Dev:“Indeed it would be awesome that both are on the line and whoever wins, takes the grand prize!”
Both Knibb and Gentle have clear persuasive motivation to race: both want to go to Dubai with 3 wins (105). Only one can.
Ideally Gentle would want to get that win and force Knibb into fourth so in the GF, Gentle could afford to come second and still win the Tour overall. (if Knibb has 2 x #1 and one x #3 and then wins GF versus Gentle 3 x #1 and second in GF, Knibb wins on tie break)
I fear, given the 1300+m climbing on the LLV bike course (cf 400m at Ibiza) which Knibb will monster and generally spoil the race for everyone including we spectators, this is the faintest of chances for Gentle.
“Knibb has a big race/travel schedule?” Has she? What races is she doing that Gentle isn’t? Not on start list for Torremolinos (which of course directly clashes with Las Vegas).
With such a demanding bike in Lake Las Vegas, it’s a dream course for Knibb and a subpar course for Gentle. I expect similar results as in San Francisco, where on the women side the race was dominated by strong bike riders (it was really dominated by Knibb, but followed by 2nd Mathews, 3rd Philipp and 4th Simmonds.
To illustrate its demanding extent, the climb per km on the T100 LLV bike course (80km, 16m/km) is greater than that in the IMWC Nice 180km.
Also relevant (Knibb v Gentle) is that the women start at 0800 so typical temperature for the run will be <20oC. Men in the afternoon.
Matthews said on insta she will miss LLV to allow a solid block of training before Dubai.
To be in the mix for the final Tour positions (positions #3 - #7), a decent result (top 5) in Las Vegas is vital for LCB and Philipp.
I wouldn’t count on this, we have been having a super hot late summer here in the deserts. Still over 110 in a lot of them. But it does seem like it will be going down soon, but running at 11AM in Vegas at that time could be into the high80’s/low 90’s if one of these unusual weeks pops up again…
It may be hot there but the dew point has been down in the low 30*F range which means excellent evaporative cooling if you can drink enough of splash enough water on your body so it’s was different than Miami or Singapore in that regard.
Thank you, missed that. Also, seems like a really stupid day for them to announce that considering what that day represents but I’m not surprised.
@dfru if anything you know by now from me is that I’m an incredibly serious person, perhaps too serious and lacking humor at times, but serious? Definitely that.
I think TheStroBro meant the day that PTO announced Dubai as grand final, which was September 11. September 11 is the day of the WTC terrorist attack, allegedly supported by Saudi Arabia.
What TheStroBro didn’t take into account was, that Dubai is a city in United Arab Emirates (UAE), and UEA isn’t Saudi Arabia
Well the leader of the team that took out one of the towers was from UAE. But my hunch is simply that people forget and the day the news went live was just another day without thinking about its possible significance.
Following on from this, the 10 men’s wildcards have been announced:
Riele Dubrick Geens Nieschlag Mann Amberger Schoeman
plus Noodt Smith Keulen all of whom will finish well up in the rankings running into the GF in Dubai.
Wait list: Stratmann, Laundry, Sperl (as at 4 Oct)
Women wildcards: Hering Chura Thek de Boer
But also Visser, Pohle, Madsen
Derron has been added (and/but is at the bottom of) the wait list.
Kivioja and Sanchez (#5 in Nice) head that list. https://stats.protriathletes.org/athlete/marlene-de-boer
Winner of IM Sweden, 70.3 Poznan and Challenge Almere (record time 8:22)
Contracted athletes certainly not racing: Moench Lawrence and Ryf.
Gentle is not on the (World Triathlon published) start list (!) Nor are Simmonds, Watkinson or Matthews.
Seems to me if she were to do Vegas, she would have come to the states and did a mini training camp somewhere, perhaps with her husband who is doing the race. Going back home tells me that she is probably giving it a miss, which takes her chances out of her hand for the final series now. She could win the final and still lose the series, but no doubt Knibb has gotten into her head already and she is racing for 2nd now…
Not sure how she feels Ibiza went for her on the bike, but it certainly was not nearly good enough to be competitive for the win, and even the podium as it turns out…Back to the drawing board I would presume, gotta do something to close that gap to the uber biker womens…
