i've said a few times that you'd forgive ali for tearing his hair out, lately - both st.george and sub-7 worked out in ways that would have favoured him quite nicely. if he'd been healthy we could be having a very different conversation today.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Great video. For anyone who doesn't follow pro cycling and its content, Alex and his wife Chanel have some great videos.

Because with a completely different opponent with very different strengths and weaknesses obviously we would have executed the race in exactly the same way right?! Not sure what Jan's weakness is to be honest.

I think Jan would have been harder to beat than Ali. When was the last time Ali was fully fit for a long distance race? 2019?

You mean your guys would’ve biked harder? Or Ali/Jan might not have managed a 3:16 bike? Ali being a lighter athlete than Skipper, so with fewer watts at his disposal maybe…

Because you’re well aware that Frodeno or Brownlee turn the 5-minute swim deficit into a 2-minute swim lead. The bike leg time difference being kept unchanged, that’s 10 minutes out of T2 for Christian to make up on the marathon.

Really curious what your take is here, since I don’t know 1% of what you know, obviously.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

this is the nice thing about sport there is a date and everybody knows when they have to be in peak shape. everybody understands its bloody hard to be in peak shape this day and make it to the start line but nothing else counts .
ali was not at the start line this day end of story blum made it .

of course with joe can say he did not know this date for long but he accepted the challenge and i repsect him for that but still end of story

jan did not want to do this challenge so there is no point to ask what would happen right now blum is the world champ and its as simple as that
next stop kona.

the one thing i will say i would prefer 3 male and 3 female teams for collins cup as a team format then the format from last year. with the rule that each team has to have 4 out of 6 athletes at all time on the course while two can be but dont have to be resting.

You're putting words in my mouth there with quite a defensive comment. I never made any speculation on strategy etc. I made the only reasonable conclusion in my final sentence, that Blu was healthy enough to get there and win.

For what it is worth I think Ali, if he'd raced, would have been 8mins up from the bike (3 on the swim and 5 from the bike) and Blu would have run him down. I don't think you as a team would have been able to do anything extra in terms of swim/bike and it would have come down to the run. You went far inside your original target on the bike, and I think that was the limit on that day. I also believe the Ali/Joe change happened late enough in the process that your tactics were more or less the same for both athletes. Having Joe join so late probably changed the mental pressure Kristian quite a lot, I would think with Ali he expected to be chasing and he is obviously comfortable doing that, with Joe he was expected to win, and that brings a whole new aspect to things. These are my opinions on circumstance and it is all reasonable speculation based on the limited knowledge I have.

It's healthy to speculate. Macca has mentioned on many podcasts his love for this concept, and he's even specifically said "imagine how good this would be with 10 teams". I think we see this race again, next year or the year after with more teams. So speculation on who would or would not race/perform is a good way to develop this Sub 7 / Sub 8 chat.

I'm not a hater or doubter of Kristian, I had a lot of conversations with him during a training camp in 2020, everything he told me he'd do during that he's done, and I think he is an outstanding athlete who will be a multiple olympic champion and world champion across all distances. I think his style of training and racing is something I would aspire to too, if I had the physiology, talent and time on my side.

I'm also an adopted Norwegian, originally from the UK, so I couldn't lose either way during Sub 7 Sub 8 :D

https://scientifictriathlon.com/tts344/


Interview with Jacob Tipper about their Sub7Sub8 preparations and their process.

Interesting to hear that Alastair (like Kristian in our team) had a target power he wanted to do on the bike if he had been competing and he pretty much acknowledges that they wouldn't probably have been able to go as fast with Alistair as they did with Skipper. Unless he hasn't discussed everything it was interesting that we did some things they didn't like 3D scan all the riders and CFD the riders orders and spacings, effects of the team car. Maybe we will get a rematch next year!

conversations like this sort of take away from what Blu did.

With that said, hmmm....you really think he runs down a fit Ali with an 8 minute lead? That opinion is certainly in the minority. (maybe you are saying ALi hasn't been fit in so long that he runs him down. I think I agree with that).

Geez I really hope all 3 are fully fit and healthy for Kona. And for that matter, Gomez hasn't shown what he is really capable of in an IM race.

When Ali tried other things after the 2012 Olympics it cost him in the long run. I think the same will happen to Blu. Ali looked completely invincible at that time. No one is invincible.

I’m not taking away from what Blu did, by any stretch of the imagination. Mentioned in a few other posts things along these lines.

I’m just continuing the conversation around the event. I think that was just the first of a regular event here so this type of discussion will hopefully remain relevant.

I agree with your assumption. It’s just hard to imagine Ali being fit enough to run a marathon now. Hence why I think Blu would have run him down.