speaker-0: And welcome back to yet another episode of ProTri News. I'm your host Kyle Glass joined by the usual gang of Mark Matthews, Talbot Cox, and Patrick Lemieux. Let's hit it out with Pat. Pat, you had a great race this weekend. Second place, the guy in blue.

speaker-1: The big guy in blue. So no, look, thank you. I have been training very hard. There was 170 kilometer gravel race down in Stillwater, Oklahoma. So ⁓ in Talbot and Kyle's stomping grounds. And that was a big objective for me. I wanted to do really well there. ⁓ I got second place. I got beat by 80 seconds. So I think there were, I don't know, 12 or 1300 starters. I won't bore you guys with the race details, but This was something that I've spent a lot of time and energy and money to get ready for. So it was a big important one for me. ⁓ Look, I made a couple notes from the race that integrate into our show. Massive, massive thanks to Woeve Saddles. ⁓ I used the Woeve Mags. Without this bike seat, no lie, cycling was really uncomfortable for me. I never had a seat that I loved. This seat completely changed my life. ⁓ I had aero bars on for the race and to be able to go out if you're watching on YouTube to the front of it and have seriously no pain. didn't have to readjust constantly readjust this saddle changed my life. And so yes, they're sponsored the show, but I love them so much. I invested in them. So if you have not tried their saddles, go take a peek. A bunch of other pro triathletes are using them. This thing was awesome. Separate from that guys, I had a 25 gels. during this race. This was a five hour event for me. I like 4,800 or 4,900 KJs. My normalized power was 330. So Mark, you could kind of give some context for a dude that weighs 95 KGs. I had to support that with some sugar. So the three products I used on this, I had a 60 gram chew bar. These things are awesome, but I was primarily doing these two gels right here.

speaker-2: 25.

speaker-1: the hundred milligram of caffeine and the 30 gram straight carb. I had zero stomach issues, zero. Now I had so much caffeine that I am going to tell you, I did not sleep well on Saturday night. we're not going to go into that, but there's a, there's yeah, these things were absolutely awesome. Never got flavor fatigue, never got sick of taking them. I ended up having 25 of them during the race. So, well, 24, I had one chew bar. And 24 of these bad boys. So, massive, massive thank you to the sponsor of our show, precision fuel and hydration. We don't just talk about their products. I use them to help, ⁓ fuel my performances as well. So yeah, please go support the people that support our show. Wolf cycling and precision fuel and hydration. But thanks to you three goons as well. You all said very, very nice things to me. ⁓ and I, and I really, really appreciate it. So thank you.

speaker-0: You're welcome.

speaker-3: Right, I love that he just dropped that in boys. That was five hours and eight minutes at a normalised power of 329 watts. And even when, to put it in respect, like he said, even eating 25 gels, pushing that much power means you're still like 400 grams of carbs short of what you've burnt. That's the sort of volume. So if you can't stomach that amount of carbohydrate, you can't do that. But Pat... five hours at 300. I'm right, well I know that Christian Blumenfeld was impressed and apparently even Magnus Dittliff was impressed with that.

speaker-0: Ha

speaker-1: I'm- did. Magnus said he goes, you're officially stronger than 90 % of the pro men's field.

speaker-3: Lime City! Way more!

speaker-1: So I mean, can't swim or run, whatever. no, mean, it was, uh, when it's funny when I, so when I do these races, I only, when I do, when I bike race, I only have three things on my screen. have current speed, distance I've traveled and the time I've written. Cause so I had a bunch of people ask me, they're like, well, how do you monitor your effort? And I said, I do whatever it takes to be at the front for as long as possible. So, um,

speaker-3: I think that's an important point as well because people do seem to forget these days that speed is what counts. Power is just a tool that you use to get there. So having current speed up, I see so many age groupers like, ⁓ the speed doesn't matter. They don't have speed on their screen. I think speed is like everything, even in the triathlon, once you have a good tailwind or whatever, you want to hold that speed, that number's what matters. They're cute.

speaker-2: That was a lie. I've literally seen your screen. At the bottom you have text messages from Gwyn.

speaker-0: as well.

speaker-2: It's like, if it says come home, you're like, I don't care if I'm racing. I'm going home right now.

speaker-1: Talbot called me after the race and he's like, how'd you do Pat? And I go, well, I got second place. And he's like, are you serious? That's like a big race you did. And I said, well, Talbot, said, think about all the times you've called me and you're like, Hey Pat, what are you doing? I go, I'm out riding my bike. And I said, I to show something for it. It was about damn time. So anyway, no, thank you.

speaker-3: I'll tell you what, that text message is at the bottom of the screen. I'm throwing it out there. There are pro triathletes running with the Apple Watch, data enabled deliberately to get text splits during the run. I'm telling you, I've got one. There is no other reason you're racing with the Apple Watch as a choice, unless you're getting cheaty little splits. I want Ironman to grab Apple Watch off the end of athletes at the end if they do well. make them show notifications because I bet that's what's happening I'm telling you I'm telling you

speaker-2: I like that. We got a big hot take on meta glasses at the end of the show as well and this adds on to that so let's keep that hot.

speaker-0: ⁓ Mark, let's hit you next. Obviously, you've been doing some training. You trained with KB this week. How's it like?

speaker-3: Yeah, I put KB to the sword on a crunchy two-hour ride. No, was a two-hour, 20-minute coffee ride, and it was just a lot of fun. He's an unbelievably lovely bloke, isn't he? As we all know, he's got a homestay here because he's too cheap to buy an apartment, and he's staying with a young couple, both triathletes, and they just finally get so surreal because he's like God in our sport, right? And he's just there chilling on the sofa, and he's so friendly and nice. It's cool for people of the town. then we all, this young group of age groupers smashed out on a ride with Kat and KB just on a random Saturday morning in Geelong, which is super nice. Yeah, we're just waiting around, getting a bit homesick. You know, we're into week five of being away now. And once this race is done, we now have to fly home via the US, because ironically, the US stopped us flying home from the Middle East. So we're now going to go via the US. get ourselves home, a few weeks at home, turn around, head back to Texas. It was an astronomical amount of money on the flights, but we're getting home safe, so it doesn't matter.

speaker-0: Yeah, that's alright. That's alright.

speaker-3: Yeah, honestly, just got like people say that you can still fly through Dubai. I just why why would I why if you you can afford to not land in an airport being hit by drones, we've just chosen not to so that's that's that decision.

speaker-0: Fair enough. Talbot, how you doing?

speaker-2: Good. We had a good weekend in Dallas. have... ⁓ I don't know if we've talked too much about it on this podcast. We got some pretty, really, really exciting announcements coming up and we've been working a whole lot on a lot of stuff behind the scenes for ProTri News. So... We've been doing a hit and I get a lot of overtime hours. So I'm excited to send them to the boss of the show, Kyle. Maybe I'll get paid out for them.

speaker-3: I don't want to keep teasing this too much, but the work that Talbot and one of his family members have put into this is an unbelievable amount of work. And the product we are going to deliver to you shortly is, I'm so impressed, Talbot.

speaker-2: We're stoked ill it'll be so what we could chat a lot a little bit about the end of the show But yeah, we're stoked so stay tuned for that Kyle you were down in Texas as well

speaker-0: I was, yeah, it was a good time. I stayed at, I guess, the Precision House with Brad Williams and athlete he coaches Sam, who ended up going top five this weekend, and Sam Appleton, who also went top five this weekend. So yeah, it was a good time. It's always tough. feel like I can't imagine being an athlete and racing back to back weekends, but like being in New Zealand and then I was like laying in my bed on Saturday morning and I was like, God, do I want to drive two and a half hours to Dallas to watch this race? And I'm glad I did. So we can chat about it. ⁓ There was obviously a lot of, guess, it was a pretty good field, all things considered. mean, for it not being Oceanside, which is typically our North American kickoff, you did have Lionel Sanders, Ben Canoe, Andrei Salzberg, Sam Appleton, Rudy Von Berg, Mark Dubrik, all guys that usually race Oceanside. So the fact that they're starting their campaign a little early at the inaugural race down in Little Elm. Just north suburb of Dallas was pretty cool. So yeah, we rolled in, ⁓ some, got to chat with some people at Bike Check-In. Obviously everyone's debuting some new gear, whether it's new bikes or new head ends or things that they've been working on over the last couple months. So yeah, super cool. So we can hit it out. Basically, we could start it from what happened when we got on site. ⁓ Talbot and I rolled up to the venue, I don't know, probably like 6.15-ish. and ⁓ noticed that there were no buoys in the water. And we were like, well, that's interesting. And it was super windy, so we were like, maybe they're just waiting to set them out. And so there was a lot of chaos like race morning with like.

speaker-2: I think the buoys were set and they all blew to shore. Yeah. With two concrete center blocks, they all blew to shore. The wind was that strong. It was 30 mile an hour wind gusts. I don't know what that is. Sorry, 30 mile an hour wind sustained winds. ⁓

speaker-0: in with up to 50 mile an hour gusts.

