Episode 131: Ironman Texas Preview, Heavyweight Battles and Early Season Stakes

🎧 Brought to you by @maunaapparel

This week on Another Triathlon Podcast, the crew dives into what might be the most stacked Ironman Texas we’ve seen in years. With Kona level talent, this is more than just another race, it’s an early season statement for the Ironman Pro Series and a preview of what we could see later in the year.

Jenna-Caer (@jennacaer), Josh (@joshmvernon), and Fede (@fedemultisport) break down the key matchups, course dynamics, and tactical decisions that could decide the race, from swim gaps and bike power to whether anyone can truly run down the front of the field in Texas heat. 

Highlights
 • Kona level field at Ironman Texas
 • Ironman Pro Series impact on early season racing
 • Taylor Knibb vs Kat Matthews vs Solveig Løvseth
 • Swim gaps and early race separation on the women’s side
 • Bike power dynamics and pacing decisions
 • Kona qualification implications and depth of field
 • Massive men’s field depth and 30 athlete swim pack potential
 • Impact of the 20 metre draft rule on a flat course
 • Key contenders, Blummenfelt, Iden, Van Riel, Schomburg, Long
 • Patrick Lange and Jelle Geens as wildcard factors
 • How Texas compares to Kona in race dynamics
 • Why this race could shape the rest of the season

Quickfire Q&A
 • Biggest threat to Taylor Knibb? Kat Matthews’ run strength and race experience
 • Dark horse on the women’s side? Solveig Løvseth with her current run form
 • Key dynamic in the men’s race? Whether the front group stays together off the bike
 • Who benefits most from the 20 metre rule? Strong solo riders who can hold power
 • What decides the race? Execution in the final hour of the run

Follow the show
 📸 @anothertriathlonpodcast

Transcript

Another Triathlon Pod (00:01.567)
Welcome back to another Triathlon podcast brought to you by Mana Apparel. We're back and we're going to be chatting about the Kona level quality race that is coming up here in Texas this weekend. This race is looking like it's going to be absolutely insane. And we've also got Ironman South Africa going on this weekend as well with some big names on there too. So we'll break down what's going on at both races, but first we're going to catch up with the crew, see how they're going. Let's start with you, Fed. How are things going these days?

Fed (00:29.761)
Yeah, hey guys, happy to talk Texas and everything that's happening in between. Yeah, it's been an indoor trainer weekend for me watching a lot of golf over the weekend. So yeah, just a lot of zone two and getting excited watching the golf. But yeah, that's what's been happening with me doing a bit of a strength program right now and my shoulders are...

Another Triathlon Pod (00:43.164)
You

Fed (01:00.067)
Super sore right now. Like it feels like I swam on a wetsuit for like seven miles. So yeah, we'll see. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's been a while since I've done like a proper strength, uh, training program. Like, of course I do the, the strength and conditioning for triathlon and, all the injury prevention lifts that you need to do to, you know, because everything's so repetitive in tri, uh,

Another Triathlon Pod (01:07.743)
Oof. That sounds beautiful.

Fed (01:29.505)
we often need to work on those little muscles, but like I'm doing bench press like I was doing it when I played baseball and football. So it's definitely interesting to go to the gym with my Ironman 70.3 or Challenge family t-shirt and I'm putting on weights actually this time. So yeah, I feel like an intruder now at the gym and not...

Another Triathlon Pod (01:33.664)
Yeah.

Fed (01:58.985)
I look at people on the treadmills and I'm like, that's I belong, not this side of the gym, but yeah, it's been fun.

Another Triathlon Pod (02:06.795)
There's something fun about lifting heavy in there, but it's so it's crazy how you can be so fit in one aspect and then go lift some weights in a different range of motion or higher weight than you have before and man that doms afterwards is legit.

Josh (02:08.749)
Yeah.

Fed (02:20.567)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. it's a feeling I forgot. Like just last night I was pouring some water over my water bottles and I was like, ooh, my shoulder, that hurts. So yeah, yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (02:32.818)
Thank

Another Triathlon Pod (02:37.045)
Tighten in the work.

Fed (02:38.435)
Yeah.

Josh (02:39.246)
Good for that swim and good for those running arms.

Fed (02:42.495)
Yeah, definitely.

Another Triathlon Pod (02:44.715)
There we go. How about you, Josh? What are you up to these days?

Josh (02:50.766)
I'm in the period of now that I'm signed up for 70.3 and kind of have my season laid out, it's running career is being pushed to the side a little bit. I'm like, wait, this is what it's like to be a triathlete again and 16 hour weeks and 17 hour weeks. my coach has not taken it easy on me right now. She's, trying to get the most out of what I've got in the tank. And it's like, I've taken two FTP tests since I think we last.

Another Triathlon Pod (03:03.443)
My three sports.

Josh (03:21.022)
podcasted. so two weeks in a row, did that. we're just, just trying to get down to it mentally. I think for, I think for her, it's like, you're, right there on the custom. Like, and it was, I had a little blip in the first test, but pulled right back into it and, and, and dropped and came back. Um, and it was like, all right, let's see if you can really get through the 20. And I haven't done a 20 minute FTP test since I've been with her. I've done.

Another Triathlon Pod (03:24.234)
Why?

Josh (03:49.646)
ramps I've done, lactate I've done threshold, like we, we, but we hadn't done a true 20 minute effort. Um, other than like your three by twenties or three by 15. So that's the thing on top of that. I've been doing three by 15, three by twenties, and there've been like almost at FPT or FTP. it was like, take the FTP test and then two days later do three by 15 with, and then repeat and come back and do it. So I actually took.

Another Triathlon Pod (04:13.746)
oof

Josh (04:18.39)
I took all of my workouts and they're like, threw it in the chat GPT just to see what it would say. Cause when I gave it a couple of workouts recently, it was like, I don't know if you should be handling that. You should probably worry about your fatigue load and your training stress scores are getting high. And then I threw it all in there and that's like, well, you're responding well. And a lot of it was a big test was Sunday. I went out for my first.

Fed (04:23.619)
And what did the AI said? Are you alive?

Another Triathlon Pod (04:28.203)
you

Josh (04:46.636)
Sunday? Yeah. Saturday. I went out for my first outdoor ride since I think it was the first time I've actually ridden outside since Oregon. So, so literally, yeah. I mean like eight months, almost exactly. And I had a three and a half hour ride and it was variable. So it was like endurance and then a little bit of tempo and then spin and then endurance. that was like,

Fed (04:55.063)
Wow.

Another Triathlon Pod (04:55.524)
really? jeez. I I was bad.

Josh (05:15.96)
five repeats of that session and it was like 10 minutes, eight minutes, five minutes. So it wasn't, it was, it wasn't a lot, but it was, I was out and back on a trail. I didn't want to go out on a road and have to deal with the effort. So I was like, same thing over and over again, same people over and over again, same kids to avoid. So the VI was a little off from where it should be. And it, but it was close. And then that session ended with six by 30 seconds pickups all out as much as you could go. And my, I, I,

On my way home from that trail, I go past my, neighborhood I grew up in. I like to go in there every once in a while for a nice little mindset rebuild. And, and it's got a hill right by my old house and the last interval I timed perfectly to start on that hill. And for 30 seconds, I averaged 518 Watts or something like that. And that was at the end of a three hour plus ride. And it's like, okay. Absorbing well, taxing well.

Another Triathlon Pod (06:12.32)
with you.

Josh (06:13.354)
recovering and still going at it. So I was like, man, triathlon training is way harder than marathon training. it's just the amount of time, the little amount of time you have to recover in triathlon training. just makes it that much more important. And that's kind of like the, the MO of this whole speech and Rambo that I've been on is just like, I love marathon training. Cause I think you can get so dialed in and you can recover well and go hard and do it right.

Another Triathlon Pod (06:26.858)
And yes.

