Excellent race and good to see the women have a race without impact from mens race.

Commentary was terrible. Watched it for 10 mins at 3 am this morning and not once did they mention 1 - 10, how close the other athlete were to each other. Was totally about a US women about to win. Think they still had about 30km to go.

They really need to engage viewers.

If one of IM's main goals at this point is to attract more women participants I can't think of a better winner than Sodaro, winning in her first Kona and second 140.6 with a 18-month-old daughter who interrupts her finish-line interview. I assume that will be emphasized in their NBC broadcast.

Lucy’s interest in ITU has everything to do about going to the Olympics. Anyone who grew up a serious competitive swimmer has dreamt about going to the Olympics. If she switches it would primarily be to pursue the Olympic dream. And I could not fault her for that as this is probably the last cycle where she is young enough to have a legit shot.

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In the end this was a run of the mill Kona championship performance… Sodaro swam with the main pack, biked with the main pack, and then uncorked a run. Very Crowie or Macca or Peter Reid or Lange like. Surgical.

Women’s game has been upped if this is the new standard.

E

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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.”

Except she’s British. No shot?

E

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
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“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.”

Lucy is plenty young enough to win several Kona titles. Geez she is 29 years old I think.

Yep. Pretty good story there. I was rooting for her once I saw her and Moench get into the top ~5 on the bike.

PTO has done a good job of documenting the athletes leading up to their races. There’s some good videos about Chelsea’s struggles coming back post pregnancy. They really hit home in our household given that my wife’s two pregnancies, my boy’s troubles (colic and general sleep issues) in infancy and into their toddler years, as well as my wife’s body’s reaction to the pregnancies.

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It seemed like a good idea at the time. . .

Meh her Olympic dream ended with Tokyo imo. You don’t get to pick and choose the Olympic dream like it’s a seasonal change. It would take a full change career path to give it a “real” go. And like I said no way in hell that happens, so it’s fun to have the idea/dream to pursue, but are you REALLY going to pursue it or just do it around key LC races.

It would be stupid to give up LC racing over next 18 months to go “grind” with points / itu training demands.

So it’s much cuter to have it as a “dream” than the actual reality of doing it. Could she sub in on some random itu events like she has, sure. But to go “all in” over the next year. No way in hell she does that. You can’t make the British team as a half in half out itu athlete. Just doesn’t work that way

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
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Commentary had me wanting to tear my ears off. Who thought it was a good idea to name every overtake "The Maurten Move"?? It sounded absurd, and will only guarantee I never buy their products. I wonder if the commentators felt as stupid saying it as it sounded?

Why so negative? She’s got a shot IMO.

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I’m talking about her shot to make the Olympic team.

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Tokyo was never really in the picture. She did one race last year (Leeds I think?). And then she was going to evaluate what her plans would be regarding LC or SC after 70.3 worlds 2021. No idea if they ever made that decision and then of course she got injured.

I agree that she would have to give it a full go and drop LC racing completely if she wanted to pursue it seriously. I just don’t see why so many of you are so pessimistic about it. Is it more of an outside shot than a shoe in to make the Olympic team? Absolutely. But if she has the resources and funding to do it, then why the fuck not??? I would give her full credit and support to pursue that dream. But maybe that’s just the millennial in me and someone who once had an Olympic dream as well.

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Thanks for that update.

That’s what makes racing so tough, some days you just don’t have it even though you’ve done the work. Then other days you show up and everything comes together like it did for Sodaro.

Didn’t mean to come across as negative, just pragmatic. She’s got a shot at the IMWC from my POV. That said a failed Olympic campaign will only help her long corse running in the long run.

E

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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.”

Dream on: British Triathlon will not give even her another start. She raced well at Leeds but there is a surplus of talent and they will be looking beyond Paris now. There are other talented young athletes banging on the door, with a much greater likely dividend on investment.
Maybe she has more chance of a 1500m slot: but she'd have to commit herself back to full time swimming. Isn't going to happen.

It's just that Potter & Coldwell didn't even make their Olympic team plus there are a few others with realistic aspirations. I'm not reading this as a knock -- short course is very competitive for the Brits.

