Kyle Glass: Warning. Pro Tri 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 Tri News. We have a special guest on today, Nan, to come on for the massive announcement out of the World Triathlon, which is the partnership with T-100. And world triathlon. So we're gonna dive into that. But first we're gonna get into what I guess some of us would call Sam Long's greatest Iron Man 70.3 performance of his career. We have Kyle on today, Non and Pat. Non first. How are you doing? Where are you at in the world? I'm really good, thank you. I'm actually on the same side of the world as you guys. I'm in Texas, ⁓ in Conroe, near the woodlands. so just re reconning Iron Man Texas for next year, you know. ⁓ big announcement. Coming out of retirement. I'm definitely not FYI, but but it's hot down there. ⁓ my gosh, it is insufferable. I am dying. My British background has not prepared me for 10 days in ⁓ in Texas, but it's a really cool place. I'm enjoying it. The training's actually much better than I expected. So pleasantly surprised. And ⁓ Pat, or it were ⁓ how are you? Good week. I'm amazing. I'm at home. ⁓ we had a huge weekend at the RC car track. ⁓ Stanley was racing, George was cheering and marshalling cars and it's it's amazing. I've I get I've get been tossed into another realm and it's just hilarious how similar it is to every other hobby. You got just dorks that are geeking out over equipment, so I fit right in. And Kyle, you are you all moved into your new house? I'm all moved in. You ca you and ⁓ Lorjean came and visited us on Saturday, see our new place. So ⁓ yeah, I think we're we're pretty much done. Just gotta get some more boxes out of the garage and whatnot. But pretty much moved in. So it's all good. I had a great weekend myself and ⁓ Mark is sitting out the show ⁓ he is ⁓ triathlon out at the current moment. We all go through these phases of ⁓ a lot of triathlon and just needing a weekend break. So we greatly thank Nan for coming on. But it was a massive weekend. Matt Hauser's third straight win in a row. Alex E came on, ran the fastest five K in the entire field, but still did not do too hot. ⁓ and then to Boise I guess we could start off there because ⁓ both these races, if you were watching Triathlon, it was a good time to watch Triathlon because they were going on at the exact same time, ⁓ which was good and bad. You're trying to like bounce into one, watch, bounce into the other. But I think one of the most shocking things of the weekend was also how what percentage of this race non was indoors in London? ⁓ so T or Transition was was indoors. The majority of the bike was outside, or I think all of the bike was outside, but then I think like seventy percent of the run was indoors, or I mean some of it was kind of outdoors but i under a tunnel sort of situation. So ⁓ I think it's probably a bit misleading to say that it was all inside the Excel centre. But ⁓ yeah, quirk quirky a bit different. Apparently it made the atmosphere really cool because obviously. almost like a stadium effect, right, with the crowds and by the sounds of it, the athletes really enjoyed the atmosphere that that created 'cause something unique for Traflon and I wouldn't say London's best venue, but at least we're back in the UK for a while. No, I think it's l look to give them their flowers, like I was there for the T one hundred and I thought it was kinda cool and unique the way that it was integrated into the ⁓ into the Excel Center. So I I'm I wouldn't say I'm like a massive fan of it, but there are parts of it that certainly could be brought over to other venues in the future, right? Like if there's ever a world where there's some venue next to a body of water like this, you can think about it and go, Hey, could we do a triathlon there? Like there's some there's some logistics parts of it that make it really, really great. ⁓ yeah, certainly a little quirky like running up the steps and then down like, but it kind of worked for me, right? So unfortunately there the bike is you know, the bike course is like a one or maybe a one point five out of ten in my eyes, but like they do get a lot of things correct at that venue. ⁓ really easy to take the train to. You do ki I mean, as a I'm not from London, but I still kind of feel like I was part of you know, I feel like I was in this in the city. I mean, it wasn't like, you know, I mean, Hyde Park has its pluses and minuses too, non as you'll remember, they had to use, you know, a dump They had to dump a ton of cleaning product in the pond to use it 'cause it was filled with, you know, duck poop and etcetera. So it does have its own Hyde Park does bring its own challenges as well. So yeah, I I kinda like the venue. The ⁓ but I guess we'll we'll we'll hit on London first. Kyle, can you can you run us through ⁓ the men first on the results, top three? Maybe maybe even top four might be important to go to four. We could go to top four on this one, ⁓ since it was top American, so ⁓ yeah, basically the race hit off. ⁓ it was a sprint race, so it was gonna be fast and furious as always. ⁓ leading out the swim per usual, Mark DeVay. Shout out to Mark DeVay, he helped me out with my podium picks, got another fastest swim bonus, so ⁓ yeah, that was massive. And then there was a bit of a split. ⁓ there was a group of I would say about ten to fifteen ⁓ in the end. Came off the bike together. ⁓ there was a crash in the second group. ⁓ on the last lap we'll get into that a little bit later. But ⁓ coming off the bike then you had our boy Morgan Pierce and storm into the front. I'm I'm actually pretty surprised because ⁓ we've seen the people that have left over the last I guess half a season or year during the off Olympic years go do seventy point threes or go do the marathon or go do running events and on the men's side coming back, they've had a lot more difficulty. Like Hayden Wilde hasn't really been the Hayden Wilde we've seen in the past. We haven't seen the Alex Yee that we've seen before, ⁓ the Olympic champion. And Morgan Pearson ⁓ blitzed the front of the run for a while and then ended up coming in fourth place. ⁓ huge result also for the Hungarian, third place, Dungar Lehman. ⁓ and then we had a sprint finish pretty much with Matt Hauser and Vaska Volaka and ⁓ Matt Hauser, I I think he's he's realized that I just gotta get to the corner the fastest and ⁓ just stomped on it and and dropped Baska in the in the closing clom or I guess few hundred meters of the race and came away with a victory. So Matt Hauser now three for three. ⁓ the only blemish I guess on his his resume for this year was his crash in El Ghero, which took him out of the race in the end. So huge for Matt Hauser to come come away with a victory. So ⁓ Anything I missed before we get into kinda the detailed nuances of what happened in the men's race? I mean I guess we can ask non ⁓ first because Matt Hauser's time I know it was a different course and stuff and we don't like to talk about times, but it was actually eleven seconds faster than Allie's in twenty fifteen. Who would have won? Hauser or Allie? That's an impossible question. It's such a different course. I mean, Matt is formidable at the minute, you know, he's a full ⁓ triathlete, he's exceptional across swim, bike, and run. ⁓ and we I was actually having this conversation with somebody the other day. Would Alistair and Johnny still be winning races if they were racing now? And and honestly, I think they would. I just think there would be more men challenging them ⁓ on a regular basis and and winning probably wouldn't be quite as easy. ⁓ I think it'd be really exciting to have seen ⁓ Matt in his current form and Alistair at his best racing each other, especially over sprint distance. I think that would have been really close. I think Al would still have the upper hand over Olympic distance. ⁓ you know, that London performance in twenty twelve was was pretty phenomenal. ⁓ was it twenty nine ⁓ eight for ten K with a nice jog in? So that'd take a lot to beat him ⁓ in that kind of form, I think. Yeah, definitely. But were y w was there any takeaways from the men's race that you were imp impressed by, not impressed by? I mean it would have to be, I would say, n disappointing, but also not disappointing. But Alex Yee probably was feeling a little bit more confident coming into this race and racing on home soil soil, you always want to win. I mean, he would have to been pretty bummed, to say the least. Yeah, and and knowing Alex The thing he would have been most disappointed about is he always feels like he's letting people down because obviously people have such high expectations for him. There's a lot of people that go there to watch him and ⁓ it's really unfair to put that pressure on yourself, but I know I know that's how Alex kind of thinks and he wants to do a good job for the fans. But you know, he ran phenomenally well. He ran ⁓ thi 1352, so nearly 20 seconds quicker than than Matt. So that's that's fairly significant. Unfortunately, Alex was caught up in a crash that happened on the last lap. He was physically off his bike. So, you know, he was on the back foot starting. I'm not saying he would have run up to that group. Well, he wouldn't have run up to that group because they were about 60 seconds down, I think, before that crash even happened. But I don't think his result is probably a true reflection of how he would have done if that if that crash hadn't occurred. But yeah, Alex is still obviously trying to figure it out. His swim isn't quite. where it was for Paris. But he's got two years to turn that around. And ⁓ yeah, hopefully he can get his head around that. And whether he finds that form this year or or whether it takes another off season t to get that swim back. Yeah, we'll have to wait and see. But ⁓ I think by LA or I hope by LA he'll be good. He sent us a DM actually that ⁓ we posted the reel of the moto b kind of like motodrafting or whatever. ⁓ we can talk about that later. But basically he said the reality of short course racing right now is a good swim or bust. And unfortunately, yeah, he's he's kinda on the back foot on that. Yeah. The motors are an issue and it's