Josh (06:43.342)
Triathlon training takes so much specificity and you have to really time out your day and your recovery and your nutrition. So it's nice to know that I've got it. all, by the way, all that has, there's been swim tests involved in my fastest ever 500 and my, and, and last night I had 20 by 100s on the 130. It's like, what? No, no, no, no, no. We used to be trying to get to 130.

I did not make it all the way on one 30. Um, but I did get to like eight, 10 second rest and it, man, that it's been a, it's been a heck of a build. My race isn't until June 14th. So literally what two months from now. Um, so it feels good. Um, but I'm like, I have a half marathon in between now and then I ran a 15 K. I've been running PRS and it's like, and running well. So

Another Triathlon Pod (07:23.637)
I'm so happy.

Josh (07:36.854)
All that work in the running has really paid off in the fitness and by continuing to do the swim bike run along the way, it's been really nice. it's now it's just like, okay, I can start to feel the calorie needs going up and then making sure I continue to feed myself. But all that strength work over the winter helped. So yeah, don't be afraid to test and push the limits and keep getting after it as long as you know, you can recover. That's the moral.

Another Triathlon Pod (07:54.685)
Excellent, that's what we like to hear.

Another Triathlon Pod (08:05.419)
Yeah. And what you touched on with that, the fueling needs, I think that's one of the biggest things. And I think that's where we're seeing a lot of these crazy jumps in performance and stuff is just the fuel during the workouts, the fuel afterwards. Like last year I ran a bunch of run PRs on last training and it was literally the fueling was the biggest aspect of it. Cause you just, yeah, you don't slow down near as much. Right. Um, so it's good to hear that you're dialing in that nutrition with the increase in training volume, because that is where so many people.

go wrong, they try to lose a bunch of weight or get into shape with Ironman training that way by restricting their fuel and that's never a good way to go.

Josh (08:41.142)
No, you'll get lighter and then you'll be injured.

Fed (08:44.481)
Yeah. So question guys, what are your tells when your body is asking you to feel more? Because for me, I get really moody, like mood swings. Like I'm really happy or just I hate everyone. Is it the same for you guys?

Another Triathlon Pod (08:44.497)
Mm-hmm, exactly. Yep, 100%.

Another Triathlon Pod (08:58.153)
Yeah. Hate green.

Josh (08:59.892)
Angry.

Josh (09:05.261)
No, I think for me it's, I've gotten it down where I don't even like, try not to get to that point. Like today I'm probably at that point just because I've been in meetings and, and, and I haven't eaten as much as I want to before a big bike workout. But typically like I do the same thing every day. And it's like the same breakfast every morning. Like I wake up and I'm like, yes, I finally get to eat after like resting all night. And it was like, let's get started. And I think.

What I do do is I will look at my training plan for that day and be like, if it's just a 90 minute endurance ride, I'm not going to fuel as much as I will for a two hour, three by threshold ride. And, and those days you do have to be careful because that's where you can continue to not go caloric surplus, right? And you can kind of stay close.

But not over fuel and same thing with during the ride. Like I don't need as many carbs during a 190 spin as I do during a three by 15 threshold and directly after like I've been really good with that right after the ride protein carb like within that first 15 minutes and be as quick as possible there and then stretch and then do whatever, but like get the refuel in. So for me, it's trying to avoid that hangry, as much as possible and, and

eat throughout the day and go to the same things every time. Like you just know what works for you.

Another Triathlon Pod (10:30.923)
Definitely. Yeah, I'd say in the moment that hanger is a real thing if I'm low on there. But what I noticed too is if I have a big training weekend and I haven't refueled as much as I need to, that Monday afterwards, I'll be like starving all day kind of thing. And it's like it starts out if I wake up super hungry, then it's because I haven't fueled enough the day before. So it's funny. Often I find rest days and more hungry than any other day because exercise does have a natural like appetite suppression.

Josh (10:47.042)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (11:00.587)
response as well. just staying on top of that because yeah, if I'm starving the next morning like dying for breakfast, then I did not eat enough the day before. So keeping that in mind. But I like what Josh said too, just making sure especially the protein side, making sure you get that right away. And that's something I've been trying to add more protein to my diet to actually get as much as I need.

It is so much harder than you think. Like I started legitimately tracking and I'm just like, okay, there's a lot of work to be done there because it is a lot of protein. If you're at that gram per pound of body weight kind of thing, that's a solid amount fitting around the training too, because you don't want to go like heavy protein right before like a run session or a hard swim kind of thing. trying to find that balance. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. No, definitely.

Josh (11:26.804)
It's hard.

Josh (11:43.928)
Yeah. It's a little easier to do before the bike, but not the swim and the run. Yeah.

Fed (11:50.859)
Mm.

Another Triathlon Pod (11:51.82)
No. Well, on my side of things, it snowed again on the weekend. This is starting to get ridiculous. By this time of year, I've usually done a few outdoor rides. And Saturday, to be fair, was warm enough that it could have gone and biked outside.

Josh (11:54.926)
Still snowing.

Fed (11:57.653)
As usual.

Josh (11:59.389)
Mm-mm.

Another Triathlon Pod (12:11.529)
I had an afternoon appointment so I had to get it done early and it's like minus five in the morning and then it warms up to like 10, 12 degrees. So it just, there was no way to get it without suffering the whole time. So instead of waiting around for some warm weather here, I'm just gonna go ahead to Texas and go run outside there. Still doing lots of kind of the heat work. My treadmill is still broken, which sucks. I need to deal with that.

Warrant, I actually I got a warranty treadmill last year replacement and now I'm not getting a lot of support because the replacement broke after I got it in September last year so I have to figure out what I want to do there but it has been I forget how spoiled I am by having my pain cave where I can usually just do everything by myself like not having to deal with the Jim bros not having to deal with people who come on the treadmill like soaked in cologne or perfume and it's just like what what

Fed (13:04.365)
Mm.

Another Triathlon Pod (13:05.579)
I shouldn't be able to taste your clone. And then, you know, because it's me, I just look like a crazy person in a hoodie on the treadmill, just sweating a ridiculous amount, probably making people around me uncomfortable too. So all around, I need my treadmill is where I'm at.

Fed (13:06.861)
Yeah.

Josh (13:22.114)
Yeah, we're a little spoiled at this point.

Fed (13:24.194)
Hmm.

Another Triathlon Pod (13:24.987)
Definitely. But yeah, kind of cruising through the training. I have decided I'm not going to do Ironman this year. I'm going to do 70.3s and duathlons and try to qualify for the duathlon world champs next year. It's going to be in Edmonton. So playing kind of changed from going from long distance world champs to now try for a duathlon kind of thing. you know, life comes in waves at times and just a little less time to train a little bit more fun work stuff. So finding that balance a little bit more. So unfortunately, well.

I usually do it every other year in Ironman anyways and last year I did too so a little break is good there.

Josh (13:56.717)
Yeah. When are you heading to Texas?

Another Triathlon Pod (14:01.307)
Tomorrow, today's Tuesday when we're recording, so I'll head over on Wednesday and then yeah, see what I can get for some pro interviews. Go check out some of events going in and we'll have a massive Mana apparel booth there. Definitely go check out the Mana account. They're going to have a signing session with Yeli Geans, the recently crowned 70.3 world champion. Now he's racing in Mana and he's going to be doing his first Ironman, so that'll definitely be an event you want to go hit up. So that'll be very, very cool and it's always fun with the Mana crew.

Josh (14:31.054)
Absolutely. Yeah. A little FOMO there. just, uh, it happens to coincide with Boston Marathon weekend and there's going to be a lot. My night, my, my weekend starts on Wednesday. I'm, I'm helping lead a shakeout run for on tomorrow night, um, as a pacer for, one of their activations, but, got a nice, got a nice little hookup with the brand new pair of light spray hypers. So, uh, those are smooth. So yeah, I mean, it's Boston Marathon weekend. So it's like.

Another Triathlon Pod (14:37.182)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (14:49.323)
You're all right.

Fed (14:53.931)
Go!

Another Triathlon Pod (14:54.901)
Worth the effort.

