I read Pierré is out of Swansea - was the clear favourite, of those left standing.
She was entered for Nice; cancelled; shifted to Sweden 7 days later and came #2 (to Bogen(!)), but that only gave her 7 days to Swansea.
I reckon that not racing in Wales would stymie her chances of a top 8 in the IM Pro Series.
A Fighting Chance (BTS) Anderbury (#2 last year) and Palmer (last year’s winner)
Meg McD
A Fighting Chance (BTS) Noodt and Lee
Is this the weakest female field the pro series has had?
1 Like
And the mens…Definately a “B” Pro Series race.
Any pretence of athlete safety concerns gets thrown out the window with all the cows in the middle of the road. 
seriously ?
1 Like
Yeah, first four or five guys literally weaving through cows on course.
Same thing happened in previous years races where even Rinny said age groupers had to get off the bike and walk through the herd.
1 Like
lol. at least there is spectators …
1 Like
Mika has this in the bag. He’s going to win by minutes.
1 Like
A whole new meaning to a “Maurten Mooo’ve”.
6 Likes
Mika is out, crash. Snapped off his aero bars.
1 Like
Noodt crashes and is out don’t know if his areobars snapped or was run off the road by and age grouper. Aero bars totally detached. He is beaten up pretty badly. Camera bike was following but cut out.Heard a lot of yelling and then nothing
Now the ambulance is blocking the road and Indie Lee almost hit a cow.
I remember saying last year that this bike course was just stupidly narrow and dangerous with the cows on course.
Think Ironman need to pay off the farmer to shift the herd to evening before.
Or do a sweep and push at dawn.
Especially where the lake is close to the road.
it’s also making me nervous that the bike course is not closed roads with traffic driving in the opposite directions in places.
1 Like
Incredibly weak race.
In the meantime, another race bites the dust. Swim canceled at 70.3 Luxembourg.
It’s always the swim…
Oh yikes, he crashed into the ambulance. I assumed the ambulance was for him after the crash.
2 Likes
I have done some research and suggest this is what happened to Noodt.
- At 79.5km just through the village of Kittle the road goes downhill, gentle sweeping left hand curve.
- Decent width B road with central double white lines.
- Other side of road is filled by contraflow amateurs climbing, often one overtaking so two abreast, at 17km after their trip round the Mumbles.
- Ambulance with blues stationary on the left side of road: purpose not known.
- Parking the ambulance on the other side would mean all the amateurs having to pass going onto the ‘wrong’ side of the road.
- Noodt, of course was first man down that way and doubt they will have had situational awareness of riders arriving at 40+mph (estimate).
- Assume a lead vehicle or moto, but from the time that encountered the ambulance, immediately recognised the danger (to Noodt) time taken to respond (park beyond ambulance, run back up road) I reckon they wouldn’t of /couldn’t make it.
- Noodt comes round gentle bend, on skids: stopping no chance, riders occupying the other carriageway; tries to slip between them and the ambulance side (if skills allowed).
In this image, imagine the van stationary and consider the white car is two/multiple riders coming towards you and you are travelling at 60 feet a second, arms aero.
After the incident, and before Palmer and the rest came hammering down, they moved the ambulance to the other side of the road.
3 Likes
It was a good race but the course wasn’t well secured. The problems with the bike course are well known, and then there’s the run.
Race leader Lizzy Rayner had two cyclists following her on the run.
Why two? And why behind her rather than in front? Isn’t their job (well, his/her job actually) to clear the way?
Third FPRO had nobody assisting and she collided with a kid who was crossing the run course (no casualties except the ice cream).
1 Like
They made that rule change I think just prior to covid, or it may even be longer to not “pace” the athletes, and so they got moved behind. That shouldn’t be able to stop them from “clearing the path” and perform the duties that they are suppose to do however. How/why 2 were with the leader and not 1-3 each getting one isn’t usual protocol I don’t think.
1 Like
Leader Rayner had the ‘normal’ 1st place cyclist behind her and another guy. I can see the organisers choosing to double mark the leader.
In fact, some reviewing suggests that the extra bloke in the red tabbard is the Men’s 1st place cyclist who’s clearly getting a few extra miles in (we can see him behind Palmer 40 minutes earlier.
And behind is where they should be, We saw really annoying behaviour in Roth last Sunday with two cyclists a couple of metres ahead of Laidlow for miles. Some minor pacing effect, but mainly spoiled the visuals for the tens of thousands watching the broadcast.
Both Pierre and Lagownik had the #2 and #3 cyclists behind them. Tick. 
They have no role to ‘clear the way’ - they should be behind.
The two adults (supporting with massive sign) plus boy were focused on a gap in the cyclists, without realising that there were parallel runners. I saw no marshals controlling people crossing, and frankly (was there last year) randoms can cross wherever they like: you can’t barrier off miles of road down the line.
Glad it was just the ice cream. If it’d been a cyclist hitting the boy ‘clearing the way’(?) might it have been worse.
Nearly 1800 athletes looked unsafe on that bike course. I’d love to see how many bike accidents there were. I did notice a few pick up trucks with several race bikes in the bed-I assume being taken back to transition.
1 Like