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 and welcome back to another episode of Pro Try News. I'm your host, Kyle Glass, joined by Mark Matthews and Pat Lemieux today. We're gonna go through and create the perfect what we call perfect Iron Man Pro Series calendar. We're gonna go through we have about forty hot takes that have been submitted by you, the listeners. So we're gonna go through those and highlight some of the races that happened this weekend. Not too much going on, but enough for us to come together and and rip a pod before we get into crazy championship season, so Mark, how you doing? Yeah, all good. Had a week off last week. ⁓ it's just a busy weekend and I w when we were recording Sundays and Mondays, I just done an airport run. So thank you for picking it up without me. ⁓ otherwise, yeah, life's good here. Just tapping along at home in the sunny, sunny UK. Not much to report. Nice. Pat, how you doing? Guys, I'm doing okay. I finished the month of July. I'm gonna just this is gonna kinda be Patty pumping his own tires here for a minute. I finished the month of July and I podiumed at every race that I did, bike racing wise. So the pressure was on yesterday on August first when a new month started and I needed to keep the streak alive. So thank goodness. I got third in yesterday's criterion. ⁓ we did a beautiful six corner criterium in ⁓ downtown Louisville where I live. So ⁓ super cool little race. But yeah, I was I was super pumped. no surprise to anyone I had precision fuel and hydration in my pockets. I took a caffeine gel twenty minutes before the race started. zero stomach issues on a really, really hot day. So I think if you're looking for a product like that that gets you through the heat. Look no further than those PF thirty gels, ⁓ even the ones with caffeine. So look, if you haven't heard of ⁓ you've been living under a rock, precision fuel and hydration, absolutely top notch stuff. It's all that I'm using ⁓ to fuel these past six results that I had. So use code PTN fifteen for yourself at checkout, and you'd be doing us a huge favor in the where did you hear about it? You could say the big guy in blue from Pro Try News. And you are on the podium? We did our team did a podium sweep. So we had two guys in the breakaway and then the race chopped ⁓ the we had a we had a two up breakaway with two of my teammates in it and then ⁓ the race split. I was in a chase group of four and ⁓ yeah, I got to absolutely just kinda show everybody my taillights there in the spring. So There you go. There you go. We got a one, two, three. 'Cause you had two in the break, you'd sat on done no work at all. The entire time. Yeah, and then just remind me. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah, perfect. I'm not chasing the teammates up the road. I'm out. I'm out. I'm out. Sorry, guys. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. They're like, they're like, You sure you don't want to be three of seven? And I'm like, no, no, no. I really like our odds where we're one and two. Those are the best ⁓ odds. That's good. Mark, you weren't on last week. Did you ⁓ did you have any thoughts or opinions on the the new triathlon world tour? I would describe that press conference as a Big ol' nothing burger made of mixed up aubergines, some lettuce in there, put into a patty and called a burger. Mm yeah. I like I like it. I like it's better than before, it's better than this year. But it I was expecting something big. Not just I not just a race calendar. And I want everybody to know I got my wrist slapped big time. Big time by T one hundred on Monday morning. Cause do you wanna know what we forgot? What? There's two short course races coming to the US in twenty seven and twenty eight. What? What does that have to do with anything? They were already gonna come here anyway because of the I was told the whole pod that we did, I was told the one thing that we missed was that there were two short course races coming to the US. And we missed that. It's the Olympics test of it. I mean like you you yes, it's mandated by the Olympics to do those two races. So wherever they were. So look at corrected on that one. We got that was the that was the one thing we missed in it last week. So on my bet I'm gonna own that. Don't give me a bit, it's much better calendar than this year. Because it's the back together, some decent locations, etc. But it you know, like it's j it's just a race calendar announcement, right? Yeah, and and it split gender still, so it's like ⁓ shit, sorry, yes, of course it is. Yeah, it's completely clapped. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, we had we had we had Sam come on, I don't know, eight, eight, nine months ago that said there's gonna be humongous announcements in twenty six. And now today it's August second and we d we do have a calendar. ⁓ I think the biggest thing for me reflecting on it was yep, that's ahead of schedule for the calendar. Definitely great. And we've criticized about that a lot in the past. So that's a positive. So the t totally. I just think the the overwhelming that not only that we've reported, that other places have reported, and that the response that we got on our Instagram The having the split gender races was a huge bummer. Nobody wanted that Nobody wanted that. And that's and that's not That's me sharing my own feelings, but then clearly sharing the views of others as well. Yeah. I mean there's nothing controversial. Like y there's no one that's saying it's a good idea. Other than maybe people doing the bank balances at T one hundred, 'cause you can have more venues paying you to host your races there. And you can slap a pro race alongside your actual now main focus, which is earning off the age group races. And if you if you split the pro men and women, you can throw a pro race alongside more age group races so you can earn some bank off it. That's all it is. Yep. Nah. Looking back now I am excited that there is they are slated to have a one hundred K distance race, like a T one hundred race at the test event in LA. That's kinda cool. Like we've we've never had a mass participation event at one of the Olympic venues for triathlon. But what I don't get is even in their even in their launch they did last week, then they waited a few days to then talk about the age group side of it. Yeah, there's a massive age group. I there's age group race at every like T fifty and T one hundred race. Yeah, I guess I guess like the theory. They're called What's your th pro, right? They're called the PTO. So they have to pretend to still be about the pro athletes. Sure. So you have to announce the pro stuff first 'cause you have to pretend that's your priority. But when you've got men and women separately, like when which no one wants, it makes the broadcast worse, it makes your viewing figures worse, it makes everything worse. You have to do something else to pretend that the pro racing is actually still your priority, right? Surely. Yeah. Which they still have the pro pro board, I guess. The PTO pro board, and they voice their opinion that they didn't want that. So I love Pat's face. Pat's face like just death. The group has been toothless the whole time. They've done that. I mean so I They can't do anything. Yeah. Look. I'm cheering for them. It just man, I would have loved if we just had a little more substance in last week's announcement. I was just men and women back together. Two hundred K race. Just one of them. ⁓ you know, just something big, whatever it might be. Yeah. You know, so I I think that was kind of that was my only thing that was the only thing that bummed me out. I think it's still just very clear to me that both T one hundred and world triathlon are on two separate train tracks. They have done nothing yet to signal that they are actually one business yet. And until I see that happen, like these guys are just they each need each other for other reasons. And I would really want to ch I want to see them act as true partners in this and not as like, okay, well we feel like our backs up against the wall and We need the T one hundred because somebody has to try and sell this as a commercial entity and T one hundred needs world triathlon because they needed the ability to call some races a world championship. Yeah. Beyond that, they're not acting like partners. Fair. Agree. Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's get into the racing that happened this weekend. Norseman triathlon happened this weekend. On the men's side, Christian Grew went back to back. Second place was Alistair Brownley and third place was Hans. Man, I Do not know how to say that last year. I would love to see Alistair Brownlee's training over the last six months versus Christian Grewz side by side. And then I would also love to see wine consumption. And then just see the difference. 