something that we re repeatedly raise as an athletes committee. every race because we get feedback every race that the motors are interfering and it's just not necessary anymore with sort of technology with broadcasting. And it's a shame really that it is negatively affecting races. Yeah. I mean, it was I would say some of the most vocal people about the course and the race itself were some of the team GB men ⁓ weren't too happy about it. ⁓ about the cones. we'll talk about that after we talk about the woman, but ⁓ it was an interesting course. I will say one cool thing. about it though was it looked like the energy was really high inside when the athletes would come through and it was probably really, really loud as well, being given it was indoors and people screaming. ⁓ that looked pretty exciting. Pr pr pretty cool to watch. Although coming out of the water and running upstairs had been a shock to your system for sure. It's been a part of the London Trathlon since I did it maybe back in ⁓ nine. ⁓ so I'm not sure how they how they get around that. And it's a bit different and and like Pat said, it's has its challenges as a course, but it's also got its, you know, its quirky ⁓ highlights as well. And ⁓ I think they did the best they could in that situation. The bite was definitely needs to be improved though. I I loved I loved the venue to I mean now that I'm thinking about it again, I went there for a T one hundred race. I sat inside and just had a coffee and watched the whole thing on a big screen. I didn't get rained on. I didn't get sunburned. I mean, I was in an AC. I was like and then when the run went on, I just kind of walked over there. Like I I I I think was like twenty eight degrees out there. I really kinda liked You don't ever get sunburnt anyway. We've seen you at D GI junk it up. Come on, man. Yeah, that's true. But I mean, so there's a lot to there's a lot to love about that venue. Obviously the bike course i it's needs some work. I and I don't know if it's possible to. Yeah proof. But run us thro run us through the women's race real quick. All right, women's race. the swim was let out by Tilly and Nima. How'd I do Nan? Good? Thumbs up. All right. ⁓ so she let out the swim. Her and T Nib ⁓ blitzed the bike and they were off the front together for a while until lap three, four. Is that when Tilly crashed? Something like that, yeah. Yeah. And then ⁓ T Nib Went off by herself. She came off the bike thirty min thirty seconds. Thirty minutes. Ha thirty seconds up on the group. ⁓ and then they ran her down. It was pretty much Cassandra Bogrand, Lisa Turch, Tilda Manson, ⁓ all together for the majority of the run and Cass kinda just ran away with it and ⁓ came away with a win. She's also has three victories now at the WTCS racing. ⁓ second place was Lisa Turch and third place Tilda Manson. And if you want to go down the list, T Nib top American, seventh place, so huge. I I I th I think and one important note on there as well, and no, we talked about Alex, so when you do the same on Beth Potter, would say would have been very disappointed and probably very upset. ⁓ definitely probably wanted to win here. Racing on your home soil is ⁓ something that most athletes dream of doing and ⁓ not only have a chance to do, but also wanna win and I think that Beth Potter probably walking away, scratching her head saying, What what is it gonna take for me to get back to where I'm beating Cassandra? Which I'll say. Yeah, I think Beth is the ultimate competitor and she loves to win. so I think she'll have been really disappointed. To be honest with you, at one point I thought Beth was going backwards on the run, and I think she was back in like eighth or ninth. So then to see her coming fourth by the end, ⁓ I think is Kind of how I would describe Beth. She is the most determined athlete and she wants it more than any athlete I have ever come across. And to fight your way back ⁓ when the pace at the front is that hot is is really impressive. So yeah, she's gonna be disappointed with with not hitting the podium. And to be honest with you in general, I think really disappointing that there was not a single Brit on the podium ⁓ this weekend at their home event. ⁓ but she should give herself a little bit of Kudos for ⁓ getting herself back into the race and and back in with a respectable ⁓ result. But ⁓ yeah, obviously Tilda Manson, incredible. ⁓ she's having a phen a phenomenal season. And I was really impressed with Nib and how she ran. She just flew in from Edmonton the week before, where she s ⁓ did a two-up on the bike again, ran off the front again on her own, and then to fly over to London and do the same on the bike and hold strong because those girls are running fast, and there's a lot of them running fast now. You know, it's not just one or two. ⁓ I thought she was really impressive and has really sort of put her hand back up ⁓ for that LA sort of selection and really shown that, you know, she is one of the the US ladies that's gonna be hard to to knock off the team. It's it's so impressive to watch because You just gotta want someone. You're like, ⁓ they work so hard for it and then you just saw that mob. I think there was a shot of them coming out of the Excel Center and they ⁓ go down that big hill and she came out and you're like, I think she has a good gap. She might be able to hold them up and then you just saw W it just looked like a stampede of them coming to swallow her up. They c they caught her a lot quicker than I thought they were going to. But the what was impressive with Taylor too is I thought ⁓ she's just gonna go backwards. I mean, hopefully she can get like a top twenty. But she actually when they caught her, she kind of sped up and kinda hung with them for a while and just ended up in top seven. So it's not like that she got completely trampled on, but man, it's non, you might be able to speak to it. To hold off in a World Triathon series race, to ride solo and hold a group off like that, like how how hard is that? Yeah, it's it's really hard. It's it's hard to get off the front in the first place because especially if you're s a name like ⁓ Taylor Nip, then the group doesn't want to let somebody like that just ride off the front. You know, she's a huge risk. ⁓ if you give her too much, you're not catching her. ⁓ and the risk with Taylor is that she's good enough to to get too much of a gap as well, you know. She's such a strong cyclist. ⁓ yeah. I think we all know that Taylor, ever since she was a junior, has been formidable on the bike. ⁓ and she's just got better and better. Her technical ability has improved so much. ⁓ and yeah, that she just needs the right person to A go with her and B not crash, poor Tilly. but you get two or three of them, you get Georgia Taylor Brown away with Nib and and they're gone. They're not coming back. Yeah. And she and she lost recently her ⁓ due to retirement her main domestique, which was all ⁓ Floridaffy. She doesn't have her up there with her anymore, which is always so fun to watch. Something something that is very interesting, of Taylor all of Taylor's races that she's done sprint races and world triathlon, her average time is like seventeen eleven. And for her to be able to run what'd she run? Like a sixteen fifteen? Like that's well under her average. So huge, huge ⁓ result for her and to get ready for kind of a home games, ⁓ probably a lot of good confidence as well as she raced the what the weekend prior in Edmonton and won that one. So who knows if she came into this one fresh, like how how would it have been different or ⁓ what would have changed? So I wonder if she's an athlete that actually performs better when she's not super fresh. You know, she's done all this sort of long course training and and actually having a race in their legs the week before might actually help her and I think getting herself out of the pack Where it's ⁓ the pace is really oscillating all the time. Maybe just going off the front, riding a solid pace for that twenty K suits her a lot better than being in a pack and being attacked all the time, surges in and out of corners. You know, I think that's potentially the way that she's gonna run the fastest for her. Yeah, yeah. True. Let's get into kind of the drama that happened. ⁓ pre race day, talking to some athletes. they weren't able to really recon or recon the course at full speed. ⁓ I I don't know. Pat, you want to kind of take this one away? Sure. I think w where it started to go a little bit sideways in London with respect to the bike was the athletes were the way that the bike course worked is you had to transit out to the course, do some laps, and then transit back. So the Part of the seven laps that you did, you were able to do a proper reconnaissance on that. But the part where you had to go out to it and go back to it, you were not able to do it at speed. Period. ⁓ which I think I'll get to in a little bit. I think that that's for me, that's a non-negotiable. At a World Series race, the athletes have earned the right mainly from a safety perspective, then second from a competitive ex example to see the course at full speed. Do you think at Wimbledon they say, hey, we're actually not gonna let you go out onto any tennis courts ahead of time before we swing? No, that's not how it works. So that to me is is a big one. ⁓ I I was I'd heard about this and I had just said, ⁓ hey look, like this won't be a big deal. an hour before the race, the race the courses are closed. They'll just say, hey, if the race starts at seven, or what are the race start the women's race started at two, from twelve thirty to one, you will have a chance to go preview this. And then same thing for the men's race. We'll find another 30 minute window. They've done this before. ⁓ that never happened. Instead there was a video that was sent to the athletes the night before of an official on a bike previewing the course. He made two mistakes. He said in one corner, there will not be any cones here. So on the way back in, this is where the men's crash happened. Okay, so they were wrong there. There was a huge discrepancy between the video that was sent to the athletes for