Kristian to pro cycling?

Triathlon Forum
1

Triathlon Hour and Wielerfits both reporting a move to Jayco-AlUla!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8RvND7PUZ-/?img_index=1

https://www.wielerflits.be/nieuws/olympisch-kampioen-triatlon-kristian-blummenfelt-in-beeld-bij-jayco-alula/

Full text for those without IG:

The Triathlon Hour:

I have had it put to me that Kristian Blummenfelt is very close to signing a 3 year contract with World Tour cycling Team Jayco-AlUla that will begin in January 2025, per a source close to the cycling team.

The rumours of Blummenfelt moving to professional cycling have been whispered amongst inner circles of the pro triathlon world since late 2023. Kristian has been partnered with Giant/Cadex since March 2021 (who are key partners of Team Jayco-AlUla) which may explain the connection.

It has also been put to me that Team Jayco-AlUla may have been interested in the training/real world scientific research conducted by the Santara Tech crew (Olav Aleksander Bu, Kristian Blummenfelt, Gustav Iden & Adam Acworth) over their time in trying to become the worlds best triathletes and that gaining access to this knowledge was a part of having Kristian on board.

As yet I do not have confirmation whether Olav Aleksander Bu has an official contract offer on the table for a role as a coach/advsior on Team Jayco-AlUla or whether he would only be involved in his role as personal coach of Blummenfelt and someone for the team to consult with unofficially when/if needed.

Another interesting point is that I am also told following the Olympics Blummenfelt & teammate Iden will be making Andorra their home base. Andorra is a mecca for professional World Tour cyclists. Team Jayco-AlUla have made Andorra their unofficial home base with the majority of their World Tour team living & training there such as Simon Yates, Luke Plapp, Luke Durbridge, Michael Hepburn, Callum Scottson, Kelland O’Brien and others.

This potential move to professional cycling may partly explain Blummenfelt’s desire to back up so quickly from the Olympics to race Kona as he sees it as a big opportunity before switching his focus to other things.

At this stage I am not sure whether his potential arrangement would be similar to Cam Wurf’s where he can spend time racing in the World Tour while still racing triathlon events or if he would be exclusively targeting the World Tour and leaving triathlon behind.

2

He can’t have worse handling skills than Caleb Ewan?!?

3

Clickbait BS. For Knibb her Trek sign up made and makes sense: without it she would not have been eligible to be auto selected after her TT win. And as others have said, if she wants and with some practice she could race on the road, and be a player for Trek in a team sense and her TT palmares will grow over the next few years.
But Blummenfelt actually riding competitively with cyclists! Do us a favour. What size of orifice is JK using?
Well done for biting, @kilo_dave.

4

Clickbait BS. For Knibb her Trek sign up made and makes sense: without it she would not have been eligible to be auto selected after her TT win. And as others have said, if she wants and with some practice she could race on the road, and be a player for Trek in a team sense and her TT palmares will grow over the next few years.
But Blummenfelt actually riding competitively with cyclists! Do us a favour. What size of orifice is JK using?
Well done for biting, @kilo_dave.

He’s changing sports and cycling does make the most sense of the 3. Olav has said this and Kristian has hinted at this for a while… you really don’t think Kristian could be a domestique?

5

He’s changing sports and cycling does make the most sense of the 3. Olav has said this and Kristian has hinted at this for a while… you really don’t think Kristian could be a domestique?

I think he’d spend a season getting pushed around the peloton while learning the ins/out of professional racing. If this is true I think it’d be smart for Jayco to get him into Tour Down Under, which is a home race for them. It draws a solid field but not a grand tour caliber field. Plus there are a few other pro races & cycling carnivals in AUS in that relative time frame.

That would be a good place for him to start his pro peloton education, get some pro racing under his legs & work on his cycling tan lines at the same time

6

Clickbait BS. For Knibb her Trek sign up made and makes sense: without it she would not have been eligible to be auto selected after her TT win. And as others have said, if she wants and with some practice she could race on the road, and be a player for Trek in a team sense and her TT palmares will grow over the next few years.
But Blummenfelt actually riding competitively with cyclists! Do us a favour. What size of orifice is JK using?
Well done for biting, @kilo_dave.

He’s changing sports and cycling does make the most sense of the 3. Olav has said this and Kristian has hinted at this for a while… you really don’t think Kristian could be a domestique?

No, I’m no cycling expert but dont see Blu as being even one of the best cyclists in triathlon, sure I’ve seen him dropped in MD/LC, he’s good in ITU but he doesn’t stand out like Ali Brownlee did.

He’d need to be on Wurfs level wouldn’t he?

7

It’s such an odd news story. Why him? What exactly drew Jayco to Kristian? From other news stories they are implying it was his record breaking vo2max of 103, but even that wasn’t a fact, since it was Olaf guesstimating what it would be during the season.

There are stronger cyclist like Magnus who could do fairly well as a TTer.

I don’t know, it’s just an odd story and I don’t see any particular reason why they would do this. Maybe there’s things in the background we don’t know, but surely it can’t just be because of a high vo2max?

