issue #78: March 13, 2024
Presented by Precision Fuel & Hydration:
All-sporters, I’m including the audio version of the post for everyone today — usually it’s just a handy perk for paying subscribers. It’s not fancy, it’s just for convenience so you can listen to the latest triathlon-ish news on your commute or trainer ride. Let me know what you think.
We also sent out a Q&A this past weekend with the new North American General Manager for SuperTri, in case you’re curious about what plans they have for a mass participation short-course series in the U.S.
And of course, there was lots and lots of other triathlon stuff this weekend. It’s officially race season again!!
- Kelly
The overnight breakthrough that took a decade
Obviously, these are the pics of the weekend. No question.
India Lee!
That’s where we have to start: India Lee! At the PTO’s T100 race in Miami! The 35-year-old Brit won her first major title. (I guess depending on if you think European/ETU champ back in 2016 is bigger.) She had a decent swim (coming out with the 2nd group), but she had the best bike *and* the best run of the day (truly her run was exceptional when you look at the splits) to catch Lucy Charles-Barclay on the ride and then make the move to the front with more than half left to go in the run. She kept it together until the finish chute and then all the emotion came out.
I don’t know Indie, I’ve talked to her just a handful of times, but I do know she’s been in the sport for over a decade and she’s had some bad luck at some big races in recent years. She was fit — everyone said — and she was due for a breakthrough. She had the run pedigree — that’s what she came to tri from — but just hadn’t put it together, and now she has. And sometimes that big breakthrough, the huge win, comes after years and years of work.
Behind her: Lucy had a perfectly solid race for second, just not quite as good on the day (and probably didn’t handle the technical aspects of the bike as well). Holly Lawrence looked like Holly of old again for a full Brit podium. And, we’re off to the start of the T100 series.
The Men
I’d say Magnus Ditlev winning was the opposite of a surprise. But Sam Long in second, that was something. To come from almost getting lapped on the bike after coming out of the water that far back, to working his way all the way up is impressive. (It’s unclear to me if you actually could get lapped out, I don’t think athletes were pulled from course—they weren’t during the women’s race—but they weren’t allowed to un-lap themselves either and had to drop 50m back, so it’s a bit unclear.)
The big takeaway from both races: All the DNFs!
Only 14 of the 19 women finished (with Giorgia Priarone then getting a DQ for a missed buoy, leaving 13 finishers) and only 14 of the 20 men. Now, there was some food poisoning. Lucy Buckingham’s boyfriend had to hold up a sign that said “Pull out please” to get her to stop. And there was some heatstroke-ing. The men’s race was definitely afternoon in Florida hot. The women’s race was less hot but still humid and oddly dark.
Whatever the reason, it’s a high rate of DNFs for this early, this level of race, and for the potential points and guaranteed few thousand in prize money. So I think we have to assume it was brutal until proven otherwise. We’ll have to see if DNF rates continue to be high at T100 races and will be forced to draw conclusions then if they do.
Full results here.
Was it a success?
I know it seems like I hate on the PTO all the time, but that’s mostly just because I’m highly skeptical that as a business it can hit the profitability and ROI targets it has to have promised investors for the level of capital it’s taken in and the amount of cash it’s burning. Plus, I’m slightly concerned the leadership is simple repeating mistakes of the past without adequately preparing for a 21st Century landscape. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love the racing.
And it was fun to sit around on my couch and text friends while watching an actual triathlon race on the actual TV. Almost as if we’re a real sport. Almost. (I watched on HBO Max, which ran the Eurosport feed.)
Cons:
The commentary & sound went out for about an hour, so you know, that’s not great
It appeared as if the organizers and broadcast weren’t fully prepared for how dark it got on the track during the women’s bike — and half the texts I got were basically just “wtf!”
There didn’t seem to be ANY spectators by the end of the women’s race
Pros:
A racetrack does make it a lot easier to manage the coverage and follow the athletes
The commentators and mix were pretty solid — even if sometimes they got things wrong, it happens
It’s great to have free live coverage once you find it
And, it was rough but also kinda hilarious (and 100% in keeping with the PTO’s style) to show the entire argument on-camera as it played out between Kat Matthews and her husband after she pulled up limp on the run
We rule:
Racing: A
Coverage: B-/C+ (I mean, you can’t have the sound go out for that long)
First stop in the overall series: B+
The other races at CLASH Miami
There was also a Continental Championship, won by Morgan Pearson and Elizabeth Bravo. Notably, it was hot (yes, a theme) and Katie Zaferes led most of the day until she DNF’d. This is only important because of the World Triathlon points situation. More on that in a second.
The Para Cup also served as the final U.S. Paralympic auto-qualifier, and five more athletes locked in their spots — including a dramatic sprint in the visually impaired race that **just** saw Owen Cravens and guide, Ben Hoffman, lean for the win.
Now, what the hell happened in Abu Dhabi?
On the other side of the world, the first mega short-course race of the year got canceled for weather — at the last minute, when everyone was already ready to go. And, it was very, uh, confusing because all the athletes then posted videos of doing replacement race sim workouts in the middle of a completely sunny day.
It appears that the Abu Dhabi government made a decision that because of the incoming storm everything was going into lock down and police & city officials had to prepare. Yes, it did start storming hard much later. But, also, yes, 100% the pros absolutely could have raced. But deserts gonna desert (rain can be intense and monsoon like in the desert) and Abu Dhabi gonna Abu Dhabi. Not much you can do about that, as I’m sure World Tri learned.