speaker-1: 50k an hour sustained. Yeah.

speaker-3: It's a lot of wind is what it is.

speaker-0: Yeah. And like 50 mile an hour gusts. So almost a hundred K per hour gusts. So basically it was, it was crazy. It was a little bit chaotic cause like all the pros, we were like in kind of the pro compound area and all the pros kept coming to us asking us like what's going on, what's going on. And we would hear something new every five minutes. It was like, ⁓ they're switching the swim from starting at the north side and finishing on the south side to finishing on the north side and starting on the south side. And then it was, they're doing a thousand.

speaker-2: Yeah.

speaker-0: And then officially Ironman pushed the notification out on the app. And that's when everyone found out that the age group swim was canceled. But the pros luckily were able to do a 350 meter swim. The current was super crazy. So they did end up switching the start to the south end and finishing on the north end. So basically it was just a current the whole time. Because there's a lot of people that were like, how the hell did they swim two and a half minutes, swim 350 meters? It's like, well, it was a significant current that you're swimming in. ⁓ Basically, it was a time trial start based on bib number. Usually, I think they maybe draw straws or whatever, but this time they were just doing it super easy. Bib number one goes first and then go down the order. Talbot, you want to take us through the rest of it?

speaker-2: Yeah, think there's probably a lot of questions that people were asking too, but I think this kind of jumped up some controversy. There's two swimmers that weren't too happy about it. so a lot of people are like, why wouldn't they just do a mass start? Well, if you put a buoy 50 meters offshore and you do a mass start with 65 guys with 50 mile an hour wind gusts and like three kayakers out there, someone's probably destined to get drowned out there. Probably not a very wise decision. And then I think their biggest thing why they had to cancel the swim is they didn't have the personnel. lot of the, you gotta remember a lot of these kayakers, there's very limited on kayaks, and then a lot of the kayakers that got out in the water, they couldn't even stay out in the water because they were getting blown back to shore. And so I think that these swimmers that are really upset about the race, we all are aware that a lot of these athletes can swim in the water, but. you still need safety personnel. And this wasn't an Ironman Pro Series race, so they didn't have boats out there and all that. they thought about trying to do a looped course and just do, they thought of everything. And this was a really cool thing. Talked to Scott Daru at the end of the race and he said, and this is what's very rare with Ironman. If the swim is canceled for the amateur athletes, 10 times out of 10, it's canceled for the pro athletes as well. And Scott Daru told his team on site, It is important for the professional athletes to get in the water. We've seen a new era of professional racing in triathlon, and it's really cool to see that the CEO is on boots on the ground at a little race like that and expresses the importance. And so it's like damned if you do. Greg is going to complain whether it's a time trial start or whether he got in the water for five minutes or whether it was 1,000 meters, whether it was 1,500 meters, he would complain. So it is what it is. I don't know. What else can you add? You know what I mean?

speaker-3: So I think there's like, my initial reaction is, ⁓ God, not another swim canceled in triathlon. Cause I do see canceled swims as a bit of a threat to triathlon long distance in the sphere of ⁓ competition from other endurance events. But high rocks doesn't get canceled for weather, know, UTMB, those long distance stuff, gravel racing, it's, they have way less risk for their race structure. But that is just kind of the nature of swimming. So I think we still need to push event organizers where possible to allow the swim to happen. And there have been some soft ones. So my initial reaction is tainted by those soft ones. But then when you hear about the winds, the main, the one that's so obvious that people won't think about is, it's easier to swim in wind than it is to kayak in wind. you, and a lot of people are using SUPs these days, the stand up paddleboards. Like you need absolute experts and really good quality boats. hundreds of them to ensure safety. And if they start the race, all the clients get blown away. Some poor man or woman drowns out there. We'd be screaming murder. So I think the sport needs to challenge itself to find ways to maintain a swim or it's going to lose its standing. But in the case of you can't provide safety and you've tried everything, it is unfortunately the only option right now.

speaker-1: And I, and I think, you know, hats off to him for trying to make it happen for the pros. ⁓ that's, that's great. Where it then becomes tricky, right? Or what I think, Mark, what you're alluding to, but I'm to be a little more direct. We're bound to get a windy morning in Kona and what they don't want to do is have an event like this screw up a crown jewel event. Right? So what do they learn from a All with all due respect to tier four race like Dallas that they go and say, Hey, how can we make this ready or make our big show bulletproof? Right. ⁓ now the difference might be is that the volunteers that they have with respect to the kayaks and sand at paddleboards in Kona are a lot more ocean ready, big water ready than I'm assuming, you know, Harry, Joe and Sally were in little Elm, Texas, right? That's probably the difference. ⁓ so that, that to me is like, Hey, let's just use this. Let's just turn it into a positive. You know, the nice part is they can go back. sounds like this venue was great. It's not like it's a water quality issue here that they might keep having a problem with in the future. And so, yeah, for me, those are the, those are the big reminders here.

speaker-2: I think it should be noted too though, because I think there was a lot of discussion on the Instagram comments and stuff. It's like, they're like, ⁓ the Tour de France riders descend down Alpe d'Huez at 100K an hour. No one's arguing that, but like what Mark alluded to, this is water. When you're going fast on your bike and you wanna stop, you hit your brakes and you get off your bike and you're alive. When you're running and it's too hard, you sit down on the ground. When you're swimming, you drown and you die. Like, that's just, that is what it is. And back to the World Championship, there's only been one time in the history that the race was ever even shortened. That was 1981 when they shortened the swim course. So they think a lot of stuff. I think the biggest proactive thing you can do is something like South Africa. It's like, all right, guys, every year we have a problem here. Let's maybe change the race date. That's how you could be more proactive. I mean, in Dallas, it's like,

speaker-0: Dallas, you're going to deal with wind and tornadoes. Same thing in Oklahoma from like March to June. So it's like, kind of.

speaker-2: Yeah, but even this is just a random thing, I mean, all across the country. So yeah, I don't know. I'm like, what do they want them to do? Like, reserve a pool down the road? Like, put out some rowers? Make everyone happy? I don't know.

speaker-3: think one thing you could do is, and it won't help your entry numbers, is be transparent about it. know, warning, last year the swim was shortened. The people, they take that responsibility into their own hands when they enter the race possibly. And there will be freak occurrences, but I think in triathlon you do have to know this.

speaker-2: And last thing I do want to add here, and this is a very important note, county commissioner and county mayor wore boots on the ground at the race as well. And let's not forget, only a couple years ago, there was the CrossFit Games, and a pro athlete died in the exact same county in the lake. And it was tragic news. And I know that you can't compare the two, and those are CrossFit athletes. But a county commissioner and a mayor have no idea. They see mass participation in an event, pro field. They're freaking out. And they're the ones that call shots.

speaker-3: not know that was the same county. Because that was global news.

speaker-2: ⁓ that was global news. And so the last thing you want is another one of those events. And then that race never even happens again. So for Mark Dubrik to go from 17th place to 10th place, give him his flowers. Or sorry, Greg Harper. Greg Harper, you would have went top 10 if there was a swim. There you go. Congratulations. But I don't know. I hate to stand on a soap box for two athletes that are complaining out of an entire field. I mean, if anyone should be complaining, it should be Ben Knute, who would have won the race if there was a swim.

speaker-0: And Andreas Salzburg. mean, those two guys, like we could have maybe had a sprint finish if there was a swim between all three of those guys that ended up on the podium. So.

speaker-2: So to run through the race real quick, it was just a standard sea level race. Short and swim, they got out on the bike, crazy winds. ⁓ We were excited to see the ⁓ 20 meter data from this, but I mean, the winds were so insane on the bike. Every professional athlete that crossed the finish line said it was the hardest, windiest bike of their entire career. These are those days that you wouldn't even go out and ride. ⁓ Ari Clow was running down Lionel and then he got a blister on his foot so he had to pull out of the race and then ⁓

speaker-0: Supposedly he's been talking about this blister a lot on another podcast, so you can go back and listen to those. But apparently he's had these blisters for a long time and they just reared their ugly head on both feet in this race as he's having a career defining day. Crazy.

speaker-3: Yeah, mean, hurty feet is nothing to laugh at,

speaker-2: I don't know about a career defining day in a silver level race with a shortened swim, which is the reason why you're up at the front anyways, but I do think Ari is coming into stride and will be a lot more successful at 20 meters.

speaker-3: He rode hella well.

speaker-0: He wrote top five. Ari's gonna pop one of these days. He's gonna pop an amazing result and he's gonna dunk on some people's heads and it's gonna be some heavy, heavy drama. Some people are gonna be mad. People are gonna be mad about it.

speaker-3: Until then though, he has to live with the photos of him running along, holding his shoes, So he'll get his revenge. He's clearly coming into form, but for now he's the bloke running along holding his shoes.

speaker-2: When he used to be training with Lionel, he asked if he could use one of Lionel's bikes. And Lionel was like, yeah, yeah, you can borrow my bike. And ⁓ he's still riding that bike that he's borrowing from Lionel right now. So could you imagine he beats Lionel on Lionel's Canyon Speedmax?