the preview and what happened on race day, right? The second happened coming into the Excel Center. They were told we're gonna go up one way up the ramp. You can go to the left or the right, they were they were told which way they were gonna go, and on race day it was flipped. So for me, those are kind of the two things that that can't be excused here and need to really be looked at. you have obviously the crash that went viral where ⁓ Tilly hit hit a cone. Now, I don't wanna bore everybody with my cone stuff because I've been going on about it for years. But this weekend is why I go on about it. Because misplaced cones caused two crashes, not just in one race, but in the men's race and the women's race separately. There were cones in the gutter that already create a natural boundary for the course. This is like back in An will remember when you used to race at the Abu Dhabi course and you're racing down a track that clearly has boundaries, but there were also cones on the outside of that road. So there has been It's an equal love affair. World Triathlon loves the cones as much as I love bagging on the cones. But ultimately I'm coming at it from a place of safety. And this weekend there were two big mistakes. The problem with it is, is there were effectively three people that were in charge of this race. So nobody's going to take ownership of it. You got the T 100, whose race it was, you've got World Triathlon who governs it. And then you've effectively got the London Marathon who operationally does a bunch of it. Right. So at some point in the chain of responsibility, responsibility has not been taken. We were given a statement from World Triathlon. They said that there was no deviation f between the video that was sent and what happened on race day. I think if you watch the video that they were sent and you watched the broadcast, it's very clear cut that there was a deviation. Well, and athletes saying That's not true at all. That this is what's happened. So someone someone's not true in all this, and I don't know if it's the athletes or world triathlon. I tend to agree with maybe the athletes 'cause we got more of them saying one thing versus World Triathlon or two and Well what we could do is could just p what we could do is World Triathlon could just make the make the video that they had made public and then watch the broadcast and then we see. Yeah. Super simple. That's what I would do. So I just that's that's the big one that's really disappointing for me. ⁓ over that we're gonna have some people say, Pat, where Tilly crash, there's a porta potty. She was gonna go right into the co porta potty if we didn't have cones right there. No. So I wanna explain a couple things. You still need to have a comprehension for what the racing line will be. And this is something that There's been a failure to understand. I mean again, we have the same thing in Yokohama. We're putting cones on the insides of curbs, which are already marking the edge of the road and creating a boundary. The second thing is that cones are incredibly dangerous because they are not in a racer's line of sight. When you're racing, you are looking up the road as far as possible to slow as much down as possible. I know it's hard for some people to believe, but you would Do not see cones when they're right underneath you. That is ex if you look at what happened to Tilly, that's exactly what happened. She was not looking down because as a cyclist, you're trained to look up as far as possible. So the cones when they are out of the racing line or when they're placed into the racing line are incredibly dangerous. They were also, if you look, there was no like smooth line that was taken from the exit of that turn to where you had to go for the porta potties. So simple fix here. One would have been really easy. You just remove the cones on the outside of that course and then you shield it in very, very late with fencing that they use later on. Super simple. ⁓ I would be more than happy to provide insight to this ⁓ free of charge for frankly for any triathlon. ⁓ not just a world triathlon one, but the this weekend we saw why I've been harping on this for years. I I think other outside of that it looked like it was a we were all knocking the venue for a while, but it looked like a pretty exciting venue, but all round before we move on to Boys. They had they had like six thousand people do the race, so I mean hats off to T one hundred for executing a a massive ⁓ participation race 'cause I I think that's one of their biggest races to date, period. They had twelve hundred people doing the hundred K distance race and then I think like another thousand or fifteen hundred doing the the Olympic. Not including relay teams. It's gonna be tough. I think they're tough competitors. ⁓ again, this is a conversation I was having yesterday with somebody about how do you beat ⁓ Matt Hauser. And obviously as an employee of Oz Triathlon. ⁓ don't give away any secrets. No, no. I mean, I'll take this one for you, Nan, to avoid your conflict of interest. I I mean I you don't wanna say that anybody's unbeatable, but n Matthew and Cass are certainly have got some form right now. ⁓ You know, did Cass very interesting. She she actually came out of the water behind my wife, on on Saturday. So I think that was just kind of the like a little bit of an interesting one ⁓ for me as to what happened there. So all of a sudden if for some reason you do to upset Cass, if for some reason you've got a race where Taylor and GTB link up, hey then Yeah, maybe in the c in the correct race, like the women would look at Cass and say, Hey, it's your job to pull. Next thing you know, they got ninety seconds and away the race goes. But I think it will take some sort of something tactical, right? ⁓ it would take the the right course for somebody to break away with Matt Hauser, but he's proved so dominant right now. I mean, it's not even just on the front end of the race, like we'd seen in years past. It's across all three right now. So yeah, tons of respect for those two. ⁓ Podium picks this weekend, first place. Kjet, famous ⁓ Instagram, famous strathlon guy, ⁓ first place in podium picks. Matt I second place and filled in third place. So ⁓ Big Kahuna in fifth place, shout out to Big Kahuna. Hey Pro Tri News listener. It's WinRepublic co founder Luke McKenzie here. This August we are officially launching a dedicated online store in Europe, making it easier than ever for athletes to access the latest Trathon cycling and run collections. With faster shipping, local pricing, and our industry leading performance apparel, trusted by the world's best athletes, there's never been a better time to experience win. As a Pro Tri News listener, you can claim fifteen percent off any WinRepublic purchase, so head to winrepublic.com or winrepublic dot EU this August and be part of the next chapter. If you've been following triathlon, here's one thing you've certainly noticed. Sure seems like everyone is on a wove saddle lately. Hey, if you check out the bike of Lucy Charles, Magnus Ditlev, Trevor Foley, guess what? They're all riding a wove saddle. I'm riding a wolf saddle as well. You might not look up to me in the same way that you look up to them, but here's the deal. I've tested saddles, I've been riding bikes almost 25 years. I absolutely love this saddle. It's been a complete Game changer for me. And here's the deal. Wove now is gonna offer our listeners a thirty day money back guarantee. That's right, you heard it. You don't like this saddle after twenty eight days, send it back. But if it's you've have your experience anything like mine, you're gonna absolutely love it. Can't wait for you to try out. They've got three models right now, many more coming. Check ⁓ out. Let us know what you think. He also did the race at seventy point three Boise this weekend. ⁓ should we get into that race? Yeah, I mean let's let's let's let's start with the woman's race first. Kirsten Casper, I mean, it's almost like that sh she's such a phenomenal athlete. It's you almost wonder sometimes you wish she would have made this jump earlier to seventy point three and gave seventy point three world championship a good go, ⁓ and really dedicated training. Nan, you might know this. ⁓ And I could be wrong on this. Matt's gonna have to tune in and let us know. I don't know if she rides her bike over an hour in training. Don't ask me. I don't I'd heard it's I heard it's two. I heard it's two okay. Nothing over two. Nothing over two. So you wonder if she's starting to ride that a little bit more because she's just getting stronger and stronger and stronger, but still ⁓ I mean she she has to be scratch like not sc scratching her head, but like she went and did three WTC S races this year. She got she won seventy point dead La Quinta at the end of last year. Got a 70.3 world slot for Nice, and then was seventh in Oceanside, and then was 19th, 17th, and 29th in three WTCS races this year, and then goes a month later and wins now 70.3 Boise. I I understand following the Olympic Dream, and it has to be difficult to say, I don't want to do the Home Olympics, I don't want to give the Home Olympics a try after her already being an Olympian, but you look at these results of 70.3 and you have to be like, Well, it's it's obvious I'm pretty good at these seventy point three races, at least domestically in America. Maybe I should just keep doing this. I I find it more just as like a Kirsten's like a clear example here, but like th th we have so many ⁓ we in it seems like on the men's side we always point to like, ⁓ of course this person this was like their next thing that they had to do. They transitioned through. We don't it it seems to me like we don't have quite as many of those success stories of like an athlete that raced short course for a long time and then signific significantly was like significantly better at middle distance and long distance, right? The other one obviously last year was Lisa Perderer. But before that, I mean, we don't have like some of these signals. All due respect. Like I don't think I did not put Kirsten Kasper to win Boise, right? Because I'm