Josh (15:00.414)
I, and we got a few mon of people coming to run. So I'm actually going to get to hang out with Henry for the first time. yeah, yeah. We, I mean, we pretty much chat every night. He's always, he's tapping into me and asking me questions, giving me swim tips. so it'll be nice to meet. yeah, his, his parents live right here too. So, they'll,

Another Triathlon Pod (15:06.315)
that guy's a quote machine.

Another Triathlon Pod (15:22.056)
you

Josh (15:26.476)
Yeah, there's just so much going on in Boston. These major marathons is just insane. And then when it's in your hometown and, given my profession and working in partnerships now, it's just like, I have to be there. It's actually like, Hey boss, I'm actually going to be at the Boston marathon working. So sorry, I'm not there for a call at 11 o'clock today.

Another Triathlon Pod (15:29.897)
enough.

Another Triathlon Pod (15:36.971)
Oh, for sure.

Fed (15:45.411)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (15:45.728)
Yeah, no, and it's just fun being in that energy. Like I didn't realize after, yeah, checking out Chicago and stuff, it's crazy to see that energy, that many people going towards their goals and it seems it takes over a little bit, which is fun to see.

Josh (15:48.59)
Yeah.

Josh (15:59.437)
Yeah, yeah, this this is hopefully the last year I'll be looking in as a spectator. So we're start that streak start that streak back up next year.

Another Triathlon Pod (16:04.767)
There we go.

Excellent. Well, let's jump into some Texas talk going on here because, whew, this is gonna be a race. Let's get started with the women's side of things to go. So I was pulling up Torsen Rad on Tri-Writing. He always has the breakdowns of everything, which is really, really fun to see. And I was gonna see here what the...

So the race results last year, we had Kat Matthews in first, Taylor Nib in second, and Lisa Pritter in third. And some of the top times in here, it's really interesting to see how they pushed it down. And that's where Kat Matthews did that 8.10, getting closer to that sub eight hour mark. And we had Christian Blumenfeld setting the record at a 7.24.

Josh (16:47.65)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (16:53.577)
which is, no, maybe not. There was a 7.13 by Patrick Lange earlier there, but last year was definitely hot on that run course and we are going to have some massive names racing this week. And the reason why, if you guys haven't been paying attention to the triathlon world, we're seeing so many big races early season is with the Ironman Pro Series. A lot of people are chasing those early season races to get a couple Ironmans out of the way, have a little rest period and then go into the second half of the season. Now that there's so many pro races everywhere.

these days. But let's take a look. So here's some of the top names that we're going to be seeing in the women's field. We have of course last year's winner Taylor Nibb will be out there. Sorry, Kat Matthews, our previous winner will be out there. got Taylor Nibb, Solvey Gloveseth, Lisa Pruder, Hannah Berry, Grace Beck, Marta Sanchez, Jackie Herring, Sarah Spence, Indy... Oh, I think is Indy out? Did I see that? Okay.

Josh (17:45.556)
Indy is out as of today I guess yeah she just didn't feel like she was ready.

Another Triathlon Pod (17:50.604)
Got you. Okay, we got Kate Cran, Danielle Lewis. So a number of names there for this race. So let's kind of dive into what we think is going to happen here. So we've got this always a race where there's usually so many male pros racing, we see the top women kind of going through the back of the male's field for the swim.

But we'll start with this one. have some of the fastest swimmers here. We're going to have like the Taylor Nib will be around 50 minutes. Got Rachel Zelinskis will be around that 50-52. There's a Marguerite of Ryan. She's predicted around 51 minutes. we're... Yeah, well, even Taylor will be up there too. So like we could see five minutes plus.

Josh (18:26.292)
Should probably lead out the swim, right?

Yeah.

Well, remember Marguerite Orion is the one that loves to beat out the top people. She's the one that danced in front of Lucy Charles coming out of Maryland last year. So who her and her fiance or boyfriend, the two of them have both done really well early on in their careers, especially leading out the swims.

Another Triathlon Pod (18:41.383)
I forgot about that. Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (18:53.807)
is very cool and like the time difference is big so this is usually usually non-wetsuit and it's in it's not in salt water so we definitely I think see a difference between the strong swimmers and the not as strong swimmers just having that difference not having that wetsuit support or the buoyancy of the ocean through a canal but I will say last year the energy is like massive long week now there and it's so cool because you can run along the water and be like two feet from the athletes in the water racing for the win.

Josh (19:15.352)
Yeah.

Josh (19:20.3)
Yeah. Especially as they're finishing a one point or yeah. mean, they're, finishing a 2.4 mile swim and it's like, okay, this is at the end, getting them to the line and the whole canals finish. It's kind of like as close to Roth as you would get in North America.

Another Triathlon Pod (19:28.479)
Thank you.

Another Triathlon Pod (19:33.18)
Yeah, it's so cool. I'm seeing that bridge and we're looking everything like it is just absolutely packed. So yeah, like we could legitimately see like a five minute break between Taylor Nip and then getting closer to that chase pack with a Cat Matthews, Elise Pruder, Henneberry, Grace Thack, but they've got some serious bike power which is what we can see.

Josh (19:37.954)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (19:55.04)
Then again, Taylor Knibb will be out front and Taylor Knibb just does Taylor Knibb things on a flat fast course and puts down the power. What are some thoughts that you guys have on this race going in? What are we going to see?

Josh (20:06.154)
It looks like the weather is going to be very favorable, in terms of what it could be and what it has been in the past. There's a chance the race is on Sunday, The Saturday. Okay. So cloudy, which is a huge factor. and only maybe hitting 80 degrees. Now there is a chance of thunderstorms and stuff in the afternoon, but that's probably after the race is mostly settled. So,

Another Triathlon Pod (20:17.031)
Mm-hmm, chancery. No, Saturday,

Fed (20:17.943)
So, that's it for today.

Another Triathlon Pod (20:32.97)
in the evening.

Josh (20:34.806)
I mean, you're like there earlier in the week, it's high eighties or nineties. so whatever that is in Celsius, mid 30, something like that. so the temperature is definitely dropping for the weekend, which is a big factor. It'll be windy. And, and obviously these girls all know how to, get aero and the likes of. Dolby and cat can, can push through some of that headwind and then really fly on the downwind. And it's a.

Another Triathlon Pod (20:43.124)
Yeah, it was pretty easy.

Josh (21:04.684)
to, to pull out and back. Right. So they're going to go into it twice and with it twice. So I just think we've always seen the bike makes a different differentiator here and the form that cats in. Man. like you said, though, Taylor's going to be so far out in front this time, but I don't know. I just.

It's good. This is a heavyweight fight. we're, missing the, the Alice Alberts who loves this race and has done well in the past. She's not there. I think it would have been neat to see Indy Lee push, push a little bit too. yeah. And, and it, seems like she's close to, being in form. Holly Lawrence dropped out too. That would have been another nice one to see back. I just think we, we, know.

Another Triathlon Pod (21:40.427)
She didn't have to bike for sure.

Josh (21:56.667)
the fronts. think there's a couple of question marks with like, how fit is Lisa Perter and where, where is she this season? We know where Kat is, we know where Taylor is. And, we, we have a pretty good idea where Solve is at. And, and that run from Solve that she did in Oceanside is like, that's scary for the rest of them. I would say Solve is probably the scariest for Kat Matthews coming into this weekend.

Another Triathlon Pod (22:19.267)
I think so, like her run is just, man, she's turned it on. Like it really, the leaps and bounds, it feels like we've seen in there, because Oceanside is crazy. You look at her Strava, she's doing some crazy run workouts on Strava too. She's gone full Norwegian method, like showing the workouts and just loving life with those boys. So she's definitely learning from the best. man, it just, it seems to be clicking for her, right? And we haven't seen her.

run those kind of speeds in Ironman yet, but yeah, I don't know what we're gonna see from her this weekend, especially if it's not gonna be like 35 degrees out there.

Fed (22:58.573)
Yeah.

