Too bad on the course, I like the tougher courses as they are better suited for breakaways, this seems like a running race. Doubt that Ali will go for the individual and actually even mixed relay, I'm thinking some other athletes will be better over the 2k run. Btw do you know the status of Ali? Still injured i assume

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

Wow, yeah, that elevation profile for the bike makes the degree of difficulty look magnitudes easier than Rio....with the exception of a lot more 90 degree turns. ~60m elevation gain per lap vs ~7m. Bike leg is really going to favor the bigger athletes. So the test event probably happens sometime next year, right?
I've been absolutely loving the ITU races (Triathlon Live). They're way more spectator (both in-person and broadcast) friendly IMO.

Rio map

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https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm

I run around that area quite a bit when I am over in Tokyo. The entire island is reclaimed land... so yes.. very flat. Except for a few bridges and maybe raised or sunken roadway there isn't much elevation change. Should be rather spectator friendly as that area is very wide open and easy to get around (vs. the rest of Tokyo)

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Team Zoot

There are quite a few tight turns which also favour breakaways over bigger packs, Hills arent the only thing that make a course hard.
I have seen pictures of Ali running at an altitude training camp, he didn't appear too injured.

It will make domestic's more important. I can even see a couple countries colluding to get their athletes into a break. I mean if we and Russia can collude on who should be our president, this would be Childs play!! (-;

I can see the Brits absolutely designating a domestic, only question if for who(or whom)..Teams like South Africa would also be inclined, and the spaniards perhaps. But in some cases where you have so many great guys that fight for top 5, it would be very hard to give up one of those spots. Perhaps go with top 3 and pay someone a lot of money to race just a little more for the other two than theirselves...

There will be few teams with 3 people. With the relay, I think giving a spot away for someone who can only swim/bike would be a prohibitive cost for basically every team. I don’t think we will see any domestiques this time.

This is true, unless they have 3 people, if they are competing in relays they will put the fastest in the teams. The issue for teams of 3, if they put in a swim biker then they have no reserve for relays if required. Unless of course they have one legit top athlete and 2 other very good, but not really podium level, then there is the possibility of one being told that they are there to go for the relay medal, so work for other 2 on bike but dnf or ease up on run saving for relay.

Ali hinted at being a domestique for Jonny, wonder if that is still on the cards?

Disapointed with the course (I bet Mola, Murray and Birtwhistle aren't!)

There will be few teams with 3 people. With the relay, I think giving a spot away for someone who can only swim/bike would be a prohibitive cost for basically every team. I don’t think we will see any domestiques this time. //

Have the lessened the amount of teams that can have 3 athletes from the past? I thought it was still about 8 or so, is that not right anymore? And how is it a prohibitive cost to put someone that could actually help them win a medal? You know what is a waste of money, sending athletes that have no chance at top 20, hell, even top 15. And Allistar would be a great domestic for Johnny if he chose to go that route. Not sure if he would do that again(he has been in this role in the past for Johnny), but perhaps his focus on long distance or some running injury will prevent him from contending for medals. And you can believe he would be an effective domestic, how could he not???

There is no quota this Olympiad for team to send 3 athletes. Any federations with 3 athletes all ranked in the top 30 can send 3. If you look at the current rankings, 4 federations could send 3 women and 3 federations could send 3 men. I think these numbers will be pretty stable, between 3-5 federations able to field the full 3 athlete team per sex. Since most of these teams will be serious medal contenders in the relay (Spain looking like the only exception at this point) I don’t think they would want to “waste” a spot on a swim-biker in the event that one of the relay athletes crashes or gets ill. That is the high cost to which I refer.

I listened to an interview with both Ali and Jonny done in the last few weeks, Ali is still focused on 70.3, Jonny on Tokyo both said they want a crack at Kona one day.

Both expressed views on last year's Kona quite an interesting listen.

Is Gwen going, or is she still focusing on the marathon?

Im prety sure she's done with Triathlon.