I don't think 55 min is really that slow for 4km but he must of had some issues on the bike. His run is looking in a class by itself!

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"I swim because that's how I get to ride my bike."

Right - I should have said hat he lost a few minutes on the swim to the French dudes (who, at least in ITU, tend to be FOP).

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

At most the length of this sentence, but probably much smaller.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Can you send us a link to the results. A few min behind the top ITU guys seems fine. Slow bike should be worrisome for him unless he trained right through this (which I suspect he has). Fast run should worry everyone. The Faris group better work on dropping him (kind of like what Macca did to Crowie in 2010 coaxing the Faris group to put the big gap on Crowie). If the Faris group pulls Crowie to T2, everyone is in trouble. By the way, did you figure yet that the Faris group is the most interesting part of Kona. In 2012, Pete Jacobs came off the bike with the Faris group. In 2013 it seems that Faris blew apart his "group" on the headwind ride back from Hawi and there were many casualties coming in at 4:34/35 rather than around 51+4:30. Seems like on Tyler Butterfield made it in ahead. The uberbikers were ahead and Fred Van Lierde took off. Crowie needs to be in the Faris group at T2. He should set up an alliance with Faris as Macca did in 2010!

http://www.triathlon.org/...championships/262705

The French really dominate at this distance. I guess it's something to do with it coming from Nice.

I don't think he will be in the mix (meaning top 5). He is simply too old, and there are too many younger, hungrier guys more willing to make the sacrifices needed throughout the year to put themselves in a spot to win.

That being said, if he won, I would be truly happy as I have been a big fan of his throughout his career.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

I think that's right. If he can hang onto the Faris train he's a chance of a podium. I think that Crowie will be under the radar and dropping him won't be as important as it was in 2010. Eyes will be on Freddie as the reigning champ. The onus might be on him to try and break Crowie if he's still with the front pack at the turn-around, I'm sure he wouldn't want to get off the bike with Crowie.

The French only receive funding (from FFtri, and their national olympic body, or even from the army, most of them are employed by the army) if they take part in ITU Worlds (not for WTC races, as they are not considered true World Championships, not being organized by a recognized International Federation of the sport). This is why you almost never had French athletes do well at Hawaii, save for Yves Cordier (even though he did better in Nice than Hawaii), as they never focus on the WTC series, no financial incentive for them at all.