Episode 47: Cozumel Comebacks, Ironman 70.3 St. George Highlights, Gear Tech Talk, and Olympic Race Forecasts

Ever felt the triumph of a post-recovery run, the heart-pounding anticipation of an upcoming race, or the satisfaction of a nutrition strategy that perfectly fuels your endurance? We're right there with you in this triathlon-focused episode, where personal tales from our own training intersect with the high-octane world of professional racing. 

Triathlon isn't just about the physical grind; it's a strategic game where nutrition plays a critical role and technology can give you that winning edge. We dissect the thrilling 70.3 Ironman St. George, celebrating Sam Long's victory and empathizing with Jackson Laundry's mechanical woes. We also shed light on the women's competitive field with Paula Findlay's impressive win. The conversation takes a turn into the tech realm, exploring how gear advancements are revolutionizing the way we race and train, and the jaw-dropping achievements that are redefining what it means to be an age-group athlete.

As we charge towards the Olympic races, we speculate on the French women triathletes who might seize the day on home turf, and the missing key players in the men's field. It's a mix of analysis, bold predictions, and the electric anticipation of races that could rewrite the record books. We're inviting you, our listeners, to join in with predictions of your own. So, gear up for a deep dive into the heart of triathlon, where every stroke, pedal, and step tells a story of human potential and perseverance.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to another triathlon podcast, the podcast that brings the electrifying world of triathlons right into your headphones. Journey into captivating conversations, share the excitement of race recaps, enjoy the humor only a triathlete would understand, and join us as we debunk myths and bring you the bare, thrilling truths of the triathlon world. So feel your heart pound, breathe in anticipation and get ready to dive into the world of triathlon. This is another triathlon podcast. Enjoy the ride.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Welcome to another triathlon podcast brought to you by Mana Apparel, where we chat about everything going on in triathlon. Have a little bit of fun with it and don't take ourselves too seriously. As always, I am joined by my co-hosts, josh and Fede, and we're going to jump in and tell you a little bit about what's going on in our training and racing at a slightly slower pace than some of the pros there. So we'll start off with Fede. How are you doing? What's going on in your world?

Speaker 3: 1:08

Yeah, hey guys, a couple of weeks off from the pod and a lot of FOMO listening to the last two episodes, you guys seem to be doing a great job without me, so that's all good.

Speaker 2: 1:23

Yeah, it's not quite your day.

Speaker 3: 1:25

Good, yeah, I miss you too, guys. Uh, not nothing much. I just uh, I came back from cozumel, uh, took a little break. Uh, it was good to get a little bit of open water, swimming, a bit of, you know, relaxing time, downtime with the sun. So, yeah, nothing much, jogging, walking. So that's good, no pain.

Speaker 3: 1:52

So I'm starting to think about entering a running race, maybe like a 5k or something, to see how the legs feel, obviously not pushing it, just want to see how the, the body responds. But, um, yeah, things are looking bright. Uh, now I'm gonna be able to push a little bit on the bike, so that's good. Probably a lot of vo2 type of thing to to kickstart the engine again. So I I think it's gonna be a next couple of very intense and, uh, uh, you know annoying weeks in terms of, uh, how I feel. But, yeah, excited and can't wait to go back. Um, being having a lot of FOMO, you know, following Texas and now St George. I just can't wait to get back on the, on the training course and back racing, uh, but yeah, I'm in a happy place mentally. So, all good, all good. What about you guys?

Speaker 4: 2:48

I think the hardest part for you is going to be keeping yourself back to sticking to the plan yeah and holding back into that race. You've already got targeted and you're like you've already.

Speaker 3: 2:58

You're already talking about hopping in 5k, so yeah, yeah, you know, you know me too well, josh. I was like oh, I think I think this jog walk might translate into a solid 5k soon we'll see.

Speaker 4: 3:13

We'll see a few nasty texts from your coach. I'm sure you'll have them and get you straight again.

Speaker 3: 3:20

Yeah, he listens to the podcast, so he he's going to be like I heard what you were talking about doing and we'll see. We'll see the next couple of days what happens. That's awesome.

Speaker 2: 3:33

How about you, Josh? What's going on in your world these days?

Speaker 4: 3:37

Just keep building. This was a really good week in terms of handling some additional volume and a lot more race pace running and actually did some track works and four by four hundreds and really pushing the pace and changing paces and changing heart rates and just really simulating a lot of different things and at the same time building volume. So probably have one more week of some volume. Uh, here until we start to kind of build down into the race june 9th. I've got a couple races like feday. I've got a short sprint try on may 19th and then I have a half marathon shakeout run on june 2. And then my big race June 9th. So it'll be my first 70.3, not named Oceanside.

Speaker 2: 4:31

So there we go.

Speaker 4: 4:33

Very similar bike profile, but I did do the bike last year on the relay team so I'm familiar with it. They did change it a little bit and it is my best time bike wise, so we'll see if we can match that while doing the swim and the run. This year the the swim is down river. I think it was like the fourth fastest swim in 70.3 last year um where I was like maine and oregon, were way out in front.

Speaker 4: 4:59

And then this one was just over an average of like 34, 35 minutes, something like that, which is not bad compared to Oceanside, which is like closer to 45, 50 minute average. So, looking forward to that swim and been putting in the work Just did another 2,100 yards tonight and for me 2,000, 2,100 yards, that's a good night and becomes my anaerobic workout and getting better. The form is getting a little bit better and starting to work on certain things and a lot of drill work. So, along the way, dealing with the puppy training, and he's been awesome. Jenna got to meet him last week. Sorry, fed, no, it's all good.

Speaker 4: 5:42

So yeah, life is good and just just busy with work, busy with training and, uh, busy with puppy training cruising along how about you, jenna?

Speaker 2: 5:52

how did uh the week coming out of your not so good slash great race, come go uh well, the good thing about not running that fast was I was able to smash a solid week with some decent volume and intensity there. So when you don't run too fast your legs aren't too beat up. So I was able to actually replicate a lot of the paces I was looking to do in the race a couple of days later. So yeah, when you can breathe and aren't dealing with allergies, turns out, running is a lot easier. Dealing with allergies Turns out running is a lot easier. But yeah, noah had a decent week in there and just kind of clicking along I did.

Speaker 2: 6:31

If anyone saw, I unveiled my new bike. This year I'll be racing on an Argon 18E119 Disc Plus, which is also the Mana team sponsor, so check that out. But I've had my first couple rides on it on the trainer because it snowed last week and then it was decent for a bit and now it's pouring rain, so not quite outdoor weather yet, but the rest of the week here it might warm up a little bit. So I might be able to get outside this weekend, which I'm super stoked about, but kind of getting that fit dialed in with the new bike on the trainer in the meantime and it always feels like I got my bike set up pretty similar to my last one, but it always just feels a little different uh yeah, yeah had to make some adjustments to my first run off of my first ride with this bike.

