Kyle Glass: Warning! ProTri News is a podcast with different opinions, knowledge, and possibly fake news about triathlon racing. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only and some stories may be dramatized for comedic effect. Enjoy! Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of ProTri News. We're super pumped to dive into the racing that happened over the weekend and without further ado, we got the whole team to kind of take us through it. Mark was on the ground and he's on a layover so he is here to get it to us. Yo, third time's a charm for that intro, Carl. Well done, mate. You got there in the end. I'm in a hotel room in San Francisco. We had to reschedule our flights, so we got a bit of a layover. I thought, let's get a room here. Just had lobster for lunch. Thought we'd buy the sea, we'll get some lobster, and then realized it comes from Maine, which is 5,000 kilometers away. Not really local, but it was delicious. All good on my end, yeah. Let's get into this, because this race was unbelievable. Talbot and Pat, we've had a big weekend. Pat, you did some bike riding this weekend. Did you have anything special that helped carry you the way or what? Look, I mean, this was kind of my first week back training. I put in 14 hours, which is, you know, I hate to say it, but that's a little bit on the soft side for me. I don't like to see that. But Saturday, there's always a huge group ride in town. It's called the Gateway Ride. I made that happen. It's roughly 115, 120 K, but we do some parts of it quite firm. I unfortunately on the way home, I had a flat tire, actually three flat tires, which was brutal. That hasn't happened to me for an entire year. So God bless my friend Chad that helped pick me up. But I'm gonna tell you one thing. I didn't fail this week and that was my fueling strategy. Precision fuel and hydration carb only drink mix. I'm going to tell you guys the ultimate hack here. So right before I head out the door, I do a super bottle. call it. I put in six scoops into 500 mil of water. That's a short water bottle for you. U S folk shake it up like crazy down the whole thing. That's 90 grams of carbs straight to the dome and the belly. And then I'm set. So that's like truly my start protocol. So if I do a big ride or a big race 10 minutes before I'm out the door, that's what I have. And then I, I consistently fuel during it obviously so every 20-30 minutes on a ride like that I'm trying to get 60 to 80 grams of carbs per hour so the caffeine gels from Precision Fuel and Hydration are my favorite because I go really light on the caffeine all week and then for either a big race or a big ride I like to spike the caffeine so look if you haven't heard of these guys which you must be living under a rock if you haven't go check them out use code PTN15 for some dollars off your huge order that you're going to place Use the start protocol that I'm using. That's 90 grams in 10 minutes, big swig. And I'm telling you, just use that for your big key sessions, but you're going to smash it. No gut issues. Hats off to you. Good luck to You what's funny about your 10 minute ad read is that it doesn't resonate for someone like myself because I don't work out as much. I'm not on my bike for six hours like you. No, what's funny about it is he has one good gravel race result and now he's dishing out advice like Christian Blumenfeld. Somebody has to come put. I'm guys, I'm an influencer now. That's the deal. That's the bottom line. So for us mere mortal humans that sit in a cubicle all day. I don't sit in a cubicle, I sit in an office. I mean, I actually funny enough do have these little hydration taps and they're clutch because I just refill. take one or two of them a day and it keeps you super hydrated. I'm not taking three, 400 calories in nutrition today. I do that when I eat donuts and stuff. Yeah, I was going to say donuts. Yeah. Yeah. Donuts and stuff. That's where I'll get those. Anyway, huge, huge show on tap guys. I mean, we watched Triathlon all dang weekend. I'm super pumped to talk about it with you. Mark was there. I mean, I think it's the pro series continues. mean, yeah. Talbot, what did you do? What did you do all weekend Talbot? I sat behind my computer. I mean, we'll chat about it later on in the episode, but we've been working on something for... It's been in the talks for over a year. It's really come to fruition. But we are super excited to launch our website, protrynews.com. We'll chat about it more later on the show. I mean, I think it is safe to say, and it's funny because Mark commented actually on our new website in the forum, I mean, the greatest season opener of all time. Is that what we call it? I don't know how you don't like, think New Zealand turned out to be a soft launch and there's no way we can call Oceanside the start of the triathlon year after the weekend we just watched. It's been and gone. It was unbelievable. The women's race in T100 was strong. It was like a warmup. The women's race in Geelong was decent. The men's race in Geelong was one of the most outrageous things. I've ever watched. I'm so glad I got to be there live because I couldn't believe what I was watching. mean, I, you guys know me. I'm the biggest critic on the show of when the season starts and I let everyone know every week when the season starts and triathlon season is officially here after the race like that. mean, everyone was like, ⁓ KP's dropped on the bike. ⁓ he's done a dust it. This is going to be a battle between yell and Hayden. ⁓ wait a second. What's I mean? It was It was incredible. Incredible. Tukal, give us some structure. Where are we going to start? Yeah. Well, we'll start with the swim, obviously, led out by Trent Thorpe and Pierre Lacour kind of hot on his heels. And then all of a sudden I'm watching the race and I'm like, oh, wow, Pierre's actually with Trent, which is pretty accurate. I thought that those two would be there. And then all of a sudden I hear over the screen on my TV, one minute, one minute. And you're yelling, Mark, to... I assumed to be Yellow Geans, Hayden Wilde and Christian Blumenfeld because they came out of the water kind of together in a pack. Yeah, it was weird because my voice keeps coming up on the screen. was one of those where the pro transition actually wasn't anywhere near where everyone else was standing. But obviously I went there for Kat. So it was like me and two old people that just happened to walk down a path. So it was dead silent. Doing all the coverage and all the reels is just my voice top them. Yeah, I tried to give everyone splits. I gave Pierre splits and then yeah, you know, because there's no one there. Yeah, but that gap went down fast. Yeah, it was it was pretty much gone from from the moment they made it out onto the course Hayden kind of asserted his dominance. I was very surprised on how many attacks Yella did to kind of stay with Hayden. I don't think we've seen that in any of the T100 races last year. And so to see Yella be able to go and attack and kind of pretty much stay with Hayden. ⁓ The whole first lap, I was like, wow, this is going to be a race. So Christian Blumenfeld started dangling probably the second lap. And then that's when, I mean, our group chat, a bunch of group chats I'm in, and even the commentary team were like, ⁓ maybe Christian's just struggled quite a bit over the last however many months. And then There was some, we can get into it a little bit later, but the second lap was pretty congested between the age groupers, the pro athletes and the motorbikes. ⁓ There's no, there's no getting around that. So I just, can I just do one really quick lap on that? There was obviously, this is a case where I'm really happy how the officials use their judgment because there were, there were cases where the center line, there was a deviation or crossing of the center line on multiple occasions. But in the interest of safety and in the interest of the situation on the field, they let that slide, right? This wasn't a time when there was a ton of oncoming traffic that was also double or triple wide in the case of when they were passing the age groupers. And so I just want to do like a chapeau to the officials that said, Hey, what's happening on the field here is a little bit, we're going to give a little bit of grace and extend the boundaries here. because of the situation at hand. the road, yeah, look, this is a problem here. It was too narrow. Yeah, it's touch and go, right? Like that. They got away with it. If they could have been a catastrophe and would have all been up in arms, it was a bit congested and a bit narrow. There was one point that I legit thought that an age group turned into Hayden Wild on the broadcast because like you look and the camera kind of panned away and there was an age group turn. age group are turning around to Cone and Hayden Wild at the same time. And I was like, I don't know if Hayden made it out of that turn. Anyways, the only problem I have with it and we'll get on is, and I hate to use the term fairness, but the issue is you get into a pro meeting and they say, if you cross that center line, you are disqualified. some, mean, these athletes are racing for a lot of money. They're racing for Ironman Pro Series points and they're racing for money. And some athletes, Yes, they abide by the rules, but when an athlete comes out front of them then you got some athletes that they'd rather hit the brakes behind an amateur athlete than cross the center line and risk getting disqualified. So that's I don't want to spend a lot of time in this because it wasn't as big as we're making it out to be, but that's the only thing that that just kills me on. That's the only reason I don't like the loop courses. Mark. Yeah, I know what you mean. And I think some are more willing to cross the line than others. And then the fairness thing comes in. I thought there were a couple of other interesting bits in the bike. You saw Jelle make some passes on Hayden that I got the feeling he really didn't