Just looking at the results now, what happened to Riederer? He won in Turkey and came in 40th in Cozumel.

Sprint distance, bike came together and top 4 running sub 15:10. 3 of 4 came out of water worse than 35th. (From tweet of Barrie Shepley). Gomez make it look easy, but traveling around world in a week is going to be in the legs.

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

Here's what I find interesting with ITU and how it's ever evolving. We learned from Macca a few years ago just how advanced the swim bike AND run was vs when Macca was in his prime, and it was a little more as they say less aggressive. So even while many times the men's bike groups merge together, the talent and effort it takes to group up, results in 90% of the men being eliminated by the 400m mark out of T2. There is really only 7-8 men who can ride their guts out to T2, then get off the bike and go hellish fast out of T2. So then what happens is, maybe 3 of those 7 guys burn out, but if your 11th out of T2, your then only able to run your way to 6th, and the top end guys fight it out for the actual wins.

Now in terms of the womens side. There's going to be no doubt, GJ is going to have to improve the bike in the next 18 months before Rio. So the front pack of women is really going to have to push the effort, which I think they are going to start doing that. They are going to need 2 mins+ T2 advantage or else it will continue to get dodgy. So I think GJ's dominance is going to lit a fire against the other top women. Will GJ be able to improve on the bike to the level the others improve? That will be fun to watch.

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

How likely is Vanort to get to that next level? Does he still have the potential to improve his swim enough to be in the mix?

As an outsider, it seems "easier" for swimmers to learn to run than for runners to swim at that level. A front pack swim with a 32 run tends t beat a back pack swim and 30:30 run, right? Obviously packs come together, etc.

Zafares still had growth potential on the bike and run, right? Iott says Kanute's run continues to improve.

So many variables...

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

2 more WC's with every American player racing and it will show us who's got what by the end of 2 weeks from now.

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

I agree with Bdoughtie's point about the women: quite often Gwen is loitering at the back of a pack and vulnerable to concerted attacks at the front but they never materialise. But it was good to see Lucy Hall yelling at the others at Edmonton when trying to get a break going (it failed because they wouldn't!) But they must surely realise that they have to start being proactive (and I think Gwen has been given a fairly easy time thus far.) One new factor next year will be (hopefully) the return of Non Stanford. She is the one runner who I think only needs a max of one minute over Gwen when fit (when she won Madrid last year, she ran faster than GJ). And she's a good cyclist ...

Regarding bike breaks, there have been 16 ITU world series races over the past two years: in 11 of them, there has been a successful breakaway including the eventual winner. If you count races where Gomez and one or more Brownlees were involved, there was a breakaway in all but 3 races over this same period. Few of these bike breaks have come as a result of a clean break in the swim: in practise, what usually happens is that the strong bikers set such a pace out of transition that all but a few fail to catch up and usually takes a whole lap for the stragglers to form a chase pack, by which time the front guys are 20 to 50 seconds ahead...

What you're describing is why I say the first half lap of a DL tri is the most miserable you'll ever be on a bike. You go from running 4:20 pace for 50-300m, then stopping for a second, then going again, trying to alternate pedaling at over 200% of FTP and then pausing to slip shoes on, back and forth until you're into the pack and in your shoes. It's why making the selection in the swim is nice, but not an absolute guarantee that you'll be riding in the lead group from the second lap onward. Almost every time you see a couple younger super-swimmers make that selection on the swim, then they end up barely hanging onto the chase group even.

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IG: idking90

ETA: Oops wrong thread, got my DL topics confused.

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

To bring the thread back to Webb:

His name has finally appeared on the start list for Tongyeong on October 18th.

It is an interesting course, with two hills (one 13% the other 15%) so I think we will have some more discussions about biking at the end of it!

It is not as strong a field as Alanya but Kanute is there so will be interesting to see if he nurses Webb around as he did in Turkey.

Start list here: http://www.triathlon.org/...lon_world_cup/265211

I will place my bets on Schoeman for the win. I think the field is comparable to Cozumel.

Schoemann for the win? First out of the water, excellent biker ... but his run is so poor (largely due to injury this year) that I really can't see him winning unless he gets a solo breakaway. Pujades is my outside bet (a front pack swimmer and a very strong cyclist (so says Phil Graves who raced him in Madrid) but who showed in Stockholm he can run a bit)

If Graves says so then it must be true. And I think I got him confused with the guy who won in Chengdu, Sullwald. Pujades should be a solid pick.

Speaking of Graves, what's he been up to?

I win!

Staz, you did indeed win! Congratulations on the pick. Pujades, who was my prediction, swam well, rode well and then did a miserable run and was pipped by Webb for 10th!!

I do not follow any of this so need some help/insight.

When Webb announced he would be giving tri a shot everyone seemed to think the bike would be his big limiter being that he was a pretty fast high school swimmer and a so so sort of semi decent runner.
Looking at the result from Korea it seems it was the swim that got him a little behind and his bike was decent? Yes No??????

He's able to stick with the pack on the bike, but he isn't a fast enough swimmer to always get into the right pack.