Josh (22:58.698)
I would love to see a Danielle Lewis and Jackie Herring play into this. just, I mean, if Jackie has a really good swim and can stick with some of the bikers that she can hang with, that's one thing I don't think we can expect Danielle Lewis to be anywhere near on the swim and for her to make a comeback like she's done in the past in this field is probably not very viable.

Another Triathlon Pod (23:20.139)
What do think, Fed?

Fed (23:20.547)
Yeah, the way I see it is two different races. So we're going to have the main race. we know the big theater is Solveig, Taylor. But then again, it's going to be really interesting with who comes fourth all the way to like fifth and seventh. I'm fighting Kona's lots because there are a lot of quality athletes over there where you have the likes of Hannah Berry.

Josh (23:28.172)
Yeah.

Fed (23:48.396)
like you were mentioning, Josh, Lisa, Perter, Daniel Lewis. So it's going to be really interesting how the race dynamics unfold specifically on the bike, because if Lisa is fit, she could ride with Joanna Ryder, which she's not the fastest runner, but she can bike really, really hard. And maybe she could use her to bridge the gap. But it's definitely going to be interesting to see. I don't know, like I see we're going to see a lot of

moving back and forth from those fourth spot to like tenth spot all over the race and it's gonna make it exciting for sure.

Josh (24:27.758)
It's a good point that you're making on the two races too, because, there's, there might even be three races, right? There's the race for the podium. And, and I think we all know there's a few players that are going to play into that four or five of them that are going to factor in the top, top three spots. And then there's the race for the pro series points and that'll factor in how close can they say. And then that third race is what you mentioned is the KQ. There are six ladies that already have KQs and, and five of them are in that top echelon.

Where like if they finish up, so now you're talking six KQ slots that are going to go to TaylorNib just needs to finish really. Right. Lisa Perter still needs one. Grace tech still needs one. So there's a huge KQ implication here and it's going to continue to drop down when you're talking six slots and five of the top 10, 12 ladies already have them.

Another Triathlon Pod (25:21.939)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think we're gonna see a lot of that. And what's interesting with this too, Torsten always has like this strength of field. So he says it's about 53 % of a typical Kona field. And I think that's about accurate here. We do have the heavyweights and that's what we've seen in a lot of these races, like the top few names, the really heavyweights, we know they're gonna be out there unless they have a catastrophic kind of event in there. We've just seen them back up, go again, back up, go again.

As we get down the field, definitely gets a lot more interesting. And one thing with Lisa Perter, she definitely has so much potential and we've seen some of her run splits at other events and stuff. But her average run time now is only around three hours, three hours, two minutes kind of thing. So if she's fit and she's on, I think we're going to see that drop drastically because we know what kind of runner she is. Just hasn't been at Ironman yet.

Josh (26:11.99)
ran a 249 last year. So we got to put sub 250 on the table would be my guess is if you're having a day and you want to win this race, that's probably around that 250 mark, especially considering Taylor nibs a lot more.

She's just more advanced in this distance now than she was last year at this point and, the experience in Kona and that Kona is as close to Texas as you get in terms of bike. Right. And, and, and I think this is a huge opportunity for Taylor to see where she's at and what she did in Oceanside is ridiculous considering the fact that she could barely run at the end. I think that's going to help her pace this one a little bit better.

Another Triathlon Pod (26:43.093)
Yeah.

Josh (27:02.35)
It's crazy. don't know what happened in 2018, but I don't know if you guys have seen the swim records, but those were both set in 2018. So there must have been some crazy current wind or something that year. It must have been wetsuit too. Cause it's been close, but this year it doesn't look like it's going to be possible. The age groupers might get wetsuit legal, but yeah, we're talking some crazy bike times this year as well, I think.

Another Triathlon Pod (27:20.511)
Mm-hmm.

Another Triathlon Pod (27:24.767)
So what do we have to see? if we look at like there's legitimately Taylor Nibb could be 10 minutes ahead of Kat Matthews off the bike. Like losing five minutes in the swim, losing five minutes on the bike is not anything that would be shocking. So how much time do you think Kat thinks she needs ahead of Taylor Nibb for a race like this? And a Salvi, because Salvi will be a little slower on the swim and the bike, but we don't know what she can run.

Josh (27:51.841)
I Taylor's never run sub three off the bike, has she? I don't know if she's run a sub three marathon, period, right?

Another Triathlon Pod (27:55.794)
I'm not sure I don't think so. Yeah. Yeah, we know Kat can do that 249.

Fed (27:59.352)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (28:03.881)
So that's where it gets like super close, right? If Taylor's running three hours and Kat's 249 kind of thing, like that could be down to the absolute wire. And that's why I love races like this where they do have different strengths in there with Taylor Nibb with the bike and the swim and stuff. She'll make some time. Kat Matthews swims solid. Her bike is very solid, but she'll still likely lose time to Taylor. And then it comes down to a run battle where she'll be hunting her the whole day.

Fed (28:04.077)
Yeah.

Josh (28:28.374)
It'll be interesting to see the dynamics between Kat Solvay and Taylor and how that breaks out. Cause we know it's going to be most likely Taylor. And then how do Kat and Solvay come together and do they come together on the bike and how, how hard do they push the bike knowing that the two of them can run down Taylor nib within let's say five to 10 minutes. If they're inside of 10 minutes, they think they have a chance. Now, how much of a risk do they want to take?

Another Triathlon Pod (28:45.418)
Yeah.

Josh (28:57.1)
because we know Kat's going after 5,000 points. And at the end of the day, she gets 5,000 this season's already over.

Another Triathlon Pod (29:05.013)
just crazy. Yeah, the 200.

Josh (29:06.266)
Which is in terms of her big check at the end of the year. Now, Kona is still the, the, the, the, big gold diamond. so she, man, I, I, am curious to see if cat actually pushes the bike. Cause we've seen her, like you just said, lose more time to Taylor nib than she had in previous years. More recently. Does she pull that gap in a little bit here with a stronger bike? Cause we've seen her bike drop off a little bit.

Another Triathlon Pod (29:13.63)
Mm.

Josh (29:35.586)
I wouldn't say drop off, her run has just become so much of her, comeback capabilities. Does she let Taylor get away?

Another Triathlon Pod (29:38.975)
Yeah, I'm certain of it.

Another Triathlon Pod (29:44.331)
I don't think there's a light in there. But how much time?

Josh (29:47.672)
Does she push the bike more? Does she push the bike more than we've seen in the past? Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (29:52.904)
No, fair enough. it's gonna be good to watch in there. Well, let's jump on over to the men's side. This or actually let's make some women's predictions before we jump over to the men's. And I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna go check out that pro tri news. What do they call it? Yeah, you go do that. That's definitely fine. They're not giving us anything for that. It's just fun to see that stepping back up to it so that we can have a little more investment in it. I think it makes more fun to watch the races.

Josh (30:08.13)
Gotta do our fantasy. Yeah.

Fed (30:10.776)
Yeah.

Josh (30:20.886)
Yeah, I think they've already figured out who's going to win that whole thing. think the same guy like has won the demo week and week one in Oceanside. It's like, God, how do you compete with this guy? Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (30:26.443)
That's amazing. Okay, so what do you guys think? We'll start with you, Josh. Who do you think has it? What's the podium look like?

Fed (30:49.911)
No pressure.

Josh (30:50.19)
Nope. It's like, Taylor like, I don't. So here's the thing. I actually think Taylor has a very good chance of winning this race, but she might not because it's the same thing as last year. All she has to do is get around and get the KQ. And in her mind, like she didn't have to go to the well in Texas last year when cat went by here. It was like,

Another Triathlon Pod (30:50.281)
Like, I don't know.

Another Triathlon Pod (30:59.211)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (31:17.642)
Okay. Well, I'm going to get my goal here and that's Kona. So I still think as competitive as Taylor is, Kona means so much more to her than it even did last year after what happened in Kona and on the Queen K last year. So I think you're still going to see Kat Matthews, Solveigh, Taylor. One, two, three.

Another Triathlon Pod (31:39.881)
Okay, how about you, Fred?

