i think this is Eneko's year

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S�rgio Marques
When it hurts is when it feels good ;-)
Sergio-Marques.com

           It's very cool to see the brothers race together at the top of the field.I hope they do well today.LVL is putting a lot of pressure on himself this year.We shall see.

that's a deep mens field...is the IMSA dude racing - Schellens (sp.???)?

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blood, sweat...and big gears

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ''Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.''
- Muhammad Ali

                 Okay back again after some sleep.No I don't see Schellens anywhere on the start list.I guess he got smart and gave this race a miss.Looks like Sergio and I have got it right and our picks for the day are racing to the finish.Don't know if Luc can catch Eneko though.I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the lack of interest from ST people right now as there are no Americans racing.That's a shame.

Hi - pulling for LVL...I believe he can go top 5 at Kona again and it looks like his form is really starting to come back.

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- Matt

             Damn,I have to go to work now.Enjoy the rest of the race and good luck to LVL for the last hour I hope he makes a great finish out of the race.

LVL is the greatest!!!

I never seen anybody do an Ironman as intense as he did Roth when he broke the all time record.

I thought he was retiring?

Go Luc!!!

No, he put's everything he had on Kona this year.

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http://www.triathlonranking.com

this is impressive...


OK -- here's the Ouch award of the day ...

RACETIME: 10:12

Tara Norton just walked by after her finish. I had hoped to do an interview, but she couldn't get to the medical area fast enough.

Turns out she dislocated her shoulder during the first loop of the swim. She popped it back in to place, but has been in extreme pain ever since.


Norton gets second

RACETIME: 09:58

Canada's Tara Norton has just finished in second place.

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blood, sweat...and big gears

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ''Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.''
- Muhammad Ali

TARA NORTON KICKS BUTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is one tough gal.
I'll bet her coach is very happy.
clm

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

              I can't believe the people on ST.You all call youselves Ironman fans and yet there are more than twice the posts here for Titanflex than there are for the whole of the running of IM Lanzarote.Less then 700 views for an IM and 900 for Titanflex in half the time.Not that Titanflex is a bad bike(I'd like to have one) but really it just shows how shallow the Nth American fans are when it comes to all things Ironman.Well done Sergio for picking the winner and I'm pretty happy for Luc to come in second.I guess if it 'aint in Nth America it don't count here on ST.Pretty sad really!

Lazarote as never been a popular race to follow for some reason.... not only because it s not in north america, but the coverage isnt that great, it s not a super competitive field and there isnt many athlete that are know from the slowtwicher to follow......it s nothing bad.... i m sure aussie arent too exsited about Ottawa senator making it the the stanley cup final today but we sure are here in canada!!!!!!!........... ironman australia had quality coverage, a lot fo athelete that people know and associate them to.... so people followed it a lot......

i think you read too much about this.... it s long weekend in canada...people arent connected to there computer on a saturday...

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Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
Instargram

             Well I'm sure that hockey fans aren't interested in triathlon but I would have thought that IM fans would have been interested in an IM race especially as a Canadian finished second in the womens race.Maybe Lanzarote isn't popular because it's such a difficult course and it takes the shine off the IM's in Nth America.No doubt IM Brasil will be way more popular with the ST crowd as there are ST'ers there and of course Sergio.I do wish Sergio all the best next week by the way and I will be following his race like I follow every IM in the world.Then again I am a fan of all Ironman races worldwide not just ones that focus on Nth American or ST entrants.To each his own though I just think people are missing out on seeing some amazing talent by just watching the "popular" IM events.

Wow! What incredibly inane comments. So in addition to following the live race coverage, I have to prove that I'm an ironman fan by posting something banal such as "Boy, Enekos is looking strong..." or "Looks like LVL has his work cut out for him..."? I should read the coverage and then immediately paste the information into a slowtwitch post? That doesn't really seem necessary.

-Colin

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

I agree that there is often no reason to post, but the views (900 vs 700) show that ST is more interested in the Titanflex than Lanzarote.

