Good reads - thank you.

Encouraging that they are starting to think beyond oil. But the fundamental basic question is, is it wise to spend $500 billion, a ridiculous amount of money, on building this enormous city, in the middle of desert, with no natural resources and raw materials other then oil near by?

It would if they vowed from the get-go that the whole of the project would be carbon neutral, or better yet carbon negative - but you can't build stuff on this scale, and do it in a desert, without it being carbon positive! Maybe some technology will come along, in the next 5 - 20 years, but right now, the way the current capitalism model works, is to spend this about of money and build stuff on this scale - you are completely shitting on the environment!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

This is a discussion probably best had away from this thread. I would argue that it is wise when broader geopolitical issues are factored in.

Yes, can we go back to Holly getting assistance from the bike escort? Is that really a DQ? Is the escort considered outside assistance?

This is a discussion probably best had away from this thread. I would argue that it is wise when broader geopolitical issues are factored in.


Yes - agreed. This is Lav Room stuff! :)

Sorry for taking it here. However, I had recently done a bit of a deep dive into what's been going on in the region with some extensive reading on the sustainability of it all, and it does not look good!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

what is with her? Seems like she's always putting herself in the middle of a controversy with various forms of cheating.

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I saw the whole race live, and to be honest, it seemed like the bike escort girl was super excited to be escorting Holly; there is a point where she is either telling the camera, or other people, that Holly was #1 (in a "I'm a fan" kind'a way). So I guess she thought she could be of assistance and help Holly out by giving her a couple of bottles of water (that's how many I counted).

Yeah that was odd. The bike escort handing over water bottles was happening so casually I assumed it must've been discussed / permitted...

...or was it all a ploy to help her beat Daniela to avoid the triple crown payout?? ;-)

Exactly. With all due respect, by all means he has the built of a man who occasionally go to the spinning classes and run 5mi on Sundays. It's a mystery to me how someone with that muscularity (or lack of it) and body fat can go 4:15 or whatever...

I think the prince does look like a guy that can go 4:0x or whatever.

But even if he didn't look like that it would tell us nothing. Look at Blummenfelt. He doesn't look like he can run a 30min 10k and yet he does.

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10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40

It's a great investment. Not bonkers at all.

Saudi and qatar (and UAE) have sunk costs in their 50 year strategies.

If S.A. can pull off the build of a new city (there are actually a number of them) that attracts new businesses to HQ in the region.

Construction may not be carbon neutral. The 30-50 year strategy may allow it to be.

Saudi - if it can manage the social change required is a great east west stop over location but it has a long way to go to rival dubai for westerners.

That said. For all the love westerners have of Dubai. There are millions of Muslims who seek their own "dubai" without the booze and debauchery and their are millions of Muslims with cash who would travel to a culturally sympathetic location for vacations or healthcare or for other reasons.

The Muslim dollar is a huge potential future value. 500bn is peanuts over 50 years for a strategic regional center.

Total aside. Qatar does not have oil ;)

I will say my experience in the region (7 yeara) is that what was the norm in terms of environmental sustainability versus current for future planning is very different

I know it's inappropriate to comment on or judge people on their looks.

However, high level sport is a bit different - the higher the level of competition, the more the body shapes, sizes and morphology narrow down. It's just the way it is.

I happened to be watching the Boston Marathon on TV the day Rose Ruiz "won" it years ago. My first reaction, when I saw, her shambling gait, and slightly over-weight body and giggling legs, was - this is NOT a woman who can run 2:35 for a marathon!

It was the same thing with Julie Miller episode at Ironman Canada a few years ago. When I first saw the pictures of her on the course, I said - she can't do the times that she claims she is doing!

But these days everyone get's caught up on the anyone can do anything, and nothing is impossible hype. The problem, is high level sport is ruthless!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I will say my experience in the region (7 yeara) is that what was the norm in terms of environmental sustainability versus current for future planning is very different


Thank you.

