You can do some back of the napkin calculations to see it all makes sense

4h 180km = 45km/h. For a total mass of 80kg, flat course, no wind, crr = 0.004 (wet), guessing an air density, a 0.230 cda will give 300watts
5 minutes slower, same watts would be a cda of 0.245.

I couldn’t agree with you more. I did a quick normalization of the times. Lionel’s swim in 2019 Kona was a lot better than his swim at this race. His percent behind (total time behind as a percentage of his overall time) was 9% at Kona and 16% at this race. You’d expect with a wetsuit (wetsuits give a bigger bump to the slower swimmers) and a cable to swim straight that the gap would have been tighter. But it just shows how much the draft can play a role in helping everyone swim faster. With that being said Frodeno’s time really wasn’t that great either in comparison to his Kona swim.

Tim

I'm not sure I agree - sure the calculations are correct, but this all makes the assumption they both put the power out in exactly the same way.

Cycling isn't all about power, it's also about skill - how well you corner, change gears, distribute your power uphill and downhill, how you accelerate and decelerate.

You said you may not agree even if the calculation is correct? .

Lionel shares his actual thoughts on TRI BATTLE...


Pretty amazing he had his best ironman of the last 6 under these extreme pressure conditions

Thank you.

There's something weird about these videos, it's uncomfortable watching them.

He's talking as if he has this physiological issue in the heat that he needs to solve, yet in 2017 he came 2nd.

Every time he has a bad performance, he seems to obsess over the 'one thing' that suddenly is to blame. He seems entirely isolated in solving it.

I feel bad for him. He now has the real risk of not going to Kona: says he doesn't care (I don't believe that for on second), after exploding in IM CdA he gets flown a few thousand miles to be a performing monkey and stroke Frodeno's ego, heaps huge pressure on himself with videos like these, etc.

I felt sad watching. He looks like the weight of the world is on him.

Go home, take some time out, stop with the videos and get happy again. He hardly ever smiles.

Kona without him will be worse off.

Wow I bet you're fun at parties.

On the topic of feeling sad, I feel sad reading these sorts of posts. If that was your take away then maybe Lionel isn't the one who needs a time out.

Yeah, you're right, I do, and I'll take it.

I forgot about the Lionel love in we have here.

It's like a sad reality show.

Thanks for the advice though!

I feel bad for him [..] to be a performing monkey and stroke Frodeno's ego

That's quite the post you've got there. The saddest thing in this thread is seeing just how miserable some people can get.

Looking likely the Norwegians will be going for Frankfurt rather than Copenhagen so potentially good for Lionel.

Have the Norwegians proven they can compete at the full distance? Serious question.

Imagine that, professionalism and attention to detail. Frodeno has a physio that lives with him for crying out loud! It is a two gold medalist household! Obsessively scribbling every single workout or doing calculations to the nth degree is not exactly this type of attention to detail. Keeping a manchild as your Bundini Brown may be great for YouTube but is not the same kind of team. Frodeno is a one of a kind and maybe Sanders does learn from observing and though he may not close the gap to Frodeno he can widen the gap to the chasing pack, many of which are aging, and the up and comers like Long. Keeping DTD is a must to maintain continuity and to progress off of that rather than self-sabotage. I wish him luck as he has plenty of prime years.

I think Jan is very unusual in how professional he, and his team, is. In amateur sport it isn't typical to run one's career like a high level business or pro sports team. There are outliers, but look at most endurance athlete vlogs - they basically live and train like college students. It is the rare few at the top of these sports that create a team and a lifestyle that goes beyond just training a lot.

In that regard, I think you are right - this was a huge opportunity for Lionel to realise that his small team can be much more.

I think Lionel is already very good at seeing the bigger career picture - his collaboration with Talbot has been huge and Lionel has been thinking outside the box in bringing other athletes into his videos and promotions.

I was skeptical about the whole tri battle, but seeing that Lionel saw it as an opportunity to network with Jan and also to set Jan up as a bit of a mentor, I thought it was a very shrewd move.