Indeed. There are clear hypotheticals for explaining how in a limited fashion a mask can not eliminate, but reduce probability of infection by reducing the viral load you encounter.

There are also hypotheticals which, are often overlooked but suggest that wearing a mask without disposing of it in every new contaminated environment, scrubbing down and getting a new mask can actually increase chance through repeated contact with said compromised mask and hand facial contact.

Those observations are keeping with the results of the largest RCT on mask wearing for covid ever conducted which found no true statistical differences but threw a meager bone to both sides saying it could actually help a reasonable amount and it could actually hurt a little: "Although the difference observed was not statistically significant, the 95% CIs are compatible with a 46% reduction to a 23% increase in infection." Both make sense in light of the hypotheticals above.

Both are probability games. And if your mask has particles on it there is some (lessor on average but harming sometimes) probability that you will contact those in ways that you wouldn't have were you not carrying them around all the time in and out of your pocket.

It's important to note the most infected areas in the pandemic were rest homes and hospitals which all had robust mask policies. So over time the infection WILL spread regardless as we saw; after all, that's how it was alleged to have escaped from a lab among people who were doing much more proflactic than repeatedly wearing the same mask all day/week/month.

Hope Sanders wins! Knibb is a beast for how she answers questions and I think she's taken a reasonable approach to mask wearing as far as I can see -- minimize risk in certain situations but don't obsess over it and let it control your life by putting complete faith in it.

I wonder if she's had covid yet?

Many studies have shown the effectiveness of masks in stopping the spreading of diseases. Both for the wearer and the people around them. You should not cherry pick one study over another. Anyway this is a conversation which belongs in the LR and 2020 / 2021.

Well done Knibb on a dominate race.

Yeah her mind is very quick, its nice to see how swept up she gets in the emotion , nicely genuine

She is young, just burst onto all the international podiums, so she is more exuberant and honest than the ladies that have been there 15 years already. and with her talent she will get plenty of opportunity to hone

That’s what real professional athletes do. Make sure they can get to the start line healthy. If you can reduce chance of getting sick by wearing a mask, why not? Better than posting, “I’m gutted because I’m sick, have soar throat, picked up something” like somebody.

Imagine being so wrapped up in someone wearing a mask

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Andrew Garwood
http://www.2xu.com
http://www.newtonrunning.com
http://www.ascendsport.com.au

Me? I'm not. I basically said what she's doing is sensible. I didn't kowtow to it as an article of faith like some but acknowledged and cited the best RCT on this specific subject without resorting to convenience samples of time and place like most others. Meh. I thought what I said was fair to all sides.

Did the Lion race today, can't see him on the results?

He was DQ'd for a centerline violation.

8/10

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

I think you were a little generous.....7.5 at best.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

(just replying to the last post)

Honest question - why isn't Sanders spending loads of time in the wind tunnel? Sanders noted on one of the Strava comments as to why Funk out biked Sanders despite a lower power output. Sanders replied that that Funk is one of the most Aero guys in the game while he himself is one of the least Aero guys in the game.

With Ditlev having spent $50k last year optimizing in the wind tunnel - if Sanders knows he's an Aero brick, why isn't he following suit? I get that not every pro can afford these things, but I'd reckon that Sanders would be one of the top $$ earners from sponsors.

I get that this is a bit like the posts about why does his swim still suck - but if he's getting out hustled on his strongest discipline, his career will be short lived.

Forget the wind tunnel, Lionel lives in Tuscon. So does Desert Dude, Brian Stover, how does high quality real world aero testing.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

Forget all of that, step one is stop flaring his knees out so wide. Easily 20 watts gained right there.

He mentioned in a YT video not long ago that Canyon has offered to cover his cost to do velodrome testing in Europe but he's been anxious or scared about traveling or something like that. He certainly doesn't need to go to Europe for testing. He's got options but only LS knows why he does what he does...or doesn't do.

deep down, he doesn't want to win.

honestly.

self-sabotage explains a great deal of what he does, i think. love the guy, and cheer for him, but the number of basic things that he seems to get wrong, even at this point in his career, is totally baffling, and eventually points to a lack of willingness to really commit and go all the way.

he is also, from what i can tell, a real homebody. travels nervously and doesn't do big camps away from home . . . sort of likes his routine. so i suppose flying to germany to spend some time getting really dialed in with the canyon team would probably be a more intimidating prospect to him than many other pros.

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____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

But he is, or was, in Finland. Closer to Germany than Arizona. Just make an extra stop on the way home......

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

and eventually points to a lack of willingness to really commit and go all the way.

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To be fair, that's a really really hard thing to truly do. Very very few people truly go "all in" (myself included in my own coaching career....I look at a coach who has- Ian O'Brien who I met 12 years ago coaching college kids to now world champions, olympic medalists). To truly get to a point where it's doing it or you don't know where your living next month....that's scary as fuck jump off point).

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

or is he smarter than all of us and realized that if he did all these "standard professional behavior" things he will actually have less followers on social media. and that's the way to make money these days for pro triathletes

As much as I am a Lionel fan, this just highlights why, at the end of the day, he is just a fast age grouper with a youtube channel.