want to have to do, but he'd probably run red on the Race Ranger and then he has to go past him. And you could see the amount of effort he was putting in to go past. The pace would slow and Hayden would have to go straight back past him. I kind of like that though, because it forces the athlete that's just in the draft to have to occasionally prove they're worthy of staying there. by being able to make that pass. But at the same time, athletes will get better at this and some athletes are pretty bad at it and they have to make lots of passes and they actually slow the pace at the front of the race down. It was probably really annoying for Hayden. But that was interesting. I thought the other one for me is I think a couple of pros should have got penalties for slingshotting age groupers. The rules are pretty clear. There's no reason for a pro on a congested course to be on the left-hand white line. overtaking an age group of one meter behind his wheel, flicking out because you do increase danger there because you're moving 20k an hour faster. If that age group deviates by 50 centimeters as you're passing him, there's a crash. Yeah. So I thought that some people played that quite close to the line. But the reality on the bike is Hayden putting an unbelievably strong bike leg. As he said to me on the run, he did say, I said, great bike leg, mate. He said, maybe a little bit too good. Possibly and as we get on to the run, we'll discuss that I thought some of the Australian lads did really well Kurt McDonald's bike was super impressive He outlasted KB and KB definitely has the maturity now to be like this is a bit hot You know, I think he could have gone to the end of the race But I think he would have blown his doors doing it and I think that was quite a tactical decision from him as well Yeah, that's good ⁓ I like that you said multiple people because it was more than just one person that was sitting there slingshotting the age groupers. I have to be very clear. I don't just mean Hayden because of course Hayden is the one that the camera bike is following. So when you see Hayden do it, that's because he's the one being filmed. There were lots and lots of people doing that. Yeah. I don't want to give an excuse for the athletes but it is a lot going on in their head. They're thinking of pacing. They're watching Grace Ranger in front of them. They're not trying to cross the center line. ⁓ race dynamics, everything. And that is my only rebuttal back to the looped courses. You have to also add an amateur in front of you that you don't know if he's going to swing out in front of you. It's not a good look for... I understand for some Ironman races, for pro series races, I don't know if that is a good look. But yeah, don't want to stay stuck on this. Let's get back to the racing. Yeah, yeah. So T2, they blast into T2. Hayden's got a bit of a gap on Jelle. About 30 seconds, Carl, 45 seconds by the end. And Hayden comes out of T2 and he comes out of T2 how you expect a 70.3 runner, maybe the best in the sport to come out, really fast, right? And he looks composed and he's kind of sorting his stuff out. And then Jelle comes out, same sort of thing. He probably looked a little bit better than Hayden straight away. He was quite upright and good. And then... KB comes out of transition and one of the Iron Man videographers was there and he turns to me he was like, God, that was intimidating. Because KB comes running out, like, ⁓ like making loud shouty noises. He's got his hands out straight like a sprinter. He's not holding them closed like a long distance runner. And he's just, everything's going, and he comes running past and me and this videographer look at each other like, what the hell was that? And I'm... In 10k pretty much, he took a minute 40 out of Aidenwild. He ran a 31 minute dead 10k for the first 10k. 30, 41, 30, 41. Oh, okay. You know what it honestly reminded me of and we haven't seen it since? It was Alistair Brownlee and Javier Gomez running at the 2012 Olympics. That to me was the last time that I really saw like a run from the get. where it just looked like a dude was sprinting the entire time. And what people haven't really picked up on is this course was different to last year and previously. They couldn't go around the park. So they extended the end of the run and it basically includes a quite steep downhill, quite steep uphill, back down it, back up it. Like it is not a quick run course. There is significant amount of hills on that run course. So to do what he did, And then he catches Hayden wild. Hayden goes straight past Jela, catches Hayden. Hayden goes with him for a while. He drops Hayden on the uphill, just blides away from him. To round it off then, Hayden crumpled a bit and I think Jela was a bit more sensible maybe. He kind of ran to what he knew he could do. So Jela runs down Hayden, drops him quite comfortably. In the end, KB wins by a minute. And I saw him about a K from the finish line and he just gave me this side-eye grin. It was this huge like smug happy with himself grin as he's just flying past. And I thought you're a boy. Dude, I mean, we got to remember all of our picks from last week. And if we would have before we made them said just a heads up here, Hayden Wild is going to have a one minute gap on Christian Blumenfeld. Who are you picking? ⁓ None of us would have picked KB. I'll do respect. What did he run into Hayden? Two minutes 40? Pretty much. Come on guys. So this was, I mean, for me, undisputed, and I'd love some people to go in the way back machine and prove me wrong. This was the best 70.3 run that we've ever seen from a male. Am I wrong? On TV, yes. Okay. was seconded. I mean, guys, I mean, according to the record books, Casper Stornas has still has the fastest 70.3 run of all time in I'm not talking about outright fastest. I'm talking about the most dramatic, right? Okay. Yeah, I can agree with that. Christian Blumenfeld, Hayden Wilde. Okay, it's one thing we were all hoping for him to come off the bike together, but we got better than that. You got Hayden Wilde with a head start. Yellagines is in front of them and KB decides to take them both down. I mean, come on. Ironically, in hindsight, it would have been boring if they came off the bike together. Yeah, because KB would have just run away. In a one by miles. You were texting us Mark, like KB's flying, right? And obviously we're looking at it on the tracker. They're showing it on the broadcast. I mean, he was flying, but to just think about that distance that he had to overcome and then put back into him. mean, can we just be very clear? He did an Iron Man two weeks before. No, that's... That's what we seem to be... Everyone's just forgot because it was so magnificent. He did an Iron Man. I mean, he's pretty vocal about himself, you know. Because he'd been ill, he essentially jogged around an Iron Man. Don't go and say it because it's KB. Still a huge day out, yeah. Yeah. And his training, he genuinely... I know he joked on the little clip we put out. He's done three 20 by 400s in the two weeks in between. That's stupid. Running like on a couple of them running like 65s. That's stupid. The best part about it too, he just sent me a message. Walking into Panda Express right now. He's made it to Oceanside. He's like, I finally got to go to Panda Express. finally got to go. Do you got diarrhea just hearing that clip. That's all. That's what happened to me when I hear Panda Express. I'm sorry. ⁓ this. How his stomach holds up from that. I have no clue. Go on. Sorry, Talbot. I was just going to tell you another KB story. One time, Kyle, me, Casper, Gustaf were all there. KB we're all sitting there. He probably don't be telling this Joe skipper pulled out of Oceanside and people are like someone was there was like, my god You'll just see Joe skipper just pulled out and KB goes he's out of the race. They're like, yeah, he's like that changes my entire strategy What are we gonna do? He is so funny he's so quick-witted Yeah, we spent a lot of time with him over the last couple weeks and he to those listening. I mean it Luckily, most of our listeners will have met him because he spends so much time with age groupers. But if you haven't, he is exactly what he appears to be. Just a very lovely bloke that just enjoys his time. Right. Can we do a quick circle on what Yella is taking away from this and what Hayden's taken away from this? What are we for Yella? The podium was KB, Yella, Hayden, obviously, if you didn't watch race. But for Yella, I think it's good data point. I'm still training for Ironman Texas. I'm still getting ready for my first Ironman. Move on. I think right on track, I think Yellow should be... He dusted off Hayden Wild. He rode with Hayden. Probably put himself in a bit of a running hole. Now, for me, this is one where you got to stand like real firm and probably look in the mirror in a positive way and go... That was the greatest 70.3 run of all time. And that's what I'm going to judge myself against. And they're going to sit there and go, how many times can KB repeat that? And then they're going to sit there and go, okay, now I'm either going to try and rise to that level or I'm going to, or am I going to keep doing what I'm doing for me? I think if you're yellow gains, you're fine. If you're Hayden wild, you might sit there and go, gosh, I wish I was like a little bit better. Cause he's like, you would think that. But. Again, we have no idea of how his training was. He did step on a sea urchin the day before, which I don't want to like understate how that would be painful. It would be stressful. Like, think he's better in real life for like the honesty, you know, I think he has a bit of a social media persona and a bit of a real life, like in, the moment in the race, I think he can acknowledge he probably just overbite to chunk, which is cool. You went for it. You absolutely gassed it. You put on a master class of riding. Like just be okay with that. think if you just take that into I respect his