100% agree

I'm late to this party but are you really gloating over a a hard-working athlete having what must have been a really disappointing day after a year of extraordinarily hard work and dedication?

Classless. Unsportsmanlike. It has no place in this sport.

I like Sanders, but not as much of a dedicated fan as some. I thought his making such drastic diet/body changes after having such a great race last year and coming up only a tiny bit short was a mistake. I'm sorry it did not work out for him. More great performances from more great athletes only improves things for us fans and spectators.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

As a fan of Sanders, he desperately needs a coach. Anyone watching his videos could clearly see the panic setting in, getting away from the roots of what made him successful. From a diet change, doing 2/3 of an Ironman so soon after one, to changing bike fit a week or so before Kona, he's in his own head. Also, maybe now we don't have to see and hear so much about Gatorade Endurance. Lets hope he hires some professionals to help guide him (coach, nutritionist, planner, etc). Tough and humbling race but hopefully it's exactly what he needed personally to see the wake up call.

Except Bart Aernouts, who finished the swim even further behind than Lionel...

Why so pious? It is professional sport. If Sanders has sold his knack for extremes as a way to market himself and has garnered worship for it he can also be mocked. How he sells himself and how people carry on about him brings this upon him. And not it "will make him angrier and hungrier" according to his fans. Nobody is mocking an injury or an accident. He crapped the bed after a year of build up were anybody with half a brain could see that he is doing the opposite of what he should be doing.

Why is there no talk about him losing his rear hydration?

I'm not in the loop of anything about him losing his rear hydration but he's hyped Gatorade Endurance for months on end, which is readily available at every aid station, thus not an excuse opposed to if it was a custom blend.

Yes I did a 2nd post of the top 15 and their swim positions. 3 swam 6ish mins back in the 54+ min group, and 10 of the 15 swim within 3 mins of the T1 leader.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

yeah, Lionel led the 54 pack out of the water. Plenty of those guys bridged up, to include incredible finishes by Matt Russell and Arnouts

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

But where does he put the Gatorade if he lost his rear cage? Do these guys have bottle pockets in the back of their tops like a regular cycling jersey? (Serious question, I don't know). If the only cage he had was a BTA, and he couldn't throw a bottle in a pocket on his back, he had to choose between water or Gatorade.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Since Sanders has a history of emulating his rivals, he should try to get coached by Faris Al Sultan. Plus, he meets your criteria of being a past Kona champ. But the *CONFLICT OF INTEREST* obviously prevents that from happening.

Maybe a soul searching training camp like Mark Allen did with Molina in New Zealand in 1989 could help him overcome his Kona demons. But Mark Allen went off of the grid for that epic breakthrough camp and Sanders is probably too attached to Instagram and YouTube for the kind of soul searching Allen did at that 1989 camp which possibly set the stage for his Ironwar breakthrough.

This whole "you must be in the first swim group in order to stand a chance in Kona" is just a total myth. Bart Aernout is not the only exception. Boris Stein got himself almost into a winning position two years ago. He even said very explicitly in an interview afterwards, how Kona suits him better than most other IM races, as there are always other relatively poor swimmers, so he doesn't end up alone in no-man's-land in the water. Michael Weiss would have been there as company too.

This comes down to neglecting equipment choices/pre-race checking then. Guys like Andy Potts rolled with like 3 bottles on the bike.

Edit: Looks like his suit had pockets so I'd eliminate the losing of rear hydration as an excuse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7_UcBCLkPM

for someone like Lionel, this would mean having the *courage* to sit in the pack and then go head to head on the run. IMO he's running from himself (we all do this in triathlon) and thus has to bike hard to give himself a chance.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

I agree instead of changing everything, keep doing what you've done and build on it. He clearly got rattled by things he couldnt control and overreacted .

Did he lose his rear bottle cage?

amateurs improve their weaknesses, elites go with their strengths

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Except your really talking exceptions. And it's more that the swim sets you up for exactly the group your going to be riding in. So when 80% of the top 5 has a 3 min gap or less, it starts to showcase just how hard it can be for the "slow" swimmers to ride against the chase group who's "sitting" in.

As I said, 12 of the top 15 were within 3 mins and thus "saved a match" with their swim.


So if you want to say it's a myth, I want to say it's more a "standard" that pretty much you are going to want to achieve or else it's 1 less thing you get to use as a weapon.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Great observation. Last year he was under the tutelage and advisement of David Tilbury Davis. Cody Beals has been working with him for years and has managed a steady progression, and credits DTD as being instrumental to his success.

As well DTD has several other athletes that had a stellar 2018 both in age group and pro fields. Such a shame Lionel parted ways with DTD and hopefully he can regroup and link up with DTD again or someone of that caliber.

Yes, Lionel has a relatively poor swim and that means one less thing to use as a weapon. And he won't be turning his swim into a weapon. If 12 of the top 15 are better swimmers than him, then this shows that swimming is not his strength, which is what everyone knows. But it's not the end of his chances.

Most of these pros who have "coaches" also likely have enough of a relationship that they aren't being dictated every single workout. Most of these guys know enough of what they need to do, that they use their coach more as a sounding board/overseer + workout week planner (maybe the exact individual sets can be meshed with what coach wants and athletes knows they need)....but LS was the first person I ever had seen at the professional level to call his coaching relationship w/ DTD more "advising". And I know coaches who actually have that as a service, they do a weekly or monthly "look over" for athletes, and then give advice on the next block, etc. But being in the coaching profession, it was the 1st time I ever kinda questioned an athlete for calling their coach an "advisor"....it was very strange thing imo....And again, maybe that's what both of them wanted in the relationship- I have no clue, I was just actually shocked when it seemed like LS wanted to make it known he was more of an "advisor" than coaching him, because he would in several different media publications use "advisor/advising" in his description in replace of "coaching".

And I know it's likely all semantics, but I kinda thought of it more as a respect thing.....Again likely just semantics, but it defintely made me step back and shrug and wonder why he couldn't just have a "coach".

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

On triathlon taren’s walk through of sanders bike he said the only thing he was using the rear cage for was it had a flat kit and if he needed to hold trash in it. On to the next reason.....

Seems like he picked up his swim game having someone other than himself make workouts, why not do that same approach to the other two sports? Just to second why everyone else has said he needs a coach that he can fully TRUST and has some sort of street cred.

It appears so.......not sure at what point though.

https://www.tririg.com/...Race_Day&num=314

And he won't be turning his swim into a weapon.

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If Sebi K can, LS can. Sebi came in under 51 mins out of the water..now a wheel change did in him, and as I said in other thread, when you flat/crash/issue, that to me takes you off the hook.

LS has swam side by side with Sebi what 2 other years in Kona, and this year Sebi had the super good swim.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Spot on B_Doughtie. Totally agree.