He did bring plenty of eyes to the event. That said, many I bet went to Lionel's because it was easier as it was stored in their Youtube data from years of content generation. It doesn't mean these people only tuned in because of Lionel.

That’s a good point. I have to admit that I tuned in because of Lionel, I love his videos and was excited to see him battle with Jan, I probably wouldn’t have watched if it was just Jan going for a solo attempt. It was awesome seeing their power & heart rate data, I wish it would’ve been shown continuously instead of just at times

i'm not sure i follow you. they went to lionel's page to view it because they were already going to lionel's page to view lionel content? but not because of lionel? you're going to need to help me out here. there was one, main, advertised place where you could go to see this video: on the tri-battle.com site. yes, we linked to lionel's YT page in our lead-up article (we linked to both). but otherwise, it seems to me that folks chose lionel's page because of their familiarity with or affinity to lionel. what am i missing?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I hear what you are saying and agree with it in principle. I'm quite the critic of Lionel and for anyone else I would agree with you. But he should not go to the tunnel.... at least not yet. He's mentally not ready for the tunnel yet. He can't process the information that would be thrown at him to make the necessary adjustments along with everything else that he needs to be focusing on. It would be way too much information for him and he would end up spiraling out of control.

His priority number 1 needs to be to continue to dial in his nutrition. He made some good progress over the weekend but I don't think he is out the woods yet or nailed his optimum nutrition. It sounds like he some GI distress at some point on the run and may have gone #2. He said something along the lines "I've got to take a shit" right before being interviewed by Helle just after finishing. He may have even shat himself... who knows. Either way, 2:50 run regardless, that is a problem and will hinder him getting on the podium in Kona let alone win it. He needs to race an Ironman without having ANY GI issues.

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blog

[/quote]I think you are all overthinking this "world record" thing.[/quote]

You must be new around here…

Or understand the sport. The guy does not get much love from fans, but a fit Lange is a serious contender for another Kona win. And he is looking really fit lately.

I am not contradicting anything you said. There was an implication that people viewed tribattle only or predominantly because of Lionel. That is not what can be derived from the data but rather that, as you said, they chose Lionel's page to watch the coverage. I, for example, follow both athletes and would have watched at least some of the event if Lionel had not been involved. Lionel's page was just the easiest way to do it.

I watched it via Lionel's YouTube page because it was the easiest way to watch it on my big screen TV not necessarily because Lionel was racing. I have a smart TV so I can easily pull YouTube up in a few seconds. I did not know the zwift page was broadcasting it but I did notice at one point when I exited out for a few minutes and saw it on my feed. If the YouTube link wasn't available, I would have watched on Tri-battle.com. To me, YouTube is far easier to pull up than going to a website. I do wish Ironman could do their broadcasts on YouTube as its a bit easier to navigate than FB watch.

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blog

No kidding. The guy does 4:00 for 112 mile bike after a swim and before a marathon, and he’s not world class?

I watched it on Zwift even though I set a reminder on Lionel's page. I didn't care to make sure what channel I watched it on. I will go click on Lionel's chanel if it get another triathlete a buck out of YouTube.
I click on all triathlete videos to get them clicks even if I don't watch the video, better triathletes get ad money then YouTube.

I think ironman uses Facebook to gather more data for sales then viewing ease. Easier to push ads. I know a lot of people that hate Facebook so don't view ironman races. They should broadcast on their ownwebsite too or youtube???

Youtube on smartTV is now KING for live event watching on a big screen.

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Technique will always last longer then energy production. Improve biomechanics, improve performance.
http://Www.anthonytoth.ca, triathletetoth@twitter

I noticed this. On one of his shows recently he said he was concentrating on not fidgeting so he is aware of the issue but it seems he lost sight of it during the race

okay. thank you. i don't like to talk about other peoples' business, but i do talk to the brands a lot. when i talk to some of the important brands involved in this, they were over-the-moon thrilled when lionel joined this. i honestly don't know that zwift comes aboard as title without the addition of lionel. (i might be wrong, but that's what my instinct says.) i would also say that lionel globalized this. the U.S. viewership would have been a quarter, or a third, of what it was absent lionel, in my opinion. or less. jan is a global athlete. but he's a king in germany and, maybe a duke or a baron in north america. lionel? he's elvis.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

The Canadian Elvis ;)

All fair points.

Regarding Zwift, I have no insight to that relationship but didn’t Jan have his own Frodissimo rides all last summer?

jan has more followers on zwift than anyone. not any triathlete. anyone. period. but lionel is #2, and is just a tick behind jan. lionel + jan have more than the combined total of several of the top pro cyclists. so, when you add lionel, you double the number of zwift followers.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

See, that is where you lose me in the last sentence. That would assume no overlap in Jan and Lionel followers.

For you all who love a GOAT discussion, here is Javier Gomez's take on it:
https://bewithchampions.podbean.com/e/javier-gomez-noya-special-edition-9-time-world-triathlon-champion-olympic-medalist/

There may be some confusion.

