Episode 54: Challenge Roth Results with Record times by Anne Haug & Magnus Ditlev

Summary

In this episode, the hosts discuss their own training progress and the importance of having a coach. They also recap the Challenge Roth race, where Magnus Ditlev and Anne Haug set new world records. The hosts highlight the impressive performances and discuss the significance of these records. The conversation covers various topics including the Challenge Roth race, the Ironman Pro Series, social media posts of the week, and the Super League Triathlon. The hosts discuss the amazing performances at Challenge Roth and the incredible organization of the race. They also highlight the importance of following UAE Team Emirates' social media page for giveaways and interesting content. The hosts share their favorite social media posts of the week, including a cyclist taking a phone call from a banana and a triathlete stopping during a time trial to kiss his family. They also discuss the challenges faced by professional triathletes, such as unpaid race fees. The conversation concludes with a preview of upcoming races and the current standings in the Ironman Pro Series.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Training Updates
15:49 Recap of Challenge Roth and World Records
23:58 Magnus Ditlev's Impressive Performance
26:31 The Legendary Race Atmosphere of Challenge Roth
26:36 Challenge Roth: Amazing Race Organization and Performances
28:41 UAE Team Emirates: Must-Follow Social Media Page
33:28 Social Media Posts of the Week: Banana Phone Call and Time Trial Kiss
37:43 Challenges Faced by Professional Triathletes: Unpaid Race Fees
42:00 Super League Triathlon: The Brownlee Brothers Join
45:09 Ironman Pro Series: Dominance of Kat Matthews
47:13 Ironman Pro Series: Sam Laidlow's Potential Victory
50:03 Ironman Pro Series: Unexpected Leaders
52:07 Closing Thoughts and Advice

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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. 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: 0:36

Here we are with another episode of another triathlon podcast, brought to you by Mana Apparel. As always, we're going to chat about everything going on in the triathlon world, which is a fair bit these days with you know, just a little bit of the tour de france, because we are slightly obsessed with it, and who doesn't love endurance sports in all its forms? But before we jump into the pros and the people breaking records this weekend with some incredible performances, first let's catch up with the crew here. It's just slightly slower than pros, but we'll start off with you, josh. How are you doing? What's up in your world?

Speaker 3: 1:10

uh, my world is definitely slower than the pros, for sure. Uh, just got out of the pool, made it back in time to grab my daughter from work and get on the podcast. But I just looked up I've done 7,500 yards in the last five days. So for me that's that's moving up there. So I think I had like a 2,500, a three K and then tonight was more of a two K, but fast efforts, 75 broken one hundreds. Um, so all out getting that heart rate up there.

Speaker 3: 1:40

But we're really shifting into chicago focus. But knowing I still have main bike and the boston triathlon olympic distance. So swim bike run still there. But as of this morning I started double sessions. So a little 20 minute run in the morning and that's going to be five, six days a week and then, uh, whatever, whatever the main set is for for the evening. So looking forward to that, hoping the body responds and really building the run volume, because hey, look, next year when I do my next 70.3, if I can get my run down into the 130s, that's, that's huge on the target of getting under five hours. So, um, it's all part of the the master plan and then hopefully be queuing in october. So right now I'm staying healthy. Had my annual physical today. All my labs came back great. It's fun to watch the trends in the last few years.

Speaker 2: 2:34

Go triathlon right um so it's been.

Speaker 3: 2:39

It's been a really good um block had a um outdoor bike ride yesterday and a little short run after that, but he trained and that is definitely showing. I did a treadmill run and was able to push some higher paces with heart rates that didn't go anywhere. Um, get a little fan on, get a little dehumidifier on and wow, look at that, if you have nice conditions, this is what you can do. It makes a massive difference, amazing. So yeah, it's been going well and I'm really excited about what's to come in the next couple months and then it's going to be a summer and fall build to Chicago for sure.

Speaker 2: 3:18

That's awesome. Yeah, that run frequency really does a lot. Even like those aerobic easy miles, they count for a ton. Running doesn't have to be like going hard all the time, and I just put up a social media post last week saying, like most triathletes are always in that gray zone, that hard ish zone, um, but putting in some run frequency to really dial in that neuromuscular connection, make sure that you're spending time on your feet and that zone, too, will really boost you up, especially for a marathon. That is absolutely the foundation of it.

Speaker 3: 3:48

And that's the part that we're working on right now. A lot of it is that fat max stuff that I had knowledge of coming out of Arizona. We're kind of getting back into that as the build for Chicago comes about, and it's just a reminder to, I mean, everyone in my situation. Look, I've been racing in triathlon just over two years now and I've come a long way, but that's all thanks to having a coach. So if you don't have a coach and I've seen a lot of posts recently like what are the tools and tricks and like what would you do if you could get five things, or what are your top five things the number one suggestion is get a coach and and start there.

Speaker 3: 4:21

Um, there's no way I'm doing 7 500 yards in three days without a coach and start there. There's no way I'm doing 7,500 yards in three days without a coach or in five days without a coach, because the sessions are broke down to give you what you need and there's always a purpose and it breaks it up so that it isn't monotonous and just going out and doing 1,000 straight, 1,500 straight. There's a lot of things that coaches put into it, so people like Jenna and Fede are. There's a lot of um things that coaches put into it, so people like jenna and fede are there for a reason.

Speaker 2: 4:48

So my suggestion to all new age groupers is to find a coach and then start adding the tools yeah, absolutely, and you know, slightly biased as a coach, but as a coach I've had my own coach since pretty much day one, 11, 11 years ago.

