I wonder how much the league format this year has affected the women’s field, by increasing the frequency of racing. It seems to have taken Joe Skipper out of the men’s entirely. I don’t think it suits Sodaro who seems built for one stellar performance per season rather than consistency.
I think there’s a clear favourite in Nice and I’m hoping for Lucy to defend her hard won title. She staked her claim at Nice, she will be the one to beat. But the field is deep…
I believe Lange and his team did extensive testing on this last year (pretty sure he talked about it in his Breakfast with Bob interview) and they found that their was basically no difference in simulation testing but in real world testing the TT bike was still the better option by far.
btw is there and amateur start list somewhere, certain outlets have posted start lists form some countries but i cant find a full start list
I do wonder what going for a record in Roth has done to haug. Will she be recovered? Looking back at last year I would certainly say Daniella was not recovered from her record and that was almost a 3 week longer gap from Roth to Kona. In London she looked like a shell of herself and clearly was not close to as recovered as Laura Phillip. You just wonder what these attempts at the record do at the tail end of your career.
Not sure racing frequency has changed that much for Joe.
Think it is other factors leading to an off year for him. Having a child, getting older & depth of field increasing at the front, making riding though a race harder.
Probably still won’t seem many road bikes, but on paper it is more viable than with the pro men.
The lower speeds mean aero drag penalty is slightly lower. Exaggerated: climbing at 10mph it wouldn’t be worth being aero position, but at 20mph it would be.
Plus for lighter athletes, a lighter bike makes a greater percentage difference of the overall system weight than with a heaver rider.
well that is a fair point and of oourse it takes time to recover form that , at the same time its most likely easier for a very light female than for a biggish male like magnus and he was not that far off in nice last year . and lange beat magnus in nice by not losing so much on the bike the gap in run speed was only 1 min wider than in roth i think .so you could say the bike profile certainly played its part. you could argue the bigger impact was that laidlol roda away from magnus
i guess i would not use london results too much to indicate ironman form as at the end of the day it would have been silly to race flat out their for her , just as it would have been silly of lucy to keep going.
at the end of the day only phillipp did the classic rhinny , lange ,laidlow built, underperforming in most races and then hit the championchip race. and in a way sodaro as well , that is an advantage in my mind but will that close the usual 6 to 8 min haug runs faster than phillipp .
i
and the culmative racing of mathews should also have somewhat an impact
Agreed. And you wonder with Mathews if that impact is already showing. I think most who saw the gap off the bike in Tallinn assumed the race was in the bag for her and she would win but the gap widened on the run. Even on the bike you would have expected her to catch the lead but she couldn’t. We will see on Sunday if the insane schedule has finally caught her.
but then again why worry about b races , if she was in a proper nice building blog she should not race well in tallin, she just wanted points.
in a way haug and Charles were in london for contract reasons
mathews in talin to get some points . non of them really where their to win at all costs.
mathwes did not have a blow out race yet she is racing conservatively, at the end of the day the athletes have to find what works for them. and i guess this is the interesting thing of this year everybody is kind of challenged with the im pro series and pto series starting in the same year and there is no definite answers .
I don’t know if I call the European champs race in Tallinn b level and kat is trying to win the whole
Series so a win there was definitely the goal.
By your logic any race not a world champs is b level? And I don’t agree that Lucy was there for contract purposes. She had a special bike just for that race. It was definitely circled on her calendar. If it was just for contract she would have not raced because I have heard she knew her leg wasn’t perfect before it started.
Also the only one seriously trying to do both the t100 and the pro series is Kat. It wouldn’t surprise me if she is starting to feel the effects of it.
i would not go that far but in essence in 2024 ironman world title values more than pt100 and pros series together if you take sponsorship into account
I agree that the content they’re putting out (Iron Will) is top notch. They’re they the predictable storylines (Wurf balancing 2 sports, Kat’s crash, Daniela the pro at the end of her career trying to find one last win, Sodaro as a mom, etc) but otherwise good.
I think it would have been better suited for a wrap up of last year’s race - put it out in the middle of the winter type of thing, or better yet make it more of a preview of this race and how everyone’s season has gone going into the WC than anything else.
Lucy put out an update on you tube last night, all positive. She’s looking pretty ripped this season.
They both acknowledged the difference in the season this year, the approach is a two-season 2024 with a break in the middle. Too many ‘opportunities’ to race.
Aaaand…he’s training again. For Chattanooga. 
She wasn’t doing too much running in that video… To me, it doesn’t look that great to be honest.
I agree with you, in her interview with Bob she just said it was ok. There was no “I am as fit as I have ever been” and ready to win again.
No athlete is going to admit they have niggles, it is game face on and power through.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of my top 3 win it, id have picked LCB if I was confident she was 100% fit, but have my doubts.
I think Kat has been racing too much this year (maybe im wrong but she seems to be at every big race?) Safe pick is Haug for me.
i’m thinking these three run down Lucy, and Philip takes the win in the last K.
Philip
Haug
Sodaro
I would be shocked to Phillips out kicked Haug or Sodaro over the last few KM.
That would be crazy finish.
The Brits aren’t always as macho as others in front of the cameras. Laidlow’s pre-Nice WC interview was completely lacking confidence, then he went out and tore them all a new one.
Tri ratings are out
https://www.trirating.com/womens-im-worlds-nice-2024-sept-22nd-seedings/
Seems to rate Sodaro a bit higher than we would, and Haug as favourite
I would say even LCB going into Kona last year wasn’t exactly the confidence queen. Average result in the Singapore PTO race and then basically nothing up until the race. Then look what happened.
