You think she was struggling on the bike for 180 km 4:40 hours ??? and then ran an Ironman marathon record pace in kona in what seemed like the hardest day is a long time? You’re an easy sell. Please tell me you don’t believe what politicians say at least .
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Worst legs. Worst legs ever. Just didn’t have the legs. Did you see Solveigs legs though? Beautiful legs. Just couldn’t keep up.
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For the Dune reference, its worth noting that this was the women’s race. 
She was almost 15min behind coming off the bike, I would say for her, that was a bit of a struggle. It’s irrelevant what she rode, the race was up the road from her and she couldn’t bridge it. Not because she was “sitting in”, just wasn’t strong enough relative to the front of the race. Stop being so pedantic. But ok, weave your theories and have at it.
Bene Gesserit FTW! “I will not fear, fear is the mind killer…”
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Care to identify which races you had in mind. Texas, where (NB lost 5 mins in Taupo to a rampaging Knibb) then almost matches her with a 4:20? Or Hamburg where she leads the swim, shares the bike lead with Loevseth with her main challenge third wheel? Or maybe Nice where she matches climber Philipp?
So much of the ‘drama’ (aka athletes running too fast and dropping out) in the women’s race could have been missed if a men’s pro race had been running. Just when LCB jogged her final strides the broadcast focus would be on Lange (say) running down Palani and into the finish, and afters. Hey ho!
At least the heat and too fast a pace did not bite Knibb until after the men would’ve finished.
I’m sure we all remember Carfrae’s 3rd victory, which largely unfolded while they were doing podium interviews…
The solution to this is really just to start the women before the men, by the average time difference over the past few years. First to the line wins the whole thing. This will ensure that not only do the women get enough coverage (they’ll be onto the run first and leading most of the time) but that also that their critical moves happen first.
I’m pretty sure in Texas both 2023 and 2024 she came out of the water really far down then lost ground on the bike but came back and won on the run pretty convincingly. Neither of those races was she being challenged on the bike by someone in the caliber of TK.
One that jumps to mind was sub 8. Her bike was fine, but she looked like she was dying on the run when NS passed her, but she rallied and you could visibly see her go from looking dead to looking ferocious. It’s not a perfect example, but that rally has always stuck with me. I’ve seen the same manifest itself for her in multiple races. She always seems to be able to rally on the run. Sometimes it’s mid run other times it’s coming off the bike looking out of contention and unable to make up ground on the bike to hammer the run.
She was sitting in .
She wasn’t racing Knibb and LCB that would have been stupid they were #1 or bust she wasn’t .
Do your best overall race to be top 3-5 ( pro series points ) a dnf and she might lose that.
Make Laura and Lisa do all the work do not work for them so you can outrun them .
Once Laura caught she didn’t take one turn , not one .not even downhill .
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I respect your take but I don’t think the IM Pro Series was an influence during the race. Certainly I expect ‘her team’ discussed the necessity to finish and we saw extra cooling measures (bear in mind her medical background and Matthews M’s arduous military experience).
Here’s @Ironmandad ‘s take.
He articulates it so much better than I could.
- Knibb and LCB were not to know Matthews was going to have a sh1t bike.
- They might hope for a 10 minute gap and her or Philipp to run a 2:47 and Loevseth to run a 2:52 (5 mins slower per the gap in Hamburg).
- Knibb clearly had a plan to run a 2:57, and she did, for 30km before she slowed as the conditions bit: never approached that speed before, let alone in hot/humid.
- When LCB found herself ex-T2 with a lead of 13 (over Matthews) and 4 minutes over Loevseth she should have recalibrated and aimed for a slow catch on Knibb and paced herself for a 2:56 (to beat Loevseth and well ahead of Matthews).
- LCB set off at sub-2:49 pace, ran up Palani as fast as Matthews (per Strava QOM) and the rest is history.
Can someone find the top 20 graphs and pre race top 10 or 20 to see who was benefiting from not don’t a dnf .
I agree that the series isn’t what drove the race but I do think it played into some of Kat’s decisions on the bike. She has always struck me as highly intelligent and she would know that with SL ahead of her not finishing could risk 75k in the pro series. I do believe she didn’t feel great on the bike, she was initially highly focused on Laura and Lucy and Taylor for our much faster than she expected. So I think she decided to not try to push through and up the load on the bike and close those gaps bc she knew the risk was not worth the reward. She had to have been thinking I feel like shit right now and if I redline on this bike I won’t finish this race. Prudent decision, but it was a decision forced by external influences not her game plan going in.
You all told me pre race she would be off the bike in 3 rd she’s that great a biker , now she can’t even bike faster then Laura , Lisa or lovseth ???
She did a Lange kona. Hold smart to run the fastest , lower risks and save it for the run.
She so smart she fooled you .
You know what happens when you don’t have it for the bike ask Leon chevalier , you go backwards and then can’t run.
She know your power and hear Limits , she knew the saving on the back and she overall probably though better to race Knibb and LCB as the Rick reward of a dnf would be huge overall.
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You you think they let them get away? They were never going to be able to stay unless Lucy and Taylor went slow. They continuously bled time to Lovseth as well.
You think Leon is even in the same ball park as Kat let alone close to her league? Maybe I missed when he’s podiumed at any IM WC event.
Ouch what did Leon do to you? He was in 2 nd place last year in kona at one point of the race . I mean if Knibb and LCB finish Saturday he and Kat have the same finish position?
lol you threw him under the bus comparing him to a 5 time WC podium finisher and the #4 ranked cyclist by PTO. Sure he’s a great guy but he isn’t close to her level.
Keen to help, but maybe in English?
In the IM Pro Series 2025 thread I’ll be offering some analysis on the WPro state of play in the IM Pro Series and implications for Marbella.
Matthews, Loevseth, Perterer and Hering are now all fairly locked into #1, #2, #3 and #4. DNS/DNFs would open a very narrow window (most have a ‘spare’ 70.3 score). Jansen and Hollioake benefitted from their IMWC results and Hollioake will move up to #5 with a finish in Marbella. Sanchez’ DNF will mean she’ll maybe make #7 whereas a decent finish would have given her a shot for #4. Berry has said she won’t race Marbella, so no more points (she has T100 Dubai to race and a chance of top 5 in the final T100 standings).
The pro series #1-20 pre kona and post kona .
Again she’s the 4 best biker that couldn’t pass anyone. Sitting in , smart .
You have to read the conversation. He said Kat and Laura won’t let Løvseth get away in the future because she’s a threat. If that was their thinking, then they wouldn’t have let Lucy and Taylor get away, because they both were obvious threats to win. The truth is Kat and Co. couldn’t stay with Taylor, Lucy or Løvseth and doubtful they will be able to stay with them next year either.