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2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons?
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The 2018 70.3WC’s were the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons?

I think the only races in contention are the golden years of Kona, the 2008 and 2012 men’s Olympic races and the 2016 Women’s Olympic race.

So, this race doesn’t have the prestige of the Olympics or Kona, but take away prestige and focus solely on the depth and quality of racing and this year’s 70.3WC very well may have been the best race in triathlon history. I can think of the years of perpetual runner up Docherty, and Lessing prior or Lindley, Lindquist, Taromino in ITU, but I’m talking of a race with this much depth and jockeying they entire race ending with not only an exciting series of events, but mind blowing times. We saw that in the Diamond League 5,000m yesterday, in the Bek and Geb 10,000m years, the Lance era... thoughts?

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Last edited by: milesthedog: Sep 2, 18 10:14
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [milesthedog] [ In reply to ]
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I'm really good at writing posts that resonate with ST'rs..... as indicated by the crickets

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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [milesthedog] [ In reply to ]
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to me, 70.3 is maybe the greatest distance of all because it can assemble fields like this with the top racers from short and long distances competing on a reasonably level footing. i like the distance anyway as it has the combination of endurance and still some reasonable speed.

so to me, despite the prestige of the event being lesser than olympics and kona, the actual racing this year was right up there with the very best.
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [milesthedog] [ In reply to ]
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milesthedog wrote:
The 2018 70.3WC’s were the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons?

I think the only races in contention are the golden years of Kona, the 2008 and 2012 men’s Olympic races and the 2016 Women’s Olympic race.

So, this race doesn’t have the prestige of the Olympics or Kona, but take away prestige and focus solely on the depth and quality of racing and this year’s 70.3WC very well may have been the best race in triathlon history. I can think of the years of perpetual runner up Docherty, and Lessing prior or Lindley, Lindquist, Taromino in ITU, but I’m talking of a race with this much depth and jockeying they entire race ending with not only an exciting series of events, but mind blowing times. We saw that in the Diamond League 5,000m yesterday, in the Bek and Geb 10,000m years, the Lance era... thoughts?

I would say Beijing 2008 was "best ever".

London 2012 did not seem that exciting. The race was almost "done" 1 km out of T2. I think Athens 2004 with Hamish vs Bevan Docherty was more exciting than London 2012 for the men. London 2012 for the women however was out of this world. I would put today's race on par wtih London 2012.

Also don't forget Kona 2010...Macca vs Ralaert and Macca attacking on the Palani DOWNHILL and breaking Raleart's soul. All the glory goes to Dave vs Mark, but Macca conning Marino, Tissink and Faris to be his domestiques vs Crowie, then "letting" Ralaert back in, resting, recovering and going ballistic on the downhill on Palani was perhaps the ultimate tactical race ever played out in Kona.

If anyone outfoxes Macca's tactics they take the "kind of most exciting Kona" race. Until then, the rest are watching paint dry, minus Mark vs Dave or maybe Crowie 2011 cramping at the Mark vs Dave spot just before the Palani descent with Ralaert fast closing was pretty good too. For a moment we thought that Crowie might just have to walk and be passed.
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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There's quite a few itu races which have been 'more exciting' imo. New Plymouth sprint finish with Bevan Docherty taking the win is one of them imo. Also agreed on Athens race, with the field getting whittled away on each lap of the bike. Also the women's race with Loretta Harrop going off the front and Kate Allen storming through.

But, yes, this is probably the most exciting long course race I've seen. When Brownlee went to the front on both the bike and run, I thought it was game over, but then Frodeno came storming through on the downhill run. Bike also seemed to be quite surgey from a long course perspective. It made it much more interesting.
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [milesthedog] [ In reply to ]
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After watching the whole race from start to finish I thought that this race had more action, in all three legs, from more top level athletes than has ever been seen before.

The race had the three best (male) triathletes of all time go head-to-head-to-head and some how three other guys hung on for the first two legs and added in extra spice.

Gomez, 5x ITU world champ, 2x 70.3 World champ, Xterra World champ, Olympics 2nd and 4th (on "off days") and 4x ITU 2nd Place. This is your THIRD PlACE guy. He was perfectly positioned all day, made no pacing errors, had about a 4 minute bad patch and boom. That's 3rd place.

McCormack in 2010 was pretty great. But I don't think that was as deep as today and the racing wasn't as close.
2012 London (women's) is the only race I can think that might be equal but the top competitors didn't have the history and palmares as this race.

Now if IM will put some actual $ into the broadcast the sport could grow. That was a race people will watch.
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [oprfcc] [ In reply to ]
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So, I think you nailed it: this race had highlights in all three legs AND, it was more than just a duel. In so many of the examples provided in this post, the race was exciting in one of the three legs and consisted of a duel. This was 3-5 people hammering each other relentlessly for the entire race.

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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [milesthedog] [ In reply to ]
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Bump
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [milesthedog] [ In reply to ]
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The race was pretty epic as far as races go. The Olympics (Beijing men, London both men and women, and Rio women) are hard to beat as was ITU championship in Cozumel with Ali throwing Johnny across the finish line. 2010 Kona was pretty epic as far as later Ironmans go. If you have never seen Realert run in Hawaii he is just a machine and that was a heck of win by Macca. By and large many pros just don't even bother with 70.3 worlds depending on where it is but most of the biggest names showed this year.


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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [milesthedog] [ In reply to ]
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IT certainly was one of the most exciting 70.3's. Thinking back I think just the races that Lance did had more buzz and excitement. But it really was not a deep field as fields go, most your ITU top races have "deeper" fields. I mean there were 3 guys who separated pretty quickly at T2 and that was it. What made it so exciting was all the lead changes durning that run. I mean who didn't think Ali was going to win when he went past Frodo and gapped him so quickly?? And who didn't think Gomez was going to outrun Frodo once he caught up and just sat in waiting to pounce?

