Would be awesome to see him at Oceanside mowing people down on the run.

There was never any doubt in my mind where he was going, same with Lionel, and Joe. If you goal is Kona then you pretty much have to do that series, unless Kona is going to be a one off at the end of season.

The womens have a much harder choice, several of them could do very well in both series. So those decisions will be more dramatic when announced.

Patrick hasn't even been close in middle distance races of any significance. And he's getting better and better at the full distance - easy choice for sure!

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DFRU - Detta Family Racing Unit...the kids like it and we all get out and after it...gotta keep the fam involved!

The top ranked proven IM capable women will nearly all try to do both; I'm talking: Haug, LCB, Philipp, Matthews, Ryf, Sodaro, Moench, ?Langridge (ranked #18).
LCB has proved the most fragile so maybe she will take a year off LD and not defend her IMWC crown (NB would need to validate before end June as well).
Choosing, like Lange, not to race the 100km Tour risks financial loss not only this year but next. Lange is probably good enough to rank top 15 on his IM and 70.3 races but he's the only one.
Neither Skipper nor Sanders have been ranked highly enough to be offered a Tour contract (guess Sanders might have been for entertainment/followers value) so they have no choice.
Knibb has the challenge of validating her Nice slot too. I don't think she will allow that to get in the way of Olympic preparation, but she could manage a 100km race and then go all in on the ones after end July (Paris).
There are two IM 'newbies' who I think may concentrate on 100km and delay doing any more LD: Pierré (tho' she will so want to race in France!), Lee.
All in all, roll on March.

The additional consideration for the ladies is that it’s Nice not Kona for the worlds, this will surely be a factor for which series/events they choose.

You're right Nice is so much easier to get to and will take far less out of them than the typically adverse temperature/humidity conditions in Kona. And the 100km Tour race in Ibiza offers a great late September 'warm down' if their bodies are still in one piece.

It’ll be interesting to see if Ironman gives validation waivers to any of the Olympic athletes wanting to race Nice or Kona. Sure they can do a swim, bike, jog training day but if I was Knibb or Blu I’d definitely ask.

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Let food be thy medicine...

For sure they'll ask. But IM deliberately reinstituted the validation requirement and made it more doable by offering the alternative of 'do two 70.3s'. They did this in the full knowledge that Knibb, Iden and Blummenfelt would be caught in a quandary. I suggest the alternative was cleverly designed in the expectation that these athletes (well Knibb and KB) would be prepared to do the odd middle distance, in the context of 100km race attractions, and force a choice.
The PTO is considering wildcards for the 100km races. I think it's even chances that Thorn will get selection (Norges TF have an excellent chance of 2 men's slots from an MTR qualification even if Thorn doesn't earn a second NOR slot directly). Once that selection is made, I assume Iden will cut loose to draft-illegal. I would dearly like to see him back at his best (includs Kona).
https://www.triathlon.org/rankings/mixed_relay

Well maybe an Olympic medalist should be given validation waivers but definitely not anyone who did the Olympics.

Accept off topic (Lange)
In one of her interviews, Knibb acknowledged there's four ways she can get a start at Nice:
1) Race an IM "competitively" (before 19 Aug) Comment: Unlikely to happen but IM Kalmar, Sweden 12 days after the MTR is a possibility.
2) Race two 70.3s "competitively" (before 30 Jun) Comment: Maybe they'd give her an extension. Note that she has to validate her Taupō slot to defend her 70.3 title so she 'has' to race one before 30 Jun.
3) Win the Olympics Comment: See also Duffy in 2021. Knibb has an outside chance of that, but the other three strong nations have a joint interest in not letting her get away and riders there to neutralise any such effort.
4) Get a wildcard (same as asking IM to waive validation). Comment: They might do that, but (speaking from third hand experience) before agreeing IM may make it a precondition not to race any race longer than standard other than 70.3s before Nice.
NB Note (with respect to your "swim, bike, jog training day" that the races in (1) or (2) have to be raced and finished "competitively"(with IM being the judge of that)
“Validation Race” means racing competitively (as determined by IRONMAN in IRONMAN’s sole discretion) and finishing . . . "
https://cdn1.sportngin.com/...ation_Validation.pdf

I’d be happy to see Iden racing anywhere. From the looks of his Strava his Achilles issue isn’t improving much. Hopefully he’s just being super cautious.

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Let food be thy medicine...

He didn’t pick the race with the shortest run?
Shocking 😂😂😂

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http://www.TriScottsdale.org

Not sure about her other schedule and PTO schedule, but I think Knibb lives in Boulder...doing Oceanside (fly) in early April and St. George (drive) in early May seems to get the 2x70.3 issue out of the way. No need to get into a drag race on the St. George run....just do a hard swim and ride and a supported training run to save the legs for "more important races" elsewhere in the year. In Oceanside, it seems she could hammer and not impact rest of season

The question is... if Knibb just does a few intervals on the bike and run and doesn't go full gas, will she still win anyway?

Here’s his schedule:

Super cool, I really hope I get off the bike in time to get lapped by him at TX.

I’m racing Ironman TBC too. It’s my favorite race for the past eight years.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Well put 30 June in your calendar (70.3 Les Sables d’Olonne).

I would think he would be doing Taupo too? He is one guy at the top perhaps of getting that big year end bonus, would think his 2nd half would be the bigger point one..What am I missing here?

I imagine he’ll be right near the top of the year end rankings so probably a very good bet that he’ll line up in Taupo. I also think he’ll be paid a pretty decent fee to line up at Roth.

Frankfurt AND Roth seems unlikely.

Interesting post from Lange.

Laidlow basically said exactly the same thing, that his objective was Kona, but that he was racing PTO.

Frankfurt (18 Aug) and Roth (7 Jul): doable but. He wants to win:
1) IMWC
2) IM Series (3 IMs plus two 70.3 results required
He must race an IM between Texas (end April) and Kona (late October). Lange never races more than 5 times a year with 3 IM distance races.

Also think that Lange is likely to try to go to Kona with 4 good scores. A good race there (doesn't have to win) will win him the IM Series. And give Taupo a miss. Against that he often races late in the year so maybe Taupo fits that (eg Israel, Portugal). Difficult to see him scoring well there with Wilde, van Riel (a couple of the French) and West firing on all cylinders. Close to a win in a 'regular season' season 70.3 (without all the T100 et al top shots there) will score the same as a top 10 (9 minutes back) in 70.3WC.

Also Lange has a challenge on his hands to get a Taupo start slot at Oceanside (only 3 available) so he will need to race another 70.3 (before 30 June) to get one.

As I said back in October when the IM Series was announced (with T100 in the wings): Challenge Roth risks being a serious loser. Having already (and deliberately) validated I expect Ditlev will race it (7 July) after Escape from Alcatraz 100 on 8 June and before London T100 in late July.