Speaker 2: 5:04

And I tell him I want to do all sorts of crazy stuff and he's like, ok, cool, we'll get you there. It's nice beyond, obviously, I know how to program the training and write the sessions. But having that little extra accountability by someone who cares or knows if you do the sessions or not, and getting that outside perspective, because sometimes we can be way too close to it. Sometimes the coach's job is just to tell you to chill and back off a little bit, and sometimes it's to boost you up and say, hey, like now's the time to really put in the solid work. So having that outside perspective, I think, is the most invaluable thing and why I still have a coach all these years and he's not ever allowed to quit, because you kind of, if you really buy into the process and the person you're working with, incredible things can happen for sure.

Speaker 3: 5:49

Yeah, she's uh, my, my coach is definitely giving me the uh full on unsolicited and unfiltered feedback at times recently, because we know where the goals are at and now that I've gotten to this point, she knows when to push and when to give me some good criticism on on sessions and things like that. And I told her right away today. I was like, look, I got in for that first 500 warmup and I felt sluggish and I know she had had a week or so recently where she had felt like that in the pool and I was like, but I got through all the entire workout and having that coach knowing I got to get this work done, I got to do this work. I got to get that green check. Everything's got to be done.

Speaker 3: 6:30

Every 75, every 25 has got to be done. It's a huge push. And if you're just going to the pool and all right, well, maybe that session becomes 1,200 or 1,500 instead of 2, so yeah, it's a big thing and um, and then it's just making sure where you sluggish or where you overuse, overwork. So those conversations are great to have.

Speaker 2: 6:50

Yeah, absolutely Well, love to hear it and sounds like you're going to be ready there for Chicago and have a great race, as you've been having PRS all over the place anyways, with all the time and effort you've been putting in. It just goes to show the overriding determiner of success in endurance sports just consistency and putting in the work over time. Nothing crazy or hero workouts all the time. It's just keep it steady and keep doing it yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 7:15

How about you fed? How's the vo2 training?

Speaker 4: 7:19

oh man, I was just listening to you guys and uh, listening listening to Jenna about getting the body ready and not training in that gray zone, and fortunately I've been doing my easy stuff, very easy, and so that I can then go out and push hard when I need to push hard, and it's been. Man I've missed, though I have a lot of hate relationship with, like vo2 uh type of work because I don't know, probably the listeners can relate and you guys can relate, but those 40, 20, 30, 30 look so easy on paper. And then, uh, by the middle of the set, you're shaking, you're dizzy, you don't know what day of the week it. You're shaking, you're dizzy, you don't know what day of the week it is.

Speaker 2: 8:10

You just want this sweet relief of death to come and but yeah, enjoying those and chipping away, I'm going to tell you a picture in sports. It's so accurate, it's so accurate you're gonna scare off all the new triathletes, but that is no, this just happens to me.

Speaker 4: 8:31

Don't, don't, don't get scared, new triathletes, this, this is just so just happens to me. I'm the only one who feels that's gonna die. Um, it's, it's the altitude, you know, it's the altitude, the lack of oxygen, uh, that makes me feel like this. Uh, but no, enjoying it, and it's. It's amazing how quickly the body responds when you've been training for a while. Uh, you know, the body has uh memory and I know that, um, probably for the new triathlete, this is not a relatable, but but for us who have been doing it for a while, I feel that I'm going to be back fit and ready sooner than later, and I got an email today that the 70.3 Worlds course got revealed, so that was an extra motivation today and, yeah, happy to be training towards that at the end of the year.

Speaker 2: 9:42

Yeah, that's awesome. No, that's such a good point too. Towards that at the end of the year yeah, that's awesome. No, that's such a good point too. Once you have those years of base underneath you, you get to that point where you're almost robust enough that you can jump into anything and that is such a fun place to be. And sometimes you need that little reminder and unfortunately injury is not the best way to have that. But just goes to show that those years of fitness don't go away after you take off a few months because of injury or having life getting in the way. Um, you always kind of have that there, so it makes the comeback much easier absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 4: 10:15

What about you, jenna? What's been happening?

Speaker 2: 10:19

um, I had one of those workouts that felt exactly like what you just described Awesome. It was hitting close to home when you were describing those sensations. I'm racing a dwarf on next weekend. So this weekend I got to do a fun little test brick session there with a, a run with a bit of threshold to start and then a bike with two by 20 minutes of threshold, and then a run with 20 minutes of threshold to start, and then a bike with two by 20 minutes of threshold and then a run with 20 minutes of threshold. So, yeah, you described perfectly how that felt during it and it's funny because those sessions are about more than the physical side of it. It's a good opportunity to work on kind of the mental toughness side of it, because I find with me it's a good opportunity to work on kind of the mental toughness side of it Because I find with me it's so much easier to push myself.

Speaker 2: 11:10

There's people around me.

Speaker 2: 11:10

If I'm hunting people down or trying to hang on, I find it 1000 times easier to go into that like suffering pain zone kind of thing, like just set a target on someone's back and chase them down kind of deal.

Speaker 2: 11:22

Yeah, my basement is so much harder to get to those zones.

Speaker 2: 11:28

There's no finish line at the end, it's just kind of I step off the bike and go take the family to the lake and stuff.