thinking of her as a short course athlete. But then she comes whether it was La Quinta or Boise comes in and dominates, right? So I'm I've got like a coaching hat on and just thinking like, man, and non, you probably appreciate this too. It's just like it's we find ourselves sometimes putting up these guardrails around what we think is possible for an athlete. And then they go and do it and they really challenge what we were thinking of how they would perform in that discipline, right? And hats off to to Kirsten, like she's performing super, super well in this discipline. D ⁓ Nan, do you think I'm like am I somewhat right there? Yeah, I mean definitely, yeah. Sh her performance at the weekend was was impressive and ⁓ it's great to see Kirsten doing so well at the middle distance. And I think the turmoil for her is that Paris probably didn't go the way she wanted. She didn't have ⁓ the experience maybe that she wanted. So I guess that's still niggling at her. And of course it's a home game, so you'd want to compete there. But the lure of long course must be, you know must be pulling her. ⁓ she's still, you know, she's doing more and more long course every year and ⁓ it would be difficult ⁓ having disappointing results at at the short course racing. and some people's physiology just is far better suited to to long course whether whether they like it or not. you know it's a very specific type of athlete for for short course racing and and it's brutal. ⁓ and long course is brutal in a different way, but ⁓ you know that long suffer. Some athletes are just so good at that. ⁓ and Kirsten is clearly, clearly one of them. But I would argue another athlete that has excelled themselves at middle distance compared to short course is Hannah DeVay, who finished third, was it? she's really stepped up from sort of her results at short course to to what she's been doing in the middle distance. I've been really impressed by by her this year and some of the performances that she's she's put down and I think there's maybe a few reasons for that. A, maybe she's better suited to to that longer stuff. But she was also studying physiotherapy, I think, the whole time. She was a short course athlete, so maybe wasn't a hundred percent in and now is. ⁓ but yeah, she's definitely another one that's made a very successful transition and step up in in results. Yeah, and rode phenomenal on race day, almost six minutes faster than Kerisman. Yeah, she had a two minute lead off the bike on Hannah Berry, which is a great, great rider. So I mean that's that's a testament to Hannah and her abilities. ⁓ it's good to see her back. ⁓ you said it, not me. I didn't want to I didn't want to give a shout out to Hayden about that, but Hannah Hannah obviously has a lot of good people in her corner. So ⁓ Yeah, and then ⁓ Hannah Berry come in second place. ⁓ I I'm I'm kinda perplexed. Like I feel like Hannah hasn't had like that stellar run that we've seen from her. ⁓ like in a riding or run of build I'm I'm just very confused. It seems like all the athletes that ⁓ Ben Rezzel is coaching right now is just just seem off. So I'm I'm perplexed going into championship season to see how his athletes kinda perform through both seventy point three worlds and Iron Man World Championship. ⁓ and see what happens. Yeah. What what took the cake this weekend though was the men's race here. It was one that a lot of people are watching and ⁓ I I thought we had the podium pick stats pulled up. ⁓ here they are. most of the people had Sam Long. Forty seven percent of the people had Sam Long for the fa ⁓ for the win. ⁓ I thought Vince was gonna take it personally. ⁓ but first out of the water, Ben Fah, which ⁓ I told him if he was first out of the water in his next race, ⁓ I'd Cash App him ⁓ a hundred bucks. So congratulations. I'm not just gonna send it to you. You need to send me the request because I don't know what your Cash App is and I don't know what I'm gonna send it to. So either Vim or Cash App send me a request and I will ⁓ get you paid out. But first out of the water, ⁓ Vince Louie quickly behind him, two seconds back, but I mean there was a man on a mission here, and that was Sam Long, and he quickly caught them. I can't believe how fast he caught them. Like whenever that eleven mile split came through and Sam had already eaten a minute into them, I was like, What the heck is Sam doing? It was insane. And I I'm I'm surprised like Brock Howell and a lot of these guys that were up in front of Sam didn't maybe they did attempt to go with him. ⁓ when Sam caught them, he was a man on a mission, did not want anyone on his wheel, got directly to the front and just absolutely hammered and it was so impressive. And then the the the the saying goes you you you there's a cost for everything. ⁓ So I thought that Sam was gonna run a good one twelve, one one thirteen, fourteen, and Vince and all them were gonna catch him. I g I was guess I was just looking too hard into Sam's Chattanooga result, but clearly he was right. It just wasn't his day. Before the race, Sam said that this was his ⁓ a game of revenge, and he claims it was a revenge ⁓ re a game of revenge. For himself. Don't believe that one bit, not buying that. He wanted revenge on Ari Clow and he wanted to absolutely bury him and Ari did not let him have it easily 'cause Ari came running as well. But Sam Long, absolute master class, won by five minutes, ran a one ten forty five, ⁓ Ari Clow second place, and then Blake Harris third place, and then Vincent Louie was passed nearly 200 meters to go. I was very surprised by Vince's result. I wasn't gonna look too hard into it, but I need to make a formal apology. Yeah. I was out on my bike when they were about to start running, right? Yeah. Sam had entered T two. I called Kyle. I'm on my headphones, I'm not watching the race. And he said, ⁓ okay, Vince has come in, three and a half minute deficit to Sam. I said, All right, perfect. I'll call you in an hour and a half when Vince wins. Check in on my ride later. And holy smokes. I mean, for Sam to win this thing by five minutes, I mean, come on, people. ⁓ super, super duper impressive. ⁓ I've I've s shot Sam a text just saying congratulations. I mean, I'm gonna say it. This was his most impressive seventy point three win I've ever seen. And not out of s out of sixteen w seventy point three wins, you say this is his best one. And not just by a little bit. Yeah. I would say by And not just by a little bit. So I can agree with that just because here's And then to go on and have a bike like that. Like Vince is still a incredible biker. We literally just watched him race in Iron Man, Texas, and ride with some insane like Vince isn't just here to play around. So do we know I'm sorry, I don't know Sam's schedule. Is he going to Nice? No. No niece. I've heard no niece. I heard he's going to seventy point three NorCal and then Kona. Dude, I mean I'm He had a great run here too. Yeah. I mean, I'd I just think the form that he has, I would normally never say this. He's gotta go to Nice. Is it the course for Sam Lowe? It's pretty hilly. I I think if you can do a one fifty two or whatever he did against the guys that he raced, I don't think it matters what the course is. Like normally I would say yes, but I think he's I just think this would be an opportunity to for him to go up against the best and just say, Hey, like what can If there's a year to go to seventy point three worlds, I just feel like it's twenty twenty six for Sam Long. It has been a long time since Sam's competed at like the world championship level stage, in my opinion. It's been a long time. I I I I agree. Is this a year that he can do it? I don't I don't know if if Nice is the course for him, unfortunately. I think the packs at the front, they're th those groups are so big on that bike and he he Don't get me wrong, a one ten is incredible. Yella, Hayden, all them, those boys aren't running one ten. One t one i Sam would need some time off the front of the bike, which not saying he can't do it. I would say a Saint George course, Sam would never give that up. Could s could see him could see him catching the front and putting some time into him. It's a pretty s a pretty similar course to Saint George? It's pretty technical. Say ⁓ technical camera down. So It awesome weekend for him. Not the weekend for Vince. Between between his fourth place and watching Georgia Taylor Brown dance with a professional salsa man, it had to been pretty rough. Dude, imagine getting smacked by Sam Long and then you log on to Instagram, you see your girl getting salsa dance with a professional dancer, man. That'd be rough eesh. No ⁓ Vince will Vince will bounce back. I'm hot take. I'm gonna I'm gonna go into it that Vince has really tired legs and he's prepping for Kona. I called him for the win in Frankfurt. he'll be ready to go for his last stance in Hawaii and he won't let us down and he will have the most fire hit there as well. I wa I was a little bummed. Like I thought that San I thought that Vince was going to put up a lot bigger of a fight with this being the last seventy point three he's doing ever before he retires. So I was a little I was a little shocked by that. It'll be ⁓ I heard from a bird that he's not doing Nice because he wants to go all in on Kona and it's not worth risking racing at the Ironman World Championship on the big island. So no Nice for Vince was what I was what I heard. I have I have a bit of a ⁓ I don't know. There's a guy by the name of Ben Randall that's been posting the fastest run split in most seventy point threes he done does these days. He's ran 108 and in this race ran a 107 39. The issue I have with this is and I've talked to some other athletes, he came off the bike eighteen minutes down. He swam a thirty five minutes for for seventy point three. ⁓ do do you think that there's a threshold I'm asking this from a podium pick standpoint. Do you think there's a threshold for what the fastest split should be? Do you have to be in the top ten? Do you think that to be fastest run split or fastest bike split or fastest swim split, you need to still finish in the top ten? Do you think that's a rule we should make? Tough to say. I don't think so because I mean we've got y you know, obviously the record that Sam Laidlow put down, for instance, at Kona a couple of years ago. Rides of three fifty seven runs in for a top thirty. ⁓ I mean I gotta give it to this guy. Like running a 108 and 107s in all your seventy four games this year, that's that's pretty mega. But yeah, he's going for it. You don't as Pat would say, you don't get something for nothing. Yeah, he should maybe try running a little less and swimming and biking a little bit more. Easy for me to say, I I'm super happy for Ben and you know, if he's got a pro license, I just think this is gonna be the title that he gets to to maintain and hold for a little bit. Yeah, Kyle, I was gonna say that's all this guy's clearly got, so don't take it away from me. Yeah, I'm not I'm not taking away from him. I'm not I'm just there's there's people that are like, ⁓ they got fastest run split, and I was no, twelfth place is fastest run split. And they're like, What? Twelfth? So dude, if he ran up to twelfth, he's in the mix. Dude, he came off the bike thirty fifth place. You're off the fire. Dude, he would he would have had a bl think about how much fun he had passing those twenty seven people. