And but but they're just becoming more and more and more routine. so I don't know what the answer is, but I'm with you, Tal, but like they will have to address it at some point because the amount of people now is just getting like out of hand. I did have a fun thought the other day though. You know all those people on GLP ones, all the guys like the Azempics, the Manjaros and stuff like that. How many of them do you reckon have talked about how how, you know, they don't like it, that women wear makeup and you can't tell what they look like without it? I think you should have to advertise 'cause I'm so bored of seeing guys that used to be way fatter than me, that are instantly absolutely cut. Like I'm jealous of it and they've done nothing. I reckon you should have to wear it like a label. No, I'm on your on your forehead. Because otherwise it makes me feel bad about myself. No, I'm on the I'm on the Azempic. That's why I'm absolutely ripped already. And you know, that just stops me feeling quite so bad about myself. Yeah. I know what you mean. It it makes me wonder, though, should you should we and I'm I'm I'm curious to hear your thoughts from our listeners. What if when you were signing up for an Ironman? You were automatically entered into the open category and you're there just to compete. And if you want to slot Tacona or Nice, you pay an additional fifty dollars. You just gotta pay it. I know it's everyone's gonna get mad about it, but what that would do is you are then subject to random drug testing for human growth hormones, for any of this, and they will just randomly select a batch of amateurs. And then also two, you're then given race ranger. So You are, if you start drafting on people, you're drafting on the pros, I feel like, and then your subject, if you get over, let's say, three minutes of drafting time, then you automatically are just assessed a penalty. And that goes into your overall results. And you can't really argue that because it's accurate. So I don't I think that that would be a good route. And then not only that, it kind of they would start at a different time and just things like that. Like for example, I and I showed this on the podcast, like My dad would love to do another Iron Man seventy point three. He loves following triathlon. He doesn't do it at all anymore. He's takes testosterone because he had low testosterone and like he wants to go do one and right I mean right now he can't actually legally do one. And he's not gonna do good, he's gonna go like six hours. But it's like you gotta start the conversation on it. So, I don't know. I think that before we move on, like Ironman's are already five hundred dollars for seventy point three and a thousand dollars for a full Iron Man, I think maybe giving a discount to people that want to be in this open category versus an additional fifty 'cause the the the general feeling is the price at the moment is way high. Way too high. Way too high. They're still selling out so it's like it's crazy. ⁓ let's get it let's hit a couple of these before Mark bounces. Iron Man needs a system kinda hitting on the same thing. Iron Man needs a system in place. If a race is full, you can join a wait list and if someone wants to drop out then you could fill their spot on the wait list. Then they get a refund and no one's out any money. It can be automated and charge someone, I don't know, thirty dollars if they want to be weightless. I mean I I think that I think that airlines should do that as well. And then if someone else wants to buy the airline ticket, then you don't get to charge, you get your money back. They ain't doing that. I like that. I like that. They ain't doing that. They don't need to do that. Should they do it? Yeah, are they gonna do that? Nah. Yeah, but like probably not. No, I see what you mean. But I guess what you could do is Yeah, I don't know. No, I I haven't got a good answer. You or you could get like a bigger refund. So like w they work out the cost of having that athlete at the race, what they cost at the aid station, what they cost at the bags and shit like that. You know what I mean? They keep that amount of the money. I don't know. Yeah. It's a good idea, 'cause the races are getting more and more full. They but they still need to find a way to profitise it, yeah. Yeah. ⁓ Will McCloy is goaded for C Trathlon Commentator if he keeps calling like he does in P Happy Valley ⁓ he's great. Yeah, I don't know if there's anyone else. Sam Apo. He's on the up. I know he's not a Will McCloy, I know he's not like a professional, but he got some shout outs in the comment sections on Instagram. Everything and he actually him and Rinnie bounced really well together. I thought like they were actually really good as a pr ⁓ like a retired athlete pair when I I Apo's still racing. Apo's Apo's really good. I gotta give it to him for someone that's only done a couple. He's on the way up. Now you got your ⁓ retirement plan, Apo. There you go. ⁓ there's there's been a lot of people that have DMed us that Montreblant and Austria should be on the pro series calendar for next year. Maybe we can do a whole whole topic of the week. We should pick our calendar. We'll do that as a ho we'll do that as a we each go away and we pick our pro series races. And we go we'll do a ho we'll do a show where we each debate w while we've got what races on our calendar. Yeah, that'd be good. That'd be a good topic of the week, so ⁓ I agree. Austria is one of the most beautiful, picturesque Ironmans. It probably should be a pro series race. ⁓ Talbot has definitely been cut or decided to stop working with T one hundred and Ironman and now only his triathlon content is for Lino and PTN question mark. Talbot, you want to clear the air? ⁓ I have hit a p stage in my life where I have ⁓ I don't know if I've ever never even announced it on this podcast or online. My wife and I back ⁓ last November we had t ⁓ our second child, ⁓ little Baylor. We had a boy, so now I have a boy and a girl. ⁓ I've hit a stage in my life where I actually have a family who relies on me and so I took a full time position at a ⁓ company and working with them and producing content. So I go to a lot of endurance events. I work for the Feed and they have been incredibly gracious for me. ⁓ and so I've been covering a lot of them. So I will go to Iron Man events, Hyrux events, we'll be going to a lot of the lifetime Grand Prix and ⁓ making money. I don't know if you're aware of this. Just going to Iron Man events and shooting Iron Man events, it is a hobby. It is not a ⁓ a career. So I actually need to make some money for my family. So ⁓ I will continue to go to Iron Man events. ⁓ T one hundred events, unfortunately right now at the state that they're at being single gender. Mark mentioned to it very early on in the year. This is a buy year for T one hundred. They're gonna have some phenomenal events next year. ⁓ so it doesn't really there's no ROI to go to those events, but ⁓ Yeah, I have a full time job and I'm loving every bit of it and I do still do Lionel stuff, so yeah. I'm enjoying it. And our website. And our website, yeah, exactly, exactly. So I've actually been busier than ever, ⁓ from family perspective, life perspective, and ⁓ happier than ever as well. So yeah. Nice. Good for you. Shout out to Morty and my beautiful wife for having our second child though. I never mentioned that on here, so we are extremely excited about that and loving every bit of it. Congrats. I was in actually my wife was in labor. Kinda got in trouble. ⁓ my wife was in labor and pushing and I on the desk over here behind her head I had seventy point three World Championship up and I was watching ⁓ Helen Gates and Christian Blumenfeld battle it out. So ⁓ sh luckily she never saw but I was leaning over and I like I was breathing hard and watching my wife so That will show you my love for Triathlon, ⁓ not only mine but our podcast. It is a hobby and we do love what we do, so shout out to everyone who listens. We love this sport so much. We are so excited that we're in the last couple qualifying races going into the Iron Man World Championship, ⁓ and championship season this fall. We got some massive things planned for World Championship this year. We're so b super excited to have you guys involved in it. ⁓ and just to see the fruit of the sport and how much it's continued to grow. But There's no better place to catch up on professional racing and all things news in triathlon. We always genuinely hear stuff a little bit earlier, i.e. Kyle trying to let everyone know that the world championship will be in Chattanooga, and we get to officially say it now. So that is the number one podcast in Triathlon, Pro Tri News. Make sure you send it to your friends, and we will see you on next week's show.