speaker-0: He's also had this bike repaired. It's a Canyon repaired like carbon fiber. The carbon fiber frame is cracked and it has been repaired in the offseason.

speaker-2: So ⁓ amazing. But Ben Canute, second place, ⁓ and then rounded out the podium was. ⁓

speaker-0: Ben fought for that too. was days he would, mean basically fourth through second, third and fourth were separated by I think 13 seconds in the end. So it was incredible. It's always tough. Like that's the hard thing about it being like a time trial start. So all the pros started like five seconds apart. You have no idea where the hell you're at. Like every time we'd roll up on a pro, whether it was like on the bike course or on the run course, they're like, you know what place I'm in? Cause they have no idea.

speaker-2: It's as rare a case.

speaker-1: For me, just goes to show that even on a silver level race this year, mean, think about the amount of energy that we spent on speaking about it yesterday, collectively as a group. Like it's bringing a level of excitement to the sport. with all of the drama mixed in, I mean, we're just getting great weekends of racing. Yeah.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-3: What I like, the women's race happened with absolutely no drama. There's no moaning online. They just got on with it. No one's running around holding their stuff.

speaker-0: They're complaining because three girls got penalties going through a neutral zone that they thought they weren't supposed to get penalties for.

speaker-3: Well, yes, but then those two of those girls finished first and third, right? So Jackie Herring ⁓ took the win, an absolute shoo-in field in a field like this. She's just so good. She's a bit of a Paula Finlay, isn't she? If comes to a domestic 70.3, it's very, very hard to beat Jackie Herring. We then had out of Germany, Anna Buitner in third place about three minutes back. And then Anna Stradhol. Anna-Marie Strayholz. So we actually met them in Milwaukee and I've been following her doing like load of crazy gym work all winter. She got popped with a two minute penalty that we're questioning and I think they do have good grounds to question. It's a bit of a breakout result for her to take third place, so kudos there as well.

speaker-2: Two cheeseheads on the podium, so that's pretty cool. Jackie's result, needs to be noted. With a two-minute penalty, she won by 18 seconds. Not only that, at mile four, we saw her on the bike, and she said, my bike's shaking. She's riding a brand new bike, and ⁓ it wasn't her fault or her loved one's fault. Unfortunately, it was due to the wind gust dropped. ⁓ And I think it loosened the headset ⁓ on race morning. So she rode with a loose, like you could almost go up and down the entire, in that wind. mean, Jackie's result is incredibly impressive. With all the controversy, she still rallied the wind.

speaker-3: And a fast run, a 1.19 compared to the men's runs weren't crazy, good run from her. I'm not letting them get away with that not be their fault though. When the headset comes loose and starts wobbling like crazy, someone's copping flat for that. I don't know if it's Mark, her husband, but I think she gets her bike repairs done.

speaker-2: It wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't.

speaker-3: He's a legend that bloke. we're not, no, mechanicals, I cop the flat when Kat has them, someone's copping the flat for that. Talbot just texted, no, no, no, we're saying it, Iron Man mechanic, come on, mate.

speaker-2: It was, to be fair, it was on the stand and they were working on it. 40 mile an hour wind gusts blew the entire stand and her bike over. It's just like, it's not, wasn't the mechanic's fault, but I just feel bad for Jackie. She's had two.

speaker-3: ⁓ okay. Okay, that's pretty. I can't believe they didn't have a 14-mile-an-hour winds blowing over the bike repair stand. Where's the swim boys?

speaker-2: Good lord. So sorry to spend so much time at a silver level race, but that was it. It fun weekend.

speaker-0: So a couple of people, 70.3 world slot, Andrea Salzburg and Yannick Schaffner on the men's side, on the women's side, Anna Bootner and Anna Marie Strehel because everyone else already had slots. Lionel Sanders, Ben Canute, Sam Appleton, Ari Klaue, Jackie Herring and Vitoria Lopez. ⁓ One other thing that happened on the race course, Caroline Kaplan, ⁓ apparently, I don't know the full story. don't know, Tal, but you want to take care of it? Because you kind of heard what happened.

speaker-2: I heard a little bit, unfortunately there was a state trooper that, and like I said, this has been told telephone, via telephone through,

speaker-0: So allegedly, this is what happened.

speaker-2: Allegedly, yeah, there was an officer that was policing the road and someone blew through the traffic light that was, ⁓ blew through the traffic light. And I think that officer pulled out to go chase that other person. And while they got way through to go, I think it just, it was a super freak accident at just super freak timing. And that officer pulled right out in front of her. And I mean, I think the craziest part about this is she had that 40 mile an hour tailwind behind her. She said she was going 30 miles an hour and we were out there along with these athletes. was the fact that she walked away from it is, mean, praise the Lord. I mean, it is. yeah.

speaker-3: I mean, there is culpability there. it is, what I've said is like, the culpability on this case, and we've slammed them for some in the past, isn't with the event organiser, because if you can't trust police to be on your course, you can't run the race. Races don't happen without police. So the organiser's kind of in the clear. The fault is with the police officers at this time, because someone waved them through, they chose that the importance was chasing someone and that in this circumstance, an innocent bystander in harm's way. So I'm sure she's going to get a payout from the state of Texas for this. And I'm just super glad she's okay. It just reminds us all of the fragility of the people doing our sport. As soon as there are motor vehicles involved and there is inherent risk, even if it's police, because it's just a very complex situation. So I'm just glad she's okay. Someone will be held responsible in some way or another.

speaker-2: And also too, chatted to Rachel Olson, who was the athlete directly behind her, and watched the entire thing happened. And you have to keep racing. And so in your head, you have no idea what just happened and how that athlete is doing. And then you have to continue on the remainder of the bike, just thinking in your head, did I, and think about the adrenaline rush of watching something like that. So yeah, very unfortunate, but wow. ⁓ Seriously can't believe that she walked away from that like insane Crashing at 30 miles an hour is insane hitting a car and crashing at 30 miles an hour is like mind-boggling so Yeah

speaker-0: was Dallas. That was Dallas. I can't believe we covered that for 30 minutes. The other thing that happened quickly, we'll go through the World Cup that happened in Lanzarote. Did you guys watch it at all or you want me to just blow through this?

speaker-3: I blow through it, but I did watch some of it.

speaker-0: Okay, I'll go through it real quick and then we can chat. So the women's race swim was led out by Fanny Salla who from, I believe, Hungary? She's raced a bunch of like the super tri races and stuff like that, but she's like 18 years old, led out the swim, incredible. ⁓ Finally, we get a bike course and short course with some elevation. The group was super quick. There was a crash towards the end with Selena Camp from Germany and Fanny. ⁓ And then the run came down to a battle with Nina Eim and Georgia Taylor Brown and Nina Eim pulled away for the win. It was really great race. if you are one of those people that watches stuff on the trainer, ⁓ flick on the women's or the men's race. Both of them are about an hour long and great way to get through your training. Laura Lindemann rounded out the podium. Amazing first race back as well for Sophie Evans, AKA Sophie Caldwell. Having a child about... nine, ten months ago and then be back on the start list getting ready to go to I assume try and get ready for LA get some Olympic qualifications and then fastest round split of the day on the women's side was Jean LaHare with a 16 35 5k off the bike. Men's side. Go ahead.

speaker-3: Sorry, just on the course with the bike you're talking about there. This is right by where we always stay in Lanzarote. If you follow me and Kat on socials, we've been there dozens of times. The real tragic thing about this race is I got two emails after the race. I lost two comms on roads through the towns, which normally only takes someone as stupid as me to tank it behind a bus on a really small road where there shouldn't be a comm. But I lost both of them because this Sunday became a world-class racing course. So for me, the weekend was a disaster.

speaker-0: ⁓ Pat, do you have any insights on, did you see the crash? I guess they hit cones, maybe it wasn't in a spot that it should have been.

speaker-3: Kat was so excited to tell me there was a crash with cones because she knew it would have really angered Pat.

speaker-1: I need to do, I need to make the meme, you know, luckily my wife loves me a ton, but I, I gotta look for somebody's got to make the meme that says like, I wish I had love, like the way world triathlon loves cones, right? ⁓ That's, that's what needs to happen. ⁓ They were going on a straight road and there was an opportunity, there was a road then that was perpendicular. Now behind that, that road was closed with like, water barriers where they have the big plastic barriers that are filled up with liquid or sand. But in between that and the road, they still felt a desire to place cones along the right hand side of the road. I don't know why that needed to happen. Now you could also say that they're there for everybody, but the problem is with line of sight for cycling. cones are way below your line of sight, unless we're talking about the seven foot one in Yokohama. ⁓ They're way below your line of sight. So you can't see them when you're riding until you're right there. So again, people are going to be thinking that here's old Patty just dragging on about cones, but cones in a bike race are insanely dangerous. That's why you don't see them in real bike races. So my plea to World Triathlon is, and frankly Ironman, please use them as little as possible because they're not, they are just frankly very, very dangerous. I'm done for now.

