If you were a gazillionaire and could hire your own squad of the best athletes on planet earth to field at half and full distance events what positions would you have on the team? Lets say ten athletes to a team.
Here’s my layout
for swimming I would have
1 Setter- person there to try and break the course record and then putts around for fun the rest of the race
2 Sharks- athlete there to interfere with the swimming of rival competitors, nothing physical or dangerous just swimming in front in attempt to slow them down or beside them to steal their water
1Cutter lead man on the main pack
2 Barges- big guys that swim behind the cutter and produce mega draft for the rest of the bunch
2 Dolphins- swim to protect the fragiles from rival sharks
2 Fragiles- these will be the pacer and finisher later in the race
Biking
1 setter- probaly one of the dolphins there to try and set the bike course record
2 blasters- these will be the barges, again big guys that produce good draft even at 10.5 meters
2 pasers- guys that make repeated legal passes and fall backs on the group to push the pace up, these will be the cutter and the other dolphin
2- followers ride in legal line behind the blasters
the sharks and setter from the swim just doodle there way through the rest of the race
so the line will be blaster, follower, blaster, follower with the pasers making there repeated passes and fall backs. If the pasers blow up they just doodle along the rest of the race.
Run
1 pacer- uber runner that paces an even more uber runner for a good portion of the run.
1 finisher- uber runner there to really put on the heat at the end of the race
everyone else just putts there way to the finish line interacting with the spectators as much as possible on the way
If you were a gazillionaire and could hire your own squad of the best athletes on planet earth to field at half and full distance events what positions would you have on the team? Lets say ten athletes to a team.
Here’s my layout
for swimming I would have
1 Setter- person there to try and break the course record and then putts around for fun the rest of the race
2 Sharks- athlete there to interfere with the swimming of rival competitors, nothing physical or dangerous just swimming in front in attempt to slow them down or beside them to steal their water
1Cutter lead man on the main pack
2 Barges- big guys that swim behind the cutter and produce mega draft for the rest of the bunch
2 Dolphins- swim to protect the fragiles from rival sharks
2 Fragiles- these will be the pacer and finisher later in the race
Biking
1 setter- probaly one of the dolphins there to try and set the bike course record
2 blasters- these will be the barges, again big guys that produce good draft even at 10.5 meters
2 pasers- guys that make repeated legal passes and fall backs on the group to push the pace up, these will be the cutter and the other dolphin
2- followers ride in legal line behind the blasters
the sharks and setter from the swim just doodle there way through the rest of the race
so the line will be blaster, follower, blaster, follower with the pasers making there repeated passes and fall backs. If the pasers blow up they just doodle along the rest of the race.
Run
1 pacer- uber runner that paces an even more uber runner for a good portion of the run.
1 finisher- uber runner there to really put on the heat at the end of the race
everyone else just putts there way to the finish line interacting with the spectators as much as possible on the way
I would have ten Lance Armstrong test tube babies- wait 20 years and then sit back and watch him dominate.
i think you got too many people and too much happening in your scenario. all you need really is a Leader and one or two (max) Support. The leader has to be the fastest runner and the primary support has to be a stronger biker but relatively equal swimmer as the leader.
this would work best for short course draft-legal racing but you were probably talking long course… in that case i dont know how the leader and support would communicate their status to each other unless you have either a) radios in the aero helmets or b) a designated “messenger” going back and forth with info (both of which kinda sound ridiculous to me).
this worked for my younger brother and myself when we raced jr elite sprint races. He was leader and i was support. We were always coming our of the water way off the back of the pack but on our best day, we closed a huge gap and set up my bro to outrun all but one guy and get our “team” a 2nd place. most rewarding race of my life. i buried myself on that bike ride and staggered through that run but damn it was rewarding.
No, starts are rough and drafting is good but that doesn’t make it a team sport.
If I followed your logic, there would be people on the bike that would crash on purpose and those on the run that would be focused on blocking aid stations. It is just plain ridiculous. Why don’t you consider the other endurance roller sport called roller derby?
This is just a hypothetical question meant for fun. I totally agree that about triathlon being an individual effort. But in marathoning you do see teams of athletes working together to set world records. Haile Gebrselassie** **uses pacers to set records. It would be cool to see a team of the worlds best athletes work together in effort to crush the Ironman record.
Athletes working together sounds much better than working against other athletes. I’m just not good at hypothetical fun. Last time I did this I had eddy van halen, sting and bono in the same band.
