Knibb definitely has tons of power on the bike and she is real threat on the senior level already. But she did leave some big gaps multiple times and also went from last to leading at least 2-3 times. It wasn’t an issue for her because she has so much biking talent. When she learns to reign in her powers she will open up tactical options for herself that maybe no one but the Brownlee’s have had in terms of being able to properly break free of a group. I hope we get to see what she and a fit Duffy can do in Bermuda.

Hayden Wilde races like a young Alistair Brownlee. He is exciting to watch.

In the relay he made up a ton of ground on the last leg on the bike. Also charged hard on the run in the sprint race. Kinda reminded me of Beijing Olympics era AB. Has also beaten Mola in a sprint in Super League iirc.

I think he might be a greater danger going forward than Alex Yee as he can actually ride a bike as well....but then I'm a biased NZer.

Yeah Hayden was awesome on both days. No fear, and so much fun to watch. The amount of time he made up on the rest of the field on the bike in the MTR was staggering.

If I were the AUS federation, I'd probably go with Gentle and Jeffcoat for 2020, especially after that MTR. Jeffcoat's run has definitely improved (as seen during the past two weekends, between SL and Abu Dhabi), but I'll be curious to see how she fares against McShane, Gentle, and Natalie VC on an Olympic course.

I agree whole heartedly, my wife had to listen to me heckle the commentary while we watched... Emma Carney was a great racer, but you need someone strong with Trevor Harris (because he's a bit spotty...), and there was no chemistry or charisma... That said, her chirp on Summer Rappaport's transition was on point ("What? is she having a picnic in there, that was literally like 20 minutes in transition...")... She did correct him on the really when he kept saying that Luke Willian was anchoring the South Africans (he's Australian, Wilian Suliwald was the SA anchor), but in general the commentary was uninspired... Lisa Norden has done well in the past, same with Emma Snowsill and Kirsten Sweetland (who did Hamburg last year)... If they didn't need him for his photos, they could eve consider Tommy Z in the booth, despite the awkwardness of the pre-race show (which is hilarious by the way), he held his own.

They should also at least do a mini rules review with the commentators... my biggest pet peeve over the years have been the blatant ignorance of the rules and not understanding the calls from the commentators, when this is the ITU's official broadcast channel (especially when for WTS races, there's a technical official in the broadcast booth, that they could confer with)...

In terms of the race, Mario was a monster on the run! That was hella impressive. I was impressed with Yee, but not shocked, given that the front group let him ride back in... I don't know that he'll be a threat yet in Tokyo (with everyone peaking, I'm not sure he'll be in the mix off the bike), but it'll be good to have someone who can keep Mola honest on the run... Was a bit surprised at the lacklustre races from Blummenfelt and Luis, at least Luis was there or thereabouts the whole race, but he had no pop on the run. I'm surprised the race came back together after that early break, but with all of the crashes (in spite of the dry conditions) I think people were reluctant to drill it... On the ladies side, Katie Z was flying... I'm not sure that she would take an on-form Flora Duffy, but she's never far from contention, and it'll take someone having a perfect day to beat her. Spivey, Learmonth and Knibb raced well, and put in the work on the bike (likely because they knew that their podium chances were bolstered the larger the gap to the main pack was)... Non Stanford is starting to look like the Non of old, which could be scary for a lot of people... That said, I was pretty disappointed with the Brit Pack (Stanford, Holland, T-B and India Lee) for not managing some sort of organization with Gentle in the chase to make some kind of impact on the gap to the breakaway... I think they were definitely missing Jodie Stimpson, and the contributions of Joanna Brown who crashed out, to help light a spark in the chase...

Best part of the broadcast commentary all weekend was the 'Nice 2CU' comment/question from Tommy Z to his wife! Agree with you that Tommy Z's awkward interviews are great, but I think he tends to focus a bit much on the athletes he knows best, which means Americans and those who do Super League.

As I was speaking on earlier in the thread about the US's chances at 3 spots.

