I think it was Brett Sutton who mentioned Chris Legh as being the most talented half ironman racer in the late 90s and early 2000's. He could make up for a marginally slower swim with an excellent bike and very solid run. But again, he was mainly competing against the mega mile diesel ironman (mostly German), and not the shorter course speedsters. There really wasn't much depth in those kind of races back then. Possibly it was Andy Potts who was one of the first to really focus on the 70.3 distance, and target his training around sustained bike and run speed over those kinds of distances.