speaker-0: Men's race. You go with I roll through this real quick. David Cantero from Spain had an amazing run after serving a 10 second penalty for mounting on it onto his bike before the mount line. Ran a 14.16. That's including his 10 second penalty. So it would have been closer to like a 14.06 5k off the bike after a hard bike course. Crazy. Tim Hellweg got second place after 18 months away.

speaker-3: Yeah, please.

speaker-0: ⁓ I don't know if it was a mistake for him to go with Cantero or like they basically battled it out for the better half of the whole 5k basically for 4k They just went back and forth trading blows. It was really great race again. Go watch it if you need an hour on

speaker-2: Three months. What was the break? ⁓ I've seen women have kids and come back right sooner than

speaker-0: I mean, I think he did some super try stuff and things like that. He just returned to like the World Cup or World Trial.

speaker-2: I thought you meant an 18-month break from traffic.

speaker-0: No, no, no, no. He did the Olympics and then he was just like trying to find like his feet again, basically after Olympics. So, and then on rounding out the podium, Juada Mdula from Morocco. I'm kind of surprised it was like a massive group ⁓ that were kind of separated from the battle with Tim Hellwagon, David Quintero. I was a little surprised that Dorian Connick didn't do as well. I mean, he got fourth, but I would assume that he being a runner would be at the front and round out the podium, but yeah. The big talking point for me from this is the broadcast. They had a free broadcast, exact same of what we're gonna get with T100 now. Supposedly T100's not gonna be on YouTube anymore. It's only on Triathlon Live, allegedly, under the free paywall, which is exactly what happened with this World Cup. This World Cup had two things that really aggravated me. One, there's no multitasking on the Triathlon Live app. So if you go out of the app and you're trying to text someone, you lose the coverage completely. That is a massive, massive blind spot.

speaker-2: So just so we're clear, and since World Triathlon is listening, don't download the Triathlon Live app. Just use the Safari browser and log in through Safari because it's forced to do multitasking. So everyone, do not download the Triathlon Live app and do not create an account on there. Just do it all through Safari because if you download the Triathlon Live app, it's really, really bad and then it just screws it all up. So just do it through the Safari app. Do not use the Troth on Live's app for watching their races.

speaker-0: And number two, ⁓ I don't know if it was with the app or I haven't tried it with Safari yet, but the Bluetooth function does not work and plays similarly via CarPlay and to where it thinks that you're like watching something. Like if you try and log on to Instagram or YouTube or something via like Bluetooth in your car, it like cuts the audio out. That's what it was doing ⁓ to me while I was driving down to Dallas trying to listen to the race. ⁓ Incredibly frustrating broadcast, TBH. ⁓ I'm nervous for what's going to happen to Gold Coast this weekend. Very nervous.

speaker-3: I've been in a car with you, Kyle. I know you weren't listening. I know it was on your iPad on the dashboard as you're driving along playing on full screen.

speaker-0: I don't think I'm that bad of a driver, Pat. What do you think?

speaker-1: Kyle's a delightful passenger to have in the car.

speaker-3: Yeah

speaker-2: I think it brings up a really good point though, because it's crazy. We have seen a complete flip-flop with broadcast now. I mean, we have seen, there was Iron Man who was behind a free paywall, i.e. outside watch, and now they have said, let's go, now let's go behind another. T100 said, let's go behind a free paywall. It's like that these two companies are versed. It's like Iron Man's like, all right, we made a mistake by going behind a free paywall and splitting the races. And the T100, and it's like, let's go back to ⁓ watch a free race and have the genders come back together. And then T100 is like, let's go do the mistakes they made.

speaker-0: Ha.

speaker-1: Why do you, mean, I have my own reasons as to why that is obviously this is for the T 100. That decision is under the umbrella of the merger and acquisition that's happening in 2027. Right? Yeah. Yeah. This is one of those fights that Sam Renouf, the CEO of T 100 can't have with Antonio of world triathlon. They have opposing views here. Antonio wants the half a million dollars he gets from the subscribers that come into triathlon live. And they got to try and start bringing this together. Sam's job now is to try and demonstrate, how can we get sponsorship that's be that's from the broadcast and how can we make this free? here's the other reality is, is triathlon live this weekend, they had an hour long race. They just put up a 20 minute recap for the men and the women's for each individual race. So you've got one third of the race for free anyway afterwards. So the problem is, is when the two biggest shows in town, the T 100 and iron man are making their product free and they're both actively trying to make it better. Triathlon life still sits in this little orbit of you've got to pay for ours. Now what can they do from here? Right. And that I don't have a great answer for the, if we want to pick on iron man for a second, their product, you know, they missed the start in New Zealand. We're going to get another shot at it here in Geelong, but at the end of the day, if it's free, it's for me and I'll take three. mean, the product is for free on YouTube. Now it's got a lot better under the iron man piece. It's like, look guys, you got to look at what your competition are doing. And I think it's going to be the problem that T 100 is going to have this weekend. Now you've got to convince you not only have to convince, but you have to convey to your audience, go look for our product in a brand new place you've ever looked before. that friction is going to hurt them.

speaker-2: I mean, you can't argue numbers. Usually grand finals, world championship events are the most viewed historically in like any watching, like people watch the Super Bowl more than they watch other games. And when you just look at maybe some simple numbers like the T100 grand final men's and women's race got a total of 80,000 views. And then you got Ironman New Zealand with 300,000 views. I mean, it doesn't help the case because those numbers will go down significantly with singular gender races and putting behind a paywall. Free paywall should be noted. So I don't know.

speaker-3: I'm in agreement. think making a sport that's not that attractive to watch, we don't watch every triathlon available and we kind of live and breathe this thing. If you make it difficult to watch, people won't watch. We're driven to watch it. And sometimes I'm like, I cannot be bothered to log into the app. I'm trying to do this on my laptop as well. If it's on YouTube, every smart TV nowadays has it. You can just bang it up on the TV in the background if you're in a hotel or wherever you are. and then you can just run it. If it's on an app, I'm not watching it basically, unless I know I have to talk about it on a podcast. That's just the way I... I didn't use to watch anything if I was stuck to outside TV. I very rarely watch the World Triathlon stuff if I was anywhere other than home and bored that I had to log into to find. And I think you'll lose the viewership.

speaker-1: And the problem is is that look we're all we all have lives that we're living right so we're all out and about and It's easy for us if we're at the cafe or we're shopping. We'll say hey, let's just quick pop on the race on YouTube I got 10 15 minutes. I'm gonna look at it right But like the way I just think about triathlon live being parallel to the former outside TV app where it was clunky, dude You can't do other things. You can't take a text message. You can't so it's like that's really really hard These are first world problems, but they're still problems.

speaker-0: Well, we're still talking about a niche sport, triathlon, and we're going even more niche into that professional triathlon and expecting people to consume and be engaged with the product. You have another thing with Triathlon Live that doesn't exist, but it does exist on YouTube, and that's the comment section. The amount of people that want to engage with other people watching a triathlon together around the world.

speaker-3: Like tailing their popping shots of cat in the comment section.

speaker-2: middle of the race. She said this during Ironman New Zealand, Taylor Nibb won, commented on there and said not really an impressive result from Cat thus far.

speaker-0: Exactly, we need more things like that to create drama and parody in our sport. There you go. Here's the referee. Referee for...

speaker-1: See ya. People that don't understand sarcasm. There was somebody posing as another professional athlete on the broadcast, right? So if you see somebody in the comments and they're taking the name of a famous person, let's just assume that the famous person might not be commenting. Okay.

speaker-2: What?

speaker-3: She's never trained better on the diamond. She's been racing. She's been training on fury because Taylor was on there slugging her off. Yeah.

speaker-0: Okay.

speaker-2: The best way to do it, though, for the listeners watching, if there is a comment, if you click on that Instagram and it goes to a YouTube account and there's no videos and it's not the actual account, that athletes account, that that means it's not them commenting. I can assure you, when it says Sam, go long, and you click on it and it's actually a YouTube account, that actually is Sam. Sam's in every YouTube chat.

speaker-3: except if it's Lionel, in which case it's Talbot Common.

speaker-2: Yeah, exactly. That's makeup.

speaker-0: Tell me tell me tell me how to this problem a couple years ago, too, by the way, he had he had a poster as well

speaker-2: I did have an imposter as well.

speaker-1: You've had multiple let's let's go back to the broadcast thing and this we with respect to this weekend ⁓ I Guys I want it's easy to pick on the t100. I want them. I want this thing totally This to me Should have been one where I think Sam should have put his foot down and said we're keeping it as is This isn't the place to merge with world triathlon this part of their business doesn't work

speaker-0: That's it.

speaker-3: Totally, because we are only talking about this because they've won best broadcast in our votes for the last three years outright, completely fairly. They had the best product by a long way. And now they've almost like they're just making it worse. That's why we're annoyed. It's not because it's T100. We liked what they were doing so much. We're annoyed they've changed it.

speaker-1: Yes.