Eli moved up to 16th (maxed his 1st period races so he's only offsetting his pts)
Pearson DNF'd w/ some type of bike issue on lap 1/2 dropped to 44th (maxed 1st period races so can only offset)
Tony Smorz who didn't race WTS event dropped to 49th (maxed 1st period races so can only offset)
Matt McElroy jumped to 55th (has not reached max 1st period pts)



And to my further point that having few races on your docket but strong finishes can jump massive points...

Yee has jumped to 27th and suddenly GB is in a 3 team spots situation.

ESP, France, GB have 3 or more athletes in top 30 rankings after Abu Dhabi WTS (1 more WTS race for 1st period, few more WC's I believe).

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

This being his first attempt, it probably was easier to focus more on the athletes he knows best as they would naturally be most likely to agree to speak. Remember many were pre race interviews, lots like to be "in the zone", but the friends were more willing to help out I think. I imagine as time goes bye they will all become more used to the situation and be a bit more forthcoming.

Holy god, just turned on coverage of the world cup Mooloolaba and the Australian announcers made absolutely no effort to pronounce names correctly. It was both hilarious and embarrassing.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

just turned on coverage of the world cup Mooloolaba

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I'm just happy they broadcast world cup level events. Being at ITU events I know the struggle that international names creates for the call up and announcers.

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

Gentle dominants the run, Tomlin gets great comeback 2nd place result from rough 2018 season and Italian's Olmo 3rd.

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

Right, I should be happy for that as well!

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

To be fair to the commentators, the producers did not have camera coverage of the whole course, so the Liz Blatchford and what's his name did not have a lot of visuals to work with.

But at one point, Liz asked him who he thought was a threat of the non-Aussies and he said 'don't ask me that' and shut her down. I took from that, that he doesn't know the athletes, and that he's not a good co-host, he could've easily said 'I don't know Liz, who do you think?' He didn't do much at the post race podium interviews to impress.

I thought Liz was good given what she had to work with. Who ever he was, not so much.

(Tyler Mislawchuk looked good and raced smart, first out of the water via riding a wave and passing Varga, first off the bike in a narrow chute that strung out the field, first at the line.)

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Advocating for research & treatment for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).
http://www.meaction.net/about/what-is-me/

"Suck it up, Buttercup"
(me, to myself, every day)

Compared to team monotone last week it was amazing coverage...

Morgan, Tony, and Matt all moved up 7-10 places after their top 7 finishes today in Mooloolaba.

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Shawn
TORRE Consulting Services, LLC
http://www.TORREcs.com

great finishes but Matt looked rough.... like he swallowed a jellyfish or something. He ran fast but it looked like a struggle the few times I saw him on camera. Rooting for him to do big things this year!

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Based off this tweet I think we know why. I’d probably have the same look on my face if that’s what I had to run on.

Not to mention that they were not only doing the commentary on the coverage, but it was also broadcast on the site (as witnessed when they were chirping Mislawchuk a bit before the swim start and he reacted because it was over the PA...). Was super happy to see him grab the win, he's been knocking on that door, so it's nice to see him breakthrough (we also landed 3 canadians in the top 10, with Michael Lori in 8th and Matt Sharpe in 10th)...

I just watched Abu Dhabi - skipped some of the bike (fitting both races into a trainer session) and wondered what happened to Pearson. Too bad as he had a solid swim. Looks like he and the other Americans ran well at Moolalooba!

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

He crashed out

you probably already know, heck it has probably been mentioned on this thread and I missed it, but Javi Gomez is on the start list for New Plymouth in a couple of weeks.

This is good!

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Should also be noted its a sprint event which imo is a not good distance for him but it’s an ability to get period 1 points+ itu points in general to his name which is likely far more important at this point. Again I don’t think he’ll have enough to jump all his countrymen (not necessary to make team) but points will help his start number and this is likely a good enough “starting back” race that he can shake out cob webs etc.

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

I am looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.

Bermuda start lists are up:

https://triathlon.org/...thlon_bermuda/336783

it looks like almost all of the big names are going to be there.