Emma Pooley went into HM.

Can't see how he could really expect to go at shorter distance of HM as there is barely any non draft Olympic races left now.

some thoughts here http://www.velonews.com/...pros-weigh-in_450145

notable comment to close:
"Starykowicz: I’m honestly worried about the guy’s health. The marathon is hard, and he’s going to have to train for it slowly. If he doesn’t have a ton of running under his belt, he could get injured in a bad way. He will be able to train at a high level, but it’s all about whether his body can take it. We’ve seen talented people get taken down by injuries and not be able to show their potential. There’s a high probability of overdoing it, especially if he is super motivated right away.
Read more at http://www.velonews.com/...#Yy2fs4Sbi3mYbtfZ.99"

i think this is the issue with going straight into targeting full distance - having to get his legs up to doing a fatigued marathon off presumably minimal running for many years. the half run you can fake off a big engine and some memory of how to run. a competitive full distance run requires some big mileage and he's going to need to build up to that gradually or be at high risk of injury. doing half distance in the meantime would help him develop his triathlon race craft

One thing that no one has brought up yet, or maybe I overlooked it. When he "retired" from cycling, I wonder if he notified USADA, NGB, and IF? Or if he did not, then he should be fine. However, if he actually notified them of retirement he cannot return to racing until 6 months after his notification of returning to sport.

"In accordance with Article 5.7 of the World Anti-Doping Code (Code) and the USADA Protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing, athletes wanting to come out of retirement and return to eligible status must enroll in the USADA RTP, fulfilling all whereabouts requirements, and make themselves available for testing for a period of at least six (6) months in advance of participating in International or National level events as defined in the Code."


However, maybe he did not inform them since he already knew he was coming over to triathlon and "For USADA and anti-doping purposes, athletes who retire from competitive sport.......",And he actually didn't "retire" from competitive sport.


https://www.usada.org/athletes/retire/


Phil Gaimon had to go through this when he decided to "come back" from retirement and do an actual "race", believe it was the National Hill Climb Champs.


Lastly, think it is great he is coming over to triathlon and hopefully it brings more interest to the sport. Interesting to see him targeting Kona for 2018, that's pretty ambitious in my opinion. Pretty sure it would take a WIN at Regional Champ to only have to do 1 IM, otherwise he would have to have some solid 70.3 results combined with a solid regional champ race, or 2-3 IM's. Guess we will just have to wait and see.

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-Brad Williams
Website | Twitter: @BW_Tri |Instagram: @BW_Tri | Strava | Co-Founder & Coach at: KIS Coaching
Partnered with: Zoot Sports | Precision Fuel &Hydration | ISM

With wurf mixing it up this weekend, does that change anyone's thoughts on what talansky might be able to accomplish given his earlier switch and arguably more successful tt career then wurf?

it is bascailly imposible to predict how he will run. he can ride as well as the best, probably not any better. he could run 3:20 or 2:50, who knows? that is why it is interesting.

he will get the best coaching and support possible and his potential will not not be reached in year one but it will be much more apparent what it is after few races.

Is your assumption that pro tour riders aren't any better than the triathlon uber bikers ?
Why don't you think he can rider any better ?

I think the question is "are pro cyclists switching over to tri, any better swim-bikers than pro triathletes". To date, they have not been much better, or in most cases worse. Even Lance was out split by Kienle at Galveston 70.3....Wurf is literally the first guy to actually outride pro triathletes in Kona, but he was only 2 min ahead of Sanders and Kienle (in my mind these guys are the ultimate age groupers who had big enough engines to turn pro vs coming through the ITU world). Stadler ended up putting out times even faster than Steve Larsen.

Up until this weekend no one had out split Stadler in Kona. It took 3 guys who are probably the sport has had, hammering the shit out of each other with the fear of Frodo and Lange hanging over their heads, to finally blow past Stadlers record. Yes, a former pro biker did it, but really not by much.

As Brooks said, when pro bikers have come over before it has been at the end of the career....Udo Bolts, Chann McRae, Rolf Aldag, Laurent Jalabert, Lance. We really have not seen guys coming across in the prime until Wurf has. Probably Larsen was the closest. I think if you put Larsen on today's technology, he would be right up there with Wurf to T2.

If we're talking a standalone bike TT or hill climb, pro triathletes will be as close to pro cyclists as they will be to pro marathon runners and to pro swimmers....it's just the way it is. Horses for courses. 6 feet 165 lbs is too heavy to be a pro cyclists and pro runner and too small to be an elite swimmers....but it is awesome for being a pro Ironman guy.

So apparently AT swam until his freshman year of HS and when asked "How fast were you?" his answer was "Not exceptionally." So that doesn't bode well.