'Cause I I I do not believe Well, A, he's just so good. There's a re yeah, the chart would just be like intersecting, but like on the wrong end, it would be hilarious. Christian Greze clearly very good at this. He's a solid pro all round. Alistair is a a bit of a freak. Like coming second in that race is actually genuinely quite impressive off the back of what I'm almost certain he's been up to. I just love the kid is going round taking a Patagonia man, Norseman, crazy gravel like what a way to retire, you know? Yeah. Just still living the dream. Yeah, but fair play. I mean it's an epic race that it looks so good. It's on my bucket. I always joke that it's like Conan Roth Norseman for me as a European. I'd love give that a go. Maybe maybe you can do that next year, Mark. And then on the women's side you had Nicola Korbova, Helene Tungstavic, and Sonia Reglano running out the podium on the women's side. So ⁓ a huge race. Obviously it's it's on a lot of people's bugg lists, it's really difficult to get into. ⁓ so always wanna highlight that, especially whenever they have a pro field and it's such an iconic race. So ⁓ the other race that happened this weekend was seventy point three Krakow in Poland. ⁓ Kasper Stepniak backed up his win from last year to win again this year by twenty seconds over Daniel Backegaard. His return to the racing and return to podium form. So that was huge for for Daniel. Stepniak's like a really good athlete. Like he's ⁓ he's w he wins a lot of races and he he top tens in some real big fields, top fives in some You know, with K B's and that in the race. He's a s really good athlete. Daniel Bachegaard's come that close. Fair play, I would say. It's nice to see him back up there. Mark Dubrick, long journey. You know, Poland and I'm I'm you know, Poland is a is a very girlfriend's Polish, so he's he's been in Poland since Elsinore. Yeah. guess. I I d I guess I more mean it's just such a European heavy race, you know, like it kind of races like a Euro race and good result from him. But yes, Debniak, home race, home win. Good lad. Yeah. On the women's side, ⁓ Nikki Bartlett won the women's field ⁓ by about a minute and a half over Francesca Crestani and Aurelia Bolanger. Nikki Bartlett has won a lot of races. I think if you actually look how many races that girl has won, it's like it's a surprising amount of races. And she the fact she's still doing it now, fair play. Yeah. So that was ⁓ Seventy point three crack owl on the weekend. the other race that happened was the World Cup in Brazil. We usually don't mention short course World Cups but we don't have a lot of racing to talk about. On the men's side, Braxton Leg, the American, won the race, ⁓ in a sprint finish against Dylan McCullough and Mitch Colkman. And then on the women's side, Susanna not even gonna try and say the last name. Slovakian won the race, ⁓ over the American Kelly Wetland and Betrice Malosi. That's kind of a Slovakian when I saw as well. ⁓ World Cup Race. The only reason why I want to mention this World Cup is if you look at Olympic rankings, I gotta correct myself because I didn't think that there was a world that we would be able to qualify three men. But right now we have four men ranked in the top thirty of Olympic rankings. So it's possible that I was wrong and we're actually maybe get three men qualified for for L A twenty twenty eight, which would be insane. But Again, we're very early in the qualifying process, so T B D. We'll find out something. They just have to pump these races, score loads of points at these kind of races. And not you know, not get carried away, not think you can go win World Series. Just pump these races and you'll get there. Yeah. So it's it's it's a massive result for for USA, a massive result for for Bracks and Legs, so Hey Pro Try 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 ProTri News listener, you can claim 15% 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 30 day money back guarantee. That's right, you heard it. You don't like this saddle after 28 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 them out. Let us know what you think. ⁓ the topic of the week this week we had was build your own Iron Man Pro Series schedule. Now, when I said this in the group chat, I think Talbot was bored to death. That's why he's not on the podcast today and just threw it into Chat GPT and had Chat GPT create some ⁓ some schedules for everyone. But I'm hopeful that Mark and Pat are gonna come through with actually some some well thought out plans for like the pro series. W do you have the Chat GPT one up? I I'm about to give it up. 'Cause it's actually starting point. And I think maybe we might just reflect on what we've learned in now that this is the third year of the pro series. ⁓ I think that there's a bit there's I think that when it came out, let's remember we were all kind of skeptical or curious of how this one point per second was gonna work out. I think come I think now we all like it, right? Yeah. We're all pretty into it. I think that we're all pretty much aligned on the scoring, right? F for s f for some to to some extent, right? For the what we're fine with how many points are awarded for a full Iron Man, we're how fine with how many points are awarded, we're we're fine with the extra thousand point bump for both the world championships. Like all of that seems to make sense. Can we all agree on those points? Yep. Yeah, I wouldn't change that. And I think there was some good arguments that maybe the the seventy point threes were underscored at the start. But like it's the bread and butter, it's what they do different from T one hundred. So doubling the scoring for the Foles is is really working out, I think. And so I had, you know, some ideas of a calendar and what really threw it out to me, what really threw this whole thing off, was how many pros have decided to race Kalmar. Right? And it's not they're there we're not gonna see respectfully, I don't think, any Kona favorites at Kalmar. But I think we're gonna see some people that are deep in the top ten at the Iron Man Pro Series score at Kalmar. Is that a fair is that a fair statement? Yeah, definitely. And one of the big ones which we saw, which was the biggest surprise, is Laura Phillip. And ⁓ Yeah, cool. So so I think where that leads us now t is is I'm still having this debate in my head of should there just be two Ironmans that are scored to try and pull A few more athletes that really race the entire series? Or does Iron Man continue to own this and which was really the pride of Andrew Messick that said, No, this is the Iron Man Pro Series. You gotta do three Ironmans to win the Pro Series. And I think for me, I'm not as fixed on the actual schedule because I think with the tools that Iron Man has here. are they can turn on a race like Happy Valley and go, hey we were we're gonna make Happy Valley a pro series next year because we gotta pull the lever for more entries there, right? And that's gonna continue to pop up, right? So they may not need as many Pro Series in Europe because those races are sold out, right? But these ones where they're developing new markets, I mean we'd love to see a pro series in proper Asia, right? Could we see one in Taiwan? Could we see one in China eventually? Like w could where could this grow? And so I'm not as fixated on the schedule as more the levers and the things that I'm trying to pull for the success of their business. Right? I personally, if I if if you guys give me a second, I would love to almost cut down a few races and make a few pro series bigger. Make them feel bigger. Make them closer to a 70.3 worlds, make them closer to a Kona, make them feel more special, right? What do we need though to for that to happen? We need a proper entry sh ⁓ setup, right? Iron Man still is missing a proper way to get a professional way to get into those races. Right now all the athletes just email, say I wanna do them, and then it fails or it doesn't, and I just think that that's ⁓ still kind of Mickey Mouse, right? And so is there a world where they could cut the start list to thirty or to forty and really funnel in the best athletes? So I apologize. That was a long winded opening, but like I'm not gonna have this, okay, on April first we're gonna do this race and then April twentieth we're gonna do this race. Mine is more a theme and saying, Hey, let's cut down a few races, let's try and make ⁓ more special. Let's try and get the best athletes. And then the big question I have is still, hey, do we cut an Iron Man from this? So Mark, I mean I think you're you're you're the one that spent the most time in the series. Like w am I what do I have right? What do I have wrong? I would agree. I I think cutting one Iron Man is probably a good idea. ⁓ this Kalmar race feels like a last chance saloon. And I'm aware that like because a couple of people might sneak some points in here, it's gonna cost our family like a hundred grand. But then cat dipped out of a race, she could have chosen Hamburg over Roth. And it might have forced her to do so, right? If there was one less, etcetera. So, like, take my view on that with a pinch of salt. But I agree. What I think I would do is there's two ways to look at this, right? What would I like to see and what makes sense for Iron Man as a business. Now, what you're saying makes sense for Iron Man as a business. Use the Iron Man Pro series as a way to flex your entry and try to use it as a drawer. Like the Asian one makes so much sense. 