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Homie was loving I'm not taking away from him. Come on, guys. So how many people he dude he finished twelfth in the end. What a beast. I was I mean, you're but you also didn't give credit in the World Trapland series race in London to the fastest swimmer who was not the girl that came out. It was actually Fanny. Fanny because Tilly didn't finish the race. Yeah, you can be my point. ⁓ was first out of the water, but then ⁓ she DNF, so then it's Hailey Chura who gets the fastest swims, but you gotta finish the race. If you finish the race, you get the split. Okay, so it is. That's the rule. It is what it is. And you gotta you can't give your flowers to Fanny too. Before we move on to the topic of the week, they canceled the swim for the A Troopers here in Boise. Apparently there there was issues last year in Boise as well with with the buoys getting moved around and rocked around. I'm stoked that they came up with a contingency pl plan for the pros and change it from a big one loop swim course to two two loops so we got a full swim. Stoked about that. However, I gotta I gotta raise a bit of a stink from my age group homies. Iron Man's gotta come up with a contingency plan for the swim for age groupers at this point. They can't just keep canceling swims. Like they they need to either say You can opt out of doing the swim and then you're not considered in age group results or world championship or any of that stuff. You can you can opt out if you don't feel safe, you don't feel safe doing this, or saying we're gonna do one loop swim or we're gonna do a five K run and then we're gonna do the bike and then we're gonna do the run. I I had a text message from someone that said, If Iron Man had to give back one third of my race registration Because they cancelled one third of the disciplines for this triathlon. I promise you they they ain't canceling these swims anymore. Okay, so so I'm gonna say I'm gonna give a nuanced take here as I normally do, but here's here's where they had the issue, right? Kyle, how many pros were rescued during the pro only swim? About five. Okay. So that sh tells you what the conditions were right there. Pretty plain and simple. Now let's use Boise as a okay, they one hundred percent made the right decision in Boise. I believe that. Now I think you're on to something around the partial return of funds, but you know, other races that are dependent on snow, for instance, they have a no returns policy if there's no snow at the race. So that's a tough one for me to to deal with. Now Boise two years in a row has had a problem with wind. We've all been to Boise that is a humongous body of water that is I I'm I'm a fairly good swimmer. I kick Kyle's ass out to the Lobby, whatever the boat's called every year. that body of water in Boise is intimidating. Okay. so th there's I don't know what the answer is other than this is a very case by case basis. You know, the issue I have is we never got you this is we we were re we were literally giving Iron Man their flowers because in Dallas at the beginning of this year the pros got to swim. And this is why Andrew Mesick never crossed that line. He said we're all doing the same. And this is the problem when you Give ⁓ an inch. Everyone's gonna complain and they're gonna want more. And i it's just like where do you draw the line? Like you're pulling pros out of the water. Like what? Three people die in the water and then what are we gonna say, yeah, we probably actually shouldn't have done that. Like it's just these pros travel across the world and they're competing for money and points in the Iron Man Pro Series system. Like it's let ⁓ swim. The amateur athletes, I'm sorry, like I'm not hating on ⁓ But life is so much more important than some really good swimmer who didn't get to finish his seventy point three that weekend. Well that's a that's why I think maybe we just do a five K run beforehand. I like the doathlon. I like the doathlon. If we if if he ain't if we ain't doing the swim, just say, you know what? Swim volunteers, we need you at aid station number one because we're just gonna have ⁓ do an out and back and then they're gonna start the bite. Here's here's what the here's what the doathlon does. It's you still get a race feel. You say, Hey, we're gonna start you in age group waves, we're gonna mass start you. You're gonna start with a five K or whatever we decide the distance is gonna be, and then you're gonna get on your bike and you're racing, and so you're still gonna have that first across the line wins the race, versus when they just do the time trial starts and you're just out there exercising for the whole day. So I think the duathlon is the most logical thing to do because you do already have the run course set. You just somehow either you make it an out and back or you make it shorter. And then you get on the bike and everyone still feels like they are racing, right? Yeah. Iron Man knows the events where there's gonna be pro you know, there there has a higher likelihood for a problem at these swims. So to think about that in advance is you know, it's something that's realistic and should be I don't I don't think you should do a five K personally. Well whatever the number whatever the number whatever the number is. ⁓ You know what mean? What do you think, Noan? I would agree. I I think it would be madness for Iron Man to allow amateur athletes to compete on a course that pros can't even complete. Like the liability on that is just not not worth it. And you also put people in a difficult position when you're asking them to choose between, you know, doing it and and compromising their their safety. And that's sometimes a really difficult. position to put people in and for them to answer that question. So you need to take that option away from them. And I think the duathlon's a great a great idea. Like Talbert says it doesn't actually have to be that long. It just allows them to kind of separate out a little bit and feel like they're racing and yeah I think the duathlon is the best possible scenario. Like I think you have to just put every safety first. And in certain situations you have to do the same for the pros. as well because they're more likely to make irrational decisions. Yeah. Yeah. 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 about 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 iron at checkout at goodranchers.com. American Meat Delivered. And if you don't trust me, they've got over twenty-seven thousand reviews and four and a half stars. Check them out. Let us know what you think. Speak speaking of pros, I think that ⁓ in putting them first, there is a really, really big press release that we heard about about a week and a half ago. We got some word around it. We reached out to the T one hundred on what it was all going to be around. We had Sam Renoof on the podcast earlier this year talking about the partnership. ⁓ at first we thought it was an acquisition or maybe we even heard that PTO was going to ⁓ acquire a federation. They were going to buy it and it was going to be a private entity and it was kind of ⁓ we were trying to understand the nuance of that, but now we know what's the Partnership aligning between T100 and World Triathlon. They were going to release more information later on in the year. We had Sam on the show. He talked about this year is essentially a by-year, that next year is going to be a ⁓ a lot bigger announcement. ⁓ we fast forward, we're getting closer to that time. This last week, they announced their first ⁓ Kind of semi-announcement. We were really excited. We thought we were gonna get lot more information. I was probably the most critical one on our team, is I thought that all they had to do ⁓ for this announcement was essentially they just got on a keyboard and it said WTCS and they just hit delete, delete, delete, and then just hit typed in T50, and that was the only thing of this entire press announcement. There was a lot more, ⁓ nearly 120-page. ⁓ handbook that nearly a lot of the people have gone through. so I don't want to be too critical on that front, but there's a lot of mixed emotions on it. ⁓ there was ⁓ we probably need to clarify this, but we thought that the the T-100 series was going to return back to its full capacity next year with the men and women racing together. ⁓ that is no longer the truth. There is some pros and some cons and Yeah, I I think that it's it's definitely it was more of an underwhelming announcement, but also too there was some athletes ⁓ that were not in support of this change. I.e. I heard that Cassandra Brigran and Alex E did not even attend the press conference because they did not support the announcement. So don't know if that's factually accurate. Maybe they could have just had other things going on like shopping with Chase ⁓ in London, but yeah. Right? Let's let's let's do