The implications of this are big, though:
This was basically one of the last few races for Olympic points. Now, there are just two WTCS left: Yokohama in May & Cagliari two weeks later.
A number of athletes were looking to show their governing bodies how they stacked up against each other. Namely, the French men (Vince Luis & Leo Bergere are going head-to-head for the last spot) and the British women (Georgia Taylor-Brown was supposed to make her return).
Many of those Europeans were going to skip Yokohama because of the travel & because Cagliari is their auto-qualifying race. But now, lots of them will need to do Yokohama, too.
For the U.S. women: Yokohama is the last U.S. auto-qualifier. But there are just five spots on the start line for the American women. Right now, because of her return post-pregnancy, Katie Zaferes is #7 on that list. She was looking to pass Gwen Jorgensen and move up the list this weekend with some points from Miami (she didn’t get those because of the heat DNF); Gwen was looking to show she could perform at a WTCS race (she didn’t get that because of the cancellation). Now, because there will likely be more athletes wanting into Yokohama after the cancellation, it’s less likely starts will roll as far down the waitlist (which the lower-ranked athletes, ie. Katie, are on and waiting for). All of this is just super tough and unfortunate.
Chelsea & Kevin covered the fallout in even greater detail (and I’d like to hear more about the conspiracy theories) on their pod.
BTW, if you were wondering, which Olympic teams are hardest to make, my official rankings:
The French men
The British women
The U.S. women
And, just because: Your 2024 Ironman rule updates
The 2024 Ironman rule updates are here and the changes are highlighted in green so you can skim. The most important ones:
They updated the zipper rule again to now include an option for a 30- or 60-second penalty. (Or DQ. Whatever feels right.) Controversy around the zipper rule, of course, isn’t really new, it just re-emerges every few years and never makes any more sense than it did before.
But, most importantly: Shoving “water bottles” or fairing down your kit is now banned, after all that ridiculousness last year. This is the big one. Here’s the new official rule:
“Additional equipment that has the effect of reducing wind resistance is prohibited during the bike segment of the Race (whether such equipment is worn under the athlete’s clothing, over the athlete’s clothing, or is otherwise attached to the athlete's body or the athlete’s bike). This includes, but is not limited to, (i) any bottles/hydration or any other insert located in the front of an athlete’s race suit and (ii) any insert in an athlete’s calf sleeves.”
So have fun enforcing both of those.
I’ve been pouring through some of the Precision Fuel & Hydration case studies to figure out different options (should I carry electrolytes tablets with me for these stupid long runs?) and what’s worked for other people. And I had no issues on my five-hour run this weekend — other than the fact that it was five hours, ugh. I was actually so busy looking around and eating that I didn’t even really notice this woman out on the trails until she yelled “Triathlonish!” at me. If it was you, email me and I’ll get you some goodies for making my run more fun.
You can make your own Precision plan, too, for free & get 15% off your first order here.
The -ish
The rest of the news you should know about from around our sports this week.
USAT’s 2023 rankings are out now, so you can go see how you stacked up. I tried to find myself before I remembered that I did not complete a triathlon last year. Oops. (USAT)
There are reports of the PTO looking to raise another round of ~$30M (!), which seems very soon after the last funding round to me. And I have a lot (like, a lot) more question about what the terms look like, but we’ll save those for another day. (Sky News)
The SuperTri E World Champs are on for April 13 — and Jonny Brownlee & Georgia Taylor-Brown are both in. (Endurance.biz)
Upcoming: The XTERRA World Cup series kicks off next weekend in Taiwan and they’re doing season-long live coverage of the World Cups this year, too — which is cool. (XTERRA)
Mike Reilly is back for Ironman Lake Placid. (Endurance Sportswire)
This weekend is the Selma-to-Montgomery race covering the historic march route. (Outside Run)
This 12-year-old girl ran a 2:58 marathon and is going for the overall 12-yo world record (boys or girls) later this year and I think we all have mixed feelings about if her training is going to work out for her in the long run. (Los Angeles Times)
If you were curious how the NFL combine stacks up against 100m runners. (Instagram)
And, OMG, I couldn’t stop following the Lululemon FURTHER six-day thing all weekend. The photos. The vibes. The records. They did a bad job explaining the point to people beforehand, but they did a really good job making a sports running thing for women by women about women. Super interested to see what research comes out of it. (Instagram)
Congrats to paratriathlete Minda Dentler on her new kid’s book. (Amazon)
Would you give up a world championship spot because of your religion? (Triathlete)
Plus, in completely non-triathlon-ish things I’ve gotten obsessed with this week: I 100% went down the ‘where is Kate Middleton’ hole; I can not believe Vince McMahon had a woman on staff “in a completely undefined role, except for the understanding that she remain a sexual slave to be used and trafficked by McMahon within the WWE;” and I’m starting to get minorly concerned about the havoc solar storms will wreck on the world. (Poynter/Front Office Sports/New Yorker)
One last thing
The first-ever Florida Man Games. For the next time I try to explain the U.S. to our European audience. You’re gonna wanna click through and press play on that video.
This issue was brought to you by Precision Fuel & Hydration. Get 15% off your first order here.
🙋🏼♂️About Miami 🏝️
I found the Race interesting but the TV coverage could have been better. I followed it from Spain on Eurosport. The realization did not focus beyond the first 2-3 of the race (especially in the bike sector) and never offered race data beyond the tenth athlete. I found it a bit boring in that respect. But I can imagine that they will improve 🤞🏽