I'll stop there, but I would argue that there are many better ambassadors for our sport than AB (who couldn't be bothered to attend the pro panel at St George).

I am pretty sure he wasn't invited to the pro panel

You did mean to write that in pink right? I'd bet $$$$ that he was invited if not begged. It would be insane for WTC to not invite him.

I wonder if Colonel Sanders flipped into ITU if he would win 2 out of 3 of his first races

And then the next weekend win at his favoured half distance at a stroll?

Hahahahahahahahah

Brownlee's just put on the classiest 1-2 clinic of all time.

They are who make this sport great.

I'm a big fan of his, but I'm pretty sure he'd never finish in the top half if an ITU-event. ITU-format would expose his weakness big time and partly null-out his strength.

A good instantiation of your statement would be at Island House Tri and a lot of that was still non drafting so his bike strength was not negated.

Even supposing he started the bike with them, LS would also have been dropped by the Brownlees in that technical city centre section yesterday.[/quote

They would absolutely have demolished him on that section by several minutes. Being super strong cyclists, great bike handlers and having biked together a gazillion miles over the past 20 years might give them a bit of an edge too;) It certainly was a race especially suited to criterium level skills.

---

Genetics load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.

Even supposing he started the bike with them, LS would also have been dropped by the Brownlees in that technical city centre section yesterday.

It's a good job you did 'stop there!'

Some cringe worthy clutching at straws stuff going on there, Kienle works hard does he? Like Ali got to be the best at what he does by sitting on his couch all day playing Xbox!

Outside of Triathlon hardly anybody even knows who any of them you listed are, Ali probably has more Twitter followers than the the lot of them combined (I bet the majority of them arent in the slightest bit bothered he's not coming on S.T and posting his geeky data either! He's one of the faces of Adidas, has his own Triathlon center with his bro. Probably the single most watched/famous clip in Triathlon history of him carrying his brother over the line, 2nd in BBC sports personality of the year last year which is a pretty big deal in the UK. Now has his own home town ITU race which will probably be the best attended on the whole circuit, is the COMPLETE Triathlete! With absolutely no weakness in any discipline and can lay claim to being one of the very best in the sport in each one!

But let's forget all that because for whatever reason he didn't show for a pre race press conference once! Please stop the irrational hate.

I couldn't agree with you more. Let's take golf as an example. Tiger Woods was, and remains to a large extent, the greatest brand ambassador for the sport. It was widely known, though, that he was a prickly character, on a good day. The same could have been said of Michael Schumacher in his peak. Even Jan Frodeno has been known to be rude, on occasions. It's a trait of those who are so single minded and focused on being the absolute best, to the exclusion of everything else. Tiger Woods regularly refused to talk to the media, especially if he had had a bad day, it didn't mean he wasn't golf's ambassador.

There is little doubting that Ali Brownlee has done more to raise the profile of triathlon (outside the rarefied walls of slowtwitch) around the globe. So yes, he is THE ambassador for triathlon. My parents, friends and colleagues all know who Ali and Jonny Brownlee are. They don't have the foggiest (or care, for that matter) who Kienle, Frodeno, Sanders, Mola, Murray etc. are.

I can't quite tell whether it's a xenophobic dislike of a Brit being, unquestionably, the best male triathlete of a generation (if not ever) or whether it ST just hating someone who's successful. Or maybe a mixture of both. It's odd though.

Yes, it does look like AB was drafting. Yes, he should have been called on it. If he had, he almost certainly would never do it again. He was, and is, testing the limits, as he should do. The difference between 1st and 2nd is often fractions of a fraction so the best have to find that tiny amount, wherever they can. The ref's should have penalised him. That's not his fault. He is certainly not classless, that is patently ridiculous and deliberately incendiary (from Pubes, who would have guessed).

How about we all respect him for his achievements and hope that the ref's of the races any pro enters enforce the rules as they are written. If he gets repeated penalties for the same offence, time and time again, perhaps we can then start calling him unsporting. Classless is a whole different category reserved for the likes of Alexander Vinokurov, Julie Miller and similar.

+4 or whatever we are up to.

I know loads of people who have met him around and at races, and he is always very generous with his time. Which has little to do with his race conduct, for sure, but he is a thoroughbred competitor who likes to dish out punishment for a living. I doubt he would be half so successful were he any different.

When it comes to this specific stuff around non-draft racing, how's about this for a theory?.... the lad has spent the better part of half of his life racing draft-legal. He has taken part in a tiny number of non-draft races, and this last one was, really, the first race where he had any traffic ahead of him. He has spent the last 15 years holding a gap of a few inches from the wheel ahead, he might just need to get the hang of it a little bit and learn to exercise better judgement.

And it is a bit of a laugh being described as classless by somebody who was, basically and by his own admission, a semi-professional arsehole for a couple of years. :affectionate winky: