In any case which Blu not be too heavy to be a climber and too slow on TT’s relative to the top guys to be useful as a GC guy, so this would put him in the “useful diesel” 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 won’t 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.
Most folks are focusing on his aerobic ability and what kind of rider he would be but what are his actual bike race racing skills like?
Can he handle all of jostling and fighting for positioning that goes on in a road race? How are his handling skills?
There’s a heck of a lot more to being a good bike racer than VO2max.
In any case which Blu not be too heavy to be a climber and too slow on TT’s relative to the top guys to be useful as a GC guy, so this would put him in the “useful diesel” 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 won’t 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.
It takes a goodly amount of skill to even be a leadout rider in a sprint–a lot more’s involved than horsepower.
Most folks are focusing on his aerobic ability and what kind of rider he would be but what are his actual bike race racing skills like?
Can he handle all of jostling and fighting for positioning that goes on in a road race? How are his handling skills?
There’s a heck of a lot more to being a good bike racer than VO2max.
I don’t know much about pro cycling, but there’s plenty of fighting for position in the 50-man peloton riding to T2 in a WTCS or World Cup race, and more often than not Blu will come out on top. And these guys fight for every position. Reaching T2 in 15th vs. 30th makes a big difference in terms of T2 time, and they will kill themselves to be 16th rather than 18th at the finish line because every ranking point counts.
That being said, the whole Blu-pro-cyclist thing seems like a rather funny trolling distraction.
Most folks are focusing on his aerobic ability and what kind of rider he would be but what are his actual bike race racing skills like?
Can he handle all of jostling and fighting for positioning that goes on in a road race? How are his handling skills?
There’s a heck of a lot more to being a good bike racer than VO2max.
I don’t know much about pro cycling, but there’s plenty of fighting for position in the 50-man peloton riding to T2 in a WTCS or World Cup race, and more often than not Blu will come out on top. And these guys fight for every position. Reaching T2 in 15th vs. 30th makes a big difference in terms of T2 time, and they will kill themselves to be 16th rather than 18th at the finish line because every ranking point counts.
That being said, the whole Blu-pro-cyclist thing seems like a rather funny trolling distraction.
There is a lot of positioning going on the whole 240km of a stage. Most riders can handle it.
But the last 2km is next level. Many of the pro bike riders won’t even try it. It takes a very special kind of rider.
I am not saying Blu couldn’t learn, but it’s naive to think he doesn’t have a reasonably long adaption period.
He could very well try it once and say “never again”.
He probably could by why be a domestique in pro cycling when you can be a multiple time world champion and maybe one of the greatest to ever do it in triathlon?
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?
He probably could by why be a domestique in pro cycling when you can be a multiple time world champion and maybe one of the greatest to ever do it in triathlon?
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?
Guys, maybe he’s just tired of triathlon and wants a new challenge. It’s not like he’s leaving to chase a big paycheck as I imagine his tri contracts quite substantial. Hopefully he makes the best decision for his happiness and quality of life.
Anyone else think this is another WTF are you doing Gwen Jorgensen moment? Something I’d expect to read in April…
Anyone else think this is another WTF are you doing Gwen Jorgensen moment? Something I’d expect to read in April…
Maybe it’s a secret ITU/Ironman ban for gambling on triathlon.
(Michael Jordan joke)
I didn’t know about that one but hey seems to make more sense if that is the case. I could only assume he will be a Cam Wurf type scenario for the team sync it to IM racing if I was trying to be logical in any other way???
Anyone else think this is another WTF are you doing Gwen Jorgensen moment? Something I’d expect to read in April…
Or its a case of “everything thinks they can be Taylor Knibb”.
All jokes aside, if Blu raced pro cycling in workhorse mode most of the year till August and then is liberated for a Kona build every year and is allowed a few Jan and Feb tri races, then he can do a March-July domestique cycling season and still do plenty of triathlon.
Also who are the Norwegian cyclists he has to beat to secure a spot on the team for the next Olympic team?