post race interview because he said like they were just better than me on the day. So yeah, totally. like move on. That, he earned a lot of respect points for me from that. One and two also we can't just forget like Hayden put his name on the start list two weeks ago after Abu Dhabi fell through. This guy's been training for sprint distance triathlon and just went and race to 70.3. Like he was trained into race for an hour and 45 minutes and he just raced or not even that, literally 40, 50 minute race. And he just raced a full three and a half hour race. No, I think all of them could be really, can be second and third can be really proud of their result. he's got his slot for world. So we don't have to be, we don't have to be in this Marbella spot we were in last year. And I want to see him on that Nice course because if that's the damage he put in on that course, imagine what he puts in on the Nice course. I was just going to say, the only problem, with yours is, you look at Hayden, the KB and you think how many times can he do that? That's his fourth 107 in a row or under. Yeah, no, I mean... Yeah, I mean, what can you say? That race is going to go down in the books. That's where I leave it. That's going to go down in the books. And I think that's where they got to put it and go. I was part of one of the coolest races in 70.3 history. Yeah, fair enough. Talbot, what'd you have? I was going to say the post-race interview with Hayden, Tim Reed, think that it was just, I don't think he meant it in a negative way, but he was like, Hayden, fantastic racing out there. It was all good. You had an incredible day until you didn't. When did the wheels fall off? And I was like, oh, And what did he run, like a 109 or something? 109.44, pretty slow. On a heli course, yeah. When did the wheels fall off, mate, you 109 loser? I like, dude, that was incredible race. He's lucky he won a world title, I guess. No, I thought their commentary team though did really good throughout the race. Him and Tammy did an awesome job. Did you guys enjoy the commentary team for this race broadcast? Can we do the women's and then do a quick number on that? Yeah. Yeah. I was like to laugh commentary after. Okay. Women's race, you had the swim led out by Sophia Green and then she led the bike till, I don't know, what was it Mark in the end? Like 20k? 25k? 20k maybe, yeah. Yeah. And then Kat Matthews closed the gap. kind of took over on the bike and then she was away while there was a little bit of a gap, Sophia Green and then a group of Grace Tech, Milan Agnew, Penny Slater, Gabby Looms and Steph Clutterbuck. And then run started. ⁓ talked to Kat, sorry for talking to your wife, Mark, but I talked to Kat and she was like, I've done this before. I did a back to back race with Ironman Victoria Gasteyes and the T100 race. I did it again with Ironman Nice and the T100 race in ⁓ Ibiza, but like it just hits you in different waves of like the tiredness. And she said at 5k, she was like toast. Yeah, so with the splits, like, there's a bit of an insight. I only gave splits to Grace Theck and Tamara Dewitt. And when Tamara was 10 minutes back on the bike, she raced in Ironman 2 weeks, gave great result there. I was already giving her only splits to Grace Theck, but I must admit, I didn't think it mattered. I thought I was in for a proper chill day, maybe have a beer on the run, which to the commentators that called me out for drinking during her races, I haven't done that in about five years. But I thought this might be one of those days where I could sneak in for a quiet beer. And then she ran past me like you said, Kyle, about 5K and she went, I am so tired. I was like, oh no. You're like, here's this beer. No. But in the end, Kat was able to hold on. It was quite close. It was about 36 seconds, second place, Grace Deck. And then Tamar Jewett ran through the field, went from 10th place to third place. My big takeaway from the race was obviously One, we can do as many laps as we want on Kat's two wins on her trip. Amazing. But now, where is this setting up like a Tamra Jewett for the Ironman Pro Series, right? She got, it was fourth in New Zealand and then a third in here in Geelong. Like that's one to me that just like puts her now. Those are gonna be races that... really help her out later in the year, in my opinion. But it's still the gap. The gap was still a lot. She was 10 minutes behind Kat for a 70.3. That's not a lot of points. We'll see. mean, think my point still stands. Like she's, she's, she's going to be able to go to a couple other iron mans and just put in those types of results. If we're just some as like a new face that's going to be in the top five, think Mark. Yeah. Cause I saw she's doing Eagle man Lake Placid. She's not doing Texas. So Lake Placid where she had that unbelievable run last year is a course that maybe suits her a little bit better and against, She doesn't need to see the gap to tailor neb off the bike in Texas. You know, that gap could be really offensive. Like Lake Placid might be a little bit kinder to her there and then she can put a prowess in. She's a good athlete and she's a hell of a. Yeah. Yeah. No, mean, Kat's performance was all guts for me. Like you could just see that after like it for me, I noticed that at like kilometer seven or eight, like I could tell I was like, okay, there's some just deep fatigue from. doing an Ironman two weeks ago, you know, and you're like, so to just get through and still get a dub, I mean, is massive and hats off, you know? I think she's a bit of a tease sometimes though, because I think she's quite good at maths and can work out what she can afford to bleed, because it looks like it's going to be super close. I'm proper stressed. Her dad's stressed at home. And then the camera shows her in the last K giving high fives to people and waving like a K and a half out. I'm like... Bitch please. You know, come on. Kat, the big takeaway for me is Kat now has the fastest bike split. I mean, we'll see competition-wise at Texas, but the last two races, Ironman Texas and 70.3 Geelong, she has the fastest bike splits after a bad ride in Kona. Yeah, this is... I mean, I'm just gonna say it. When you look at Kat's bike and all the kit and all the stuff compared to what her competitors were using at these two races, I mean... And then two, you know her ability. I mean, this comes as no surprise. She's just dialed. That's what you're saying. I mean, yes. Yeah, she knows somebody really close to her that's pretty smart at bike stuff. So... This is just not like a huge secret. know, nobody should be surprised about this. Like she, she, have, they have worked super hard to hone that in. And then on race day, guess what? You get 30, 40 extra watts on everybody. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely part of it. And I do think people have maybe because of last year and maybe losing a bit of time to Laura and nice, they forgot that riding used to be cat strength. You know, she's the one that went with Daniela in St. George. She's had. She has the second fastest Ironman bikes there ever, but you watch one Kona race in slow Twitch and that goes alive with cats and pack crap. It's bizarre. It was an aberration from the norm. for me, obviously this sets up cat really, really nicely for the rest of the year. Two great wins. I mean, I thought overall, you know, maybe we can we touch on the broadcast now? ⁓ Real quick, Grace Thaek, ⁓ this is her ninth podium at this venue in Geelong. I don't know. I mean, I would implore all the real triathlon nerds. I'm a pretty big triathlon nerd, but I would implore the real ones to tell me any other person that has that many podiums at a single venue. I don't know if there's someone that has nine podiums at a single venue anywhere else. Is it maybe like... Sam Brown in Ironman New Zealand. Yeah, that would be a good one. The only other one that I was thinking was maybe Heather Wirtel back in the day. I think she was pretty dominant at like 70.3 St. George and stuff like that. Yeah, maybe. But yeah. it was the website, we could find all that on. That's insane. So that's a huge one for me. And then obviously Tamara Jewett, Undisputed Best Runner in Triathlon. She has four of the top 10 fastest 70.3 runs of all time. but she was outran by Grace in this race. Yeah. Right, commentary. He appears in another podcast and we're a big fan of his. I think Ironman have found their next commentator in Sam Appleton. I could agree. 100%. I thought he was absolutely excellent. He clearly researched really well across the whole field. I thought his cadence and his voice, his accent, his clarity. Like he'd sort himself out a good connection, a good mic. I thought when he was on, I really liked the other two as well. I liked Rini, I liked Crowey on there. I liked the whole team, but I thought as a newcomer, Sam Appleton for me was really good. Yep. Yep. I've just got such a soft spot for Crowey is my issue. And so I loved Sam, but I almost am like, okay. Crowey and Sam. Yeah, Crowey and Sam. the issue, what I'm seeing right now is that Iron Man is auditioning a lot of people, frankly. They're trying. They're trying. They're mixing it up. think logistically, right, they're doing a bunch out of BCC Live here in Boulder. So that's why Rinny's on. And I think you need somebody in a booth like that with the producer. But then, I mean, again, Sam Appleton. location. He's in Boulder here. So from a convenience standpoint, cause I think they need that energy and I'm sure him and Rennie were together at BCC live. That's why it also worked really well. Right. Yeah. But then I just love Crowey's got an energy about them. Very similar to Ferdino that I just, I get like a comfort from his voice and his storytelling that I think needs to be there. ⁓ great. Yeah. So I, that's where my head goes is just, They're auditioning a ton of different people. They've obviously got a lot of time zones to work with for when they're doing these different races. For the audience at home, logistically, the