'Cause that's the butt that's the market, right? If they can make triathlon takeoff in China. their business can go up by thirty percent overnight, whatever it might be. It could be massive for them. So like I get why they should probably do that. The other way is to also look at it like what's best for the pros ⁓ and gives you a result that shows who the actual best tra athletes are in the world, not just how hard is it for them to do the races in the series, which is where I sort of frame mine around. So to your point, Pat, There's two ways to looking at it. Yours is what I think Iron Man will do, and it's to f use it as a tool for entry, which I also don't have a problem with because they're the ones paying the bill at the end of the day. And the healthier their sport can be, the longer they'll do this for and make it pay the bill. But I think they should cut the last the late I basically don't think they should have an Iron Man that if you do it, you're impacting Kona. And which is what I believe Kalmar is. Which I think is I think seeing a Laura Phillip enter is a surprise to me 'cause Knowing them pretty well, I feel like that's her throwing in the towel saying, I can't win Kona. So I'm going after some pro series cash. That's what it feels like. And I'm not sure you need that for a pro series cash. And Mark, to support you in that statement, so it doesn't feel like you're taking a shot at Laura. I said it before we could. No, no, no, but it's what I said about Trevor Foley doing Kalmar. Yeah. Tot totally. I I would shot at Laura. She wins everyone in a magnificent fashion. It was you can go and win You can win there there's a very the list of people that have performed at an Iron Man ten weeks inside of before Kona. W Kyle was able to pull one name of who has done that. Annie Hog. So I mean that's that's what we're dealing with here. Just to support what you're saying. So sorry, I interrupted Mark. No, no, no, no. That was that was mine. I have a I have a slightly different way of looking at mine. Mainly just to pop a shot at you boys for the entertainment factor of it. So here's here is what I had, what I looked up to decide where my races were gonna be heavy. ⁓ in twenty four and twenty five Iron Man Pro series, twenty six Europeans, some of them the same person by the way, finished in the top ten. ⁓ eight Americans finished in the top ten. Six Australian New Zealanders finished in the top ten, and one person from Africa finished in the top ten. Good old Vice, Bradley Vice. ⁓ legend by the way. ⁓ no Asians, etc., no South Americans. So then I looked at my schedule and thought, do you know what North America deserves? Kona. Less You don't deserve another Iron Man. Don't have why'd you get three Iron Man races? Have three more seventy point threes. So North America for me gets three seventy point threes. And Kona, and if the 70.3 worlds is there, that's separate. It's a big master. So technically four next year. But this is this is just my silly metric. Europe, on other hand, gets Hamburg, Frankfurt, that's one race because it's male and female. It gets Austria as a full Iron Man. It gets I like Austria. And you're gonna like this one, Carl. Now it's back in the Iron Man family. Because we've bagged on it so many times. Make Lanzarotti a pro series race. Let's go. Let's just go. We've bagged it so many times. Make it a pro series race. Let's just like you've got to launch, you know, you're taking back over Lanzarote. Iron Man's, you know, that's unfranchised it, it's bringing back into the family. Make that. So Europe gets four full Iron Man races, essentially, I would say. And then at least four or five seventy point threes. D Europeans should only have to travel all the way to Hawaii once at the moment, because they're absolutely cleaning up. They're cleaning up. Yeah. You come and race here. And ⁓ and the Australians and New Zealand athletes from the Oceana, I reckon get three. Like Iron Man New Zealand and a couple of seventy point threes, 'cause they've done some. You go to back to South Africa or an African race, and I agree you put one Iron Man in in Asia for the market value. And then a sprinkling of some seventy point threes. Okay, so I think I well I I agree with what you're saying. I think what we're failing to wait. Is that Iron Man is actually trying to use these North American venues as a way to grow their business. So both in Boise and in Happy Valley, we know these are two places that they needed to try and increase registration. ⁓ where then my question for you, Mark, is where does Texas fit into that given that that race has become such a spring phenomenon? for both the men and the women's race, given the timing of it, given that the the the course history, given the quality of the venue there, like, where does Texas fit? Mark said no Texas for us. I would say ⁓ View Entry Options, Iron Man Texas twenty twenty seven, opening it, ⁓ flex early entry individual. You can still enter. which is not true of a lot of the European ones. So I like I said before, there are two ways you do this. You do it one, which is what I think they'll do, which is what you suggested, Pat, and you use it as a tool to gain entry. Two, you give the races to where the best athletes are to make the fairest route to showing who the best athlete in the world is, not force them to travel across the world from where they live when we know that the glut of all the best athletes in the world is not in Are you ⁓ are you putting any are you putting any in the Oceania region? New Zealand, Australia? Iron Man New Zealand, kick the year off and I guess straight to Xilong again. Two early races, down under. The weather's good there, it's still in their season. I'd drop cans. 'Cause it's so late in the year, it's a freebie for the southern hemisphere. No one's travelling all the way down there to do that for the summertime. Yeah, when when the rest of the racing is already underway in the northern hemisphere. I would definitely give them a few 'cause they they've had ⁓ six or seven of the top ten. They always have good athletes, especially on the women's side. ⁓ but I would probably drop Cairns because I just feel like it is it's almost the softest score in terms of geography, right? is the one where if you look at the result, it's just full of the local athletes on both sides. Whereas if you look at you could say the same about Europe, but then the overall table is full of those athletes as well. Whereas at least in America, you go Texas, you go happy ⁓ Lake Placid, plenty of Europeans still come and actually do race those. Whereas they don't go all the way down to Cairns mid summer. And that does feel like a freebie for Southern Hemisphere athletes. S So then Mark, where did you land with I mean are you I guess my questions for you are are you weighting Kona differently? Are you keeping it at two Ironmans? And then what is your total number of races? Right now the series is at eighteen. They've kept it at eighteen for three years now. I would drop one of the Iron Man races, just to condense those fields slightly. And I would drop whichever the one they have scheduled closest to Kona. Anything within that twelve week window out, get rid of the Iron Man. Like put a seventy point three or two in there, 'cause you can definitely pick up some brilliant athletes and some stacked start lists. Push a couple more seventeen point threes inside that window, but drop the full. And I would I don't I don't have a problem with eighteen races. And I don't have such a I don't I don't really have a problem with giving away a a light seventy point three. Use that. Go to you know, let's get a s let's get an Ironman Pro Series in Brazil. Argentina. Whatever it might be. No, Argentina after the World Cup, sodom. But Brazil. you know, like or somewhere down like that. Let's get a seventy point three down there or and use them in Malaysia or Singapore or something like that. Okay, and if and if on the men and the women's side every year it seems that certainly for the women we narrow down to two or three very quickly for the podium. And on the men we narrow down to five. If it's three if we keep it at three seventy point threes and two Ironmans. How many athletes does that expand to as somebody that can be on the podium ultimately of the