The real levelling up in the PTWC races will happen when you get more crossing over with para-cycling and swimming. I suspect big gains for Parker this year, with her racing the circuit, some Ironman events, and trying to make a dent in the paracycling scene as well, trying to make selection for worlds. Hopefully others start to chase competitive opportunities in all disciplines and bring the level up. We’ve seen the same in some of the other categories, with many VI athletes coming from the pool/track over to tri. Then you’ve also got athletes like Stefan Daniel in PTS5 who has also raced at the Conti cup level against able bodied counterparts (and also was competitive on the Canadian University XC circuit). Like in the able bodied races since the Brownlee era, it’s becoming less viable to come into the sport and compete as a single strength athlete, people really need to be strong across all 3 to have a shot in the majority of races.
Off most people’s radars, it was cool to see Duathlon at the World Games in Birmingham (USA, not UK where the Commonwealth games are in 2 weeks). Both the individual races and the 2x2 Mixed Du relay event. Unsurprisingly at the head of affairs were largely the French and the Belgians, which is para for the Du course, but it was cool to see an ageless Ai Ueda snag the silver… Great to see multisport events at more of these games…
Fair points about the men’s sprint races, that the swim tends not to be that selective. The more entertaining races tend to be the ones with tougher water conditions, where there are smaller packs in T1… I don’t think the length of the swim is the issue, it tends to be fewer people are uber aggressive on the bike, trying to break the race open. you’ve got some solid riders, but they will just ride their group up to the lead pack, and then save the legs for the run. We need a healthy Van Riel, Schomburg to get his mojo back, and Blu and Iden back on the circuit…
That’s a good point. If they are seriously going to make the sprint distance the Olympic race they should change the swim to a 1000M
I was a guide for a lower tier (but world ranked) VI athlete. In 2018 (17?) we crashed in training and I lost my nerve so I skipped the trip to Yokohama. In 2020 we were set to go to Sarasota in March and something called “Covid” happened. SO I never got to the start line and now I am too slow!
My prediction: Blu and Iden will not be the same athletes when they come back to (formerly) ITU.
I’d be surprised to see Blum come back into ITU and compete with Yee and Wilde on the run (definitely not this year if he’s planning on racing any ITU at all?)
Although we’ve only seen sprint distance so far correct me if I’m wrong? Maybe someone will be able to go with them at full on the run?
It probably has less to do with a longer run and more to do with a longer swim… If we get something with some chop, it might be tougher for Yee/Wilde o bridge up to the leaders…
I think the firepower is there, but the motivation is not. And without both, it’s hard to stay away. Although if Wilde and Yee keep trading victories, others might start to become more motivated to work to keep them from coming back. But again, there needs to the conditions where those two are meaningfully distanced from the lead pack, where there’s enough probability of success, that people back the break…
The dynamics have now changed with no Brownlees or Gomez, only Luis has looked really commit who’s capable of a good run off a hard bike (although he seems to be struggling this year) worse when the Norwegians come back.
Wilde, Yee, Murray, Mola, Birtwhstle, Geens plus the Norwegians chasing.
Mainly the French in that front pack, maybe they can put a lot of work in together over the next couple of months on the bike and come up with something.
Good racing this weekend in Pontevedra for the World cup. Will be very interesting for the Grand Final on that course next year, so many speed bumps on the bike, could be carnage… Big pack for the guys, and the Spaniards coming out hot on the run with Baxter edging Serrat, and Studer grabbing the bronze for the Swiss. The ladies had a successful bike break, but couldn’t stretch the gap enough to avoid getting swallowed up on the run. Great runs from Kurikova, Tertsch, Dodet and Daniels to run up from the chase to the top 4. The speed bump right after the mount played in eliminating some from the breakaway, I also think it may have hurt some of the more tentative bike handlers in the field… Super interesting to see how it would play with a WTCS grand final field…
Commonwealth Games individual and relays/PTVIs run this weekend…
Here is what is on my mind going into the second half of this unusual season:
The US Men need to get on the horse. They have -0- men in qualifying position for the Olympics. Last year they saved too much work for the second qualification period.
Is Non really going to retire? She has to be rethinking it at this point. I think an argument can be made she is a better relay option than Potter for the 2nd leg in my opinion.
Finally I’ll be excited to see who comes back from injury: Knibb, JB, Yee (who else am I missing)
Here is what is on my mind going into the second half of this unusual season:
The US Men need to get on the horse. They have -0- men in qualifying position for the Olympics. Last year they saved too much work for the second qualification period.
Is Non really going to retire? She has to be rethinking it at this point. I think an argument can be made she is a better relay option than Potter for the 2nd leg in my opinion.
Finally I’ll be excited to see who comes back from injury: Knibb, JB, Yee (who else am I missing)
Yee is not injured as far as I know. Dont think JB will continue in ITU, seems he had decided to step into MD.
I miss Zaferes…see if she gets back to the circuit after her first child. Learmonth is injured as far as I know too.
Non vs. Potter for the relqay is likely irrelevant since if they are picking an athlete for the relay, I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be Sophie Coldwell, in which case your relay ladies are GTB and Coldwell… With all of the ups and downs in her career, I hope that Non goes out on top, and doesn’t try to ride it out too long, and go out in injury.