hub that this is happening out of is BCC Live here in Boulder. that's where a lot of, basically it all goes down no matter where it's happening in the world. And then they'll use satellite people to phone in. Yep, Mark. I just want to be clear. I said Sam Appleton's on another Triathlon podcast. He's on the Triathlon Hour. I wasn't trying to do that weird Ironman thing where I don't mention the podcast name. It just slipped my mind as I was talking. He's over on that and he does a great job on that as well. So I'm not surprised his communication is good. I will say the only, and it's not a critique on Sam at all, because he did phenomenal. They have three absolutely, they're the best they've ever had color commentators. like the best they've ever had. But they need a play-by-play professional. Someone who is a professional commentator that can guide them, go to them for advice, guide them, and tee that back and forth. These are X3 of some of the greatest athletes that have ever did the sport. mean, same outlet has some of the most 70.3 wins in history. But they still need a play-by-play analyst that is not a... ex-athlete that they've just hurried up or yeah. Someone that's done a great job is Rick Allen. I don't know why they don't call him up and be like, yo Rick, we need you. Maybe Rick's like, I'm this much money and I ain't moving to Boulder, Colorado. I also think, I think I agree Talbot, but I think you can get away with it more on a 70.3 because it's much more going on. I think it's way worse on the full Ironman, whether those long dull stretches. where the ex-athletes just end up talking about cadence or whatever. But like Will McCoy, phenomenal play by play. Mixing him with a color, perfect duo. You should always have a play by play and a color, a play by play. I mean, you watch it like UFC. You got Joe Rogan and then you get some two other fighters like DC and Paul Felder. And it's like now like on NFL, mean, all of them. they just, you don't want to have two colors. It's great. Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying if they are wanting to elevate it, that's the way to do it. But the other thing that needs to be mentioned here, the greatest camera work I have ever seen at Iron Man Pro Series event. mean bar none. don't, Pat, I'm not sure if you watch. Mark, I know you didn't watch because I mean... The camera work, I was like, ⁓ am I watching NFL Sunday primetime at the start of the race? Not on the bike. They went back to their handheld GoPros on the bike. It was freaking ass camera work on the bike. on the run in the swim was like, I don't know what videographer they brought in or whatever. And then I finally figured out. It was one of their content guys. It was one of the guys that shoots all the AFC. It's Topper Riley. They flew Topper in to cover the men's... He was the wheel guy. They flew in to just do that because they wanted it done properly. For the first time ever in Iron Man's broadcast history, they actually got out a real camera and Topper was just like... I mean, I'm assuming he just plugged into his actual camera. And I was like, ⁓ my word, they're not running GoPros out there to do a live show anymore. They're not using cameras from the late eighties. I mean, and it was, if you watch on the screen Mark, go watch it back. can see like a bokeh behind them. mean, phenomenal. And then also too, it's really important to have videographers that actually understand the sport and know the athletes. And that kind of takes us into the next thing too, because another incredible job this weekend was the Ironman, was the T100 camera. Those guys, they're so good at working cameras and they know how to operate them. And this is the first time at the Ironman broadcast team, they actually had a guy operating a live broadcast camera that actually knows the athletes, the venue, what's going on and all that, Yeah, so just because we're going to get comments saying we're just sucking off Ironman. Don't forget we mentioned the course, we were negative about that. So when I had this one more positive, please remember that. What they also did was they gave the pro athletes a second set of chips on the ankle. And what you won't have noticed necessarily is the age group in the app had the normal number of splits, right? Not that many. The pro on the TV, they were getting splits every 3K on the bike and like every 1500 meters on the run. So what they had on the screen wasn't their old fashioned guesstimating where the gap is. I think they should have told people that because I look at that and I'm like, well, I don't believe it because it's Ironman, it should be made up. But it was actually completely accurate. So you were getting updates on the bike every 3K and every 1500 meters on the run. And it worked flawlessly. I thought that was a real big step forward. The second chip for pros. How did they actually achieve that on the bike? But what they've realized is with the pros, they all got to... And they're going to get less crosses, etc. They don't put the line out. They just put a box by the road. So they don't have to do the full line to capture every age group. They just do the box by the road and it picks the chip up from like 15 meters away. Yeah. So then because they know that the pros are going to... And they're not like the catch-all that gets you disqualified. They're not like it doesn't have to be across the whole road perfectly. It's just for the broadcast. That's why there's two sets of chips for the pros. they can do it in the swim. As we said, can do it. For Ironman events, they can have it in the swim every 500 meters or whatever because they reckon they can get it almost 20 meters away in the swim. Yeah, it is crazy. ⁓ probably the amateurs at home are wondering, well, why don't they just do that for the amateur athletes as well? The issue is this. You get a notification on your phone every time someone crosses a tracker map. So If I was following four athletes, I'd get around maybe 1,700 notifications on race day. And so your phone would ding, ding, ding. I mean, so that's why they don't do it. It's like the user experience. But for the broadcast, that's where those splits really, really, really do matter. And so they did a great job on that. Great job. Before we move to C100, 70.3 world slots, Hayden Wild, Kurt McDonald and Jared Osborne on the men's side, on the women's side, Grace Steck, Penny Slater and... Sky Wallace. Speaking of Wimps, Trevor, you are a free agent going into this season. What made you decide to go with Wynn for this upcoming 2026 season? ⁓ because I push a lot of power and I've never been in the wind tunnel. So the least I could do is ride the fastest kit, some watts. So yeah. I have Sophia and I also have a, big age group team, like mainly in America, but all around the world. And as we build that team and community, it's really important for us. Like to make it all encompassing of a team. We really wanna have team kits and shirts and hoodies and all that fun stuff. And Winter Republic is a really easy option for us. So now all the Foley Athletics people have sponsor correct kits that are same as mine, purple, white, win, blah, blah, blah. Super cute, fun, it's awesome. And if you wanna get 15 % off a win, visit the show notes and use the link to direct you there. What do Lucy Charles Barclay, Magnus Ditlev, Holly Lawrence, Rudy Von Berg Sam Long, Trevor Foley, Morgan Pearson, Gwen Jorgensen, and yours truly Patrick Lemieux all have in common? That's right. We all ride Woeve saddles. This Boulder based company has been an absolute game changer for, especially me and my wife. Look, my wife, Gwen, tried over 40 saddles during her career, never found one she liked. Last March, she went out for one bike ride on a Woeve Mags saddle, looked at me and said, this is the first time I have. ever ridden my bike without pain. At that moment, I knew we had to become investors in this company. Look, whether you're looking for a saddle for your road bike, triathlon bike, or your gravel bike, Wolves got you covered. This Boulder based company has got three amazing saddles, the V8, the M8, and the Mags. If you have any further questions, please DM me directly at Patrick Lemieux on Instagram. Moving on to the T100 Gold Coast, amazing race, amazing venue. ⁓ Most exciting part for me was I was on the edge of my seat on the swim. I'm texting with Luke McKinsey and I'm like, dude, it always like this? And he was like, ⁓ this is like nothing. And I was like, dude, I'm petrified. I'm sitting on my couch right now. I couldn't imagine doing this race. So the swim was insane. It was a surf swim. It got so bad and I guess... people voiced enough concerns that they came up with a new contingency plan to not have them do a full Aussie exit. They basically did a loop in the water before exiting. So. Which is a shame. Australia, you've got to have an Aussie exit Australia. Can we do shout out to Iron Memes 140.6 who did the the meme for the Australian race with no Aussie exit. And then they did like the funny, the funny person questioning it. So. ⁓ It was crazy. Just full of guard, let out the swim, Imogen Simmons hot on her heels, and then Daniela, Dave Francesco ⁓ with her as well, and Rebecca Clark a bit back. There was some gaps, things like that. And then Jess led the bike through, I think, six laps, five, six laps. So almost a little over halfway. And then TNib kind of took over and Jess kind of stayed with her. She kind of stayed with her whole... the whole rest of the race. And in the end, TNib won the race by about a minute over Jess Fullagarth and then Imogen Simmons getting a podium, her first podium since London 2024. So big shout out to Imogen for that. Can you boys imagine how much I was willing on Jess Fullagarth so I would look super smart and correct when she won? Because there was a, at the start of the run, she was catching on the right pace to catch Taylor. And I was like, please, I'm going to look so smug here if this happens. queen of that