Speaker 2: 11:35

So those sessions are a really good opportunity to start to look at not only how your body responds but I always tell athletes to when you get into those hard workouts where you're really just suffering and you don't want to do it maybe you're fatigued from the emotional or work stress or whatever going on in the day start to pay attention to what your head says to you in those moments.

Speaker 2: 11:58

Start to really focus in on what you start telling yourself when you get to those points where it's I can either keep pushing and get through this because you're physically capable of doing it, but is your head on your side or not, which sounds kind of funny to say, but a lot of times you can start to get into that negative feedback loop and then you tighten up and then you're not moving as fluidly. What these sessions are great for is to learn how to relax into the discomfort and just accept this is uncomfortable, this is hard, I'm breathing heavy, this doesn't feel good. And if you learn to just kind of accept it, start to count those steps, start to get back to that rhythm, everything gets so much easier, instead of getting into that big loop saying I suck.

Speaker 1: 12:44

I can't do this.

Speaker 2: 12:44

It's hard, just things go downhill from there. So if you do have those hard sessions, great opportunity just to figure out first how you respond to it, what your head is saying to you, and then start to come up with tools to combat that in the moment. Because if you're trying to figure out how to deal with it when your head goes South on race day, it's way too late at that moment. So, yeah, definitely take those opportunities.

Speaker 3: 13:09

And I think that session that you just mentioned too, jenna, with the 2x20, it's those longer threshold intervals on the bike or even on the run. Those are the ones where the thoughts are coming. If you're doing the 30x30s and the 40x20, you you're in and out of thoughts. You don't even have a time to think, you're just trying to catch your breath, whereas those long threshold intervals are the ones that you want to pay attention to, because I sent you guys my 3x15 and then I I was looking forward to the 8x30 sprints at the end and I was like getting through the 3x15, it was like all right, I got through by the first one, and then it was like, do I up the watts for the second one? And and then I was like all right, no, I'm gonna leave it here, but then I opted for the third one. So I was like having those conversations as you settle down and that's exactly what it was.

Speaker 3: 13:57

And um and fanny talked about jumping into. You guys mentioned jumping into something new. I totally forgot. I just signed up for my first one mile road race.

Speaker 3: 14:06

Uh there you go usatf is right in hopkinton where the marathon starts right across the street. From my office there's a one mile loop around the high school in hopkinton and uh, so I'm in the master's field, officially a member, and gonna see what I got that's awesome, that'll be a class, so that's coming up in two weekends.

Speaker 4: 14:26

That's amazing. That's amazing. Also, I wanted to add on that note, Jen and Josh, it's very important that you know athletes respect progression and buildup. Like, for instance, I wouldn't be able to do the 2x20 that Jenna did, because I'm gradually building towards that and even though if once I could do those sessions fairly comfortable and at a specific wattage or whatever, it does not mean that I can't go back into those right now, right now. That's why I'm in 30-30, it's 40-20, it's building the engine back again so that when I go back and do those sessions I can benefit 100% from those, Because maybe I could do the 2x20, but then I would be completely tired the next day, I wouldn't be able to do it over and over again.

Speaker 4: 15:21

And we know there's no secret recipe, just consistency and in order. For I mean it's going to sound a little silly, but in order for you to perform at a high level, you need to be fit enough to absorb the training. And how do you get there? By doing the boring long miles and then the VO2 and then move up to the threshold and raise intensity. Everything is there for a reason, and that's why I also believe having a coach is very important, because then you do what feels good at the moment and then you're just not improving and just plateauing all the time.

Speaker 2: 16:01

You know you could not have said that better. That is exactly so much of it. Well, let's jump into some of the pros. I think follow some of the same strategies in there. We had a race where I'm guessing there were some threshold sessions in the buildup, because there were records broken across the field. So, fede, why don't you tell us what went down at Challenge Raw?

Speaker 4: 16:25

oh my god, I mean, what a race. Uh, both world records. Both world records were, uh, crushed, both men and women's. But you know, we knew that Magnus and Annie Howe were the big favorites and we picked different because we wanted to make things interesting. So, uh, I just want to, you know, for our little fantasy league, just give us a win for the three of us, because we picked the right guys. But no, it was amazing to see. And what a performance from Magnus.

Speaker 4: 16:59

This is one guy who has been consistently doing the right thing at the right time and you know he doesn't shy away from sharing what he does. He's very open and, yes, he might, you know, hide his power file on Strava so that his rivals don't figure out his CDA and all that stuff. But we know he pushes a lot of wattage and that he has been struggling with the run in the past few years. But he figured it out and, uh, it was so refreshing.

Speaker 4: 17:31

I mean, I was so happy that he was running, uh, on a super shoe that we all could buy at a store and not a prototype or, you know, five carbon fiber plate shoe that you would have had a big question mark for the run and the fact that he delivered a 234 marathon is amazing. You know he's a big unit. I don't know. I think, josh, you're like 6'2", right? Yeah, I'm 6'2", yeah, so he's like 6'4", 6'5" and he moves so fast. You know, it's just amazing to me how quickly he, because it's one thing for a smaller guy like myself to deliver quick run times, but to have like a big unit like Magnus push so hard on the bike and then so hard on the run was just amazing to see.

Speaker 3: 18:23

You're forgetting about the most important part, because I was able to go to sleep a little earlier and, figure, I could watch the race in the morning. When I woke up 12, 35 my time he was like six foot like he was. He was right there in the swim and I was like, all right, forget about lucas. We all knew lucas was gonna win the swim, right, but he was right there in the swim.

