Bad example. You make this sound like a paradise and as if anyone can race ITU at the level and even get that level of federation support. Also The lack of sponsorship opportunities. The barrier for ITU at world cup and WTS racing that MAY even allow athletes to get paid, outside their parents funding their dream is so high. ITU racing isn’t some spring break fun trip. Nor are all these ITU athletes paid very well

If it was that glamorous, we’d see more people going ITU route but unfortunately this isn’t accurate. And we see more young ITU dreamers get burnered out.

And believe it not, some people find ITU “boring as hell” because it’s unrelatable to the masses and actually find IM and 70.3 more exciting

Unfortunately, on paper the Paris course looks like a Beaugrand course (boring and non-technical) rather than something like Bermuda... I wish there were more tough courses on the circuit, because the races are more dynamic. Bermuda was a funny one because they were smaller fields, and several athletes skipped the race to avoid some travel heading into the Grand Final (if they didn't need points), but with a tough course, and some people with the skills to disrupt, it made for more exciting racing.

Also, gotta love when some of the athletes help to design the courses, and it shows in the results. Flora designed the Bermuda course, and has now won twice on it (might have won a 3rd had it not been for injury), The Brownlees helped to design the Leeds course and have done well there (before the course changed), KB helped with the Bergen World Cup course, and ended up on the Podium, despite the LD focus this year. While it might be a bit of conflict of interest, when you look at the commonality of these athlete designed courses, they are hard, exciting, and don't suck the way that urban planner designed courses do...

Wow Vincent Luis… he did it. I’ve been a huge fan since I watched this documentary on him.



He was struggling with a heart problem so I’ve been wondering. I don’t pay close attention to ITU but I always see two names, Yee and Wilde. Vincent Luis blew Yee out of the water it seems like. He’s back and I hope he does well
From now on.

I'd get in quick with the PTO bonanza as I really don't know how sustainable it is??

This couldn't be further from the truth! I just spent a few days with the SLT athletes in NEOM and many talked about the challenges of WT racing with the travel all over the world, minimal funding and having to do so much organizational and logistical work to make it to the start line. Yes, some have access to great resources (sports meds/physios) if they're part of a big federation and are located in the right place (e.g. Leeds, Loughborough, Colorado Springs) but it's mostly an independent contractor kind of role where you're your own travel agent and seeking out assistance for training and support on your own. You might not even have much choice about which races you do if you're under Federation oversight.

It's one of the reasons that short-course athletes love Super League racing because for once, all of the logistical details are taken care of... flights, hotels, transfers, food, physio, bike mechanic etc. For once, they feel like professionals even if it's a lot of travel.

As for sponsorship, it's much harder to find sponsors as a top 5-10 short-course athlete compared to long course racing... bike sponsors in particular are hard to come by as bike manufacturers often prefer to support road cycling teams over triathletes to market road bikes.[/quote] can't emphasize this enough. for a lot of young athletes especially, ironman is boring as hell. it's solitary and poorly paid. the racing is a lonely slog and only get to race a few times a year. sponsorship is cobbled together.

meanwhile at short course you're traveling the world with the same bunch of other young, single athletes (!), have federation support (even just for the little logistical stuff like travel and uniforms, not to mention sports meds, coaching, etc), the racing is shoulder-to-shoulder, fast, and exciting, and between superleague, french league, WTCS, classics, etc, you can race all the time.

waaaaay more fun.[/quote]

I would boil it down to SL gives the fringe world class athletes an professional wage. Those guys who consistently finish 15th-25th and make very very little money. SL allows them a bigger paycheck

That’s the big issue with itu. It’s the life if you are a top 10 type of athlete. But that cliff drops off hard and fast. With every race essentially a major travel for most athletes, if you aren’t among the elite of the elite, you are just putting expenses on a credit card to be dealt with in another life (even if you have funding or travel perks…not *everything* is covered etc, and when you need to buy X or Y you just do it).

That’s the real issue. And with how deep itu is, finishing 9th vs 13th could be 4s difference.

But in terms of my comment regarding Iden and why he likely likes ITU, because I think he’s on the “taken care of” side of the ledger + fast enough he can make some coin (plus the stress/worry about penny pinching isn't all that much of an issue for a guy who's making the money that he makes...I'd be shocked if he doesn't travel first class, or atleast take advantage of some things that others maybe cant do).