The biggest horse the US men have these days tends to be Chase McQueen, if he can continue to develop, he has the swim to contend… But yeah, it’s early days on olympic qualifying so too early to press the panic button, but if there’s any learning from the Tokyo process, Countries shouldn’t sleep on points in block one, it’s not the be all and end all, but once it closes, not having many points in that window hurts in the overall rankings… The countries who lost out on the 3rd slot (e.g. GB/US Men) generally made their push in the last qualifying window, but weren’t really present in the first block getting points, and shot themselves in the foot… As the months tick down on block 1 qualifying, there becomes less margin for error.
Here is what is on my mind going into the second half of this unusual season:
The US Men need to get on the horse. They have -0- men in qualifying position for the Olympics. Last year they saved too much work for the second qualification period.
Is Non really going to retire? She has to be rethinking it at this point. I think an argument can be made she is a better relay option than Potter for the 2nd leg in my opinion.
Finally I’ll be excited to see who comes back from injury: Knibb, JB, Yee (who else am I missing)
Yee is not injured as far as I know. Dont think JB will continue in ITU, seems he had decided to step into MD.
I miss Zaferes…see if she gets back to the circuit after her first child. Learmonth is injured as far as I know too.
Yee took a mid season break after the Commonwealth Games. He is back into a training block now for the 2nd half of the season.
JB has said he might not be finished with ITU now he won a Gold.
That was Non’s last OD race. She is doing the SuperLeague races but no more ITU races. She is getting married in November. She is announcing next week what she is doing and she is really excited for the next chapter.
Jess is injured but might be back for the last few races of the season.
GB women is going to be another case of harder to qualify for the team than the actual Olympics.
That was Non’s last OD race. She is doing the SuperLeague races but no more ITU races. She is getting married in November. She is announcing next week what she is doing and she is really excited for the next chapter.
Jess is injured but might be back for the last few races of the season.
GB women is going to be another case of harder to qualify for the team than the actual Olympics.
Yeah, I know what she said, I am just hoping Non changes her mind!
The qualification process allows for “bad†results to get thrown out if you race often enough, but if your the US men, if you don’t race then suddenly when you do race all your results have to count.
I mean Paris qualification will be what it’ll be, but w new Usat high performance manager coming on Sept it’ll be interest how all this goes down.
Just a bad timing for a key athlete to get hurt. If Eli doesn’t get hurt, he’d have raced a race in Mexico and “held” the 3rd slot in the final race almost guranteed (while the Aussies on same weekend were racing in Oceania and “earned” the final spot). Funny though, he wouldn’t have gotten the spot- it would have gone to Matt McElroy. So a whole lot of moving parts there. Technically McDowell (who finished as 4th ranked American) “took” Matt’s spot who finished as the 2nd best American, I use quotes because again, the spots aren’t individuals, they are the federation’s spots and they can dictate who/how they are qualified for.
But when you miss so many events, you lose the opportunity to drop “bad” results, and in our case, the US has shown an tendency to have a few stinkers.
Here is what is on my mind going into the second half of this unusual season:
The US Men need to get on the horse. They have -0- men in qualifying position for the Olympics. Last year they saved too much work for the second qualification period.
Is Non really going to retire? She has to be rethinking it at this point. I think an argument can be made she is a better relay option than Potter for the 2nd leg in my opinion.
Finally I’ll be excited to see who comes back from injury: Knibb, JB, Yee (who else am I missing)
We need Matt and Morgan to get results this fall. Matt seems to be recovering well and has that killer run, he just needs to get close enough to use it. I talked to Morgan at Nationals and he is trying to be smart about an injury and not come back too quickly. His mindset seemed outstanding.
Besides McQueen, Rider, and McDowell, who else are we looking at for points? Lots of good things seem to be happening at the Project Podium level, but that is more of a LA ‘28 timeframe, right?
Here is what is on my mind going into the second half of this unusual season:
The US Men need to get on the horse. They have -0- men in qualifying position for the Olympics. Last year they saved too much work for the second qualification period.
Is Non really going to retire? She has to be rethinking it at this point. I think an argument can be made she is a better relay option than Potter for the 2nd leg in my opinion.
Finally I’ll be excited to see who comes back from injury: Knibb, JB, Yee (who else am I missing)
We need Matt and Morgan to get results this fall. Matt seems to be recovering well and has that killer run, he just needs to get close enough to use it. I talked to Morgan at Nationals and he is trying to be smart about an injury and not come back too quickly. His mindset seemed outstanding.
Besides McQueen, Rider, and McDowell, who else are we looking at for points? Lots of good things seem to be happening at the Project Podium level, but that is more of a LA ‘28 timeframe, right?
I see GBR and USA being in similar positions.
Phenomenal on the woman’s side with lots of athletes fighting for places giving the selectors possibilities but on the mens side not as strong requiring a bit of luck. There is a possibility the GBR will qualify 3 men but more likely to be 2.
I think the MTR has the potential to be a bigger influence on selections.
I actually think Seth Rider is a sneaky good MTR athlete, but I don’t see how the US will get more than 2 spots, so I think it’s going to be important to be top American (I just think in case it goes to discretion) and/or show something really special MTR wise. (I dont think Matt’s going to miss a 2nd Olympics). Unless someone gets an auto spot by getting a WTCS podium, I think it’s going to be top ranked American and then a free for all for the 2nd spot.