OMG....WTF.....oh the humanity

---

"I would definitely smell her seat after a century ride"

I was watching it on the BBC sport site so perhaps didn't see everything but isn't the reason Gwen was behind was because she had a dreadful swim? I was watching out for her name and didn't see her listed in the top 40. And had there been two laps, rather than the shortened one, it would have been worse. But didn't see any evidence she was dropped from a pack. But amazing run (although had she cycled with the intensity of the front back, suspect she wouldn't have been able to run quite that fast.)

Lucy Hall was fantastic though, luckily for the others, she can't run. But so strong on swim and bike

Gwen came out of the water in 9th or so right with Stimpson, Jensen and Hall, and the was off the back of that group within 45sec of leaving T1. She said in the after race interview that she just didn't have her head in the right place (something to that effect). Phenomenal run though, and made the last 3min very interesting. Glad to see Jensen back to the top, and it will be scary when Non Standard returns...

Jack

---

---

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

I've just checked the results and she came out of the water in in 14th, just behind Stimpson, so I totally missed her! Apologies for that, CPT Chaos ...

Not only did she make the lead pack and then get dropped, she got spit out the back of the larger chase pack, finally settling in the 2nd chase pack.

Maybe brakes were rubbing

---

Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Let's hope it was that! If not, she really needs to learn to suffer somewhat on the bike and spend some time on the MTB to improve her technical competence. There is really no reason for her to be so weak on the that part of the race with the engine she possesses.

jack

---

---

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

She'll be the first to tell you but you also have to acknowledge she's still learning. She's only been on a bike for now 3 full years (4th tri season), so I think she can get a little bit of slack for having some chink in the armor.
ETA: She's also lucky that the women from an tactical and strength standpoint just aren't even half to par what the men are. So, while yes she needs to improve, she's also still able to take advantage of her run strength more often than not.

---

------------------
@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

I will grant no slack for that, no.
Either it was a mechanical issue or she has a bad phobia, that, when resolved, will lead to great great victory.

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

And you are, yawn.

She doesn't have a phobia and likely didn't have a mechanical. This is simply a by product of the USA system where you bring in a single sport DOMINANT athlete and the growing pains with that. ETA: The fact that ST acts surprised by this is more an issue with ST's lack of understanding, this is not some new development.

---

------------------
@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

Wondering if she was suffering from some "brain freeze" after the cold swim (low 50's F)? Yes they shortened it to 750m, but still, if you are not used to it, it can make you uncomfortable riding close.

Get her off the trainer and into some crits.

I didn't say it was a new development, I'm just not granting slack. Granting people slack for not being able to hold a wheel after 3 years is enabling badness.

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

no one likes enabling badness.....

---

"I would definitely smell her seat after a century ride"

What do you stand for Danny? Goodness? or Badness?

I wanna be GOOD!

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Right so do we just throw her under the bus until she makes it? As I said, she'll be the 1st to tell you she needs to work on it and improve, but I also can look at her and say, where her strengths and weaknesses are, and that there is an development process for an athlete at this level coming from her background (even going into her 4th tri season).

ETA: Your talking about an athlete that I has as many WTS wins as any other women's athlete in the past 2 years (her and JS have 3 wins, Non Stanford 2 wins).

---

------------------
@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

No! We drool at the opportunity and encourage her to hold that wheel and practice practice practice with urgency! Greatness is at hand!

and maybe check the tires for gatorskins and check the bearings just in case? =)

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Greatness is at hand!

________

The beauty is as bad as she is at bike handling, since the start of 2013 season (basically since Olympics) she and Stimpson have the most WTS wins at 3, Non Stanford has 2 wins. I had a laugh at the tweet from Barrie Shipley that there will be a lot of guys that won't beat GJ's 10k time tomorrow in the elite men's race.

---

------------------
@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

dude, she has won multiple WTS races and was nearly a world champion. she's past all that stuff you mention now. She has made the lead swim pack a lot and made it out of T1 with that group most of the time. But she does have a habit of missing the train in T1 and now we're seeing her have issues with 1st and 2nd chase packs.

I would say something IS up, but it's probably physical, like a blood volume issue and getting dizzy coming out of the water and not being able to get her bike legs going for a while.

Clearly, once she gets her system pumping, she can ball it as you saw with that 32:xx 10k off the bike.

I'm rooting for her to figure it out, but she's past the point where we armchair triathletes can give her the rookie benefit of the doubt.

E

---

Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

She has been wearing an Evade, but I do not think she will ride a Venge though.

Also, I do not think anyone would be cutting her slack if she was also pretty clear that she is working hard at improving on the bike because she knows she has to. She did very little running this winter and mostly worked on the bike. If she thought that she was good enough, then I could see not cutting her some slack.

Right but that's sorta my point. She's still developing and WINNING. This isn't like she's pulling an Lukas Verbiczas and having the 2nd best run and coming in 38th. She's tied for the most wins on the WTS level since 2013, so this idea that her bike skills are holding her back, I'm not buying it. She has incredible issues with the bike, yet still can overcome them. So, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. She certainly needs to improve them because her weakness is on tough bike courses, but ITU limits those, so the majority of the time her biking is masked.

I've not taken a look at this race yet, but for the majority of the time, she's *usually* able to maintain some semblance in the chase pack and if she dropped out of even the 2nd chase pack, yes I would think there was something going on there.

---

------------------
@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

I just watched it, great run.

---

Train safe & smart
Bob

If it becomes too well known that she can be dropped on the bike it will encourage the groups she's in to do a bit of work to shake her loose (so as to not have to run with her). She doesn't need to pummel a field Brownlee-style, but she does have to be able to sit in. Hope is a powerful thing to give your opponents.

Time to start attending Wednesday night "training rides."

---

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

The *majority* of the time, she's strong enough to not fall off the chase pack. The chase pack doesn't usualy fall off that hard because it's generally lead by Haug, who's the best cyclist in ITU, so she usually can fall back on that plan. If it's true that she fall off the main and chase pack today, that isn't normally how she rides (again I've not watched it yet, I will Monday). She usually at worse comes in within usually 45-1 min of the main group. Which for her is right around the mark she can lose and still chase everyone down. As I said earlier, this isn't some athlete that sucks on the world class stage. She's struggling with 1 aspect of the 3 sports, yet still finishing top 10 to podiums and struggled even more mightily today than normal. But I'm not going to throw her under the bus or get on my soap box and think because of today's performance she's the suck on the bike like the degree some on ST want to say she is.

ETA: The same thing happens to the front pack of swimmers in the men's race. Ali Brownlee always wants to trash them for not working harder, and I've actually thought "maybe they just cant ride to your ability". So what usually happens is that those 8-12 front pack guys, only have 3 guys working and with most ITU courses will get swamped up by the chase pack. I don't think it's because they want to sit in on Brownlee, I just think they simply cant make pulls to the level that the Brownlees' want them too.

---

------------------
@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

I didn't see Gwen get dropped off the chase pack. She came into T2 at the back of the chase pack containing Anne Haug, and was towards the back of that group heading out on the run. Today the GB riders drilled the pace of the lead pack, while Haug and the other chasers could not get organized.