Speaker 2: 7:21

I was definitely set up, so I's using more of my quads than my glutes. It's like got off the bike, tried to run and it was just, my legs were absolute bricks, like exactly what you think about when you think of a brick workout.

Speaker 2: 7:33

I'm like, oh, this is not not good it turns out, raising the seat about two millimeters makes a massive difference in my muscle recruitment and the next day had a long run off the bike and just be able to use floats, more posterior chain more. It was a night and day difference. So, that being said, get a bike fit. If running feels horrible off the bike, get a bike fit, cause it's just teeny little tweaks and it can feel a hundred times better.

Speaker 4: 8:04

Yeah, so like fit and fueling bike fit and fuel.

Speaker 3: 8:15

Yeah, another big one. Yeah, yeah, so it's not one. Though wanted to ask you, jenna um, we don't, we don't, we don't need to name brand bike brands or anything but, um, compared to your last uh bike in terms of comfort and I don't know if you've done any aero testing yet uh, what do you reckon is, uh, the difference? Is it like big, big, noticeable difference, or is it like marginal or fairly similar? I know you have to adjust to the position and everything, but, uh, what are your first impressions when it comes to your old bike and this one?

Speaker 2: 8:50

Yeah, I'll be curious. Really, I feel like I can't get too much of a sense until I get it outside.

Speaker 3: 8:55

Right.

Speaker 2: 8:56

On the trainer the fit is pretty similar. I used my fast TT bars from my old bike and swapped them to my new one and it's the same thing, like that, everything. So on the trainer it doesn't feel too different. I need to drill a few holes to make my TT bars a little closer. But yeah, until I get outside I don't think I'll be able to tell too too much of a difference. So I'm excited to get out there and do some aero testing on it to see if there is a massive difference either way.

Speaker 3: 9:27

Right yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:28

My favorite thing with this bike so far, though, is there's a whole toolkit fitted into the frame. It is so sweet. You open up a little tab on the frame by the bottom bracket and it has spare tubes and the CO2 adapter thing and tire levers, and all that just slides right into the brain, so that I got pretty excited about pretty convenient, for sure.

Speaker 4: 9:51

I um, I was mentioning the the nutrition thing. I actually tabulated my nutrition on my long brick on saturday so I had a three and a half hour, three hour ride sorry, three hour ride with a 35 minute run off, and the three hour ride was an hour 45 at race pace. Um, so pretty good clip there and I was able and I keep trying to take in more and more just to see what the limit is and being able to run off of it, and I think I took in about 450 grams of carbs and over 5,000 milligrams of sodium throughout the the, mostly on the bike and then a little bit on the run. Um took in some of that as well, and it was 30 minutes at race pace on the run too, with a little bit of progression. So no issues there. So for me it's like might as well keep seeing what I can add to it and keep that energy level up and how fast can I go and how long can I go with it.

Speaker 4: 10:47

But that was a good little test, and the next test will be in my new tri-suit, so if you haven't seen it yet, it was revealed this week. Speaking of reveals, I got my custom mono apparel kit and it looks awesome and can't wait to race in it. It does look awesome.

Speaker 2: 11:03

Very sharp. Definitely impressed there, wicked. Well, like I said, we're going to do a little bit of chatting about those who go slightly faster than the three of us here, just by a little bit. I think there was some racing this weekend, fede. Why don't you tell us about it? What happened this weekend?

Speaker 3: 11:23

Yeah, so there was a bit of racing this weekend. Let's start off with 70.3, st George in Utah, which is a fan favorite. I love this course. It's hard, it's honest, it keeps you always grinding and there's no easy parts on this run course, not even the downhills, because the quads are usually hammered by the time you go you, you start running downhill.

Speaker 3: 11:52

But, um, yeah, let's start with the, with the pro man in saint george and um, we saw we starting to see the dad strength of Sam Long coming to fruition. He was amazing, like seven minutes and 35 seconds faster than the guy in second place. I mean 159.57 on the bike, 26-minute swim and then a 110.46 half marathon on that particular run course Just impressive, and he looked like he could have run another three, four miles, like he just looked super strong. Uh, second place from new zealand, ben hamilton. This guy was an age grouper just last year, so and he, he had an awesome race in ironman um, new zealand, and took his cone a lot. So, just, I'm very happy to see every time an age grouper makes a transition to pro and is doing well, so I think he's holding the torch high for all of us age groupers that want to achieve big things in the sport. So kudos to Ben Hamilton. Want to achieve big things in the sport, so kudos to Ben Hamilton.

Speaker 3: 13:06

On third place, we had, from France, anthony Costes and former winner Jackson Laundrie in fourth place. He didn't have the bike legs that he usually has and that cost him on the run. You know he is usually a guy who swims very quick and he was just like 30-40 seconds faster than Sam Long. So this goes to show how impressive Sam has been working on his swim. And, of course, a friend of the show, mark Dobrik, in eighth place, running a 19. You know he was. You know I mean 119 is a very fast run, but in terms of mark, this wasn't his. Uh, that the the best of days for mark.

Speaker 3: 13:53

And again, the level of competition with a 119, you are in eighth place. So there is no, there's no slow guys over here. There's no slow guys over here. And on the girls' side we had another win by Paula Finley, dominating from the swim and then pulling away from each other on the bike and then having a very solid run, the usual Paula Finley that we know. Second place, ellie Salthouse from Australia and third place, jackie Herring from the US. This was a closer race than the men's just 2 minutes and 28 seconds from Ellie to Paula and then again 3 minutes and 23 from Jackie to Paula, so a much more closer race on the girls' side. But yeah, paula just looked in control for the entire day. I don't know what you guys thought about this race.

Speaker 2: 14:53

Yeah, it was kind of a bummer to see Jackson Laundrie had a mechanical on the bike there. His wireless flip fell off his bike so he was lacking in gears out there, which I was, I know I called him for the win in there, but I was super excited because he um, he's using the same aero sensor.

Speaker 2: 15:11

I've been playing with Ghibli and actually saw the same results I did, with a significant increase in his aerodynamics, dropping the degree of his aero bars. So I was really curious how that would play out there. So it was kind of a bummer to hear that he had that happen.

Speaker 3: 15:26

And, saint george is not a course that you want to be stuck in, no, if there is one course that you don't want any any gear failure it's probably saint george and it happened before the, the final big climb too.

