FYI - looks like Sylvain Sudrie was #5 according to the website (at least currently)

- Does Josh drill the swim to break the pack and be FOTW even though he knows that there is a train coming?

Yeah man, we go full gas! FOTW doesn't mean much to me, it's all about going full gas. If a better swimmer is first out, that's all good, if he swims quickly than me he deserves first out. We work for a common cause.

- Does he sit in the pack with Potts, Frodo, etc because breaking them is not going to make much of a difference?

Maybe I will sit in, maybe I won't. Never raced Kona so I have no idea. Maybe as such, I'll be under the radar, and wait for the right time to move, as I did with Wurf in Cairns.

To touch briefly on some points about the discussion & the race...


- This was the first time I've beaten Andy, ever.
- Andy has only ever beaten me out of the water, once. 2014 Escape from Alcatraz, it was my first time & I had no idea what I was doing. He was stronger in the water on that day too.
- How the f**k do we beat Lionel?


Here's my power file. 4.9w/kg average. This is my best ride ever, by the numbers. It felt like one of the best ones too. Very few low points, and very high power on the climbs. This course was awesome, by the way. Definitely the best bike course for long course I've ever done, the loop factor was 10/10 (how many more out & back courses can we keep doing!)


http://tpks.ws/09FbK


So... how do we beat Lionel? I don't know.

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http://www.josh-amberger.com/

Guess Sanders will just have to win both to put that debate to bed, at least for the next year

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Disclaimer: Not a triathlete anymore, just a fish

your link is broken. glad to see you keeping the hammer down in long course racing!

the flat seems like it cost lionel ~4mins, so it makes his bike + run even more mind boggling... scary.

Great ride! Impressive Numbers and impressive speed!

We need more guts drilling the swim - It makes races way more exiting! That swim speed you put up is just damn impressive!

On how to beat lionel? I have no clue:-) but Id think that more hills and heat would play for someone line you rather than lionel.

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/...GK547TOGHZBNHVJTVDO4

1:45 off the bike is sub 2:30 marathon pace. Would be awesome after Kona if he tried for Olympic B marathon standard

How do you beat Lionel? I think with the biggest lead humanly possible at T2 while not overcooking your run legs.



I think your best chance is to string out the swim at Kona and hopefully Wurf makes his way through and you guys tag team it to T2. The strong runners should be worried about you two in the front getting a lead like Hellriegel on Mark Allen and meanwhile they should be panicing that Lionel and Kienle are riding up there butts and through them, so the fast runners torch their run legs but they bike fast enough that Lionel and Kienle don't benefit from them and only catch them later (and then ride through them).


OK enough peanut gallery from the fans on what you guys should do, but that's what fans are supposed to do.


Just a quick question on the 4.9W per kilo on the bike. When you swim, are you going at similar effort or a lot harder. I am guessing you are going at a harder perceived exertion to break the guys behind you?

What a cracking day in Penticton. I was a lone spectator at the 9km mark of the run and i really thought Josh had it in the bag. Although Lionel was taking a few minutes off him every loop, Josh looked completely in control and i thought he would hold off. However by the 27km mark Lionel took over the lead (not sure when he passed Josh) and went on to glory. I must say that Lionel was not the "best looking" runner (compared to Josh and Joe Gambles). It was my first time seeing him perform so perhaps that's his usual running style....but he looked like he was going to bonk but he grinded it out and ran like a man possessed.

Someone who flew under my radar (and most others i suspect) and hugely impressed me was Joe Gambles. This guy chased the leaders all day and finished with a spot on the podium. Andy Potts had a great run, 2nd fastest for the day, but he just couldn't catch Joe who, compare to Lionel, looked great all throughout the run.

On the ladies side, Sarah Crowley was great to watch. She chased down Helle Frederikson and once in the lead she looked destined to win. The womans race was great to watch, maybe not as less predicable as the mens.


I know i'm preaching to the converted but Triathlon is just a fantastic sport. At times throughout the run i had my two kids with me and we watch the worlds best go it.....all at literally an arms lengths away. What better way to get the next generation involved with the sport with such great exposure that events like this offer. They loved screaming out support to all the athletes from all the countries involved and i think the athletes appreciated it to.

