Great Story on Andy Potts. Sounds like he falls into the "shark" category that Lew Kidder outlined on the Slowtwitch site sometime ago - a international caliber swimmer who can run. Given time, the bike will come around for him.
People lament the current state of ITU style racing as being a hard swim, followed by a leisurly bike ride as the set-up for a 10K running race. Unfortunatley, this IS currently the case in the men's ITU races where 30 or so men are all swimming about the same time. However, in the women's race there is a group of very good swimmers who get away during the swim and the bike who make the race very interesting and intriguing: Will the sharks( Lindquist et. al.) hold off the cheetahs( Montgomery et. al.)? This dynamic does not happen in the men's races.
Hopefully the addition of Potts and possibly other strong swimmers to the ITU races will shake things up. I have to imagine that if 2 - 4 men get one min. clear during the swim that if they work hard enough on the bike that can really put pressure on the rest of the field. It will invariably come down to the run, but the trajcetory in reaching that outcome will be different and interesting.
I have had tri coaches in the know telling me that the place to be looking for the next great triathletes are on the pool decks of the national swimming championships. Find the guys/gals that are placing in the top ten who can run(not all swimmers can run), who may be frustrated with swimming and want to take on a new challenge.
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
People lament the current state of ITU style racing as being a hard swim, followed by a leisurly bike ride as the set-up for a 10K running race. Unfortunatley, this IS currently the case in the men's ITU races where 30 or so men are all swimming about the same time. However, in the women's race there is a group of very good swimmers who get away during the swim and the bike who make the race very interesting and intriguing: Will the sharks( Lindquist et. al.) hold off the cheetahs( Montgomery et. al.)? This dynamic does not happen in the men's races.
Hopefully the addition of Potts and possibly other strong swimmers to the ITU races will shake things up. I have to imagine that if 2 - 4 men get one min. clear during the swim that if they work hard enough on the bike that can really put pressure on the rest of the field. It will invariably come down to the run, but the trajcetory in reaching that outcome will be different and interesting.
I have had tri coaches in the know telling me that the place to be looking for the next great triathletes are on the pool decks of the national swimming championships. Find the guys/gals that are placing in the top ten who can run(not all swimmers can run), who may be frustrated with swimming and want to take on a new challenge.
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog