Year after year they hammer the bike only to lose it on the run. Pretty predictable in my humble opinion. A stellar 29th place from Lieto and a DNF from Dibens. But hey, she broke the bike course record.
A bit tough in Dibens given her foot/toe issues?
For years, they told Stadler that Kona could not be won on the bike. How did that work out for him?
A post like this only shows your ignorance. I don’t even follow IM that closely, but watched some of the video after my kid’s soccer yesterday. Dibens had a foot injury and was just trying to make the best of the situation. Lieto can’t really run that fast, so he has to get a lead on the run. He’s been 2nd before and was only caught very late in the race, but as his brother said in the commentary, he needs a really windy day (i.e. conditions that make the bike very hard) to have a chance to win. Since the record went down for the men, it is safe to say that the conditions were very fast and it was not Lieto’s day.
And I learned all that from watching about 45 minutes worth of video.
Chad
I’m guessing that these guys are all going in with the mentality that they are going for nothing less than 1st place, in which case it would make sense that Lieto would ride his bike right on the verge of destroying his run. Hindsight is 20/20, and I’m sure Lieto didn’t show up with 3:54 marathon fitness, but it is hard not to hypothesize how much faster he could have run (and how much higher he would have finished) had he biked slower. Obviously there’s a point at which biking slower would have also begun to cost him places (because there is a limit to how fast he can run, regardless of his bike split), but I think there’s little doubt that his stellar bike split is the sole cause of his ridiculously slow run split, and that given his present level of fitness he employed a race strategy that didn’t minimize his finish time…
First off, Dibens had recent surgery on her foot. A plate removed from a toe. So, she deserves all the props in the world for even being out there. AND she just started doing FULL IM last year at Kona and podium’d her first time ever at the distance UN Kona last year.
As for Lieto, he is not capable of a 2:40 marathon. He has never even broke 3 hours at Kona, so if he sits in with the lead group with Crowie and company what chance does he have to win?? Zero!!
His ONLY shot at ever winning Kona is to race the way he does. Get as much time as he can on those that he knows will outrun him. Maybe make them push to try and keep up with him and take a little toll on their run. It’s the only chance he has. He knows this and that’s why he races like that. He takes what he can. Usually gets one or both of the Timex bonuses and probably a bonus from Trek for fastest bike split.
Andy Potts strength is this swim, Lieto’s is his bike, Crowie’s is the run. The difference is that Crowie’s weakness on the bike compared to Lieto’s is stronger than Chris’s weakness on the run.
Make sense yet?
Andy Potts strength is this swim, Lieto’s is his bike, Crowie’s is the run. The difference is that Crowie’s weakness on the bike compared to Lieto’s is stronger than Chris’s weakness on the run.
Well, that USED to be true, until Crowie got on the best super bike in Kona …
(Sorry, b/c it was you, I couldn’t resist). 
Though Crowie’s “weakness” is pretty much non-existent now, he was only 6 minutes slower than the bike course record.
Year after year they hammer the bike only to lose it on the run. Pretty predictable in my humble opinion. A stellar 29th place from Lieto and a DNF from Dibens. But hey, she broke the bike course record.
Explain how you would have Lieto do something different and tell me how that plan would be executed. Please, I’m all ears.
I don’t think the easier-than-usual wind conditions hurt his ride either. Clearly he put a lot of bike work in, but on a really rotten day, Lieto would tear him up on the bike. Not by enough to beat him, but he would have a much larger gap, a la 2009.
No matter HOW you look at it, Crowie is weaker on the bike than Lieto is. That’s why I said Crowie’s weakness on the bike is stronger than Chris’s weakness on the run.
Had there been wind on the course yesterday, Lieto would have likely had a bigger lead going in to T2. The end result would have been the same, but probably not a course record yesterday.
Gee I thought there were 3 sports in TRIathlon. Obviously exploiting your strength ie. the bike, doesn’t work so well. Yes it works in HIM and short course, but not so much in IM. Maybe with one exception out of how many? Like I said in the beginning, pretty predictable.
I’ve gotta wonder if any of it has to do with trek sponsorship and pushing their athletes to turn in the fastest bike times of the day to sell the speed concept (btw, the advertising works because I love my SC)
.
No matter HOW you look at it, Crowie is weaker on the bike than Lieto is. That’s why I said Crowie’s weakness on the bike is stronger than Chris’s weakness on the run.
Had there been wind on the course yesterday, Lieto would have likely had a bigger lead going in to T2. The end result would have been the same, but probably not a course record yesterday.
That being true, given the final bike times, we now have definitive evidence that the Specialized Shiv is VASTLY superior to the Trek SC. Glad you finally came around!
Can you imagine what Lieto would have done to the bike course record if he was fortunate enough to ride the Shiv?
See, now you have gone and COMPLETELY lost your mind.
S-low
H-eadwind
I-mportant for
V-ictory
A post like this only shows your ignorance. I don’t even follow IM that closely, but watched some of the video after my kid’s soccer yesterday. Dibens had a foot injury and was just trying to make the best of the situation. Lieto can’t really run that fast, so he has to get a lead on the run. He’s been 2nd before and was only caught very late in the race, but as his brother said in the commentary, he needs a really windy day (i.e. conditions that make the bike very hard) to have a chance to win. Since the record went down for the men, it is safe to say that the conditions were very fast and it was not Lieto’s day.
And I learned all that from watching about 45 minutes worth of video.
Chad
Try reading Brad Culp’s editorial in this month’s LAVA “Winning on the Bike”
I am pretty sure it is:
S - how
H - aters
I - ronman
V - ictory
.
Brad Culps piece in Lava isn’t going to make Lieto a faster runner!! Again, Chris plays to his strength, which is his bike.
Gee I thought there were 3 sports in TRIathlon. Obviously exploiting your strength ie. the bike, doesn’t work so well. Yes it works in HIM and short course, but not so much in IM. Maybe with one exception out of how many? Like I said in the beginning, pretty predictable.
I totally agree. Hammer the bike did not work at all for the guy with the second fastest bike split. He only had the second fastest run split of the day. That tactic did not work at all. Total disaster. When are these guys going to learn?
Actually, it worked for Stadler 2 times, not once. He won in 2004 and 2006. Not to mention Crowie and his group hammered the bike yesterday as well. Crowie was 6 minutes off the course record. He turned in the same split Lieto turned in last year.
So now what??