The first thing I think of when I watch Lionel race is that he is not so much racing as he is daring everyone else to race him on his terms. And “his terms†means nothing gets left out on the course. Don’t hate me for saying what a lot of people think. Lionel is not the most graceful or gifted. He is definitely not going to be featured on form videos. But what he may lack in grace, he more than makes up for in grit.
If I were racing today I would lose sleep over ever trying to pass Lionel. Even if he’s not on and I had the chance to slip by him, I would fear the price I would have to pay to make that pass. He never makes it easy! Lionel treats athletes in front of him and athletes coming up on his shoulder like they insulted his family. I love that.
The first thing I think of when I watch Lionel race is that he is not so much racing as he is daring everyone else to race him on his terms. And “his terms†means nothing gets left out on the course. Don’t hate me for saying what a lot of people think. Lionel is not the most graceful or gifted. He is definitely not going to be featured on form videos. But what he may lack in grace, he more than makes up for in grit.
If I were racing today I would lose sleep over ever trying to pass Lionel. Even if he’s not on and I had the chance to slip by him, I would fear the price I would have to pay to make that pass. He never makes it easy! Lionel treats athletes in front of him and athletes coming up on his shoulder like they insulted his family. I love that.
But I’m not sure that’s Lionel anymore.
The article is from September 4th, 2023. The article makes it look like Mark penned that quote very recently.
As time marches on and the world evolves, I catch myself unconsciously doing the “then and now†comparison about life. You know how it goes. The past gets remembered as a time when everything was simpler, and today looks like an exhausted landscape where you always feel like you are playing catchup. But then I shake off the fog of reverie and remind myself that the “good old days†were never as good as I remembered, and that the present day is actually pretty cool even with its demands.
It’s the same for me remembering the days gone by in sports. There are always the heroes of our past that warm our soul when we think of them and what they brought to the world. These are the athletes who embody qualities that never fail to remind us of what we, as human beings are capable of. One athlete today stands out in my mind as a living embodiment of everything needed to be considered a hero of grand proportions. That athlete is Lionel Sanders.
The first thing I think of when I watch Lionel race is that he is not so much racing as he is daring everyone else to race him on his terms. And “his terms†means nothing gets left out on the course. Don’t hate me for saying what a lot of people think. Lionel is not the most graceful or gifted. He is definitely not going to be featured on form videos. But what he may lack in grace, he more than makes up for in grit.
If I were racing today I would lose sleep over ever trying to pass Lionel. Even if he’s not on and I had the chance to slip by him, I would fear the price I would have to pay to make that pass. He never makes it easy! Lionel treats athletes in front of him and athletes coming up on his shoulder like they insulted his family. I love that.
The second thing I love about Lionel is his work ethic. I’ve watched him get smarter over the years about his recovery, but when it comes time to put down a ten-out-of-ten workday he is still frightening both in his intensity and his unwillingness to hold anything back.
In my time the work ethic was not about numbers that could be measured, but by the amount of pain accumulated over the course of a tough workout. Guys like Dave Scott and Scott Molina were legendary in being able to extract the utmost by that gauge staying just one step shy of downright torture. They were legendary for venturing out over the pain and suffering ledge. But I’ll bet if they were here at the peak of their careers today, Lionel would be right with them and probably then some.
The final thing on my list, but by no means the end of my list of things I admire about Lionel, is his integrity. In a sports landscape where every word and every image seems to bear the watermark of a PR and social media team, Lionel says what he means and means what he says. More impressive than when he calls out someone or something is how when he feels he has wavered himself, he looks into the mirror and calls himself out. Never once in my experience of Lionel has he ever failed to stand up and take responsibility for his own mistakes and missteps. Not a quality in abundance today and one that I hold as a non-negotiable for elevating someone into the “greatness†category.
Something else I hold dear is that I want to make sure that I say everything I have to say to and about people while we’re all here. I want the people I care about to know I care. I want the people I learn from to know I remember them, and I want the people I admire to know I admire them. Lionel, this one’s for you!
Personally, I truly have never understood the Lionel hate on ST. As Mark states, he is far more grit than grace. Anyone who has watched him for more than :30 seconds can see that his form in the pool, on the bike and/or running leave much to be desired (god it is painful to watch him run… especially next to top tier runners). The man looks like he is fighting against himself in every discipline. Now, I have seen all of the top pros posting on ST and looking down their collective noses at him with their perfect technique and world class times. Oh wait, those are mainly (checks notes)… AGers who would kill to have half of his discipline, work ethic and grit… let alone his performances! The reality is, each and every AGer and/or up and coming pro should be huge Lionel fans. They should see in him a person who doesn’t backdown, isn’t afraid to push hard time and again and doesn’t accept that you can’t compete without flawless technique and the perfect form.
This is really nice and really wholesome. Any competitor would be flattered to have such things said about them.
