issue #91: June 12, 2024
All-sporters, I had a busy weekend with drinking too much wine for my birthday, doing some pro athlete interviews, getting up at 4:45 a.m. for the T100 race, then trying to race my own race on Sunday at the Dipsea. (The oldest trail race in the country — and the best race in the country.) All in all, it was a bit of a hot mess.
But! It was fun to see everyone right here in my hometown, on the dirt path I’ve run hundreds of times. Welcome, bring a jacket!
Reminder: We have Book Club next week on June 19 — before the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials start — and the book has been getting rave reviews. So, give it a read.
- Kelly
Why it’s hard to be a fan of triathlon
Last week, Anne Haug and Chelsea Sodaro announced (separately) that neither of them would be starting the T100 SF race. This came after a lot of promotion of the match-ups (and was unfortunate timing as I had recorded a spot for the radio and given Chelsea a shoutout as the local favorite). Kat Matthews *did* start in SF at the last minute — after the DNF at IM Hamburg. And then, in different news, Lucy Charles-Barclay announced she actually really would be defending her Ironman World Championship title in Nice — after previously saying she definitely wouldn’t be — and would race IM France this upcoming weekend. (More on that in a minute.)
All of these are completely understandable decisions from an athlete standpoint. Some of them are also exciting for spectators. But go ahead and explain to me how a casual fan keeps track and how exactly you build hype with these ever-changing specifics.
It’s not that any random person you’re trying to win over to triathlon cares about the individual names; it’s that it’s almost impossible to create hype with generalities. (“Some exciting people will be doing exciting stuff. Really.”) And it’s not the fault of any athlete, it’s a reality of our sport: pros are always riding the edge of the injured reserve list.
But. If you’re trying to create a professional spectator sport, what do you do?
T100 in the Bay
Now, the race in SF.
At the T100 on Saturday, there was a barricade erected between the course (the bike in the road and the run on the sidewalk) and the water in the Bay. The barricade was meant to separate spectators from athletes.
But no one arrives to a race coming from the water. They come from the neighborhood and the streets around the Marina, which means they came from the other side of the course. And there was no barricade on that side. There was just a lot of cones and no immediately obvious way for someone to get across the bike course and the run course to the “correct” side of the spectator barricade.
Of course it was figure-out-able. Of course there were two angry security guards who yelled at confused locals and tourists.
But as it gets to 7 or 8 a.m. on a Saturday along the water in San Francisco, the casual cyclists and joggers come out. Do you know where they typically run? The path that was the run course. Do you know the main way to bike out of the city from there? The route that was bike course. There were some close calls with pros going fast (so fast!) downhill and tourists heading out and uphill on rental bikes. It made me nervous just standing there, but I guess we suspend a lot of our disbelief as athletes when we race.
In general, I think the PTO is getting better at things. All things. The last one of these I was at was the US Open in Milwaukee last summer — when we were still calling it the US Open and still pretending the Collins Cup made sense. This one, in San Francisco, was more organized from a media/behind-the-scenes standpoint. Not fully organized, but more; there were actual places to stand and people ushering interviews and a schedule. The content they put out is also getting better. They’re starting to learn to let the athletes be themselves. (I had some more about the vibes on the ground for paying subscribers, but the PTO did a good job locally too.)
The race was more interesting, the course far more dynamic, the athletes more relaxed. They’re getting comfortable on this tour, like they all see each other all the time now and have inside jokes, friends — kinda like Challengers but without the threesomes I assume.
The PTO is getting better at all of this. But will it get enough better fast enough?
Some notes on the race
Swim: World Triathlon rules required the booties, neoprene cap, and gloves because of the cold. No, age-groupers didn’t have them the next day, and the pros certainly weren’t happy about the gloves or booties. That combined with heavy currents and the boat 100% dropping them closer to shore made for a very short swim. Which changed the dynamics.
Bike: Race Ranger wasn’t able to get the units to San Francisco in time. I know a lot of people on the broadcast were complaining about the drafting, but out there it looked like legal groups, and the climbs and technical bits broke it up.
Run: Yes, that run path was completely crowded with people who had no idea what was happening.