Jonnyo, I woke up here in Japan and read my wife's last email saying the Senators were tied 1-1 with Buffalo...then went to nhl.com and see that they are in the finals. This is going to be awesome. Its been since 1993 when Patrick Roy had 17 overtime wins to take Montreal to the cup that I've been waiting for something to cheer about :-). I am sure you remember that run being a former goalie...it is cool when an entire team of grinders can ride on the coat tails of a super hot goalie....

Aussie Nick as for Lanzarote, not all North America fans just care about North American races only.

Let me share a story with you from 1995. I was on the Canadian Military Tri team for the World Military Games Triathlon. We show up in Rome Italy and our room (housing 8 male athletes and coaches) is right next door to the Germans. OK, no big deal, but hold on, they already have the names of all the athletes and coaches printed outside the door. I look at the Germany team. Keep in mind that this is Sep of 1995, just before a certain German biked away from the entire field at Kona and put the fear of the German biking gods into Mark Allen's pants. So I look over to the Canadian coach and read out the names.

• Dev: " Do you know who that guy is with the big long name that starts with H"
• Jake (Canadian Team Coach): "No, but we're going to kick his ass"
• Dev: "Think again, that dude just won Ironman LANZAROTE in May and was third at Roth....you realize that LANZA is the hardest race in Ironman"
• Jake: "So what, this is Olympic Distance"
• Dev: "Yeah, but he does an entire Ironman at Lanzarote at the same speed that I race Olympic tri, besides he finished 6th at ITU world's in 1992 in Muskoka just a few minutes behind Simon Lessing...."
• Jake:"So what, you're losing the race even before you start...you better beat the rest of those Germans"
• Dev: "Well, we can try, but another guy on their team that I see up here, just won the 1994 World Duathlon Championship in Hobart Tasmania. The guy aparently can ride the legs off everyone and is a pretty studly runner...don't know if he can swim..."

Two days later the guy whose big long name starts with H wins the World Military Championships....his name is Thomas Hellriegel. A month later, he goes on to put 13 minutes into the field in Kona and scares the shit of out Mark Allen, who needs 23 miles to close the gap. The next year, Hellriegel runs 2:46 in Kona logs a second best all time Kona clocking of 8:06 and loses to LVL the topic of this thread.

The "other guy" on Team Germany at the World Military Championships was none other than a very young Norman Stadler who finished 4th. Needless to say, Germany won the team event. In between them were 1999 ITU World Champ Dmitri Gaag and 2000 ITU World Champ Olivier Marceau (of Sydney Olympics breakaway fame....).....13 minutes off the back in 48th place was the guy on ST with 9500 posts (that would be me....). So yes, some of us do follow all the international races for sure!!!

Dev

Oh, by the way, the "other German"

Not true about lack of interest because no Americans were racing (at least not in my case!!!).

Luc is my favorite athlete still in the game -- a close overall second only to Dave Scott. My six-year-old son is named Luc!

LVL is an incredible athlete and -- perhaps even more important in this day and age -- an incredible sportman! I have more than a few Ironman vidoes from NBC showing Luc passing other competitors on the run, giving them a thumbs-up or a touch on the back. Regardless of whether he was leading or they were leading, he is always a sportsman!

Class act all the way. Go Luc in Hawaii!

ray

Plus, Titanflex......?

I know it's a good option for back pain sufferers, but c'mon, that has got to be the ugliest bike ever created.

I've got manlove for Luc and hope he closes out his career with a top 10 in Kona.

i m sure aussie arent too exsited about Ottawa senator making it the the stanley cup final today but we sure are here in canada!!!!!!!.

yes we are
oh i ain't in canada
but I still am very very excited
( the only get CBC )
go senators


dirt

As a professional, you better do your homework.
Write down the top 5 from this year's race and get it out again post kona 07, IM Germany 08 and kona 08. then think again.
cheers
uli

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CAMPAGNOLO GRAN FONDO NEW YORK

you are right that, there is a few very good athlete there, i would just say most north americain dont know as much the europeean athlete as well as the north american, that would explain why it s not as popular.....slowtwitch is mostly canada/usa.

but for homework.... no point in making a list... i can't controle what others do so i prefer to focus on myself and what i can controle. but i take the comment back of not beeing competitive.... it probably was...... i just dont know them...

i follow very well all the german ironman or australia and new zealand...

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Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
Instargram