Holy Moly!

That's amazing. I have 3 favorites :)

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

Wow, didn't realise Michael Raelert was still racing!

Lots of ITUers vying for a 70.3 Worlds slot on the men's side: Bergere, Pereira, DeKayser, Meeusen, Vogel, Lehman, Richard, Hernandez, Sanchez Mantecon. Not so much in the female's race, but there's Lena Meissner.

Ironman giving pro men a 2min head start on pro women (based on info at pro briefing).

What a joke.

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David T-D
http://www.tilburydavis.com

I only recognize 5-6 people in the entire male and female list. So many new names.

Sunday April 21 Valencia: Pro men start at 07:30 local time (CEST), with the women starting at 07:32. Valencia is +1 hour ahead of the UK, +6 hours ahead of the East Coast and +9 hours ahead of the West Coast. No coverage: use tracker.

After Philipp, Pohle is the highest ranked at PTO #21. Then there's Daniela Kleiser who gets some decent results in European middle distance 'B' races. Poor swimmer but decent on the bike and a capable runner. Perez Sala can spoil the German clean sweep.

Where is the outrage for the # of pros or is it just when it's primarily US based pros?

I think it's great that these races are really filling up. All that I think is need is something like a 5-10min gap between the men's & women's starts & then I think some thought should be given to the # of start line spots reserved for men & women. Seems like it's just first come first serve so we get a race with a ton more men. There are more MPros so idk what the breakdown should be but probably not 90-30. & idk if more women wanted to race. I think the system is fair now where you can see if races are filling up far enough out. It's on you to plan your races & sign up.

I hope they have fresh Race Ranger batteries :)

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What's your CdA?

One Canadian is clearly missing.

IM Valencia 70.3 is a new race - at the expense of the discontinued IM Lanzarote 70.3 it’s opening the European IM calendar. Many similarities to Oceanside.

That's not how these things work anymore. Even tho there's more MPros in the athlete pool IM doing anything other than a 50/50 split is unquestionably misogynistic, sexist, somehow racist, and unable to be rationalized no matter how much it makes sense. If Twitter catches on that it's first-come-first serve and not an enforced safe space, oh man they better watch out.

There's a argument to be made for allocating Race Rangers and therefore the limited entries equally. I don't agree with it, but some will make it. It will state that every individual pro athlete is equally deserving of a slot, and every athlete, man or woman deserves a slot. It will use that point of agreement to twist -since every man and woman deserves a slot, then every M slot should have a W slot. It doesn't follow logically but it kinda feels like it does.

Either way limiting the field because they didn't buy enough race rangers is another example of IM being a sh!thole company who consistently value profits 140.6 times more than the product.

XD

1. This is not an IM Pro Series race so there'll be no Race Ranger and thus no effective limit on the number of 'Pro' entries. Idk but I suspect all WPros who wanted to enter (by 3 weeks ahead) were able to. Challenge Gran Canaria today took a chunk of athletes (18 x WPro).
2. Who (@mathematics) is arguing for equal numbers of starts for men and women in these races? You are making it up and getting your logic in the twist you desired.
3. On the number of pros, any outrage (@dcpinsonn) should perhaps focus not on numbers but on standard. If an MPro is finishing more than 30 minutes behind the winner in a 70.3, they need to have a little think, perhaps when the leading women cycle or run past (not making this a chick thing, but the normal delta between M & W for a 70.3 is 25.
Let's check back on this wrt Valencia in 12 hours (1100 CEST).
As a(n 'outrage') benchmark:

• at Oceanside 27 of the 70 starters (38%) were more than 30 minutes behind Sanders (+14%)
• at 2023 Oceanside 20 of the 56 starters (36%) were more than 30 minutes behind Bergere (+14%)
• at 2022 Oceanside 17 of the 46 starters (37%) were more than 30 minutes behind Laundry (+14%).

Today (Gran Canaria) MPros > 30 mins behind Harrett/Hoegenhaug = 0 (+4 DNFs of 26 starters).
Someone mentioned 70.3 Lanza (as the 'opening event' of the European season, cf Oceanside):

• in 2023 MPros > 30 mins behind Nieschlag = 3 (+6 DNFs of 43 starters)
• in 2022 MPros > 30 mins behind Bergere = 5 (+6 DNFs of 45 starters).

Hey David, how would you have it and why?

Please humor my curiosity, as I’ve just had a conversation about the Challenge Gran Canaria, where WPRO started 5min behind MPRO, but 2min before MAG.

Leo ripping it up so far!

Laura ripping it up so far. Pohle and Meissner a minute back, but I think all three are weaker runners.
McDonald, in #5, is one of Matthews'/Lee's training partners. T'other Laura nearly 5 minutes down but probably still in touch ftw.

Really surprised how far Laura P is down currently, fingers crossed she can have a strong back end of the bike and a strong run.

Madsen, Pohle Meissner are all weak runners (last extrapolating from her 5km and 10km, maybe she will be better over 21km).
Philipp (5:28 down at T2; an uncharacteristically poor bike) will run through ftw without undue stress: Meissner the unknown (will probably 'positive split'). The others (with a 70.3 race) are mid 1:20s; she is sub 1:19 (if fit).

Madsen heading for a half marathon PB by nearly 3 minutes, for the win!
Meissner fading but (with Clavel) will stay ahead of a less than fully motivated Philipp (my assumption obv: she's there to part validate for Nice).
Meissner on for Taupo and other middle distance stuff after missing out on Olympic selection/qualification. Has shown she can run 21km (1:21:25)

10mins between male and female pro starts then 10mins between pro women and AG in a 70.3 and 15mins in an Ironman.

That would be respectful of the pro athletes especially females IMHO.

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David T-D
http://www.tilburydavis.com

In practice, in a 70.3, very few MPros are 5 minutes down on the leading woman at T2, and after that it's the run and it doesn't matter.
So I'd say 5 would be enough (and fair (MPro > WPro)).
On the WPro to amateurs gap, the top AG men will blast past the women they catch on the bike: again the run doesn't matter (but see below). So 5 minutes is enough; 10 better; but every minute's delay is magnified by the full value athletes 6 hours later keeping the bike course closed to motor vehicles.
We can't do anything about the men who think it's clever to run alongside the lead women (either an MPro a few minutes down, or a top amateur a few minutes up on her, or a male athlete who's a poor swim/biker but good enough runner, a whole lap down).
It may actually help the woman (to the detriment of fairness in the WPro race) and it really spoils the telecast coverage (we saw this at Oceanside: why the camera crew didn't tell the bloke to f off I don't know). Some management of the finish chute is important too, for presentational purposes.

Well here's the checkback.
Today in MPro, 70 men finished within 30 minutes of Bergere. ONLY 5 finished > 30 mins behind. Data not available on how many of the 90 started. But minimal USAT licensed - style tail. Obliquely Madsen (great run) therefore caught only 4 MPro. And fwiw only 6 AG men caught the lead woman (8 were <30 mins down on Bergere).
So the USA v European basis for any outrage (@dcpinsonn) is shown in these data. And thus, perhaps, the greater need for a longer gap between MPro and WPro in USA venues to cope with these quasi-pros.

Wohu Danish win for Laura Madsen at only age 22!!! After a promising 23' with a couple of 70.3 podiums! Would be awesome to have both male and female Danish top top contenders!

Rocking the fusion suit just like baekkegaard and ditlev as welll.