speaker-2: But competition is good. And that leads us to on to Geelong because expect something in Geelong that we've never seen, I hate to say not seen before. ⁓ And I don't want to give away the technology that they're using. ⁓ But there will be way more advanced splits and timing that they tested in New Zealand that Iron Man will be implementing in Geelong and in the future and it is going

speaker-1: to be. No, I'm going to fight you for a hot second here. All right. If it uses the words GPS.

speaker-2: Nope, nope, nope, no GPS. And I don't want to give away their secrets. We got some good intel. just know that they are upping their game. know how everyone always comments, T100's timing is way better because they're doing looped courses, and there's a lot of timing mats and stuff.

speaker-1: Okay. Sure. Okay. But I'm just going to say one thing with respect to the broadcast and where we're here. So the, in the past year and a half, Ironman has been trying to put GPS in the athletes uniforms in hat for the swim suit for they may have pockets on the swim. Now that GPS product has not worked yet. Right. They've the GPS been all over the shop. They've had to simply use the timing mats. So I think That's obviously a place where Ironman can improve. Talbot, sounds like you got Intel that it's going to improve, but because of how bad the GPS has been, I'm not holding my breath yet.

speaker-3: So I don't know the product, but because people will get annoyed when we seed stuff, I'll tell them what I do know. In New Zealand, they had the athletes put a regular looking timing chip in the hat, but then nothing happened with that data. But that interested me because it's like, I'm now trying to work out how it actually works because Texas, for instance, has had a split halfway around the swim that's sometimes worked, sometimes not. I reckon for pro athletes, my prediction is you could just put the tracker. as in the thing that sets the chip off on boys because they're going to swim closer to it. Whereas age groupers, I think you can't because they swim so far around the boy, they would miss that beep, beep, beep. So my prediction is it's going to be swim hats, chips in the swim hats, and they're going to be a fix to the boys because the pros will turn near enough to the boys to set it off. Talbot, have I ruined it? Am I close? And I genuinely didn't know. ⁓

speaker-2: I would say you're gonna see a lot of splits every time the athletes cross a buoy during the broadcast. Yes! a lot of updates throughout the entire race. very accurate as well. Ironman is working on some epic stuff. it's just... People tell us that we're the pro Ironman boys. We just want the betterment of the sport. And so... This will only encourage T100 to look at mistakes made, and they will only be better for it next year. But with that being said, Geelong is, I mean, we are seeing one of the most fantastic, I mean, I think that we should go ahead and say that Oceanside is no longer the season opener.

speaker-0: Do you think this is the Not even close. Do think this is the This is-

speaker-2: This is the season opener. You got the guy who's been bridesmaid a couple times now, Christian Blumenfeld. You got arguably, not arguably, the greatest middle distance racer in the world and the 70.3 world champion going head to head. You don't, like, for the season opener. This is the new season opener.

speaker-3: It's such a big... And you then have Piela Koren there, who's ran some 106s. Now, he's off the back two weeks off the back of his first Ironman, so he's probably a bit sore. KB is going well, like super well. He was banging out the track the other day. You've got Hayden Wild, who is essentially, in my vision of racing at the moment, unbeatable at middle distance. So that's hard to see. And then you've got Jelle Gaines, who is like, like Talbot said, two times 70.3 world champion. He's won... to 100 races. It doesn't get bigger right now at a middle distance event. If this was the 70.3 worlds, we would be well happy with the field. And this is Geelong in March. It's an incredible scoop for Ironman that they've got them. It's partly aided by the war in the Middle East has canceled Abu Dhabi, which then gives them Hayden and Yellow's down the road and KB's already here. It's monstrous.

speaker-0: Can I say and can I say and that the t100 is a women's only race on the same weekend?

speaker-3: Yes, well that's a good reason because otherwise those men, potentially Yeller, potentially, definitely Hayden, would be up the coast and it would split the speed.

speaker-2: You would see Natalie van Covert and Ellie Salt House. A lot of the athletes in that field would be in Geelong. But it should be noted, hats off to the Ironman Oceania team. ⁓ Basically, you guys will see it here in the near future. The next week or so, we're going to be launching our very own website, ⁓ ProTri News. So we are super excited for that. But the only reason I know this stat is because we've been working on this for so long. This race is one of the only races that did not have a COVID break. They had an event in 2019, and 2020, and 2021. You probably couldn't have got to the island itself. It was really just a lot of prisoners racing back in 2020, but it did happen. Oh gosh.

speaker-0: You want the Australians to hate us, don't you?

speaker-2: Leave it to Craig and them down there at Ironman Oceania team because they pulled it off. And so it is a really cool staff that the world stopped. I mean, this is probably, this is very early in the year. So, but they're one of the only races in the world and events in the world that are able to say we had a 2020 race. So.

speaker-3: The Oceania team, I'm going to go out there and say are the best regional team Ironman has when it comes to banging out the pro races. 100%. The support, the communication, the courses, they kill it. They kill it in Taupo every year, Cairns, and now this.

speaker-2: Are you saying that so in Hamburg later on this year, give you, the Ironman Europe team gives you a penthouse suite or something?

speaker-3: Well, we're not going to Hamburg, so, you know, I'm happy to slam on them. And we are currently sat in an Iron Man funded hotel room. So, you know, I'm easily bored. I'm easily bored.

speaker-0: They also they also do Iron Man's at 70.3 is on the same day, which is not easy and they also do running events but that Guys, it's crazy. But let's talk. Let's talk a little bit about the race to 70.3 in Geelong ⁓ Last year the race was won by yellow gains. He's coming back. He wants to race obviously against Christian and against Hayden He wants to win it. However, something that is of note, he is training right now for Ironman Texas. Like, that's not a secret. ⁓ going into that race, like maybe he has that in the back of his head. Probably not because he's a professional athlete and he wants to win every single race that he does. ⁓ But he is towing the start line to win again. Should we just go through, similar to what we do for live shows is we all pick someone? and say like how can they win, how can't they win? Is that cool? You guys want do that real quick? I mean this is, it's a pretty high level race. I'm cool with you guys taking those three and then I'll name like two names that may be able to, two or three names that may spoil the show for everyone.

speaker-2: Can I take question?

speaker-0: Yep.

speaker-1: Yeah, I'll take Hayden.

speaker-2: Okay, I texted Christian a couple days ago and said what's up and he texted me back and he said he's going to ride with his favorite member of Pro Try News and I was like that's weird because I'm not with you right now and he proceeded to tell me it was Mark Matthews. So Hayden's gonna win this race, okay? Hayden's gonna win this, he's gonna blow the doors off them and there's no way he can lose. because he's pissed off from this event. So Hayden's gonna win this race and he's gonna destroy everyone there and show Hayden why he's the best in the world and an Olympic champion.

speaker-0: ⁓ you were... were... You were so close!

speaker-2: You were so close.

speaker-3: because you were saying Haydn.

speaker-1: Did you?

speaker-0: You had... ⁓ frick!

speaker-2: Christian, Christian rewind, skip, we have to edit this. I don't want Christian to hear that.

speaker-0: We're supposed to be talking about why Christian can win and why can't he win.

speaker-2: can win and he will win and there's no way he can lose.

speaker-3: That was the worst we've done. I'm going to do it. KB can win because he's the only Olympic champion on the start list. know, Hayden's had two bronze and a silver. KB gets it done. He can win because he's won 70.3 Worlds. He's won everything on the circuit. Why he can't win is he's two weeks off the back of an Ironman and he can't win because actually in recent years Hayden and Jela have outrun him. Because I know Talbot's too upset to talk about it

speaker-0: Mark, I'm voting you, Finn. I'm voting you my favorite member of Pro Try

speaker-2: Did you just hear that? Did you just hear that? Is he still your favorite pro-Tri-Nes member? I think I just got it back, Got it back.

speaker-1: I'll just quick echo, I mean the Hayden piece. ⁓ I mean, how can you say this guy's going to get beat? This is, this is though the matchup that we all wanted in Marbella last year and we didn't get. So my goodness, I don't care what time zone you're in. I love these, these Oceana races are perfect times for us to watch here in the States because it's mid afternoon for us. So. Sorry, Mark, is the race on Saturday or Sunday for you? OK, so Saturday afternoon here in the States, turn on Jalong 70.3 because it's going to be incredible. I hope that we get a three up battle between these three guys, even if Pierre Lacour can feature for a little bit, which I think he will. They certainly don't want to run against a dude that can drop a 66 as often as he has.

speaker-0: Sunday

speaker-3: Sunday.

speaker-1: My money's on Hayden based on the year that he had last year, but holy smokes, we're in for a big one.

speaker-0: And then why can't Hayden win, Pat?

speaker-1: You'd have to be injured or have a mechanical.

speaker-0: Cool.