Anyways, Sodaro crushed it. I wonder if LCB would have had a shot if she paced the run better. Looked like she was flying outta transition to catch Daniela. Idk how accurate the tracker is but it was showing ~6:15-6:30 pace through 10k. She finished at ~7:00 pace for the whole thing. I wonder if she locks into 6:40-6:45 pace if she could have run 2:55. The difference is right around the margin of victory. These are the best athletes in the world. They do all sorts of testing. & it still likes like the start of a HS XC race coming out of transition sometimes. You can't bank time in distance events & going out too fast means crashing harder than you would have. But Sodaro crushed it. Happy for her.

She has already been offered some ITU starting slots and may get more if tactical substitutions are needed.

Just in case anyone is interested, I watched a few of the the German TV interviews of Haug and Phillipp.

Haug said she over-biked late on on the bike, was on her own a lot on the way back, and paid for it on the run - she didn't have the legs. She was very emotional. She always is, though, in a nice way.

Phillipp was clearly devastated and angry at the penalty. What she seemed most angry about was not even getting an explanation as to why - I can understand this sucks. She seemed genuinely confused, and without an explanation, how do you know the referee got it right? She said she asked, and they wouldn't tell her.

I'm not going to expand any more on what she said, as clearly on here any non US athlete who gets a penalty gets no leeway at all, so there's no point.

But she was visibly upset. I'm not German, but I felt terrible for her.

Other than that, in general I thought the race was top notch. The determination on show - many who were passed kept at it rather than blowing up. It was a good idea to separate it from the mens.

The coverage, optically, was the best ever. But they have to do something about the commentary. I've listened to Nicole Leder, Faris Al Sultan, Sebi Kienle and others do a full day on German TV for various Ironman races, and they are great, so it's not the time filling that's the issue. What makes a difference is the main presenter on German TV is a professional presenter - and I think this helps. You have a pro commentator with an expert like Kienle alongside and it's perfect. Like Rinny yesterday.

Ironman Now need a trained professional in there too. All sports have it. Then I think Lieto, Dede etc. would have more to offer as they would have someone to interrupt the senseless stuff and keep them providing good insights. As it is, they do their best, but it's mostly irrelevant - and with their race experience, I am sure they actually have a lot more to give. It's not all their fault.

Anyway, loved it, the women's field has improved hugely. It's great to have a US winner (I'm not American), and long may we see races like this one.

this:

dede and lieto are not bad. they have been a part of this since the start and need a pro working with them. people will always complain, but having a pro will help. are you telling me you can't hire the local news anchors for 2 days? or at least he backup anchors when the anchors are out sick of whatever?

It is past time for IM to jump on board with the radar technology for the bike drafting penalties.

It’s too instrumental to the fairness of the race to keep trying to monitor it by a few refs on motorbike.

I’m fine with leaving the zone at 12m but there needs to be a standard for how long cumulatively a participant is in the draft and the penalties need to be immediate as to not impact the rest of the race up until the penalty tent i.e. your indicator light flashes red you pull over until it flashes green again.

I'm not sure distance is the right solution. The draft benefit varies with speed. 12m at 15koh vs 40kph is completely different, not to mention if you're riding up a 10% hill and have to drop 12m back you are way further back than on the flat in terms of time.

My guess is that's why they are often allowed to close up on steeper climbs.

Expanding on your idea, they should really have a time gap as the drafting detection. Something like four seconds would do.

But before that they should at least be consistent and have the decency to explain the the decisions when asked.

I'm coming in late on this, but that was a great race for sure. Soldaro executed to perfection and I did not see that coming. Nor did I see Lisa Norden putting down such an incredible result. She is just an all around badass of an athlete.

+1. Also, a bit of research before commenting might be nice. I watched Chelsea make the early passes and wondered what her run background was since it was obvious there was something unusual there. A good commentary team would have known and mentioned it..

from a letsrun thread, here's Chelsea Reilly (Sodaro) winning the US Champs 3000 indoor with a WWF-style finish..

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pmQ-kZgGz7s

Who was the last male rookie to win Kona in his debut on the island? Was it Dave Scott in 1980? Molina in '88? Luc Van Lierde in '96?

Thanks for sharing the video.

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