The Norwegians are full of click bait these days, whether it is Santara tech, gcn videos about zone 2 training featuring their coach or best ever vo2 max scores.
Triathlon Hour and Wielerfits both reporting a move to Jayco-AlUla!
https://www.instagram.com/...ND7PUZ-/?img_index=1
https://www.wielerflits.be/...eld-bij-jayco-alula/
Full text
for those without a BS detector:
Kelly:
Someone has whispered, from a third hand source, alleged to be āclose to the cycling teamā Ć¢ā¬ā wouldnāt that make a great story, Jack? The rumours . . have been whispered amongst inner circles of the pro triathlon world for at least 6 months, but we chose not to report on them till now. Scrabbling for a (non-existent) rationale, with no effort to observe confounders
I do not have confirmation on anything and it may be just OA Bu, not Blummenfelt (like Lorangās side hustle)
Apparently Blummenfelt and Iden will be making Andorra their training base, where other people live After the Olympics, Blummenfelt is racing the IMWC (but not Taupo), because his focus on participating in the Paris will be done Cam Wurf, a professional cyclist since 2013 so has plenty of experience racing in a peloton, races triathlons
You are completely right, the team is interested in the āscienceā behind KB and GI curriculum vitae
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Jayco is simply tapping into KB/OBĆ¢ā¬ā¢s data base and KB will be Ć¢ā¬Ėon the teamĆ¢ā¬ā¢ but not as a bike racer. ItĆ¢ā¬ā¢s information sharing.
Also, I canĆ¢ā¬ā¢t imagine KBĆ¢ā¬ā¢s W/Kg is even close to a oonti team average.
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.
Then why wouldnāt they hire his coach as a consultant? Heās probably a lot less expensive and seems to be the originator of all these things anyway. I get that youāre joking, but if they wanted the knowledge, thereās better ways to do it.
On the navigating the peloton side, I donāt think this is that big an issue - heās already used to riding in packs for draft legal. I know its not the same thing and the parcours are very different, but its not like heās coming at this fresh. Even Mike Woods, who came at this from a similar age but from track, seems to have figured it out - or at least figured it out enough that he can win a few stages a year. Sure, Woods took a few years at EF to get going, but Bluās bike handling skills have to be better than Woodsā already
But this makes no sense from a few other angles - mostly that Blu is obsessed with legacy. After the Olympics he can either become a mediocre pro-tour cyclist, or has a chance to become one of the greatest ever in triathlon. Money is likely the same in either case, so the choice would be obvious to me anyway.
Completely agree, I grew up cycling and I am now into triathlon, TT riding is one thing, bike racing in the peloton is another, in my view there are close to 0 pro triathletes today who could ever become strong grand tour riders as the skill set to handle the bike in a peloton and on different surfaces and the tactics of draft legal racing are just a million mile away from triathlon. At most you get people like Cam Wurf who take a few turns at the front pulling on straight roads, and heās already really remarkable in my view.
Completely agree, I grew up cycling and I am now into triathlon, TT riding is one thing, bike racing in the peloton is another, in my view there are close to 0 pro triathletes today who could ever become strong grand tour riders as the skill set to handle the bike in a peloton and on different surfaces and the tactics of draft legal racing are just a million mile away from triathlon. At most you get people like Cam Wurf who take a few turns at the front pulling on straight roads, and heās already really remarkable in my view.
You seem to forget Kristian is an ITU racerā¦
Completely agree, I grew up cycling and I am now into triathlon, TT riding is one thing, bike racing in the peloton is another, in my view there are close to 0 pro triathletes today who could ever become strong grand tour riders as the skill set to handle the bike in a peloton and on different surfaces and the tactics of draft legal racing are just a million mile away from triathlon. At most you get people like Cam Wurf who take a few turns at the front pulling on straight roads, and heās already really remarkable in my view.Wow! You have to wonder how Cam Wurf, as a triathlete has managed to be so capable (and safe) in a peloton: Sometimes Ineos ask him to push his boundaries on roads with bends, ābumpy bitsā and corners: wicked. Itās as if heās been a pro cyclist for 11+ years: heās that good.
Completely agree, I grew up cycling and I am now into triathlon, TT riding is one thing, bike racing in the peloton is another, in my view there are close to 0 pro triathletes today who could ever become strong grand tour riders as the skill set to handle the bike in a peloton and on different surfaces and the tactics of draft legal racing are just a million mile away from triathlon. At most you get people like Cam Wurf who take a few turns at the front pulling on straight roads, and heās already really remarkable in my view.