series? What are we talking about? I would suggest that this year is much more competitive than the last two years and I would suggest that twenty five was more competitive than twenty four in terms of how close it got. This year the women's Solvies got the win locked up. The podium is actually between quite a lot of athletes, depending on what they do. You know, you've got Kristensen from Denmark, you've got Laura Phillip now coming in, and you've got all of those that've already raced that still have a good shot of a podium with a good niece and Kona. Whereas the last two years, there was it was pretty locked before Kona. Third was up for battle. So I think the progression of how competitive it's getting is coming anyway, as people are realizing it's pretty feasible. And I think that's coming with this change in attitude of athletes with nutrition or whatever it is, that they can race more than they used to, and we've talked about this a lot. It used to be you maybe do one Iron Man early year and you can stand a chance of winning Kona. Now people are gonna win Kona on their third or fourth Iron Man of the Year. No problem. So I think that leads them on to doing more. So I don't think we should worry about that to make it more competitive. What I think we should change the series to do is try and make each race more exciting and get a bigger field to it. So Mark's taken Texas and Lake Placid away from us and given them to Lanzarote in Austria. And then I mean being a little bit facetious because Texas is super cool. But I don't think you'd I don't think North America needs three full Iron Man races, given the athletes that win and do well in the pro series don't come from North America. You have more than Europe combined, don't you, on full if you count. Hamburg and Frankfurt as one. ⁓ what if you've got you've got Kalmar two. Calmar two. Lanzarati. No no but they current currently currently Hamburg Frankfurt. ⁓ currently. Ca Hamburg and Frankfurt's one because that's just one there's their split jokes. Yeah in Kalmar in Kalmar. And yet twenty six of versus eight of the top ten are from Europe. So we get two. You get the world championships plus two. I di I did do this slightly controversially. ⁓ I That's fair. I mean I think the the only reason now is is Lanzarote sold out every year? Is Austria sold out every year? Is that the only reason why like they keep leaning into Texas into Lake Placid? The problem with Texas is Texas course is so bad. Yeah. It's so Texas is a brilliant race once you get off the bike. Yeah, the course is just horrible. Yeah. Yeah. It is Okay, so then And then how much of it, Mark, behind the scenes do you think is going on with these individual race directors for the Ironman races that are putting their hands up to Iron Man saying, Hey, we really want to be a pro series? How much of that is in their decision making matrix as well? Sure, I've just realized they should do. Just offer so say there's two world champs, so there's sixteen other races left. Just offer sixteen different challenge races that are owned by individual race directors that they they franchise their race through. Just offer all sixteen of those races to challenge races to take them away from T one hundred. Just Iron Man do an absolute turbo b complete bully power move. I mean it's pretty much what they've done. Well it's interesting. Saint Poulton. Let's have T one hundred series race. Yes, St. Poulton, make that a pro series race. It's It's the same weekend, I believe, as ⁓ Challenge Samurain, which is like their challenge championship, which I guess is gonna be maybe a T fifty next year. So you could make that like kind of a medium competition. That's halfway 'cause he knows his phone's about to blow up after this. ⁓ No no, I'm being facetious. ⁓ individual directors is interesting. They stole Marbella from Iron Man, so Yeah, I don't know how Mount like I don't know I don't know the inner workings of Iron Man well enough to tell you Like if it becomes a pro series race, do they expect a contribution from the town, the city, the organizers? I don't I don't know that well enough. I I certainly I I suspect it's probably not really. I mean it's certainly a case by case basis in Iron I mean, again, I think Iron Man is making these decisions as a directive through like, hey, they know they have to re recharge their North American business. So they're saying, Hey, what's the best way for us to do that? The easiest lever we can pull is we take the best athletes, get ⁓ to go to the North American races. And it it attracts more people for registration. We we know that. ⁓ th this is just like simple supply and demand, you know, econ one ⁓ one stuff like that. Which which deep down when I make this joke, like this this like kind of proposition of mine, I would actually rather the business did really well and it saw value in the pros and it kept paying them. So deep down I think your understanding is right. They need a few big hitting events nicely spread, but then they should use this to pump the numbers. And what it's gonna be is then you have to have a balance of that, right? Because we can't just have the pro series be in Happy Valley and then move around to the different like if they're trying to build out these different Asian races, right? ⁓ it it it's also gotta have some of the shining stars for their own business, right? So the biggest races in Europe in the best locations. ⁓ Zellem Z is incredible. You know? They gotta have that. They gotta have Austria, they gotta have Frankfurt. ⁓ So I just think for me, we know the points work. We like we could argue, okay, could it go to it's at 18 races, could it go down to sixteen, could it go to fourteen, and maybe we compress it a little bit. ⁓ that's we're we're probably like overthinking it a little bit at that point. But I think now what what I would love to see is pull one of those full distances off the table and then you've got a real championship race that finishes with Kona and you it you feel something special for winning there, you know? ⁓ and then you get a the the true breakdown, I think. So I think that's that's the one I mean you could argue, Mark, the other thought I had for today was like, do you take Kona and crank it to sixty five hundred points instead of six thousand? No a thousand is a hell of a bump. And as well, Kona time gaps. Look at time gaps. They go massive there 'cause people die a def the gap between and do you what I am just guessing that and I imagine Thorston can probably I think he'll prove me right, but I I don't know. Or or I probably could just type it into our website and tell me. I bet the the average gap between first and tenth in Kona is a vastly difference between the average gap between first and tenth say Frankfurt. So I think you have the six thousand, but you also probably actually it counts for a lot more to do well there anyway. ⁓ one thing I do know is Kyle will have actually done his homework and come up with his own series, and I'm dying to hear what it is. I have done quite a bit of research. There we go. But I I am going about it a little bit differently from I guess like if I'm Iron Man and I realize who the title sponsor is and I realize that That race is usually in February. I'm having seventy point three Oman start the pro series next year 'cause it's middle distance championship. However, it is quite early. It is in February. So that that it's gonna be a short season probably for a short off season for some folks that either want to go race that or just wants to start the pro series kinda earlier. But that finishes. That could also be your athletes that maybe didn't qualify for Kona this year that then They took a late season qualification, like a September, October, they made it outside the qualifying window, and then they start the series then. And then they're like, Okay, well now I gotta jump on the pro series. I've already got my Kona qualification. Now I can be advantageous and aggressive. It's four months off, really. 