distance and she's had a bit of an off, know, she's lost a few in recent months and years, well the last year but Tina, job done. Yeah, I think, you know, for me, it was just going to be one of those situations where the course they changed a little bit, the bike course originally, it was going to be four laps of 20 K. They changed it to eight laps of 10 K. And so I think that You know, it just seemed, mean, 5k goes by really quick when you're doing it out and back. Right. And so I think the gap presumably would have kept going up if they ran the traditional, you know, the, 10 K out 10 K back. But, ⁓ look, I haven't talked to Taylor, but it seemed like from just watching on the broadcast, like that was just, that win was well within her capacity. And I think, you know, all due respect, like she just went there to go. collect the dubs, I'd say very similar to what we saw Kat doing in Geelong. And then, yeah, we'll talk about her in the Oceanside preview. yeah, shout out to Jessica Fullagar. I mean, she was on a borrowed bike. That Ben is talking about. She just borrowed Lucy Byrum's bike. It looked like she didn't have to make any, I mean, I don't know if she made any adjustments. Like you would suspect like she just adjusted the seat a little bit. It looks a little bit lower at front. I thought it looked a bit old school. I think for an athlete crossing over, like when you're used to riding a road bike, maybe you would start with a bit more of an open hip angle, a bit higher up front. mean, Lucy Barham and she works with some of the best people in the world. The kit she's on is absolutely phenomenal. But fair play rocking up on a borrowed bike and coming second and leading Tay Nib out through almost halfway on the bike. Gnarly. Yep. So, I mean, what were the other takeaways from the T100 race guys? Big for Imogen Simmons after the year she had last year. Getting some cash under her belt, getting a podium, getting some points in that series, getting a face back out there. Yeah, that's huge for her, I would say. For me, getting a wild card and then going and doing wildest race, Nicole Vanderkay, fourth place. That's huge. She's in that area of the world. She's started doing some middle distance racing. phenomenal result. mean, did you guys see the part where Sara Presella and I think it was Lotte Wilms, they just started swimming off course. That's just a testament to the conditions because those are two people that lead out swims majority of the time. it was crazy. For me, the T100 race was great. ⁓ I, like you, would have preferred to have the four loop run or the four loop bike course rather than the eight loops, but That's just me being nitpicky. Do you want to move on to the broadcast? Because I have to eat a little crow here, I guess, in a certain aspect. Can we just touch on, like you said there, how much should they suffer only having one race at a weekend? it is... Mark, I was watching them come out of that surf and you had an aerial drone shot. One thing they do so much better than Ironman. I mean, they blow Ironman out of the water on making it look like a professional sport. Ironman throws up a couple sticks in the middle of a field and they say, all right, come in here. I mean, this looks like an actual professional sport. And I was watching that and thinking there's so many people there. They did a great job of getting the broadcast. All that was phenomenal. And I'm like, what a shame that we don't have the men and women here this weekend. Yeah. What a shame. Look. Let's just, I'm gonna say it, right? Here's who they thought they had when they booked this event. Kate Waugh, Julie Duran, Ash Gentle, Taylor Nibb. Julie and Kate disappear from the start list. Ashley gets pregnant. And then you still get Taylor to come down, which is awesome. But what it left us was like, they'd set up a hometown race, right? That was that. The thing for me is, would have been awesome to do both there, because who came and watched the race? Howza. No. Alex ⁓ Ye. The Olympic committee for Brisbane. So like that to me was just like the only one where they could also thought about that. I think that's a very like this is if you were on the decision making side at T 100, you still would have like that. It just is what it is guys. I don't know what else to say. Yeah, I blame Josh Amberger on why Ash wasn't there personally. I mean, it just is. the problem they're going to face is when they come up against conflicting weekends, Ironman gets two chances to put on an exciting race. T100 gets one chance. And part of what makes an exciting race is totally outside the organizers control. It's which athletes do what on the day to make it interesting to watch. And if you get double the opportunities to do that versus the single is way harder. Yeah, no, mean, this is, mean, Ironman did this on Sunday, right? They focused on the men's race until the men's race was done and then they went to cat, right? Because they knew what was happening. Luckily, I mean, there's been some years where Taylor's had a huge lead. And so like the way that it was throttled at the one minute, like I think that kept it a little bit closer, but I mean, yeah, could have really slipped the other way. And then you've been like, okay. Which is unwatchable really. If Taylor had done an old school Taylor when she got away with some seven minute gaps, who was going to watch that? Right. But do you not, do you not watch this and see like that's the only thing that I know I keep going back to, but like just the space of transition for the pro athletes at the carpet, like they put out all the carpet to space. It looks so pro. There's no, there's no question. If you sat down, Joe Schmo from Kokomo that doesn't know the sport and you show them the Ironman broadcast and you show them the T100 broadcast and you say, which one is more pleasant to watch? They're picking the T100 broadcast. That's not even a question. this, mean... As long as Topher's not recording at the Ironman Pro Series races, but yeah. No, Topher, I mean, yeah, but I mean, that's the difference. I think... Ironman can close that gap with things like the good splits, the better camera work, the things like that. Just chuck a carpet down in pro transition. I'm going to push one in from Hot Takes right now. How about this Jan Frodeno show that they're doing as as a whatever it's called, as a, as a wrap up or a weekly show that they're doing. That's going to help Iron Man 2. Yeah. He's really run out of cash. Hasn't he? That boy he's blown through that. I wasn't going to say it. wasn't going to say it. ⁓ I'll be, I'll be in that boat with Lionel here in about four or five years. So I ain't hating on him at all, but we're to be doing some wrap up shows on Lionel's YouTube page. ⁓ the big thing that happened that We said was the race is only going to be on Triathlon Live. That was a misinterpretation from a press media. ⁓ I don't know what the word is. I'll just say, I'm just going to say it. We got a press release from T100 that said the race is moving to Triathlon Live. Here's also your other places to go watch it. YouTube was never mentioned in any of that. Yeah. So we reported. that it was moving to Triathlon Live and it was no longer going to be on YouTube. That was incorrect. The races are still on YouTube. So yes, we made a statement that wasn't true. I'm going to defend ourselves a little bit. We weren't given crystal clear information and that was also acknowledged in follow-up emails. So we're just going to, we're going to give the tie to T 100 on this one. We were wrong. Moving forward, we hope that there's more clear information in the emails. yes. Another couple things from the T100. Hats off. There was athletes that they got injured before the race or they couldn't do the race. So T100 said, hey, you pay 35 bucks. You can race next year. That's it. No questions asked. So that's huge for the athlete experience from the athlete experience standpoint as a positive. ⁓ from a negative standpoint. I don't know if someone else wants to read this, or I can. We got a DM from someone that actually did the race and they said that the bike course was heavily scrutinized for drafting. Good thing. Bad thing, everyone was allowed to wear calf sleeves on their calves, obviously. And if it's not wetsuit legal, you're not allowed to do that. So I don't know what rule book, World Triathlon used for this race to allow everyone to do that. But yeah, that's just. Through the grapevine, that's what we heard. Man, could you imagine... Could you imagine being so stressed that you're complaining about someone wearing calf sleeves? That's how little you got going on. I believe it. Don't forget how serious... You haven't trained in years, If you're in an age group and you put all... Yeah, you don't get to talk on this, Talman, until you pull your finger out and get an hour late. People put a load of effort in. Come on. get it. I'm by the chair and take in some more hydration tablets. So ⁓ another big thing, they made it very clear that they have contingency plans if the swim did get a little too crazy. So they had backup swim and bike courses. ⁓ I saw the whole athlete brief. it pretty cool. ⁓ Hats off. I think a really good event. think my only thing was I would love to see the men's race as well. I'm glad they didn't because then Hayden wouldn't have been in G long, it had been up there. So we got more out of it. But I think That was my only criticism. Otherwise, like you said, broadcast about her team, about doing her thing. All in all, just another good T100 product delivered. Yep. And a lot of money paid out. A lot of money paid out. A lot of money. 