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

This vid was the kiss of death for Luis, ever since it got post I'm not sure he won a race (apart from yesterday)

I would be real surprised if Blummenfelt and Iden don't step up for the odd middle distance training brick (race) which they can do off SC training. One race in the first 200 days of 2023 will see them both auto-selected for the Collins Cup (with assured payday plus representative kudos). And one of the PTO Tour races offers a great dividend for a few days away. That'd also give them 3 races/scores for the end of year bonus. Harder for other leading MPROs as they haven't the 2022 PTO points foundation.
I expect Knibb and Duffy to do this too, without affecting their prime focus on Paris.

I agree with a lot of what you say but you also have to factor in the motivation of NGBs. They will do anything to maintain funding. I can totally see GB having a domestique for Yee (assuming they qualify 3 men) and I can see NZ doing it for Wilde. France have enough athletes to have several tactics but I can see them having 3 in a front pack and sacrificing one of them to drive the ride for Luis/Bergere.

Women could go the same or it could be a very swim/ride focused selection. GTB, Duffy and Knibb will surely be the driving force for a break away. Whether France chose to go the domestique route for Beaugrand will be interesting. US womens tactics will be interesting assuming they get their selection policy correct and have the right athletes on the start line.

Damn… I didn’t know that, but I’m glad he won this time. He looks really strong lately. I didn’t see Wilde in the list so I guess he didn’t race. Vincent Luis beat every single fast guy so I hope he does well in the future.

I think the swim was faster back then, you had Varga stretching things out, so the Brownlees and Gomez had more of a lead to start with, no one comes close to Ali Brownlee in that front bike pack either, plus with Wilde and Blu in the chase pack there's more firepower is the way I see it.

I don't see Bermuda as this 'blueprint' on a more conventional course, also dare I say it, Yee is faster than anyone we've seen before on the run from a chase pack (when he's on) Wilde isn't far behind!

Yes the Brownlee's absolutely weaponized the use of their training partner Richy Varga in a perfectly effective way. While Vincent is certainly an excellent swimmer, he's not in Varga's league.

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Genetics load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.

Speaking of uber swimmers, what's Schoeman planning on doing?

While Vincent is certainly an excellent swimmer, he's not in Varga's league. ///

I dont know how you and a couple others can say this, did you all not see this race, or others Vince has been in? The way I see the "league" they are in, is do they go to the front, hammer off the main group, and stretch out the lead 10 swimmers enough to form a lead bike group? And this was no bush league race either, had plenty of off the front swimmers who were completely stretched just to stay on his feet. And it put tremendous pressure on the main group past the first few, even split them. The top swimmers had to reform and mount an all out charge, just to get back to the feet of the lead 3. Exactly what Varga used to do, only he was not near the powerhouse Luis is in the bike break too.


How is what he did any different than Varga? He is not only in the sam e league, he did "exactly" what Varga would have done in his prime.


Think about it this way, if Luis is not there, the entire race plays out like every other ITU race lately where Yee, Murray, and a dozen others+, all get off the bike together and it is a 10k drag race. And we would all be cooing about how great the new ITU podium guys are. But we dont have to wonder anymore, we had the actual dam race! And it played out exactly like a Brownlee orchestrated one, and some of you just cannot believe your eyes I guess..


I'm not saying every race is going to play out like this, they never have, even in the Brownlee era. Just that a new factor has been added, a guy that can swim like Varga, ride like Ali, and run with anyone in the main field. A guy like that causes a lot of panic in the chase group, and as we saw, the favorites had to go to the front and burn a ton of matches, just to hold the first lap gap. This past couple years that group usually catches, or gets a lot closer, and they dont usually have such a dangerous runner to pull back..

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Good discussion on 'The Bermuda Triangle' on ProTriNews;
https://podcasts.apple.com/...1865?i=1000585413414
from 15:38 for the WTCS.
https://triathlon.org/...eries_bermuda/550764

https://www.tri247.com/...results-report-women
https://www.tri247.com/...2-results-report-men
And the points situation:
https://www.tri247.com/...alysis-men-wilde-yee
Even if Yee wins the final, Wilde would still be the champion if the latter were to take silver. Otherwise Yee first and Wilde third(or +) and Yee wins the series: the points differences between, 2nd/4th, 3rd/5th, 4th/6th, 5th/7th and 6th/8th would also be enough for Yee … but
Bergere could still take the title with a victory in Abu Dhabi and Yee was to finish fourth or lower, and Wilde was to finish sixth or lower.
In the women, whoever of Duffy or Taylor-Brown wins, wins, without the option. Other results are available.