Fed (31:43.108)
yeah, I was thinking along same lines as Josh. I think Taylor is aiming Kona after A-Race. Of course, everyone, everyone wants to win the pro, the pro series, but I definitely see Taylor being way more inspired by executing well in Kona and maybe not burning all of her matches. So just for that reason in particular, I'm going to go, I'm going to go.

Solvey Cat Taylor.

Another Triathlon Pod (32:15.723)
Okay, well I disagree with both of you guys.

Fed (32:18.403)
Of course he does.

Josh (32:20.14)
Good, because it makes it a lot better when you do.

Another Triathlon Pod (32:23.827)
So I think I don't think Taylor has it in her to just kind of knock around there. I think that last year she was happy with the Kona spot for Iron Man Texas and getting that second place because she was still in fact finding mode about the Iron Man distance and what she can do at it. Now she's had a couple hits at it and they haven't all gone perfectly. And I think for her own headspace, she's going to want to get that win to show herself what she can do at the Iron Man distance and execute in hot humid conditions.

like she's gonna see in Texas. So I'm gonna call it Taylor Nib in first, Kat Matthews in second, and yeah, I can't go past Salvi. Like I wanna say Lisa Prudner will have a great day out there and she possibly could, but just the way Salvi is running right now, I can't go past her for the podium.

Josh (33:11.084)
close do you think it is with Cat coming up on Taylor?

Another Triathlon Pod (33:15.871)
I think she'll get within a minute. I think she'll get close, close. Yeah. I hope so. And it's so tough with that chord, because it's like rock hard concrete that they're running on. You have the heat of the day. have like, oof, that one is tough.

Josh (33:19.928)
Wow. So we're going to have they're going to go to the wall. Yeah.

Josh (33:34.317)
It's a race you need a good recovery coming out of.

Another Triathlon Pod (33:36.976)
definitely that will beat you up a fair bit. Okay. While we have 53 % strength of field in the women's side, we have 86 % of a typical Kona field in the men's race. I just, I don't know in order to start with this, if you look on Torsten Radd's ratings, he kind of has different color colors on it for the darker the color, the higher up or the more or the faster they'll be for the swim, bike and the run.

Fed (33:49.985)
Wow.

Another Triathlon Pod (34:05.835)
And like the top 12 is just a solid block of the darkest color for swim, bike and run for all of the athletes because they are all so evenly matched there. But here's some of the top competitors that we have coming out tonight. I list 30 of them. They will be top, but we'll go with Chrisman Blumenfeld, Casper Storms, Antonio Benito Lopez, Rudy Van Berg, Yona Schomburg, Gustav Eden, Martin Van Riel, Magnus Dittle, Patrick Lange, Vincent Louis, Cameron Mayne, Nick Thompson, Pell Schuster, Leon Chevalier, Cameron Whorf, Casper.

Josh (34:14.765)
Thanks

Another Triathlon Pod (34:35.519)
Jason West, Sam Long, Christian Hoganhawke, it just goes on and on and on. And then, I'm not seeing Yella here, but Yella Gaines will be on there. He's an unknown for, yeah, unknown for Iron Man, so he's got no rankings yet. Guys, where, where?

Josh (34:54.776)
What's wrong with, why did Magnus have to go and get shingles? Like, come on now.

Fed (34:58.11)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (34:58.759)
I forgot about that. Yeah, no, he's out. We are going to see a massive front group like the top 16, no, top 18 guys are all predicted to be within like a minute of each other outside of the water. And then if you go down, there's another 10 that'll be around that same time too. So like we're looking at a pack of 30 guys coming out of the water together off that. And then I think what kind of makes this interesting too is especially on a course like this where

20 meters makes a much bigger difference on a flat road into a headwind than it does on some other events. So you're going to have those 30 odd guys that have to separate into 20 meters coming out of T1 and then riding their own race a little bit more. How do you guys think that's going to affect this?

Fed (35:44.588)
Well, it

Josh (35:44.706)
think we saw a little bit of it in Oceanside. Go ahead, Fred.

Fed (35:48.172)
No, I was just going to say that that exact thought that it's going to make the race a bit more dynamic. And we're definitely going to see like a lot more smarter race from athletes, not a lot of reactive racing. They're going to probably stay within their limits on the bike. And that's only going to make the run way more exciting for us. Because if you want to pass like 10 athletes, that's a

20 meter surges every single time. I think everybody's going to stay within their limits, especially like from case 100 to like 160, we're going to see a lot of smart bike riding. But then again, I could be super wrong and everybody's going to be like just going all out and trying to see who explodes. And yeah, absolutely.

Another Triathlon Pod (36:42.571)
Who's the guys?

Josh (36:47.114)
It's, it's one of those things because of the bike, the firepower that you've got in here. And, and I don't think we're going to have Christian Blumenfeld miss Sam Long come through this time.

Another Triathlon Pod (36:57.119)
Right? Like that's another thing too, right? Like with that many, if you have 30 men coming out of the water, it is easy to miss someone coming out the front. If you're 20 back, you don't see what's going on in the front. You don't see the breaks. You don't see a change up there.

Josh (37:09.634)
Yeah. And, and it's, we, I still don't know how he missed him. I think he must've just mistaken him for somebody else, but it's like, how many people are on that color track and that big? And I don't know what Christian was doing. mean, does he have one of those cameras in his helmet where he doesn't have to look up? But Fetty's right. mean, the dynamics with this field.

Another Triathlon Pod (37:17.386)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (37:21.448)
You

Another Triathlon Pod (37:30.101)
There we go.

Josh (37:38.923)
Are going to truly tell us how is Kona going to look in the future at 20 meters? And this is, it's going to be a big, maybe Magnus is lucky to not be there and really get a good view of strategy and going into it. Like, do you have to go off the front? Does Sam Laidlow and Magnus did have to do what they've always done in Kona and keep going after it and more so now and, and Martin Van Riel like.

Get out the water and go like there there's an, Jonas, right. And so those swimmers, I think you have to, right? If you're, if you're a swimmer in this field and, and you've got the biking power that Jonas has, you've got to go and stay away from that because otherwise, if you're in that pack of 20,

Another Triathlon Pod (38:09.323)
Yeah. He just goes.

Josh (38:31.116)
That's a lot of Watts to throw down. you're in a pack of 15, that's a lot of Watts to throw down. Now, what they did say in Oceanside was there were a lot of opportunities to slot in legally. and, and gaps were created within that train and people weren't necessarily stuck to the 20 and they were more like 25, 30 at times. And people were able to slot in. And I think it became almost like a, a Peloton where they were just kind of taking turns on the breakaway and,

Another Triathlon Pod (38:40.469)
So.

Josh (38:59.584)
And that was kind of a gentleman's wager, I guess. I mean, like, they just kind of like let you in. it seems like people are okay with taking the break at the 20 and there isn't as many surges, but if you are going to make a move, I think the move is going to come early.

Another Triathlon Pod (39:17.291)
Yeah. And I think it's funny because I heard different accounts of it based on where they were in the field. Like the front of the field, the Christians and stuff were saying that it was a lot smoother, it was a lot less surgy. But then you hear like that second pack in there and it sounds like it was a lot more surgy. Kind of people just trying to hang on to that 20 meters. And I think that's where we get, if that effort is hard, you're going to try to hang in as close as you can. And then they don't want to be dropped off at all. Where you get Christian Blue and Feltys and he's like, cool, I can do this. I'm not trying to go right at the blue.

in there to make sure I'm within that 20.

Josh (39:49.687)
It's such a different course too. this, this will be like there, there's no losing sight of people per se. Like you can in Oceanside with all of the turns and the ins and outs and the climbs. Like this is like, okay, we're on a highway and I can see, and for the most part, right. It's, it's a much more TT style type race than, we had in Oceanside. So we'll see how that factors into Oceanside, the technical factor, the, bad roads.

Another Triathlon Pod (40:03.019)
straight hit up,

Josh (40:16.92)
You're not going to get that here in Texas. You got wind and heat and those are the big main factors.