Speaker 3: 18:42

It was like these guys got out of of water, like oh crap the day's over, like yeah I mean, roth is a very, very, very swimmer.

Speaker 4: 18:52

Friendly course, I mean, it's like a point to point and, uh, it's very straightforward you have the canal to site and yeah, like you said, josh, he has been working so hard and the fact that he was right there on the swim just proved that he is fit as a fiddle right now. Let's just, I mean, we'll have to wait and see if he can hold to that form, uh, come october or kona, but, um, I don't see anybody that's faster than him, um, on the long distance right now than than magnus, and just an incredible performance by him. Second place was Tom Bishop from Great Britain, who he's also a very hard worker and was very happy to see him on the podium. And on third place we have the B-man, rudy B Berg, coming in third place, who was very, very good to see for the Americans an American right there on the podium. But yeah, this race looks electric.

Speaker 4: 19:53

Solberg Hill just, I mean, I had FOMO. I think I'm going to sign up for the lottery for next year. It looks so, so good and the fact that there's no Kona next year makes things so much easier for me and I have to decide, so I just can't go full in into roth um but before we jump on to the women's side, um, patrick langa, that was crazy to see.

Speaker 2: 20:16

He apparently he got kicked in the ribs on the swim and was in too much pain to continue on. Which crazy. It's really a shame to see I mean, yeah, it was.

Speaker 4: 20:28

It was wild to just to watch his post. And also, uh, daniel beck ago he had a uh, a crash and couldn't continue the race, so it was a shame for those two guys. I mean, you know, uh, people say triathlon is not a contact sport. However, on the swim, anything goes, I've seen boxing matches who have had less injuries than a swim start during a triathlon. So, yeah, I hope Patrick is well, you know, racing at that high level, a minor, minor bruise made mean that he could not sustain the effort that he needed to and he had big ambitions towards the run course. So, yeah, I just hope he's okay and maybe he can channel into that energy and deliver a super quick marathon come october there we go, a little extra fire to get after it 100, 100.

Speaker 4: 21:22

But um, I wanted to talk about more than the men's race, about Annie Haug's performance oh man, god talk about goodbye.

Speaker 3: 21:33

That's real.

Speaker 4: 21:37

I mean we have covered races when there's 5 minutes difference from 1st place to second place, or 10 uh, eight minutes, but those are like tier b races. No disrespect to the athletes, but the fact that annie put 11 minutes and 35 seconds into laura philip, I mean that's telling you something oh, absolutely unreal.

Speaker 2: 22:06

And her run was it like a 2.34? Was that? It that like just absolutely unreal? Like I know it wasn't too long ago in the 2010s where Miranda Carfrae's like breaking 2.50 was something that was just unheard of kind of thing and now 2.34 and it looks like the course was pretty close to accurate, like five or six hundred meters off. So, oh man, I mean they're super shoes. And then there's just being incredibly unbelievably fit and like running is beautiful to watch.

Speaker 4: 22:39

It is crazy and it's not like there were quick cyclists there. I mean there was Els Visser who came in third place, laura Phillip herself she's a super strong cyclist and Annie showed a different level, also on the bike, like Magnus, on the swim Annie showed that he could actually ride a bike and it's not. I mean, it's a course that's not made for super light athletes like Annie. You know, bigger guys like Magnus could benefit a bit more because the uphills are not at a super steep gradient and they can benefit on the downhills and then push, push the power coming down, whereas someone like Annie she would have had to push hard on the uphills and fight her, fight gravity to to maintain inertia coming down. So the fact that she rode super hard and then delivered that marathon, I mean I don't see anybody coming near her in this.

Speaker 3: 23:34

How long do you think she was out there on the bike and into the early stages of the run, thinking sub-8?

Speaker 1: 23:40

She's mad she's so close.

Speaker 3: 23:44

I mean, I wonder how many people yelled at her like uh, uh, probably, probably.

Speaker 4: 23:50

She still thinks about it right now because she is. She was two minutes and some change away from being the first woman going sub-8 on a uh, you know official course, and that would have broken the entire triathlon community. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:06

I can't remember what, but I think someone broke down kind of the splits where she was in relation to the previous world record and it was only the last half marathon where she got ahead of the time, like she was behind it all day but just having that ability to run that fast in the back half of the marathon just absolutely destroyed the record she was chasing all day. I'm sure no one thought at that point you know that it would be, but she demolished it Like that is seriously crazy impressive.

Speaker 4: 24:39

And also on a generic super shoe that we could get off the shelf. Nothing fancy Not to say that these shoes aren't fancy because they are and they make running a lot more easier for all of us. But yeah, I was just happy to see that none of the athletes who won were wearing any prototype or anything. That gave them a bit more advantage from the rest of the field.

Speaker 2: 25:08

They weren't wearing the one-use shoes for 500, 600 euros. No, oh craziness. No, that was just incredible to see and you know you want to say it might be a while till that's broken, but like the rate that the women professionals especially are improving because you know there have been less females kind of racing traditionally over the years but now there's a lot more investment in the sport and just seeing women's racing has just been incredible and so fun to watch over the past few years that I think they're getting a lot more recognition and resources and it's it's very cool to see and that level just keeps going up and up and up and I'm here for it. I love it.

Speaker 4: 25:52

Yeah, I mean, if Annie wasn't thinking about sub-8 before the race, I bet she is thinking about it right now.

Speaker 2: 26:02

Roth 2025.

Speaker 3: 26:05

She didn't have to get in line with everyone at the crack of dawn.

