“Watched AB and LS’s battle at one of the 70.3 races and LS was 33 sec behind overall. He ran 2-3 min faster than AB. Not sure what’s going to be LS’s strategy against ITU guys. “
LS running 2-3 mins faster than AB while LOOSING by 33 seconds means absolutely nothing. AB and Frodo run as fast as they need to win, that’s it. Same with the bike. There is a reason Lionel has never won a major championship. He works as hard or harder than anyone, but to this point he has proven he is not as good as the best in championship races, when everybody is in their best shape. I would be very surprised if Lionel makes up much more than a minute on the leaders in the bike, and given that I am pretty sure he has never run sub 1:10 in a legitimate 13.1 in a 70.3, and there are several in this field who have…game over!
LS is a great personality, and fun to follow, but IMO possibly the most over rated triathlete (but certainly friggin good!)
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I am certainly not a member of the Lionel cult but I would change “most over rated” to “most over hyped”,There is a subtle difference but it makes a difference as Lionel is seriously talented and has earned respect, if tempered by his Mad Scientist lunacy.I remember years ago I had the the flaming torch and pitchfork crowd here on ST baying for my blood when I called Des Ficker the most over hyped female triathlete on ST.She was a marketers dream who never quite made that leap to the greatness associated with winning “A Major”.The maddening crowd here failed to make the distinction between over rated and over hyped. Seriously you would have thought I had kicked a puppy or something. 
I am sure somebody is going to tell you that Lionel won the ITU Long Course Worlds and the Challenge “Championship” but we all know that nobody really counts the ITU LC race as anything but a novelty and the Challenge Samorin race is much the same. This Daytona race would never have the hype it does today if COVID hadn’t screwed up everyones race calendar and a shitload of money wasn’t being tossed around.I hope tomorrows races live up to the hype and it is the start of something great for the sport.