Mola and Blummenfelt with one lap left.
Go Blu

Mola looked like he was just toying with him....For a bit I was thinking we may be witnessing quite a shock, but then it was Mola waltzing away.

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"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

I dont think he was toying, that was simply Blu responding best he could after that really hard 500m from line acceleration from Mola, and then forced Mola 1 more sprint acceleration to finally drop him. Damn fine race, and hell Birtwhistle looked out of it and then BOOM gets 3rd the final 300m.

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

CPT Chaos wrote:

Mola looked like he was just toying with him....For a bit I was thinking we may be witnessing quite a shock, but then it was Mola waltzing away.

Mola has an easy on the eye running style. He looks good no matter if he has the fastest time or not.
Blummenfelt will always look like he is less of a runner than most.
But 3 seconds is not a big gap.

Running times:
Mola 14.25
Blummenfelt 14.29
Birtwhisle 14.33
https://wts.triathlon.org/results/result/2018_itu_world_triathlon_edmonton/321782

It was a fun race.
Sadly not a lot of spectators there.
It looked like a local sprint.

I’m guessing the highlight of most people’s Friday nights isn’t going to a triathlon to watch.

the timing is bad for a friday night race... 5pm local time.. people are either on holidays and away, or stuckk in traffic coming home from work (likely cursing the road closures for the race...). Hopefully the crowds are bigger for the MTR today. I suspect with Sat/Sun races, we'll have better crowds in Montreal... then again everything looks tiny after Hamburg... I was in Hamburg for the MTR, and that crowd was insane, easily 250k people there...

Good performance from the Brit girls, Taylor Smith looks like she's now moved herself into the Podium contenders.

Dissappointing from Jonny again, unless this Tokyo course suits his strengths I just wonder whether he should consider moving up to longer course Triathlon, its sad seeing him not podium when he's the best Triathlete in ITU.

Watching the relay, I am convinced that Matt McElroy needs to be the anchor on the US team for the time being. I see it as this:

• Spivey/Kasper/Cook
• Kanute
• Zaferes
• McElroy

I could see a guy like Jason West making a run at that anchor position. I know some people in Colorado are thinking that he will have a roll to play in who goes to Tokyo.

USED to be one of the best.....

oh and Georgia Taylor-Brown

He's still the best Swim/Bike/Runner by a distance!

Jason West? wow. Thats a massive stretch, from his actual level now of being good at camtri level, not even close to a top ten world cup, let alone WTS level. I doubt McElroy/McDowell would be quaking in their boots about Jason pipping them from the anchor spot.

When and where? we haven't seen that recently. The game has changed again. Not saying he won't get back,but for now he is not the best swim/bike/runner or he would be on the podium.

Ok then... non draft he's the best swim/bike/runner in ITU by a country mile.

At the moment (and maybe the amount of sprint distance races isn't helping/a long with losing Ali and Gomez out the front pack) he's gone from almost guaranteed a podium when he starts to aTop 10.

I have no idea what the course is like in Tokyo, but if it doesn't suit his strengths and Ali isn't competing I reckon he should start considering the jump up.

Hmm, well, I am still not convinced he is anymore. Even if non drafting I think there are guys there who would beat him as he is performing at the moment. Pretty sure he has pulled out of Montreal, a tough Olympic distance race which will no doubt be cool weather, normally his favourite. Even he knows he isn't there at the moment, and needs to do something drastic before Gold Coast grand Final, otherwise I assume he would be racing.

Top 3 swim
Top 2 Bike
Top 5 Run

Nobody comes close to him as a Triathlete apart from his brother and Gomez.

What races are you watching this year? He has been good, but very much not the best by any stretch. Mola is the best by a country mile just now.

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"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

Do you know the difference between draft and non draft Triathlon?

How do you think Mola would do against Jonny in a non draft Traithlon?

Are you trying to bait me or just be a jerk?

Have you ever thought that Mola only wants to win a Gold medal in Tokyo, and could not care less about non drafting races? Whether he can race non draft is not the point, as his job is ITU racing. If he wanted to race WTC like Gomez is now, I am pretty sure he could do what Gomez has done (sub 8 in his first IM). Stating JB is the best overall triathlete in the ITU is wrong, and using logic that his non drafting capabilities make him so is non-sensical. Especially as JB has never done a non-draft race (that I am aware of)! Maybe we will all get lucky and he can join Gomez and hopefully AB and maybe Murray in Kona one day. That would be quite a race!

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"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

I have thought about it, and think he would probably go quite well actually. The time ahead out of swim that JB has, when not working with a group of others at the front may not actually blow out as Mola also does a lot of work on the bike these last couple of seasons, and then Mola would just smash the run as he normally does. Often the not front pack swimmers don't get the credit they deserve for their effort on the bike. A pack of 3-5 at the front all feel obliged and desperate to pull turns. In a big chase pack there is often only 3 or 4 who take pulls anyway. These guys can be stronger than ppl realise as they dont start at the front, but put them in a non draft format and that swim advantage often gets negated pretty quick. See relays for example.

At the moment a combination of factors are contributing to JB's relatively poor performances.

The absence of his brother is a large contributor to the front pack breaks not sticking. JB's running hasn't really been on point since 2015 but it's been good enough that if he was in a front pack with a minute lead he would easily podium.

The chase packs have definitely got stronger. Guys like KB and MM are putting in massive shifts on the front to pull things back together or at least limit losses to within striking distance. And unlike previous seasons MM can run fast after burying himself on the bike. Last year, most notably in Montreal, MM could implode after a hard bike.

And maybe the most important factor is that JB simply isn't as fit as previous seasons. Having watched the racing this season I don't think JB would win a non drafting race against the rest of the ITU guys. See how much he was suffering out of every turn in Hamburg when VL was on the front.

With regards to Tokyo I think it's still early days. But if the course is what I think it's gonna be (flattish) then he needs to get his run legs back.

2016 Cozumel, something changed for the Brothers, neither have been able to put together a really decent block of racing since.

There's definitely something in that.

AB is on the start list for the Europeans next week in the world's greatest city, but to my knowledge he hasn't done much running. Will be interesting.

Look at the competition, pretty low level really, none of the big players there. He should be able to podium. Coninx, Vanriel and Lecorre are the only top 10 wts athletes competing. Most of the rest are younger developmental level, or older, never been there, or on the way out guys.

Did you watch the wts kitzbuhl event where they rode uphill in 2013? Mola had one of the fastest bike splits (second to Ali Brownlee) in that race. If wts events all had uphill bikes mola would be even more dominant. He is not and was not a weak cyclist

If he hasn't done much running and the Commonwealth Games were anything to go by, he won't medal.