I think he did extremely well. He was completely alone riding against a pack of some of the strongest athletes in the world. The tracker was showing a group of at least 20 (didn’t show more) in less than 40" and he wasn’t even losing a minute. Drafting (legal or not) must have been huge and it’s also mentally tough to go all out and see you’re not making up time with all of them packed.
Certainly needs to improve his swimming to be competitive but he chose a 5 star level race to start.
Do you have a photo by any chance? You can actually measure the distance using highway paint stripes as they have a measured length and spacing, but most of the time when fans are complaining about this they don’t realize that they are misjudging the distance based on the view angle. The marshals can provide instruction and warnings like they did to Bogen at 70.3 worlds, so it’s not fair for you to say they simply let the whole group cheat without providing any evidence.
1 Like
And more importantly, if he didn’t see the red lights flashing then there wasn’t illegal drafting. Race Ranger is used to take any question out of the zones. Red- drafting, orange- maybe yoyoing or overtaking so get a move on correcting, blue all good. This information isnt just visual, it is also sent live to official’s so they can still give out a penalty without having to be there to witness the offense.
1 Like
Exactly…RR knows exactly who is drafting and for how long during the race. Everything is recorded and can be scrutinized
@8.08
“Sal Smith” must be extremely thankful RR switched the competitors real names. But I worry there is a Sal Smith IRL on Strava or IG getting some nasty messages right now as I figure some folks missed the part that the names were changed.
1:01:37 in Valencia 1/2 Marathon today. 7 seconds behind Yee. 1:01:30. 20th and 17th places.
2 Likes
Thanks for the update, so for official half times I guess we can say he is the 3rd fastest runner in triathlon(half marathon distance) Do we know how his swimming is going?
Holy smokes!
Bonkers fast, especially considering what I imagine he’s able to do on the bike, but did he even race triathlons this year?
Not really. He’s been injured.
Injury preventing from bike training meant lack of motivation to swim as well apparently. Thought it would have been a great occasion to do a big swim block and focus, but he decided instead to do what he loves and that’s running.
He raced geelong earlier in the year. 35th out of water, came in with the women. Had 27th fastest bike and 20th run, ended finishing 19th pro, around 13 mins behind the front of race. I believe it was a rude awakening for him, riding fast after a hard swim hits different. He somehow talked himself into a heap of sponsorships that other Aussie pros struggle to get and a pro license before ever starting a race. If he hasn’t been working hard on his swim he might as well become a runner.
2 Likes
Just watched his youtube recap of the race - funny to see him right in the group at one point with Yee and then finish right behind him - yet obviously feeling much fresher by the looks of it. Says afterwards that he reckoned he could have gone much faster.
Interesting to see if he sticks with running or continues with Triathlon, looks like he could be very competitive at both!
If you factor in that he quit professional cycling just one year ago, I would say that he has the potential for being the fastest runner in triathlon. Look at his perfect running form: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQRODAvjHM7/
But is Whelan really a triathlete? Is he just a guy who’s an excellent cyclist and a first class runner and produces ‘content’. I think Laidlow referred to Collins Cup North Americans like that as ‘duathletes’, got slammed in the race and then came #2 in Kona two months later.
Just hope he puts effort into his swim as opposed to using the pool to recover from 3 minute km reps. However he says that he’s “not in the right headspace” for swimming. Coach agrees (he’s ‘self coached’).
He’s an incredible runner, up there with Yee and Wilde, but hard to call him a pro triathlete.
His swim is no where near competitive.
Guarantee that after seeing him swim at Geelong, no top contender has thought about him since.
Unless he wants to swim 50k/week for 2+ years, he will never get close enough out of the water to use his run.
1 Like
He was a runner before becoming a pro cyclist and was only a cyclist for a few yrs, with some cross training of running. It’s not like he just started running after cycling. I would be pretty confident in saying that he has been doing lot less cycling and swimming than Yee and more running this last 6 months.
Tbf from his only race (IM Pro Series) in March at Geelong where he was #19, 13 minutes down on the World Champion, there were plenty of athletes behind him (Wurf was #20). His bike/run would be on a par with others like Long.
I qualified for a Masters Local Elite bib for The Woodlands Half Marathon in 2023. The local elites got to line up with the real elites and to share the elite area so I met some amazing runners post-race and talked with them. Connor Weaver won the race with a 1:05. The World Athletics list him at a 1:04:06 Half Marathoner and Strava has him at a 1:03:46. He is a true triathlete that moved to running where he was on the National Championship USA Cross Country team in College. He took a hiatus from Triathlon following college and was an elite runner but came back to triathlon for the 2024 & 2025 Ironman Pro Series with his fastest run time a 1:07:57 at Ironman 70.3 Boise.
I only follow 2 of the male elite triathletes and 1 elite female triathlete so I am sure there are other fast runners that don’t get a lot of spot light.
Being the fastest open runner doesn’t always translate to being the fastest runner in a triathlon though. Alan Webb was an American record holder in the mile who briefly crossed over to be an elite triathlete after his running career. He never posted the fastest run split at any of this elite triathlon races.
Casper Stornes shows to have a 1:06:02 run split to his name and Jan Frodeno has a 1:06:33. If Jimmy Whelan goes sub 1:06 in a half Ironman then he will be the king of the run.
Well, there’s open run did/didn’t translate to triathlon run, but there’s also run course was long-short, etc. So I would be careful not to inaugurate kings of the run in triathlon based on a single triathlon run.