You go months on Slowtwitch with barely a mention of ITU/short course racing , and now we get a 4 page debate on the mixed team relay, a niche within a niche that about 1% of triathlon fans give a damn about. What gives l?!
Jack? (Kelly)
France has a similar Ć¢ā¬ÅproblemĆ¢ā¬Ā to GB. 3 people at the WTCS podium level on the womenĆ¢ā¬ā¢s side, plus 3 men if Vincent gets healthy!
I also wonder about the Germans. They seem to have about 238 fast youngsters. Could they surprise? Or maybe a cycle away?
Arenāt the French guaranteed 3 spots (home Olympics)?
Nope, France as home country are guaranteed 2 men and 2 women, and an MTR berth (see Japan in Tokyo). They could earn a third spot in either, or both genders the same way as any country, by having at least 3 athletes ranked in the top 30 of the individual olympic qualification rankings. They are more or less a lock to do that on the menās side, and their odds are improving on the ladies side with Perriaultās return to form (although ironically, with all of the french athletes skipping races to focus on the test event to secure their nomination, theyāre missing out on points to further guarantee a 3rd slot (I suspect Perriault knows sheās likely the odd one out if they only have two spots, unless she auto-qualifies, so while sheās trying to ensure that she does, sheās also trying to ensure that she gets the ranking for a 3rd spotā¦
France has . . . 3 people at the WTCS podium level on the womenĆ¢ā¬ā¢s side, plus 3 top men even if Vincent **doesnāt get **healthy!FTFY
YouĆ¢ā¬ā¢re right - I often forget Pierre Le Corre. What an embarrassment of riches!
And behind them France also has Aurelien Raphael, Paul Georgenthum and Sandra Dodet, Mathide Gauthier, Emilie Morier, Audrey Merle, Lea Conninx, etc. While those are unlikely to factor into earning an extra slot, but are all viable options for a competitive relay legā¦ To be honest, the only country that will beat France at the Olympics is Franceā¦ if they beat themselves and make stupid mistakes, they crack open the door for GB, US, NZ, etc.
I just watched a replay of that race along with Abu Dhabi in 2023 and Summer somehow became a player on the bike that year after getting dropped in race after raceā¦
In Montreal when Taylor broke away just blew my mind Summer went after it and stayed there
This was the first year she actually was able to ride like this. Such an improvement!!
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She is quite possibly the weakest biker Iāve ever seen at the top level of ITU, didnāt she make the front pack at Alghero and just kept going backwards?
You should have sent her to UK a few years ago, we won CB a gold for France with the same issues!
Confidence matters more than I think a lot people realize. Of course confidence can come because your stronger and then itās easier to āholdā wheels ,etc but itās been a fun transformation to see CB on the bike over the last few years. Was it CB who Duffy intentionally dropped from the front group I believe at Leeds maybe 3 or 4 years ago? One of the most badass moves Iāve ever seen, only behind AB dropping back in anger and pulling up brother JB to the front all the while dropping Gomez years and years agoā¦I dont know who was more pissed. AB for JB not making that initial break group and he having to ādragā his brother back up to the break, or the other guys in the break when they saw AB was going to slow down and tow JB up to them.
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Yes they should send her to Loughborough for sure.
Rappaport was always on the back in EVERY bike pack and always got droppedā¦ oddly until the 2023 season!! Watching some older races I can see she went from a terrible rider to being able to hang in the front pack in 2023 at Abu Dhabi and Cagliari and broke away from GTB, Coldwell, Waugh, Spivey, KT etc with Knibb in Montreal
Then went backwards again in 2024 onwards. potentially because she sustained a bad crash in SuperTri if I remember right???
Abu Dhabi: Check this clip out Summer actually riding well 44:15mins !! Crazy!!
Watching Abu Dhabi 2023 nowā¦ Oh at 47:17min it all makes senseā¦ she is was coached by the same coach as Knibb that year.
I can remember Duffy sort of dropping CB from that FP, was it Leeds? Lets not forget Jonny about to give up when the whole pack was about 50 meters away and Ali gave it one more huge effort and the pair of them managed stay away for the rest of the bike.
Leeds gave us some epic racing!
Without looking in Leeds there were 3 clear (?Learmonth, Coldwell and Kingma) and then Duffy and LCB in a vain chase. After a ?dozen 90s/180s with LCB sprinting to close up every time, Duffy moved on, but didnāt catch the trio ahead before T2.
Highlight of LCBās SC excursion.
Kingma (who won) racing in T100 Vancouver - her skills/stregths seem tailor-made for MD.
That move is going to drive me nuts until I find it to know exactly what happened. I just remember Duffy purposely ādropping backā with someone on her wheel, to then just sprint back up and said athlete couldnāt catch back on. I thought it was CB but maybe it was LCB in one of the few itu races she did. Good thing itās summer here on campus, off to watching some old wtcs races. I want to say it was in the '21-'23 time range, and I swear I thought it was the UK race (Leeds).
Your memory is not failing you. It was Cassandre who was dropped. Duffy let a gap open, then attacked Cassandre to bridge up. That was it for Cassandre.
And yes it was in Leeds (the looped course by the lake).