All that said…Talbot deserves a lot of credit here too. Lionel is charismatic, enigmatic, and entertaining. But a 10 minute video of him sitting in front of a camera doing race recaps wouldn’t win over the same fanbase that tunes in for Talbot’s funny and quick-paced films. The Kona Race Week series was 100x better than the actual Kona Race Video from real broadcasters.
Lionel 2nd at 70.3 Michigan today… not a bad deficit on the swim, gave up a little chunk of time to Jackson Laundry on the bike, ran a 1:09 to pull within 10 seconds at the finish.
Really good swim from Lionel, but surprised that he got out rode, especially by a minute by Trevor Foley. Has the apprentice surpassed the master? Of course then Trevor is now a lot slower in his run, the give and take of triathlon…
Ya, I’m surprised at his seeming backwards progress on the bike the last year. Maybe he’s getting his run faster and will work back around to the bike?
His successful 2022 WC St George strategy seemed to be to not fight for the front of the bike and trust the run to deliver. But that seems to be the move on a hard hot bike and run course.
It looks like at some point near half way he caught Appleton and then they traded pulls the back half of the ride. They lost an additional 1 min in that time to JL interestingly enough. I’d say good result for LS all things considering.
I’m guessing Trevor knew his position was more or less locked and jogged it in knowing he has 70.3 Augusta in 7 days.
I don’t know about Michigan run course but he will do well in flat Augusta run course. Does anyone know if LS racing in Augusta on coming Sunday? I think I saw somewhere he was going to.
Lionel 2nd at 70.3 Michigan today… not a bad deficit on the swim, gave up a little chunk of time to Jackson Laundry on the bike, ran a 1:09 to pull within 10 seconds at the finish.
It looks like at some point near half way he caught Appleton and then they traded pulls the back half of the ride. They lost an additional 1 min in that time to JL interestingly enough. I’d say good result for LS all things considering.
So all the jokes about the Ventum, it can’t be that bad if he’s consistently pulling away from strong bikers right?
Ya, I’m surprised at his seeming backwards progress on the bike the last year. Maybe he’s getting his run faster and will work back around to the bike?
His successful 2022 WC St George strategy seemed to be to not fight for the front of the bike and trust the run to deliver. But that seems to be the move on a hard hot bike and run course.
Pretty sure sometime before Milwaukee he put out that he was only doing 6-8 hours of riding per week and that he wasn’t super surprised that he was going backwards. This was around the time that Sam Long was blazing his way to glory leaving Lionel somewhere mid-pack. He has definitely put in more work on the bike since then (he has started posting on Strava again) but I’m not super surprised to see him not be the “uber” biker you would normally expect.
Ya, I’m surprised at his seeming backwards progress on the bike the last year. Maybe he’s getting his run faster and will work back around to the bike?
His successful 2022 WC St George strategy seemed to be to not fight for the front of the bike and trust the run to deliver. But that seems to be the move on a hard hot bike and run course.
**Pretty sure sometime before Milwaukee he put out that he was only doing 6-8 hours of riding per week **and that he wasn’t super surprised that he was going backwards. This was around the time that Sam Long was blazing his way to glory leaving Lionel somewhere mid-pack. He has definitely put in more work on the bike since then (he has started posting on Strava again) but I’m not super surprised to see him not be the “uber” biker you would normally expect.
this one stuck out to me, and was another of my frustrating moments with lionel.
like, if you want to do well as a professional, you have to know that it takes more than 6hrs of riding per week.
and if you actually are doing more than that, why pretend to be doing less? i remember that a bunch of people were answering him in earnest, all amateur triathletes telling him their favourite workouts or ideas for building weekly volume and stuff. were he and talbot just sitting there laughing at them?
He’s back to the UCI legal canyon too. He seems to be upset he can’t get the fit right on the tri. But is that from a comfort, aero, or power standpoint? He did 333w on 70.3 michigan according to strava, can’t imagine Laundry doing that much but still was behind him.
He’s back to the UCI legal canyon too. He seems to be upset he can’t get the fit right on the tri. But is that from a comfort, aero, or power standpoint? He did 333w on 70.3 michigan according to strava, can’t imagine Laundry doing that much but still was behind him.
Pretty sure he’s wasting watts because of his position, not the bike. I’m not sure how much he can actually improve his bike position, he always seems to be moving around and leaning towards the right, which is the same leg he “drags” when he’s running. Probably some mobility issues that were never addressed?
It looks like at some point near half way he caught Appleton and then they traded pulls the back half of the ride. They lost an additional 1 min in that time to JL interestingly enough. I’d say good result for LS all things considering.
So all the jokes about the Ventum, it can’t be that bad if he’s consistently pulling away from strong bikers right?
All it means is that he would have gained even more time on them had he been on a faster bike…
Or that the supposed downsides are exaggerated in the real world and we just make fun of him for riding a goofy looking bike, while the pro cyclists do the same to us.