I'm curious about this. You usually see it in ITU. Gomez had the rainbow stripes on his shorts when racing ITU but when he lined up for Tremblant the same year in a Roka kit he didn't have any stripes.

Canadian Melanie McQuaid wore her rainbow stripes for long course racing despite winning them at Cross Triathlon world chamipionships.

Michael Raelert had a band around his thigh as well when racing, but I don't think he ever wore that in Kona (he won 70.3 worlds). Macca did a big photo shoot in full "rainbow world champ" gear but I think that was just an ad for specialized.

With Frodeno winning Kona and Tony Martin winning UCI time trial championships I was really looking forward to two special rainbow bikes but, to my knowledge, Frodo has never adopted the rainbow stripes on his bike or kit.

It's a tough call because I don't think lionel has any business wearing rainbow stripes as world champion when he races in Kona. Frodeno is the reigning champ and if Lionel wore the rainbow it would just be disrespectful to Frodo. That said I wouldn't have any issues with Lionel wearing a full rainbow kit at any 70.3 or Ironman race in the next year and then after the next long course world championships move the stripes to either a band around the leg, arm or neck, or even a small patch on his kit.

With Frodeno winning Kona and Tony Martin winning UCI time trial championships I was really looking forward to two special rainbow bikes but, to my knowledge, Frodo has never adopted the rainbow stripes on his bike or kit.

It's a tough call because I don't think lionel has any business wearing rainbow stripes as world champion when he races in Kona. Frodeno is the reigning champ and if Lionel wore the rainbow it would just be disrespectful to Frodo. That said I wouldn't have any issues with Lionel wearing a full rainbow kit at any 70.3 or Ironman race in the next year and then after the next long course world championships move the stripes to either a band around the leg, arm or neck, or even a small patch on his kit.


This is wear it get's a little tricky and sticky! :)

It's important to understand some details, definitions and who's who here. The ITU (like the UCI in cycling, or the IAAF in Athletics/Running) is the true world governing body of of triathlon.

The IRONMAN is a private race management and marketing company. The equivalent in cycling would be the ASO, who owns/runs the Tour de France.

So the winner of the ITU World Championships, is the World Champion - in the case of last weekend - Lionel Sanders IS the ITU Long Distance World Champion! However, IRONMAN, via I believe some legal deal they made with the ITU years ago, is allowed to call their race the IRONMAN World Championships - note the sequence of the words - it's important!

Going on about the IRONMAN World Championships (in Kona), there is a recognition among many in the sport, that the winner of the race in Kona, and the title of the IRONMAN World Champion, is the best long distance triathlete in the world! The field there is deep, with via the IRONMAN's own qualifying system, the most competitive long distance triathlon contested each year. I've heard past winners of the ITU Long Distance Triathlon Championship say as much, and I am sure if you queried Lionel Sanders, he would say the same!

The somewhat analogous situation in cycling would be, the winner of, say the Tour de France, is generally regarded as the world's greatest cyclist . . but he's not the World Champion. Or in running, the winner of the Berlin, or Boston or London, marathons, may be the greatest and best Marathon runner in the world, winning over the deepest marathon filed assembled that year . . . but they are NOT the World Champion Marathon runner - that prize/title is ONLY awarded to whoever wins the IAAF Marathon World Championships at the IAAF Athletics World Championships!

So to your query - following cycling protocol if it were the same as in cycling (which I am not sure it is), Lionel Sanders could have every right to wear the rainbow bands on his racing kit, but Jan Frodeno, despite winning the IRONMAN World Championships, would not!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Lionel Sanders is the ITU world long course champion and should be wearing the rainbow bands on his clothing and on his bike. This is why I brought this up. He is deserving of this. HE WON the race that allows him to wear this as champion.

Wouldn't Jan have the right to a some rainbow inclusion on his bike or kit (or both).......like a band around the arm or leg....... because of being an Olympic gold medal winner?

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

He could wear his medal around his neck during the race, but that would be a bit cumbersome.

