well, it’s race day. some interesting things happening so far:
-ali brownlee is a DNS; presumably still recovering from whatever happened in singapore. horseau also hasn’t started.
-cam wurf only loses 2 minutes to amberger in the swim!
-wurf not riding away from the field yet, though, and after an early move is actually sat second closely behind svenningsson at 130km
-harry palmer having a good day currently in 4th, after solid swim and early bike
on the women’s draw:
-ryf had a middling swim, coming out of the water 3rd at +4 minutes.
-but then she’s been losing time since, and sits a 7 minutes at 100km into the bike, 7th place and riding slower than the rest of the top 10.
-is this just off-day ryf? or is she waiting to pounce later in the bike? she’d feel OK about outrunning most of these girls, but not from a huge deficit.
with 4x kona slots each for males and females i’m a little surprised more athletes didn’t show up. could be a good opportunity, with relatively simple travel from europe.
I think Wurf is riding away from the normal field - he has 5 minutes to the closest chaser. It is just Svenningsson back to his old form. He is at about the same pace as Wurf last year where they had a minimal swim.
Ryf only needs to validate. So probably if she wasn’t feeling 100% to fight for the win, she chose plan B to execute a very solid training day (but not dig herself a huge hole).
Btw. it’s not an easy travel from Europe. Zurich - Cape Town flight takes 11h, and it’s still far away from Port Elisabeth. What works well is the lack of time change (+/- 2h). RSA isn’t the safest place to train nowadays, so you wouldn’t plan a long training camp/stay there either.
Ryf only needs to validate. So probably if she wasn’t feeling 100% to fight for the win, she chose plan B to execute a very solid training day (but not dig herself a huge hole).
Btw. it’s not an easy travel from Europe. Zurich - Cape Town flight takes 11h, and it’s still far away from Port Elisabeth. What works well is the lack of time change (+/- 2h). RSA isn’t the safest place to train nowadays, so you wouldn’t plan a long training camp/stay there either.
oh, i know - i used to live in south africa. long flight, yes, but internal flight connections in south africa are awesome. and as you mention, no time change. there’s also not much acclimatization needed - weather is pretty mild there (especially compared to people flying over for IM texas!)
well, it’s race day. some interesting things happening so far:
on the women’s . . . :
-ryf had a middling swim, coming out of the water 3rd at +4 minutes.
-but then she’s been losing time since, and sits a 7 minutes at 100km into the bike, 7th place and riding slower than the rest of the top 10.
-is this just off-day ryf? or is she waiting to pounce later in the bike? she’d feel OK about outrunning most of these girls, but not from a huge deficit.
with 4x kona slots each for males and females i’m a little surprised more athletes didn’t show up. could be a good opportunity, . . . Does look like a ‘completion’ objective for Ryf. Which race will be Ryf’s ‘one performance of the year’ for 2024? Nice?!
De Boer (already IMWCQ) and Jansen look like the two runners who could make the time on the leader after T2. Bleymehl has some good marathons (Kona not a favourite venue). She is, I think, coached by Geesmann (also coach of Lange and Matthews) so her running might have stepped up, and she has a good buffer on those behind.
On numbers, I suspect that the IM Pro Series has sucked some of the sub-T100 athletes away from this in favour of Texas, or delaying to Hamurg (WPro) if they think an IM Pro Series top ten result is within reach. Money’s good here though, and as you say: IMWCQ slots available (effectively top 6 for the women). https://www.trirating.com/ironman-south-africa-2024-april-21st-seedings/
I wonder why Horseau decided not to race: moving house maybe?
Horseau said he was sick (bronchial infection) and his racing Lanza. He won last year but still, it’s amazing that he is not racing the Pro Series given he raced 3 full last year including Embrun (15th August) which he won and Nice less than a month later so he is obviously able to race several races in a year plus he comes from the french Grand Prix so he should be ok at 70.3.
Guilloux will be racing Cairns.
makes the pass! wurf into 1st place at 27k, while palmer has disappeared from the tracker altogether.
petersen and aernouts are running pretty well, so we might still have some drama left in this one.
meanwhile the women’s field is starting to tighten up, everyone is drawing together and closer to bleymehl, except ryf (who’s running slowest in the top 8 and over 10 minutes back now!)
Horseau said he was sick (bronchial infection) and his racing Lanza. He won last year but still, it’s amazing that he is not racing the Pro Series given he raced 3 full last year including Embrun (15th August) which he won and Nice less than a month later so he is obviously able to race several races in a year plus he comes from the french Grand Prix so he should be ok at 70.3.
Guilloux will be racing Cairns.Yes, I thought Horseau would be a front runner for the series. Did I read somewhere that he procrastinated too long and was shut out of an entry to Texas? So he can get a 70.3 in, then Cairns and then Frankfurt. Let’s hope he has entered 70.3 Majorca (because the list is shown as ‘closed’(Red)). https://files.constantcontact.com/a202847d001/8792042a-2335-4fec-aa14-689124e00d3a.pdf (21 April)
Ineos Grenadiers into the lead! Finally overhauling Svenningson, as anticipated (gradually gradually catchee monkee).