Yeah, being okay but not exceptional in 8th/9th grade could mean almost anything with respect to his ability to get faster now. If he had okay speed as junior swimmer it could have been due to natural technique and no cardio engine or terrible form and a great cardio engine. Our club's fastest free sprinter in the 13-14 AG (when I was competing in the AG) was also one of the laziest guys in the "competitive" group who could just catch like a champion, while the fastest 200/500 guy was a workhorse who killed himself every practice but looked like he was punching himself in the head.

It is simple in my opinion. Pro cyclist can match the bike section but it takes a lot of time to get your muscles used to run a 2:45 marathon. You can not do this without high risk of injury within 1 or 2 years. Same for swimming, before you have the speed and technic it takes time. Do not forget pro cyclist have spend + 10 years mainly cycling. There body is fully prepared to do one thing.

He likely will make very little prize money. Sponsorships, who knows but not too much I would not guess. Might be stressfull to go from nice salary every 2 weeks to peanuts.

Brooks, I think you could also make the case that Lukas was not a single-sport athlete. He was a standout runner, but didn't he always train as a triathlete? I believe I read that Mola was like Euro champ in the 5k as a junior (or something similar) but we consider him a triathlete.

I suppose guys like Potts and Zaferes who weren't quite Olympians but came darn close might be examples, but they didn't have the single-sport career he's had.

You are right that it is pretty unusual.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

He won that Dauphine by being in the breakaway and Contador wasn't able to catch the breakaway in time. That is NOT the same as staying with the top guns on a mountaintop finish, which he tended to fail at spectacularly. If you watch that stage of the Dauphine, Contador was cutting into his time dramatically towards the end. He just lucked out that the stage ended just in time.

I still think they are leagues apart.
Majaka has won 2 KOM's at the Tour, + 3 Huge stages.
6th & 7th and the Giro, Podium at the Vualta, I'm pretty sure he has also won stages at the Giro.
Bronze at the Rio Olympics.
Talansky has never even sniffed a stage at a Grand Tour, and his best GC was a 5th at last years Vualta but that was a very anonymous 5th.
I'd say that in relation to this thread Talansky is much better then Majaka in TT's but as a overall bike racer, not even close.
He gets much more ink in the english speaking press, so people think he is better then he ever was.

How would you say Talansky compares in their cycling career to, say, the guy who just set the course record at Kona?

Just for reference sake?

Brent

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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!

What I find interesting is the career he is giving up for a sport that I think he’ll likely struggle at on the big stage. He’s giving up a guaranteed salary at world pro level for a life that maybe you get sponsor pay but you also have to “race” for money. So either he really is turned off by cycling or he thinks he’s got legit shot. We’ll see how it goes, I think he can use his bike strength to win some lower level stuff but the big boy races...that’ll be fun to see how he competes.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

He just had a kid and said he didn't want to spend over half the year away from his family. I can understand that and hope he does well.

He has joined Purple Patch for his coaching. I’m very excited.

Trainer Road guys interviewed him in Kona, it’s a good listen.

I can understand that and makes my point even greater. How he’s going to deal financially. Hope he has the money backing to support his family.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Talansky is a better time trialist than Cameron Wurf. So in theory, he could produce a better bike time. BUT, will he go all out on the bike and leave nothing for the run? Probably not.

I mean World tour pro's post rides all the time that are 3 and 4 hours in length with average power numbers in the low 300's. But they cross the finish line and they are done for the day. So they go much deeper.

Dang, that's sad. Wish he'd have gone with a real coach.

Will he raise his seat?

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Like Paulo?

Listening to the podcast now..

swim background- stopped freshman year of HS.

run background- "running was a suffer", ran last in junior year of HS and then got injured.


He talks about the engine being there, etc, but there is a whole lot of unkown here and he acknowledges that. The more I hear about this, the more head scratching it is to me. Says it's a 3 year window by 2020 should be able to make firm decision on this whole move. Will only use 1 coach, no specialization coaches. I'll stick to what I said about 2 weeks ago, he'll probaly podium at some race simply because there are 40 WTC events around the world, but when it comes to the world's best; no chance of going top 10.

I think this is a cool thing to watch, I mean a world class cyclist essentially at or slightly before his peak cycling career moves to triathlon. That's big news, just the more I hear about the lack of multisport background excellence + previous injuries..........yeah......


eta: Although I feel for him in 1 aspect. At beginning of podcast he sorta outlines why he's not cycling anymore. Travel+family/racing conditions/safety, so it's almost more of him wanting to move to something else and IM being slightly within his wheel house so that he finds a happier/safer sport.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Yeah it's pretty obvious he quit cycling because he wanted to quit cycling, not because he wanted to do triathlon. Triathlon is just something to give a shot before getting a real job looks like.