Speaker 4: 26:08

I just sleep overnight to get to get those first thousand bids for next year yeah, I mean imagine, imagine next year, anyhow, going sub eight at roth and then winning kona. That's like the perfect. I mean I'm not retiring her, but that would be like the perfect story for her that would be incredible to see.

Speaker 2: 26:28

Love to see it too. Oh, it's so good. Yeah, that race definitely got me fired up this weekend just seeing such incredible performances, and it sounds like the age group field has always had an incredible time. That race is absolutely legendary and, yeah, one I need to do too. Maybe we'll plan in the future here a uh atp. Yeah, challenge roth showdown probably.

Speaker 4: 26:50

What about challenge roth being the first long distance triathlon for josh? That would be like a good, like a huge collection everyone.

Speaker 3: 27:00

My wife just stared at you, Fetty.

Speaker 2: 27:02

Yes.

Speaker 3: 27:06

It is an amazing race and I actually had speaking of bees. I actually had one of the local Boston triathletes who's a badass age grouper. He was looking forward to a great race, got stung by a bee in the neck on the bike and we all hear about how amazing the volunteers and everyone are Most of these races. Inoth is just next level. He was saved by a volunteer who happened to have benadryl and allowed him to like be able to open up his throat enough until the ambulance got there five minutes later, which is like crazy. So you hear all these stories about these races and roth and things like that, but I saw a picture that I I think Belinda put up today is like you would never know. There was a thousands and thousands of spectators and runners here on the run course and like it looks pristine. You would never know there was anything. And there's like over 300,000 people were in Roth yesterday along the course. It's insane what they pull off on that race.

Speaker 2: 28:04

Seriously impressive. We got to roll into some of the fun stuff here. Let's get started with you.

Speaker 3: 28:09

Josh.

Speaker 2: 28:09

What do you got for social media post of the week?

Speaker 3: 28:12

Well, like we mentioned earlier, the Tour de France is always at the top of our minds and every morning it's been on TV here and it's just been really cool to watch and so many awesome performances.

Speaker 3: 28:24

But one of the things that you get out of it and I think I mentioned this even last year during the tour is make sure you follow uae team emirates page. They've got all the giveaways that they're doing on a daily basis, but they also have some amazing content. I mean, if you can believe it, these guys ride what four or five hours every day, with one or two short time trials in there, and, sure enough, on their day off they're out riding. And Yuri was out riding today and they had a little spoof that they put together and Tadej took a phone call from a banana or something like that. So their page is really cool. They've got a lot of good information and just being able to see what Tadej is like as a human being and things like that, it's just unbelievable how generous he is to all the other athletes out there, the kids that he meets and um, their page is one to follow.

Speaker 2: 29:13

So check it out if you haven't already, especially this time here you know, it just seems like he loves going out and riding his bicycle and you know what I don't know how much of it is the uh psychological talk or trying to psych out the other competitors but every race after the, when he does his interviews like yeah, that was a fun day out there, oh my god, I was just dying he's like oh, that's a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to tomorrow after that gravel too.

Speaker 3: 29:37

It was fun, it was interesting. I I did my ride yesterday. It was, uh, I just happened to do a rail trail and most of it around here they're not finished, they're not paid. So it was like, and I just finished watching the tour and I was like, here I am, out in the gravel. It's like I didn't bring my dust cloth or anything like that, but it felt pretty cool to do that. I mean, what a race that was yesterday in the gravel. But the other thing I thought was interesting with Tyler this week too, and most of them they was interesting with today this week too, and most of them they always jump right on their bike after and and spin out their legs and flush it out. The day before the tt these guys were all hopping on their tt bikes and just to get that little extra 10-15 minutes in that position before they had to go all out for 30 minutes the next day, which was really interesting to see. It wasn't just about flushing the legs, it was also about getting that body position.

Speaker 2: 30:24

Yeah, ready to go again, because there's definitely different muscle utilization when you're going from TT to road bike. So just getting used to that a little bit is good. That gravel stage, though, it was so good and I got to give a little shout out with Derek G getting third place Canadian on the Israel Premier Tech, which was awesome to see. And okay, a little plug here here. But, uh, belton waffle ride BC. Uh, in Victoria, there September 22nd they're doing a promo for the tour de France gravel stage. So if anyone wants to go have some fun on some gravel riding over in British Columbia, it's going to be a pretty epic race, um, but also, so this was almost my what the F was.

Speaker 2: 31:04

Uh, jonas Vingard. He wrote a hundred kilometers that race on somebody else's bike. It was so funny when you see the cameras come to the side and you see his teammates standing there with a bike and like shooing away a tire, he's like no, no, I want another bike. I'm like hey, what's going on? And you see Jonas is on an entirely different bike. So that is badass to race in those kind of conditions. It's hard enough being on a road bike like on the pavement on someone else's bike, never mind dealing with the gravel conditions, and there was a whole lot of trash talk today, which was fun, with some saying he didn't have the balls to really race it. But you know what? You're riding someone else's bike for 100 kilometers and you just survived a crash that put you into the hospital for six weeks. He's playing the smart game, I think, but that gravel stage was awesome.

Speaker 3: 31:56

He still answered Tade. Every time too. Tade went what three, four times where he tried to go just to see if yonas could stick with him on somebody else's bike and they talked about like the saddle height was close, like they, like they know how much it was off, but it wasn't exact by any means. We all know how important bike fits. We talk about it all the time and like that long and to get tade throwing 600 watts down and you have to chase him like on gravel and it was a really cool race to see and remco and him going, I mean they were just back and forth all testing each other you know what that says to me, though I don't I love roguelich so much.

