Yeah I think he teased it ~month ago & then formally announced a week ago. Folks had already seen him on the Brazil start list in between that time. Training must be going well since Rome comes first & he wasn't originally on that start list. Field looks pretty loaded -- more competitive than a typical World Cup, with no WTCS races left on the calendar. It isn't too much of a surprise after his run in Milwaukee that USAT reached out. They still have 2 spots to fill.

At this stage 1 spot to fill, 3 in the top 30 is only way for 3

Worth a shot. If it doesn't work out, he's right back to making bank with top 5s at PTO races. No harm, no foul.

This, for me, is possibly the most exciting start list news of the season.

The excitement will of course be deflated if he sucks in those races.

But what if he doesn’t? With his run speed, he may very well challenge the short course guys. If he can make the front swim group…

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

Gives him a little motivation to keep training in the fall now that his long distance races are done, but he came out of the swim a minute back of KB in Milwaukee. Maybe that's OK at the WC level, but I can't see that being good enough at the WTCS level, right? KB came out in the 3rd pack at the GF.

He used to race ITU and never ran through any fields then. Is he front of field 70.3 swim? If not he certainly won't be front of these fields. Brasil will be the weaker field of the 2 races with another WC same weekend in Asia and also superleague. Good athletes will be spread pretty thin for that weekend.

It's exciting because he's obviously the runner that he is, but I think this has far more to do with his season being over, the WC fall season is so jumbled that it gives more people chances to race than normal. He may even have gotten some funding, but this was an itu athlete who was at best a chase pack athlete in his itu "prime". He's likely at best chase pack 2 type of swimmer now. So this to me is much more of an "hail mary" type of attempt that if it works out, hell yeah and if it doesn't the worst for him is a basic paid racation in Europe and S America.

(IE I wouldn't expect T5 type of results, hell like T15 I would think is a success, but likely not the objective...duh)

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

4 years ago in his last season he did a lot of world cup races. He regularly got beat on the run by 30+ seconds by McElroy, Pearson and McDowell over the sprint distance. But he generally made and stayed with the front pack on the bike. Basically it went the opposite way of what I would have thought (unable to get off the bike with the group, followed by a stellar run from behind that didn't matter).

He has said that is overall fitness is much better than it was in the past. We certainly are going to find out. This will be an interesting barometer on how competitive the PTO races actually are. If goes and gets his doors blown off I'm wondering if McElroy says forget the Olympics and moves over to doing PTO races. He has always been better than West, West has earned more money than him the last 18 months, McElroy knows he's not in line for an Olympic spot, so why not do what is best for his career...

Yes, and this was also pointed out in one of the PTO Open threads, as in: “how come he is running through the field like this when he was a mediocre short course runner. The gap between short and long course run quality isn’t THAT big”.

So a working theory would be that he just improved his run.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

Also worthwhile to add, that not every 5/10k runner is equally competitive at double to 8-times the distance 😏

Jason heard that the ITU guys were coming to eat long course athletes lunch after Paris an says, "Hold my chocolate milk...".

Oh they will...never the other way around.

Curious to see how he does, some of his running workouts are really looking like top 20 ITU material.

He wasn't all that competitive at the shorter when younger and normally faster. Now older and closer to the naturally more endurance less speed age it will be interesting. I can't see how he can drop back and be competitive when he wasn't really that good at the premium age when shorter was his training focus.

Just for a bit of context: West is 30. Potter is 31. Vincent Luis was 30 and 31 when he was winning World Triathlon championships, and 29-30 when he was winning Super League.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

I think age is less important and development pathway is more important. Luis has been racing well in itu since a junior. Potter was late to the game due to her track background (what she is doing is basically no where close to the norm) and I would say West was semi late to the itu game being he came along basically post college. So his athlete arc sorta makes sense in that he didn’t ever really have the swim background and thus was sorta always playing catch up in fields.

So it’s less about age and more about specific development which I don’t see West having the swim strength nor likely bike strength in Wtcs quality fields to be strong enough to then “run through the field”.

What many people fail to realize is just how hard even “pack” riding can be at the top level. Just sitting in for many can compromise your run even by a small bit, and more importantly at this level a small percentage off and you’re getting beat by numbers of athletes.

Success or failure for a West type or athlete is so marginally thin. Like fractions of percentage can be the difference and this is just an athlete at MOP itu level.

But again this is a low risk high reward. It’s his off season time period and going stronger on swim training will only help his pto career. The real question would be will he give up pto season to train up “properly” for the mtr especially if your a discretion pick. He’s not going to be allowed to race pto and just show up in Praia ready to go. But that’s way down the road, and very unlikely.

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

It will be interesting to see how it goes. He has shown that he can swim with Blu, so maybe he wouldn't have survived the French swim-bike hammer fest at the grand finale but would have made the second group. The guy comes across as a very smart and calculating athlete, so he wouldn't be toeing the line unless him and his team have an indication that the can be competitive at this level. Whatever he does, he will do much better than when Cam Wurf embarrassed himself twice trying to race these guys.

Agree, but I take exception to the phrase that Wurf “embarrassed” himself.

It was a stunt pulled for fun, he knew he was going to be obliterated and he made no secret of it.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

I would argue that he knew that he was going to schooled, but not massacred the way he did. Getting dropped after 15 m on the swim was expected but losing huge chunks on time on the bike, not so sure. Then running a pedestrian ~36 min 10km getting lapped by those guys.. Pure speculation but I think Type A athletes are too competitive to enjoy a day like that a bit too much.

Is that always the answer after the fact? No way man this was just for fun, I was just bullshitting talking up my chances.

Cus I remember reading talk of the AUS federation buying into the Wurf angle etc and that never made any sense. Go read the threads on it, there are quotes that his race was getting federation support, which again made no sense. He was always going to struggle.

Eta: I mean if it’s an “hail Mary” here’s $5k I’m travel to see if it works out ok. But it was never going to be anything more than that. Which is why it was so funny when he talked about his swim training having to be ramped up.

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

He talked himself up and got the fed to back him, can't see what either of them was thinking. It's late 90's when a gun biker could try and pull a good runner who missed the front pack.

Wurf is like all those kids in school and AG sports who talk themselves up, if they win they are awesome, just like they told you. If they blow up, well they were not trying or were just having fun, being cool man.

mmm,So Cam Wurf, in his NICE wrap-up, in the latest podcast with Jack Kelly, reckons he came off the bike during one of the descents. Strange that he then said that no one else was around at the time, and then he also said he cleaned himself up at the next aid station. Also strange, his strava doesn't show it. No dips in power, no change in speed.....

So he said he was okay, lost some time, got back in his bike,, which strangely had nil damage, but he felt it during the run, and this cost him a podium.

So being too embarrassed to admit that he got beat, he, a professional cyclist, from a group that is known for viewing triathletes as having terrible bike handling skills; makes up a story about his own poor bike skills to justify a crummy run? Huh...

 

When I "came off the bike" in Nice at 2019 worlds during the descent, I got 5 pelvic fractures, a broken rib and a torn rotator cuff.... though I was hit from behind which added some energy. But coming off in that descent is likely to leave some marks.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
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Am I missing something? When did Wurf race ITU?