speaker-3: It's not a bad take. He was so dominant last year, or he has to not be in the form that he was in last year. But everything we've seen trending with running races, with cycling races, he's clearly cooking on some serious gas. Jelle can win because he's proven when it comes to racing big 70.3s, he's really, really good at it. It's fairly close to home for him. He's not traveling as far as the other boys. He didn't race New Zealand, which he was going to do for a brief period during the winter. So KB I think is maybe less fresh than these guys, less focused on this. But Jellar is, like you said, he's in a bit of an Ironman training at the moment and being his first one, you find athletes sometimes overdo the endurance because they fear the distance. Whereas they don't actually need to, I don't think, when you've been doing the sport as long as Jellar. So maybe he's a little bit off the boil there. And honestly, Hayden's the big favourite. So that's why he also can't win.

speaker-0: Yeah. A couple of names I'm going to mention real quick. Obviously, Jacob Birtwhistle, he's a kind of a 70.3 specialist. He's doing the race. He was on the podium last year. Pierre Lacour coming off of his Ironman debut. He is a great 70.3 athlete. He's won some 70.3s in the past. Kurt McDonald kind of flies a little low on the radar, but he's someone that could feature in this one. You also have, I just lost the name. ⁓ Josh Ferris, who will more than likely lead the swim and portions of the bike. ⁓ And then another person that's a pretty good swim bike specialist is... ⁓ I'm messing up. Ben Hill. So those are all, I would say, three, four names maybe that will mix it up ⁓ with the big three that are doing the race.

speaker-3: Now clearly the men's race is the exciting race just because of the big three we have, but given the amount of absolute nobodies you've just listed off, Kyle, I'm looking forward to hearing you take us down the women's start list. Because there are a dozen women that have more chance than what you've just read off there.

speaker-0: So in the women's race, have leader of the pro series, Katrina Matthews, F1. You also have Tamara Jewett, who's raced well at 70.3, won a few of them over in North America during the race, and Grace Thack. You also have Milan Agnew, better half of Sam Laidlow, and in my opinion, those are the main four that

speaker-3: we go, there we go. Far back.

speaker-0: that are gonna be featuring in this race.

speaker-2: It's safe to say the run course record goes down on the men's and women's. Yella Geins has it at a 107.58. Grace Steck actually has it at a 118.59. So with tomorrow there, probably going to go down.

speaker-3: tomorrow, tomorrow smoke that in the women's race. There's a lot of women here off the back of New Zealand because it just makes sense. And then you've got a couple of fresh sort of names coming in. Like Milana, she is a very competent 70.3 athlete. would, she'll be looking at some of these women that have raced two weeks ago and hoping to bag herself a podium on the 70.3 slot. Again, the same as New Zealand, the gap to Tamra is going to be important for Kat. You have some other athletes that may feature if they can hang strong on the bike. The difference is there's one big favorite again for the women's race. I wouldn't sleep on Grace Steck. She's raced a lot of T100. She's podiumed in 170.3s repeatedly. Some of these other athletes like Tamara as well and Kat are coming into this tire. You never know how the rebound's gone. I wouldn't sleep on Grace Steck personally.

speaker-1: Yeah. All right. Great. It's going to be a weekend of racing.

speaker-0: Yep, a bounce back race obviously for Steph Clutterbuck. She had an unfortunate DNF at New Zealand, so rooting for her to get kind of the train back on the tracks. And then you also have Charlotte McShane, who's featured in some Australian races over the years. And yeah, I think that pretty much covers us.

speaker-3: Well recovered, Carl, that was good.

speaker-2: I would say though the hot race this weekend for the female side of the field is in T100 Gold.

speaker-0: No it's not. Build worst strength of field of a 100k distance race in the history of the PTO T100. Factually.

speaker-3: Wow.

speaker-0: So the strength of field on this race is a 91.1. If you go back to all their other races that they've had, their strength of field is usually 95 plus. This is the first race that they've had it lower than a 95. think a 91.5 is usually their lowest, had been their lowest back in 2024, the first year of the T100 series. This is the worst.

speaker-2: like.

speaker-1: Let's try to build them up for. How can they, how can they recover from that this week? Right? What can they do to say, people come watch this race online or in person.

speaker-0: Alright, alright. How-

speaker-2: Gold Coast was a phenomenal race last year. Some incredible... Well, I mean like in Australia, in the region. The Australian fans turn out for no matter what race it is. And so it's gonna be a phenomenal weekend. There is some frontliners like you got Ellie Salthouse, you got Anatoli, they go over to that will be a good rival. I mean, a lot of hometown turf people.

speaker-0: They didn't race Gold Coast last year.

speaker-2: I mean, it's going to be an exciting event to watch on Triathlon Live on your Safari app.

speaker-0: What about if you want to watch the spectacle that is Taylor Nibb?

speaker-2: Ummm... Which one? The comment section, Taylor Nib, or?

speaker-0: The real Taylor Nibb. Obviously Taylor Nibb's doing this race. That'll be something to watch. Hopefully they're gonna keep it close. got Sarah Perez-Sala who is a great swimmer, great biker. Alana Siffert, same thing, great swimmer, great biker. And then you go further down the list. Imogen Simmons.

speaker-2: All deal.

speaker-3: Thanks for my great

speaker-2: was originally on Geelong Startlist.

speaker-3: She was on both because she needed a wildcard roll on for T100. Then she was trying to make her mind up what she wants to do. With the way the entry system works for T100, it makes a lot of sense to get in. And if once you're in, you can sort of stay in, providing you perform okay.

speaker-2: something very interesting, and I hope one of you can correct me if I'm wrong, they have lowered their scores to their best three scores. Is that correct?

speaker-1: Thought it's three plus one.

speaker-2: Three, final. So this makes it a lot more enticing for these athletes to be like, you know what? I could go maybe bang one out real quick. So it's a lot more enticing because a lot of, they've lost a lot of the talent to the Ironman Pro Series. So it's a lot more enticing. And so that's why I think we see someone the likes of Taylor and they'd be like, I could go dabble in that. It is a very good payday. A very, very good payday.

speaker-3: 3 plus the ground. Very, very good one-off paydays. is Julie De Rond not racing?

speaker-0: I'm not sure.

speaker-2: Another interesting one off the start list is their hometown, or not hometown girl, their knight in shining armor, Kate Waa, was on the start list and has since removed herself due to a calf tear.

speaker-3: And she's actually out here. That's got to really hurt because she's out here training with British Triathlon, I believe. So that's a big loss for them. It's a challenging one for T100 because they've got the women's race up first where they don't have most of their big names, Barr, Taylor Mib, et cetera. And then they've got Ironman banging out, an absolute goat race just down the coast. I think we'll still get an exciting race. think, unfortunately, Taylor Neville will probably just do her thing in a field like this. None of the women that have been able to go with her in recent years are racing. And can any of those women go with her?

speaker-1: And have you looked at the bike course?

speaker-3: I'm gonna sit in the nightclub.

speaker-1: It's just, I'm always joke with her with for certain ones. mean, this is Taylor made for Taylor. This is a drag race. I mean, this is, this is very reminiscent of like Miami where you just never get a break from pressing the pedals. And so, I mean, this, this suits an athlete that can ride.

speaker-0: It's a four loop, 20 kilometer per loop, or 20 kilometer loop four times.

speaker-1: It's 10k out and back. Yeah.

speaker-3: So many people still online think Taylor-Nibb's bike position is bad because they've never really looked at it from the front where it kind of matters. She's absolutely tiny. Her CDA is brilliant. Like she's so narrow, so low actually from the front and she pushes big power on a flat course where you're just on the pedals. If she gets a sniff of a gap, she's just gone to the tune of five minutes.

speaker-0: There is some, is this a hilly run course? 124 meters, is that hilly or no? Am I trippin'? Yeah.

speaker-1: for the whole 18K? No, that's not Haley.

speaker-0: ⁓ it is kind of short. 17.7 kilometers according to the website.

speaker-1: I mean, long the Gold Coast is flat, so this is just like a little...

speaker-2: there. So it'll be it'll be an exciting race you can tune into both of them this weekend we're gonna have some awesome racing you can watch.

speaker-0: Can we talk about a couple other people for this one? This is a wild card. The wild cards that I'm pretty excited about the wild cards. TBH, Nicole Vanderkay, Imogen Simmons, Jessica Folgar, and Daniela De Francesco.

speaker-3: We missed when we ranted about Daniela before she did do Noosa last year at the end of the year as her first draft in about six years. think she finished fifth.

speaker-0: Okay, so she has raced in six years because that was something that I was like, I was a little, I don't know. I was like, why are they picking someone that hasn't raced in six years? But now I understand. Yeah. Okay.

speaker-3: Yeah, the big one, sorry, I think we've totally forgotten someone that I think can take on Taylor Nip. Jess Foliger. I'm gonna pick her for the win. I'm doing it. Did you see what she did in Noose?

speaker-1: Fullergar.

speaker-0: She crushed Noosa last l-

speaker-3: Flashy. ⁓

speaker-0: Anchi's coach by non-Stanford. Nothing to shake a stick at.

speaker-3: I mean, who is more lovable in the sport than non-Svanford? mean, and I'm sure she does a great job coaching. I'm doing it. I'm having it wild card.