'Cause we're finishing. We're not we don't have the late season seventy point three championships. Yeah, I guess it's finishing in October this year, so Yeah. I like it so makes total sense. I'm starting with seventy point three Oman, middle distance championship. in February and then going to New Zealand, Iron Man New Zealand. I am not going to seventy point three Geelong after though. ⁓ I think the Geelong we proved this year that it was kind of a bit of a dangerous course and so I I don't see that being a pro series race for next year. So fair yeah. Yeah. So ⁓ but I would say that we keep or not keep but like go back and do Ironman Cans. Not saying this because ⁓ I got a trip down there and went and snorkeled the Greybeer Reef and how awesome it was. Did they pay for your parts in a hotel by any chance? ⁓ it was it was a great trip. Yeah, it was a great trip. So But it is I I don't I'm not trying to bag on it. Like if I was an age graeper, I'd go do that race. I'm I'm not I mean you think about the people who have won that race before, like I believe Javier Gomez won that race before. ⁓ I mean it's it's it's a huge race. Especially for Australia, it's really all that they have. I mean, you c you can't really say we're gonna do Iron Man Boso. Well yeah, I guess I Iron Man Australia, which is usually when is that? West Australia's like December though. Yeah. But Iron Man Australia, ⁓ usu usually it's in Melbourne, ⁓ that's like the week after Kona. So they they're not doing that. So ⁓ I'm going back down to Cannes. ⁓ in July, but I'm also gonna give them a seventy point three, maybe like seventy point three Western Sydney or something like that, which is in May. So I'll give that to that por part of the world. I also wanna incorporate some sort of race in Asia, whether it's Iron Man Malaysia or seventy point three Malaysia or Iron Man ⁓ Japan, which they just brought back. Japan. That would be good. Yeah. So The problem with the schedule of where it lands right now, I believe it's in like September, so it's a late season race, so it it kinda is out of the w realm what I would put in right now. But you kinda g I feel like doing Taiwan, which is an early season, like a spring race, that would be a good one. ⁓ and also carbloading is properly easy in Asia 'cause they actually do tasty rice dishes. So that's a huge perk. Yeah. So I would add ⁓ Ironman Taiwan, which is in I believe it's March, April. Taiwan. Yeah. Right. So so far you've got three in Australia, New Zealand, and Taiwan. Yep. Alright. Pat's shaking his head. And then Europe, yeah, I'm I'm fully on board with you giving them ⁓ Ironman Austria is an iconic course. ⁓ all the pictures and videos that you ever get of that course are incredible, breathtaking views. ⁓ the swim is iconic 'cause you go through underneath that bridge and stuff like that. It's really pretty. I've never done the race before, but I've seen plenty of pictures and videos. ⁓ I also agree with Ironman Lanzarote. However, I would keep all of the races in America, all the Ironmans in America. And I would like to s find somewhere where they can add some. Because I personally don't believe and talking with a whole bunch of my age group friends and other pros that are from America, we don't have we don't have enough Ironmans here to do. So They can't sell ⁓ out, so it's like that's the other side of the coin. But essentially we don't have any it was it was funny, there was a slow twitch ⁓ forum, people were talking about it. There's no Ironman's west of the Mississippi River besides Iron Man, Texas and Iron Man, California. That's it. So there's not as much races, I guess, that you could say in North America than ⁓ But do they have to be pro sexy would like? No. Might you just have other races. Yeah, yeah, you can just have other races. But I would do Iron Man Brazil because I feel like it's gotten ruined. Full Iron Man races now. Yeah. ⁓ you just want to love Yeah, I would say like I want this to make it to where the pro athletes have to decide like do I want to focus on the pro series or do I want to focus on Kona? And I think that's what we have this year. If you add a couple more Ironmans in, then people are start making some really difficult decisions. But doesn't it make it easier to focus in a way? Because you you can pick a calendar that then doesn't interrupt Kona. Yeah, but then you have everyone coming to Kona like with a goal of like getting as many points as possible and actually racing Kona versus you got guys like your Matthew Marquotz, Trevor Foley's of the world that are going to do Kalamar eight weeks before Kona. Is Marquot doing Calmar as well? Yeah. Could we just agree then? So Kyle, would you have a cutoff of your not do there is not an Iron Man available ten weeks before Kona? I want to hear that correctly. yes. I would say that that there would be a cutoff of like there's no more full Iron Man's. Mar Mark, should there be a cutoff? Yeah, I think so. I mean it's not obviously like it's not Iron Man's not gonna speak about it, right? But like next year would we see the schedule and we'd be like, Okay, like it's very clear, like ten weeks out, like July twenty. Well even with seventy point three worlds being sooner, like the end of August, then you would say, Well, we're not gonna do a seventy point three or an Iron Man. after August. But then that changes your schedule a bit. How many people at O how many people at Iron Man are making this decision? I think it's really small. I I think it's it's Matteo. Five or less. Yeah, I agree. I would say it's five or less. I think it's Matthew and Scott and then probably the PR team. Scott's not seeing it till the end. Yeah. I don't know. Scott went to a lot of races last year. Like he's he's seeing a lot of these Ironman races all around the world and I think that he has a lot more of a say in that than you than you would think. Okay, so how alright, so what are the things that we can ⁓ Kyle, I don't hate I mean you went full Kyle on it, which I don't mind, but I really like There should be one in every part of the world. That's my that's my take. You started off Iron Man is a global brand. They should have races in Asia that's part of the Ironman Pro series, that's for the Australian peop like there's enough Australian tri athletes that stay there all year round that they could make that a part of their pro series and then be done. I think I think my take would be you protect the fools. You try and make the fools really competitive. And you keep them fairly limited and you keep them in locations that people are actually gonna go to. And you use the seventy point threes as sprinklings for these kind of growth areas. You know, these underdeveloped countries that can't fill their races like ⁓ America. Right. And then so like yeah, like Asia. Oceanside's gonna sell out next week faster than any other seventy point three. And I'm only taking it. I do think that that they're a good mechanism, but you you need to protect the fulls, because if you don't have a competitive full race, God that is boring to tell Okay, now we competitors, who gives a sh And we've kind of teased this then in the past. So then could they say, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna re edit this. Mark, I think you're protecting the fulls makes a ton of sense. Expanding the seventy point threes to like pipeline and some athletes. Do they then take a few franchise hitters like an Oceanside and say, Okay, twenty seven fifty to win Oceanside? No why why we already said that we liked the scoring and the calendar and stuff and you keep trying to sprinkle in open up the numbers. I I think they well here's here's a real here's a a thing that's real. We all looked at Texas because everyone was there. That was a special race. With all due respect, we were all sleeping in the morning to Happy Valley. Yeah, a hundred percent. They want to make a few what are they going to do? But there is no Europeans there to defend Martin. like the big the big races all year is is Texas, it's Oceanside. It's ⁓ Frankfurt, Hamburg, the double up, whatever we want to call that. And then it's the two world championships. We got a good I but but do you know what people did watch? Everyone watched G Long. Do you know why they watched G Long? Because it was Yellows versus Caylan Wild versus Christopher. And the only way you get people to tune in and actually watch these races is if you can create a start line that's interesting. And if you have random little races part of the pro series all over the world, no one watches them. It's just why I think I'm gonna I'm gonna So this is now Pat's schedule. He's like ⁓ we got ten races, that's it. Well, I'm just saying this is The the T one hundred tried doing this and I think that their idea is fairly correct. But they've had to deviate from it so many different times that their eyes have been taken off the ball on what their core business is. Iron Man has they can stack a few more plates on the bar and lift this thing off and really turbocharge it. And then what do they get to do? They get to sell sponsorship against it, right? And I just think that this is like they would be looking at this and going, How do we leverage this as a business? How do we make more money from this? I think I think you're right. I th I think you cut the number of races just a little bit. Just a and just a smidge. And then you look at the ones that are like kind of a nothing races. You know, you maybe try and condense the Iron Man races a tiny bit. and then y you just you you do have to pick big hi you can only really afford maybe four seventy point threes that are there to increase business. The rest have to be races that athletes wanna do anyway. And do you know what you need? You