If you only had a clue how warm that helmet is you would know how overheating could be the major factor for his blow up. If you think it is warm….you are not even close, it is brutal hot.
Jeroen
He came second in 2022? How’s that not conquering the heat?
He ran a really good race.
In interviews he says he goes all in most of the time, win or bust.
I would think with his capability, that would be more of a “bonus” than an goal. IE- he’s already a favorite in the sport with his last 2 years, I wouldn’t think he would race a world championship with that in mind. I would think it’s more “if it gets broken” along the way, even better. I think that’s the exciting part about LC triathlon at the moment. Every favorite sorta has a “weakness” that they have to account for vs the others. I think the S and B have to be a “strength” for SL for the foreseeable future with SL’s race plans. Obviously not to over bike and have that run, but I think that’s just the nature of the beast.
Maybe Sam had something special, but I know some Canyon athletes that have the course record written into their contracts and it is far from what people are quoting here.
To drop a large pro peloton, with kb and lange, solo without motos would almost garuantee a bike record
People saying Jan paced smarter are living in a time when the winner was 25 minutes slower
But he didnt say or even indicate that was the problem, so you either have some other information about him that we dont, or you just made something up. Of course the helmet is hot, most of them are these days that are aero like that. Did he not have an aero helmet when he nearly won there the race before??
It seems that he pays a lot of attention to heat issues, so much so that he didnt wear a wetsuit in a particular race to stay cool in T1 and the early stages of the bike. If he would risk losing all that time just for heat, think if his helmet was a problem, he would switch it up quite quickly…
Different helmet
Different helmet, and, yes, I have the opportunity to test and ride in a lot of different aero helmets. I can assure you there is a lot of difference in terms how hot is one to another, and some of the more towards TT designed, like Sam’s Ekoi here, helmets are even hotter.
Jeroen
Am I correct that Sam and Rudy had the ventless version and PL had a vented version? Can’t imagine they won’t have a vented version for tri - they could sell a million of those things if they do…
The version they sell is the one Sam wore
Completely pink - do you think you could cut holes in it?
haha
I’ve watched all of @DrAlexHarrison 's videos so you could say, “I’m something of a sports scientist myself.”
He mentioned missing bottles, then having to down a bottle of Mortal Hydration at the next aid station, and his other on-board bottles were also full of electrolytes. He later mentions that his stomach wasn’t absorbing all the Maurten gels. I bet the hydration issues shut his stomach down at some point on the bike, and therefore he couldn’t absorb much nutrition for the run. He also mentions taking a lot of Maurten gels to try to get things going. With their proprietary “sticks in your gut longer” technology, I wonder if that caused the bloating issue he mentions (too much Maurten goo in there).
As far as gunning for the bike record in lieu of the overall win. I don’t think so. Laidlow always races risky, full gas no brakes. He either podiums the race or bombs out mid-run.
From the pics it looks like that, but to this day I haven’t seen anything of this helmet actually for sale on their website. There is just a video of the paint designs for the teams they sponsor.
But so far nothing on a customer design.
Jeroen
The Sam Laidlow version is the only one they will sell. At least for now.