speaker-2: I mean, last year she did run a 34 off the bike.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-3: No, sir.

speaker-2: in Wollongong, 34, ⁓ 10K, which is pretty quick.

speaker-3: That's not sold, but I'm doing it.

speaker-1: No, mean, this is, mean, every race is hard to win. And what can you say?

speaker-3: Then I want to watch Natalie van Coeven and Ellie Salthouse

speaker-1: They got to bring back input when they had Sam and Sam in a room. If they did a Tuesday morning meeting between those two, that could get us all to tune in.

speaker-0: Yeah, 100 percent. mean we're getting to

speaker-3: I don't even know where we've got this beef from but I like the fact we're hiking

speaker-1: They were yelling at each other in the middle of the race. I I got it from we got it from the broadcast mark

speaker-0: could be wrong, but I think the beef stems back all the way to the short course racing days because I think Natalie maybe got the funding to go to the Olympics and Ellie didn't. That's why she moved a long course like a decade ago.

speaker-2: No, Natalie's first Olympics was Paris.

speaker-3: Yeah, so this is pro tri-gossip. We don't really know what we're talking about, if there's a screaming match, it'll be vindicated.

speaker-2: That's right.

speaker-1: What I'm saying it came from was the broadcast last year that would be it hunters time to lean into it and say

speaker-3: Yes, my dear.

speaker-2: What do we do we remember what happened?

speaker-1: They were drafting each other. I mean, the normal shit that people bitch about when they're racing. So.

speaker-0: Scream it, scream it. ⁓

speaker-3: Natalie got popped with the drafting penalty, didn't she? Ellie's had a few run-ins in the past where she got two at 70.3 worlds in one sitting. I think there was just a little bit of slotting in upset and we just hyped it because it was entertaining. That's all.

speaker-2: Yeah, it's it's it's a real good rival. They've raced 12 times. Natalie's beat her seven of those 12. So.

speaker-3: I'm just going to throw a podium. I'm going to go Jess Foliger, Taylor Nibb, and then Danny Kleiser runs through the field for third place.

speaker-0: All right Talbot, put podium.

speaker-2: Taylor dibs I'll take this Jess girl just because you guys say it and then I'll take ⁓ Ellie

speaker-0: There you go. Pat, do you have a podium prediction?

speaker-1: My two ladies are going to absolutely stomp in Australia this weekend and thank God they're doing separate races. So Jalong, Kat's got her name all over it and Taylor's got coverage in Gold Coast. Don, I got to pick a, I don't got to pick a favorite cause they're each doing their own race.

speaker-0: Okay, do you want to pick second? Second and third?

speaker-1: ⁓ I'm only looking for top step today, this week.

speaker-0: Okay.

speaker-3: And I've got to say, despite my predictions, this isn't me winding Taylor up again for the sake of it. She's the absolute shoe-in favourite. I want the race to be interesting, so I want to see it just before, but Taylor's the best athlete in the race.

speaker-1: Yeah, we'd love to see two great races this weekend in both places, but I don't think we're gonna get that.

speaker-0: So you not picking Imogen, Mark, leads me to believe that I shouldn't pick Imogen.

speaker-3: No, no, Imogen's, I just think, you know, she's only raced once since the large period of time off during her suspension. Okay. And I think she will feature in the race for a time.

speaker-1: Careful though, Mark. She did not have a suspension.

speaker-3: ⁓ I think what, no, no, no, as in during the investigation, you're suspended from racing, but she was totally cleared. Absolutely. Fair chat.

speaker-1: Yes.

speaker-0: ⁓ Okay, well then I'm going to go tnib, ⁓ Imogen, and just Folgar for my podium.

speaker-3: Mm-hmm.

speaker-2: And before we move on to hot takes...

speaker-0: Can we make can we make picks for for the race in Geelong because we kind of didn't make picks on the on the men's race

speaker-3: I think we've covered... ⁓ yeah, go on then.

speaker-2: It's a pro series, so we'll go ahead and pick it. ⁓ I'll pick KB for the win. He'll dust everyone. I mean, he's literally the greatest athlete there, one of the greatest of all time. Hayden will get second. dang, that's hard. Yellow third.

speaker-0: Alright, fair enough.

speaker-2: enough.

speaker-3: I'll take Pierre Lacour for the upset of the century for the win. KB second, Yeller third, Aidan with a mechanical or something just to try and make this interesting because I think he's the outright favourite.

speaker-0: Bye.

speaker-1: Yeah, I'm gonna go Hayden Yella KB.

speaker-0: I'm going go Hayden KB Yella. I love Yella but I'd rather him have a fire in his belly at Ironman Texas.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, cat wins a women's race. think Tamara Jewett still gets second and Grace Decken third.

speaker-2: I'll go take that. I'll take Grace Dequin, Kat Matthews second and. ⁓

speaker-1: God, stop it.

speaker-2: Just trying to say something different.

speaker-3: Talbot's just picked you for second, babe.

speaker-0: and... Noddy Wilms doing the other race! What are you talking about?

speaker-2: and ⁓ laudie wilms third I'm looking at the wrong start list right now, dang it. God. I'm just kidding. Jewett. ⁓ Count will win. Tomorrow, Jewett's second. And yeah.

speaker-0: ⁓ my- Yeah, third. I'll do Kat, Damara, and Milan Agnew for third.

speaker-2: The coolest thing about this though is that here pretty soon on the ProTri News website we are bringing back Fantasy Triathlon. So at Ironman 70.3 Oceanside we will be debuting our website and we will have Fantasy Triathlon on there and everyone will be able to participate against us and everyone else.

speaker-3: And it will be a running through you'll have a ranking of fantasy through the year as well, right? And we will do prizes at the end of the year.

speaker-2: Yep. And we just are super excited for it. We built such an incredible community. ⁓ Kyle and I bumped into an athlete who is a massive fan of the show, Georgia, who raced this past weekend and finished her first ever 70.

speaker-0: Let's go!

speaker-2: She said she listens to us every week while she works out on the treadmill. So hats off to her. Incredible race. Actually, Mark, we were meeting with someone of importance at Ironman. And she walked over to the table and introduced herself and said how big of a fan of this show she was. And I was like, I'll meet you in the parking lot with the $100 bill. Thank you.

speaker-0: And she watches on YouTube. So Georgia, great job.

speaker-2: Yeah, yeah, well done, well done. We have some hot takes we can run through real quick.

speaker-0: All right, well, now that Pat's back, we can lead it out with Pat. He's been chomping at the bit for this one after it was posted about and officially ruled on in the 2026 Iron Man rule book, the meta glasses ban. Patrick?

speaker-1: Okay, so here the meta glasses have been You can't use them. Here's my case to use them right for 99 % of the people Joey Sarah Bobby Sally etc that are racing They want to capture that and then go and post about it on social media, right? Which would be an amazing way to gather free advertising for Ironman Now the reason that it was, I'm assuming denied, you can't use them is for the 1 % of, you know, the people that will flirt with the rules and be getting some sort of informational update during the race.

speaker-2: There's no visual, but you can make phone calls if your phone is on your bike and receive text messages and listen to music. So it's all the rules.

speaker-1: You could be getting updates that unfortunately you can't get. Right. And so that's, it's a tricky one for me. I would have loved if they deviated from this and said, I guess if they would have turned a blind eye to it, this would have been an awesome opportunity to try and get Oakley back in the game or frankly meta to sponsor iron man, because here's why. They could say, Hey, we know your client. We know our clientele are using your product. We'd love to be a sport that showcases this. They don't get to do this with NFL. They don't get to do it with golf, but man, this would be an awesome way for meta and Oakley to speak directly to consumers. And I think that's where iron man really made a big swing and a miss here was they could have said, Hey, let's Let's just say to the pros, can't use meta glasses, but for everybody else, do we really think it matters? Do we, do we really think it interrupts or misses the spirit of the race here? Talbot? Am I on the right track?

speaker-2: You're on the right track, but I think that unfortunately you can't. And there's two main reasons. One, you're allowed to carry your phone in Iron Man events now. ⁓ You're not allowed to use it, but you can carry it for protection.

speaker-0: And you can't use it if you come to a complete stop. That's the rule, right?

speaker-2: If you use these glasses, you can answer phone calls, you can play music throughout your entire bike, you'll have music on course, you can take phone calls, people can give you splits, it's outside assistance. Another thing too is that you need to take into account is a lot of these athletes are very excited in the moment. We'll press record when you're wanting to come off the bike because it's an incredible moment. You've made it the bike dismount area, you run into a changing tent. There's tons of people in the changing tent that are completely nude, completely naked. And it's an accident. know, but you're going to capture this moment. But then you enter a changing tent, and it's just.

speaker-1: Iron Man's putting cameras in the changing tent for the pro race.