need a you need you need to talk to a few of your big athletes about when they would like to race. If you could pick an Iron Man series just about dates. Like and rough regions, what would you do? And if you ask the Norwegians, you ask Kat Solvi, even Lucy Charles, get her back on board. You ask a few like this, Taylor, and you say, How can we get you to come? How would you spread your season and maybe build a season around that? Because if you can get them on board before you've even written the programme, and you can get I don't know, the top four women, the top four men in the world to all commit to the pro series. You're laughing. Yeah, fair. The the the other thing is is I d I just don't understand like Boulder seventy point three. It was a pro series race in twenty four, but I th I thought it was gonna be more well attended than it was from the sheer number of people that live in Boulder. So like I would love for that race to be a pro series race because it's like Yeah. I mean, ninety percent of the US based athletes live there. They either live there, they live in Park City, or they live in Idaho. That's the majority. Okay, so then what Iron Man needs to think about doing then is if they have if they were to announce the schedule sooner than you know we've typically gotten it, right? Which is right around. September seventy point three worlds is usually when we get it. So and then Create an incentive for the age groupers. Right? Is the course going to be better if I go do a pro series? Is the experience going to be better if I do a pro series? You know, and then I think I just think it's something to to think about and go, they're they're thinking about this as a business. ⁓ and I think that what we've learned is ⁓ my opinion stands, they can chop a few races down, make them feel a bit more special. I personally would be playing with the points a little bit. I'd be messing with that a little bit. I reckon we're running this a bit dry now, this top. Well I think we all agree. I think Kyle doesn't agree because he wants to go to Timbuktu in Uzbekistan. And has nineteen Iron Man races. Yeah. But we'll we'll we'll create a graphic of all of our races and then we'll put it on Instagram. As I say we, I mean Julian will create that from this conversation. And Good luck. I I guess we'll all be we'll all be pumped for for what happens with the schedule. Do you care about what races there are, Pat? Like you've just said No, I don't I don't I don't want to fixate on that because I think that's something that like Iron Man's not going to change very much and I actually s probably support most of their decisions. Yeah. They they've got their they know their best races, they know the ones that they gotta build in, right? And and those could be I mean, they could bring back Des Moines or whatever like These could be new new new races, right? Or what you I d what you I sorry Mark, what you ideally want is you want a city that comes in in America that says, Hey, we are gonna do Boulder 70.3. We want it to be a pro series, we're gonna give you this amount of money, let's make it happen. That's the perfect s that's where we want to get to. So I don't want to fixate on the locations because those are gonna change. Cody, is is Japan a faux? Yeah, it's a full. Right. I don't care if I'm a man you listen to none of this. But I'd love Japan to be a pro series race next year. I'd really want to go. If you could make it a half a million dollar prize pot, that'd be wicked as well. ⁓ and make it compulsory for the pro series so I can get this across the line, that would just be ideal. Thanks. Yeah. The only issue is it's in September, so and then you need to delay Kona till November as well. Cheers, thanks. ⁓ That's good. That's good. All right. Let's move on. I want to smash through these monster lists of hope. We got a winner. Hold on, I got a map to winner. So Challenge Roth, we we took the list of seventeen hundred people and we randomized the winners to a select three. We double checked, make sure they were following Pro Try News, made sure they were following ⁓ Challenge Roth, which were the stipulations for the giveaway for Roth. And from those three we came down to one. Nathan Bevan from Wales is going to be the winner of the free giveaway for Challenge Roth from Pro Try News. So Nathan, congratulations. ⁓ super pumped for you and it's gonna be an iconic race, you'll never forget it. ⁓ I just love that. He he looks like an absolute legend as well, does Nathan? ⁓ we went through this. He's done a bit of everything. He's done he's done loads of racing. He's raced T one hundred stuff. He's raised some Iron Man stuff. He does some coaching by the looks of it. He di like and he's done the proper qualifications for it. He's done Wales seventy point three ten times. Enjoy Roth. Yeah. So shout out shout out to Nathan. So congrats. And then should we move on to ⁓ I mean there's no no real racing next I mean there's real racing but not like Pro series level racing or anything like that. There's Alp Duez Trathlon, seventy point three Rio de Janeiro, seventy point three Lapu. The start list came out for Calmar and Northern California. We'll highlight those next week. There's two buzzwords in performance sport that we hear all too often. Carbs and protein. 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I I think it's strange that they sent everyone a drafting profile last year and said, We'll ha we'll talk to you if you're if you're a problem child. They're the only people who are not publishing the Race Ranger data. Challenge is posting it, T one hundred's posting it, like wh what's the point of hiding this Race Ranger data? Confidence in it. I I think okay, so let's just take Mark's position. Yeah. If you're gonna put somebody on blast, you gotta know that what you're showing is is pretty clear. I don't think that there's been any race ranger data that's been made public where we were all flabbergasted and thought that it was wrong. Is that fair to say? Not made public. No. Yeah. So I think obviously what's still probably there's I mean, obviously if you're coming up from the back of the field, the odds that your race ranger data is gonna be messy is gonna be through the roof compared to if you come out of the water first. Like Sam Laidload's race ranger data is always gonna be squeaky clean because he only sees one side of the race. Right? Yeah. If you're Trevor Foley and you're eight and a half minutes down and you gotta chug through sixty four dudes to get to the front, like you're gonna have you're gonna have some some bobbles along the way. I think again, like I think we're I don't wanna make something out of nothing. If we the worst offender across an Ironman distance has been what, four minutes or eight minutes of time in the like the yo yo zone. Yeah, like eight or something, yeah. But that's but that's But it's one person. Yeah. Right? Like then that that's and that they are they are so outside of the norm that like then if you went and took the median, like it's it's becomes it becomes nothing. So I think for me, all of a sudden, we've talked about this, once it moved to twenty meters, it kind of became a nothing burger for me because if they're s floating at eighteen versus twenty two Like what are we really talking about here? So okay, so you yo yo'd for a minute forty five and you were at nineteen and a half meters instead of like the twenty that we needed you at? Like And like you're getting you're getting put on blast 'cause you were at Kona, you were in the red for two minutes, but the person that was out front for a hundred and eighty K had a motorbike alongside them and horrendous crosswinds for a hundred and eighty K. Like who's getting you know, but you're the one on blast. Except on the turnarounds you've seen this person with a moto within five metres of them the whole way. Like It's not as clear cut as I think and I as long as they're using it correctly to inform the referees and they're penalizing people and they're talking to repeater frienders. I d well I also got a bit bored of seeing it. I don't look through every race now. No. It doesn't really tell us anything anymore. