I’m a BOP pro and I’m fanboying a little bit about racing Texas with Blu/Iden. Makes scoring points difficult, but those aren’t worth much outside the very top.
Should be a big show
Size of MPRO field (actually started as opposed to the 80+ who entered) was 57.
Half the MPRO field will be chicked by Knibb and Matthews. Now there’s a fanboy opportunity.
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Hey, is this you sort of coming out?
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I’ve always known this is who I really am, I was just scared you wouldn’t love me if you knew.
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I never knew why I didn’t love you and now I do 
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RvB has said he’ll be campaigning in the IM Pro Series
https://www.instagram.com/p/DE8ldvrsY21/
So has Ditlev
https://www.instagram.com/p/DEpv1WksMa9/?img_index=8
So we can identify the likely front runners in MPro as:
Lange
Ditlev
Blummenfelt
Iden
RvB
I am assuming the current IM Pro Series champion, Barnaby, will not play as he has signed a T100 contract (or perhaps he has a ‘Matthews’ in mind).
And Laidlow has shared his calendar which includes only two full distance races.
Any other main players? Marquardt? Hoegenhaug? Sanders?
Thought Long would’ve done well but he has taken PTO’s coin instead.
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Leon Chevalier and Clement Mignon?
Think Leon will be a top 5 contender in the overall series if he does 3 IM.
Question now who will show up at Roth?
I just can’t see PL keeping up even close with points in 70.3 here. I would think we will see him choose Roth and Nice as focus. He wasn’t even able to qualify for Taupo, correct? There will be just too many time losses to focus AND win the Pro Series for PL based on previous 70.3 races I would think.
I still don’t think Sam Long is nearly good enough at the IM distance. Although…not racing it or focusing on it won’t get it better either. Everyone says he should but his bike/run power seems to be much more prevalent at middle distance, IMHO.
oops
ETA - I got you Marc - I think Lionel is going to win the whole thing! He’s the best! Argue with me!
Pink…people. Pink.
Agree on Patrick Lange.
He hasn’t shared his season calendar yet, but I don’t think he’ll go for the IM Pro Series.
He’ll focus on Nice as #1 priority.
He doesn’t need to validate.
He’ll do Roth, because they’ll pay him a solid appearance fee (50k maybe) and he has an unfinished business from the last year.
He might start a local 70.3, but simply to check the form.
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Are the appearance fees for Roth as high as 50k USD?
In what way “unfinished business” (for Ditlev)?
Appearance fund will be needed to fund Haug and Philipp too, I suggest.
Can’t see Ditlev racing Roth given he has said he’ll race the IM Pro Series.
Two IMs to race from: IMSA, Texas, Cairns (v long way), Frankfurt (week before Roth), IMLP (getting a bit too close to Nice). September IMWC compresses programme for the men.
Haug might go for the IM Pro Series, but who knows.
As the current IM World Champion and German, he’ll get plenty. It’d take Patrick, Felix or Belinda to know exactly how much. It’s difficult for non-Germans to comprehend how much Roth means for the German triathlon, it’s the second most important race in the world after Kona.
As per the unfinished business, Patrick had a DNF last year in Roth due to twisted (?) ribs. Then he had a subpar race in Frankfurt.
More than the DNF last year, winning Roth again will put him ahead of Frodeno/Kienle in terms of Challenge Roth victories. As far as I know, no German man has won more than once. If he wins both Nice and Roth, he’ll have an argument to being the best German full-distance triathlete.
Lothar leder won multiple times 4 to 5 times I think
You’re right forgot about the sprint finish between him and McCormack in 2003. But I have no clue about the results before it became a Challenge family event.
Kanute has said he’ll be campaigning the IM Pro Series
Thought ‘triple crown’ is hyperbole. I’m all for stretch targets: I reckon finishing top 5 in the IM Pro Series would be a great result.
Likely front runners in MPro (top 3 then others) as:
Ditlev
Blummenfelt
RvB
Iden
Kanute
Chevalier
Mignon
Hoegenhaug
Sanders
Foley
Marquardt
Baekkegaard
The WPro field looks rather weak: several that I’d expected to challenge have taken the silver coin (Sanchez, Berry, LCB) and Philipp and Haug will, I assume prefer Roth. Sodaro has said she’ll plan for it . . .
Moving to Boulder will be interesting to see if Kanute can get that next level of power on the bike to then really put himself in position to get some big race wins. Boulder is sorta the epicenter of multisport training in the US, and I hope it pays off for him. I’ve always thought he’s sorta the “forgotten” athlete at that level, cool to watch him grow up from racing as a junior to olympian to now world class. He and Jim Vance deserve a lot of credit, especially with a Kanute 2.0 type of revival a few years back.
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I really like Ben and his style, but I have to put him in the bag with Pearson and a few others, utterly inconsistent. About every 5th race he is in the mix at the end, the others off the back just finishing. I too hope this new move in coach and location gets him a reset on his career. But running out of time, sport is moving on and those that dont move with it will just be dropped.
As for the IM pro series, seems like a stretch for his abilities, but of course he already went the T100 route and that didnt work out either. Half’s seem to be his sweet spot, so if he can get two top scores there and just be competitive in the 3 fulls, could be a top 5 maybe??