Course records are fine as long as the course remains the same. Tim's performance today is amazing and I do not really care if he has the fastest ironman branded time or the fastest any ironman time. Tim is killing it today and it is amazing to follow.

how many guys will go under 8 hours today?

Just out of curiosity - Did you consider Tim Don a uberbiker last year (at the same race) when it was McMahon that was sitting behind the lead vehicle?

Last year Brent biked a 4:11 while Tim biked a 4:22.
This year Tim went 4:06 and Brent did 4:29.

You do the math. :)

Congrat's to Tim Don on a new IM World Record.

The weather in Brazil is perfect to go fast right now. Zero wind, damp, but not much rain, 60-65F and mid way through Tim's run a misty rain started. It doesn't get much faster.

If you watch the you kind of get an idea what's going on with the vehicles. (The quality is so-so at best, but as a fellow IM fan I'll take what ever coverage I can get!)

On a side note, I chalked up another DNF here at IM Brazil as I've been dealing with odd leg spasm issues after a couple easy days. Easy swim then refocusing on a good effort for IM Boulder in 2 weeks.


IM Brazil, according to Strava, is a fairly accurate 112 miles.
Here's Kevin Collington's file from last year. Therefore it isn't short like 2017 IMTX.

In order for Kevin to ride 12 minutes faster to keep up with Brent McMahon, according to some rough estimates on Bike Calculator he'd conservatively have to put out 20-30 more watts to ride a 4:11 what Brent rode when he won.

So if Tim factors in some faster wheels, tires, most optimal position, ceramic bearings, elite level cycling coach, clothing, etc we all know he'll ride pretty darn fast anyway. He did in St. George without question.

Now, IF there were issues with a vehicle, it's clear that Tim basically took a page out of Marino's 2015 race and Brent's 2016 strategy, and I don't blame him. Swim front group, go full gas until you get behind the moto. If I were in his shoes, I would've done the same thing -- Dan, feel free to crucify me for saying that.

When we get the lead vehicle and it's not keeping a fair distance, we typically wave it off a couple times but eventually shrug our shoulders and say "this is how it's going to be." To be honest, I've never really had a massive and lengthy advantage by lead vehicles like some of my fellow pros. I've occasionally had a taste of it, but no more than a few seconds. In fact I've had more problems of them getting in the way and slowing me down in corners and bottleneck areas than any sort of drafting assistance.

I'll wrap this up by saying IF there really was lead vehicle foul play on a course that has several 180s to get rough and close time splits on competitors, a 20+ minute gap over second place is a bit greedy. Or even a question of poor judgement by either the driver or Tim. Otherwise, as long as it's fair and 100% legit, he had the race of a lifetime and I congratulation again on it.

Jan didn't (or couldn't) put more than 10 minutes into Tyler and Nils at 2016 Roth.

Nor did Starky put that a massive amount of time into the pack at IM Texas.

Look at his twitter page. His coaching company is called "Dirty Fast Coaching". Pretty ballsy for a guy who served a ban for missing drug tests, was told he would never race the Olympics again....and controversially missed more drug tests and was allowed to race.

On two occasions I was travelling overseas to represent Britain in international competition and failed to amend my location details. On the third occasion I went to an athletics competition in Loughborough which ran late. I arrived back home later than intended and minutes after the one hour window that is given for testing had expired."

OK, course legit? //

I will say with 95% confidence that the answer is no. First of all Tim Don is a very good triathlon pro, uber biker, uh no. That is a term that few are deserving of, I can only think of about a dozen or so going way back to the beginning.


I will begin my list, others can add or amend as they see the term used; (and I will of course give my blessing, or not.. (-;


Lionel Sanders
Sebastain Keinle
Starky
Bjorn Anderson
Norman Stadler
Chris Leito
JurgenZack
Thomas Helleriegal
Mike Pigg
John Howard

I forget the guys name, a British kid that was a front pack swimmer and off the front biker. He seemed to fade after a couple years though, what happened to him, anyone know? When he first hit the scent I though he would achieve that uber status, but like the Ralerts something happened and kind of fizzled out.