Right now there are four threads on the front forum page about brakes, and nearly half of the threads (I counted) are explicitly related to gear/equipment. Meanwhile, this weekend, some of the top athletes in the sport had either lifetime defining performances or enhanced career-defining seasons. There is not a single thread on any of it.
Let me recap:
-Josh Amberger: Wow, is he having a season or what? He wiped away the field at Calgary 70.3, going 3:35. This guy is really coming into his own as a professional, and it’s so good to see him finally figure out how to capitalize on his talent. And Heather Jackson – having realized, a decade into her career, that bike fit is important – comes in at 3:57. Outstanding.
-Metzlmour at Challenge Iceland: Justin Metzler and Jeanni Seymour battled out and beat Trevor and Heather Wurtele, respectively (also with great performances as runner ups). This is Justin’s first professional win with a ridiculous run split. How does a person so large run so fast? Anyways – his better half Jeanni, who is emerging as one of the best 70.3 athletes in the world (second best?) beat out Heather by only 20 seconds, having come back from a four minute deficit off the bike. Really cool to see this.
-Brent McMahon: this guy is proof positive (along with Jodie Robertson) that your bike fit can be nauseatingly bad and you can still be one of the best long-course triathletes in the world. He smacked everyone at Lake Placid. And Clay Emge and Sam Gyde…those guys are fast.
-Frederick Van Lierde: he balled so hard at IRONMAN France that he was bleeding out of his skull. Unconfirmed, but we suspect he crashed on the bike and suffered injury due to inexperience with and the excessive stopping power of his disc braking. Still, he won the race going away.
-Frederick Van Lierde: he balled so hard at IRONMAN France that he was bleeding out of his skull. Unconfirmed, but we suspect he crashed on the bike and suffered injury due to inexperience with and the excessive stopping power of his disc braking. Still, he won the race going away.
Frederick hit a low hanging shower at the run course. This year is quite troublesome for him after hitting a spectator with his bike in Fuerteventura and being robbed and knocked unconscious right before IMSA. Glad he won in Nice! The shower tattoo on his head will be an everlasting memory.
Sam
You do realize that you’re asking this particular question on a site that’s run by a guy embedded in the fabric of the triathlon business, grew up with the founders of many of the wetsuit, bike, and shoe manufacturers who sponsor here, and whose editors / contributors are sponsored by said companies? It’s a gear/marketing site, wrapped as you’d like, Not surprising the lack of performance patter…
Fantastic performances all around this weekend. Would love to hear more about them, especially Josh…
You do realize that you’re asking this particular question on a site that’s run by a guy embedded in the fabric of the triathlon business, grew up with the founders of many of the wetsuit, bike, and shoe manufacturers who sponsor here, and whose editors / contributors are sponsored by said companies?
I think that’s bullshit. Because this is also the site that covered and ran articles on all of those races/performances. The only site that does that. Yet in this open forum, nobody brought it up. Because brakes.
The Tour de France threads have been quite active. Ironman needs to step it up in terms of coverage. It’s tough to get excited about races when all you can do is look at the final numbers. Give me video coverage, post race interviews, breakdowns by former pros, etc and it’ll be a lot easier to get excited and want to discuss it on the forum.
I think they all did great. My " care" lies more about.
Lake placid top prize $8000 !!! are you kidding me. That’s like $2000 per lost toe nail.
Challenge Penticton. Thee Pro Males only for a race that paid three deep. Two women and neither finished, One bike accident and the other could have walked to first but had a medical with 4 km to go.
Calgary had a race where the course must have been short for the swim and bike. Run I am not sure. Everyone will see those splits and sign up to prove they take short cuts.
Iceland??? That sounds like the last place to swim, bike and run half naked. I hear it’s lovely though.
A lot of these comments above are more about humour then opinion. Decide for yourself.
tour de france is just infinitely more interesting i guess?
if you want race discussion for tri, wait for kona and the next super league event. i’ve even found itu wts races a bit boring this year to be honest whereas in previous years i’ve watched them religiously.
Came here to say exactly this. Given triathlon is still mainly a participant sport it’s hard to get excited and come geek out online about great performances when people are still out at races or recovery on the couch! I usually come read about that stuff on Monday while I drink coffee or at lunch. I’m sure the front page of the forum will be different tomorrow morning!
In general I’d be curious to see the traffic stats (posts and views) on week days vs weekends!
Most people here are busy with their own triathlon-related issues so threads on aerodynamics, clothing and material are well-visited.
What the pros do might not always find interest, and indeed for some triathletes the TDF or Wimbledon is more interesting.
And that’s neither right nor wrong.
So, instead of starting four separate threads to talk about each race/performance, you started one thread to complain about others not starting four threads about each race?
At my local race a guy in his mid sixties finished an olympic duathlon with a 1:06 bike and a 35 min 10K run. In the triathlon 5 guys under 2 hours albeit on a course with a 1300 metre swim. I was 4 min faster than last year but was fourth in my group last year I had a rare win. Between olympic, sprint tris and duathlons we had about 300 people competing.
I appreciate these performances but don’t find pro triathlon all that compelling as a sport to follow closely. I’m only interested in it because I do the sport myself and these performances give me a yardstick as to how much more I suck than the best.
Professional sport thrives on conflict, dramatic tension, big personalities, and shared passion. Pro triathlon doesn’t have enough of those qualities to ever be more than a small niche sport.
I do… particularly a friend of mine who finished somewhere in the top 20 at Lake Placid. Was watching the finish line feed where Brent finished and no one was in sight… for a while!
Josh Amberger went 3:35! That’s amazing!
It certainly was a big weekend for racing, my Facebook feed was full of friends racing all over the place.
I do… particularly a friend of mine who finished somewhere in the top 20 at Lake Placid. Was watching the finish line feed where Brent finished and no one was in sight… for a while!
Josh Amberger went 3:35! That’s amazing!
It certainly was a big weekend for racing, my Facebook feed was full of friends racing all over the place.
Greetings Twitchers.
The course in Calgary was short on the bike by 4km. While I did ride with 45.0km/h neat average speed, the short course is the reason for a really fast time. I ran well, but didn’t have to go super deep to win so made the most of it. It would probably be more like a 3:40 finish over a course presenting the full distance.
The data from my Quarq is interesting. I had a really low power. In Jonkoping 70.3 two weeks ago I had a NP 25w higher. But this course was more about being aero than riding for power. And yet it is my fastest average speed ever. There’s other factors, such as the 1,000m elevation etc. but overall, it was just a full blown TT course, that gave you the chance to put the head down, follow a white line, and hope that you don’t hit the rumble strips & spill.
Happy to make discussion about this race or the bigger picture etc.