Speaker 2: 32:36

But I don't think they're all too worried about roguelich because they definitely had the opportunity they could put minutes into him today and they're just like you know, so that, um man, it'd be fun to see him come in the high mountains and really do something there. But don't seem too worried about him. But we will go on to my what the f is tour de france focused as well, because how can you not these days? They had one on the time trial stage of the Tour de France. One of the athletes in there. He decided to go hard off the front so that he would have a little bit of time, since they were racing on his home roads, so he'd have enough time to pull over and give his family and kid a kiss. And that was Julian Bernard who pulled over to do it and in UCI, doing very UCI things, they ended up giving him a fine before doing it.

Speaker 2: 33:31

But if you haven't seen this clip, it is such an incredible moment where you see everyone from the course kind of converge and he's just so happy to see his family and just see everyone around, like being able to ride the Tour de France and your local roads is something that most athletes will most people, never, ever get the chance to experience. But you know what? He played it right. He went hard from the front, made sure he'd be out of the way before anyone else came in. It's not like you saw Fidel and the guy behind him was coming, um, so it's really just a shame that he got a fine.

Speaker 2: 34:01

Fred, I could see if something happened where he was impeding another rider. Fine, yeah, fair. But you're with the back of the pack where these guys aren't really contending for the top spots in the time trial, and he didn't get in anyone's way. And Tour de France and UCI will still put that video out everywhere for the clicks, even though they're giving him a fine in the background, which is what? Yeah, even though they're giving him a fine in the background, which is what?

Speaker 3: 34:26

Yeah, it got onto the cover of ESPN, it was all over and it was publicity, but it was. It was the. The. All of the articles were focused on the fine and the WTF. Not the like like, even like watching Lance Armstrong's reaction to him actually doing it that day of was like WTF. But okay, whatever, nobody's really worried about you this year, um. But then the fine, it's like no lance is like no, we're, we're with you. Like that. You should not be getting fine like uci, what are you doing? This is not how you make news. And well, it was a real and you mentioned it too. Like that whole climb, from the beginning of the climb all the way up to when he gets to his wife is pretty much the culmination of it. Like it was amazing watching the crowds and then looking and reading the road and his name everywhere and different initials, and it was really cool. It was like challenge Roth for just one guy. Yeah, totally.

Speaker 2: 35:21

No, and you know, these are the moments where, if you want to grow a sport, if you want to get people to fall in love with cycling, these are the moments that do it, not some skinny guys in Lycra climbing up a mountain, like moments like this, where you really have the heart, the emotion, the passion for it.

Speaker 2: 35:43

That's what gets you on the cover of ESPN and stuff, where no other stage or anything is going to really make a dent, especially in these markets that cycling is not a big thing like in North America. So, as long as no one's being impeded and no one got hurt, it's something that should be, you know, kind of celebrated as something cool, something that really tugs on the heartstrings and gets people excited about the Tour de France and cycling, because there's lots of hardcore cycling fans and they'll watch the Tour de France. We want to help grow these endurance sports so that people outside of that are reached and get into the sport and fall in love with it, because there's something incredible about these, like it really is yeah, and I think a uh another speaking of growing the sport and negative news, and I just happened to catch um jack's little quick 20-minute episode that he put out on Triathlon Hour.

Speaker 3: 36:31

We've had Mark Dubrick on the show and Jackson and Nick Chase they're all at the forefront of this and Mark's been putting out some posts recently, but they haven't been paid by Challenge Salinas specifically. So it is a franchise owned by the. I mean, challenge family is the big brand. It is still a brand, but these franchise contracts are set up that the owners of each race are responsible for the payments of the pros and these guys now are going on seven months, eight months, of not being paid. Um, it was, the race was in December 2023. So Jack put out a kind of quick hit episode and and there are people trying to get them paid, um, but the real message from jack seemed to be look, challenge, step up and pay and then you guys deal with the legalities with with the owner, pedro um at challenge selena. So another little sidebar, wtf. Because like that's, that's ridiculous. These guys picked this race, chose this race, race well, earned their money and and haven't been paid, and there was five or six or seven of them that haven't been paid yet.

Speaker 2: 37:33

And you know it's so unfortunate too, because it's not on the pros for anything. They went out there, they put on the performance, they did the work and it sounds like some of the staff from the race hasn't been paid as well. And unfortunately, in my experience, having worked for a big cycling event that was licensed out and the licensee ended up running it, yeah, I kind of ran into the same situation where I never saw the funds from that and the big, the big overreaching, I guess, company or name in there. Just more times than not they just wave it off and like we're big enough without it not to say that's going to be the case with challenge. But that's why they do license out the races is so that they don't have the financial liability of these situations.

Speaker 2: 38:18

Um, so yeah, hopefully for the professionals, like they put so much into the sport, they hopefully they do get paid. It sounds like a bunch of the um, the local athletes who raced it, did get paid, which kind of adds another layer of interest to the whole ordeal. But these days transferring funds internationally is not really a hard thing to do, so I can't imagine that's a legitimate excuse there. But it would be good to see Challenge kind of step up and pay that out because it does look bad on them. But yeah, it's just an unfortunate situation. Hopefully the attention brought to it will mean that those athletes do get paid for the effort and time they put in, because you shouldn't have to pay to do work at the end of the day.

