oscaro wrote:
monty wrote:
Appears to me Ali has been doing the majority of the work, maybe he is just here to domestique Jonny? // Here is what I think the Killer B's strategy was going into this race. First of all it began last week when Ali pulled the plug on the run, thus doing a normal hard training day. So no fatigue what so ever to begin this race with. 2nd I think their plan is to have Ali drill the swim bike as hard as possible, make sure there is a break at T2. Johnny helps, but Ali sacrifices. Then it is game on for the run, no gifts and Johnny has to win the race from Allistar. His handicap is the amount of work done by his big bro, but of course it is most often not enough without some other factor in there.
I think since the training for Allistar now is LD focused(not that much different from what he did before minus some spadework) he was able to drill this baby and not fade at the end. Of course others had faster run splits, but like I have always said, when you win a race overall, your last split is to be taken with a grain of salt. And Ali is the king of shutting it down when it is in the bag, so. I wouldn't read too much into his run split except that he ran fast enough to win...
I had a very strong feeling he was going to win this race, sure wish we could have bet on it with those great odds they were giving. That seemed like the real lock as far as odds and payouts go for sure... Mostly agree with you, however I don't think he's stopped doing speed work. I think he hasn't really decided if LC is the way to go yet or if Tokyo is a possibility so he hasn't really committed yet.
I think when he does commit to lc and all that entails, we will see real domination. Once again he showed that he can outbike the best, after swimming hard and then jog in a 31 min 10k. He looked really relaxed imo.
Hopefully this will silence some who thought he only crushes lc when he drafts or because of moto. As one of the posters critical of AB's drafting in Challenge Championship I'd like to point out that I dont ever think the criticism of AB was founded on that sort of logic (i.e. he will only win if he drafts). ABs talent and capacity is proven far beyond anyone else, and he is without a doubt among the top (or
the top) ITU-racer, ever. This naturally puts him in a position to potentially also be
the best long - course racer ever, but in my book he still needs to prove this before we hand out any medals. Will he dominate LC? Very likely. However, as I've said elsewhere, the real test of his LC abilities comes the first time he attempts a full - distance. Of course he has better odds than any of beating the rest of the field, but it has to be done.
Now back to the drafting - issue. Even though he is without a doubt world-class in all he undertakes, I'd still like to see him race clean and fair. That's all. Please carry on.