This race had it all in that run and oddsmakers heads must have been exploding with each change. Only thing that could have made it even more exciting is if Ali were actually gaining 10 seconds a k on Frodo in the last few miles, a real 2nd wind..But I dont get all this deepest field stuff, it will be a fraction of the depth that we will see in 40 days, and every October before that too..I'll go along with your quality assessment though, pretty hard to imagine more than a couple of others that were not there that could have been in that mix.....
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [milesthedog] [ In reply to ]
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Surely the 1991 ITU World Champs on the Gold Coast is worth a mention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpS_X0qfaOo
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [satanellus] [ In reply to ]
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I know an exciting race is more than just a tight finish but Glah and Kiuru at IMNZ in 1990 was also an epic battle, even more so when Kiuru ended up on the wrong side of finish chute barriers.

http://www.ironman.com/...0.aspx#axzz5Q6jfK9HS
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [oprfcc] [ In reply to ]
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oprfcc wrote:
After watching the whole race from start to finish I thought that this race had more action, in all three legs, from more top level athletes than has ever been seen before.

The race had the three best (male) triathletes of all time go head-to-head-to-head and some how three other guys hung on for the first two legs and added in extra spice.

Gomez, 5x ITU world champ, 2x 70.3 World champ, Xterra World champ, Olympics 2nd and 4th (on "off days") and 4x ITU 2nd Place. This is your THIRD PlACE guy. He was perfectly positioned all day, made no pacing errors, had about a 4 minute bad patch and boom. That's 3rd place.

McCormack in 2010 was pretty great. But I don't think that was as deep as today and the racing wasn't as close.
2012 London (women's) is the only race I can think that might be equal but the top competitors didn't have the history and palmares as this race.

Now if IM will put some actual $ into the broadcast the sport could grow. That was a race people will watch.
I'm going to say two best... while Frodeno did win a (surprise/upset) Gold Medal and has done well at long course racing... he is not Alistair or Javier great. Those two are on another planet.

Quite honestly I think we're a side stich (from who knows what) and Alistair only had four weeks of solid training to land 2nd in the WC... could have been Gomez/Brownlee on the top two steps easily with Frodo being third on Sunday.

It was a great race no doubt and sub 1:10 HMs were insane to watch. I know I enjoyed it but I like triathlons. People barely watch the TdF here in the US... most care less about triathlon... an even larger fringe sport.
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [satanellus] [ In reply to ]
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I was going to add the Glah vs Kiuru IMNZ and the Reid vs Leigh IMOZ both ending in the sprint finish. I've had the fortune of speaking to three of those 4 about those sprint finishes. I think those guys are mentally drained to this day thinking about what it took to stalk the other guy for 140.45 miles and then have enough for the closing 200meters or so. I think to this day, Glah does not want to relive it.

Gold coast ITU world's finish was pretty awesome....Pigg, Stewart, Wells in the sprint finish. But further in the top 10, you have a young Simon Lessing, Harold Robinson and your Ironman head ref JImmy Riccitello.
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [xeon] [ In reply to ]
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Think this is pretty insulting to Frodo to suggest that his career isn't there with Javier and Alistair. And to suggest that Javier was a side stitch away from winning or that Alistair needed more time... That's what one day, championship racing is all about. I could argue that Jan was a back problem away from winning Kona by your logic
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [Bosox99104] [ In reply to ]
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Bosox99104 wrote:
Think this is pretty insulting to Frodo to suggest that his career isn't there with Javier and Alistair. And to suggest that Javier was a side stitch away from winning or that Alistair needed more time... That's what one day, championship racing is all about. I could argue that Jan was a back problem away from winning Kona by your logic

x2.

Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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devashish_paul wrote:
Gold coast ITU world's finish was pretty awesome....Pigg, Stewart, Wells in the sprint finish. But further in the top 10, you have a young Simon Lessing, Harold Robinson and your Ironman head ref JImmy Riccitello.

It really looked to be a race between Pigg and Wells. To think they were at maximum pace and to have Stewart close them down from so far back. Truely impressive. How often do see two athletes in a sprint finish getting run down from behind?
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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"Glah vs Kiuru IMNZ"
-------------------------
Dev, I was there!!!


That old IMNZ run course is what I call a figure 8 eg an out and back on both ends, twice (as I recall from 28.5 years ago). I was finishing one of my out-backs where the finish line area was and heading back out right when this happened. So cool! At one point I had a VHS tape of this from New Zealand TV. IMHO, still the greatest finish ever!!







David
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Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.
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Re: 2018 70.3 WC’s the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons? [milesthedog] [ In reply to ]
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milesthedog wrote:
The 2018 70.3WC’s were the best 70.3 EVER - But how does it stack up among all triathlons?

I think the only races in contention are the golden years of Kona, the 2008 and 2012 men’s Olympic races and the 2016 Women’s Olympic race.

So, this race doesn’t have the prestige of the Olympics or Kona, but take away prestige and focus solely on the depth and quality of racing and this year’s 70.3WC very well may have been the best race in triathlon history. I can think of the years of perpetual runner up Docherty, and Lessing prior or Lindley, Lindquist, Taromino in ITU, but I’m talking of a race with this much depth and jockeying they entire race ending with not only an exciting series of events, but mind blowing times. We saw that in the Diamond League 5,000m yesterday, in the Bek and Geb 10,000m years, the Lance era... thoughts?


+1 agreed, to me the most exciting 70.3 worlds ever. Can't really compare to the other distances.
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