Speaker 3: 39:01

No, we're. We're trying to get the pros more limelight, more notoriety, more knowledge in the sport. And you're coming off a weekend of roth, where it was such a cool event and every triathlete in the world is watching their counterparts who were racing this weekend and pretty much all the limelight was there. So that race is unbelievable. Like, although I am a little scared, we talk about doing this. I'm a little scared of that age group swim start. That seemed like you want to talk about getting kicked in the ribs.

Speaker 2: 39:32

Oh my gosh that channel was packed. I don't think you ever experienced it, but the mass starts were something else, like 2-3 thousand people just running in at the exact same time, because your timer started as soon as the gun went, regardless of when you got in the water.

Speaker 3: 39:53

I've had a 65-second master. That's my biggest.

Speaker 2: 39:57

Yeah, I've got jet-lips, black eyes, it just. It was, oh my God man.

Speaker 3: 40:03

I just had a friend send me that training video. She's like you shouldn't put this into your thing.

Speaker 2: 40:07

It goes around forever.

Speaker 3: 40:09

Yeah, that thing's from like they really do that American Gladiator style.

Speaker 2: 40:16

And that is so much easier than what I felt like in those mass starts. Yeah, no, definitely all four. And then they went to wave starts, which was a little bit better, and still do it some races, but I love the starting every few seconds in there, like just kind of. The rolling starts are much more pleasant, although it has screwed me over a couple of times with race results I think you're in front and then you're not.

Speaker 3: 40:40

It is definitely hard to figure out where you are on the course, especially if you're not sliding yourself up as far as you should be either. So another note in the rolling start is slot yourself up where you think you could be on a good day go a little bit faster than that, because everybody does that. So just, yeah, you don't want to be passing people that you could swim around and then have to bike around and all that. So definitely.

Speaker 2: 41:10

Well, actually bring this out of the blue here, josh, but you mentioned it before we got started. We have another Super League team was announced, so it looks like we're going to have the Brownlee stick around and travel on for a while in one form or another. If it's not the Olympics, they are going to be doing the Brownlee racing team at Super Try, so that was really exciting to see.

Speaker 3: 41:31

That was a really cool announcement. I don't think we expected it by any means and that came out of nowhere. So kudos to the Brownlee brothers for stepping up and being the fourth franchise again another franchise in Supertri and we're actually also in the works with getting some of the players in the SuperTri League ahead of Boston in the August 18th race to come on the podcast too. So hopefully we'll get some members from each team and one of the members from SuperTri itself and have a good episode for you guys all to listen to. And if you haven't really had a chance to look into SuperTri, we'll get you a good episode there.

Speaker 2: 42:10

Yeah, it'll be good to see Curious to see how this all shakes out with the actual racing at the end of the day. Yeah, it seems like a number of the teams are very US focused, but they're going to have athletes from different federations and should be just good fun. Fast racing. That's what I love to see with the SuperTri events, but we're going to go a little bit longer than SuperTri With the next race up in the Ironman Pro Series. We've got Ironman Vittoria Guestes. I'm going to say that sounds almost like it could be. That's got to be close right.

Speaker 2: 42:40

Yes, ironman.

Speaker 3: 42:41

Vittoria.

Speaker 2: 42:43

There we go. So we've got another Ironman pro series race coming on and we're starting to count down on how many of these are actually left in this series. When you go for ironman distance, I think, we got lake placid the week after and then we got the ironman european championships on august 18th in uh, frankfurt, and I think that's about it until the world championship series. So really three races left for the pros to get their full Ironman points and if you guys haven't been following too closely on this series, uh, the pros will do a number of races I think it's up to five count towards their points and three of those up to three of them can be Ironmans, and the Ironmans are more heavily weighted, with bigger points compared to 70.3s.

Speaker 2: 43:31

So this weekend let's take a look who is going into ironman vittoria gestas we've got the start list here, and on the women's side we've got gertrude gertrude's greatest, uh kent matthews, daniela Blamel, barbara Barros, simone Mitchell, ruth Astle, elisabetta Curidori and a number of other pros there, and then actually we'll start with the women's here before we jump into the men's. So this one definitely not as stacked. What I'm starting to see with the pro series is, if you want to have some good points in rankings get out of North America, like it really seems to be. We had really hard hit outs at the beginning with Oceanside, especially where there's tons of competition, and all of the races kind of outside of North America are a little bit softer, especially with the time of year because all of them kind of coincide and intermingle with the T100 series too. So this weekend a little bit of a softer field, I will say. But, josh, what do you think? Who's got it this weekend?

Speaker 3: 44:40

I mean, I feel like we got to do the same thing we did with Roth, because there's one, kat Matthews, and then we got everyone else. So nothing against anyone else. And that other one of those other else's is els visser, who's probably not racing um, but who knows if she's going to do a back-to-back full ironman, uh, full distance race.

Speaker 2: 45:01

So it would not surprise me that woman is tough as nails, mentally and physically.

Speaker 3: 45:06

It seems like and she could go back to back podium, which is unbelievable. So, um, she was my wild card pick last week and finished third. Rudy was my wild card pick and finished third as well, so there we go? Um, yeah, I mean let's, let's get rid of cat, but how about ruth assley, coming from t9 up up to the at least the podium?

Speaker 2: 45:26

coming back from injury, get it done on the day. Um, I'm gonna go danielle blamel see what she can do out there, although it really wouldn't surprise me if bellsvis went back to back and every day out there like it. Just she's raced a ton, like I feel like she's on like every start list but actually racing it and getting results in there too, which is seriously impressive yeah.

