He's racing the Challenge Championship — in Samorin, Slovakia on June 3rd. I think both Lionel and Sebastian with like this: "The Championship will enforce a strict 20 metre draft zone, significantly longer than Ironman’s 12 metres.

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Genetics load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.

These ITU guys bring so much speed into he run that not a lot of the longer guys that have not done much short racing ever or in years will be able to match that speed.

Yesterday Sanders was chasing all day while Brownlee just had to stay in front.

But, can Murray match Sander's bike speed like Brownlee did? If not, Sanders has it wrapped up

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Ah great, I think Varga is going to be racing this. Let's see how that swim goes!

Neither Richard, Sebastian nor Lionel can remotely hang with Richard Varga on the swim. They all can crush him on the bike and run though. So I vote for him being a non factor.

Hugh

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Genetics load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.

No doubt but it'll show Alistair the extent of the gap that he can get to Sanders if he wants to push the swim.

Historically Alistair is never the one pushing the swim. He always follows fast feet and conserves energy. It was Ben Kanute's feet at St. George. They actually swam a few seconds slower than last year. The same is also true with Javier and Jonny.

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Genetics load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.

Also I wouldn't be so quick to say Kienle can 'crush' Varga on the run. I think this is more ignorance of ITU.

For instance yesterday Kanute ran 2 minutes slower than Kienle. Varga regularly has run 2 minutes faster over 10k than Kanute in the ITU.

Brownlee and Varga are great mates. If Varga's already down to race a 70.3 it could well be on the cards for him to continue doing some longer races...would be some good feet to follow.

That should be a great race. varga, Brownlee, Kienle, and Murray.
If Richard Murray races he is a great biker. Bear in mind he has chased down Brownlee breakaways in the past. Not shabby on the run too.
Looks like long course is getting very interesting this year

I think Varga is doing that one because it is his home country.

I see no evidence that Murray can match Brownlee on the bike so I am going to assume that he can't match Sanders. But it will be June 3rd which for Kienle is starting to get close to his mid summer peak vs the exhibition season form he MAY be in now. I am expecting Kienle to run just fine with Sanders and maybe even hold him off on the bike. I say this is a toss up between Kienle and Sanders.

If this weekend taught me anything....Murray will beat Seb/Sanders easily.

?

Did Murray do something this weekend we should be aware of?

Easily? It wont be easy at all.

I think Murray is the next best up and coming into 70.3 and Ironman when he makes the switch. He has shown that his body is incredibly resilient and does well in heat (Island House, Super League, Rio, Cozumel). Richard is going to change the game the same or more than what Brownlee will at long course.

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Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching

I agree here. Murray is really tough under all conditions and his run is wicked. Never count him short.

In many ITU races, Murray pulls the 2nd group up to the lead group and then runs as good as or better than most. He is definitely one of the strongest cyclists, and a top runner (only Mola is faster at the moment).

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I think he's talking about how IM St. George went down with Brownlee winning, but hardly easily. Just more empty braggadocio.

I'm a big Richard Murray fan and think he'd do great in LC and could very well win the Challenge event, but I'd be surprised if he beats Seb/Sanders "easily". If he does I'll admit to being wrong.

I agree with the above - Murray is always pulling that chase pack. Rarely do we see him in any small pack with Ali because his swim is further back.

Might be more of a "race" as he'll be coming out of the water closer to Seb and Sanders. I'm very keen to see what happens!

I saw Murray at the Specialized booth at the expo at Chicago Worlds in '15. He had a beard, and I asked if he was Tim Don. He was a little incredulous when he corrected me...

He shaved before the race - maybe his plan all along, but I'd like to think I helped nudge him.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

I say Varga is out of the water in ~22:00. Nobody is touching that. No sense in even trying to get on his feet.

Another epic race. Would have been awesome to have seen AB at this one too. If I was Challenge I would offer him a sweet appearance fee and hype up even more this race and offer live video commentary and give the fans what was so missing at St George.

In terms of current confirmed pros. My prediction is:

1) Sanders
2) Kienle
3) Murray

Great to see Sanders crossing over to Europe and mixing it up over there.

Bingo

Definitely agree! Toss in Reed and Frodo with AB, Sanders, Keinle and Murray, show it live and hype it up... please

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Well AB out split Murray on the bike in Rio by half a minute and beat him by 49 seconds. Over double the distance AB was slightly outsplit by Sanders on the bike and only beat Sanders by 33 seconds overall. In both cases we can say that AB had the win the bag so was able to more or less shut it down on the run (shut it down less in Rio since his brother was closer). I know, you guys are going to say AB got to draft the front pack on the bike and Murray was pulling the next group so had less help. In any case, everyone has been saying that AB is the strongest biker in ITU. Now its Murray because you know the long course guys must suck more than ITU . By the way, did you guys notice that 2 guys who never did ITU, namely Lionel and Sebi, beat all the ITU grads at St. George except for AB? Tim Don, Ben Kanute, Brent McMahon got pretty smacked, finishing 6-9 min back of Lionel.

I have utmost respect for the ITU guys. They are amazing at that format. Some of them are amazing at both formats. Some Long course guys really suck at the ITU format and could never be in the zip code at ITU, but they can be good at longer races with hard bike legs. My only agenda for "defending" the long course guys is because everyone proclaims how superior ITU guys are and that when they come to long course things will flip upside down but ever since Sydney, we still keep having guys who never did ITU and just came up through the age group ranks that manage to go toe to toe with the ex ITU guys.

I get all that but I just think Murray might be one of the most under-rated ITU athletes. He's a 2nd pack ITU swimmer (which is FOP in Ironman) and he really does spend A LOT of time at the front of the 2nd pack trying to drag it up. Not saying he has it in the bag by any stretch but he's definitely a force to be reckoned with.