Im starting to get excited … what do you think, whos your favorite?
Im really curious how the ITU guys will perform - can Vincent transfer his superb form?
So the latter, the two Norwegians, but also Rudy v.B. are my favorites. Also pretty high on my list for a surprise is M. Ditlev.
For the female race I think Flora Duffy could be the one to look out for, after her recent performances.
Holly Lawrence on the women’s side.
Men’s is harder for me to choose, especially with my long course bias. I think at least 2 of the top 3 will be ITU guys, probably Luis and Iden, and one of the remaining top 3 will either be RVB or Lionel.
I haven’t seen the actual confirmation list. The invite list is huge but who is actually showing up? Do you have a link to who has confirmed?
nope, havent seen a confirmed list. But I presume all starters with a wildcard are very likely…
Yes, with Lionel I have my top 5 
Regardless, it’s going to be great. I will be there racing Saturday, wife and son racing Sunday then watching the Pros. I took Monday off work. It was great watching them last year. I’m going with Luis and Findley to keep the title.
Only chance the long course guys have is if the 20 meter draft is strictly enforced. May be tough if there are 50+ athletes going around a track at the same time. Luis, Iden, Blummenfelt, Duffy etc will dominate.
I’m excited too, but only to a point - and that’s because I’m not finding basic information! Do you have the invite list? (I found that the start list won’t be finalized until the week before, but where is a single list of invitees??) And is this still the course distance?
An old school Brownlee’s/Gomez domination is on the cards!
In theory the only invite list would be the top 40 of their rankings and then if we could compile all the wildcard invites, but even that is tough because the Challenge team also has their own wildcard invites so they’re all over the place. Would be great to have a confirmed list but for now we just have to wait…
Ah, thanks Ben. At least it’s not just me that can’t figure it out.
Holly Vs Flora should make for an amazing womens race!
On mens side, who knows?
The most exciting will be to see it Vs long course,.who wins on this kind of middle distance? Does not swimming front pack leave you out of the battle?
Holly Lawrence on the women’s side.
I agree. She’s 70.3 and middle distance specialist. I don’t know what other guys are doing, but looking at LS’s 5K PR and 1 hour Canadian record, I bet he’s in really good shape for this race.
He’s also really good at 70.3 distance. I don’t think he lost in any of 70.3 races last year. IIRC, gap with second place was pretty big in most races.
An old school Brownlee’s/Gomez domination is on the cards!
I’m gonna be honest, I can’t see past AB now that he has his running legs back. I think JG, Blummenfelt, Luis, and JB will be in that front train. I think AB is gonna be hitting 360-370w from the get go, which will get rid of the likes of Schoemen from the front pack and will ensure Iden and RVB will have to work extremely hard to bridge up as they will be 1min from the front after the swim.
In terms of the long course guys I think Sanders and Kienle will have a job reaching the front on the bike. It’s possible particularly with the 20m draft zone, but then they will probaly get fried by AB and Blummenfelt on the run. As impressive as Sanders hour record was I dont think he’ll be pushing that many watts more than AB on the bike after a 2km swim.
I think JG may struggle on the bike, and JB and Luis have never went over Olympic distance so again I have my reservations. If Iden can bridge up after the swim and not burn too many matches he is obviously dangerous.
Maybe pick a podium nearer the race.
An old school Brownlee’s/Gomez domination is on the cards!
I’m gonna be honest, I can’t see past AB now that he has his running legs back. I think JG, Blummenfelt, Luis, and JB will be in that front train. I think AB is gonna be hitting 360-370w from the get go, which will get rid of the likes of Schoemen from the front pack and will ensure Iden and RVB will have to work extremely hard to bridge up as they will be 1min from the front after the swim.
In terms of the long course guys I think Sanders and Kienle will have a job reaching the front on the bike. It’s possible particularly with the 20m draft zone, but then they will probaly get fried by AB and Blummenfelt on the run. As impressive as Sanders hour record was I dont think he’ll be pushing that many watts more than AB on the bike after a 2km swim.
I think JG may struggle on the bike, and JB and Iden have never went over Olympic distance so again I have my reservations. If Iden can bridge up after the swim and not burn too many matches he is obviously dangerous.
Maybe pick a podium nearer the race.
Did we miss some news from last year?
An old school Brownlee’s/Gomez domination is on the cards!
I’m gonna be honest, I can’t see past AB now that he has his running legs back. I think JG, Blummenfelt, Luis, and JB will be in that front train. I think AB is gonna be hitting 360-370w from the get go, which will get rid of the likes of Schoemen from the front pack and will ensure Iden and RVB will have to work extremely hard to bridge up as they will be 1min from the front after the swim.
In terms of the long course guys I think Sanders and Kienle will have a job reaching the front on the bike. It’s possible particularly with the 20m draft zone, but then they will probaly get fried by AB and Blummenfelt on the run. As impressive as Sanders hour record was I dont think he’ll be pushing that many watts more than AB on the bike after a 2km swim.
I think JG may struggle on the bike, and JB and Iden have never went over Olympic distance so again I have my reservations. If Iden can bridge up after the swim and not burn too many matches he is obviously dangerous.
Maybe pick a podium nearer the race.
Did we miss some news from last year?
Correction should read Luis.
Ah okay. Yeah makes more sense. That’s my holdout on Luis as well.
I’m kind of lowkey interested to see what someone like Morgan Pearson can do as well. No idea what his bike power is like and he didn’t own a tri bike until this past month, but you gotta believe he’s capable of dropping the fastest run split of the day.
Ah okay. Yeah makes more sense. That’s my holdout on Luis as well.
I’m kind of lowkey interested to see what someone like Morgan Pearson can do as well. No idea what his bike power is like and he didn’t own a tri bike until this past month, but you gotta believe he’s capable of dropping the fastest run split of the day.
I think Morgan will be toast after the bike so no super fast run splits. Interesting though.
If this was Olympic distance non draft I would have Luis every day of the week. But over this sort of 70.3 distance I have to go with AB. This is the first time we’ve had AB with 2016 run legs in a middle distance race.
An old school Brownlee domination is on the cards!
FIFY.
On men’s side, with the number of competitors and 2.5 mile bike loop, it is going to be an ITU guy for the win. I’m going with Al Brownlee FTW - mainly regarding his biking ability in TT position vs the other ITU guys. He might get a head start on the run if he creates a gap with laps remaining on the bike.
It’s a Challenge race, so they should be able to add any pros they want.