Kona 2015

Bambaata

Frodeno looking great, O'Donnell dropping gels at T2 exit, McMahon all set with his bottles! Should be a great marathon.

Bambaata

So Tim Don is stuck in a portaloo :P

RJM85

Bambaata wrote: »

So Tim Don is stuck in a portaloo :P

Best place for him...

tommy_tucker

its shaping up for a cracking finish

tommy_tucker

i'd love to see o'donnell or ralert take it

Bambaata

I hope Frodo wins but i do hope O'Donnell catches him to make a really good race!

tommy_tucker

nah, it would mean alot more to o'donnell or ralert, they have been knocking on the door for years and never made the break, i think frodo will win multiple championships even if he doesn't win this one.

iAcesHigh

Think O'Donnell is starting to struggle a bit and seems Andreas is the only that could attack Frodeno. I was kind off cheering for DE fight from the start so I don't mind Frodeno win, but agree that it would probably mean more for the other two...

bryangiggsy

I can see the headlines over the coming months. Canyon bike sales go through the roof.

iwillhtfu

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Ah come on...she was hit by a car a few days ago...which could very well be the reason for a poor swim and her bike performance. Reasonable reason to drop out

Fair enough. Perhaps the crash was worse than I/she assumed I thought it was only a tip.

Understandable reason to pull out if only for the mental impact in build up.

peter kern

i guess we will see more of brent mc mahon and especially boris stein (that guy went only full time a bit more than a year ago) and david mc namme ( he has to be by far the youngest guy as it seems only y day he was an under itu 23 year junior he will improve his bike over next 2 years.
joe skipper also did incredibly well.

kienle will be back next year as it often happens if you focus to much on swim something gives but its an long term investment. its his only chance against frodeno. and for the first time ever i did not see kienle race smart.

did raelert suprise !!! but it was the first time in 3 years he stayed in the lead groupin the swim and without the pucnture who knows... he was the smartest out there today in the males (joyce the smartest female on the day with ryf )

frodeno and ryf pure eye candy to see prob the 2 most complete athletes ironman has ever seen frankfurt 70.3 worlds and kona titles in 1 year is just the best we have ever seen. and top dogs in each component of the sport .
the way frodeno pushed when he saw kienle struglling at the end of the bike was killer instinct pure .at the same time by focusing so much on each other they almost opened the door to another guy and kienle defo paid the price for it. if he waits until after the bike turn around with his attack and hides in the pack till then iam pretty sure he would have been on the podium ( at the same time its just so hard to be on top of your game after winning kona the year before )

bryangiggsy

peter kern wrote: »

i guess we will see more of brent mc mahon and especially boris stein (that guy went only full time a bit more than a year ago) and david mc namme ( he has to be by far the youngest guy as it seems only y day he was an under itu 23 year junior he will improve his bike over next 2 years.
joe skipper also did incredibly well.

kienle will be back next year as it often happens if you focus to much on swim something gives but its an long term investment. its his only chance against frodeno. and for the first time ever i did not see kienle race smart.

did raelert suprise !!! but it was the first time in 3 years he stayed in the lead groupin the swim and without the pucnture who knows... he was the smartest out there today in the males (joyce the smartest female on the day with ryf )

frodeno and ryf pure eye candy to see prob the 2 most complete athletes ironman has ever seen frankfurt 70.3 worlds and kona titles in 1 year is just the best we have ever seen. and top dogs in each component of the sport .
the way frodeno pushed when he saw kienle struglling at the end of the bike was killer instinct pure .at the same time by focusing so much on each other they almost opened the door to another guy and kienle defo paid the price for it. if he waits until after the bike turn around with his attack and hides in the pack till then iam pretty sure he would have been on the podium ( at the same time its just so hard to be on top of your game after winning kona the year before )

Do pacing plans go out the window in the heat of battle ? Seems to be the same every year. Where people ignore the 1800m bike course ..Heat and wind and overcook the bike. Vanhoenacker and Swallow an example

peter kern

bryangiggsy wrote: »

Do pacing plans go out the window in the heat of battle ? Seems to be the same every year. Where people ignore the 1800m bike course ..Heat and wind and overcook the bike. Vanhoenacker and Swallow an example

you are right and wrong i think. its not a tt anymore so you have to be in the pack ( the only one in the top 10 is boris stein that was not in the first big pack in swim and bike )

what can he (van honecker( do he is not the best runner and swimmer ...

besides van honeacker was never in the lead pack so iam not sure how you can say he overcooked the bike as this was the first time ever he never made it there.

swallow is a though one I think she should have tried to stay with ryf longer as this was her only chance being on her own for so long did her no good
yes only joyce resisted the temptation to ride with ryf and she knew angelea neath would come through. she said that before the race and stuck to it .
the rest of the girls should have backed of earlier as i think everybody really was only racing for 2nd place here apart form ryf from the begining of the race.but then ryf punctured 2 k before transition ...

i think what you forget is that for fiancial reasons swallow did a very good race , swim prime and putting her bike sponsor into the limelight values certainly more than an 5th place .and it wont hurt her for the next contract negotiations. and given how her year has panned out there was no real chance for a podium ( and to be fair she is better over the 70.3 distance )

at the same time van lierde paced the bike v well and also fell apart ( iam v suprised to be honest)

pgibbo

It was fantastic to see Raelert back in the mix after the issues he has had. I'd have loved to have seen him take the win.

