Nice to see you throwing it down out there in Jersey and Malta so soon after your 70.3 worlds title.

What fees more miserable/painful when racing, 70.3 or Super League? Also, do you have a preference right now for what race distance/type is the most fun - ITU, 70.3, or Super League? And within Super League of the formats you’ve done (or ones that you have not done yet) which one do you feel is the most fun and/or plays most to your abilities? ie enduro, triple mix, equalizer, or eliminator?

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Matt

Gustav has a new bike sponsor already
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ring=guiden#p7061268

Just got round to watching Malta so I can get round to un deleting Superleague from all social media as they're not very good at unspoiling race results!

Bit of a moan about the quality of womens field (I get how its the end of a long season and close to an Olympic year) but this isn't as marketed the creme de la creme racing.

Massive shame on that CB had a mechanical just as we was going to get some proper top class competition going.

Mens race turned into a massive cluster fcuk on that TT, had no idea it was SL fault until I read the comments on YouTube, brilliant end to the mens race, I think Blum closing that gap to Luis on the bike all on his his own, then going past him made the difference in the sprint in the end.

Shame we have to wait till after Tokyo now for more of this, hopefully we get stronger fields once Tokyo is out the way.

I watched it a few days ago and you could very clearly see (on the TriathlonLive replay stream I watched) the guy standing at the fork between the turn up the hill and the turn to the finish line waving those that "finished too soon" into the finish chute. I'd be pissed off and drop a few choice words too if that was me.

So that what I thought happened as well - someone had incorrectly waived Blum and Vincent in a lap early. However that person was actually right, they should’ve finished. The problem is Iden was forced to do an extra lap (the finish chute was closed off when he got there so he kept going, he mentions this on post 116). So in the confusion everyone ended up doing an extra lap.

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Matt

I’d disagree with you about the strength of the women's field for Malta. Having KZ, CB, Rachel Kramer, Yuko Takahashi, and Taylor Spivey all there showed they had some strong ladies (I think they were all in the top 10 from last year’s final results). Yes the ladies side wasn’t as full as it has been previously, still missing athletes like Kasper and Jeffcoat, but the two Italian juniors they allowed to race in Semifinal B were actually really strong...especially since they’d already done a race earlier in the day. I mean heck, Beatrice Mallozzi’s final time was 31 seconds faster than Summer Rappaport’s, 30 seconds faster than Periault’s, and even faster than that over Felicity Sheedy-Ryan and Angie Olmo. Each of the top 5 athletes in Semi B had faster times than Beaugrand by almost a minute (KZ) to 28 seconds faster (Zane).

It wasn't a strong field, it was missing Learmonth, Holland, Duffy, Spirig, Stanford, Taylor Brown, Stimpson (off the top of my head)

Okay my bad, forgot about the Brits. However the majority of your list are athletes who focus on WTS races. If this was a WTS race yeah the field would be very weak. However, it was Superleague and 4 of the athletes you named have never raced SL. Duffy has never raced Superleague..she was slotted to but never actually competed due to injury. Spirig, Stanford, and Learmonth have never raced either. So really, the only key/semi-key and semi-consistent FORMER SL athletes missing were Kasper, Jeffcoat (and other Aussies like Natalie VC, Ashleigh Gentle, and Charlotte McShane), plus the aforementioned Brits (minus Stanford and Learmonth). Plus, Stimpson has been injured so she hasn’t been racing. So that’s what, a max of 7 other athletes? Cassandre has been Katie’s biggest competition when it comes to the SL format. I don’t really foresee the end result being much different than it was. Sure the mix of athletes in the final would have been different, Rappaport and Periault (and those with slower times than them- Olmo and Sheedy-Ryan) might not have made it and the 3 eliminated athletes that qualified for the final wouldn’t have made it. But who out of that group would really have challenged Katie for the title?

Your reply doesn't make sense mate, not really any such thing as a 'superleague athlete' Superleague is the elite of Triathlon competing against each other.

