from im live:
His lead over Pete Jacobs is now almost 4:30 as the leaders go through 45 miles on the bike.
Andersson is grinding away up the hills – his rpm is between 40 and 50 for a lot of the climbs!
02:48
according to IM live i’s now 5 secs! go bjorn!
never mind 6:50
.
If Dave Harju can’t win it, I’d love to see Bjorn pop one. Interesting to see how he bounces back from that killer Norseman Ironman. That has to take some legs outta you for th second half of the run.
Dev
haha i bet.
we want to see bjorn win so much
have been worried that we might have messed him up a few weeks ago
you should have seen him at that top of the mountain in snow and fog, that was a tired swede…
how fast runners are the other guys, how large lead does he need to make it?
hårek, rd at hp norseman
15 - 20 min lead to have a chance I think. Harju ran around 3 hrs last year.
I don’t think that Dave has ever broken 3 hours, in an Ironman, so he will need to run 3 flat and hope that Bjorn does not dip under 3:20.
This race is now Bjorn’s to lose…
It will be interesting to see what Andersson can do on the run. Indeed, it’s his race to loose. I know all of the you-have-hammer-the-bike crowd will be cheering him on madly! However, with all due respect none of the men chasing him are real standout IM distance runners. Watch out for Christophe Mauch tho. He has been 4th at IMH twice and obviously knows how to control pace, then stalk people down on the run. It looks like it is windy and hot ie it could get ugly!
Fleck
didn’t mauch once run a 2:49 in switzerland?
My legs ache just thinking about what bjorn has been through the last 40 days. Hope he pulls it off -
I just got back from a watching some of the bike. I was out at the hill affectionately referred to as the Bitch. Bjorn is absolutely tearing the bike up. It’s unbelieavable. He had over 18 minutes by my watch on Harju at that point in the second loop. Harju was in third. It’s hot and windy out there. I sure hope Bjorn can hold it together for the run.
Dan
Yastrebov will win. Bjorn was NEVER in a position to win this or any big IM race. I’m so tired of all the Bjorn fantasy. He can’t even win a half with any real talent present.
Until he learns how to run, he’ll never go top 3 in a big race. I’m sure he’s a great guy, just doesn’t run well enough to be near the front after 5 miles.
Bjorn is only 26???
jeez.
You know, I didn’t want to say it, but . . .
Look, this sport has always bit a bit more about the run - almost right since the get-go, and it remains that way to this very day. There are those out there who just don’t seem to get this. And you know what, it really does not matter about the format either - drafting or no drafting, in a very competitive world-class triathlon, it’s going to come down to the run. Yes, from time to time a big race is stolen on the bike as Stadler did last year at IMH, but I assure you that this year it will be back to the run at IMH, as it has in just about every IMH race. Look at the truly great triathletes over the course of time - Whitfield, Lessing, Allan, Welch, Smyers, Newby-Fraser, and so on, they have all be great runners.
So much time and energy is spent talking about the bike and the equipment here, but the reality is that it’s more about the run than the bike!
Fleck
I so agree that the swim-bikers get way more exposure than they deserve. The perfect example is Jan Sibberson. If you flipped the race around and started with a marathon, no one would know some of these swim studs. In many cases, they get an elevated level of exposure that has nothing to do with where they cross the finish line.
That being said, Bjorn HAS finished some pretty big races in the top 10.
I would actually be interested in seeing how he could do in a stacked Olympic tri field. If he could swim with the lead pack (very possible) and bike 50 min flat, then he might be able to get away with running on 35 min and win some big ones.
In any event, I am cheering for Harju him being a local Ottawa pro and all, but if he can’t take it, I hope Bjorn can hang on. If nothing else, he makes the race far more exciting than the runners who sit in for hours before making their move.
Dev
Everyone knows this is a bike-heavy site.
Bjorn became a “ST legend” when many of us sat here watching IMNZ live and watched Bjorn just tear up that course with an avr of 25mph plus (If I rmember it right). Cam Brown blew past him in the run. Bjorn just attacked that course and it was downright impressive to watch … as was Cam’s run. THat was initiation to IM racing.
Bjorn posts here. If Cam Brown posted here, chances are many of the folks would have been cheering for him to pass Bjorn.
I think people desperately want to see Bjorn do well on the run and put it all together because, he’s young, strong, endless potential, a great guy … and well, a Slowtwitcher.
well pete jacobs just passed him.
bjorn cant run
perhaps not
just wanna tell you that we saw bjorn run at a sub 3 hours speed the first 25k at norseman,
then ran uphill the next 17k
it looked like bjorn could run
we were amazed, cause we knew that he could not
he actually destroyed our plan for the timing of setting up the service-stations
ok, he cant run
but i am willing to bet my left little finger that he will get things right one day
because he is totally a great guy, a pretty large group of people are gonna celebrate that day
even in norway, and we dont like swede’s…(,ø)
hårek, rd at hp norseman
.
Well Steve, I will disagree with you that the sport is all about the run. When I first started in triathlon, I was coming from a running background and could bang off a 32 and change 10k off the bike. Unfortunately I was swimming 31 minutes for 1.5 and biking in the 1:12-1:14 range so I was no threat to even podium in my age group. I really believe that having the run as your strength is great if the race is close near the finish (I had a lot of battles with super-swimmer Steve Merker years ago and if I could catch up and erase the 8 minute lead he had on swim then there was no way he could match my final km in the run) but that the winner is always going to be the best overall triathlete. You must be able to measure your effort throughout and be very strong on the bike so that you can use a good run. From a running perspective Peter Reid running a 2:46 marathon is slow running. What athletes like Peter, DeBoom, and Cameron Brown are very good at is being strong on the bike and gauging their efforts and nutrition so that they have the energy to run a decently fast marathon at the end. When the best IM athlete in the world is not even running 6 minute miles, you can’t say that it is their run “speed” that is winning it for them. It is just too easy to get sucked in to riding too fast and then not being able to use good running ability in the final miles.
Now back to IM Moo. The past few years this race has always been a suffer-fest with the “fast” runs being in the low 3 hour range and the winner (Harju for one) has been someone who did the bike ride really hard and then hung for dear life and slowed down the least on the run leg.
… and of course, now that I’ve posted this I check and Bjorn is walking and been passed by a better “runner” or maybe a better “triathlete” 
things aren’t looking that good for patrick allaire.
1hr swim
6hr bike
looks like he’s homing in for a 10:30hr IM