The things that Lionel does and doesn't do are embarrassing. He hasn't gotten aero tested. He hasn't gotten proper swim technique coaching. He didn't know how to eat properly. I mean, is he doing all of this for content? All of these wounds are self inflicted.

If he spent 3-4 weeks with a proper swim team with a proper coach, his technique would be miles better. He should go join the best age group swim team he can and fix his stroke. The best teams spend all of August and September refining technique going into the fall/winter season.

He should work with a nutritionist to get his fueling down.

He should go see Jim at ERO sports and get fitted and tested.

He should have done these things years ago.

I've stopped watching his videos because at this point, its sad. These are things that the fastest age groupers are doing. Hell, I've done most of these things and I'm a barely competitive age grouper who is doing this on a teacher budget. He is trying to make a living from triathlon, but it seems like he truly is just a professional youtuber.

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http://www.savagesentiments.blogspot.com/
http://www.tricoachmartin.com/
https://www.facebook.com/teameverymanjack

He's been muscling through everything and it's been working, but he finally hit the wall. It's not just him. His coaches, manager, anyone near him should have given him advice and guided him to right direction but sadly, that didn't happen or work well. It doesn't mean that we should stop watching his videos. He still has some rooms to grow like in swim, so I want to keep watching his journey and see what happens. It's still so fascinating for me to watch him grinding and busting his ass during the race. I think that's why he has so many fans.

How does Lionel (or anyone else) know that he is the 'least aero pro' out there? Thats prob a bit of a stretch. (thats replying to someone elses comment further up)

As for your above points, I think he has actually tried a lot of that. But he'll pick up on maybe one thing he hasn't tried, and instantly that is the new solution. A month or two ago it was the diet. Well, that doesn't seem to have changed anything.
One big diff between him and other pros is that he shares pretty much everything. Do we think all the pro's don't go through a lot of these frustrations?

And, an age grouper with a youtube channel? Seriously? So what do you think of all the pro's that are typically out of the top 10 below lionel, just glorified age groupers as well?

My theory, which could be 100% wrong.... :) is that Lionel has had a very good career, but he has realized his potential. Not everyone can be as fast a swimmer as the top few triathletes in the world. His bike power is not going to get any better, and he can no longer pull back all the guys that finish ahead of him in the swim as most of them are just as strong, or stronger than him on the bike and run. And I don't believe tweaking his position a little bit will change that. He can still place pretty high up at some races, but the only ones he will be winning are the races like a month or so ago where it is a less than stellar pro field showing up.

Edit - for the record, I've been a fan of his all along, and I wish the best for him. I think he has been very good for the sport, and the couple times I've met him he was super nice.

The problem with LS is form: swim form, bike form and run form; it's all bad form. His engine has done ALL the heavy lifting throughout his career. Now it's caught up to him. The world around him has gotten much more efficient and there is no way he can keep up. It's too late to go back now and I don't think there is any incentive for him to change for pleasure, money or otherwise.

Actually, everything that is wrong with LS is what makes it right for LS to be successful. The guy isn't dumb and took a page from the UFC/WWE.

He peaked in 2017, on an effin Garneau bike :)

Which is what we already knew:

1. Swim is all about form & technique not engine

2. Bike leg is not about which bike you are riding but engine. Aero between bike & rider can play a big part here.

3. Run is all about how much you have left in the tank after swim & bike which points 1 & 2 play a big part

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

First off- I agree with your edit. I like Lionel. He has done a lot for the sport. His videos are generally good. Talbot has done a fantastic job/is doing a fantastic job. I am grateful for him.

In terms of him being not as aero as other athletes, we know that to be true because we can compare his watts to the watts other pros are putting out. When compared to other top athletes, he is putting out more watts, and not going as fast. As noted, he was losing time to the front pack.

As for the other people in the top ~20, they are professionals and improving. But for Lionel, even he calls himself a professional youtuber. It may be tongue in cheek, but at this point in his career to be making these mistakes, it's not good. In comparison, take Ari Klau, youtuber and triathlete. He had a bad race, and then someone told him he should eat a boatload of carbs the days before the race. Then he has a good race. I mean, DUH. But he is a new pro! He is learning! He is getting faster and improving!

For Lionel, just imagine any other pro in the top 20 saying "I should eat more vegetables". After being a pro for 10 years! Or not getting a bike fit and aero tested! That was my "covid" present to myself. No racing essentially in California for two years, so I saved up my pennies and got an appointment with Jim at ERO sports. This isn't my livelihood. This is fun. And he hasn't done it.

Until Lionel starts doing the things that separate the pros from each other, he won't catch them. He can grind on the bike, he can hammer run sessions, but he needs to join an age group swim team. He needs to get bike fit. Until then, he is (a self described) youtuber.

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http://www.savagesentiments.blogspot.com/
http://www.tricoachmartin.com/
https://www.facebook.com/teameverymanjack

Swim is all about form & technique not engine -i don't agree with this - it is actually all about swim specific engine and specific swim strength