The coverage indicated that Gomez was sick all week, so there's that. I thought that Frodeno looked a bit ragged at points during the run, while Sebi looked like a machine. Maybe Jan backed off a bit with the win in hand, but my take away from today is that Kienle looks very good to repeat.

Frodo prob just looked "ragged" on the run b/c he out-swam and out-biked Kienle and, even if Kienle "looked like a machine", since he is a professional athlete, I would think he gave the race his very hardest effort. So, Frodo would seem to have a "confidence edge" going into Kona, IMO. Thanks for the info on Gomez being sick all week:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Frodo basically walked the entire finish stretch. If he raced to the wire he had the fastest s/b/r vs Kienle.

Ah, another good piece of info, thanks. I'm just speculating but the fact that I had to start this thread, and that it is, so far anyway, getting light commentary, is indicative of ST-ers being disappointed that Kienle did not win. If he had won, a Sebi fan boy would've started a thread hours ago and it would have like 150 posts by now. I think ST-ers like Sebi b/c when he wins, he's always coming from being behind after the swim which many ST-ers can relate to. But when a great swimmer like Frodo wins, the reaction is just blah, blah, blah:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Frodeno also outbiked Kienle at Frankfurt with a race best 4.08... when you're kicking the butt of the uber-biker of the sport and also leaving behind Gomez that's pretty incredible...

Great point, i'd forgotten about that. What do you think about my "blah" hypothesis???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Its "blah, blah, blah" because Frodeno and Gomez were the "odds-on" favorites to win, so the only real drama was Gomez being sick and not 100%. Kienle's slow swim puts him at too much of a disadvantage as long as the favorites don't have problems.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

It was interesting during the bike to see Frodo back off when he and Andi Bocherer had gone off the front and Andi made the second move. Mostly because of the footage, I couldn't tell if Frodo couldn't make the move or decided not to. It made the rest of the bike and early part of the run interesting.

Well, it looks like Frodo was only about 6 sec behind Andi after the bike, so not a very big gap:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Couple of corrections:
Frodeno had started the run faster than Kienle, but Kienle ran the second half faster than Frodeno. Even if Frodeno hadn't walked the finish chute his run split would have been slower than Kienle's.
Gomez was ill till Wed or so, not "all week". Of course, being ill for three days doesn't help either and noone knows how much this affected hisperformance.
Frodeno was about 1:20 minute back to Dreitz and Boecherer at the top of the climb at around 35km and then clawed back some of it on the descent and the flat part.
Frodeno outbiked Kienle without a mechanical problem. We already saw in Frankfurt what Frodeno is capable of on the bike. As I said before the race I will say now that Frodeno is the clear favourite to win in Kona. But Kienle seems indeed in great shape so Frodeno cannot afford much of a slip up. Everyone else will compete for 3rd place.

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Achim Traut

I think people love Sebi more because of his personality, there's been other uber-bikers who haven't enjoyed his fanfare. He's a cool dude.

Anyone else think that Frodeno has been too good? My radar is on high alert.

Gomez has also raced a ton the last little while. I doubt he is coming in to peak form like Frodo and others focused on Kona.

To be honest, I'm surprised Kienle was that close. Dude looks scary fast.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

True! But while dozing off at 3 am trying to watch the race it seemed like a much larger gap... then again I fell asleep partway through the run.

Depends on how you feel about his "surprise longshot" (as slowtwich's Tim Carlson dubbed it) 2008 Olympic gold in Beijing. He is certainly on par with that fitness right now.

I think his comments on the race are interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2uMxlJmLdA

From what I did get to watch, I would say that Frodeno's form on the run started to look fatigued towards the end and I think he confirms this in his commentary. Kienle's form was much more machine like throughout I felt. (same idea as comparing late rate running form of Ryf vs Carfrae at Kona last year). I think given a longer race, Kienle would have overtaken Frodeno on the run. Just my opinion. Kona should be very exciting to watch either way.

It is worth mentioning that females participated in this event this year and Dani beat the second place finisher by what...10 minutes?

Frodo won by 1:29. He walked through a bunch of the aid stations as he often does when he's ahead. His fast swim/bike completely set him up for the win. He probably could have run a faster 13.1, but why would he? He's really got no weaknesses in S,B,R & transitions.

The only thing that surprised me in the race was that Gomez and Frodo didn't swim off the front of the pack. The lead pack into T1 was massive and I couldn't quite figure that out.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

Hypothetically, if Sebi had exited the water with the leaders his bike/run splits would had put him 30" ahead of Jan at the finish line.

So, is your radar just on red alert for fast swimmers?

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

That's an excellent point and I should have included the women's results in my OP. Ya, Daniela had the 4th fastest swim, fastest bike, and fastest run to win in 4:11:34, 11:33 over Heather Wurtele in 2nd at 4:23:07. Extremely impressive!!!

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Bummer about Jesse Thomas - he posted that after riding up to to 5th, he had to serve a 5 minute penalty as he watched 16 athletes go past him. Not sure what the penalty was, but with guys who are balanced like Frodo and Gomez, it is REALLY tough to overcome even a two minute deficit coming out of the water. Maybe at the Ironman distance, there is time to make up a few minutes, but it seems like if you aren't in the front swim pack, the gap is just too big to overcome at the 70.3 distance.

Ryf absolutely crushed the Women's field. The only problem was that because her gap was so big, I didn't see any coverage of the real race happening behind.

I don't understand why athletes like Thomas, Rapp, H Wurtele, Rinny don't just commit an offseason to swimming so they don't have a huge gap to overcome. They clearly all have the engine and can swim sub-25. Is it just the explosiveness they lack and end up getting gapped in the first 200 meters?

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

No. Just when you are the best at swimming, best the best biker, and have the best run time all in 106 deg weather, I get suspicious. Also it doesn't help to learn most of the track and field and Olympic athletes are possibly cheating and the governing bodies are helping them.

Putting the time in on swimming just isn't worth it most of the time for the longer distance folks. Rapp spoke that that a while ago, focusing on taking 2 minutes off the swim cost him 10 minutes in the bike/run. In this match the top three men are all extremely strong swimmers with history in shorter distance races where the swim is more equally represented. I suspect that as these ITU guys/gals bubble up into the long distance stuff we will see more aggressive swimming. The general rule still holds in my mind though, you can't win in the water but you sure can lose.

In pink right?

If it were only that easy. Just commit a single off season to swimming eh? As if they havent tried/done/do that.

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"One Line Robert"