So for whatever reason if you've only got Zaferes and CB with a realistic chance of winning because they're better than everyone else then it's not as exciting for me as it could/should be.

I know that can't be helped because X athlete is injured and B, C, D, E athlete can't be bothered because Olympics are around the corner, tired, doesn't want to risk injury whatever.

SL has always struggled since the very start (why we never got a womens race at all the very first SL) to get an absolutely stacked women's field who are all majority on fitness, but this probably reflects on womens WTS as whole, a lot of the main players have either been pregnant or injured/struggling fitness for long periods since Rio.

Athletes with Super League contracts are Super League athletes...

From the SL website...
Super League carries the richest prize purse in the sport. 1st place in each Final wins $20,000. The Championship Series winner takes home an extra $100,000.
There are big prize money pay-outs for all 15 athletes who compete in every Final, and significant bonuses for the Top 10 Ranked Athletes at the end of the Championship Series.
There is also $10,000 on the line for the overall winner of each of the different coloured Jerseys come the end of the Series.
On top of all that, each Super League contract comes with a commitment to be treated like a true professional. That means Super League pays for all flights, accommodation, food, and provides all-around support, bike mechanics, physiotherapy, marketing, promotion, social media support and much more.

Thanks for that, not sure what your point is?

You claimed that there was no such thing as a Super League Athlete so I'll say it again,athletes contracted to Super League are Super League Athletes.

Fair enough, doesn't really disprove the point I made that this was a weak female field.

Also, I haven't got a clue what females are contracted to Superleague, someone made the point that the women I named who wasnt racing Malta weren't really SL athletes, when infant I think all, if not most the women I named have raced SL at some point.

Superleague is pretty exclusive. Macca invites who he thinks are the best of the best, plus those who prove themselves at qualifiers. Hell, even Taylor Spivey didn't get invited until Malta last year and then she stuck around because she proved herself. It's not a "anyone who races ITU can race superleague" type thing like you insinuated. You either get invited, or you qualify. In case you were wondering who does/has raced superleague, here is the list of everyone who has raced, from SL's website. You'll see that the ones I mentioned that have never raced SL (Duffy, Spirig, Learmonth, and Stanford) are in fact not on that list.

You're 100% right. It's totally a contract thing. I believe the top 10 athletes at the end of the 2018 season signed contracts to race in all the races in 2019, meaning that they didn't have to go through qualifying/being invited this year.

I didn't insuate at all that anyone who races WTS can race SL, quite the opposite!

It's me who is having a bit of a moan about how weak the field was in Malta and you two appearing to disagree.

Ok Spirig, Duffy, Stanford or Learmonth haven't raced SL but I can guarantee Macca would have loved to have had the four of them girls line up in Malta, two former ITU World champs an Olympic gold and Silver medalist with the current World number two and and commonwealth silver medalist.

Well you weren’t complaining about the strength of the field in Jersey..and the only athletes that raced Jersey that didn’t race Malta were Luisa Baptista, Annamaria Mazzetti, Vittoria Lopes, Sandra Dodet, Emilie Morier, Emma Jeffcoat, Zsannett Bragmayer, Carolina Routier, GTB, Alice Betto, and Selina Klamt (junior who qualified for semi’s by winning junior race)

The only name that you noted in your list of who was missing from Malta was GTB. So then since the majority of the Brits, Flora Duffy, and Nicola Spirig didn’t race in Jersey was that also a weak field?

Ok, I will put my opinion forward, the top few were good, the middle were the lower ranked wts girls and the bottom few were the qualifiers(top athletes don't bother to try to qualify, they get given a wild card,) and a few non qualified but let race as the field needed filling. Even so the field was still very small, was it 17 but can be 30? Also Stanford has raced SL in the past.

I can agree with you on all fronts. Forgot about the wild card slots being another way to make it in other than qualifying and signing a contract from last year.

And you’re right, Stanford raced Jersey in 2017 in the first race they had a women’s field too, since Hamilton Island was only men. Spirig actually raced then too, and podiumed, so I was wrong that she’s never raced SL either.