50 grand for the win. It was like 40 for second, 30 for third. Can imagine Jess Foliger? That's more than she makes in a year off British draft. I'm going to pull this from Hot Dikes real quick. Someone said, KV and Alana Siffer, who got 10th place at the T100 race, made the same amount of money this weekend. Explain that to me. I mean, that's why you see you're going to see athletes choose the T100 because of that. That's a that's a fact. Yeah. But like, then you take Texas, you take the big races, it closed it up a bit, the 200 grand, and then they have 75 grand for a win at 70.3 Worlds and 125 grand for a win at World Championships. You're just going to see that decision making matrix be a little bit more clear, I think, for the races that happen in Europe, Mark, right? Totally agree. Yeah, yeah, totally agree. Where it's a $300 flight here or a $300 flight there all within Europe, then they're going to make that decision to go to, if they can, go to a T100, I think. I think I get like the 10th place bit, but like when people are like, yeah, but you get 50 grand for going to win in that. Yeah, but you have to be Taylor Nibb or Christian Blomfield or like, otherwise don't consider it. Don't worry about what the winners are making. Let them make their own minds up. You ain't winning these races right now. if you're not... Okay, last race. Last race from the weekend, World Cup in Haikou in China. Great sprint finish on the men's side and the women's side. Oliver Conway from GB won the men's race and Diana Isakova, a neutral athlete, won the women's race. Oliver Conway wins gold in LA. Over Alex Yee. We're going one, two, Conway, Yee, Hugo Milner. We're going one, two, We'll see. this part. Or maybe even Matt Stappley. We've got too many choices in the men now. It's been a flip reverse. We're the greatest triathlon nation on earth. He's got a few country changes to get to before then. Yeah, I don't know who he'll be racing for, but he'll have a good race. Here's the deal. I haven't been sleeping well since I had to pull off the start list for 70.3 New Zealand. And frankly, it's been eating me up. But something that's been helping me sleep is this triple magnesium from Pillar Performance. This new flavor that they have. is an absolute game changer for me. This lemon lime, listen, I love the coconut, but this lemon lime one just takes it up to another level. So if you're training for your races, if you're having a hard time sleeping, recovering, two products that you need to try is the triple magnesium from Pillar and also the collagen repair. These are two game changing products and if you're having a hard time still getting sick, the Ultraimmune C. If you visit the show notes, The Pillar link is listed below. If you use code PTN15 either on Pillar's website or on the feed if you're in the US, you're get 15 % off. These are three products that you gotta have in your cabinet. Let me know what you think. This episode of ProTry News is brought to by Rhythm Health, the monthly at-home blood test designed for people who actually want to understand their body and not guess about it. Here's the truth. Most athletes get their blood done once maybe twice a year and that leaves huge gaps in understanding what's really going on internally. Rhythm helps fixes that and sends you a simple at-home test every single month. No lab visits, no big needles, just a quick sample at home and then you mail it back. Within days you'll get a full digital report with insights on the things that matter most to triathletes. Hormones, recovery markers, inflammation, iron levels, metabolic health, all those things that quickly can derail your training if you're not tracking it. Because it's monthly, you can actually see the trends over time so that that way you can adjust your training and nutrition and recovery before the small issues become big ones. So take control of your health and performance and the data that actually matters. Head to the link in the show notes to learn more. That's good. Do you guys want to go topic of the week or do we want to talk about Oceanside? Let's do topic of the week. Cause I think that should break up the racing here. if you guys don't mind, I'm going to, I'm going to maybe set the table for this one. So late last week, there was a website post made by the ITA, which oversees and maintains that there's compliance with anti-doping organizations. They made a list public that had the TUEs visible without the names, but the TUEs that are out. that are in existence currently for Ironman and World Triathlon. Big takeaways for me were there's a whole heck of a lot. There was I think 61 TUEs that were active for World Triathlon and 16 for Ironman. Now, I think Mark and I were both of the opinion that we thought that number was low, right? We would have actually thought it would have been more with more substances. However, the real shocking one for me was how many people have received TUEs for testosterone and HGH, right? Those were the big ones. So yep, there are some cases where ⁓ athletes post-cancer treatments have received, could receive a TUE for testosterone replacement therapy. That exists. The HGH one I'm really stuck on. just, I don't see how that one gets through. What we are seeking clarity on moving forward is one of the 61 for World Triathlon. How many are age groupers? How many are professionals? The same question will become that exists for also the Ironman ones. And then I think before we can come to any conclusions, it says like, why does World Triathlon have three times the amount that, ⁓ Ironman does, what we don't know are the total pools of athletes that are in that, right? And so those were kind of some of my questions before we made any assumptions. Mark, what did I miss? What did I get wrong? What did I get right? No, I mean, it's perfect. I would say, I guess I thought there would be more. I thought it was being abused more than it was, but there's still too many for things like testosterone, HGH. quite a lot of steroid stuff in there as well. I think my theory, and like you said, it could be proved wrong by the test pools just being vastly different. But it's not about the test pools, is it? Because it's the number of athletes participating. Because even if you're not in a test pool, you still need to apply for GUE because you might be drug tested anyway. I think World Triathlon teams are supported by National Governing Body Federation, whatever, doctors. And those doctors are professional sports doctors. And some of the countries are pretty liberal with this stuff. So athletes have access to people that will push through a TV more than let's call them privateer Ironman athletes might do. That's my theory on that one. I, and I've seen Sam Laidlaw posted pretty heavy about this, about making it public. I think something needs to be done because I think of the ITA posted it to show transparency and actually to kind of quell fears on it. What it's done for me is heightened them because testosterone and HGH. What I don't understand, my main premise, and if you'll allow me, is sports not meant to be fair. Sports seeks out genetic and environmental advantages and celebrates those. You know, that's why basketball hoops are certain sizes and they favor those athletes. That's why, you know, certain sports, we look for these advantages. That's why men and women play differently, because we seek out certain advantages within the category. What TUEs do is they bring you back up to a level, either your level or above it. But it doesn't have to be fair. You know, if you get injured more often, you're just not good enough to be a professional athlete in that sport. And my take on it would be either they have to be public. I would go one further and say TUEs should only be allowed for critical illnesses and diseases and not musculoskeletal injuries. I think that's just part of sport. I don't think you need to be getting testosterone steroid injections to overcome your herty shoulder. Like you just have to take a time period out. And if you do, I have another suggestion. You have to serve something like a six months, you have to not suspension. You have to not participate for a period of time whilst that TUE takes effect. Cause what you're saying is this injury is so serious. I need a band drug to get through it. In return for giving you that band drug, think is entirely reasonable to say you can't participate for three months after taking it. And so do you think that the ITA here, this is a little bit of a way of like they're foreshadowing a cleansing of this system because they're sitting there going, okay, this is very similar to what Ironman did with the draft data, right? Where they teased it and then they knew that people's habits were going to change. Right. It's one step further than that. Because the ITA don't set the rules of the policy. The ITA help manage the collection of the information and the testing. WADA set the policy. I think what the ITA are doing is setting a fire beneath athletes to try and force WADA to change the policy. Is my take on it. Yeah. ⁓ So where do we go from here? You make them public and if you take one for musculoskeletal injuries, you should be ineligible for competition. That's what I think you should do. Okay, that's fine. But I'm saying we as a podcast, should we be questioning World Triathlon and Ironman on how they're going to move forward with this? No, a jump should happen for once. And Lade Lowe's done it, a few others have done it. Athletes call it out. You do this for once. Don't wait for some chippy podcast to come and make the thing that you've been crying about in the background. Get on social media. and talk about this because I'm going say it this is why it's really annoying to me. Cat broke her skull, back, chest, ribs, hip, had 50 stitches in her places, tore ligaments and muscles. Six months later again, do know how many TUEs she had? None. Zero. If you can get through that without needing your little steroid injection in your knee because you've got a sore knee, then Just you don't need it. Athletes are abusing it. And I think they need to look themselves in the mirror when they choose to take it and think there's people out there doing crazy recovery stuff without it. And I think athletes should take responsibility for this like Sam Lodla has and you be the voice. Yeah. Spot on. I think that's great. That's