Did you watch the Pro Podium press conference? He flat out called Boris Stein "a douchebag" for one single time coming to the front and then soft pedaling. He also seemed to imply that Seb never shared any load except one single time very late. Cam seemed resigned to it just being what it was and as the race was up the road he had no choice but to try to go and get it even if it meant dragging passengers.

I meant in terms of pushing the swim pace and joining the lead group even for a while would make it even harder for uberbikers to bridge to the lead

He ran 2,45 in italy, not 2,51 //

And I ran 31 minutes on Saturday too. But like with mine and his run, we don't get to call it a marathon unless it is 26.2. Mine adjusts up to about 4 hours, I did his adjustment so we can actually compare apples to apples, at least as far as distance on the ground is concerned. I hate when this is not done in the swim to no end, a bit harder to decipher, but to not do it on runs and bikes, that is just lazy..

Ah yes, missed the recalibration, makes sense now

Did you watch the Pro Podium press conference? He flat out called Boris Stein "a douchebag" for one single time coming to the front and then soft pedaling. //

Well to be fair to Boris, he came through and pulled at 500 watts, then went back to the rear. So basically a useless pull. It was pretty funny. And telling that Cam did try and drop Keinle and Lionel in the beginning, but guess everyones legs were just too fresh, and the prospect of losing a great pacer were just too much for them to lose. My guess is he won't be doing any Ironmans 3 weeks before next year, and if he does, it will be an actual training day..

Boris came from close to 2 minutes down on the swim, so he must have put in a monster effort to bridge to Wurf/Kiehnle/Sanders. Especially if Wurf was trying to drop Kiehnle/Sanders at the same time Boris was trying to bridge up to them.

Until the last year or so, I didn’t realize there may be protocol in a (so-called) non-drafting event. Are there unwritten rules for Kona re: taking your turn pulling similar to a group ride????

Any thoughts Monty?

Why do people keep citing Iden racing Hawaii next year? In what way would it make sense for a 23 year old guy who hasn't come close to reaching the top of ITU and has done 3? 70.3 deciding to race Hawaii as their first Ironman immediately post Tokyo?

I know hes on here, has he mentioned this in any way?

It's just like any bike race, you never know what is going to happen, but at some point if you are one of the top folks, you are going to find yourself in a group. And there is a group dynamic, even at 12 meters(although just a few % of an actual bike race), and it behoves you to contribute if you can. As we saw on the front group, everyone contributed if they could, and those that couldn't, eventually dropped off the back until there were just 3.

Then in the chase group there was Wurf and a bunch of hangers on, most riding over their heads to stay there. There were a couple attempts to help him set pace, but it was just too hard, and everyone was content with his pace until he left at the end. Just like bike racing, you do what you can do, if nothing, then just stay out of the way. But unlike bike racing, the advantage is so little to none depending on how the wind is blowing, folks are not getting any free rides, and working quite hard to hold a pace just above their abilities. And now that we have the whole race in the bag, we can see only Keinle was within himself with Wurf's pace, the rest were rolling the dice so to speak.

So no real obligation to take some of the pace, but if you can, it moves you and everyone else further forward. And that is the nature of the group, putting everyone in the best possible position into T2, and then it is every person for themselves!! Minus the run pacing and drafting of course...

How did you get it to 2.51? From his strava account it looks like he had 4.00 min/km which is a 2.48.47 marathon. Still not a 2.45 but interested in your conversion.

More important: do the pros normally discuss doing pulls at the front during the race? I remember Cam saying that Sebi pretty much organised the chase back in 2017 but dunno if that was a one off. If they had done something like Cam-Sebi-Cam-Boris-Cam-Sebi and maybe even involved Sanders, Høgenhaug and Skipper now and again I bet Cam could have pushed a little bit harder every time he was on the front.

More important: do the pros normally discuss doing pulls at the front during the race?//

Just have a look at the post race press conference, nobody hiding anything. And of course it gets talked about all the time in strategy meetings before races. Folks go through possible scenarios coming out of the water, and target certain folks to ride up to, or latch on when they come by. And a lot of it is just that is where the race is. If you are going for a top place and a 10 man train goes by with 5 more ahead of them, then it is pretty plain that is the race. So a good amount of pros roll the dice in those spots, and hope for the magical day. It happens often enough that the much more probable blow up gets overlooked. To most, there is no difference in getting 11th or 35th, or even a DNF. Going for glory baby!!

And from what I saw, it seemed like the run was .8/.9 short in Italy, so about 6 or so minutes +..

It seems they did trade off at first but after a while Wurf was the only one who could really do it without blowing. This happened in the front pack as well with everyone taking turns and then Jan and TO being the only guys doing so starting around 60 miles in. When the other guys weren’t pacing fast enough Jan would move to the front to make sure they stayed on his pace.

The reality is that drafting plays a significant benefit and nobody on here wants to give it the credit it deserves. Pacing is also a benefit as being alone in no-man’s-land can make it hard to get the most of yourself and stay on track too, but as we’re constantly seeing, guys are blowing themselves up trying to hang on to pacing lines they can’t handle.

He didn't race ironman in 2019.

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