Favorite Pro's

with the debates over tim deboom and other athletes i thought…

QUESTION to everyone:

who are your TOP 5 favorite pro triathletes?

You do realize if you start a thread like this, you have to answer the question first…

Macca and Larsen (for rocking the boat)

Cam Brown (for proving slow and steady can win the race)

Cam Widoff (for leaving everything on the course, no one “races” harder)
.

Zack, Macca, Spencer and Norman Stadler. Mostly because they let this old timer ride with them, and after they blew me away, they still waited up the road for me. Very cool guys that like to train hard, and have a lot of fun at the same time.

Throw Greg Watson into the mix too. If you’re counting duathletes as well.

Badmann
Deboom, Tim
Bowden
Walton
Brown
.

I’ll assume that you mean currently racing pros or Dave Scott and Greg Welsh would have to be added to this list.

Lisa Bentley (I ran with Lisa and Steve in university and their talk of triathlon made me interested enough to try the sport… that was 13 years ago… plus she’s tough as can be)

Macca (love his attitude)

Zack (when he walked Hawaii a few years back my opinion of him grew huge amounts)

Reid (can win any way … hard bike or run… glad to see him back)

Badmann (she is just plain awesome)

Don’t think I can pick 5. Here is 1.

Tyler Butterfield. watch for that name in the future. 19 years old, silver medalist at Junior worlds 02, super talented, a great work ethic, and a nice kid to boot.

Lori Bowden, Peter Reid, Lisa Bentley, and Simon Whitfield because Canuckleheads rock!

Also Macca for the pure hell of the guy.

Hellreigel is awesome. Got to include Marc Herremans - that’s alot of heart and guts. Deboom is a classy guy. Macca cuz he’s cocky but can back it up most times. And of course, Wendy Ingrham because she’s got great legs.

Barb Lindquist - Chris McCormack - Ivan Raña - Peter Reid - Simon Whitfiled
.

You’ve got to like Thomas Hellriegel. Such a nice polite, quiet man. A bit hapless, but a real consistaent player. Macca is the new guard, he is cool. Some of the current athletes lack a certain “panache”. The whole aura surrounding Mark Allen was so mystical and “invincable”. That was cool. He was like a Merckx. Paula ia another all time favorite. She’s incredible.

Though I don’t see it specified, I assume this is talking about CURRENT pros. Still I can’t resist and I’m going to date myself and in no particular order:

Scott

Allen

Molina

Newby-Fraser

Pigg

Oh, add Larsen to my list. The dude is bad. Also, who is the Telekom guy who did IM Hawaii a couple years ago? I give him a vote. Also, I will say De Boom is de bomb. And that Lothar Leder fella, first sub-8 hour guy- that’s huge. Bryan Rhodes is a bad dude too. And Alek Ruksoyev (sp?).

Here’s my favorite. On his way to a 1999 win and fastest bike split. Note that it’s a 73.5 degree road bike. Hey Dan, how do you explain this one.

http://swimming.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.trimarket.com/archive/99imhi-pics.html

Ok, ok, FAVORITE current pros:

Reid, perseveres through adversity

Bowden, more wins than PR, how can you argue with that?

Badman, sheer dominance. Like Lance at the Tour, she appears to own Kona.

Lindley, ok, so she is “retired”, but I’d bet she’s not done with tri…

Zack, for showing the way on the bike

If you asked for MOST EXCITING PROS, I’d give you an entirely different list with names like Macca and Larsen… but thats another forum.

Steve Larsen–A bit arrogant, but he can change the face of triathlon RACING. I like watching him race, but like Macca I wish he’d think before he speaks.

Macca–More than a bit arrogant. He’s willing to step up to the plate and RACE. He was cool to meet at the Clif Bar tent at WF last year.

Mark Allen–The first triathlon I ever watched wasn’t IMH. It was the Worlds in Nice when he chased down Molina during the run (after Tinley decided not to continue on the bike because of fear of rolling a tubular following a flat)…I believe that was his 5th or 6th World Championship before he ever won IMH…I just loved his style. His mental/spiritual approach to the sport continues to intrigue me.

Lori Bowden–Spent 30 minutes talking to me at IMC in 2001. The NICEST Elite I’ve ever had the good-fortune to meet. And she hammers from February until October (it’s the same reason I love Erik Zabel…Consistency across a long season).

Tim DeBoom–He gets NO respect and keeps plodding away. He’s continued to improve for 5 straight seasons (3rd, 2nd, 1st, 1st is not a bad career at Kona). He and his brother represent the United States well. He wins with grace (although, I do think most of the top pros have become a bit too conservative and willing to draft, but that’s an entirely different problem in our sport).

Here’s my favorite. On his way to a 1999 win and fastest bike split. Note that it’s a 73.5 degree road bike. Hey Dan, how do you explain this one.

exception to the rule. i’ll make you a deal. i’ll explain the exceptions if you explain the rules.

Karen Smyers. She’s one tough lady. :slight_smile:

I make no promises that I’ll stick to 5.

Lori. What did she do, like 4 IM’s this year? including the 3rd fastest ever for a women? incredible.

Natascha. Love that smile. she’s so happy when she wins. I wanna be like that.

Macca. pure excitement. Makes me wanna train harder.

Reid. I’m not sure why I like him, but I do. I’m glad he’s back. I like him even more now that he’s gone through some adversity.

Smyers. Speaking of adversitey! Even ignoring the whole cancer angle, I really like her because she just wants to race. She doesn’t really win anymore, but she keeps at it. I can relate to that a whole lot more than some flash in the pan pro, who hangs it up and never races again. I hope I still have the desire to keep racing after that many years in the sport.

Larsen. Tearing it up and bringing the bike back into the sport.

Watson. I wished he’d been in kona this year.

“exception to the rule.”

Seems to be a lot of exceptions.