speaker-3: Yeah, but it's... I'm with Talbot. So I think you're right, there's an opportunity. My two takes on it are, one, people acting surprised and outraged. What, you just assumed that you'd be allowed something you can play music through and record when every device in the history of the sport that does that has been previously banned? But don't act surprised. Them allowing it would be a change in the rules. They're not changing the rules to ban it. One. Two... I enough of our world is spent looking into our phones, capturing social media, being on camera. Doing a sport where you can escape from all that, challenge yourself, is the love of sport. And I agree with Talbot, I don't want someone filming me as I Vaseline my gooch up, getting ready to run a four and a half hour marathon. I don't want that.

speaker-0: in.

speaker-1: I am going to echo that I do agree with you and I had the same thought. did this 170 K gravel race on Saturday and I saw people with headphones on and I thought to myself, you really think this is going to be so boring that you need music for this event? Like, come on. So I do feel, I do feel the same way. just, I would have loved if iron man could have spun this into future sponsorship. And this is a way how you break through to a non endemic like a meta and go, Hey, we're going to use one of your products and we're going to integrate it into our race. We think our customers would love it. That's, that's the only place where I see it's a miss.

speaker-0: So Pat, to my knowledge, I know this doesn't help Ironman or anyone else, to my knowledge, I do not believe that's in the World Triathlon Rulebook with clarification and or the USA Triathlon Rulebook. So if you're doing a local race, more than likely you could still use them if you're wanting to capture those kinds of content.

speaker-2: And I don't want people to act surprised or spread false information. I'll be clarified, these are the same rules with Challenge Roth, because usually in the past they've allowed headphones and stuff. Maybe we could get an answer from from Belinda and them, but yeah.

speaker-0: I'm sure that Mr. Roth himself, Felix, is shoot us a text or a message. Let us know. That is a segue for another Hot Take with technology and Apple Watch.

speaker-3: ⁓ well, I've covered that at the start. Like you can't ban Apple watches from racing because I don't have a Garmin anymore. That's what I use for running now. But I think I have a theory that for the last year or two, certain pro athletes have chosen to use them. And the coverage is like, ⁓ he's checking his heart rate so often. She's checking her heart rate so often. I reckon they're getting texts through to data enabled phone with their splits on the screen. And like, it breaks the rules, it's cheating. Now you can allow it, you can not allow it. But I'm so convinced in my theory, I would love someone to get exposed for it and DQ'd for it because I'm pretty sure it's happening. And just watch out for the coverage. Just have a look. It would be very easy to prove after the fact. Have a look at who's using Apple Watches, how often they're checking them. Let's try and get high def. zoom in on the screen as they check it and the little WhatsApp tick comes up. That's what I'm after. That's my hot take.

speaker-0: That's good. ⁓ I just put this one in here. don't know if this one's a legitimate one or not. Ducking races. People want to talk about ducking races?

speaker-2: Thank

speaker-1: Can you duck races anymore? I mean, I thought this race in Dallas was going to be one for the ducks. And then you go and look at the men's race and you're like,

speaker-2: I think more Morgan Pearson was pretty clear that he was gonna go do this But then he did a run workout the week prior and said it didn't go the way it wanted it to go So then he decided not to race which is really unfortunate for him because Morgan Pearson would have won this race

speaker-0: No, because he's a swim runner. He's a swim runner. He wouldn't have won the race.

speaker-1: ⁓ I'd like to clarify my definition of ducking race.

speaker-0: Okay.

speaker-2: I was being sarcastic. love Morgan.

speaker-1: When you duck a race for me, that's meaning like you're going and finding a softer race potentially. Right. Or you're, and you're historically doing this versus I don't think you're ducking if you're not racing, you know, it's you're better at no show than a no go. So I think like, if you, you know, it's, it's clear, like if you want to, if you go to a race, cause you're looking for a stepping stone to gain a little confidence, I think there's more like. You're ducking and this is a pattern for you, right?

speaker-2: It's, I would say the craziest thing, sorry real quick Mark, looking back at historical data and looking through athletes' historical data and in the past, you said it clear, ducking is not really possible anymore. mean like, athletes used to race one qualifier and there was no one there because every single Ironman ⁓ had a pro field. And so, it is, pretty hard to duck. Now, you will see some of occasional athletes avoid strong fields, but.

speaker-3: I think I agree with Pat because you're not relevant anymore. know, because there's so many opportunities to race big races on camera, live coverage. Like if you go back to the days where you could just race 10, 70.3s in America or whatever, win loads of them. If you do that nowadays, no one cares. Whereas people used to be able to build their resume on it. And so I think I agree with Pat. don't think you can successfully duck anymore because the standard of the race is defined. in its status within a series. you can duck, no one cares about you. I don't care if you win 70.3 whatever, some small village in Germany, it doesn't matter. Whereas, yeah, that's my take.

speaker-0: I did hear rumor this weekend that supposedly 70.3 Shanghai, that's happening next month maybe or something like that, they're trying to recruit a professional field and they're paying people a finder's fee if you find professional athletes to go do this race.

speaker-3: What's the finder's fee?

speaker-0: 30 bucks, 30 bucks, cold hard cash.

speaker-2: you

speaker-3: Because if it's deposited directly into my account. Right, and cigarettes. ⁓ right, let me get on the phone.

speaker-2: You

speaker-0: ⁓ Another hot, I guess a hot take, a couple weeks ago was the LA Marathon. I guess people got medals for running just 18 miles. Like you didn't have to finish the whole marathon and yet you got a medal. Kinda soft in my opinion. If this is the softify of our generation, then I kinda don't want it.

speaker-3: Turn to Graymore. Absolute nonsense.

speaker-2: Like to be fair, what did the medal look like because it'd be pretty funny

speaker-0: Well they said it's Europe

speaker-2: failure and you only made it this far so here's half of a medal because you suck like that'd pretty funny to give out a medal like that

speaker-0: They said it's 80 degrees, you don't have to do the whole thing, you can just do 18 miles and then you're good. You can finish your medal for the marathon.

speaker-1: Dude, ⁓ my god. You guys, mean, shout out to anybody that can run 18 miles, because I certainly don't want to, so I do feel like I want to recognize that effort, but it is not like you completed a marathon because it's 18 miles.

speaker-0: ⁓ I remember like how long ago was that like five six years ago at Ironman Coeur d'Alene it was like a hundred and something degrees So yeah seven six seven ⁓ Another hot take that we had submitted after the race in New Zealand was Jonas Schoenberg got disqualified for his headset however, Christian Blumenfeld can ride around without a Arrow bar and he doesn't get disqualified So KB should have been disqualified just like Jonas

speaker-2: Six.

speaker-3: No, not the case because Jonas's pads came off and the bars wouldn't attach. He had this bit of bar hanging around and he had nowhere to put his elbows, et cetera. If he could have just straightaway stopped, cleaned off that part of the bike and he just had the base bars, he has his gears and he has his brakes and he's in control. KB lost one bar, still had two pads, still had both brakes. Don't forget, some people have a monopole. What's the difference between two pads and one bar? and two pads and a monopole. There isn't one. Once he got, I think the dangerous point is that he's riding along holding it he's not in control. But to me, that's more of a case of he's a pro athlete, he should just be allowed to throw it and someone will sweep out before him and get it back to him, which they eventually did. So I think there is slight bit important differences that make the decision what it was. It's also discretionary by a referee. And we do, we always ask for discretionary refereeing. They need to look at the situation, decide is it safe or not and make a call. that's what they did. So I support both decisions.

speaker-1: we're going to call it a mechanical nuance.

speaker-2: Yeah.

speaker-3: Yeah.

speaker-0: Cool. Moving on to the next one.

speaker-2: Oceanside. It's going to be an awesome field. Speaking of Jonas Schoenberg, I'll say it right now. Jonas Schoenberg will win Ironman 70.3 Oceanside.

speaker-0: There you go. Startlist will be out this week. Startlist will be out this week. There's a lot of people that are like, ⁓ is the race going to get canceled because they go on a military base? Like, Ironman has 16 contingency plans, maybe more. I'm sure that there's going to be a bike that maybe does not include the military base. I think the most concerning thing may be the swim because we're like a week earlier than normal and the swim is going to be freaking cold. Yeah, so.

speaker-2: ⁓ I really hope you guys enjoyed the show. you thought it was entertaining, make sure you go listen to the end of the Lanza ITU World Triathlon Series call-in because that was a lot more entertaining than this podcast. Just the end part when the athletes are coming.

speaker-0: On the men's

speaker-2: Yeah, it was not sure what was going on it was I'll leave it

speaker-1: Did say it was spicy?

speaker-2: It was pretty

speaker-0: I mean it was a sprint finish, it was very spicy. Some people would get excited about it.

speaker-2: Yeah

speaker-3: They would definitely go listen to the audio at the end of the Lanza-Robsey men's race and just tell us what you think was happening in the comments because we have our theories.

speaker-2: We will be back next week with another episode. We hope you guys love this one. We are going to be podding every week until the end of the year. We will have no breaks, no little mishaps. We'll be doing live shows and we are super excited to share with you guys here in the very near future our new website. Tons of new features on it. It's going to be absolutely incredible. With that being said, we'll see you in the next one.