TheStroBro wrote:
runningeconomy wrote:
Talbot had a pretty absurd take in PTN's latest pod saying that the women's race dynamic hasn't changed much. They're a bit out of their depth without Chelsea Burns when talking about short course. Just take Yokohama 2013-2015 (2016 was non-wetsuit) which Gwen all won. She swam front pack in those races swimming 19:01, 19:18, 19:18. (20:30 in 2016). The front pack swam 18:20 yesterday which is 5% faster than Gwen's median time at her peak. To be fair she still swam 18:56 yesterday.
The bike is where things things have changed a lot. She rode 1:03:30, 1:04:29, 1:03:58, 1:01:51 from 2013-2016. The winners of Yokohama from 2021-2024 have all had bike times between 58-59 minutes. So that's 5 minutes or 7.5% faster.
Now it's no question that Gwen is a beast on the run with splits of 32:44, 33:43, 32:36, 32:15 in pre- super shoes. She ran the second fastest yesterday at 32:56.
I'm sure tri-stats can make a more detailed comparison of time gaps across eras, but to say that race dynamics haven't changed much is misinformed. It's a disservice to the current athletes. To people like Duffy who pushed the competition to another level.
It doesn't help that Talbot, Kyle, and Patrick can't be objective when arguing Gwen's case. But she's no longer a front-pacl swimmer. The other women are riding harder. And she can't run herself into the podium anymore at this level.
The HABs club of PTN tends to put out incredibly ignorant takes and shows their biases and sometimes posteriors way to often. If they want to more than a sideshow they could clean it up a whole lot.
Adman wrote:
Talbot didn't know what ITU was in 2016.
He's good for the sport with the quality of content he produces. But overall Tri knowledge needs a bit of work.
https://triathlon.org/athletes/profile/98846/talbot_cox
Pretty sure the homie had dreams at one point. But also was dating someone on the ITU circuit back then...
Never heard of the guy, but a quick Google looks as if he's Lionel's jock sniffing camera man? Lol won't be in my Spotify downloads.