Speaker 4: 15:43

So he was able to kind of manage the. The problem with his blip drop and he, he said, was he could, he could shift into an easier gear, but once he did that he couldn't go back into the bigger gears. So by the time he got to the final climb he had to go in to the smallest gears and then he couldn't go back up to finish the ride, and so he came down literally just getting his arrow as he could, without really pedaling at all. So he had nothing to finish and and I think he had a pretty good run because of it, because he had plenty of leg left and and then he almost had that.

Speaker 4: 16:21

That sam lionel finish, like jackson was spent coming down the carpet and I thought he was going to get that podium spot. But uh, yeah you. You wonder what it would have been. I don't think anyone's catching sam. I mean sam ran a 110 without anyone close to him, like no pressure whatsoever, and he still ran one of the fastest. It was the second fastest of the day. I think one of the other um bottom or bottom finisher pros ran just better than him. But to run a 110 without anyone chasing you and stopping to kiss your wife along the way. I mean, he just looked like he was having fun and we keep talking about it like it's hard to beat somebody who's enjoying what they're doing while suffering and smiling at the same time and and just loving everything about it. He wanted to back up the fact that he won last year and and to go sub two on that bike, of course, like insane and you know it's funny, he's kind of bucking that trend.

Speaker 2: 17:23

We've seen a lot of pro males once they have kids um at least first couple years.

Speaker 2: 17:29

After a bit rocky, but sam is just loving life, crushing it everywhere and it's been, yeah, fun to see just the joy he seems to raise with like, yeah, he is on a streak, hopefully. The only thing I wonder is how long can that hold out? Right, like it is a long season this year. Um, hopefully he's not burning all his matches early, because it would be fun to see him really contest as we get into the back half of the year yeah, yeah, just don't see it stopping.

Speaker 4: 17:59

It doesn't seem like that engine is anywhere near stopping. He's just starting, so and laura's right there with him supporting, so I think that's a huge goes a long way to have them at races to have that support, as we've seen with Eric and Paula now too. I mean Paula looked like a different person out there. She was having fun, she got a lead on the bike, she was confident going into that race that she could have a good bike and she looked happy on that run and some of those uphills are not easy but, like fetty said, she looked comfortable. She had a three, four minute lead and it never really changed.

Speaker 4: 18:34

They were all running about the same pace and I think jackie harron had the best run of the day and she looked great and that was awesome to see her have such a good performance with and kids at the finish line. But Paula and Sam just looked like they were having fun and you wouldn't know that they were pushing the paces that they were pushing to have such great days. So that's always cool to see and it always makes me want to work a little harder to try and enjoy it a little bit more, but it was really fun to watch and it lived up to the hype of the race that the scenery was beautiful, everything you hear about st george. It came through loud and clear that day, um, and it was fun getting up to watch it man, that race is just like absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 2: 19:15

I did it one time. Yeah, I didn't go quite as fast as I wanted to I was like 10 weeks pregnant, kind of thing. So I had to like couldn't push hard and it was almost harder than other races of thing. So I had to like I had a great cap, couldn't push hard and it was almost harder than other races I'd done because I had to hold back the whole time.

Speaker 3: 19:31

Yeah, but the temperature was probably like a gazillion being pregnant. Have you done that race, josh?

Speaker 4: 19:40

I have not, but definitely some FOMO. Seeing the amount of Mana teammates that were there having good races and Kinga crushing it and winning overall in her age group and just seeing some of our other friends of the pod there, I felt bad for Dubrik. It seems like St Anthony's travel and all that kind of probably got to him. I think he's going to release like how he's feeling, but not the day we expected out of him, but certainly an event that will be on my calendar. I think the next ones for me next year will be to try and do the full, like I did this year. So I did the relay at Western Mass last year. This year I'm doing the whole thing. This year I'm doing the relay at Maine and next year maybe throw that one on just another fast down river and start to really work there and then add Oregon in. That's the next travel one for me, I think, and let's see what my bike legs and run legs can do when I don't have to struggle on the swim like everyone else gets to enjoy. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 20:51

Definitely some fun racing to watch.

Speaker 2: 20:53

There did we have any on this weekend.

Speaker 3: 20:56

uh, yeah, we had boom. We had ironman uh, port mcquarrie, port Macquarie, ironman, australia and this was a very like a redemption race for Sam Appleton Very good to see him take the win. We know him for being a 70.3 racer and he's making the transition towards more of a full distance type of guy and he hadn't quite nailed the distance but he actually had a very solid race and it was a battle like guess. Give me an estimate? How how many seconds were there, apart from the marathon time from sam and second place mike phillips?

Speaker 4: 21:40

but this is over a full distance, so 26.2 miles or 42 k's I actually watched the finish line video, but I did not see the time so I don't know um and and the guys finished like as I caught the youtube uh, live for the finish line cam.

Speaker 3: 21:57

I think the guys had already finished, but I saw their podium ceremony yeah my guess is that probably like 37 seconds or something like that difference yeah, it was wild, six seconds from from the marathon time from sam to mike. So very similar runs from these two. And it was very, very cool to see how tactics work, because sam is a very good swimmer and runner and mike phillips is known for being like an uber biker, but sam has been working a lot of his bike. Just, uh, mike rode two minutes faster than sam. Of course, sam, with his amazing swim background, uh, he was like four minutes ahead of Mike Phillips. So this goes to show that maybe you could actually. Of course you're not going to win a race on the swim, but how important of being a complete athlete nowadays needs to. You know, all the athletes need to be. There's just no weaknesses anymore.

Speaker 3: 23:07

And we had on third place Australia, benjamin Hill, you know, clocking a 1. He was the first guy on the podium with sub-8 hour Ironman in 2001,. He was the first guy on the podium with a sub-8 hour Ironman. And, yeah, nowadays it just seems to be that every Ironman is a sub-8 hour race for the men. So these guys are flying, they are averaging paces of. You know, a couple of years ago we saw them averaging over 70.3 and now they're translating that type of speed to the full distance and it's just impressive and amazing to watch and it's not just the pros either?

Speaker 4: 23:52

the the age group yeah, we saw some age group times in what venice italy this weekend that were like almost 20 of them in the under four hour range.

Speaker 3: 24:01

I mean that's insane, yeah yeah, yeah, the bar is getting higher and, uh, it's exciting to see where the sport is gonna go because, I mean, a lot of myths are getting debunked about how fast can you go, or, you know, a lot of people thought that, yes, iron man is this long, slow type of effort, but no, these guys are pushing the envelope very, very far and it's very good to see.

