My bad on the French, was listening to it rather than watching it and they said she was Italian sorry.
Yeah hope Vincent is ok – that’s scary stuff.
Potter said she had stomach problems. Part of the run split could just be really going for it on the swim/bike.
Riddle & Lopes dominated in LA.
He mentioned that his pulse was above 200 on the bike. Had to take the pulse manually to double check. It’s the second time this happens to him.
Sounds like he had covid and now he has long-covid.
That is a huge bummer. But we’re going to see it more and more.
The crash was caused by the German Knoll changing lines after the right turn, taking out the front wheel of her countrywomen Lindemann, which led to CB’s crash. Sure there is a risk hanging at the back of the pack, but it wasn’t that big a pack, and these girls should know better than changing lines in the middle of the pack.
To be honest, there are some very seasoned bike handlers in the pack, but having been at a number of WTCS level events, you’d be amazed to see some of the stupid moves that people make (something about high heart rates inhibiting cognition, so for those where they have learned to ride in a pack, but where it is not yet mastered to the level of being a reflex, when they’re at their limit, they can still make stupid moves that generally result in many people donating epidermal cells to the asphalt) even at that level. Early in the season that tends to be especially pronounced as you have differing levels of outdoor vs indoor riding, and solo vs. group…
Also being at the intersection of two olympic cycles, you also have a number of newer athletes (to this level of racing) making the jump, that are getting used to the level, and the flow of the racing, so they are more likely to be on their limit, and susceptible to poor decision making. We saw lots of that at the Montreal eliminator event last year, where there were a lot of newer athletes to the circuit in the immediate aftermath of Tokyo and several athletes come off the bike…
In terms of my takeaways from the race. team GB is still a force to be reckoned with, taking both titles, and putting others in the top 15. The US ladies are in for a tough selection battle leading into Paris, even with some of their contenders missing (KZ and Summer R.), there were lots of good results, ant not a lot to choose from. Depending on the USOC selection criteria, like last year the auto qualifying races are going to be crucial… We saw a clear advantage largely to those who had done early races (either continental cups, or the Arena games events) vs. those with more ring rust… Lots of folks coming back from injuries or recovering from lingering COVID effects too, which will likely continue to affect various people throughout the year, and make racing a bit more unpredictable. France will be serious contenders come Paris on both men’s and ladies’ sides, even if it may not be their biggest stars (Luis & Beaugrand DNF’d, but Periault, Lombardi, Bergere, Conninx & Le Corre were all in the conversation)…Enviable depth, but could make for a difficult selection process with razor thin margins.
Definitely looking forward to the next block of races with Leeds, Montreal & Hamburg in quick succession. Montreal’s MTR world champs could be wide open too, with several stars struggling to find their form, or on the training table…
In Bike racing we called some of that roller derby effect “racing like juniors”, because you had these kids with huge sized engines, but their brains hadn’t yet caught up (F1 engine, 486 processor)…
Anybody happen to have the course maps for the Pontevedra World Cup?
Particularly the bike, but the swim/run would be nice too.
Haven’t seen it yet, but a good place to start is if you can find archives of the maps for Duathlon worlds that have been held there twice…
Also Azarchena World Cup this weekend, will be a fun race to watch with a nasty bike course…
Azarchena World Cup this weekend, will be a fun race to watch with a nasty bike course…
Yes, arguably the best Word Triathlon course ever. Looking forward to see if Adrien Briffod ‘rules’ on this course again.
Azarchena World Cup this weekend, will be a fun race to watch with a nasty bike course…
Yes, arguably the best Word Triathlon course ever. Looking forward to see if Adrien Briffod ‘rules’ on this course again.
Maybe second to that bizarre uphill Kitzbuhl race they did a few years, where they were riding up the mountain dodging cows…
Looking forward to watching the carnage this weekend (carnage as in shattered people, rather than crashes, hopefully there are none of those).
Mega entertaining races in Arzachena on Saturday. Johnny Brownlee showing that he might not yet be washed up on the World Tri circuit, leading away a 4 man bike break and then running away from the field to defend his title. Also super impressive run by Messias.
On the ladies side, a valiant effort my Gauthier on the bike, but without any help, it couldn’t stick (impressive though that she still held on for a top 10). Great running by Dodet for the win.
All in all, great racing to kick off the Olympic Qualifying for Paris.
Mega entertaining races in Arzachena on Saturday. Johnny Brownlee showing that he might not yet be washed up on the World Tri circuit, leading away a 4 man bike break and then running away from the field to defend his title. Also super impressive run by Messias.
On the ladies side, a valiant effort my Gauthier on the bike, but without any help, it couldn’t stick (impressive though that she still held on for a top 10). Great running by Dodet for the win.
All in all, great racing to kick off the Olympic Qualifying for Paris.
Couple of quick thoughts:
That bike accident looked nasty. I haven’t heard anything about it. Were their major injuries? Was it Stornes?
JB not retiring is great news. It would be pretty surprising if team GB doesn’t medal again in '24 so that seems to be a pretty compelling reason to give it another run.
On JB: did anyone see near the end that he had reached the end of his rivet? I saw one stride where he looked like he was losing control when he was maybe 50M from the blue carpet. I am glad it didn’t get ugly for him (who am I kidding. I love watching the train wrecks!).
Dodet ran a smart race. In a run course with elevation the strategy to take it out hard to drop the pretenders isn’t smart. The elevation will take care of that for you. Bad move by C-G, smart approach by Dodet.
Anyone know what’s happened to Mola? Just had a quick look at his Insta and he’s training in TT position on the bike a lot this year.
Not seen him mentioned in any half or IM distance races. Edit his last post after translation says he’s doing what looks around a half distance.
Has he retired from ITU now?
It seems he was quite disappointed after his poor performance at Tokyo. He said he would switch to make distance for a while, but still aiming at Paris. But as you said, no races so far.
On a side note, I heard the bad collective performance of the Spanish squad at Tokyo was related to how badly they managed training during confinement.
Seems like years since we seen an in form fully fit Mola, long before Covid? I’d be interested if he could ever get back to his best to see how he’d run with Yee.
It was Stornes (broken arm) and Adrien Briffod (broken scapula, two broken ribs, detached lung). Adrien is still in hospital in Sardinia due to the lung issue, hoping to fly back to Switzerland soon. Obviously already a compromised Olympic selection unfortunately.
Geez that sucks.
get well soon guys!
He has just had a baby so maybe wasn’t wanting to be away racing around birth and first few months.
Mola will race Zarautz MD in some days time. He is just giving himself a break from the WTS and those trips and taking advantage of new challengues as well as being with his baby.
He is aiming for Paris 24 for sure, 100%.
The matter is that he is 31 or 32 and i dont know if he will be able to outrun the sorts of Yee or Wilde. He must work on his swim again and rise his run one more step to face those youngsters.