a great, great ending point. The only thing that I will add and talk to some people about this. We don't know if these are pro athletes or not pro athletes. We don't know. I know a couple of them are. Yeah. I know a lot of them are. How many age group is because it's actually quite hard to get a TUE because you have to go to an approval panel. It has to be recommended by certain doctors. I think most age groupers just either do it and don't say anything. Yeah. I think the vast majority would be bros as an educated guess. Yeah. We just don't know. There's also 15 para athletes on this list as well. So I'm assuming that that's covered under the World Triathlon one. I mean, this list is information, which I think is good that we're getting information. I think there was a wild west of... We don't even know how many people have 2WEEs. And as you guys said, we're surprised that it is this low. I mean, you got cycling that's nearly 400. So we're a little bit better than them, I guess. We've always been better. Cycling is just the dopey sport. But there's more money in it. There's more doctors associated with the teams. They have access to advice like that. It's pressured onto the cyclists, which is why I think there's more short course athletes using them because they have that external pressure of their federation that long course athletes don't have. Yeah. And that's what cyclists have in abundance, was my point there. Yeah, fair enough. ⁓ So as we move on... This is something that we will more than likely maybe still cover depending on how this progresses. We'll keep you up to date. Fair? Cool. Moving on to the big race coming up this weekend is 70.3 Oceanside, highly contested as the official start of the year by Talbot on our show multiple times. But this is the big North American race. I understand that we had a race in Dallas a couple weeks ago, but this is... A pro series 70.3 coming at you live this weekend in Oceanside. So weather looks incredible. It's going to be overcast. Nothing really to write home about on that front. Course stays the same. Hasn't made any changes. There's been no reports of a new bike course or anything like that. as you look at the start list for this race, I mean, it's got some pretty heavy hitters. I mean, there's no way to sugarcoat it. On the women's side, you got Paula Finley, T Nib. the Ironman World Champion, Silve Glufsef, ⁓ Marta Sanchez. You also have some athletes out of one 70.3s over the years. got Seif Madsen, Kirsten Kasper, and a bunch of others. You got an athlete making their 70.3 debut, Audrey Merle, coming over from the short course from France. On the men's side, you got KV, Kasper, Gustaf, the three Norwegians. You also have Rudy Van Berg, Sam Long, Jonas Schoenberg, Sam Appleton. Look at this list guys. Is there something that excites you about it? Who's one name that stands out that you're like, this person is the one that's going to blow this race apart? KB is the easy one. I'll tell you who I'm actually really excited to see. Here are Sam Long and Solveig. Those are the two that I think just backing up the year that they had last year. Sam Long at 20 meters. That's where I'm just, it's, it's because we have so much data around how this race has played out historically. This is going to be one, I think for all of us where we look at and go, there was a line in the sand and this race really changed, right? Cause we've got now these first two, obviously we had, this is just like the D these are the depth of the fields on both the men and the women's side. This I think is kind of like, the teasing out of what we're going to see at Ironman Texas. bike course. Yeah. Mark, hard run course. What do you got? Yena Shomburg goes gun to tape. Well, you can see, see how he leads out swims. He guns transition. He's probably the best cyclist in that field. We saw Christian's riding isn't necessarily as good as the very fastest riders at the moment. He's just done another race. Is anyone riding with Schomburg? And then he can run. He needs two minutes since transition. By saying he needs two minutes, but Christian ran two minutes, 30, and still he had him wild. But he's going to animate the race is more of my prediction. There's no, there's it. Look, KB was incredible, but there's no denying that dude, he's a little dented after that performance. mean, the downhill running alone that they had to do with the speed that he was doing it at, his quads are going to be feeling it. And then homies got to go from Melbourne to LA. Like it's a quick turn. It was a Sunday race to a Saturday race. It's just over six days. He's like, get 16 extra hours because of the time zone. You're like, what is wrong with you, boy? And then you said Solve Your Loss Set. That's interesting to me. She's got a few 70.3s in her calendar, so she doesn't need. to win this to win the pro series. She can bleed a bit of time to T-Nib, who is also going to be dentist from some travel across there. I'm intrigued to see how Solvee goes on the bike at 20 meters compared to Nib on a course like that. It's a bit hilly. think Solvee prefers a flat course. It's still T-Nib for me. I lost that for second. I'm just saying the things that nobody wants to say this week, but Solveig's bike is heavy. What does that mean? Super hilly course. The is the felt is just real heavy. The new one though, that's coming out. There's a new felt coming out soon and I think they're addressing that issue in it. But I mean, let's just, I'm just going to say it. I mean, put Solveig's bike on a scale versus Taylor's bike. I think it's three or four pounds difference. I'd say like two kilos. That's massive difference. So that's over four pounds for our US listeners. mean, this is not me being a dick. I mean, I am, but it's like... That's real thing and this course has got a shitload of climbing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But ⁓ then they're both going to roll into Texas. What's the gap, Carl? Is it three weeks after? Yeah, three weeks. quite happy to see Taylor doing a couple of early races. So she's got a bit under a belt as well before Texas. Same for Solveigh, because the battle there is going to be Kat, Solveigh, Taylor. They're all kind of coming into it at a similar sort of level. Kat gets the extra week, but she's done an Ironman. They've both done 70.3s. This is one, but correct me if I'm wrong, Mark. This is one, if you've got some bike legs, you're coming here to stretch your chain. I mean, this is one where you're saying, hey, what can I do and what kind of damage can I do on This bike course is perfect for Taylor because it's hilly but not technical. It's made for her. She's going to rip the legs off this bike course, I would imagine. She had 10 minutes when she raced two years ago. think. She doesn't have 10 minutes on Solvee, but she has a chunk. And Paula, mean, I'm to see Paula because Paula's in Ironman training, right? We assume. want to see. Texas, yeah. Yeah, I think she's still a bit on the fence about it, but... I think if this race goes well for her, you'll see her in Texas. If it goes badly, she may push it back. But I hope it goes well because I want to see her in the Ironman. And Paula, again, is great at 70.3. So her V Solvee for second is kind of my prediction. And then what do we reckon for the men's? What's Gustav going to do? What's he saying at the moment? I think Gustav and Kasper are going to surprise a lot of people in this race. Hate that I hate seeing the word though to see the word Achilles been dealing with Achilles issues. I Mean, what is this like is this? Why why do all these athletes now mark get Achilles issues? Is it just lots of carbon? I mean ⁓ Foam shoe running carbon shoe running like what why is he? Always I think Achilles has always been the runners number one problem, I would say. It's been called the Achilles heel for a reason. That's because Achilles got shot in the heel with an arrow, isn't it? But it dropped them. mean, they know that this is a tender spot for thousands of years. Okay. True. Yes, true. And it's just a horrible little injury to have. Achilles calves seem to be the thing at the moment. Tabby, might be right. Carbon shoe running. I think it's because the speed is just so high and the mechanical load gets higher the faster you run. Just the sheer force through the ground and that point Achilles in the bottom of the calf is pretty fragile. This was an issue that Alistair Brownlee had 15 years ago too. mean, this is for me, this is nothing new. think let's remember your Ironman world champion on the men's had a, would be being generous by saying he flopped last year at Oceanside. So you can't, let's just look at Oceanside for what it is. It's an amazing weekend of racing, but it's not a, I don't, let's not try and use it too much of as a forecasting tool for the future. Cause last year it proved pretty weak as one in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah. let's look, John Stratman is someone that I also am like intrigued about. I don't think he's raced very much in North America. So, ⁓ he's someone that I'm like, well, he could, he could put down a good result. and he's been on a podium at a 70.3 world championship. Like he's a good athlete. Yeah, on the mid side. Guys, I think we should take a pass on picks here. Let the race talk about it afterwards and move on to hot takes. Yeah, I've only got 10 minutes left. So just real quick on Solvig. This is pretty big. This is a pretty big moment for her. She's returning as an Ironman World Champion. She's clearly... She's already announced her schedule. It's Oceanside, Ironman Texas, Axon France, Hamburg, Swansea, 70.3 World Championship. I mean, it's the big ones. ⁓ There's a lot of pressure going into this weekend, probably for her, that she probably doesn't feel. But then when you sit up there on that stage and everyone starts asking all the questions and you're racing Taylor, you're racing Paula, it's all... It'll be a lot. But she deserves the pressure. Yeah, she deserves