8

Clickbait BS. For Knibb her Trek sign up made and makes sense: without it she would not have been eligible to be auto selected after her TT win. And as others have said, if she wants and with some practice she could race on the road, and be a player for Trek in a team sense and her TT palmares will grow over the next few years.
But Blummenfelt actually riding competitively with cyclists! Do us a favour. What size of orifice is JK using?
Well done for biting, @kilo_dave.

There are things that make no sense
a) he is not that great a cyclist compared to pro cyclists
b) there is no way the money makes sense
c) I can’t believe he leaves the sport until he’s nailed Kona

Where it does make sense : He is part of an acquisition of technology by Giant.

I got a weird response from someone that could/should know so I am now intrigued. I was expecting a denial. I guess we’ll see

9

No, I’m no cycling expert but dont see Blu as being even one of the best cyclists in triathlon, sure I’ve seen him dropped in MD/LC, he’s good in ITU but he doesn’t stand out like Ali Brownlee did.

He’d need to be on Wurfs level wouldn’t he?

The pro cycling scene is littered with pro triathletes who thought they could race on that level and never made an impact.

He’s not destined to be a team leader imo. I also don’t know how he’d accept the domestique role. I just don’t see him as a team leader type of dude. As you state he’s no Wurf.

He might be a solid rider on a pro conti team and/or conti team.

10

Agreed! It is an odd story. As some sort of super domestique, maybe, but Jayco???

11

Agreed! It is an odd story. As some sort of super domestique, maybe, but Jayco???

He’s under contract with Giant, who sponsor Jayco. If he was going to join a pro cycling team, it would have to be Jayco.

12

Andorra seems to be the place to be for serious training these days, huh?
.

13

Clickbait BS. For Knibb her Trek sign up made and makes sense: without it she would not have been eligible to be auto selected after her TT win. And as others have said, if she wants and with some practice she could race on the road, and be a player for Trek in a team sense and her TT palmares will grow over the next few years.
But Blummenfelt actually riding competitively with cyclists! Do us a favour. What size of orifice is JK using?
Well done for biting, @kilo_dave.

He’s changing sports and cycling does make the most sense of the 3. Olav has said this and Kristian has hinted at this for a while… you really don’t think Kristian could be a domestique?

No, I’m no cycling expert but dont see Blu as being even one of the best cyclists in triathlon, sure I’ve seen him dropped in MD/LC, he’s good in ITU but he doesn’t stand out like Ali Brownlee did.

He’d need to be on Wurfs level wouldn’t he?

They could be hoping that with his monster VO2max and already high volume training that if this is all in cycling instead of time swimming and running, that he may very well be a great domestique. Just speculating but stranger things have happened (see sprinters trying out for football/soccer/etc.)

Why KB would want to do this is a different story. Odd decision imo

14

Clickbait BS. For Knibb her Trek sign up made and makes sense: without it she would not have been eligible to be auto selected after her TT win. And as others have said, if she wants and with some practice she could race on the road, and be a player for Trek in a team sense and her TT palmares will grow over the next few years.
But Blummenfelt actually riding competitively with cyclists! Do us a favour. What size of orifice is JK using?
Well done for biting, @kilo_dave.

He’s changing sports and cycling does make the most sense of the 3. Olav has said this and Kristian has hinted at this for a while… you really don’t think Kristian could be a domestique?

Sure he could be a domestique, but that’s all he could be. So why would he want to? Makes zero sense, never going to happen

15

Well, maybe the team can learn very useful things, such as leveraging rectal temperature measurements, how they can drop the specificity principle in training, defy the law of gravity, or being big not being an issue for heat dissipation. I am being sarcastic, but what is written in between the lines is worth a lot of money that cycling teams would be willing to cash. There is no way at his age he can learn the skills to successfully navigate in the peloton.

16

Agreed! It is an odd story. As some sort of super domestique, maybe, but Jayco???

I don’t have the company name to hand, but he is sponsored by Giant/Cadex and helped design the Cadex bike he rides and Jayco is sponsored and runs Giant bikes/Cadex wheels.

So the choice of team is not unusual as there were already links in place.

17

Maybe he just wants to be able to stuff bidons down his jersey again
.

18

No, I’m no cycling expert but dont see Blu as being even one of the best cyclists in triathlon, sure I’ve seen him dropped in MD/LC, he’s good in ITU but he doesn’t stand out like Ali Brownlee did.

He’d need to be on Wurfs level wouldn’t he?

The pro cycling scene is littered with pro triathletes who thought they could race on that level and never made an impact.

He’s not destined to be a team leader imo. I also don’t know how he’d accept the domestique role. I just don’t see him as a team leader type of dude. As you state he’s no Wurf.

He might be a solid rider on a pro conti team and/or conti team.

You mean like Lance Armstrong, Richie Porte, Victor Campenaerts, etc :slight_smile:

19

I think this is bullshit. He is not going to switch. He loves triathlon. I think he would go nowhere with cycling.

20

I think this is bullshit.

I agree. No Olympic Gold Medalist, Multi World Champion is going to take a pay cut to 50-70k pa to go riding around in the middle of the peloton where his name / prestige will disappear. He has his fingers in a lot of pies (Santana Tech etc) to not need to go racing in non elite races.