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think once it went to twenty it really and we and and this is on record from seven, eight months ago. Like it it just became something I wasn't concerned about. But man, if we spend this much on each one of these hot takes, buckle up everybody because we've got a three-hour show ahead. ⁓ Sam's Boise performance is overhyped. Vincent Louis has never hit the heights of Yellow Geans Martin Van Riel and company when coming across to the middle distance, and the rest of the field wouldn't be picked for top ten at worlds. Ouch. ⁓ I mean, valid. The field, I don't know if anyone other than Sam Long would even have a chance at. Top tening at seventy point three worlds from the but his bite was a bit silly. Like you've got to give that some credit. Yes, but like who cares if you have a great race on an Uffhinberger day? Like people don't care that much. And I don't think it's been that overhyped. People aren't saying he's the greatest seventy point three athlete in the world because of it. I would just say hell of a bite, mate. Wow. Yeah. ⁓ next one. You can't call yourself a pro if you're well ⁓ we've covered this one so many times. You can't call yourself a pro if you're thirty minutes down after the swim and fifty K of the bike Lake Placid. Pro series pro licenses are given out like food vouchers, need serious overhaul. The Iron Man or sorry, the USA pro license has been overhauled and will be changed for next year, so there will be a lot of people that will be on notice. So I think they should change the title to Elite. You get an elite license. Pro license, you can call yourself a pro athlete when the majority of your income comes from the sport. That's what professional is. That's what being a professional means. You're monetized and being paid for it. But that's all I would change. This one must be a shot at me. Does the fact that you don't accuse Sam Long of ducking for his whole career, but accuse Sam Laidlow of ducking when he doesn't do a race at a distance sum up the fact that Sam Long is a second tier pro at best on the world stage? I think that it's different. I think it's different because Sam Laidlow has been competitive at the middle distance, and I feel like Sam Long on like the big stage has only podiumed at a world champs once. And Sam Laidlow can pretty much do any race that he wants and usually performs. So that's why it wasn't really a real like slam at Sam saying he's ducking, like He's racing the Iron Man World Championship in Kona. So and he's raised Challenge Roth against Christian Blumefeld. Like I also think it's to accuse Sam Lodlow, Lucy Charles, Christian Blumenfeld of ducking. Because they've won the bloody world champs. There's no disputing they're one of the greatest athletes in the world. If we pick on someone that hasn't won a world champs, etcetera, and hammer them for ducking, it's kind of bullying. There's no th there's please take it with a pinch of salt. Like if I accuse Sam Loidlow of ducking He will whatsapp me and tell me I'm an asshole and laugh about it. I don't want to accuse someone of something like that that it might actually take it very sincerely. Yeah. ⁓ next one. Ari Clow will not break the top ten at Nice, but he could at 70 point three worlds in Chattanooga. No. I don't I don't know if Ari's like top ten in Nice material. I think there's only I think there's only one American, to be honest with you, that can top ten at seventy point three World Championship in Nice this year, and that's Morgan Pearson. And that's if he can ride within his means and run the way that he can run. And then Harry Carl's race he would run. Harry Car's race doesn't come from a really, really hard bike like does it? He's an exceptionally good runner. And if you have to do a giant mountain climb against like thoroughbred climbers, you you're in for a hard day. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. Fair. More female pros are good for the sport even if the gaps to the leader are enormous. Yeah. I could agree with that. Mark? Do you think so? I just still think there's the issue that like if you're thirty minutes off the Yeah. And if you're f if you're if you're thirty minutes off the back of the bike after ten K on the bike, which as does happen in some women's races, and then there's complaints that age group men are getting interfered with your race I don't think the age group men are the issue necessarily. You're in the wrong category. But championing women's sport, you know, what I do believe is definitely true is if you if you see some someone like you doing something, you believe you can do it yourself. And that's why lots of pro athletes, female athletes visible to young girls is always a positive. So I've had a bunch of dudes above ninety five kilograms reach out to me this year and be like, Pat I'm gonna take up cycling now at a more competitive level 'cause of you. Yeah. And I believe you have had that by the way. I I like I don't think that's not actually a dissimilar argument. Yeah. And young girls look up to women doing great things. So exposing pro women to young girls coming into the sport is nothing but a positive. But it can't then be a There's still gotta be some sort of competitive threshold that you would like to have met. There's a standard of performance, you know? So yeah. Next one. ⁓ in five to ten years winning the pro series will be bigger achievement than winning Kona. Not true. Not true. It's certainly getting closer, isn't it? Yeah, I think it's getting closer. All the older athletes view Kona as the peak, but the younger athletes will start to have a grow they'll start to grow to like the pro series more. Kona's still huge, but the pro series will be bigger. I can see it happening. Especially because then like it's just Kona then almost becomes ⁓ it's so hard 'cause it's like you can't really compare it's like comparing Formula One to football because it's like Formula One it's the whole season and NFL football it's like the Super Bowl. Like Super Bowl is still gonna be Kona, Formula One is still competitive and fun to watch and that's essentially like the pro series. It'll be interesting over the next few years. But it's a sport where you could pick a sport like football, where the Premier League, for fans of those teams, winning the Premier League is worth way more to them than their country winning the Football World Cup. But it it depends. Yeah. That's what you're interested. The product placements ⁓ Someone doesn't like Pat's feeling strategies, but too bad we're still gonna do Mate, you can't push four hundred twenty minutes, boys. The results speak for themselves. I'm not really gonna listen enough for debate whether you like it or not. I mean it has like a three hundred and ninety what FTP boys, you know. Glad we got this one out of the way. PTN hiding the winner of the Roth entry relay is weird relay gate. ⁓ we just we just announced it, so boom. The relay. When are the relay? Yeah, they said it's relay gate because we didn't do the relay 'cause Pat and I backed out and were scared. But we gave away winner. ⁓ that was different. We filled a relay team however we wanted to, and I've explained how we did that and we've given away the winner of the side. ⁓ this is a great question. I would love to know the answer to this one too. What does the PTO athlete board actually do? If so many of us are requesting the men and women to race together, are they addressing this? Many professional organizations or boards send out updates and the organization at least monthly. Should this be an expectation of our board as well? I guess this is a pro that submitted this and it says anonymous, so I'm assuming this is a pro athlete. Yeah, I c I ⁓ I could tell you who was on the board in the first year it came out, maybe the second. I have no idea who's on the board now 'cause it's completely pointless and they get no points whatsoever. They do nothing. I think they're voicing the correct opinions. They're just fall it's falling on deaf ears. Yes. So I think the athlete board has been advocating for the athletes. The actions that have come from those opinions and those requests have not been honored. Fair. Realistically the age of bike specialists are over. We appreciate Sam Long's bike power, but in the age of Yella, Martin Van Real, KB and such Having a freak bike split doesn't really matter if you're not running sub one hundred ten. Says someone that did not watch Roth. Amen to that. I mean, and d d these guys are still just putting more focus on their bikes than anything. We talked about this two episodes ago with KV. Taylor Nibb in the last four seventy point three worlds she's won. She's not had the fastest bike split in a run split or even close to it in any of the seventy point three she's won. But she's won them by miles because of her bike. Every race Sam Layla has ever won. Which includes an Iron Man World Championships Roth several couple of times. Like I know what they mean. And seventy point three, especially on the men's side, we haven't seen a bike dominant win. But ⁓ Iron Man, no, you can still win on the bike. Yeah. Limits should be set on men and women's pro requirements. If you're a male and you get passed by a leading trail of females. We agree with you. Okay. We agree with you, mate. Would the T one hundred be better if they sponsor had sponsored teams like F one? Hayden Wilde and Taylor Nibb race on a on can race for Canyon. This is not real Pat. Race for Canyon, while Alana Siffert and Sam Appleton race for like Team Garmin and they share points by the