Speaker 3: 24:29

And, um, on the girl's side we had uh, reagan holyaki taking the win in 902, then uh, radka kallifeld from australia, and on third place we had Kate Gillespie-Jones. All of these girls were, you know, not as close as the men's, eight, like nine minutes from second place to the first and 13, almost 14 minutes third place to second place. So not a super close race, but nonetheless, uh, exciting to to follow the girls along. And uh, yeah, yeah, all these girls, none of them managed to break the three-hour marathon barrier, but all of them were, you know, 303, 310, 315, which also on the girl's side, goes to show how impressive the runs are coming along. And, like you said, josh, the gap between pros and age groupers, I mean 327, the fastest run on the age group for the girls, and she outran two pros.

Speaker 4: 25:51

So that's just impressive yeah, there's definitely a lot of races these days where you're seeing some of those top age groupers hop in and pass a number of the pros and there's there's a lot of pros in the field now and it's it's really cool to see a lot of these new pros that were age groupers, like you mentioned earlier, start to compete, like justin real, I mean, has had a pretty good go at it in a couple races and again just just recently an age grouper, uh and and you're seeing it in the female side too. So it's really good for the sport to see a lot of these up-and-comers start to compete with the other pros that we know every day and it's really gonna start to balance things out as the sport grows and more money comes into it. A hundred percent.

Speaker 2: 26:43

Yeah, definitely, it's kind of. There was that one year I went in like all in on the Ironman training and stuff and just like, lived and breathed Ironman training before Ironman and uh, end up getting fifth overall among the pros and I was like, oh, I've had a pro license, I've gotten paid this crap, the one behind me dang it it was like, oh, but it is fun to see those transitions um, with those incredible women who do start to make it up the pro ranks and then make that jump because it's not.

Speaker 2: 27:13

It's not a small leap like you go from yeah no, the mix at the front of the race and the age group race and there's people around you and stuff too, even if you're at the back of the pro fields. It's a lonely day because you have the exhibition starting later and, um yeah, you're pretty much on your own for the whole race, so that makes a big difference there. Uh, did we have anything else going on this weekend?

Speaker 3: 27:41

uh, no, like josh mentioned, we had 70.3 in italy and then just an olympic distance uh in salinas, ecuador. But yeah, no, no pro, no more pro. Uh, races this weekend awesome. Well, we're definitely starting to really get rolling with this ironman pro series.

Speaker 2: 27:54

We got some more races happening this weekend awesome. Well, we're definitely starting to really get rolling with this ironman pro series. We got some more races happening this weekend on the ironman wtcs series, but first let's jump into our usual segment here. We'll start with josh. What do you have for social media post of the week?

Speaker 4: 28:13

well, one of the other races that we like to cover, even though it's not triathlon, is that amazing cycling world and things are really kicking off with the duro, uh. So todd a is back at it. Uh, if anyone saw his breakaway, he's like all right, I'm here and uh, you guys aren't gonna have a chance of winning, uh, and it actually led me to follow him a little bit closer this weekend and then this week and he actually just came out. They just, uh, his team put up a pretty funny reel, uh, to the music of pink panther, and tatty was decked out in all pink cycling suit. So just a really cool fun reel.

Speaker 4: 28:50

Um, just to show that light-hearted side side of the top in the world that his cycling talk about somebody having fun at doing what they do. Right now he's right there with sam long enjoying everything he's doing. And man, those guys when they get into these stage races, it's, it's nuts, it's like we talk about sam going back to back and and it's it's crazy what these guys do every day and the amount they ride. And then you start to see some of them that use like their whoop scores scores and their WHOOP recoveries 70%, 80% recovery after going 200 miles the day before. How is that possible? But it starts literally as soon as they finish and getting their protein shakes and getting their legs spun out. But yeah, check out Tadej's page. It's on his page, it's on the UAE page. Really funny, pink Panther.

Speaker 2: 29:40

I page is on the UAE page. Really funny, pink Panther. I saw a great post from Grant Thomas today too, so it's almost like a caption. This. It's a picture of Grant giving today a pat on the back, essentially, and he says all right, son, you've had your fun, let's just have a nice quiet day tomorrow. Okay, they responded, so we go from the gun. Okay, they responded, so we go from the gun. It's fun to see that they're, you know, just having some fun with it too, especially doing brutal miles like that day after day.

Speaker 4: 30:10

It is so incredibly impressive and it's got to be a different mindset in this tour race as well, with a lot of those top names that we talked about a few weeks ago being out and injured too. So it changes the dynamics a lot and and you know, we all know tatty but it gives some others an opportunity to make their names, and so I think this is going to be a really interesting race.

Speaker 2: 30:34

Yeah I'm curious to see how it goes towards the tour. With like half of the favorites knocked out from crashes and stuff, it's definitely going to be a different look. What I hope is it's not just every grand tour this year he rides away with all of it, but there's potential.

Speaker 3: 30:49

He is just like next level and crazy impressive yeah, yeah, he's uh on another level and I think this is his year if he wants to win the Giro and the Tour. I mean, if somebody can do it, especially this year with Jonas' injury and Team Jumbo Lisa Bike not being 100%, with Wout's injury as well, because Wout was going to be on the Giro.

Speaker 2: 31:17

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 31:20

And then we saw what happened and I believe today's strongest rival right now for the tour is himself in and that. And I mean that, how? How hard can he push himself on the gyiro? Because he's such an elite athlete that he can win the Giro like at 80% and then be full on for the Tour. But if he gets his young mindset of attacking from the get-go, like you said, the Tour is going to bite him.

Speaker 2: 31:55

Yeah, no, definitely I'd be curious if Jonas isn't in the tour and wout is feeling healthy again. It would be so much fun for yambolisa bike just to like let him off the off the leash and just say go, take as many stage wins as you can have fun with it that would make it interesting yeah, I would do that 100.

Speaker 3: 32:16

And also we have to see how well Primoz Roglic adapts to his new team, Because out of all the cyclists that fell that day with Primoz and Jonas and a few others Remco and Paul he is the one that suffered the least, you know, injuries. And maybe this is Primoz's year because he's not at the Giro, so he's saving himself for the Tour, and maybe this is his year, but we have to wait and see.

Speaker 2: 32:56

All we want to see is lots of battles to keep it interesting and keep us on the edge of our seat there. So it'd be fun to follow. That and the rest of the Giro here let's go into. So I've got for what the F of the week is actually the San Francisco T100 start list for the women, taylor. Hibb is racing.

Speaker 3: 33:20

Of course she is.