The men’s race
With the short swim, it was just hard for any one to get away really. And with the climbs and descents of the course, you had to be full throttle the whole time. The whole time! I was standing partway up the first climb/last descent — and, as the laps went on and the athletes got more familiar with the course, the speed with which the men were taking that descent was terrifying.
The big front group came down to the run and Rico Bogen, Kyle Smith, and Marten Van Riel simply ran really very fast. There was no room for errors or letting up. They just kept turning the screws and turning the screws. It was something to watch; the only complaint being that the broadcast went to a drone shot as they were duking it out, which isn’t what you want to see at that point. And, of course it came down the final straightaway — and none of them apparently realized was going to be on very uneven grass.
Marten Van Riel - 3:18:20
Kyle Smith - 3:18:21
Rico Bogen - 3:18:24
Magnus Ditlev - 3:19:38
Mika Noodt 3:19:43
The women’s race
Similar dynamics on the swim, but Taylor Knibb just rides away from everyone then on the bike. Kudos to Kat Matthews for trying to go with her — she didn’t even get her shoes on for maybe a mile on the bike because she was just trying to stay with Taylor. It’s both shocking how good Taylor is and also not shocking because she *is* the best time trialist in the country and we have a fairly big country.
Someone asked if the women behind her were discouraged. And that’s an interesting question: I think some are yes, there’s the feeling of ‘oh fuck, I’m going all out and this is how far back I am,’ but also I think there’s a number of the women who are evaluating and thinking ‘well, clearly it’s possible to be that good, I’m just going to have to get better.’
Taylor Knibb - 3:38:01
Kat Matthews - 3:41:48
Laura Philipp - 3:45:07
Imogen Simmonds - 3:47:22
Emma Pallant-Browne - 3:47:56
The best of the rest of the results
Boulder 70.3: All the big names who weren’t in SF were in Boulder. Trevor Foley picked up a big win after an accident earlier this year. And Ellie Salthouse picked up her 25th mid-distance win — though I think a lot of us were impressed with Sif Bendix Madsen in second.
Warsaw 70.3: Norwegian domination with Casper Stornes and Solveig Loevseth winning (and Solveig maybe quite good at this distance). And Gustav Iden finishing.
XTERRA World Cup - Belgium: Shifted to a duathlon because of high water levels, which changed things up and had some new winners on top: Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen and Sandra Mairhofer.
Results: T100 - SF, Boulder 70.3, Warsaw 70.3, XTERRA Belgium, World Cup - Ixtapa, World Cup - Rzeszow
Series standings: T100, IM Pro Series — while there’s been increasing grumbling about athletes “double dipping” and doing both series, I sorta feel like if you’re hitting your contractual obligations then it is what it is; everyone makes choices. Lucy CB can change her mind, and if one of the reasons is because she’s incentivized to by sponsors that’s her perogative
Upcoming this weekend
IM Cairns: Next in the Pro Series, but on the note of stretching yourself too thin: Sam Long pulled out. That leaves Braden Currie as the dominant favorite, Joe Skipper, and Mike Phillips on the men’s side. And Kylie Simpson, Hannah Berry, Lotte Wilms, and Lauren Brandon for the women
WATCH: On Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT on DAZN, Outside Watch, or proseries.ironman.com
IM Nice: Ah, the one Lucy CB is racing for her validation. Pro women only.
IM Austria: Pro men only.
This week’s Olympic update
The U.S. team was announced last week — and internet commentators everywhere proved they didn’t know how the team was actually selected.
Taylor Knibb
Taylor Spivey
Kirsten Kasper
Morgan Pearson
Seth Rider
I did make one mistake before when someone asked me who was on the selection committee, and I mistakenly cited the selection taskforce (which determines the criteria, not actually who has met the criteria) instead of the committee. This piece from Triathlete on how the selection process works was a little clickbaity, but should be required reading before you’re allowed to comment angrily on Instagram.
Also announced last week: The incredibly stressful and controversial French team — which left Vince Luis to feel his feeling on Instagram.
Teams still not announced: British, Australia, Canada, New Zealand. Word is definitely that there are appeals currently underway, at least on Team GB.
A few other pieces of Olympics news
The U.S. is officially sending three men to Paris in the marathon. It’s confusing, but basically they earned a third spot thanks to a third American getting high enough in the world rankings after other spots were allocated (though that spot then went to the 3rd place at the Trials).