end of the season. The T w okay, I'm not saying that this is like a bad idea and ideally this is where the sport gets to. But the T one hundred can't do anything that has to teach the audience something New. So we've learned this from Super Try. You gotta do a swim, a bike, and a run. That's what the audience is willing to accept. You can't do a swim bike run, swim, bike, run, swim, bike, run, you can't do a run bike swim. You can't do a Collins Cup where they're all wearing different colored jerseys. You gotta do an outright triathlon race and then slowly build onto that as a commercial property. I mean it would be fun. Like to bring back like the races, like the battle of the sexes and stuff like that. He's he's not said for us as super nerds, it would be fun. But it would be like how who who is funding these teams in their right mind? Yeah, if you go to Garmin and you say, I need one point five million dollars for triathlon, they will ⁓ laugh, cry, and then the door will break your ass on the way out. So like ⁓ the it's just it is i it's very far fetched right now. And if you didn't and you actually got the money for it, the team how many UAE nations are there? Because that would be the name that would be the teams. It would be anything with a border on the Gulf that also has a high reserve of oil that isn't Iran. They would have the teams. And there's nothing. And obvious yeah, and obviously like if you've seen anything that's going on in the news right now, what those Gulf nations are doing from a sponsorship level, to say that they're pulling back is an understatement. So That that it's also going on geopolitically right now that will affect sponsorship. So ⁓ interesting question. I love the thought experiment. Next hot take, please. If you do the math, Taylor Nib would have won Kona and Texas if she wore a different helmet and used different tires. If you do the math This is but this is why this is why we this is why we race. Yes. This is why we race. And there's there I I mean as a as a bike dork, I know what tires Taylor was using, for instance. I wouldn't have put anything else on for fear of punctures. Five thousand T Ts. Yeah. Well yeah, job done. She's racing the same as Ghana's race here. It's like what are we doing here, people Helmet, yeah, she dropped out of Kona because she overheated. So you think she should have put a closed face T T lid on? Yeah. She's not some. I know I'm sure I'm sure you've I'm sure the person that looked this up you know. No, the math I'm sure the math the ⁓ the the math that they did probably worked. If you put on like whatever super light tires, but like your your bike you have to finish the bike in sh in a position to then go and run a marathon. And you have to be able to cool down what enough. Like and also like if you put the bars down forty centimeters, they're probably slightly faster, but then you don't push any power. Like it's not Taylor's not dumb. She's exceptionally smart with a very, very good team behind her. I would I sometimes I would just think that she she maybe has made some very informed decisions. Alright, we're gonna hit the last one. You ready? Hmm. There should be a point penalty if you don't finish a pro series race. If you start the race you don't finish, there should be a penalty. Are you excluding are you excluding a race that gives improper neutral wheels? Yes. The race is the it's going from here from now on, so neutral wheels are a thing. So we have neutral wheels now. So from now on if you're what if someone crashes in like So sorry, repeat the question, Kyle. Repeat the question. You'd basically lose points. These are negative. You basically lose points if you DNF. No, absolutely not. That's not gonna fly for me. You already have the penalty you already have the penalty for not finishing the race. Whether it was whether you decided, ⁓ my tummy hurt, my legs didn't feel good, or whether you accidentally shredded your rear derailer off, or you did happen to get a puncture on a highway with a ton of debris and the race didn't provide you a correct wheel. I mean, d you you just like you c you don't want to sit here and do this what if thought experiment. So it's just like, no, you flew to a race You got penalized because you lost a h entire week already. The fact that you get an additional points points dump is just not not necessary. You're two grand the cheapest race I've ever been to is like two grand to go and do the race. And you've missed, let's say, ten days of training. You've got a penalty anyway. Yeah. I I know what you mean. But it's not something I think we're seeing very often. We're not seeing the pin. And you're not think right. And you're also not thinking of like the second order consequences of like, hey, somebody did train for this, they did have to travel, now they gotta rebook tickets. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. I said the last one, but this one's actually the last one 'cause I'm curious. Do you think you can still win an Ironman world title or a seventy point three world title without doing altitude training or altitude camp? I feel like everyone's on altitude camps. Hmm. You can get bloody close. I know that. ⁓ I know you can get it. Is it something that you ever think about, Mark? 'Cause you guys you guys don't really do a whole lot about like you guys what, last year you guys did one, right? I did bit and it was probably the worst thing we did all year. Yeah. it's a thing. It's definitely a thing. ⁓ and I think, you know, and I'm I'm not saying we're not doing it right now, but it's like who who's one one that hasn't done it? I d That's a good question. Lucy Lucy doesn't do altitude training camps. Very rare. She won seventy point. Very rare. She she won seventy point three worlds last year. She might have an altitude bedroom setup that you don't know about. Some people have that. Like Anne Haug, I know, never did altitude training, but I know she had one in her house. Laura does it famously. Yeah. KV just had one installed in his house. Yeah. Yeah. I ⁓ can you no yes of course you definitely can win one. You can. Lots of people will. Yeah. But it it is i it is a proven tool that works for a lot of people, especially with the access to it now and you don't have to be quite so monk like, etcetera. So I think yes you can, but it's a fair point that actually amongst pros there are very few top pros not utilising it as a training strategy. Kayla do one other than living at She lives she lives at altitude. Wha how far are they? Eighteen hundred meters. Yeah, I mean it's a bit isn't it? So I wouldn't call that like a proper camp though, but yeah, yeah, fun. But I it's higher than Saint Maritz. W you know what I mean? Yeah, fun. Yeah, and everyone's going to Saint Maritz. Yeah. I have my own, you know, ideas and thoughts on it. I've spent a ton of time on altitude camps, ⁓ where people just obsess about it. I always think that the benefit from it sometimes is like you got away from the distractions of your home life. Yeah. And so it's like it's hard to decipher okay, was well was this a benefit because I didn't have to worry about all the sh shit going on at home. Yeah. Or and you know, now it's a little bit different because I actually used I mean I live at altitude and when I went back home to the Midwest for sixteen days, I was like, Hell yeah, I'm doing a sea level camp and I'm gonna do a ton of VO two work. VO2 work, yeah. 'Cause I don't get to do that effectively at at home right now. So ⁓ I'm I'm living on the flip side of it and I and I just find it I find the whole thing fascinating. I I d I think it's anybody that says one way or the other probably just doesn't like I would I would be looking past that person because it's it's not a it's not a black and white answer. Yeah, and I think just to finish It is it is a big thing that a lot of people are curious about. Like myself included, I've always been curious about I think I think people miss the fact that it's much easier to do a cycling camp at altitude or a running camper altitude. Triathlon the problem is is you have swimming involved, you have running involved, you have multiple sessions a day, the stress load is naturally higher, the commuting to and from those things is higher, access to facilities, et cetera, et cetera. So it becomes I think it negates some of the advantage in triathlon that it has in the other sports because it comes with slightly more deficits. But the ⁓ the answer to the question is yes, you probably can still win a world championships but like your answer, Carl, is yes, almost everyone is doing it on some level, shape or format at the moment. And you heard that here on Pro Try News. We'll be back next week where we will highlight the big races coming up with the Pro Series and the start of championship season. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you next week.