Speaker 2: 33:22

Not something you'd expect to see with the Olympics coming not too long after that. She's the type of athlete where she's definitely strong enough and fit enough to go out there and get the job done against most fields. But we're also going to have ashley gentle in there, so it's not going to be a case of some of the other races she's done recently, like oceanside, where she can potentially bike off the front and run away with it because, yeah, she's gentle, keep the pressure on. So what do you guys think? Are you surprised she's on this start list, or surprised not focusing entirely on the olympics? Or is she just going up for a solid training day?

Speaker 3: 34:03

I think it's a solid training day for her and, like I said with Tadej, taylor is the type of athlete who, at her 80%, she's gonna beat 95% of the girls out there. No disrespect, but I think Taylor right now is at a different level than than the rest of the girls out there. No disrespect, but I think taylor right now is at a different level than than the rest of the girls and I think the only one who could actually give taylor a run for her money right now, at that specific distance, is ashley gentle. So I don't think we're gonna see a very dominant race from taylor. I might be wrong I need my words but I think we're gonna see a battle between here and ashley yeah, but does have to like cause.

Speaker 2: 34:42

Taylor's a competitor too. What if, like her and Ashley are neck and neck? Is she going to battle it out to the finish and kind of take longer to recover from that? What do you think, josh? Or is she going to just use it as training day?

Speaker 4: 34:56

I think there's enough time in between san francisco and when she's got to get going for the olympics that she would absolutely like you said she's a competitor, you can't put it. You're not going to get in a race like that just to show up now. She might be treating it as a training ride and that means like 10 watts or 20 watts lower on the bike. But I think the other reason she's doing this race potentially is for the technicality of it too. So it's it's not your typical 70.3 course or t100 course where it's just out and back and out and back and out and back and you've got some climbing to do in in san francisco and and work on your bike.

Speaker 4: 35:37

And in Paris there's a lot of tight turns and she's done that course, obviously at the test event last year. But I think it's to work on some of that bike handling and climbing and descending in a short period of time. Obviously it's not nice, but I think it's something that she's put on her calendar for that reason and then just to get those competitive juices going again, because from April to the Olympics is a long time and she doesn't need to qualify for the Olympics like everyone else has to do in Yokohama, so she doesn't have to worry about that. And now this is her race to get those last things worked out at race day.

Speaker 2: 36:18

Yeah, yeah, whatever happens there, it's definitely going to be an interesting race to see how it all shakes out. And you know what? You also got a healthy well, actually I didn't know if I saw on there Paula Finlay is going to be in there.

Speaker 4: 36:32

Paula was on there, chelsea was on there wasn't it?

Speaker 2: 36:35

yeah, so, yeah. So I'll tell you who we've got here. We've got Ashley Gentle India, lee Lucy Byram, paula Finlay, amelia Watkinson on there, yeah, so, yeah. So I'll tell you who we've got here. We got ashley gentle india, lee lucy byram, paula finley, emilia watkinson, daniella reef, sky munch, imogen simmons, tamera jewett, emma pollan brown, kat matthews, chelsea sedaro, margeline pierre taylor, nibb and laura phillips. So, wow, how will I and how go in here too? Right, I haven't seen a ton from her lately, just in her dominant runs. So I'll be curious to see how she goes, and hopefully she doesn't have the spare tube. Get dislodged.

Speaker 4: 37:11

I think we'll probably have at least one alternate already, because I think Daniela's announced that she's battling an injury too, so I think that's going to change her season in the t100 if you have to take san francisco out, so we'll have one wild card there. And speaking of wild cards, we we lost a wild card on the men's side too, with with yuri going full-time t100 now so I think that was such a good call by the T100.

Speaker 2: 37:40

People say yes, no or otherwise kind of thing, but he is showing up, putting in the work and actually competing. You can't have the top-ranked athlete, it's not.

Speaker 4: 37:52

You've got to wait until somebody drops this week.

Speaker 2: 37:54

Meh, could you imagine? Yeah?

Speaker 3: 37:59

That was a very good move by the t100 inviting jury to be part of the series because I just shows respect for the guy and then gives credibility to the t100 uh series that they care about performance and uh.

Speaker 2: 38:13

He proved himself, but with the wild card, but now he has earned his spot in being a regular on the on the series now my question is are they going to offer another contract or like permanent wildcard now that we have holly lawrence's out of the t100 with her um yeah, announcement of her being pregnant in there? Obviously she had a t100 contract which she's obviously not going to do um, so are they going to keep circling in wild cards or do you think they should actually give a contract to someone like, say, a lucy byram who showed up and made an impact like what do you guys think?

Speaker 4: 38:50

yeah, that'll be interesting to see. I think, if you, I think they'll probably keep it as is now, um, as long as they can fill san francisco, because then after san francisco we're now we're talking post olympics and we're starting to get into more athletes coming back into play. Now taylor's showing up anyway, so, um, we know she'll be in play after the olympics. I it'll be interesting to see. I think it's going to take a wild card stepping up and winning a race, like yuri did, before you start to see another contract offered. Um, officially, I just don't see that happening. Yuri pushed their hand.

Speaker 2: 39:25

I mean, he literally forced them to give him a contract there is no choice there well, we're certainly not lacking in racing these days and it'll be really fun to see how these series kind of all shake out. Pretty interesting Listen to Joe Skipper's podcast today and how he kind of got sick during Texas and stuff. He's starting to question if Ironman Cairns doesn't go well, then maybe he kind of dips out of the Ironman Pro Series and chases other goals in there too. But it's definitely making athletes have to, you know, chase these more, be up against each other more, and that makes it fun to watch. But I hope, as the season goes on and everyone gets in a form, we get some closer battles, because there have been a lot of domination races lately and you know they're not quite as much fun to watch from a purely age group or spectator.

Speaker 4: 40:18

We were hoping for some fun fireworks at St George, but man that was put the rest early on the bike.

Speaker 2: 40:26

Well, somewhere we probably will see some fireworks is we are starting to get some Olympic action going with the WTCS series.

Speaker 2: 40:36

We have Abu Dhabi happening this weekend on March 8th and 9th, and this is going to be kind of a last shot for a lot of athletes just to really get their Olympic rankings points. Or sorry, May 11th in Yokohama I am looking way back there Just a last shot for a lot of athletes to get those Olympic ranking points and get their qualifications before it all goes to discretionary choosing, which is so a lot of people won't want to get their spot or not, because things get a little political at that point. But we definitely have a few names on here to watch out for. And actually I think the biggest race and what a lot of us will be watching is the elite women's on the US start list. There has been some serious battles going on here between you know Gwen Jorgensen, Katie Zafiras as they battle it out and interestingly USA swapped out Gwen Jorgensen for Katie Zafiras in Cegliari, even though Gwen had kind of earned her spot there. So there's a little bit of drama in the US.