Another Triathlon Pod (40:23.179)
So we have someone like Apache Klang has kind of ranked ninth on Torsten's ratings there and we know what he can do on a hot day on a road that you just stay in TT position on, but do we think that the bike power up front with the Blumenfelds, the Rudy Bomberg, Casper Storms, all of those pushing it from the front, is that bike gap gonna be too big that he can't come back from it? We see how good his run is, but Christian has been running incredibly well.

Josh (40:52.674)
I think this is the time that Christian blows up though, because of that, because of this field and, and, because he has allowed people to get away and he's had to go to the well, especially in Oceanside to, to, to get there. Does he allow, like he hasn't been pushing as many Watts as he had in years past. And we've seen him just sit in and, and, but he can't just sit in, this 20 meter life that he.

Another Triathlon Pod (40:55.722)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (41:03.368)
This is it.

Josh (41:17.662)
It's a little different as much as he might tell you differently. it is, he's not getting that same draft benefit. And I think we might see him push a little bit more in Texas and that'll come back to bite him. So I believe a Patrick Lang isn't the equation. We just have no clue what kind of shape he's in. mean, right. He hasn't, yeah, he hasn't raced, in a long time. So we don't know where he's at. We don't know where Martin Van Riel is at. know.

Another Triathlon Pod (41:31.371)
Mm-hmm. It's been a while since he was on the geek. Yeah.

Josh (41:43.426)
who he's training with, how much he's been training. We can look at Patrick's training and stuff like that, but we know where Sam Long's at. We know where KB's at. Yellow, kind of know just not at this distance, right? I think that's another huge factor. Like can Yellow run 230ish?

Another Triathlon Pod (41:58.764)
So tonight, was it on his podcast? They were saying like 225. I think you think you know what you can run at an Ironman until you're in an Ironman and it punches you in the face and you're just like, it's going on right now. Yeah.

Josh (42:04.59)
Yeah, I mean, Aaron Royle's crazy.

Josh (42:14.008)
Yeah. I can't see Yela ever saying that seriously until he's been through one.

Fed (42:20.343)
Yeah, you know, you know, right away when you get off the bike, you're like, okay, I have it or I don't. and definitely like, I remember a very, famous quote, Jan said, like, nobody can prepare you for the last hour during an Ironman. Doesn't matter who you are, how fit you are that last hour. It's just pure pain. And, there is no, there is no magic coming out of the bag if to pull out like a

Another Triathlon Pod (42:26.059)
Yeah, oh, 100%. Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (42:43.263)
for you.

Fed (42:49.795)
super fast marathon. If you don't have it on that last hour, you don't.

Josh (42:54.518)
Ask Kyle Smith, most recently.

Another Triathlon Pod (42:56.715)
Yeah, true. Yeah, Yellow's really interesting because like I want to put him up there before and he is a smaller guy and a course like this that is flat with the wind definitely goes towards just a pure power rider kind of thing. But we saw how good he was on the bike at 70.3 world's crashing, going down, coming back, being right up there with the wind felt this. It's exciting to see what he'll do. And of course he'll be racing in a monochrome suit that practically gives him the wind around there.

But I'm so excited to see it, right? Like how good would it be to see like a Christian Blumenfeld, see Jelle Gaines up against him again and have some of those other players there? Like I want to see this go down to a run battle. And I think that is very likely in this race because you have so many people in the pack. You're to have a massive group coming out of the water of like 30 people. So people who would typically be dropped off the back have that opportunity to kind of keep in the group because there are so many bodies.

It's gonna go out onto the bike and it's a straightaway. Like you said, Josh, you can see everyone. There's no getting away from it. So if they can keep them inside, I think a lot of people turn themselves inside out for the chance of win just to hold onto that bike pack. Cause when you can see 20 guys ahead of you, like you're not dropping off unless you absolutely have to, right? We could see a lot of people coming off the bike and onto the run together, unless one of them goes like kamikaze and Blumenfeld tries to go off the front and split up the group with a few Norwegians in there.

I see a big group coming off the bike together. What do you guys think? Is that a

Josh (44:29.42)
I mean, we haven't even talked about Lionel Sanders yet.

Another Triathlon Pod (44:32.523)
Okay.

Josh (44:36.194)
Yes, he's racing. The only one that isn't racing is like, keep looking like where's cam work. Like the bike. So what kind of, again, we don't, we, we, we don't even know what shape Lionel is in and the fact that he didn't do Oceanside. came off with little Dallas and obviously did what he did there.

Another Triathlon Pod (44:41.021)
Yeah. my goodness. Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (44:46.29)
don't even know a Sanders. Yeah, I forgot that he was racing actually.

Josh (45:02.476)
Yeah. I mean, I don't think many people think he can be a factor, because of the swim, but the bike and, and the guy knows how to train and he knows how to race at this distance.

Another Triathlon Pod (45:15.688)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and if you, interested... He does, yeah.

Fed (45:16.257)
Yeah.

Josh (45:17.654)
and he needs a KQ.

Another Triathlon Pod (45:20.689)
So to give you an idea on the swim here, so we've got Lionel's and predicted 53-46 for the swim and the top guys are coming in at like just under 48 minutes kind of thing. So we're looking at probably five minutes swim deficit if he's on solid swim form, but then you know he could come out with a Sam Long kind of thing. So they could be in a group fairly close to each other. They seem to have been getting closer and closer. Sam's looking at about the same swim time predicted and you know they'll put in some bike power but

I just, the two of them were like 70.3. They're so good on the bike and run. I think Iron Man, just haven't seen it outside of Latinas had some standout performances for sure, but we just haven't seen that Iron Man consistency.

Josh (46:05.258)
No, I don't think we can, I don't think he has the run like, but we haven't. And what's a good run for Lionel? don't know these days. Like, is it two 45?

Another Triathlon Pod (46:10.411)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Man, I'd love to be proven wrong and Lionel just runs through the field. That's crazy thing. Like that would be the most epic day.

Josh (46:23.352)
So, I mean, there's some Vincent Louie, Nick, Nick Thompson was right there off the bike last year in the lead with, with camera, right? Jason West has had a good start to the year. another one we don't know much about right now, but we know he's going to be upfront is Christian Hoganhag. And you're talking about swim bike there. mean, there's another guy that like, what kind of mood is he in? What is the strategy? And we don't know. That's the thing. Like there's so many factors here with.

Fed (46:23.586)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (46:29.387)
Yeah, he was pushing the bike the whole time.

Another Triathlon Pod (46:41.385)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (46:51.052)
the strategy side of it that we don't know except for Jonas Schomburg. He's gone.

Another Triathlon Pod (46:54.763)
Oh yeah, yeah, everyone knows the onus is to race hard, sprint. I just, I'm waiting for that day. He holds it to the finish. just, love the way he races so much.

Josh (47:07.596)
Yeah. And, who goes with Nick Thompson to try and chase them down? And I think there's so many, we haven't talked about Casper storms. Gustav just has to get around and I think that's all he's going to do. This is going to be another, another check Mark towards Kona for him. And we saw what he did last year. He just kind of got better as the season went along. I think he's looking to have a better Texas than he had last year. And.

Another Triathlon Pod (47:23.934)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (47:31.637)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (47:36.463)
And he will do that and he'll get around and validate, but there's a lot of KQ's already off the table. I mean, even Sam Long is good to go for this year. So what, but he doesn't know how to lose. Yeah. No, Sam Long's already in. He's, he's already, he's, yeah, he's fully, yeah. Just, just Gustav has to validate. so of that top like

Another Triathlon Pod (47:47.21)
Yeah.

He just needs to validate, yeah.

Oh, Sorry, thank you for stopping in.

Josh (48:02.254)
10 ranked guys, you're looking at half of them almost have KQs too. that's a similar to the female field. There's a good chunk, but a Jonas, a Martin, a Yela still need their KQs.