The U.S. also announced its mountain bike team — but no word yet on the road team, so that question mark remains.
Olympic Swim & Diving Trials start this weekend: They are 100% the toughest of the Trials and will be on Peacock & NBC.
P.S. Since the U.S. didn’t name Bill Mays to the artistic swimming team, there will be NO men competing in artistic swimming on any team (despite the change in rule allowing men in the Olympics this year).
Also, for our Feisty Paris coverage: Can you tell what these costumes are?
The -ish
The rest of the news you should know about from our sports this week.
The Supertri teams this year will have all have a spot reserved for one of the Project Podium U.S. development boys and a team dedicated to developing U.S. athletes. I talked to Parker & Tommy about U.S. development a bunch a few weeks ago, and there’s a whole lot to be written about what’s changing in what it takes to become the best. (Supertri)
USA Triathlon Multisport Championships were this past weekend and we bring you this adorable kids finish line dance party. (Instagram)
An Olympic open water test event in the Seine was canceled — but I can tell you that me and every Olympic triathlete think they’re going to definitely swim in Paris. And the athletes would also like you to really *really* stop asking them about it. (Le Monde)
You all will be shocked to learn I am not a regular listener of Triathlon Mockery, so this whole dude debate about whether prize purses should be smaller for the smaller women’s fields could have wonderfully passed me by, but I do have to commend Triathlon Insights for calling out what was a dumb argument decades ago and is still a dumb argument every time it resurfaces from Reddit. Honestly, I couldn’t quite decide what to say about this because I’ve said all the things 100x before and we had the same argument a decade ago about why there should be equal numbers of pro women at Kona — and, when that day finally came and there were 50(ish) women in a women’s race at the world champs, EVERY PREDICTION WE HAD MADE CAME TRUE. It did make the race more exciting, it did elevate the women’s side of the sport, it did lead to more investment and contracts, it didn’t weaken the field. So. No. You should not pay smaller prize purses for the women’s field just because there are more men who race professionally. There are more men in the pro field because there are more men who do triathlon and more men who upgrade to elite licenses (whether they should or not). How many men take an elite license and serve as filler doesn’t change how much the 7th or 8th place woman at a given race should be paid. And paying the 7th or 8th place women less (or not at all) isn’t going to get there to be more women in the pro fields either. Now can we wait another decade before having this argument again? (Instagram/TriRating)
On my list of bucket list events is the Comrades Marathon. A new record was set in the up direction this weekend. (Daily Maverick)
The NCAA Track & Field Championships had a lot of drama — including a sweep From Arkansas of the top four places in the 400m, and Parker Valby winning both the 5,000m & 10,000m again in record times. And she gives Taylor Knibb-style interviews. (Forbes/Instagram)
The NCAA champs also held the first-ever 100m wheelchair collegiate championship. (Facebook)
In other NCAA news: They reached a settlement to pay athletes a portion of revenues, but Congress is now considering instead legislation to stop any athlete from being considered an employee. Why? It’s not an accident. It’s part of a massive organized lobbying effort from the NCAA. (Relatedly, I love all the Team USA PR and social clips lately promoting how the NCAA helped make Olympic athletes. Also, a PR push that is not an accident.) (New York Times/On3/Front Office Sports)
The trailer is out for Sprint — the Netflix series following track athletes. (Instagram)
Unchained: Season 2 is also out now. With the goss. (Velo)
I generally am over drone footage, but this is an epic shot of the nine-women sprint finish at Unbound. (Instagram)
We’re giving away a gravel bike, by the way. Enter by this Saturday. (Feisty)
Two European cyclists in Oklahoma on their way to Unbound were arrested for being “gay cyclists” and spent 10 hours in jail. Since that’s not actually illegal — even in Oklahoma — what they were charged with was getting naked in the parking lot when they changed after their training ride. But the reaction (police, guns!) and charges made it clear what they were really in trouble for. (Escape Collective)
Here’s another only-in-America story: Nathan’s has banned Joey Chestnut from its traditional and famous 4th of July hot dog eating contest because he signed a deal with Impossible Meats. (Washington Post)
One last thing
The most interesting thing I learned last week: A woman actually did run the marathon in the first Olympic Games in 1896!