Speaker 3: 41:44

Is that so?

Speaker 2: 41:45

Yeah they swapped her. She wanted to be on that start list and earned the ranking for it, but they swapped out Katie.

Speaker 4: 41:53

I think I made a comment on one of that posts and it's got like 500 likes. It's crazy, um, but yeah, that was definitely controversial. She is on the yokohama list, obviously. I mean, she's won that race how many times? Um, but yeah, it's, it's heating up. Um, you've got what? Four or five girls going for the final spot plus the, the discretionary third spot, and in a Yokohama, if you finish in the top three of the podium and you're a US woman, you automatically get in.

Speaker 2: 42:30

Yeah. So on the US side we've got Gwen Jorgensen, Kirsten Kasper, Summer Rappaport, Taylor Spivey and Taylor Nibb, so Neve is going to be all over the race course this week. But the other interesting part is we are also going to have Flora Duffy returning. It has been 500 days since she's raced. That is mind-boggling. She was dominating the series for so long, so it'll be interesting to see how she comes back from that, because the racing landscape has changed significantly. We've seen the french women um really making their showing with like yoni pureau and emma lombardi, and we've got gbr. Of course always has a strong field, and the germans are absolutely crushing of laura lindemann and lisa tersh.

Speaker 2: 43:16

So I'll be curious to see how she comes back after not racing for so long. Will she be back to her like dominating ways and she's ready, or will it be a little bit of a different race? How much things change from her perspective. What do you guys think there?

Speaker 4: 43:33

that's a good point. A lot, a lot has changed. I mean we saw it with gwen. I mean it took her a long time to get back to where she has earned her right to compete again. She battled hard for that. I can't imagine Floor is going to jump right back in with everything that's already changed. We all know she's a heck of a triathlete. If anyone can do it, she can. It's going to be some really cool racing leading into these final slots for Paris.

Speaker 3: 44:02

And I believe, on the men's side, we actually get to see Mr Blumenfeld finally race.

Speaker 2: 44:07

We do. Yeah, finally, that's great. It'd be great to see how he jumps back into the racing there. We've got on the Norwegian side Kasper Storn is Christian Blumenfeld and Thorne Briggsvig racing in there, so it'll be curious to see how they go at it on. Yeah, for the rest of the field, we got people like Jacob Berkwistle, maddie Hauser, yela Gaines, martin Van Riel. I'm curious to see how he goes. He is, it looks like training and racing and everything has been going very good for him, so I'm curious to see what he does there. Tyler Misalichachuk, of course, got to give the canadian a shout out, and he did so well at the testament a few a while ago. But, um, for the last olympics, we got dorian connex, leo brugere.

Speaker 2: 44:54

For france, vincent louis is going to be there, so be curious to see if he is back a hundred percent and battling it out because, again it just the time frame was brutal.

Speaker 2: 45:04

He was so dominant for years yeah just the last couple years in fight with injury we got jonathan brown will be back there. We haven't seen him top, top form. Would be fun to see him maybe pull out a fourth medal. He's already the most winningest triathlete you know. Can he do something? Uh, this year I like jonas schomburg. Yeah, this definitely stacked. It's gonna be interesting because it's like the race, obviously, but then the race within the race in the federations, trying to get those, those last thoughts and really yeah, yeah it's gonna be.

Speaker 3: 45:44

it's gonna be a battle for all countries fighting for slots, uh, for the olympics and, like I said a couple of episodes before, like I don't want to be the guy making the call, especially in the us women's side, because it's going to be quite a battle and a very impressive show of performances I think we're going to see now from the girls, because they are fighting for those spots that are remaining and, yeah, it's going to be exciting. Always is some of the years tricky, with travel, racing, injuries and all of that. So, yeah, yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens.

Speaker 2: 46:29

And I'm excited to see some closer racing. This one there's definitely going to be some close head-to-head racing. Mediocre is the coverages of these events. You know at least a few within a close content.

Speaker 3: 46:41

The beauty of the Olympics is they do know how to make the live stream a bit boring, those guys Jesus.

Speaker 2: 46:52

Interesting. No, alex Yee on here, curious to see how he's doing.

Speaker 4: 46:57

He just beat Hayden this weekend too, I think, Did he. Yeah, there was like a big team race that they did, but also with the weekend too, I think Did he. Yeah, there was like a big team race that they did, but also with the individual side, and I think Alex beat Hayden out. Hayden had another issue with the bike or something. He just can't have a clean race. It took the end of Super League where he finally got some clean races, but it seems like every race something goes wrong.

Speaker 3: 47:23

We need to get a bike mechanic to travel full time with Ben Wallace.

Speaker 2: 47:29

Keep him going there.

Speaker 3: 47:33

It's just such a shame because he's a very good athlete and the bike breaks or the bike something, something happened, uh, flats here and there. So yeah, he needs to, he needs to pray to the, to the bike gods, that his everything, his mechanical lock is in order yeah, definitely well switching up into some longer distance stuff.

Speaker 2: 47:59

We also have iron man 70.3 Mallorca going on this weekend.

Speaker 2: 48:04

And interestingly, here we have the return of Gustav Iden, so I think that's the final nail in the Olympics coffin. He's in this race instead of heading over it that way, but he's just so much better at the longer distance stuff and so dominant. But for you guys, an idea we've got on the start list Jan Skratman, steve Eden, patrick Lange, antonio Benito Lopez, nicholas Mann, matthias Margier, yuri Kulin will be out there, bradley Weiss, andy Dreitz, michael Weiss, kevin Wirth will be out there too. Of course We've got Michael Raylert. That's a bit of a throwback there.

Speaker 3: 48:47

Oh really.

Speaker 2: 48:49

Yeah, we've got a few names racing here. It could be interesting. Yeah, and even Patrick Lange. That's going to be a short turnaround for him, I think he doesn't usually race a ton, but going Texas to Majorca long to short is always a bit more painful, so I'll be how he pulls up after uh like what? 3, 34, 234, 235 a couple weeks ago. But what do you guys think, danielle?

Speaker 3: 49:15

lewis did it on back-to-back weeks, which was super impressive at st george I just found it to be painful unbelievable oh crazy nose yeah, I, I was gonna say that we're starting to see a different patrick langa, because he was never the guy who raced a lot and now, like you said, jenna coming from texas, and before that he was at oceansideide and now it is. Maybe he's taking a different approach towards what he's been doing in the past few years. But, yeah, it's exciting to see him raise up the thing with Patrick. Like Jan always said, there's year-round Patrick and then there's Kona Patrick. So we can never count him out Kona time, but maybe he just wants to test a few things. But we know for a fact that the Patrick we see now is going to be a completely different Patrick than what we see in October.

