piece of cake for Sam and Paula.

Who’s that Connor Weaver guy? He just ran a 1:08:34!!! Is that a run course record?

https://www.orlando2024trials.com/...142/34/connor-weaver

Google found this. I wonder if he's done a full yet? Says he's a Pro Tri in that link.

Taupo slots to:
Costes, Wilkowiecki, Sandi, Andrie(#12)
Metzler, Frades, Simpson, McBride
Disappointing to see no coverage of Hamilton running up into second. He passed Quenet and Sperl at about 13km and never looked back.
Did we even see him finish? With commentators focusing on Quenet, Laundry and Costes (in the mix for #3, 100 seconds back).
Hering tried and tried, closing to 22 seconds at 14km but Salthouse looked as if she'd held a bit back for that last 7km. And Findlay eased off massively/sensibly in the last 5km.
Hering shared she will be racing IM Hamburg: it'd be her first IM for 9 years! IM Pro Series influence.
Findlay thinks she might enjoy IMMT, next year - "we'll see!"


Think Long jumps to #1 on the PTO Rankings (with this score = about 98 with the 5% bonus) and as Blummenfelt drops off the plot (has to count his #35 finish in Lahti).
And Findlay (with 92.6) climbs a place, above Philipp.

Race Recap here: Findlay & Long Coast to 70.3 North American Championship Titles

Race Recap here: Findlay & Long Coast to 70.3 North American Championship Titles

I don't mind if you always call the racers by their name but rather I just wish you would put names under the photos where you can not see the racer's name. In this article, I don't know who the chick in the flowered tri suit is and I don't know who the guy on the bike is. He looks kind of like the guy getting his bike out in transition but OTOH the color of his leggings is black in the bike rack picture vs white in the pic where he's standing up on the bike, so who knows. I've noticed this in several past articles also. I follow tri fairly closely but I don't what all the pros look like. :)

Are you being thick or do you really have no idea who Ellie Salthouse is?

It's a huge margin and he wasn't pushed. How much faster could he go?//

On the bike and run, not much if any. He was pushed by the clock, and watching the race, he drilled it from the gun to the finish. Being able to pace your own run will most often get you your best time, vs having to chase or run with others who may be faster or surgey.


There are a half dozen guys in ITU that are now doing 70.3's who will be tough to beat, along with some of the PTO series guys that are either in front of him, or just behind. You dont have these gaps in PTO races, and like I said, who are the next 3 guys here? Look like up and coming pros who had a great day for them.


My big question now is does sam start thinking about the Ironman series?? I mean no one in this race is really going to be a factor, almost 500 points lost just to 2nd. I mean he probably cannot win the thing, but with one, maybe two fulls, well it could be possible to podium?? He could still get some good $$ for doing 5 half's at this level too, especially with a great worlds performance at the end. Has to be entering his mind I bet, so perhaps a full will suddenly appear on the horizon after a little break now for a good training bloc...

Great write up. In regards to your quick take 3 on the run, the run as definitely more difficult than 2022/23 years except for when we climbed up red cliffs in 2020/21.

This year we traded the flat section in town with a loop around the park for more climbing back out of town with a loop around the church. Significantly more climbing than last year, but Sam has said he loves the descents so it suited him well too.

StG is such a great race. I'm always surprised it doesn't sell out.

I chatted with Sam at Eric Wynn's ST get together BBQ in St. George. It "sounds" like Sam may be contemplating a full IM this summer some time. He mentioned Penticton being an option

Quick take #1. Burying Sam in the swim would be tough. He was ~3' down and won by over 7'. Nobody is going to put 10' on him. At this point, 70.3 distance, Sam would have to falter in order to get beat. I want to see him race this distance against Blu and Hayden Wilde. Throw Lionel in for grins and tickles.

Just out of curiosity how much vertical did you have on the 2024 run in st. George vs 2023/2022?

Penticton isn't a Series race, however lovely and a living/surviving legend (and I appreciate the reason you might float that).
I'd be surprised if he chose to race an IM just 'for fun': to be meaningful surely he would want to race a stacked field? And racing anywhere except an IM Pro Series race will be a 'B' field (racing one would take prize money from the the neo-pros who need it).
Long's two top 70.3s plus 2700+ points at Taupo means he could rack up 12000 points with two more 70.3s.
With his contracted T100 events, whilst he needs to race 3 more times, plus GF, he only needs one more podium in the regular season races. That determines when he might slot in an IM (or heaven help us two IMs) or two more 70.3s, or one of each.
So which T100 offers his best chance of good points? Probably not SF with its swim and climbing, and van Riel there btw.
London looks good with Ibiza a possible, but with an enhanced level of post Olympic competition. Las Vegas will lose all the Kona bound athletes but that'll mean a wedge of wildcard weapons to beat. So let's target London (end July) with Las Vegas as the standby, and Dubai as the kick return.
He has multiple North American 70.3s to choose from in the next 7 weeks so that's not a determining factor. But IMs?
If only one then IMLP is the obvious choice (21 July) but that would mean shelving London as a 'top finish' target.
Frankfurt on 18 August is another, but likely the winner there will be further ahead, and 'every second counts'. And he doesn't travel well. Doesn't clash with anything, though.
The numbers (tl;dr probably not worth it):
A set of five scores, including one good (for him) IM raises the IM Pro Series potential score to 14,500 which will be top 10 (my estimate) and remember #8 only pays $20k.
But an athlete who places average #20 when completing two IMs plus Kona (30 minutes down in all three) plus a couple of 70.3s (15 minutes down x 2), scores 13,800.
The max possible score (Ryf 2018 dominance) is 21,500. We might expect Lange to score about 19,000 points (now on 6519, +4800 (Frankfurt), +1900 (10 mins down in a second 70.3), +5800 (Kona)) and not go to Taupo (he has no slot nor likely to get). Who else, as a benchmark for whether it's worth Long trying to score 5 times?
We might expect Mignon to score over 18,000 points (now on 4641, +4400 (Frankfurt), +4000 (two 70.3s), +5400 (Kona)) and not go to Taupo.
I assume Blummenfelt is going to validate his AQ for Taupo after Cagliari (guess a gentle training day @ Les Sables) so he with only four races could score 15,300 (2000+4700(Frankfurt)+5800(Kona)+2800(Taupo))
Of course the current IM Pro Series standings include only NA races (x 3) and the European contenders have IM Vitoria and IM Frankfurt to show their cards before Kona. So we have a skewed insight to the likely players.
I shall cross post this into another (non-event specific) thread.

He was ~3' down and won by over 7'. Nobody is going to put 10' on him. At this point, 70.3 distance, Sam would have to falter in order to get beat.

70.3 distance on a hilly course with a categorized climb. Put Sam on your run of the mill Ironman 70.3 course and suddenly he’s no longer gobbling people up like pacman - 360 watts or not. Those trains are high speed rail nowadays.