That overtake from Gomez... somewhat authoritative

I can hardly wait till JG moves up to full Ironman. I think he'll be way more sucessful that AB.

I hope he will stay at ITU racing with some jumps into 70.3.
Then we will see him racing more often.

Yeah, it's been a long premise here on ST that ITU success doesn't translate going long (and, in fairness, that was fairly well proven out). Don't think that holds anymore...

Very true. I'm an ITU man so would love to see him stick around.

But I think if he wins the grand final and overall title next week I think he's gone. Tokyo is just too much of a stretch.

Most of the top ITU racers in Europe not only race ITU. They also race the French Grand Prix (team based).
I am not sure if Ironman racing is a better option. You just have so many Ironman races in your body.

What we are seeing is the 2nd stage in the evolution of the sport. The first stage started 8-9 years ago in ITU with AB, JB, JG changing the way races were ran i.e hammering the swim, bike and going sub 30 on the run. Now that is starting seep through into 70.3.

JF & TD were the start of this in full Ironman and I think JG will take things to another level.

Unfortunately guys like SK & LS (incomplete athletes in my opinion) will be a thing of the past in 10 years if this continues.

Couldn't agree more... I'd shrink that time horizon of 10 years about in half...

Lovato and Lieto picking up on each other and trying to be funny is incredibly annoying. Jesus.

I'm in the UK so I'm aware of the French Grand Prix and now Super league. If it was me I'd stick around in ITU purely for financial reasons as both of these secondary circuits pay way better. Drug testing is way better in the Olympic system as well.

I was one of those dorks who ran along with Gomez in Chicago '14 for a bit. That shit hurt...dude wasn't even showing any sign of feeling it. Just a different sport.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

I think that is why the likes of LS and SK as so popular - a lot of age groupers can relate to being the "uber biker/crap swimmer"

Also I'm pretty confident LS would not have won today. Maybe a medal but given SK's swim I think he'd have been too far back for even that.

A minute separates Ben and Tim with just over 2 miles left. 2nd is gonna be close.

lol@age grouper trying to pace with Kanute.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Speaking of age groupers, how bout that guy hanging on Kanute for a bit. Would be awesome to have him chime in here on how it was. hehe

Gomez is an absolute beast. I cannot fathom running that fast in a 70.3. I'm bummed he wasn't able to race Rio last year because he truly could have been the one to "do it all". Great race for Kanute today as well.

Based on that podium, I think the myth of ITU not translating to long course is thoroughly busted.

Awesome on Ben to hold off Tim Don.

I thought that was awesome! Dude was way out there in front of most of the other age groupers, running alone, and hangs with kanute for at least a mile. All the while the announcers are bagging on the guy. "dont do it bro"

In my opinion, that's pretty messed up for the announcers to do. I think they're forgetting that the age groupers are the ones that pay for the sport, and the announcers, not the pros, and that they wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for age groupers.

Whoever that age grouper guy was, that was a pretty studly effort he put in.

Awesome race overall. Javi totally deserved that win and ran the race perfect in my opinion huge props to Kanute as well

Gomez ran 1.10.30.
Knaute 1.16.24
Tim Don 1.13.05
Appleton 1.14.41
Kienle 1.16.04

SK looked pissed by the finish line. Looked like he only congratulated Ben?

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

Ben was just awesome. What a fantastic race by him going hard from the gun. Chapeau!

The question is: how the hell do you beat Javier?
If you go hard on the swim (like Ben did), he'll just sit on your feet doing drill and wasting zero energy (like he did).
Hammer the bike to get a gap and he'll just stay with the group knowing that he can outrun the whole field.
What an amazing athlete.

The biking in ITU has evolved on the mens side to the point that most guys have an FTP of over 5w/kg. So for someone like Gomez that's 340w minimum - probably higher as he's one of the stronger cyclists.

Compare that to LS or SK and it probably compares favourably, certainly in w/kg. Given their lack of ability on the swim, their higher absolute power will only really matter on pancake flat course like The Championship.

So when you consider all of this, and the superior running ability, it's only really a case of getting aero on a TT bike to be competitive straight away.

Spot on Dave. Totally agree!!

I noticed that too. He only congratulated Kanute and walked past Don and Gomez.