Not sure a thread has started,
Men- Blumenthal, Wilde, Yee ?, Bergere, Van Riel, Geens, Luis, Pearson, Hauser,
Women- Spivey, Taylor-Browne, Knibb
With the PTO top 20, there are going to be a lot of top level athletes shut out next year, mayve go to top 30
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Sounds like Blummenfelt may be jumping over to cycling next year.
30 is a way better number for PTO races but I don’t think they’ll be able to contract that many athletes. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle that and how they’ll sort out the rankings at the end of the year.
I think Yee and Wilde have got another Olympics in them, they’re both only 26, sure Wilde will dabble in a few 70.3s though.
Where do you see that Blum may be jumping to cycling?
Olav said he was probably going to switch sports next year when he was on a podcast. I thing it was the Greg Bennet Show. Then on another pod I can’t remember at the moment someone alluded to it being cycling.
Possibly Learmonth, Holland, Zafares, Gwen, Duffy, Coldwell, Potter, Jonny Brownlee, Murray, Mola to add to the 1st post?
I think Yee and Wilde have got another Olympics in them, they’re both only 26, sure Wilde will dabble in a few 70.3s though.
Hauser also.
Possibly Learmonth, Holland, Zafares, Gwen, Duffy, Coldwell, Potter, Jonny Brownlee, Murray, Mola to add to the 1st post?
Murray said he’ll never go longer, he’ll continue SC until he retires.
Possibly Learmonth, Holland, Zafares, Gwen, Duffy, Coldwell, Potter, Jonny Brownlee, Murray, Mola to add to the 1st post?
Murray said he’ll never go longer, he’ll continue SC until he retires.
Can’t see Mola going long either, I would have thought if had interest we would have seen him doing some already.
Schoeman, Birtwhistle have already dabbled, Mcelroy maybe.
Not sure a thread has started,
Men- Blumenthal, Wilde, Yee ?, Bergere, Van Riel, Geens, Luis, Pearson, Hauser,
Women- Spivey, Taylor-Browne, Knibb
With the PTO top 20, there are going to be a lot of top level athletes shut out next year, mayve go to top 30When Renouf was interviewed (ProTriNews) on 28 Jan, wrt numbers in the field he recognised that 2024 would be a chance to see whether 20 or more than 20 was the ‘right’ number. I reckon it’s evens whether they go to 25 or stick to 20. As we’ve seen there’s plenty of opportunity for wildcard chances.
If these athletes do want to go long(er) (to earn $$) surely it’s sensible for them to serve their apprenticeship. But (WPros only) we’ve seen Duffy and Learmonth and Stimpson struggle. As I said elsewhere, we’ve seen very few top (30) WTCS female athletes make it into the top PTO ranked 30 in the last 6 years, apart from Gentle and Knibb.
When I’m looking at this I pull up the World Tri Rankings and sort by YoB. Sure some younger ones will dabble. But if they aspire to LA28, that’ll be it: just a dabble and maybe a wildcard.
https://triathlon.org/rankings/world_triathlon_championship_series/female
I limit my comments to WPros.
Athletes who can make the grade must be first quartile cyclists, and so many of the SC athletes aren’t, they’re happy wheel suckers.
It’s not obvious (from available data), other than by reported reputation or repeated observed performance, whether an athlete is a quality cyclist ie one who does more than their fair share of pulling.
And how many of them are going to bang out a sub-1:20 half (ie be better runners than Knibb) - very few.
So here’s a few:
Spivey, Klamer, van Coevorden, Betto, Kasper, (is Zaferes going to?), Bragmayer, (I’d have thought Taylor-Brown will stay SC, given fragility, but since Luis is sure to step up, maybe she will too). I think Knibb will try to keep her hand in at SC, with an eye on LA28.
It’ll be interesting to see what Knibb does. I’m sure she’d love to participate in a home Olympics, but she can clean up in long distance.
I think Yee and Wilde have got another Olympics in them, they’re both only 26, sure Wilde will dabble in a few 70.3s though.
Agreed, especially Yee. I think Wilde’s skillset translates more easily, although both are great triathletes. I see Wilde winning 70.3 worlds at home, maybe doing PTO next year, but I feel like if he is still competitive he will do LA.
Some of it depends on how his swim is going. We’ve seen from guys like Matt Mac that a mid level WTS swimmer is very competitive into T1 at longer stuff.
No idea what she wants to do, but Julie Derron seems to have a skillset that would translate really well.
I am not sure where you have seen evidence of Van Coevorden put out power on the bike. And really not convinced by Klamer, Kasper or Bragmayer on your list.
Meisner looks to have already half gone to middle distance, Schar would go well, but will probably stay at SC. Deron will be good to watch, and Nina Eim if she wants to - strong bike runner - but no idea about her appetite to do so.
I think you will see a number go across from the top next year as there will be good contracts on offer. Will be nice to see who has the ability on the bike.
Interested to know who the real wheel suckers you refer to are?
I am not sure where you have seen evidence of Van Coevorden put out power on the bike. And really not convinced by Klemmer, Kasper or Bragmayer on your list.
Meisner looks to have already half gone to middle distance, Schar would go well, but will probably stay at SC. Deron will be good to watch, and Nina Eim if she wants to - strong bike runner - but no idea about her appetite to do so.
I think you will see a number go across from the top next year as there will be good contracts on offer. Will be nice to see who has the ability on the bike.
Interested to know who the real wheel suckers you refer to are?
Nat V has already competed in a few 70.3 races, not sure if won any though, something would need to search.
Competed, yes. But here we are trying to work out who will do well. I have very high confidence she will not factor in any serious middle distance racing in the coming years - even if she does compete.
Although, it looks like she has been on a heavy S&C regime over the off season, so maybe a little more mass/power will help a bit. But won’t be enough to put her with the real thorough breads
The name of the thread is “Post Olympic step up athletes”, I stated she was likely to be stepping up.
I was replying to Ajax who was discussing athletes who would ‘make the grade’, so we are discussing who would be good in that context
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I am not sure where you have seen evidence of Van Coevorden put out power on the bike. And really not convinced by Klamer, Kasper or Bragmayer on your list.
Meisner looks to have already half gone to middle distance, Schar would go well, but will probably stay at SC. Derron will be good to watch, and Nina Eim if she wants to - strong bike runner - but no idea about her appetite to do so.
I think you will see a number go across from the top next year as there will be good contracts on offer. Will be nice to see who has the ability on the bike.
Interested to know who the real wheel suckers you refer to are?I referred to the absence of data on short course biking excellence hierarchy which make that filter difficult. So no evidence: feel free to list the dozen over 28yo women you think are strong bikers.
Van Coevorden has podiumed several times in 70.3s and matched (SB) and then outran Lawrence in this race: https://stats.protriathletes.org/race/im-703-bahrain/2022/results
Kuttor-Bragmayer has shown strong biking: she just is an average runner (see Ibiza 2023 world duathlon v EPB).
Meißner is young and is only doing draft legal having missed out on Paris. She will surely revert to SC. Again Schär is super young. Dabble maybe.
I thought about Derron. She has already raced successfully draft legal and I assume will abandon SC and step up after Paris.
https://stats.protriathletes.org/athlete/julie-derron
She has Nina as a mentor.
Wheel sucker question: Half the field in any SC race, including WTCS, perfectly reasonably minimise their time with nose in the wind and do not take a turn. I’m not criticising but when/if they try to go long at 12m or 20m suddenly that’s 250w for hours and most can’t (or don’t want to).
McElroy so far (dabbling): https://stats.protriathletes.org/athlete/matthew-mcelroy