Whelan will race Geelong, the first of half a dozen 70.3s, some IM Pro Series.
He can swim quite easily at 1:20/100m now on about 11k a week. Apparently any more swimming than that “messes with his bike and run training”.
Tri247 article:
So probably not swimming with Lionel, but perhaps could be with or on Long’s feet. That would be a fun race to watch, this guy coming out of the water with two of the biggest hammers on the bike we have. No doubt he gets shelled on the run, but actually wondering if he can even hang on the bike. Different sport, different game…
He’s a better stand-alone runner than Sanders btw but who knows after a hard bike.
However his race calendar suggests that that head-to-head will not happen in 2025.
He picked up a run injury/ niggle at Barcelona half a couple of weeks ago but seems to be ready to race now. Long old flight to do a 70.3!
One assumes some ‘family time’ (and home town) makes Geelong a no brainer race choice. Recall he raced a short tri in January there (Melbourne) too.
yes I understand he has run fast in runs only, but think just about everyone in the pro ranks runs faster than Lionel stand alone, and yet…Of course I’m handicapping the fact that he is not yet a triathlete, certainly not a seasoned pro that can run close to PR’s after hard swim and bikes…Looking forward to his progress this season and if he actually can break into our sports elite…
Seth rider the Olympic Silver medalist you mean?
Or Sam Dickinson the Olympic Bronze medalist, perhaps?
But any pathway to the MTR has to include WTCS ranking level competence in the swim (because draft legal). This effectively excludes many many athletes with excellent bike/run potential - like Whelan at 20, say - because the swim just isn’t there and its development to the required level takes years, which Federations will not (cannot afford to) support.
Geelong will already be a pretty great measuring stick for him, with whom is set to race against him: Matt Hauser, Jelle Geens, plus all the other regular Aussie mid and long coursers.
Whelan got 19th yesterday. His B+R were probably in the top 6 or 7, but his swim was catastrophically bad. I think running that well (1:11) OTB in his first race is promising, and that the dynamics of the race really hurt him (just judging by splits a lot of probably weaker cyclists were towed along the entire bike course). It seems like he has a better chance than previous crossover athletes to be successful here, but it will completely rely on improving his swim.
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I think he might have been the MPRO that got passed by the women’s swim leader a few hundred meters from the finish. When the camera showed the the pass it looked like he had stopped swimming for a bit.
Well at least he’s talking to the right guy about getting his swimming in order.
His bike was actually 15th, run 8th, swim 35th, which was 7 minutes behind front group so he was passed by women. Lost ground, about another minute to the fast guys on the bike. Fastest run was obviously Geens with a 1.07.58 then Birt with a 1.08.47. Reid 1.09.14. If that gives an indication of where he is at and where he needs to get to. About 12 minutes quicker and he would be competitive.
Learning to swim 2-3 months ago then going 28:48 may be the fastest improvement off all time and actually pretty impressive. It’s all relative. If that trend continues he’ll be 2nd pack in a few months.
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Bike might have been 15th, but less than a minute behind the Geens group, to add some context. He lost more time to Geens in transition 5:10 to 3:51 than on the bike. Plus, he probably did a lot of it solo.
I was at the race! Bit of context for those playing from home:
Whelan came out of the swim ~8 minutes behind the mens leader. His transition was ~1 min slower than most others.
When I saw the main main pack come through on the ride they were being towed by Ben Hill, who is a pro cyclist (and decent swimmer)… , they were all super bunched up. Presumably the main pack was putting out significantly less power at the gap I observed… whereas Whelan was riding solo. To run as he did off the solo bike is very impressive imo!.. particularly given it’s his first race.
Sure if he can go from no swimming to 1:30 in 5 months of 10k a week, he can also get closer to 1:15 by this time next year… would see great benefit in increasing the volume to ~20k and racing open water… sighting practice etc.
In the meantime, think he should target races with more onerous - or better policed - cycling courses, where packs don’t tend to form as much.
Excited to continue to follow the journey!
Whelan is on paper, a stronger cyclist than Wurf, having some top 50 world tour time trial results against the heavy hitters like Ganna et al:
Whereas Wurf was never at this level in his pro tour career. What amazes me the most is his running ability.
Are you saying the lead group had no Marshalls and were not riding at 12m distance??Of course if you only witnessed them in transition where most the time the rules are usually overlooked, like at aid stations and other obstacles, you might have not see how they rode the other 99%+ of the time…
But you are right in that it is less watts and less mental stress if you can pace with others, a perk of having a good first event in triathlon…7 minutes in a half may just be too much to ask though, that is forever(as in 600 or so)behind the lead group…
Totally! I can only comment on where I was, which was a few kms from the turnaround on the highway. All in one line, appeared to be far closer than 12m for most of the pack. Take it the marshals wouldn’t impose a penalty on such a large group… Correct, should they have been obeying the full 12m for the remaining 99%, it is still a considerable advantage!
Distance is hard to judge when they are moving so fast past you. I am sure with race ranger in action there would have been a lot of red lights going off that would have been picked up if there was actually drafting. That is what it is for, to take the guess work out of it.