Reassuring - I hope!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Once again, you’re confusing the brothers. Nasser is the thin, athletic, fast one. The one that goes 4:15. Khalid is the pudgy, not-so-athletic, slow one. The one that goes 6:00.

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Believe me, I know who he is. Talk to him few times, have photos with him, we raced three times at the same race, but it really doesn't matter. Well done to him (I really mean it). Hats off!

They sure allowed it at the 70.3 World Championships this year. He was riding like an asshole. His security guard/athlete had to ride like an asshole to stay with him. And his motorcade/cameraman caused multiple close calls and was getting yelled at by the police on the course. Ironman is lucky they didn't cause a serious accident. Would have had about 20 witnesses from the cyclist they were constantly blocking. I used to respect the attention and money he was bringing to the sport. The pros are way under paid and should do what they need to do to get money, but it's getting bad with this team. Pretty sad when Holly Lawrence has to congratulate Nasser on "punching his ticket to Kona" in the Instagram post about her win. What a joke. Ironman should be ashamed but I know they're not.

People from the outside keep on talking about 'when they run out of oil'. The reality is that you need money to make more money. These kingdoms have gotten the petro dollar head start now. They are siting on a mountain of cash that they can convert into all sorts of revenue streams. Just look at the Middle Eastern Airlines (Etihad, Emirate, Qatar etc). They have converted their cities into global aviation hubs at the nexus of Africa-India-China-Europe. This has everything to do with a global strategy to monetize waaay outside oil. All the sporting events in the Gulf (F1 today in Abu Dhabi, 70.3 in Bahrain, WTA events, Protour cycling etc)....all designed to diversify the economy. To my best knowledge Dubai has a massive initiative around renewable energy (solar)....the list goes on. You don't need to love everything about these guys, but they are doing stuff to not squander their oil wealth and build sustainable industry and economies for their next generation.

actually its not about running out of oil, its about the oil age about to be over and a ton of useless oil being stuck in the ground, and while we arent there yet, the price is too low for them to just pay off their people to stay in line, which is why the saudis, uae and bahrain (with help from the U.S.) went to yemen, so MBS could get credit for winning a war, but now 17 million people are at risk of starvation, all for domestic politics, its water they are really worried about running out of, there is no diversifying the economy when there is no water and its too hot to have any type of business

Khalid is absolutely bigger. But bojan is not confused. Go to 3:01:00 in the video. He has "Nasser" written on his chest.

This is not to state Nasser does not have ability. He went 4:27:21 in Chattanooga 70.3 Worlds and 4:12:54 in Bahrain 70.3 yesterday. But, again, I believe Nasser's Ironman debut was Florida 2013. He went 10:27:37 then (Khalid did 12:04:06) and, to my knowledge, has not broken 10 hours in a full Ironman (please correct me if I am wrong).

This is lav room material

SA is changing at a pace whixh is almost unprecedented in the region

Almost every state asset from Saudi aramco to hospitals is being privatised.

The Saudi's recognise that they have a limited opportunity to change their economy.

Qatar on the other hand is sat on 300 years of natural gas

The new Saudi cities are game changers. 300m Muslims in MENA. 1.5bn world wide. Qatar wanted to be a Muslim dubai but the MBS / TAMIN spat banged that on the head

The middle East is eminently livable from Sep/ oct to may. You treat may to oct like a bad winter where you can't go out.

For arabic Muslim businesses picking a new place to locate a hq Saudi is a good prospect

Cosigning on this. The amount of ass kissing going on in B13 circles is ridiculously over the top. The whole thing still reeks of giant PR farce for a country with a piss poor human rights record. Clearly personal ethics pertaining to the big world outside of this tiny, ultimately insignificant, sport are for sale at a relatively low price.

She actually deleted my post on her Instagram about the outside assistance at the race.

That helps...

Completely agree

I would suggest she does not want to upset the paymaster. None of them in the BE13 team would given they gave Nor been paid ANY money at all this year! Yep, I have it on very good authority that the pro Athletes in the team are yet to receive their remuneration for the 2017. So guessing the love fest is to try and get paid.