Another Triathlon Pod (48:16.573)
Yeah, and you know what, we haven't seen Yellow do Ironman, but you got to think he's so good that I can absolutely see him on the podium, like just till fight to the end kind of thing. Curious to see how he does on that flat bike course. The hilly bike course definitely suited him in Marbella. Be interested to see what he can do just putting the power down on the flat into the wind. How that goes for him.

Josh (48:38.434)
But does the KQ factor into the strategy too? think that's.

Another Triathlon Pod (48:41.547)
100%. He is going there for the KQ. Whatever to do.

Josh (48:45.646)
So how hard does he push the bike? Yeah. Like keep me in range so that I can go for a nice run and chase a few guys down and finish eighth, right? Eighth, if he finishes eighth, he knows he's qualifying.

Another Triathlon Pod (48:58.283)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, pretty good odds there. Yeah. Oh, this is gonna be so... I'm so excited to go down there. This is gonna be so good. This race is gonna be absolutely insane. So it's got a prize purse of $175,000 paying 10 deep. And what the crazy part is with a field like this, like the people who are not gonna get paid and who are not gonna get the Kona spots is mind boggling to think about. Like they could show up to almost any other Ironman and be on the podium for the title winner. Yeah.

Josh (49:24.29)
They could go to South Africa.

Another Triathlon Pod (49:26.475)
Like it is great. got to think it's interesting with the Simon Pro Series. You do have to do some of the earlier season races, right? But if you're not a guaranteed podium, it's definitely choose the off like peak races kind of thing. Like go race during the summer. That'll be a little less lit because if you lose 20 minutes to Blumenfeld in here, like you're not getting much for points for the Pro Series. I'm saying to see. Okay.

Josh (49:54.415)
It is a tough choice. The scheduling alone, think, I don't think everyone's figured it out. Obviously, Kat Matthews has figured out, KB's figured it out pretty well. The Norwegians. Yeah. So we'll see how that continues to go. And then it'll be interesting too, because even still, some of these guys still could factor into LA 28 too. And like, how does that all change going forward? Which is nuts to think that we're talking this distance and that distance.

Another Triathlon Pod (50:00.544)
Yeah.

So far, yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (50:15.883)
That's been sick.

Yeah, you know, though we've never seen anyone do it though. We've never seen someone like go along legitimately and then go back to that Olympic distance. Forgot it.

Josh (50:28.514)
Yeah. By the way, I have my ticket window to buy LA 2028 tickets on Friday. I'll take all the donations now, apparently.

Another Triathlon Pod (50:37.355)
I've seeing some crazy pricing coming out of it, like just... Insane.

Josh (50:41.848)
preliminary rounds, 1400 bucks a ticket. It's like, yeah, it's nuts. I can't imagine I'm going to buy anything. I'm going to like, all right, let's hopefully get into one of the triathlon events.

Another Triathlon Pod (50:44.811)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (50:52.875)
Pretty sure those are all outdoor. can just, you just have to set up early and you're fine.

Josh (50:54.638)
Yeah, I'll give Nick Goldston a call. like, hey, can I watch from your place?

Another Triathlon Pod (50:59.883)
Here we go. Okay, let's attempt this. I'm gonna start with you, Fed. Who do you think is gonna be on the podium?

Fed (51:11.713)
Wow. Well, I could throw like 20 names and I could be right every single time. But I want to make things a bit interesting and I definitely, I could, okay, I definitely see Patrick Lange being a factor just because of the 20 meters. I think it plays to his favor, especially on this course that's so flat. He could actually hold arrow and not lose as much time as other course like

Another Triathlon Pod (51:15.755)
Totally, yeah.

Josh (51:16.024)
Yup.

Another Triathlon Pod (51:21.972)
That's

Fed (51:40.708)
Kona, for example, where the wind plays a big factor. And I think he's going to run incredibly fast, but it's not going to be enough for the wind. But my winner for Texas, I'm picking Martin Van Riel. Second place, I'm going to go Belgium again, so Jelle. Second place. And third place, Ironman champion, Kasper Stornis for third place.

I don't want KB to blow up. Of course I want him to be amazing every single time, but I'm on the same boat as Josh. think with a lot of high caliber athletes, Leon Chevalier, Kam Wirff, Lionel Sanders, everyone, I think it's going to be, he's going to get a little bit on his head and he's going to probably over bike and try to do something amazing. And unfortunately I think it's going to come back and bite him later in the run.

So yeah, that's my top three. Yep, yep.

Another Triathlon Pod (52:44.149)
like it. He's an interesting. How about you, Josh? What have you got?

Josh (52:49.357)
I'm going to go, no, it's not going to be a Norwegian suite. That's for sure. We know that. Um, I think we're pretty comfortable with that one, but I might challenge that with the Belgians and go Martin Van Riel, Jelle Geens and Casper third. Cause I do believe Casper needs this race in order to challenge KB for the overall series title.

Another Triathlon Pod (53:09.202)
Okay.

Josh (53:16.942)
and, and I think we saw what Casper did to finish Oceanside was probably a huge boost in his confidence at the run to, not only overtakes him along, which he knows he's a better runner than, but to do it in the fashion that he did, with the confidence that he did. And I don't think he's as taxed as KB is. And, and, and again, we keep saying, you can't bet against Christian, can't get it. Cause he keeps, he keeps going against and defying all odds. But.

I do believe that the dynamics of this race will take KB down. and look, Martin Van Riel has a real good shot of winning in Nice if he had the run volume. Cause he was as fit as could be the swim by the swim didn't even go the way they all wanted it with Laylow falling off. I just feel like this is an opportunity for Martin to say, all right, I can compete with these guys and come off of what, what happened at Nice. So Martin Van Riel.

I don't like y'all at second, I do believe the two of them will pull each other and just be the good friends that they are upfront. so Martin, Yela and Casper.

Another Triathlon Pod (54:26.247)
Okay, you know what? I'm not gonna bet against Blumenfeld on this one. He's on a streak of good form and it's gotta be feeling good. He seems like he just doesn't seem to fatigue. It's crazy.

Josh (54:37.976)
We just left you Taylor Nib and KB.

Another Triathlon Pod (54:43.403)
I know and watch they'll totally both implode. But there's something to be said for the forum in there and Kristen Blumenfeld has good feelings at this race. So I think we're gonna see a Kristen Blumenfeld. I think we're gonna see Patrick Lange running through into second place just doing his own thing all day and running through the front and then a Jelle Geens in third. I think Jelle is gonna stick to Kristen Blumenfeld.

Josh (54:46.151)
And.

Another Triathlon Pod (55:08.559)
as long and as much as he can kind of thing and then run it through to get close but not quite make it there. So that's what I got for this one. Man, I just... Like you could have 30 different combinations and all of them like legitimate chance of being right.

Josh (55:24.494)
There's, there's people we didn't talk about. mean, Vince and Louie could be a factor in this. had a good year last year and I just think he's, he's had a good training. think he and Martin have trained a lot together as well too. So man, it's going to be really interesting to see. some of those other dynamics play out too. And how do they factor in? And I'll tell you that I don't think we've seen a race that strategy is going to be a factor as much as we're going to see in this one.

Another Triathlon Pod (55:32.256)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (55:53.58)
Mm hmm. Yeah. No, we got a bunch of Canadians coming through here with Lionel Sanders in there. We got Jackson Laundrie, Jason Pohl. it's. Yeah, Brock Hall. Yeah, that'll be awesome on the team there. So I can't wait to watch it. This is just going to be too, too good. What do you guys think? Does anyone take down Kam Wirf's 353 bike course record?

Josh (56:03.074)
Corey Mayfield's pro debut.

or Iron Man debut.

Fed (56:22.819)
No. Maybe him.

Josh (56:24.748)
I think, I mean, that, yeah, I can't believe he's not racing. the, think for me, that course record is all weather dependent.

Another Triathlon Pod (56:24.755)
No.

Another Triathlon Pod (56:36.171)
I was gonna say the same. Yeah, the winds are looking when it's blowing in colder weather, because like it's a drastic change in the temperatures from this week to next week kind of thing. I think the wind is gonna have enough of an effect that it's probably not.

