First and foremost just want to thank each and everyone of you who have sent a message of encouragement or left a positive or negative comment on the coverage this last week. It’s those comments that drive me to work harder and create more.
As many of you know I do all of Lionels youtube and content creation. This year our goal was to take media and content to a next level and continue to push the quota as far as endurance sports on youtube. One of the new things we are doing is the “Race Week” series. This series is very similar to the UFC embedded series. We plan to do this at every event this next year to build hype, create characters and let other athletes be heard and plug their social media channels. This series is a very laid back Behind the scenes with raw cuts and very little edit time as the videos come daily. (These videos have no story line or context and they never will. We are just trying to show an inside look at some of the pros ahead of the event.)
We have now done “RACE WEEK” at two events Challenge Miami as well as Ironman Texas 70.3. I would love to hear your thoughts from Race Week. What you like and don’t like. Feel free to reply to this thread or send an email to talbotcoxmedia@gmail.com.
Thanks ahead of time for all the replies on this. We will definitely listen and take them into consideration for Ironman 70.3 St George.
I enjoyed the rawness of it and just seeing what their days are like leading up to it. I appreciate getting to see their personalities with the banter back & forth (although sometimes the videos seemed more like Sam Long vids than Lionel vids).
Any chance you might be able to do this type of video following an age grouper? Maybe one of the EMJ guys since you have a relationship there and they’re all pretty high level.
Good question as of right now we really plan to focus on the pros as Lionel is trying to build the sport at the professional level. But maybe sometime in the future we could add in a age grouper here or there.
I enjoyed the rawness of it and just seeing what their days are like leading up to it. I appreciate getting to see their personalities with the banter back & forth (although sometimes the videos seemed more like Sam Long vids than Lionel vids)…
Yeah I agree with this, really enjoyed the two series so far and I particularly enjoyed the raw interaction with the other pros on both videos.
It made me excited to see the result of a race I ordinarily wouldn’t have given a second thought to… after the videos I was actually left disappointed that there would be no coverage of the race! Also reinforced the belief that less pro races with more stacked fields is definitely the better way to go from an appeal point of view
So good job, I look forward to seeing more of these videos
I’m really enjoying the behind the scenes stuff, especially since they are published before the race - adds some context to the event along with the rest of the build up. I also like that they include plenty of other athletes as they arrive at the race.
Here in quarantine we’ve been starved for racing content, and there would have been nearly no coverage (no good coverage for sure) in the leadup to the race if it weren’t for your great, entertaining, and fun videos.
I did like the way you framed it as a head-to-head so it became ‘real’ for the athletes you featured. Makes you feel the hype of competition and not just framing it as another hard training day that you hope you win, but just ‘oh-well’ if you don’t.
Love the leadup to the race - I normally NEVER watch triathlon race videos- I only just watch the summary and the 1 minute highlight clips but you had me watching all of 'em from the leadup to race day. Kudos.
Hi Talbot - no critiques, I really enjoy the content. If you, by chance, recorded any race video, some sort of race day highlights would be great to see. (WTC fail on coverage, etc) I found some youtube content from the race yesterday - some random dude on his bike on the run course. He did capture Lionel’s pass on Sam which was cool to see.
I understand some will hate the focus on Sam Long in a LS video. But honestly you running to all the different pros to catch then on their ride/run/hotel etc was great. Its obviously forward thinking of yourself and Lionel to start to promote the other Pros and not just focus on Lionel.
No offense to other BOPers (I’m one myself) but IM has TONS of videos on youtube following so-and-so who overcame this to compete and finish. Age groupers have their place and it’s GREAT for the sport…but if we want to make this about viewing a professional sport event (ala watching the Boston Marathon, a NASCAR race, or other long form event the focus NEEDS to be on Pros not some guy like myself - no one cares about my really slow finish nor will they watch it. But watching someone do something they can not do is fun and Tri is no different.
NOW - here is my caveat to all of this. Ironman doesn’t care about the pros, but obviously the pros need IM (and challenge). The pros need the races to make money but IM doesn’t need the pros to sell entries (especially not for the next few years). IM will never pick up the coverage as long as the pros are a second thought. If the point of these videos is to raise the status of pros, and I think we can all agree that it has, then there needs to be some end goal beyond the race by race bump.