Speaker 3: 45:52

She's, she's been very good all year and, like you said, race probably seven, eight, nine times now I mean it's crazy. Just 70.3 is either.

Speaker 2: 46:02

Yeah, that's it. Okay. Well, let's go into the men's side. Here we have got oh my goodness.

Speaker 3: 46:11

We have the same print.

Speaker 2: 46:13

Sam Laidlow, robert Wilkowiecki, christian Hogenhock, antonio Benito Lopez, david McAmey, matthias Pedersen, arthur Horso, antti Kostas, jesper Svensson, cam Wurf, of course, bradley Weissley, vice um, andre strates see here. So we got. We got a few more names in here, but kind of the same deal where, if you want a little less stacked, we'll see. Um. What do you think, josh?

Speaker 3: 46:44

so I'm I'm guessing sam's gonna show up and actually run away with this one um and see how many of those 5 000 points he can put away before the next guy comes in.

Speaker 2: 46:56

But see honestly, I don't think this one is a full blow to cross the field. There he's been so we haven't seen it from him yet but and cole like there's just been nothing, nothing really, this year so far and and does he have plans to do london?

Speaker 3: 47:13

or is he not on that star list? I don't know. I know paula finley pulled out and actually gave a nice good reason for it, because we've seen a lot without reason and rhyming reason to it. But um, I mean, if you look down at cam did not do rough, um, and he's been in shape and been. So if I'm gonna go with an outsider not sam laid low, I'm gonna go with cam morph okay, I'm seeing.

Speaker 2: 47:38

If yeah, so sam laid low is on the t100 race. So really, man, these t100 didn't100s he didn't do San.

Speaker 3: 47:48

Francisco.

Speaker 2: 47:49

Didn't do San Francisco and then doing an Ironman right before a T100 race like oof yeah, and you definitely see the difference between the pros who are kind of going after it and not but okay, so, let's go on here. You know what? But okay, so let's go on here. You know what? I would love to see someone who is always underrated and somehow just has Kona as his place, but David McNamee he had like three Kona performances in a row where he was super solid up on that podium really contending in there. So when he has a good day, he has a really good day. It just doesn't always happen outside of Kona. So I'm gonna go with him see if we can get it done on the day there.

Speaker 3: 48:34

It'd be great to see.

Speaker 2: 48:35

I like that pick.

Speaker 3: 48:35

No, that is a good one. And Robert Wilkowalkie, ricky as well. Um, I think could could have a good showing yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2: 48:42

Well, now we're talking about the pro series. Let's see who is at the top of the rankings for right now. Let me see here so overall standings so far, and really it's not what you would think. Here let me make sure I have the right one I just still stage.

Speaker 3: 49:02

Nielsen is what I do, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2: 49:04

So number one, we got maya stage nielsen, we got kylie simpson in, we got Kylie Simpson in second, penella Langridge, jackie Herring in fourth and Lottie Williams in fifth. So really you know what I don't think anyone at the start of this series would have called that so far this year, which has been fun to see, that it's not entirely predictable. And you go over to the men's side and it's more of the same. Like who would have thought Patrick Langer wouldn't be at the head of this series right now? Or like Lionel Sanders right up there contending it really has not turned out the way we thought. But Matt Henson, absolutely crushing it here. We got Jackson Laundrie over in second place, colin Schutz in third, paul Schuster fourth, patrick Langer in fifth.

Speaker 2: 49:50

Like it really is not what you would expect, even if you look at the top 10 in there. So it's fun to see something a little bit different. But as we all know, that World Championships is going to have a lot more points and we're not at a point where many athletes have done three Ironman races yet. So I'll be curious to see how that changes up. But like even matt henson, he's only got one ironman in there for those 10 000 points. So it's not like he's just going crushing ironmans and only doing 70.3s outside of it. So, yeah, curious to um. Actually, with that I'm more surprised don't see more names. These, uh yeah, iron man lists so it.

Speaker 3: 50:31

I mean, and like you said earlier, we're running out of options to get that 5 000 point day yeah, I think.

Speaker 2: 50:40

I don't think they have the start for um. What's the next iron man there in north america?

Speaker 2: 50:46

it's gonna be like classic yeah, I don't think they have the start list there, but I'm guessing that is going to be stacked for this race. Like, I think it's totally a thing of you need to show up to the not North American races to just collect points because, all like the people in the top of this list, they've had good performances but they're not dominating every race by any means whatsoever. So, yeah, be curious to see. I really want to see that, uh, that start list for the next one. Yeah, lake.

Speaker 3: 51:15

Placid is going to be stacked. I mean everyone, everyone's going to be there. It's the 25th anniversary, I mean it's a big year all around for Placid.

Speaker 2: 51:23

Yeah, absolutely, and that'll. I think that'll be a big determining point um where this pro race series goes, with only uh, frankfurt after that for Ironmans, before we go into the championship season Awesome.

Speaker 3: 51:39

Getting there.

Speaker 2: 51:40

Well, is there anything else in this wild world of triathlon that you wanted to bring up before we close it out here, josh? Nope, just go get a coach. There you go. Stage advice, as always. Unfortunately, we lost one coach on this call a little while ago. His internet connection wasn't the best in there, but he always provides some great insight as well. So for myself, josh and Fede, have a great night if you're listening to this, and have a great workout. We will talk to you guys again soon.

Speaker 3: 52:08

Have a good.