Speaker 2: 50:13

I think the Ironman Pro Series is doing what they're trying to do. They're forcing him to race more just because there is so much money and prestige in the line there. Usually he'd just hold it because Kona is going to pay a lot better from sponsors and the prize money and stuff if he does well there Well now there are some other opportunities on the line, so it's great to see me out there and actually mixing it up.

Speaker 4: 50:34

Yeah, that's quite the start list, not going to be an easy one to pick.

Speaker 2: 50:40

Yeah, definitely so. Speaking of which I'm going to be an easy one to pick. Oh no, yeah, definitely so. Speaking of which I'm gonna make you guys pick. Cool, I'll go in there today, since you missed out last weekend.

Speaker 4: 50:50

You can pick first in here awesome, since you clearly picked tomas a couple weeks ago without being here.

Speaker 3: 50:57

Yeah, obviously that was very good to see. Yeah, it was very cool to watch and the first Iron man victory by a Mexican, it was just awesome and the way he ran.

Speaker 2: 51:13

Amazing, amazing amazing. A lot of people were saying no one would ever pick him, and I'm like no, no, no, no, we gotta pick him.

Speaker 3: 51:19

Yeah, absolutely, and I we gotta pick him yeah, absolutely, and I know he's been going well like. He's one of those guys who's a he's a train horse like he. I would compare him to what sam long used to do back in the day, you know, just being bored and then getting out of the door and riding for seven hours. He's that type of guy, uh. He just loves training and he loves racing. He gets a bit of a hard time because he is very blunt and honest, uh, and he doesn't smile a lot, so people often think he's angry, but he's actually a very uh dedicated athlete. So I was I was very happy for for the. Yeah, can we see what him and Patrick can do in Kona?

Speaker 2: 52:05

Yeah, that'll be good to see, but back to the. America side of things. Who do you think is going to take it this weekend? Without it, you're in like an insane run split.

Speaker 3: 52:17

I'm going to go with my gut feeling. I saw him posting a few stories that he was on the race venue a few weeks earlier preparing and I think this is Gustav Iden's redemption race. I think we're gonna start. We're gonna see Gustav. We were used to not 100%, but I think we're gonna to see him win in his old fashion.

Speaker 2: 52:46

Yeah, I'd love to see it. It'd be so good to see he was. Definitely when he's on, he's just so on. He's so good at this distance and it's been, you know, hard last while for him, so it'd be very cool to see him finish line in first. How about you, Josh?

Speaker 4: 53:02

He's got to be excited to get out there. No, Jenna, you go next. I got the male winner this past weekend, so you can.

Speaker 2: 53:09

I get to make the call here. Okay, see, I'm torn with this one. We had very cool and just put on a masterclass at the T100, but again, that's not 70.3. Patrick langa is such a fast runner, but 70.3 is not really his strong suit yeah but you know what I'm gonna go. With experience here, I think if I can't choose good stuff in, then I'll go patrick langa. Well, no, okay. No, you're equal Patrick Langer. Well, no, okay no.

Speaker 4: 53:42

Yuri Kulin. Ah, guess who I was going to pick.

Speaker 2: 53:50

Never guess.

Speaker 4: 53:52

Not Yuri. Kulin, that's for sure, speaking of social media posts of the week, did you see his post about him not having any clue how to grab bottles?

Speaker 3: 54:02

Yeah, I saw that one. Matt why wouldn't?

Speaker 2: 54:07

you want him to do that. You have that one rock star volunteer who's running with them, hitting the bottles, making sure they get them, and now they're saying that the volunteers can't run at all.

Speaker 4: 54:18

Can't do it.

Speaker 2: 54:19

Especially if it's just pro racing. I can see if it's age groupers and you have tons of people going through all the time, but if it's just the pros racing, why not let them? And it's almost even worse because they're like holding the bottles from the bottom and you're coming in at speed and they're just toppling. You need to hold them from the top and kind of dangle them, so at least there's a little give if they're flying by.

Speaker 4: 54:41

But it's not easy to do at those speeds, I mean you know an age grouper and done it typically really slow down or stop some of them I mean yeah try and do it at any speed over 10, 15 miles an hour. Not easy.

Speaker 2: 54:55

Yeah, they should hire that guy from t100 in miami and just get him to do all the T100 races and run alongside.

Speaker 4: 55:04

That guy was a rock star. So if I can't go with Yuri and I can't go with Gustav I don't think Patrick's in this one to get after it, I think he's at the point and stay close into race in europe and then get that whole field back. Um, I'm gonna go with matisse and I think he's had quite a good build again coming into this one, so let's go margier that is a great pick, josh.

Speaker 2: 55:35

I like it okay, we roll on to the women's side of things. Some of the top names in there. We got emma pallant brown or philip georgia prerione, daniella kleiser, lizzie rainer, ruth astle, elizabetta gradori, any. Okay, there are some seriously tough names here. Art heart to canon Hartekinen. There's fans. Yes, we definitely have some, yeah, a few top ones in here. We're going for that 70 or that Ironman Pro rankings. We'll start again with you, fede. Who do you think has it on the women's side for Mallorca?

Speaker 3: 56:18

Did you say, did you mention Emma Pollock-Brown?

Speaker 4: 56:24

She's ranked in all the just across the board on this one.

Speaker 3: 56:29

Uh, okay, here's the thing. Uh, I would. I would have said emma, but we know she has been struggling lately with heat, so I'm not going to pick Emma. But could you repeat me just a couple of those names Sheda.

Speaker 2: 56:52

Emma Pellett-Brown, Laura Phillip, Georgia Pierone, Daniela Fleischer, Lizzie Drehert, Ruth Haskell. Okay, I'm going gonna go with Laura Phillip. That is a solid pick. That's who I was gonna go with initially in there. She just yeah, when she's on, she's on. She's so good Like you definitely expect to see her out there.

Speaker 3: 57:14

Yeah, and it seems like there's Europe. Laura Phillip and. North America. Laura Phillip. I think she races way better in Europe. So I think she races way better in Europe, so I think she's gonna. I think she's taking the win.

Speaker 2: 57:28

Yeah, with this one. Um, well then I gotta go at Mopalant Brown, because it's gonna be one of those two, I think, or someone we've never heard of before. I don't think there's a couple.

Speaker 4: 57:40

Naturally I'll go with Georgia Perot.