it. And she's in the limelight now. You know what mean? Everyone's going to be watching her. Everyone's going to want to take their selfies with her. I mean, this is going to be a big moment for her. So yeah, I like what she's doing. Like Texas, she's sharing a house with all the Norwegians and a couple of, eight of them all together. You know, she's not in a room on her own with her boyfriend, struggling with it. She's got people that've been through this loads of times around her. And I think that's probably a really sensible and like smart tool to lean on. Cause if anyone's going to mellow you out, it's those three idiots. Like they're just so relaxed and nice and you know, positive to be around. I think she'll take it and that's right. when he says idiots, he means it. I'm going to work on some stuff real quick before we move into hot takes. So the race for people that are going to be participating in podium picks on our website for this race, some people are going to want to watch for the swim on the women's side, Victoria Lopez, Laura Tomei, Andre Merle and Kirsten Casper on the bike. Sif Madsen, T Nib, Paula Finley and Solveig on the run, Marta Sanchez. ⁓ Andre Murl and maybe Paul Finley. She's been uploading a lot of wrong content, so you never know. The men's side, obviously Jonas Schoenberg, Sam Appleton, Ben Canute. All the people that don't want this swim to get canceled, Mark Dubrik, Brock Howell, ⁓ Scott Steinberg. If you want a really wild card pit, maybe also Matthew Collins. On the bike side, got Jonas Schoenberg, Jan Stratman, Marius, the other Norwegian, Justin Reale, who has the fastest bike split last year. Sam Long and Leon Chevalier for the run. Obviously, if he doesn't get any blisters, Ari Clow, Casper Stornes, KB Gustav, Leon Chevalier, and obviously Jason West. Okay, so we dropped podium picks. We didn't really say how it works. So what it is is on our website on protrynews.com, there's a yellow icon right in the middle that says podium picks. If you click that, it's going to bring up a page. that has the Ironman 70.3 HL results. That's for the people that played, we had about 100 people that were beta testing the website and podium picks over the weekend. So they were able to play that. Now going forward for every Ironman Pro Series event, T100 and WTCS race, you're gonna be able to play podium picks and see how well you know triathlon. So what you'll do if there is an event for that weekend, you'll click Make Your Picks. What that does is that brings up another page now that you're gonna select the top five men, top five women, fastest swimmer, biker, and runner, and you'll get points based on if the selections are right, if they're close, and everything in between. So if you wanna know how to play and how to earn points for each of the podium pick race, you'll go back to that podium picks page and click that button that says How It Works. That explains everything. All that you need to know, we're gonna do a deeper dive into this, but for this weekend, for 70.3 Oceanside, you are going to be able to pick your athletes and really put your triathlon knowledge to the test. Another huge talking point, this is our first single loop 20 meter bike course. That's huge. That's something that is gonna be a huge talking point for the next, I'd say, for next week's show. So, cool. You just threw out there that there's fantasy on our website. Let's get into that. Let's do the website. Come on. talk us through this baby of yours and your brother's. Yeah, this has been something we've dreamed about for a long time. It's essentially the one stop shop for all things pro triathlon. We're really, really, really excited about it. We're going to do a whole podcast about it later on this week. ⁓ But it's protrynews.com. Go check it out. We are doing fantasy. So go create your accounts, check out ⁓ fantasy. And ⁓ we're super excited about it. We're still in beta testing, still a lot of issues, but ⁓ we'll hit more of it in another podcast and go all through it though. Yeah, but I'm just going to give you some flowers as Crowey would say, Talbot. ⁓ protrynews.com. I've shared it now with a bunch of close friends that aren't in the triathlon space. And they said, look, man, this is incredible. You've taken pro cycling stats, let's run and city is mag. They all had a baby. It's called pro try news.com now it's it's a yeah. Hats off super, super exciting. We're really, ⁓ I think this is how you could start 2026 with a bang. congrats. Yeah. And we're in your amazing. ⁓ thank you. such a slick product. The forum. the forums going to be good. think that'll be popping. We've had some external advisors in to kind of try and help us tease through issues and you know, cause you basically have to red pen an entire website. And when you see how much data is on there, you will find still some tiny mistakes. That's why it says beta, but we have raised, we have raised results for athletes going about like 20 years. We have like a database of how many athletes are in the database pro athletes? 24,000 professional athletes. Right, so we are combing through this. But if you see tiny mistakes, just roll with it for now. The main bulk of it is, know, the athlete profile is a bit like the PTO page had, but way more detailed, showing all their strengths, where their weaknesses lie, their rivalries. can compare athletes, you can compare courses. It will tell you like, the race you entered as an age group, or later in the year, is going to be a wetsuit swim or not, using historical data. weather forecasting. There's so much cool stuff on there. Put aside half an hour and go play. I'm so impressed. Talbot, your brother, and Kyle, know you learn into it a lot as Thank you. I will say it is... ⁓ My brother Joel has been phenomenal. He's an incredible engineer, software engineer. We've had tons of advice. Also, another massive shout out to actually, Cat Matthews' dad, John Rye, who has been... I mean, he can find anything and everything on this site. He's doing a crossword puzzle. He'll just send us something and be like, error, error. We're on error, I think, like 35 of his now, issues that we're working on. So we're still in beta testing, but we're wanting to roll it out. And we are super, super excited. So thank you to Joel. Thank you to John Rye. Yeah, we're stoked. Podium Picks is on there though, so you guys definitely gotta go check it out. And what you'll do is you'll pick your top five and then fastest swimmer, biker, runner in both the men's and the women's race. And then there's prizes at the end of the season. It's a season long ranking. So it's fantastic. Yeah. Hot takes. Number one submitted from a fan. Mark, will we see Shoeless Mark in Ironman Texas or is that just Oceania thing? I do like... I wear Birkenstocks and I like to just flick them off under the table. And then I'm just walking around. I left them in two restaurants. I had to go back and find them. I love this Oceania no shoes thing. But no Texas, I will be in shoes. Probably not. Next one. Geelong or Gold Coast? Everyone? Geelong. I would take the field in Geelong and put them in Gold Coast. That's that's I thought the same you know, but yeah Nailing the coffin for t100 did no contracts affect the strength of field for them Let's can we just give this a few more races because I think we got to get to the European ones before we make any conclusions there Yeah, same. I mean should maybe should anyone maybe think about the fact that cat Matthews only made $7,500 this weekend and Taylor nib made 50 grand. Yeah, I mean, the coffin for me. That's that's gnarly payday difference. Gnarly. But it's that attracts the athletes. It doesn't create the product that goes forward for them unless the athletes take it up, which they didn't this weekend because Taylor was the only standout named that. Talbot, is your hot take. Jocelyn McCauley. I wrote this down? Yeah. Jocelyn McCauley, Ironman New Zealand. Oh, uh... We're going through our database. We're going through our database from results and you were like... You basically said just add this to the hot tech. Yes. Now, I have to tip my hat to Jocelyn. And this is why. Had a terrible day at Ironman New Zealand. And you know what? She's still finished. And I think it is so cool to see athletes. There's so many athletes out there when their days not going their way that they just pull off the course. And when I was going through Ironman New Zealand results, I saw Jocelyn. I think she finished around like 11 hours. Sometimes even the pro athletes just have bad days. And it is so cool to see that she still finished the race. And not only that, ⁓ has she announced this, Kyle? Yeah. Yeah. She's pregnant as well. So she still was a pregnant mom, went all the way there, raced and didn't give up and still finished the race. So I don't know. think it's so cool when athletes, pro athletes, they can go around eight hours, nine hours, and then sometimes they just don't have a good day, go around 12. I don't know. just... It's inspiring. That stuff's inspiring to me. Yeah. Same. I don't want to miss the hot takes. I'm packing for my flight in the background. It's on YouTube. Enjoy this. The other thing is, Ironman sent out a post survey for the pros for $70.3. What do you guys think about that? That's something that is probably pretty new. I don't know if I've ever heard of that before. T100 asked for this too. I think this is just... This is them trying to hone in their product and showing they care about the athletes. So this is... hats off to Ironman for that survey that they put out. ⁓ I think both groups are trying their best to give the best product possible to the athletes. Well, thank you all for listening to this week's episode of ProTry News. Thank you for Mark joining during his layover as he heads on his journey back home. We appreciate everyone sitting here listening and enduring another episode. Be sure to go to protrynews.com and get in your podium picks for this upcoming race at 70.3 Oceanside. And we are out.