that. So I think what we've said and what's been going on here is you do have an alignment that's been sorted out with the athletes. So in the past what happened if you were in the World Trathlon ecosystem, you did Conti Cups, World Cups, WTCS, and then you migrated out of their ecosystem and you did middle distance and ultimately long course, right? Should we patch her in? Probably. ⁓ Patch her in, she was there. She was at the announcement. Put her on pause quick. Or you go on mute ⁓ and ask. So then I think w so what's what's great there is we've got an alignment where now you've got an athlete that can start at short course and is in World Triathlon's umbrella for their entire career, right? I think w non, what other what other positives? Kyle, what other positives do we have here? Go ahead, Don. You go, Kyle. ⁓ a positive for me, I I do remember over the last five years that we've been doing this podcast, Pat, you were the biggest voice in this that World Triathlon should stick to governance and they should reach out to the Super Try or the PTO T one hundreds of the world to handle the broadcasting and the actual racing. And that's what they've done. So that that is a positive. ⁓ another positive I would say I I don't know the exact dollar figure, but they spent a lot of money on this Deloitte report and they're going worth it. They're they're following it to a T. ⁓ I'm I'm trying to stay positive on this one, but also at the same time, the amount of messages that I got this weekend of like, okay, well so all the Olympic races are T fifties. So what are the sprit races? Are those T twenty fives? It's like, no, that's not even it's not even a part of the announcement yet. So it's you've already got some nuanced confusion, which is what they were trying to get away from. So I'm hopeful that the more announcements we get through September, we'll we'll clear up we'll clarify some of that stuff. Okay, so let's stick on the positives, right? The other positive, ⁓ the PTO T one hundred has a parachute for the next foreseeable future partnering with World Triathlon. World Triathlon's not gonna let the PTO or T one hundred fa fail. Whether or not it's as watchable of a product as what we got a few years ago. T B D there she is. All right, Taylor. Taylor did We're in the ⁓ we're we're talking about the positives and the negatives for the merger, the T fifty, the T one hundred. And right now we're just talking about the positives. What are the positives that you can think of on the top of your mind? Well, I mean, if it's a T fifty series, I hope that all the WTCS race or formerly WTCS races are Olympic distance. man. I can confirm that they will be. That It's not a thirty eight point five K bike or something like that. It will still be Olympic distance. But also like the whole series, like we just did a sprint in London. If all the WTCS races were Olympic distance, I think that would be a win for the sport. I I would l it there's so many sprit races. Like I'm not hating on London. It was a great race, but like We're trying, Taylor, you missed a couple of the other positives. We're trying to stick to some positives right now. So Nan, you got some positives. What do you got? One positive is that it's been promised that will be improved prize money for the short course athletes. So that the prize pool for T fifty will match the prize pool for T one hundred. So that will be a huge uplift in prize money. Okay. It's the same amount for each race. So because World Trap on you they pay 30 deep versus 20 deep, and because there are men and women versus single gender, it won't be fifty K to win a WTCS race, but it will be more than nineteen. So that's how it'll work. Okay. We're gonna pin this one though for Maybe when we do some negatives here in a minute. Okay, so we're gonna flag this one. This is a p we're gonna keep it as a positive right now. We're gonna keep it as a positive right now. What are the other positives of the merger? None. ⁓ I think you kind of touched on it, ⁓ Carl, with the Deloitte report that sort of identified that the sport is currently really fractured. And for people who aren't as nerdy as us about triathlon, it's probably pretty complex to understand how triathlon works, how it all integrates together. It doesn't, it's very fractured. ⁓ and at least this starts to address that problem and starts to align the sport a little bit. you know, there will be some sort of consistency across branding, across event delivery, ⁓ and and hopefully that increases sort of commercial ⁓ opportunities, sponsorship opportunities, which again in turn is great for the sport, great for the athletes. So that is a positive, hopefully. If that's I got another positive. I got another positive. We have a schedule earlier than we've ever had a schedule before for short course and T one hundred races. We got the twenty look, we got the twenty twenty seven schedule before we've gotten a date for the the race in ⁓ Saudi Arabia at the end of the year. So only positive bat yeah, only positive bat. Now we have the schedule. The most important question is this, Taylor. Will we see you in Kona next year? Probably not. All right. Well that that's That's the breaking news of the show. I mean So you're all you'll be you'll so you do you think you'll all be all in on the T fifty series or will you dabble in some T one hundreds as well? Like does it interest you to do a little bit of both, or do you think you'll just be all in on one? Well I think that's a good question. ⁓ But it also depends on which races are the female races versus not. Because looking at them if if they switch the races, so let's say Gold Coast is male next year, Singapore's women, and then Rome or yeah, so it's it's just the women's the women's race schedule would not merge with the T fifty race schedule very well, so it'd be hard. ⁓ so you've already looked at it that hard. Well yeah, because like when you have San Francisco and Rome the same weekend, and San Francisco would probably be the women's since it was the men's last year, ⁓ that's you can't be in two places at once, unfortunately. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Okay, so now we've done some positives. Can we say where there was some ⁓ where they maybe swung the bat and missed a little bit? Taylor, how do you feel about the split gender stuff? Because I've talked to quite a few of professional athletes and Most of them are pretty negative about it. How do you feel? Well o so I think that there are some positives in that I went to one race and I earned double the prize money of if I had gone to one race and there had been both genders. That's a positive for me. But a negative is that there are some races that I like I I could have done San Francisco. I wanted to do San Francisco, but I couldn't do San Francisco because that was men only. So it's also Again, like how does the schedule match up? It'd be one thing if there were two races the same weekend in different places, but it's just always gonna when another schedule is always optimized for something else, there's going to be pluses and minuses. And so we're creatures of like focusing on the negatives. So you can I can point out every negative, but it's hard to see like, okay, where does this actually work in my favor? And like, in my favor was I got to race gold coasters this year and there's no Singapore for the women. Like I'd say that's a positive, but I know Singapore's a big race for them. So I have a question, particularly for Taylor, but for the group. ⁓ I have very, very strong opinions on this, but I need to be careful given my position. ⁓ what do you think about the term T fifty for short course racing? Do you mind if I answer this? No. I I Naun, you've been around long enough and you've been in the series long enough. To off the top of my head, this is the fourth rebrand that the now WTCS has had. So it's been WTC, it's been WTS, it's been WTCS, and now it's T fifty. ITU. It's ITU before that. So can we can we think of one other sport? That has rebranded five times in the last fifteen years that's been successful. No. So so this to me, I I think you know, the other thing, I mean and I'm getting a little picky, like a little nuanced right here, but Taylor this has been an ongoing problem forever. Taylor wins what's called World Cup Edmonton last year. Or sorry, last week. In any other sport, a World Cup is the highest tier level of an event. So people around the street getting used to the sport, they go, Holy smokes, Taylor won a World Cup. That's incredible. And you go, Well, you know what? ⁓ That is incredible, but there's actually WTCS this weekend that is a tier one race. World Cup is tier two. And if she goes top ten at that, that you know, some could perceive that to be better than what happened the weekend before. Like that to me is like the big thing that's need t that should have been addressed very long ago. And so now my point is you're coming out with a new series of races called T fifty, and everyone sits there and goes, What Do T twenty fives exist? Yeah, like what do you call World Cups now? Because T fifties are going to be all the WCTFs. So we just have more questions than we left we left this press release with more questions than answers. Is my is my we got a schedule. We got a press conference that should have been an email. And now we're just left with I've I've only truly got more questions. So sorry, I didn't mean to turn it into being a negative Nelly show presented by Patty, but like this is where I'm just th this is where I'm left with like what are we gonna do? Like let's we we save we we cite the Deloitte Deloitte report, we cite some other big things, but our actions that follow suit I think I think really that promising. We'll we'll have more answers. I feel like the press release, like the biggest press release is gonna be in September in Ponte Vedra when we find out like this Challenger series, 'cause there's gonna be a challenger series for T fifty, a Challenger series for T one hundred Which to my knowledge, Nan, you can correct me if I'm wrong, if you could share however much you know. The challenger series for the T