I would honestly suggest a model beyond just lionel sanders that isn’t reliant on IM for coverage. And you really struck on that with your IG stories but it needs to be put out there. So for instance I follow you on IG but I wasn’t aware of the updates until I logged in on here (not a huge IG person). So if your going to do this again, MAKE SURE LIONEL OR YOURSELF TELL PEOPLE WHERE TO LOOK FOR RACE DAY COVERAGE! Feel free to call out IM “no race day coverage by IM but feel free to catch all the updates by following Talbot’s stories on Instagram” or however you want to do it. The big thing is about creating a call to action but also giving direction before that action.
Going live on YouTube yourself (or whomever) might be a great option for race day and would help build upon the buzz that was created but I’m totally unsure of the logistics of a 4+ hour live video being put out via the field.
Still feel free to have a formal race day package that is edited down/put together but some raw live video coverage would have been great.
I’m a curious guy and I was wondering what all the pros do before the race and these videos who exactly what I wanted to see. After watching all of them and went down to Galveston to spectate the race and oh boy, it was just incredible. I saw all the hard work pros put in for the training and witnessed first hand how they unleashed EVERYTHING. This is such a great idea and keep up the good work!!! BTW, I’ve been refreshing Lionel’s channel for post race video.
I love the videos and virtually everything that you put up about Lionel. For whatever reason, he is the one right now who makes me a “fan” of triathlon. Without him, my interest would be just in seeing what athlete happened to come out on top in any given race. But Lionel is the one I actually CHEER for.
Whether I love the decisions he makes or cringe at them, I actively root for him. And with every video that you put up, I enjoy getting to “know” him on a little different level.
I’ve enjoyed the videos, keep it up. Hopefully you can get a pool showdown with Lionel and Sam; I hope Lionel trash talks him after the ghosting Sam did (and ultimately got trashed in the water at Galveston).
Honestly, Ironman doesn’t deserve the hype you’re drumming up for their product. Challenge is at least recognizing they have something people want to watch, even if the live version isn’t always the most accessible.
Love them. Wife and I watch every video. Thank you doing it. Appreciate Lionel doing it as well. It has to get tiresome living on camera, but we love it.
1 - Will we get a post race video from Lionel?
2 - In the future, continue the race week series with not just Pre-Race content but Post-Race content, talk to Sam, find out how his race went, Joe Skipper, Lionel, Kanute, etc, etc.
3 - I know Lionel is a HUGE UFC fan, I used to watch the lead up videos to UFC events and they go heavy into the history and story behind each athlete. Maybe a little bit more history, i.e. Kanute a defending champion, Long and Lionel with their KOM’s, etc.
4 - This is not directed towards you Talbot but towards WTC, it’s a sad state of affairs when one of the pro triathletes takes it upon himself along with you Talbot to promote the race, WTF!!! That’s like having Tom Brady go around making YouTube videos of all the players prior to the super bowl. YES, WTC does not care about the pros, BLAH BLAH BLAH!!! The fact people are commenting here shows that there DEFINITELY is an audience for the pro race, and PTO is capitalizing on that, and WTC is “dropping the ball”!!!
Once again, amazing work Talbot, waiting for that post race video, if we get one.
its hilarious Ironman was bought for some $730MM by a…wait for it…media company.
The video feed of the race by Ironman was the finish line 2 minutes before Lionel wins with workers barely getting the finish tape across in time for him to cross.
Even better, I think Talbot is banned by WTC for taking photos on course during Kona race one year without credentials. Nothing like biting the hand that feeds.
its hilarious Ironman was bought for some $730MM by a…wait for it…media company.
The video feed of the race by Ironman was the finish line 2 minutes before Lionel wins with workers barely getting the finish tape across in time for him to cross.
Even better, I think Talbot is banned by WTC for taking photos on course during Kona race one year without credentials. Nothing like biting the hand that feeds.
Yeah - I know people want more live coverage from Talbot but I am sure he’s got some sort of suspension or limit going on. If you saw his podium insta story - you can see where IM didn’t give him access. Kenny Withrow was able to be in there and do an insta live with a bunch of the guys. Sad state of affairs.