Did he take a tumble when he punctured too?

mossym

not surprised to see the raelart love, but outside the two champs it's Joyce gets my biggest admiration. thought she ran a very clever race, but what really impresses me is her ability to show up, year afterr year, in a race where everyone else has good year/bad year, never win, keep the motivation up and always deliver. she's been the emblem of consistency at that race

pgibbo

If the doc is right in his article here then Frodo & The Angry Bird will be dominating for the foreseeable

joey100

I wonder will that still be the case when some of the current bunch in ITU take the step up, Gomez has said he would like to go to Kona. Some ITU athletes making the move earlier too because of team selections and funding like David McNamee, so be interesting to see how they get on. I'd like to see how Richard Murray would get on if he made the move, swim wouldn't be as important as in ITU and he has shown he can bike and run with some of the best in ITU and is a former world Duathlon champion.

iAcesHigh

I entirely agree. Might be really interesting to see some of the ITU cream in longer distances, for sure would add an extra uncertainty....

tunney

joey100 wrote: »

I wonder will that still be the case when some of the current bunch in ITU take the step up, Gomez has said he would like to go to Kona. Some ITU athletes making the move earlier too because of team selections and funding like David McNamee, so be interesting to see how they get on. I'd like to see how Richard Murray would get on if he made the move, swim wouldn't be as important as in ITU and he has shown he can bike and run with some of the best in ITU and is a former world Duathlon champion.

If only short course speed scaled to long course endurance and robustness.

joey100

True and even looking at some of the current ITU athletes you would wonder if some of them would be able to make the move at all, like Alistair Brownlee, one of the best ITU but would he be able to stay injury free for long distance.

MojoMaker

Sutton saying the swim is even more important in Kona and if you don't have one you're virtually gone - so Murray would have his work cut out. Carfrae very unlucky this year, think she could have brought a decent battle to the Bird.

mossym

MojoMaker wrote: »

Carfrae very unlucky this year, think she could have brought a decent battle to the Bird.

we'll never know, but i suspect this year rinnie wouldn't have gotten anywhere close to Ryf

joey100

@ Mojomaker, I'm not so sure he doesn't have a swim. By ITU standards he misses the front pack on the bike and alot of the time the second pack but he is still around a 9.20 Sprint distance and 18.15 Olympic distance swimmer so he's not slow. Usually around 30-40 seconds back on sprint swim and 1 min back on Olympic swim.

shansey

I'd say Brownlee has the grit to be great at the longer distance and talked about moving up after the Olympics next year. Injury would be a massive concern though.

couerdelion

Shansey - this is the article I think you were talking about re: post Rio

Does Brownlee really get injured anymore than other ITU athletes though or is it just that he is such a high profile athlete compared to others that we are more likley to hear about it?

My prediciton - Alistair Brownlee will win Kona in the next 5 years.

shansey

yea. I just see a drive in him that I think is one of the main reasons he's done as well as he has.

He missed most of this season but when he was there there were flashes of brilliance. Was it SA that he took the win after stumbling on the run?

He might be taking it easy this year with rio in his sights.

desertcircus

pgibbo wrote: »

If the doc is right in his article here then Frodo & The Angry Bird will be dominating for the foreseeable

If Gwen Jorgensen decides to try going long after Rio, then she'll be a massive threat. I'm also curious to see how Emma Pooley's career pans out; she carved seventeen minutes off the course record at the duathlon world championship in her second duathlon, and this was only her second season as a triathlete rather than a cyclist.

mossym

desertcircus wrote: »

If Gwen Jorgensen decides to try going long after Rio, then she'll be a massive threat..

Surely would have to be big questions over her bike. was her achilles heal until the last couple of years when she got the level where she could hang in the lead group, but non drafting over 180km is a different challenge. of course, she'd have a lot more km on the run to make up gaps too.

gomez and the brownlees have backed up the ITU with some decent performances over longer distances to show they can handle the setup. be interesting to see if she decides to do anything long after Rio, surely not going to do it next year

Bambaata

I cant see Brownlee being able to control himself enough to keep injury free going long. I also think his frame is a bit on the light size whereas Gomez seems to be a lot more muscular. Gomez, if he goes long, is the real threat to Frodeno but he has a shed load of bike work to do to get there!

iwillhtfu

Has anyone else seen the clips of Jeff Symonds cycling the last 30 miles with only one leg :eek: I'm not sure what happened pedal looks to still be there so must have been a cleat issue

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