Interesting. Similar in a way to Sam Long in St George. Watching the race, it looked like when Kanute was caught by Kallin he didn’t even attempt to follow and just sat up and waved on whoever it was that was riding with him (can’t remember).
I wonder if that was part of his mistake and he was waiting for Sam, etc. to come along. Or if he just felt he overbiked when he pulled in the lead out of T1 and paid for it?
Wish he provided a little more info on what specific tactic he felt ruined his race.
For sure something on the bike, but I bet he wishes he had that swim to do over again. Pulling your own water a few yards behind someone most of the swim is really stupid. Either you just get on the guys feet and stay there, or you fade back and sit on the guy chasing’s feet. He swam in the worst possible spot, using the most energy for the least gain from anyone in that race…
Seems odd though, he used to be a really powerful bike guy. It was always his run that was a tick off, but for him to defer on the bike seems completely opposite to how he has found success in his career.
I wonder if he’s having that shift in strategy that Andy Potts had in the middle of his career. Rather than smoking the swim he decided to get through the swim at the front while trying to use as little energy as possible. Regardless, you’re right in that he somewhat got the worst case scenario of swimming up front while coming out second without the draft.
Perhaps, but this is different from Potts. Andy had to pull all his swims, Ben had himself a pack mule here that he really didnt take advantage of. I think his mistake here was not that he didnt drop back and really conserve, but that he didn’t place himself right on the feet, conserve from what he was doing in no mans land, and then also get that great gap on the bike which can force your competitors to burn matches to catch you.
And when and if they catch, you then get back in the line and stay there, unless you are just soft peddling all the time. Use each person you can to further your race, no hero pulls with everyone behind getting into your head. Dude can run, we saw that with that great dual with Blu awhile back. He just needs to get to T2 in that kind of form once again, then folks will take him seriously as a threat again…
I believe his new coach is Neal Henderson (he even moved to CO), who’s always been know to be smart/strong with the cycling knowledge. The consensus within coaching is that it takes about ~6 months or so for the coaching changes to truly show up, IE athlete still is having gains from previous fitness/trianing demands. Although you hear all the time an athlete changes coaches and wins a race a month later, and the new coach gets all the praise and it was that training that did it. No it wasn’t it was a combination of that + all the previous training load that got you to that level.
Yeah, its a little weird because he made a big deal about the coaching change and then the results have been lackluster. Not to say Neal Henderson is to blame or anything like that, but making it a big ordeal and then coming out flat somewhat reflects poorly on the switch despite it not being an accurate criticism.
I agree, his strategy was pretty poor, which is somewhat surprising given it seemed like he used to be quite tactical in his approach. I think he’s always been just a notch off in the run, but he was able to use a killer swim/bike combo to at least put him in the race and on the right day be in position for the win/podium (See battle with Blu). The idea of him getting removed on the bike is antithetical to the approach he took to come in second at worlds twice. I guess the whole thing is confusing because it seems like he’s getting away from the very thing that brought him success throughout his career.
He probably made a big deal about it because he had been coached by Kanute for almost 9 years… I can’t think of many PRO athlete coaching relationships that last this long; in fact the only ones I can think of include Dan Lorang (11 years with Frodeno, 132? years with Haug).