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It is called triathlon, and winners are usually pretty good at all 3 sports. Take a look at ITU, they are probably the most balanced athletes in our sport. Mark,
I agree. It will sound blasphemous with this crowd, but the ITU athletes are the true triathletes in my eyes. Why? they have mastered outstanding fitness, skill and tactics in all three sports. The more common form of triathlon that most everyone else practices has as the bike leg this hybrid form of ITT'ing unique to triathlon that when you think about it, is very one demensional. In ITU triathlon the cycling fitness needs to be there but that is rounded out with the fitness and skills needed for road racing as well, making for a better all-around and true triathlete in my mind.
I agree, but I think you also see very well-rounded triathletes in a time-trial format. I know it's not sexy and I guess that's what really matters in today's market, but I'm an old school guy who loves the idea of pushing myself without getting drafting help from others (either in the swim or the bike). To me, that's what triathlon is all about. I also think the time-trial format, with chip timing, is easy to implement in large AG fields and would be much safer than draft-legal AG events.