Has the course been published?

Or maybe Lucy, after two good results in the series, just wants some period of serious training uninterrupted by travel to prepare London as best as possible?

Entirely reasonable, as I suggested (see emboldened sentence above. And after London she'll have another 8 weeks to prepare for Ibiza.
Looking at last year she did a couple of races in May and 'went away' till Singapore in late August, and the year before (2022) she was injured from New Year and then through rehab + till August. So a long break has precedent.

The idea that she'd be put off by the descent from Presidio on Lincoln Bv or back under the bridge approach is worth ignoring. For example, looking back to 70.3WC 2019 in Nice she lost minimal time descending (having had to stop for a 5 minute penalty for drafting on the way to Vence (btw group was 'tight' up hill when she went past (spectating) me)). Without that penalty she'd have likely finished in #2, beating Lawrence btw.
https://stats.protriathletes.org/...ionship/2019/results

Erm, just listened to the latest Pro Tri News Pod & PTO told Talbot that they can't bring him to T100 San Francisco to do content for them due to recent budget cuts. This comes after their deep dive on the # of athletes racing on the T100 Tour who aren't in a testing pool. They have that thin skin that you're willing to lose great content for the mildest criticism? It's barely criticism. It wasn't some sort of condemnation of what PTO is doing. It just encouraged them to think about their testing protocols.

Is Jack next ?

It would be funny to hear PTN's take on the Ryan's comments.

I would doubt that it's due to his criticism.

I don't think they've secured that next funding round that they were looking for, they don't have cash flow from AG race reg that was probably anticipated, and there's a sizable cash outlay from the whole testing pool thing...so my guess is that budget has suddenly gotten *very* tight around those parts.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

More likely they are hanging on by a thread financially because they have no viable business strategy.

Well, I would imagine any attention that is given to the fact that they aren't pissing away money in a smoke and mirrors game to play catch-the-cheater is resented if they are now having to start pissing away said money just for the optics of playing catch-the-cheater.

I'm not saying they shouldn't drug test. Just saying that the drug testing rarely works on the people who are cheating, as we already suspect, and therefore the main point of the very expensive testing protocols is to essentially threaten athletes with the risk of ruining their careers if they screw up plus the ability to publicly claim you are testing and make your product more credible.

That's an expensive commitment, for what is essentially a veiled threat that requires cheaters to be more organized and some small PR claims that still don't impact the bottom line.

So ya, if I was PTO, and now I'm looking at adding a $500,000 or more line item to my expenditures, I'd be pretty annoyed.

Sure. But I also don't think that they'd run Talbot out of town when he's done more to market the PTO / T100 than, well, they have.

Then again...anything is possible. ;)

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

They can afford him if he wants to drop his rates, Talbot isn't cheap anymore and he's too good to do things for free.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

How about this (6 laps): https://ridewithgps.com/routes/46488900
Wrt to the fastest corners: Lincoln Blvd is wide (though two-way so camera and ref motos in the middle) and the bends are gentle. The fastest is the descent above Baker Beach. Not a deterrent to a cyclist like LCB. Jewett, maybe: she'll just be prudent.
Brakes will be tested before the turn off Lincoln Blvd towards Crissy Field.
Shame Ryf will not be well enough to race. At least another wildcard to choose: Visser? She races the Challenge Champs this w/e but would have 3 weeks before T100 SF. Or maybe, like Keulen and Chura, she has already turned one down. Another one for Buckingham?

Looks like you were right.

one thing we can put to bed is pto is a closed club

stratman now 15th in the pto ranking without a single pto score.



barnabi in 11th has his pto score as the weakest score.

and nico mann got 90 points in mallorca which is like 5th place in singapore

You can add in evidence Philipp #7 and EPB #9 whose three top scores are not PTO/T100.
Think this will be clearer once T100s San Francisco and London have been raced and scores on the doors.
T100 SF start list (amended): https://stats.protriathletes.org/...00/2024/participants

Laura Madsen of DK got Ryffs spot. She has challenge championship and then SF. Tight 3 races (won 70.3 valencia).

TheStroBro wrote:

They can afford him if he wants to drop his rates, Talbot isn't cheap anymore and he's too good to do things for free.

I went ahead and asked ChatGpt to give me a prices.


In Miami I charged the PTO a $750 Day rate.


Here is industry standards provided by Chatgpt.

FTR Talbot, I'm not suggesting you do that. Do you want to do my Christmas photos? Because you're way cheaper than my wedding photographer.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

No worries! Haha, I thought you were suggesting I was too expensive! I'll definitely offer a 50% discount if we're both at the same race this year. How about on the beach in Kona? Are you coming? :)