fifty is going to be like your World Cup's Conti Cups, and the Challenger series for T one hundred is gonna be essentially all the challenge races that they procured that are now gonna be one hundred K distance. I'm gonna I ⁓ Go ahead, Nan. You're right on the T one hundred side, on the T fifty side, it's just the World Cup. So remain are completely separate from World Trath on. They're governed by the Continental ⁓ Confederations. So they stay as ⁓ America's Cup, European Cups. It's just the and they don't get the T fifty branding. Nothing's or the prize money? Or the how are those funded then? Completely separ by the Continental Confederations, how they've always been funded. Holy stuff. Here is the biggest question that Sam and Antonio need to answer. The sport right now, commercially for the actual business of World Try and for the individual athletes, is at the lowest point it's ever been from a sponsorship dollar standpoint. What are the three action items that you're going to do to improve this outlook? Period. You calling it the T fifty ain't gonna put it more money in. Is not gonna bring in a big sponsor. That's to me now like what you've gotta do to try and say, hey, this is how we're going to improve the sport and make it a more viable product and property for the athletes and for the sponsors. Sorry. Now I would actually say one thing was in London there was a nice amount of age groupers there that I would say aren't at typical WTCS races or performer. And so it felt more like an Ironman 70.3 or Iron Man race with the amount of age groupers. And so then if there's a little bit more I feel like they could they might almost compete with more of the sponsors for Iron Man at that point. That's not bringing any in, that's just competing within the sport. But because it's more I don't know, it's age groupers can do it too. And then they also get excited by the racing and see the racing and build the fan base. But that was just my Talma hit that on that a little early on the show, Taylor, about like it seemed on the broadcast that the crowd was pretty electric when you guys were like coming through. Yeah, with center stuff. Was it was it pretty like comparable to like a seventy point three world championship or Iron Man Texas or something that? Not quite that level. Like it's not like Marbella. But it's it was better than WTCS Abu Dhabi or T one hundred Dubai. Taylor, what you you you look at this stuff and analyze it a lot. What what what would you like to see for the brand to do? What do you think would be helpful? Or or from a selfish perspective. From an athlete standpoint. Yeah, from an athlete standpoint. Or or non selfish perspective. Like what do you think what would you like to see? Or when you talk to some of your fellow peers as well. Well I think that the branding, like so what? That's probably what we're asking, like, how's that gonna change? It's similar, am I gonna get myself in trouble here? It's similar like with USAT, like, okay, great, we'll put a new logo on it. Does that change it? Like and how does it change it? What's gonna be the difference? And like just anything like that. But I think also the athlete buy-in and I think it's just almost building athlete distrust more because as Patrick said, we have more questions and answers. So how do you really improve it? Like in our athlete briefing, an athlete asked, Can we please have bike course previews the whole bike course at speed? Because that would improve athlete safety, because the first lap there might be a lot of crashes because people don't know things. So is that gonna happen because there's a new name? Hmm. Yeah. Yep. Perfect response. Kyle asked me about the bike course. There's a lot of the bike course that we did not see before the race. Even even on the You heard it, you heard it here first. Even on the video given to you? ⁓ yeah, they said we were on a different side of the road. And it was not congruent. So I'm coming in and I'm like, where do I go? I like that's not something that I should be thinking in a race, especially one like where there's seconds on the line. So is it is it clear? Do we feel like And then if you can't do the safety beforehand, what are you doing? Mm-hmm. Valid. Taylor, you nailed it. Valid. Okay, so like now before before before we let Taylor go though, we we got I got two questions for you. Will you race between now and Nice? And that's literally what I was actually calling you about, so I can just ask him on here. Or is it is it all in on Nice and Conan now? I'm not planning to race between now and east. That doesn't help because when you don't when you say that then you'll enter three T T races across the world and Cuba and then you're gonna be ⁓ doing anything and everything. No, I have to watch I'm on like puppy duty. Let me grab her. I'm on like she's underneath a chair right now. But I have to watch Isla all by myself, so I have to be here. So She's being I did just so the audience knows, I did volunteer for any puppy watching. I said I am available. I will clear the schedule. It is the cutest dog I've ever seen in my life. So niece will be your next race. Yes. And will you race niece? Yeah, I hope so. Why wouldn't I? Okay. And then on to Kona from there? Well, time trial world first. Okay. So you will race UCI UCI World Championship. Yes. On September twentieth. And then from there to Nice and you'll be in I mean there to Kona and you'll be in Kona for how long? Two weeks, a week? Yes, would you like my location, Telvet? So we could do ⁓ I just need ⁓ that those are the those why I was calling you. I just needed those questions answered so I can plan my filming. So that's great. I'll probably be on the direct flight from Denver on the Friday, fifteen days out from the race, if you're trying to find me. You could join the flight. We could do a Please catch up. Perfect. Well, thank you so much. And do you want to tell everyone ⁓ how much of that dog do you actually own? This leg. ⁓ that's that's so cute. That's good. Everyone listening to this podcast, you'll have to c tune into the YouTube channel and see the beautiful dog. She's only committed to twenty five percent of the dog that she owns. Yes. It happens. Thanks, Taylor. Thank you. Bye. All right. We'll see ya Taylor. Thanks for joining. All right. How do you guys so she doesn't talk too bad about I know we're in someone. And we're we're pretty high on time right now. Not that that matters. I'm sure a lot of people a lot of people we get a lot of message. People like longer shows. But ⁓ do you guys think that we've covered this this announcement pretty well? I think we'll learn more. as this plays out and as we get to Ponte Vedra for Congress? Look, h there's a few big things that I am excited about. Sam can shake things up and he can fundraise. He's proven to do that. He can do it. World Triathlon has clearly let go of some control, which I know was really hard for them. So there's an opportunity here to be to make some real positive progress. When the announcement came out for the meta Oakley deal earlier in the week, I was like, this is in this is great. This is shaking things up. That deal realistically, this is what it tapped into. It tapped into broadcast and it topped tapped into dude, you're partnered with Meta and Oakley. It doesn't matter if that deals for one dollar or a million dollars. That's a huge partnership. That's a huge get. And frankly, it's a huge get on top of Iron Man. But then the problem was two and a half days later they came out with this Nothing Burger press release that should have been an email. And I'm like, guys. Where's the leadership here? Come on, make some big, bold decisions and keep them coming. If you don't have anything, hold them back. But you did this thing, and now we're all just sitting here going, What is next year gonna look like? Hold it until you've got clear information that's that's clear for everyone, right? Yeah. So that's that was the roller coaster of the T one hundred paired with this debacle. at the race, which was again if you stack it up with the shoes that were illegally l used last year, if you stack it up with the the lap counters. The lap counters in Dubai and now you got this is not this is not a great track record. It's it's feels a lot like World Triathlon's pointing at T one hundred and T one hundred's pointing at World Triathlon and there's not no real. And so it's time to start owning it like you're in this together. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ the The releasing they should have just said they're releasing the schedule and and out some more. But it but it is good to get that schedule released. Yeah. On on the other hand, there's two races this weekend European Sprint and Relay Championships, Ironman seventy point three. I'm just gonna say Poland because I will completely butcher the name. There's you're missing two other races this weekend, Talbot. Norseman triathlon, Alistair Brownlee's racing. Huge. Yes. And the Alp Duez triathlon in France. You know Massive race. Atlanta Sifort's doing it. Talbot Talbot. Listen. We'll we'll pause the pod, fire up Joel. These these these have earned their right into podium picks. This is what I'm hearing. So you're right, Kyle. You're right. I I've just I'm just making sure everything's covered. I get a lot of DMs from some angry Norwegian age group athletes that say we need to cover Norsemen. So I'm doing my due diligence and saying you got Alistair Brownley racing Norseman this weekend and he's going up against Christian Grew who's won this race I don't even know how many times. So that's the extent of what we're gonna give Norseman after career reading every comment or hater's advice and took it. What would you where would you be today, Don? She wouldn't have an MBE after her name, that's for sure. Probably not. Also there's the Rio World Cup. Let's not forget that. Surely above Norseman. Yeah. Come on now. No offense, Norseman. Great event. That's where you're heading this weekend, right, Non? Yeah, that's where I'm heading. Yeah, down t from Texas down to Cobacabana Beach. The first time I've been there since twenty sixteen. So go