What was the format of the age grouper race. Glad for all of you who got to race. That is awesome. I'm almost uninterested in watching the pro race because it is a reminder of all the races the rest of us never had a chance to do.

I'm almost uninterested in watching the pro race because it is a reminder of all the races the rest of us never had a chance to do.


What do you mean by this, Dev?

Can you not watch a competitive race, and enjoy it for that? Is that not an attraction?

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Hey Dev,

It was Challenge middle distance/half iron distance.

If you mean how they ran it with respect to Covid-19, face masks before the swim until 4 meters from the water. Other than that, normal rolling start. Bike and run seemed pretty much normal. Nice and crowded finish line, but everyone seemed to be wearing masks.

Not sure if either of those answered your question?

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Darren
https://www.strava.com/athletes/12385497

I watched every stage of the Tour de France, Giro and Vuelta, countless Bundesliga soccer games, a bunch of MLS and Premier League games too.

Triathlon is a bit different. Its something we can all do normally (I cannot race in the Tour or play Bundesliga). Generally I would enjoy watching pros race when I can't be at that race, but I would prefer to do the same race. But this year, watching pros racing is a reminder of what the rest of us can't generally do right across the board. I'll probably watch it after the fact. On that note, I really enjoyed watching Lionel's UCI hour attempt and that's not something we can do, its watching it for the athletic feat only.

I am sure if I was running marathons and Boston qualified, watching a pros only Boston and sitting at home would also be depressing.....and maybe this comes down to age groupers caring more about doing their own race than pros racing.

I really enjoyed watching Lionel's UCI hour attempt and that's not something we can do, its watching it for the athletic feat only.


It flies a bit below the radar screen but if you did want to have a go at a One Hour on the track - there is an opportunity at the Milton Velodrome, ounce a year to do that - https://www.cyclingcanada.ca/event/day-of-the-hour/

It's called "Day of the Hour". As it's name suggested they have the Velodrome booked for the whole day, and it's just one hour ride after another all day long!

They did two of them in the last two years, and then of course this year was scrapped because of COVID19 - but I was talking with the main organizer, recently, and he's thinking of doing it again in 2021 - possibly in August next year!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

The bike and run distances aren't anything out of the ordinary, it's pretty normal for it not to be spot on. The swim is fair bit off, but GPS can be inaccurate in the water. Was your swim time around what you expected? Either way, congrats sounds like you had a pretty good race!

You can check strava and see what distances others got, to get an idea how accurate the course was.

link to results?

It had to be somewhat short, otherwise, the leader ran a sub-1:18 half marathon off the bike.

https://track.rtrt.me/e/SS-CHALLENGEDAYTONA20

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

According to my Garmin:

Swim: 1890yd (with a very slight diversion off course)
Bike: 55.02
Run: 13.01

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Team Saunders on YouTube

Thats about fairly standard no?

Also.. gps distance being shorter than actual distance on a round track shouldnt be too surprising.

I mean, those guys seem like studs if it’s even close to being accurate. Seems like a strong field, and certainly faster than a typical 70.3.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Field was insanely stacked. I only speak in bald eagle distances but had 1825 yards, 55.02 mile bike, and 13.03 mile run. I think we're all squared for the mile long transition. I know it's redundant here but there should have been a long list of penalties given out on the out and back mile 25-45ish. There were packs of 20+ but I did see a moto drive through 2 of them

I had 1874 yds, 55.08, and 13.01.

On another note did anyone else notice how many people were leaving the track on the bike after 1.5 laps? I witnessed more than a couple, and met a handful of people afterwards who inadvertently did the same. The athlete guide said 1.5 laps, and the website said 2.5 laps. Seems like a pretty big communication error. Makes me question what seemed like an excessive amount of blazing fast times. I went 4:35 and finished 19th in M40-44. Sheesh.


I should point out I don’t mean to diminish anyone’s efforts and I don’t think anyone cut the course short intentionally. Field was still extremely deep.

Pretty cool AG awards

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Good old freedom units

Thank you! I haven't been doing hardly any swimming, so I was definitely expecting to go slower. Especially since I turned too early and had to do the "swim of shame" back to the proper course (been doing triathlon for too long to make such a silly mistake).

I was chatting with a guy as we ran through T2 and he said it was quite short for him too.

Good idea on Strava, my training buddy checked and said that most people were turning up a bit short.

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Darren
https://www.strava.com/athletes/12385497

Those are cool!

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Let food be thy medicine...

Just glad I wasn't there.
Wonder how many asymptomatic spreaders in those close quarters on the bike..
Aquaintance of mine got his ticket to the COVID ward at a group bike ride.
But it's florida, so COVID doesn't spread down there. Only the Flu.

BTW: If you pass me on a ride out there, at least give me 3 ft and don't breath into my face. Thank You.

These are awesome!

After doing a little more homework though, the more disappointing the age group results are. If you look on SportStats at the 6.5m bike splits and you see 70-85mph averages, it’s because those people left the track early. For men 35-39 this was 2 of the top 3, top 2 in 40-44, 3rd in 45-49, 2nd in 50-54 and 1st in 55-59 and 1st in 20-24. Only clean divisions were 25-29 and 30-34. Who knows how many down the ranks. Surely I can’t be the only person who noticed this.

This would not have made a difference for me, but I would be pretty upset if I was one of the guys just outside looking in.

Good point. Did you notice the one part where they had a timing wire and a screen displaying names as you passed? It seems they should be able to tell who skipped a lap. Wonder if they'll just add a time penalty? Hopefully not a DQ. Maybe they just do nothing, I'm way off of any awards (seriously deep field indeed, or maybe I just think I'm faster than I am) so no skin off my nose.

It was bonkers starting laps 2 and 2.5, coming around that section in front of the grandstands when people from T1 started to pour onto the track. Ended up having to go up higher up the banked track than I would have liked (turns out GP5000s have decent lateral grip. Surprised there was no Mad Max-style carnage with people merging onto the track with others going flat out down on TT bars.

For the record, I did 2.5 laps too :) Maybe should have done 3.5 to get the full 56?

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Darren
https://www.strava.com/athletes/12385497

I noticed in the results it said 'adj 4:00' for some people, so I assume that was their time penalty for missing a lap. Though was 1 lap not 2.5 miles? If so 4 minutes is not enough

Slowest bike split for the top 10 overall was 2:10. Even if they all missed a lap, those are still some crazy fast times. Pro's are going to be flying tomorrow.

Hopefully they make sure the awards go to the right people!

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After doing a little more homework though, the more disappointing the age group results are. If you look on SportStats at the 6.5m bike splits and you see 70-85mph averages, it’s because those people left the track early. For men 35-39 this was 2 of the top 3, top 2 in 40-44, 3rd in 45-49, 2nd in 50-54 and 1st in 55-59 and 1st in 20-24. Only clean divisions were 25-29 and 30-34. Who knows how many down the ranks. Surely I can’t be the only person who noticed this.

This would not have made a difference for me, but I would be pretty upset if I was one of the guys just outside looking in.[/quote]

I did see the screen, but I think the problem was that a large amount of people thought they were doing the right thing by going 1.5. Oh well. You were right about the madness as the people poured onto the track, I don’t think anyone knew if they were supposed to stay to the right or the left? Had to just sort your way through.

The boys definitely showed up today. Was half expecting it, but then the other half of me was not sure because of the Covid mess. Living in FL it was a no brainer to do this race. Did a 4:15, and was good enough for 11th in the AG 😳.

Otherwise, my Garmin picked up 1850yds on the swim, 55 on the bike, and 13.01 on the run. Tad short, but I’ve seen much worse.