Ha I did learn that the upcoming Abu Dhabi race apparently wont be on the F1 track. The very early editions weren't on the track, then they moved onto the F1 track for 5-7 years. Alan Webb raced this event when it wasn't on the track back in the day.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Completely agree. As I said in my post, if the guys do not want to leave it all for a 10k run with Yee, Wilde and Blummenfelt you have to push the pace from the start. I have no idea the swim splits of Luis compared to Varga but I do see Jonny Brownlee in his feet very often, as he did in the old days with Varga and his brother; yet Matt Hauser is an uber swimmer, same as Bergere and Conninx so I think they really can gap Yee and Wilde and make a front group in the bike with the french, Hauser, Jonny B, Devay and some others. You don´t want to run mano a mano with Yee and Wilde. Blum and Iden are other story. They can come up after this winter being at the front group (Blum more likely than Iden)
I have not seen the Paris bike course, but I expected to be a bit harder than Tokyo. Athens 2004 was awesome, Rio 2016 was OK too.

By the way, for people who do not know Sanchez, 3rd in Bermuda, he was U23 world champ in 2019, so it is not that he is coming from nowhere. Mola is not at his best but Alarza maybe will come back to racing but I think he will go into middle distance directly...he is becoming a policeman

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P

But it still comes back to the course pretty much dictating how the 2 groups will behave in these races. The "will" to stay away doesn't change in the front group, but if there is no "teeth" to the course, then it pretty much will always cause a 30+ man T2 run race. That's the unfortunate part of having races like Bermuda and then going back to 2-3 "meh" courses, it's like we get a bite at the apple, and then have it taken away.

I have no idea where the actual event will take play in Paris, but more times than not they like to "highlight" certain urban monuments. Rio had the Coco Cabana beach (spelling), London did the all the tourist highlights. I believe Sydney rode by the opera house. Tokyo was ridden through make shift parking lots and local roads, but I dont think Tokyo has any world renowned tourist spots like London or Paris does, etc.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Agree with this, Luis hasn't just changed the game (he doesn't swim as fast as Varga or bike anywhere near as good as Ali) Luis has always been a front pack swimmer, but the swim is slower now and he knows he has to push the pace to stand any chance, he's coming off a run injury, so im sure his swim as good as its ever been. Bermuda and Leeds will always throw up unexpected career best performances and favourites will have bad days.

Will they not try and use the TDF route for Paris?

In other news congratulations to GTB who received a Member Of The British Empire award today and a belated one for Jonny Brownlee who got his last month. (Really big honour from the Royal family)

Sanchez had a heck of a run in Karlovy Vary as well. 4th place might not catch too many peoples attention, but he did it after closing a big gap after the swim, on one of the hardest courses out there.
He is clearly a strong bike/runner.

Looking forward to seeing him in the mix going forward.

To be fair they hand them out like sweeties these days. The revolving door of PMs doesn't help either.

Those will be the quality sweeties that come with 'easily earned' Olympic gold medals. Turnover frequency of PMs makes zero difference to such honours.
Good to see triathletes being honoured so, one with a Damehood (DBE).

If it's the TdF route along the Champs E'lysees it likely won't have much teeth, and so if people are confirming that it looks very tame, that makes sense. But if you are the French federation your likely most likely medalist is Beaugrand, so why not make the most bland course possible, especially if you have any input in the decision making. I mean I'm sure there is some give and take on who can decide the final say, and what needs to be highlighted, etc within French tri federation, French Olympic organization, WT, IOC, etc.

ETA: This summer the US hosted the World Games for duathlon (basically that sports "Olympics"). The course that was put forth by the local RD and federation and the course that was "allowed" was 2 different venues. Apparently 1 Homeland Security building was within the original race design and got nixed because of that. Funny enough they wouldn't even id which building was the issue, and it made for a rather uninspiring race that created the issues that it did in the women's race with 2/3rd being DQ'd for poor course markings/marshalling. I would guess the Olympics course will have input from a lot of people who likely don't even know what tri is, lol. Whereas most of the time the WTCS courses, the tri federations alone can pretty much dictate the course.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

You're crazy if you think the French would make a course for Cassandra over any of their four guys who could medal. (Coninx, Bergere, Luis, Le Corre...all of whom have podiumed at an Olympic distance WTCS event)

Cassandra's best ever WTCS level Olympic distances is 8th place.
She is very good, but 2 hours is not 1 hour.

It was only for Gold medal winners. Hardly like sweeties!