Anyone besides me watch IM Germany yesterday (on ironmanlive.com)? Race was amazing to watch- thousands lined the streets and it was like watching the TDF! Stadler was amazing- he had a 10-15 min lead on his rivals off the bike (4:28, I think) and held everyone off in the run to win by an 8 min margin off Cam Brown. He will be hard to beat 3 months from now in Kona.
Was the 2:58 marathon the result of the margin coming off the bike and the fact that no one was around him? Or, was that all that he could do? I can’t see that marathon time giving him much of a chance in Kona because I don’t see him having the same margin off the bike that he did last year. They won’t let him get away so easily this year.
Still, a solid race for sure.
I was at the event yesterday. Normann looked pretty relaxed on the run. 4 weeks ago he won a local half ironman distance, after posting the best bike split by 20 minutes.He is certainly in magnificant form.
With such a large lead and his slot already in the bad, why would he have ran faster?
We can poke about his Kona run, but the same holds true…there was no reason to pick up the pace.
Was the 2:58 marathon the result of the margin coming off the bike and the fact that no one was around him? Or, was that all that he could do? I can’t see that marathon time giving him much of a chance in Kona because I don’t see him having the same margin off the bike that he did last year. They won’t let him get away so easily this year.
Still, a solid race for sure.
I don’t think it’s a matter of letting Stadler get away on the bike at Kona. Even if you kept up w/ Stadler on the bike, you would pay for it on the run. Cam Brown rode a very respectable 4:45 bike split, but could only follow up with a 2:51 marathon (as opposed to his more typical 2:forty-something finishes). Stadler’s 2:58 doesn’t look that great on its own, but when read together w/ his 4:28 bike split- it is absolutely amazing.
yeah…I agree. A pretty amazing effort. Hell, I can’t even average 25MPH in an Oly
With all the great bikers that have and had in germany over the years, I wonder why they very rarely win the TDF
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