I didn't even know I could watch it on tri-battle.com. But I knew it was on their YouTube and Lionel's YouTube. I would have watched this event whether or not Lionel took part and whether it was on YouTube, Facebook, some homepage, an app I had to downloads, etc. Since I already follow Lionel on YouTube, I didn't need to search, go to any website, or download anything. Rather, it popped up as the first video when I opened the app a day prior, and just watched it there. You might be surprised how much one or two additional clicks change behavior.

It was prime time in australia. And I I can tell you, I wouldn’t have watched if it was say Jan and any other male pro other than sanders and yoyoyo. Its not The actual event but the before and after that Lionel and yoyoyo provide.

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Super interesting. I didn't watch it because of LS - to me, the outcome was clear, the only question was whether Jan would break the record and that was not intriguing enough for me. I might have watched it had it been a different athlete - Patrick Lange comes to mind (his swim and bike potential has massively improved and we all know how fast he can run).

Gomez comes across incredibly well in this podcast. I’m British, so never have been a Gomez fan as that would mean going against the Brownlees, but after listening to this I would love to see him do well in Tokyo.

I watched the event on the Tri Battle YouTube page even though I subscribe to Lionel’s channel. Seemed the obvious way to view it. I’d still have watched even if it was just Jan.

Same here. I only heard that you could watch through tribattle.com but the landing page was in German and if I clicked the button for live nothing happened (like take you to a page counting down to the start or something).

I got a notification from lionels youtube that the Livestream was coming and it had a 'send a reminder button'. I knew the race started at 9 but didn't know when the live preamble would start. That reminder/invitation popped up while I was making breakfast, way before the start so it was easy.

Lionel added lots of gruelling emotions to the day making it more sport than exhibition.

Interesting. I follow Lionel, yoyoyo, Heather Jackson, Big Metz and several others on Youtube. Its great to watch at my convenience and really enjoyable following real people rather than made puppets some sponsors try to portray.

For the TriBattle I would have watched if it had been just Jan, or Lionel and probably some others. Certainly Lange even though he gets no love from the ST community. You can see the potential this kind of event has on regular Youtube followers. I followed Lionel through his Mount Lemon and hour record Youtube videos and enjoyed them a great deal. Watching Heather Jackson at CDA was really endering as you saw the real Heather. Yoyoyo (love that name!) crying after his swim session a few months ago gave a great insight into the goings on behind the big units public facade. Lots of other interesting moments on Youtube for me and reading between the lines good training tips as well.

Saying that Lionel doubled the viewing figures cannot be correct, but I bet putting it out on youtube did increase the numbers substantially.

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

Javier will never get the recognizion over here cause he is not American, Aussie, Canadian, Brittish or German, simple as that. He´s won 5 ITU worlds, 2 x70.3 worlds, xterra once, ITU long distance once, 4 european champs (yes, also against AB)...just ridiculous the number of victories in Hy-Vee, Alcatraz, Dallas, Los Angeles, U23 world champion.. etc...14 world cups between 2006-2008 and three years in a row world cup series winner before the WTS started out. silver medal in london12, 4th in beijing 08 despite beinng injured and IMO main favourite prior Rio16 until he crashed on his bike (He won the test event the year before). AB or Frodeno dont have this background in ITU (AB, yes, in the olympics), neither in 70.3s...IM, another story. If you give more points to IM triathletes he is not the greatest, but in OD or short distance or whatever you wanna call it he is the GOAT along with AB...IMO he is up there with Frodo if we consider ITU as legitime as IM to get recognizion.
Frodeno won the olympics in 08, yes...before, he never won any world cup, after beijing , two vitories in the WTS, never a WTS title or chorld champ or european champs. ....so, hats off for him for winning beijing, but in ITU he is not even in the top 10 IMO: Whitfield, Hamish Carter, Beven, Lessing, AB, JB, Gomez, Mark Allen, Mola, Miles Stewart, Robbo. He may be the greatest in IM, possibly, but not in triathlon. Olympcs are huge, but it is just one race...you cannot say one guy is the greatest cause he is gold in the olympcs and nothing else.... do we consider Kate Allen better than Loretta Harrop or Vanessa Fernandes? No, cause the other two were the cream of the sport, world champions, podiums, etc... and Kate Allen just won Athens, had a huge day...and thats it...

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P

No argument from me Juanillo. I’m not Spanish but have been following this sport long enough, and I think Javier got very unlucky at Olympics times and should have more than one silver by now.

Without being blocked by his own federation between 2003 and 2006, he may well have won in Athens. He was the overwhelming favorite before Beijing but unfortunately picked up an injury that made his run to fourth the best he could muster on that day. Then his fall and withdrawal from Rio.

What I liked from his interview though is the respect he showed for Alistair and Jonny and how he was glad to be able to battle with them and how that made him an even better athlete. Just class.

I had been on the tri-battle website probably 100 times in the last week, even the english pages are not intuitive. And if you go to the page now there is no way to watch the race on-demand. Even though I went to the website first when I woke I couldn't find the feed. But, because I'm subscriber to Lionel I got the youtube notification and went to the app on my roku. In fact that's how I re-watched. But, I will say I also watched in part on the zwift youtube channel.

But if you follow Lionel or Talbot on instagram it was simple, they put the link in their story and boom. Easy peasy.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.