Regardless of the reason, being an Aussie and following the Jayco team intently I am excited by seeing what will happen… Wurf is still racing IM at the highest of levels for him so it will be interesting should that be the case as to what happens. Also excites me watching Wurf doing big pulls on the front for the team in Classics like Roubaix or a Tour race. I look forward to the spectacle…
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
well i guess with the santara angle it makes financial sense and of course taylor knibb is on a cycle team and has done 2 time trials for that team in 13 or so month… so i guess it would not be to naive to think this would work.
in a way gustav coming from cycling is the more natural choice but marketing wise that would not really fly at the moment.
what is interesting is the timing,one would guess if they where confident that christian would win or do well in paris they would have waited till after the games , as if they do get a medal that would increase their value a lot at the end of the day, so far we can say at the moment the santara tech or whatever its called project to go from short to long and then back to short has failed that might sound harsh but they did not win a single title in 23 an and have not won a single race in 2024 so far .
gustav despite all the science is out injured , of course that could have happend to anybody but if you try to sell yourself as the very best scientist that controls all the parameter , it just does not look too good, and blum was seriously schooled by a 41 year old last year and his itu results are not that great 2024
nobody really talks about them at the moment so they have to find a way to be talked about.
iam not saying that olaf is not good he is obviously super smart and what they do is rather interesting and their dedication is to performance is fab , but their bs marketing is about to be called, or more matter of fact they are about to be finally kicked out of the candy store that they have been renting since 2020 ,but where told end of 2023 that if they dont perform 2024 they are out .
while the norwegian fed at least got vettle thorn up in the last 12 month and did qualify a relay for the first time totaly , without olaf and santara tech .
inquing minds could use this to question who was the key to the norwegian success …
blum could still do well but most people at this stage would be surprised it he makes a podium. so in a way they have to do something now to make big cash .
at the end one could say just as with alistair b who kind of started to fall when he wanted to qualify for the com games, when you try to do to many things you are more likely to fail …
and of course jack is also a very smart bs er or should I say very good at the marketing and promotion game, he always talks about his pillar performace etc how it improves him while he is actually not doing any training cant sleep well he could probably sell sand to saudi arabia …
so one would guess they are working on this togheter to create hype and klicks and incrase their reach .
both blum and gustav are fantastic athletes and i would say will win many more triathlons in the future but their company will likely have to branch out of triathlon to make the real money .
and of course i could be totally wrong with everyting i say but as somebody that has followed the norwegian rise since they started to show up more often at european cups many many years before they got famous . i would say the split up of the fed and santara has not worked really well for any party as a unit they were stonger. be and especially for gustav this was not good, would be my 2 cents.
a lot of rambling sorry. but what norway did from around 2012 till 2021 was rather impressive. and in a way it is crazy that olaf is the norwegian model now , while arild was the one that got it running and as team arild, olaf ,mikal , gustav kristian, and casper they were likely the best.
again i have 0 insights its something that does interests me and i was thinking about during a run last night.
a friend called me from the sports science conference at the Tour and there was gossip of it there. definitely some smoke…
I met some of their riders this AM
“Apparently we signed a triathleteâ€
.
With all my love, appreciation & respect for KB, I think it might be a well-orchestrated hype around KB, to put pressure on competition before Olympics. Something like the Norwegians did before Kona 2022, with shoes & 40km run the week before.
Any form of spin would not surprise me. Everything is next level
But when the Jayco riders, who don’t know who this guy is, say “apparently we signed a triathlete”, chances are this is real
They asked a few questions when they saw I knew him more than they did.
Can’t this be because they read the same news as us and are surprised but it’s false? Or was the tone more serious?
Can’t this be because they read the same news as us and are surprised but it’s false? Or was the tone more serious?
3 things here
- I pinged someone on the team. He is the kind of guy that would reply “bullshit” if it was. He avoided the question
- A cycling person who barely knows who is spoke with a team member at the sport cycling conference. He confirmed
- These riders did not know of the rumor. They have no clue of what is going on in the triathlon world or who Blu is. They just know “a triathlete was signed”
One said “oh, ya, I’ve seen him in Sierra Nevada. He’s trains like a mad man”
They asked if he had racing experience. They asked if he was a powerful/better rider in triathlon. When I speculated on power, they asked weight.
Then it all points into the same direction. I wouldn’t be surprised if he joined the team with a similar role as Wurf but can’t really believe that he would entirely switch to cycling due to:
- Lack of experience riding at professional cycling. Having power doesn’t mean having skills. I may be wrong but Ditlev would struggle finishing a stage where some skills and positioning are required. Blu has better handling skills but you can’t come out of the blue and ride at WT level
- He needs to constantly train. Just riding will be boring for him, he needs more stress
- Financially way more beneficial for him to stay in MD/LD than cycling
- He will want to win Kona or recover any of his world champion status
- He’s a winner, riding for others not able to win races won’t fill his inner demands
But it would be a good complement to his training.