Aernouts was waaaaaay off the back after the swim. He just finished the swim ahead of Lionel. He did not have a 180 km freewheel. that guy had to earn his 4:12 ride to close things up.

Finished 36th in 8:45.

There wasn't much to talk about. He finished 33rd in 8:39. On Instagram he just said "back to the drawing board to figure out how to crack the Kona code". I also pegged him as a sleeper. That race can just chew you up and spit you out.

He said he'd be back next year at the end of his Instagram message, so I don't think he's about to throw in the towel on LC just yet!

(I'd be very disappointed if he did)

I hardly heard David McNamee's name mentioned the entire race. Post race its as if he does not even exist! He has the third fastest time in history, and has a podium two years in a row now. Hell if that was Lionel Sanders the forum would have at least 30 threads about him by now!

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

He's not an uberbiker so he won't get much love around here, he wasn't in many people's predictions pre race and it'll probably be exactly the same next year.

I think people completely overestimated Gomez's biking ability, and it was funny it was because everyone would say "he didt get dropped at 70.3 worlds, so he'll be fine". I knew going in the 112 in Kona was going to bite him in the ass, and he actually popped off the "paceline" with 10 miles to go. Now granted he only lost 45s to Lange, but imo you can't come out of T2 behind the best Kona runner in this mini generation of Kona favorites. So I thought this was actually a fairly typical "rookie" race for Gomez. I don't think it was bad at all, but I never had him as a favorite, I had this as "let him get his feet wet" race. If you over bike, you over bike, that's just a little bit of the unknown.


As I said last night...I thought the ride of Kona was that chase pack group......Like they only lost 5 mins to Starky/Wurf....that's crazy stupid hella good ride by that group....now of course some big names in that group paid for it, but Lange looked bored every time they showed him on the bike after the 1st hour. He was free wheelin', he was talking, they all looked fairly "chilled"....but then the snap at 105 miles in and Currie and Gomez got popped off....so it was a hot pace to some degree.

But again, you cant come into T2 behind Lange, that's racing for 2nd place at best in that circumstance.

Gomez can say he wants to go back to short course, but he doesn't have the speed anymore. He certainly won't have the sprint speed, so if he goes back he's going to be mid 20's pack fodder much more than top 5 dominant..but that's ok. That's why guys like him either move to LC (Frodo, Don, etc) or step away from the sport all together (Simon Whitfield).

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

you mean Dreitz...

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The guy ran 3:06, barely slower than Gomez, and frankly looked pretty damn good for 17 miles or so. He's come a long way. Last time I saw him run he went 2:10 for the half marathon at SavageMan 2016 and went from 1st to 8th doing it. He's come a long way in a short time and is definitely a threat. Is he going to back up his bike with a 2:42? Doubtful. But 2:55. I could see that. And you can be sure Lange will want to make sure he's got a Drietz to drive the train to keep Wurf inside of 8 minutes.

If this thread count doesn’t exceed the Ashley Horner one then this site is filled with lying liars. /pink

LOL, yes but they did ride Gomez and Currie off their wheels by the end, so I give the "group" credit...

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

Oh no doubt, I think he's great for the race. I just dont consider him an actual threat, and not for a lack of trying on his part. I think he's great alley for someone else to piggy back off his work and excel...just not Wurf specifically.

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

From 17th with a pack last year to 9th going pretty much solo. If the uber biker pack had of formed we were all frothing about and are ultimately disappointed it didn't and a windy day, then who knows. I guess at least he always shows his talent, continues to improve and delivers on the day. That being said Lange looked next level yesterday. Frodeno may have been his only real challenge.

Personally I never understood why folks thought Gomez had the chops to do anything his first shot at Kona.

Everyone on here talks about respecting the distance and apprenticeship...or did I get the Horner thread wrong? In that case, this was Javier's second ever 140.6. Very few folks on the men's side do anything their first shot. Did something fall apart? Maybe, but I'm unsure. He probably put together a good race overall and the difference is that he doesn't have the experience. He'll never have the experience truly because chose to stay for one Olympic cycle too long. This is where I look at Alistair Brownlee, for him this his last Olympic cycle and he needs to punch out and focus solely on Ironman. He'll be young enough to deal with the volume that he'll need to endure.

Gomez just made the transition too late.

Someone mentioned on the Women's side about seeing what Gwen could have done at Kona her first Tri. She was the it girl of USA Tri before Gwen, and gosh her video with Talbot just really shaped how I viewed this race for her. She crushed it. Honestly, I think women have the chance to be elite in this sport for a bit longer than men do based on what I'm seeing...and if Sarah wants to stick around, if she stays fit she can contend for the podium again.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Kienle fan myself. where do you think he will qualify for next years kona?
if its truly his achilles tendon I don‘t see him qualify before march maybe april unlike this year when he qualified basically directly after kona.

about gomez: should have ridden with the lange group from the beginning instead of trying to hold on to the big boys for the first 30km. matches gone at the 50km mark and holding on to the chade group for his dear life. in a chase pack with lange directly after thr swim he could have conserved at thr swim and early bike.