But himself being chased down by Petersen who looks the most likely winner on current speeds, but it’ll be close (depends if either Wurf or Petersen have ‘front loaded’).
Further back the women’s race is still in the balance. Zimmermann is the fastest on course but too far back. Whomever of the top 5 can hold it together better will win (statement of blindingly obvious). They all have similar form as runners (if you exclude hot/humid) so maybe Bleymehl will hold on.
sveningsson wins! petersen home in second, after clawing back wurf in the last few kms with a solid 2:43 marathon. that’s a great performance on what is typically a slower course. times from IM SA usually feel more like the old days!
and now rasmus re-passes! shame we don’t have coverage, this looks like it could make for an interesting watch. (or highlights package, at least?)
meanwhile ryf has slowed right down, and is running 5:18/km. at that rate there’s a chance she gets bumped out of the top 10.
I think on validation it also has to be viewed by Ironman as a solid effort. If she blows up fine she validates if she sandbags like Pete Jacobs in Zurich circa 2013 Ironman can choose to not count it
meanwhile ryf has slowed right down, and is running 5:18/km. at that rate there’s a chance she gets bumped out of the top 10.I think on validation it also has to be viewed by Ironman as a solid effort. If she blows up fine she validates if she sandbags like Pete Jacobs in Zurich circa 2013 Ironman can choose to not count itYou’re just humble-flaunting your vast experience. Like Ironman are going to say to Ryf ‘Sorry, luv, you didn’t tri hard enough! Race another IM if you wish to race Nice and your last IMWC ever!’. The adjective used is “competitively”. She finished #8 of the 17 on the start list.
“Validation Race†means racing competitively (as determined by IRONMAN in IRONMAN’s sole discretion) and
finishing at least one (1) IRONMAN OR two (2) IRONMAN 70.3 events that offers Pro qualifying slots during the 2024 IRONMAN Qualifying Year (period ending August 19, 2024, for IRONMAN events and period ending June 30, 2024, for IRONMAN 70.3 events). https://cdn1.sportngin.com/...ation_Validation.pdf
What happened to Bleymehl?? Going well for 18 miles; then . . . .Sanchez, Diederiks, Zimmermann and Cheetham get the four IMWCQ on offer.
Bummed for Harry Palmer. Per IG it was a fueling/GI issue so maybe he just needs to down the Saturday app.
Dev, you’re crazy if you think IM is going tell Ryf she wasn’t competitive enough today. If it was someone else, maybe, but definitely not for the GOAT.
meanwhile ryf has slowed right down, and is running 5:18/km. at that rate there’s a chance she gets bumped out of the top 10.I think on validation it also has to be viewed by Ironman as a solid effort. If she blows up fine she validates if she sandbags like Pete Jacobs in Zurich circa 2013 Ironman can choose to not count itYou’re just humble-flaunting your vast experience. Like Ironman are going to say to Ryf ‘Sorry, luv, you didn’t tri hard enough! Race another IM if you wish to race Nice and your last IMWC ever!’. The adjective used is “competitively”. She finished #8 of the 17 on the start list.
“Validation Race†means racing competitively (as determined by IRONMAN in IRONMAN’s sole discretion) and
finishing at least one (1) IRONMAN OR two (2) IRONMAN 70.3 events that offers Pro qualifying slots during the 2024 IRONMAN Qualifying Year (period ending August 19, 2024, for IRONMAN events and period ending June 30, 2024, for IRONMAN 70.3 events). https://cdn1.sportngin.com/...ation_Validation.pdf
What happened to Bleymehl?? Going well for 18 miles; then . . . .Sanchez, Diederiks, Zimmermann and Cheetham get the four IMWCQ on offer.
I’d just like to point out that the women’s winner, Marta Sanchez, was the first woman out of the water in 52:18 and 16th overall OOTW. She was 7:07 ahead of Diede Diederiks (DD) OOTW and finished 2:16 ahead of DD, so she more or less won it on the swim.
I’d just like to point out that the women’s winner, Marta Sanchez, was the first woman out of the water in 52:18 and 16th overall OOTW. She was 7:07 ahead of Diede Diederiks (DD) OOTW and finished 2:16 ahead of DD, so she more or less won it on the swim. :)I’d like to point out that that’s the second win by a ‘Marta’ this weekend.
I’d just like to point out that the women’s winner, Marta Sanchez, was the first woman out of the water in 52:18 and 16th overall OOTW. She was 7:07 ahead of Diede Diederiks (DD) OOTW and finished 2:16 ahead of DD, so she more or less won it on the swim. :)I’d like to point out that that’s the second win by a ‘Marta’ this weekend.
