But I wonder about the big pack of men that came in together. They didn't show any shots of that group, but they were too close coming in to have been spaced legally I think.

Good thing they put their names on their butts. If this becomes a trend, the only way we will recognize our favorite pro's is by their asses.

The pro athletes were told that the race officials were going to be very strict with the drafting rules today. I agree that it was really cool to see Harrop seemingly taking extra effort to make sure she was legal. It almost ended up in her crashing into an age grouper after the last corner on the bike course though! As far as I know, there were very few penalties called curing the race. I heard of one for abonding equipment, one on Hamish Carter for drafting (1 minute stand down). Two of the pro women were not well directed and went off course on the bike and ended up biking 52 km though....

do you know which two were directed off course?

Joel

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JoelFilliol.com - check out the Real Coaching Podcast

Sandra Soldan and Sharon Donnelly. Apparently they misinterpreted a cop holding up traffic as direction them to take a left turn. A race official motorcyle was with them and took the turn with them. After about 5 km the official pulled up and told them that they thought they were off course. So they turned around and got back on course where they turned off. Neither of them were too happy when they got back to transition! One thing that might have contributed to the situation was that Evelyn WIlliamson crashed on the and some course officials might have been attending to her situation, leaving that intersection not well marked.

how can this happen on a 2 loop course, fully described prior to the race, when you are not in the lead (and you are a professional triathlete)?

The bike course is not a double loop course, it's a different course than in years past, and it's a twisty course. I don't believe most of the pros had a chance to ride the entire course because of traffic on Friday. The point is moot. It happened.

when they described the course on TV, it looked like 2 loops. my bad.

Couple of thoughts/points:

The competitive rules at Lifetime Fitness were the exact rules as used in IMHawaii last year. The RD at Lifetime, Marilyn Franzen, made a huge commitment to enforcement of the rules and brought in officials from all over the country to work the race.

I think the large "group" of men who entered T2 is a result of the longish slowing approach to transition from the course. They rode legally throughout the course, but when the officials peeled off with about 100 or so meters to the dismount line, and as the athletes were doing the *foot from shoe* transition preparation, they naturally closed up the staggers and 10-meter gaps. The second group of women was similar to this, weren't there 5-6 women in the group behind Loretta and Barb?

Francois, where were you throughout the day and what were your vantage points? Just curious, thanks?

No they weren't the same actually.

The rules for them was

10m back + staggered

Hawaii rules were

staggered with respect to rider just in front of you, so you could be 1m back and staggered.

Throughout the day, I was at home :-( with a partially torn achille...

A few thoughts from a mpls native at the event...



Last year was a draft fest. Everybody knew it. Everybody knew this year would be different.

It was so different, that no one (men and women) could really pass. Each group did a nice job of switching spots (stagger) so CC couldn't keep up with his stopwatch. The top guys hit critical mass and simply can't get in the 15 second window to pass without risk. I haven't looked at the numbers, but would imagine that slowed the bike pace down. Last year was very much a runners race (esp with SW, duh) and people thought it would be the same this year. But, they were already too far behind from the bike.

The whole idea of the LFT race is to make a "photo finish for the cameras" and that simply hasn't happend....and won't until the avg woman's performance in the top 10 falls under 5% of each other.



None the less, it's a world class event and Marilyn and gang KNOWS how to put on a great race. I kinda wish they would have a TT start for the pros, based on handicapp and show (via live feed) each other's pace..... That would teach em! ;o)



fli

That was really amazing to see. I was in the short course with a 10:25am start (pro women started at 8am) so I got to see the entire pro race since they had live coverage on the jumbotron (a lot more than was shown on the NBC broadcast). Loretta stayed well back of Barb and swapped sides of the lane every time Barb did to remain staggered. Sometimes it seemed they were swapping every 5 seconds!

Walton finished just 15 seconds behind Lindquist two years ago. Pretty damn close if you ask me.

That was fun to watch. I watched the pro's water entry, the women in T1, and part of the bike on that big screen TV. Then I had to head out to the run course to help with traffic.

How was your race?

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but I can deal with the angels, cause it ain’t me they’re here to claim. it’s a good night for blowing ‘em off til some other day

I had a pretty good day out there. My swim was mediocre but I expected that as I've only been swimming consistently for about a month. But made up for it in T1 with the 2nd fastest short course transition!

The Lifetime Fitness bike course is hard to ride fast. I rode well but my average was only 22.8 mph. But everyone else seemed slower than usual, too.

The first mile of the run was tough but my legs came around and I ran well for the final 2 miles.

I wonder if each racer could be "handicapped" and sent off not as gender, but with purely their own start time. If done correctly, racers having normal, average days would be finishing about the same time, those with bad days a bit back, but those who truly are having the better day would win.

Of course, this may not be pure sport, but it would make for an interesting race.

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Cheers, tbo