He might swim better in the pool, many do. And I assume he believed, and convinced them he was capable of catching up and doing the required job on the bike. He was a grand tour rider after all remember.

I meant they could have looked at his bets 400 time and that would have told them no. This is an governing body that does everything to stuff up opportunity for elites, especially those that they don't like.

They were almost insane with panic when peter Robertson got the slot with direct qualification and similarly angst ridden when an outlier got the qualifier in 04.

Yes, and that is obviously why they made the selection policy so crazy hard this time around, with relays to consider also. It may backfire though if the athletes are all now needing to slog through the season to earn their spots and not able to focus enough on the crazy physical demands Tokyo is likely to throw at them. Hopefully those that are comfortably in the top 10 will be confident enough to trust TA with their selection to prepare like the other top 30 or so in the world will be.

there is some talent though

https://www.triathlon.org/...n_oceania_cup/343626

I think a lot of the young talent would destroy Wurf in sprint and Olympic distance.

I’m a huge Wurf fan, but this is a massive waste of time, TA used to have performance standards on the website but I can’t find them anymore.

2016/17 automatic selection criteria for under 23 and elite was 11:28 for a 1k swim and 14:21 5k run.

that would have been for their elite programme categorisation. To race a wc it used to be 2 conti cup podiums I think. To race wts was wc podiums, these old standards haven't been followed for a few years now though it seems. No one else from Aus wanted to race this wc so was no harm in allowing Wurf a start. Different story in early season races in Oceania region where the competition can be fierce to qualify a start. Wurf would need to be substituded in meaning someone ranked pretty well won't start. This is similar to Copeland a number of times this season, his points were used to get Aus a start but it wasn't given to him, he was substituted for either Hauser or Fisher. I will be watching early season to see if they use this strategy for Wurf. From reading his blog it looks like it may have been agreed upon.

They really are grasping at just about anything if they are still in communications and/or looking after Wurf. In all seriousness several MTR medal contending countries are HOPING you guys pick him for the MTR as it will then remove y’all as contenders.

Federations will do a lot of weird things in hopes of it working out. So I totally get them going this route *initially*. This was a low risk at this time of year. However moving forward starts to actually put egg on their face more than Wurf. You support or encourage an athlete of that ability to race those events, your just starting to show complete incompetence. But federations have been known to do that with decisions across all levels etc.

I remember years ago in San Diego the women had open spots at the SD ‘12 WTS race that was the last chance US qualifier (pretty much no one wanted to travel to that race so it was very weak). So HP manager sent out “any *elite* can take the spot” (seriously) to the coaches as the US needed to fill their hosting quota to “look good”. So a local area athlete and her coach took it and all went to social media bragging about she making “US Trials and being 1 race away from Olympics”. I laughed and cringed cus the athlete had NO business racing that level as she had been lapped out in her other itu races (she only raced 3 races ever). She proceeded to get lapped out after 2nd lap of bike after near 26 min swim. But they sorta had no shame about it. It was my thoughts....just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

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

Wurf has a really good podcast interview w oxygen addict triathlon podcast that was published today (unsure when the actual interview was done).

Sounds like a really motivated and cool athlete talked about doing an workout w new coach in 2017 as a 5hr ride + half marathon run....Froome did it with him (ran also).

On the itu front essential TA and Wurf are still a go. Must meet training standards and will look to race Cape Town WC in i believe Feb. which I believe will be a sprint so he’ll have better chance to actually compete. But then the run will be quick.

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

Listened to it yesterday. I don't think he is a fan of Boris Stein ;)

Watch the post Kona podium interview and he calls out his tactics and calls him a 'giant douche' there with the other guys laughing hysterically...

And that why Cam is good for the sport. He isn't here to make friends And calls it how he sees it

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Must meet training standards //

I haven't listened as of yet, but would imagine this part is basically about swimming. Cant imagine they worry about his bike, and his run, well that might or might not be irrelevant. I suppose if they are actually thinking about the relay and not just a domestic for the main race, he will have to do some pretty fast miles there too..


So I'm really curious as to what pool standards he will have to make, what are the sets they key off of? Or is it maybe just a 200/400 time stand alone? I know over the years there have been combo swims that are used, like an all out 200, followed by an 800, or something like that. Anyone know what the Aussies do for this??

They used to have times for Junior, u/23 and senior athletes, that needed to be met to compete at certain levels but that doesn't appear to be used anymore, at least I can't find anything on the website. It appears that more recently they use prior results rather than time trials. This scenario will probably be more a make the rules up as we go along type thing. I would be extremely surprised if he would still be in consideration for the relay, as we appear to have other guys who can swim and ride ok but get dropped on the run, no need for another. Any very strong swim bikers don't seem to have helped us with our girls either, still seem to start the next leg behind the pack, so I doubt they will be considering this tactic. Maybe they will see how he goes in Capetown, and possibly give him a go on a relay team here in a local race, if he appears to be really good then maybe he will get a relay start in Abudhabi, but I doubt it. I think Aus need to find women for the relay team more so than men.

I’m guessing they have their own “unique” sets to showcase but potentially like a 200/800 set (particularly the 800 to see where the major drop off is).

Cam talks about his start speed was there and he only then got dropped at 400 and beyond.

200/800 test could showcase his strength in the back half of being able to “settle” once the sprint off to the first turn boy.

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

Cam’s issue with racing Cape Town is that it’ll be a sprint. Positive will be that it *should* be a wetsuit swim. The sprint swim should “hide” his swim weakness the best however the sprint has one bad thing.....

You gotta run fast AF.

14:31 (only 26 people finished within time cut off to score points)
14:25 (only 27 people finished within time cut off to score points)
14:41 (only 39 people finished within time cut off to score points)

Those are the 3 winning times.

As he said in the podcast “14 is out of the world for my ability”. He’s looking at likely ~2.5 min buffer to be able to score points w/ the 5% rule. At best you know he won't have any head start on the run. So can he run 17 flat to "score" points....That's what it will be.

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

For kicks and giggles I looked up the 2012 San Diego results, and then that athlete's other results...consider me truly baffled. How the heck did that athlete even get her elite card in the first place with swims like that? A nearly 17 minute swim at Clermont...goodness. Nice to see some current long distance pros on that results list back from when they raced ITU.

Let's just say that back then they did have much more creative and "less known" pathways to getting elite cards. I know this because I know athletes in NC who found some rather "back door" ways into elite cards. While some people say they think elite cards are too easy to get, we also have issues for short course athletes to getting pro cards since they did away w/ pretty much all olympic distance pro races. Thus the power score pathways, etc.

And the 1 year specific ITU pathway to pretty much help all post college athletes get into the ITU game.

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

Saw McElroy share this video podcast interview w/ Wurf. (13 min interview w/ Wurf IM highlights on video)

https://www.youtube.com/...wt55pzd_JbabO8Vn-tOI

Takeaways:
-racing in Cape Town world cup in Feb

-swim is getting more and more critical in Kona.

-threw shade on Lange's "sick" in Kona after having is PR best front pack swim.

-happy with 5th considering this was pretty stellar field and top 5 all finishing w/ PR's.

-Gerrat Thomas (TdF winner 2018) says Wurf didn't get the "filter" that everyone else has of thinking before they speak, lol

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

I read Capetown has been cancelled, I wonder how this effects Wurfs plans?
One less world cup and points opportunity before the Olympics could have an unplanned effect for a few.