Speaker 2: 57:44

Okay, sounds good. Yeah, it'd be interesting to see how that shakes out If Emma Pellant Brown can keep the heat under control. Hopefully she's good, because that's one of the tough things Like when you have those heat issues. To that extent it just compounds. Yeah, your body's kind of scarred by it a little bit. So hopefully that's not the case and she's going in feeling healthy and ready to fire and have a great day out there. But yeah, between the top three we will see who gets it done this weekend. Definitely be watching that one Now. Should I make us do the picks for WTCS, cause that is going to be a whole lot harder Now?

Speaker 3: 58:21

should I make us do the picks for WTCS, because that is going to be a whole lot harder. I think we got it. Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 1: 58:27

Okay, we'll head back to the women's of WTCS in Yokohama. Who do we?

Speaker 2: 58:37

think we will do. How about we do reverse order in here? We'll start with Josh. Who do you think on the women's side is going to take it here in Yokohama?

Speaker 4: 58:50

I'm going to go with.

Speaker 2: 58:50

Gwen, yeah, I think so.

Speaker 4: 58:53

I think she's pissed off. She's pissed off. She wasn't picked or dropped from Cagliari and we saw that loud and clear with a lot of people. So this is her last shot and I think she's going to come at it. I know she could even finish third and still grab her spot or whatever, but I'm going to go for her all the way to the top, and she loves this course.

Speaker 2: 59:14

Wow, that is a big call. I like it. You know what I'm going to go with Leona Perio. She's just been like running so well and so solid lately. I think we're going to see even more from the French women, like going into an Olympics in your home country. That's got to give you a big boost of just energy and excitement and confidence and stuff. Maybe do something like what the Brownlees did in London and just kind of showcasing that fitness as we head towards the games. But what do you think, fede, who's going to take it in the women's side?

Speaker 3: 59:49

Oof. That is a Let me think, because I was going to say Gwen.

Speaker 2: 59:58

but now Okay, I'm going to go Beth.

Speaker 3: 1:00:01

Potter say Gwen, but now Okay, I'm going to go, beth Potter. Okay, I think she's on the start list.

Speaker 2: 1:00:12

I don't see her on this start list.

Speaker 3: 1:00:15

Okay.

Speaker 4: 1:00:18

Just pick another American. I mean, come on, they're all trying to kill each other right now.

Speaker 3: 1:00:25

I'm trying to be neutral now. Okay, I'm going to go. Lisa Turch.

Speaker 2: 1:00:30

Okay, I like it.

Speaker 3: 1:00:32

Yeah, I think she's solid and yeah, she's going to be. She's obviously not an underdog, but all the eyes are going to be in Gwen and those dynamics and I think she's a very smart racer and she could actually use that to her advantage.

Speaker 2: 1:00:48

Amazingly, no one picking Flora Duffy, because we have no idea, and a couple of years ago that would have been absolutely insane not to pick Flora Duffy. So I'm super curious to see how she comes out back onto the race course here. Well, we'll go into the men's before we wrap things up here Again. This is definitely going to be an interesting race. We're missing Hayden Weld and Alex Yee, who would usually be battling it out at the front, but who do you think is going to take it here, Josh?

Speaker 4: 1:01:17

I mean similar to what Fede was thinking with Gustav. I think Christian is itching to race and he's itching to show people all of that elevation training and really just kind of lay down that first stake in his claim to the Olympic title. So he's going to take the whole thing.

Speaker 2: 1:01:37

Just get it done. It'd be very fun to see in there. Okay, the whole thing, just get it done. It'd be very fun to see in there. Okay, man, it's definitely tough here, especially like with the last race being canceled and stuff. We really don't have a good form guide of who's going in. But you know, I'm gonna go for a french double and go. Leo brugere doing really well in there. Um again, another shout out martin van riel. I think he's been. He could be an interesting one to watch too, but yeah, let's go french double here.

Speaker 2: 1:02:05

How about you, fede? Who do you have?

Speaker 3: 1:02:07

right. So we know for a fact that abu dhabi is usually uh a very flat course and it's usually a run race. I uh like my heart wants to pick martin van riel, but I'm gonna stick. I'm gonna stick with another belgian and go uh yellow gins for the win yeah, he's got a killer run on him too.

Speaker 2: 1:02:36

Man, I'll be good. And again, no one's going with johnny brownlee here. He hasn't quite been showing the form the last few years, but that would be good. And again, no one's going with Johnny Brownlee here. He hasn't quite been showing the form the last few years, but that would be fun to see him kind of pulling through the field and see that.

Speaker 3: 1:02:46

That would be awesome that would be awesome to see. Yeah, imagine if Johnny manages to win the gold, then he'll have the whole set and he'll have more medals than his brother. Of of course, his brother has two golds, but he's gonna have the complete set.

Speaker 4: 1:03:06

Well, he's got the whole set in terms of if you count the relay, that's true, he doesn't have the individual set exactly here's how Vincent Loe goes again.

Speaker 2: 1:03:19

One of those athletes where, a couple years ago, if you bet against him, hey, yeah, he's, he's.

Speaker 3: 1:03:25

He's one of those athletes I don't know if, if this seems to you as well as does to me, but he seems to me one of those athletes who who actually the pandemic was in detriment towards his career than other athletes who benefited from it, like Christian Blumenfeld and Gustav, I think. Uh, for him the pandemic was a bit of a setback yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 1:03:49

He just went through a string of injuries and kind of went backwards there, which, yeah, it's crazy that we're talking about some of these athletes like Katie Zafiras and Vincent Louis, who are just so dominant. If the Olympics were a couple years earlier, they'd be the top picks across the board, because they're just crushing it across Super League and WTCS. But it's amazing how much things can change just in a couple years, Really yeah absolutely.

Speaker 2: 1:04:17

Well, guys, if there's nothing else tonight, I think we'll wrap it up there. We've got some racing to watch this weekend that we're excited to look forward to, and let us know kind of your picks going into this weekend. We'd be curious to see if you think we're on the mark, crazy or anything else in between. Give us a follow on Instagram, add another Traflon podcast and, yeah, tell us what you think.

Speaker 4: 1:04:39

Pretty awesome Getting closer to that 50th episode. So if you've oh yeah, you want to. If you want to join us for number 50 and you got a big name we've reached out to you, but now it's your turn to reach out to us too. So we're trying to secure the 50th episode guest and we've got a few in mind countdown is on.

Speaker 2: 1:04:57

That's still still mind boggling at this point. Awesome as always.

Speaker 3: 1:05:06

Thank you so much guys, and we will be back next week. Awesome, have a good one, you too, guys.