I don't think LS wearing the stripes at Kona is disrespectful to Jan at all. If Jan thinks so, he is more then free to take that opportunity away from LS by racing ITU long distance worlds.

If anything, I would think Jan, seeing LS roll in to T1 in the morning all kitted up as "world champ" would be thinking "Just wait, I'll show you what a world champ can do..."

I'm as big a Sanders fan as anybody, but I can't see him stopping the well tuned machine that is Frodo. The guy takes being a professional athlete to the next level, in terms of preparation and focus.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Wouldn't Jan have the right to a some rainbow inclusion on his bike or kit (or both).......like a band around the arm or leg....... because of being an Olympic gold medal winner?


Not rainbow, but gold bands.

Again, I'm not sure if this is an offcial rule or protocol, but you do again see this in Cycling - Greg Van Avermaet - the Olympic Champion from Rio last summer, I believe does have a gold band on the sleeve of his BMC race kit as well as some other gold adornments on some other pieces that he wears (helmets and shoes are popular items)

Good picture here of GVA winning Paris Roubaix earlier this year - http://www.cyclingweekly.com/...-roubaix-2017-324443

Note gold band on arm-sleeves.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I couldn't help but notice that Sanders was wearing a sleeveless trisuit. Any insight as to why the change from his regular sleeved trisuit? Was it super hot out? Has he found that wind tunnel results showing the superiority of a sleeved trisuit do not translate into reality?

He was required to wear the Team Canada Project tri suit per Trican/ITU rules - I didn't see anyone with a sleeved kit so I don't know that Project offered a sleeved kit. Interestingly you could see his green LG shorts coming out of the bottom, so might be an indication of how comfortable the team kit was.

I know that Amberger and Gambles had Wattie Ink kits in Aussie colors that (I assume) met the ITU standards as they had the ITU logo on them.

Brent

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DFRU - Detta Family Racing Unit...the kids like it and we all get out and after it...gotta keep the fam involved!

//With Frodeno winning Kona and Tony Martin winning UCI time trial championships I was really looking forward to two special rainbow bikes but, to my knowledge, Frodo has never adopted the rainbow stripes on his bike or kit.//

This shows Jan's bike from Kona last year with the stripes on the fork...

http://www.triathlete.com/2016/10/bike/pro-bike-jan-frodenos-canyon-speedmax_294297

Thanks. I totally forgot about that.

He was wearing the Tri Can Elite kit (different design than the AG kit, my AG kit fit well and was pretty comfortable, I did have the upgraded super fast LD suit with the foam chamois, not the fleece). I'm pretty sure many of the elite suits were chamois less (or a very minimal fleece chamois), so he was likely wearing his LG shorts with a chamois that he was used to underneath. Not sure whether Project makes a sleeved tri-suit, but given that in ITU rules it's only legal for certain disciplines and distances (technically only the Du/LD tri at the festival would have been allowed the sleeved suits), it likely wasn't offered to athletes, to manage the risk of them ordering a suit that was not legal for their event inadvertently.

Were those suits (that Gambles and Amberger wore) actually Wattie suits? or were they rebadged suits from another manufacturer (Scody, who had done the suits for many of the AUS Elites in other events)? Each country can have a few designs approved for championship use by the ITU, it's up to the federation whether those are all by one manufacturer or by a couple...

Jordan wore stripes on his kona kit after winning the lc champs. And that's when they were a duathlon. Where was the controversy then?

thanks for sharing!!

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website/blog | Instagram

So I was on my first lap of the bike when LS went flying by me on his second. A while later I was shocked to see him on the side of the road in the bushes changing his own flat. He was very calm and focused. A short while later he blew by me again. I thought no way he could catch Josh who had to have 10+min lead on him. Was surprised to see that he caught him on the run and won!
A cool calm dude under pressure!

Sorry for the late reply. I don't really know how they compare. Andy in his prime was a very choice swimmer and is built like a swimmer needs to be. Regardless Andy is certainly a bit older. Doing races like Augusta, less than 3 weeks before the big dance are a bit risky and may show a lack of focus towards the big dance. I for one am interested to see what Josh does. It is obviously a good card to have such a strong swim and could pair well with Frodeno's own race strategy.

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