Presume you are thinking about the lack of skills from a long course triathlon focus?
Draft legal ITU racing is not that far from bunch racing.
There are some athletes in triathlon with GC ish builds, Marten Van Riel (1.83cm & 65kg) for example.
With a few years focused cycling training, competitive watt/kg could be possible.
There are also examples of people transitioning to pro cycling late and getting results (often with lots of crashes in-between though) for example PrimoĆ Ā¾ RogliĆĀ
Why KB would want to do this is a different story. Odd decision imo
Iām guessing he would want to do this for the rockstar status. My impression from afar is he likes the attention. Cam Wurf gets a lot of attention, despite not being that impressive (relative to the best) in triathlon.
Kristian would show up at any Ironman as the best triathlete in the world who is soooooooo good heās also a professional cyclist.
What Cam has going for him is working. Kristian can do the same only better (on the triathlon side).
Then why wouldnāt they hire his coach as a consultant? Heās probably a lot less expensive.
I wouldnāt be surprised if Giant is picking up the tab for this and so itās basically free for Jayco to have him sign him on.
ITU racing is nothing like the pro road pelaton. ITU is like being in the break. Getting into that break is another animal entirely.
Iād be shocked if they have any data that the pro road teams donāt already know. The road teams have been going down that road for a while, and I donāt think that the Norwegians have the revolutionary sports science data that you all think they do.
[Cam Wurf gets a lot of attention, despite not being that impressive (relative to the best) in triathlon.
Wurf is pretty anonymous in the bike racing world. He gets attention here because of his triathlete status.
There are also examples of people transitioning to pro cycling late and getting results (often with lots of crashes in-between though) for example PrimoĆ Ā¾ RogliĆĀ
Mike Woods, of course. (without nearly as much crashing, I donāt think, though heās had a fair number of them).
Peloton skills are a funny thing. Some people seem to pick them up easily. Some people struggle for years.
Same with the energy system flexibility required in pro bike racing - the need to be able to go deep into VO2 or neuromuscular range multiple times over 4+ hours, then recover back to sub-FTP. Some people seem to struggle, some people have little trouble adapting.
[Cam Wurf gets a lot of attention, despite not being that impressive (relative to the best) in triathlon.
Wurf is pretty anonymous in the bike racing world. He gets attention here because of his triathlete status.
Yes thatās my point. Heād be pretty anonymous in the triathlon world if not for the bike racing. He commands respect entirely because of his connections to pro cycling. Kristian doing so is next level. Gold Olympian, World champion, Pro cyclist. Itās another value added talking point about him.
Plus a very cool experience.
sure Iāve seen him dropped in MD/LC,
Huh? Have you not followed triathlon since 2017?
When he is fitā¦who has ādroppedā him? e.g. he biked 4:11 in Kona, compared to Wurf 4:09 (chasing) and Laidlow 4:04. Just because he decided not to go with Laidlow from the front group it does not mean he gets ādroppedā on the bike, just maybe not the fastest bike splitā¦he doesnāt need to. Can make the same argument for Collins Cup and all the way back to his first 70.3 in 2017, he was a few minutes slower than Bozzone but then he smashed him on the run.
The guys does what he has to do to win or put himself in the best position at least. But at the end of the day he is one of the best cyclists in the sport.
I am 100% certain he can work well as a domestique in the Pro Tour, just donāt expect him to be anywhere near the heavy hitters in a Pro Tour time trialā¦more like top 60-80. This is not to say that there is any truth to the rumor, it is likely BS as I donāt see him taking any interest in being pack filler.
I am casually watching MD/LD but Iām pretty certain Blu was coming off the bike a few mins down.
Again if Blu is absolute elite standard bike, Iām sure he shouldnāt be getting dropped, the standard is Wurf (who seems to regularly break bike records) Iden and Brownlee seem to always bike better than Blu from a short course perspective.
Blu does stand out as one of the top 5 bikers in ITU over the last 10 years, not sure that translates to pro level biking, again to bring Brownlee up, donāt think heās his level.
Those where triathletes in their youth, and switched to bike racing much earlier. In any case, I see a parallel with LA; as in unbelievable performances.
In any case which Blu not be too heavy to be a climber and too slow on TTās relative to the top guys to be useful as a GC guy, so this would put him in the āuseful dieselā category like Cam Wurf. That would make Blu a work horse on a team (which is fine if that is what he wants to be). Maybe he is useful in a sprintout leadout train, but he wonāt win any races in a sprint either. So unless he is bored of triathlon, this seems like he just wants to experience something new, not that is he heading over with any big expectations.