and fight some demons. And you were fourth place? Fifth place? Fourth. Fourth place in Riel. Go have a drink on the beach and fight some demons. But ⁓ yeah, no, it'd be cool to be back actually. And ⁓ unfortunately not the Olympic course because that was a really cool bike course, but yeah, still a cool venue for a walk up. And I'm sure some exciting racing. So that'd be good. Are they just doing it back on Copacabana, but they're just doing the hot dog up and down the promenade there? Yeah, exactly. Cool. Yeah. I think that's kinda cool. And it'll be on Triathlon Live. Will you advise any of your athletes to just not wear goggles on the swim? ⁓ no, because I'm not I'm a bit dubious on the water quality of Copa Cabana. I'll be sending them in in hazmat suits. I don't I don't think that that we stayed above it, right? And I thought the water every day looked amaz there was like locals out swimming in it like swim club stuff every day. And I was like, the water looks incredible here. And to my knowledge, Nan, from the test event and the Olympics, nobody got sick from either field. Like we never heard about that. We never heard about it after the test event. We never heard about it after the after the big one in in ⁓ twenty sixteen. So ⁓ That'd be all right. It'll be fine. Can be big surf though. Alright, let's hit let's hit a couple hot takes before we end the show. All right. Hot take number one. Sam Laidlow, duck in Iron Man seventy point three world championship in Nice. That's my hot take. I mean he's choosing to go race challenge Samar Cann for some money instead of racing in Nice, where he won an Ironman world title and he was what, fourth there last year? Is i sorry, is Sam is Samarcan the exact same weekend. Challenge Tom Mark in the exact same weekend as Nice. Yes. Weak sauce. I love I love Sam and I know him and Milan Litz in his pod. That's duck that's ducking to me. He's getting a bag. I'm not saying it's ducking, ⁓ but I'm saying he's getting a b ⁓ a bag of whatever color the bills are in Uzbekistan. There's five to six guys going to seventy point three worlds that are going for the W and everyone else is just going because they got a slot. Like let's be real. Like Sam knows he's not gonna win the race and he's gonna get a bag to go somewhere else and not have to deal with that and go out of the way. I There's three reasons why Sam's not going in Easter race. One, he's keeping his undefeated seventy point three streak alive 'cause he only has done one seventy point three in his career and we won it this year, seventy point three Valencia. Number two, he's got a scalp on Christian Blumenfeld that he got in Roth, and he's gonna carry it all the way to the big island. And number three, he knows that there is some hitters racing in Nice and he has to be in top form and he's like, rather be in top form in October, not September. And I think that's fair enough. If Clinton is your big race for the year, then it's hard to do it all. Yeah. So he's ducking, but I I feel him. I would be doing the same thing if I was Sam Laidlow. You know who else is ducking seventy point three world championship, who knows he would get slaughtered. Trevor Foley. What is that supposed to mean? You said Save's talking. Trevor hasn't spotted too. You got you now we need to see the three on Trevor why he's not going to seventy point two. Tom, but we've been doing damage control all week up to said with Trevor last week. And now you're gonna go they're gonna go and drop a bomb on him like that. Kyle's like he's Listen, we all know that Trevor listen, Nice is a pretty technical course. I love my boy Trevor to death, but he crashed in the parking lot course of Kona Hawaii with less than two hundred meters to the finish of the bike course. ⁓ number one hot take. Pat and Mark, put your money where your mouth is at. Rank the fastest to slowest tri bikes. You wanna do that for an Instagram post, Pat? I would love to do that for an Instagram post. I mean I ⁓ Mark would certainly know way more than I would, so I'm gonna I'm gonna stick out of this and try and like actually I'd like to make a more proper Instagram post about it. We know here's the thing that we know. The difference is made you've got way more surface area on your body than you do on the what you can do with the bike, right? So is you know the Pinarello, whatever it's called, the most aerobike? Maybe, maybe not, realistically not. But like does Ghana make it go absolutely does he just Go crazy on it? Yes. Would Remco probably win world championships on anything else? Yes. So I I think it's a little bit more nuanced take than that. All right. Well, we'll do it. And before we do it, ⁓ any bike brands listening, reach out to us in our DMs. We're more than happy to talk. ⁓ financial incentives for your ranking. ⁓ I'm gonna let on I e you guys have all the connections with all the Chinese bike brands, so make sure you guys make those before we do it. ⁓ Nan, you're gonna answer this next one. This is from our boy ⁓ Bort's Sports Reports who always submits really, really good hot takes, so you'll be the perfect one to answer this. After seeing Van Reel smash the placid record, it's safe to say American triathlon development is basically on par with American soccer. As in good. As in not so good. As in not so good. I was gonna say. ⁓ Go ahead, Nan. We've discussed this before. I think given the geography and how big America is, it's a real huge challenge to develop youngsters ⁓ in the US and There's gonna have to be a huge investment in grassroots trathlon for you guys to to get that right. ⁓ you need to rely f ⁓ on more than just the college system, you know, it needs to be happening before they're in college ⁓ to pick this talent out. Because these days kids are starting trathlon young, the level of the sport is is rising all the time. And yeah, you'll get the odd person that can sidestep in later in their career. But if USAT really wanna be you know. world leading intraathlon, they need to look at what the French are doing, what the Brits are doing, you know, what these leading nations that are literally pumping out athletes all the time, continuously. ⁓ yeah, it's it's a it's a really big challenge for such a big country. ⁓ but you've got the talent, it's there. You just need to work out how to find it. I'm not gonna give you too many tips 'cause we don't want the US to dominate too much in another sport. Yeah. Re really well said, Naan. I I think it's so funny. I ⁓ I mean, we have the same problem in cycling, right? We're not unique to this. And then obviously I've like I said at the front end of the show, I'm in this other world now of remote control car racing, right? And you've gotta have these facilities to do it. And guess what? Where do all the best drivers come from? Their proximity to a local track, right? It just like sometimes it just it is that simple. ⁓ and it's like, hey, man, you guys just gotta put on we just gotta put on races, right? Like That's how you learn to do this sport is through actually doing it and competing at it. So yeah. Yeah, we and we we we got we got a lot of other high priority sports here. It really just depends on what region you're in, whether it's the Middle East, they have different sports in Europe, et cetera, et cetera. But we just debated that for forty six point eight five seconds after. So let me read this next one. ⁓ it says if you're gonna ask people to submit their hot takes, you should spend more than forty-seven seconds on your podcast actually debating those hot takes. We spent forty-six on that one, so sorry, we'll get to yours later on. ⁓ the last one is You're crazy if a profession I was actually trying hit forty seven, so I'd feel good about it, but I actually hit it a little early. So ⁓ If a professional Ironman broadcast is gonna make multiple references to your website, it's no longer a hobby. Come on, boys. Let's get this hot channel stuff cleared up in a timely manner. So I guess we need to reset those. We're working on that. Sorry, what are they what are they referring to? We forgot through I forgot to reset the hot takes a couple weeks ago, so it got up to like forty something. Yeah. So we have to like you know what filter through and we lost a couple and so I feel bad. Let's let's hit another one. I almost forgot the T one hundred existed. This rebuilding year could permanently damage their brand. I I think that that's a real possibility. I I don't know how even looking at the schedule for next year, it's very difficult to look at a schedule and see a gap of like basically two months with no racing and see how you can stay relevant. Like I feel like you need to have races, at least one race a month. In order for you to stay somewhat relevant. I mean, you had pro series races, we had back to back pro series races for like six, eight weeks straight. ⁓ I'm indifferent on it. You don't think wait a second? We we we we beat this horse. I'm not I'm I'm gonna they got a little bit of time to to deal with this. ⁓ yeah. I think I think I think they can do it. They can make a comeback. With with that being said, we hope you guys enjoyed the show. Massive thank you to Nan for coming on. next week will be a little bit of a slower week. Because there's not a lot of racing on this weekend, so we'll get you a preview show. Pat, what's your hot take? Pat had a hot take. You gotta get I got one final close out here. Okay. I wanna do here's the thing. I'm about to close July out. I am on the brink of being on the podium at every single race I did in July. I got one more Wednesday night one. Okay? So I got a lot of pressure. Here's what I got in my back pockets. Precision, fuel and hydration. These 30 gram carb gels have brought me to another level. What did I do the other night? 413 for 20 minutes, guys. That was almost 500 kJs that I burned. I am chugging these things. I got zero gut issues and clearly I got no leg issues. Try them out for yourself. PTN15. The big guy in blue sent you. You'd be doing us a huge favor and you'll be doing your legs an even bigger favor. I thought you had a real hot take. That was good, Clap. Thanks for listening. See ya next week.