Josh (56:42.616)
Yeah.

Josh (56:48.78)
how much of is a side wind versus a headwind tailwind. there's, I mean, it only takes a few degrees for that to change the whole day.

Fed (56:56.579)
Yeah. So you do need a little bit of wind to make the bike course faster. And it doesn't necessarily mean a tailwind. Depending on the yaw angle, like if you have a bit of a side wind, it could make your equipment a bit more aero. So that probably that's what happened that year with Cam. And I just don't see anyone because if somebody goes under 355, they're not going to run.

Another Triathlon Pod (56:56.779)
totally.

Josh (57:06.37)
Right.

Another Triathlon Pod (57:07.402)
Yeah.

Fed (57:26.275)
230 or 244, that's for sure.

Another Triathlon Pod (57:26.571)
Yeah, that's a good point, especially if you're rocking like disc wheel and you get that rear tail, like, or that cross tail. That's when that thing acts like a sail and just pushes you along.

Fed (57:38.082)
Yeah.

Josh (57:39.276)
Until, until Tadei crosses over to triathlon, we won't know the answer to that question.

Fed (57:41.667)
No, no. my god, then he would dominate for next 20 years. Don't come to Triathlon Tadej please. I mean, we love you, but stay in cycling.

Another Triathlon Pod (57:44.331)
Oh my god, did you guys see this? Did you guys see the Paris–Roubaix finish? Yeah.

Josh (57:49.514)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (57:56.652)
Did you guys see the Perry Paris-Roubaix finish with today against Wout Van Aert? Oh my god. Yeah. Oh, so good to finally get that for Wout Van Aert and to do it in a sprint against Pogačar that is, that was so, he like timed that perfectly around the velodrome but some crazy like. Oh.

Josh (57:58.991)
I even got my father-in-law to watch it watch the highlights last night. Yeah

Fed (58:05.132)
It was amazing.

Josh (58:11.647)
On the velodrome,

Fed (58:16.449)
Yeah.

Josh (58:16.662)
Yeah. Poor, poor Tadej was like whiplash the whole, mean, he's, he's the king of whiplash cause he's always looking behind him. What a whole, what a race. Yeah. They all did. It was literally a war of attrition. Like whose bike car was like the, car was closer to your, your breakdown. There was some close calls in that race.

Another Triathlon Pod (58:23.243)
Just paying attention, yeah. But I think he had like four bike changes, uh, gosh, so like that was a crazy. Yeah. The monuments are the crazy part.

Another Triathlon Pod (58:36.201)
Yeah, totally.

Fed (58:36.259)
That race is the perfect example of having a smart and knows when to execute solid team because the bike changes and the amount of uncertainty that happens, especially in puré-rouvée that that cobbles, mud, just craziness. You never know.

Another Triathlon Pod (58:58.283)
You know.

Josh (58:59.438)
Start single track.

Fed (59:01.023)
Exactly. So I think there's a lot that plays into that race in particular. And yes, it's not the most challenging elevation wise, but it's definitely one of the most challenging logistic wise. And the fact that Wout won just made my whole day because I mean, I do love Tadej, but the fact that he has been chasing it for so long, it just made my day.

Another Triathlon Pod (59:13.76)
Mm-hmm.

Another Triathlon Pod (59:20.661)
Yes.

Josh (59:27.577)
165 miles in 5 hours and 16 minutes.

Fed (59:30.019)
In cobbles.

Another Triathlon Pod (59:30.131)
Oof. Wasn't it like the fastest edition ever? Like the crazy fast. It's absolutely mind boggling.

Josh (59:36.928)
And by the way, the first thing said, the two of them had a sprint finish, but it wasn't far. Like they were getting the third, fourth, fifth and sixth were right there.

Another Triathlon Pod (59:41.492)
No.

Fed (59:45.079)
Yeah, crazy.

Another Triathlon Pod (59:46.464)
That's always the risk with that finish, right? Like you want to ease up and make sure you're not the first to go, but you don't want the pack behind you to catch up you included in that sprint either. my goodness. Well, we got another race going on this weekend. It's not a pro series race counting towards those points, but we have Iron Mound South Africa going on and

Josh (59:48.366)
Yeah

Exactly. Who's rolling together, yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:00:04.923)
Like we were mentioning earlier, it's kind of funny to see some of the big names in there. And the reason really, it's mostly on the men's side. And the reason is going for those Kona qualification slots, because it's going to be a lot harder at Texas to get those spots, even though they got six going in, going in and a few people qualified, but just that strength of field is absolutely insane. So to give you guys an idea, there's four.

Josh (01:00:25.144)
There's four, four, four KQ spots and only one person has one already. So that tells you right there, right? That's why they're there.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:00:31.947)
Yeah, no absolutely chasing it. So we got some of the top names on here like Matthew Marquardt, Jamie Riddle, Rasmus Svenningson, Greg Barnaby, Joe Skipper, Bradley Weiss, Michael Weiss. Those are kind of the top. Straits. So Florin Angert.

That was definitely one where they're absolutely going for those slots. So we won't break it down too much, but what do you guys got? Who do you think will take the win in this one? We've got some serious bike power in this race it looks like. Do we see?

Josh (01:01:04.366)
slots and the payday too because it's paying 10 deep just like Texas and it's only 25,000 less overall.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:01:07.571)
Yeah, it's 150,000 for a non-pro series race. so much. If you're not in the top running for that Ironman Pro Series, this race makes so much more sense. Less, less Debo Field, more money. Like 150 grand for a race that's not a pro series race is huge, right?

Josh (01:01:12.856)
Yeah.

Josh (01:01:27.808)
Isn't this the race to where the swim is always a challenge and that's kind of why it was probably removed from the pro series as well. so how much of an implication does that have on a Jamie Riddle?

Fed (01:01:30.743)
Yes.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:01:38.677)
For sure. Maybe that's why we see so many strong bike runners on the list. Banking on their sales pitch.

Fed (01:01:42.391)
Yep, exactly.

Josh (01:01:42.636)
Yeah. sweet. We're not going to have to really swim. Matt, Matt, why are quads not going to cramp? mean, like if he doesn't cramp, like, God.

Fed (01:01:47.135)
Yeah, perfect. It's like us.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:01:51.177)
crap, right?

watch out there yeah yeah i'll be curious to see if he's worked out some of those cramping issues and can run through and have a good day and said jamie riddle's been on a tear kind of coming up through the zireman distance for how young he is he's definitely made his mark there uh we know rasmus can ride crazy speeds um if he's fit and ready to go joe skipper he's definitely yeah

Josh (01:02:14.454)
And nobody likes to talk about Greg Barnaby either. The poor guy won the pro series in the first year.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:02:21.131)
But that's the funny part he's not even doing the like a pro series raisin there so he He got in early before everyone has started to figure it out with the pig base like Okay. Yeah, no, need to structure this differently

Josh (01:02:26.05)
No, but.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Cause didn't, didn't he do like the last two races possible and it was like bang, bang, boom, done first place.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:02:38.891)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, just crazy. And that's one really made a difference having like the Patrick Lai is giving 70.3 worlds and but yeah, it rewards that consistency and just jumping in and he you're exactly right timed it so that some of the weaker fields in there he could win it and get those 5000 points.

Josh (01:02:45.518)
Yeah.

Josh (01:02:55.692)
Yeah. But can I like, can Joe Skipper get to Kona again?

Another Triathlon Pod (01:03:00.427)
That's the thing Joe Skipper, just, he hasn't been quite the same Joe Skipper the last few years here. We'd loved, loved the personality and energy and stuff. see him coming through here. Probably have to get in the top, yeah, top five, four spots in one given, yeah. I don't know.

Josh (01:03:17.59)
I think this is a, if Jamie Riddle doesn't win, he's probably not happy, is my guess here. And then Mark what just wants to get his KQ. He's like, he just did that crazy fundraising bike ride, mountain bike ride. so I mean, and I think he just took a, another medical boards exam and just finished that last week. like, I don't know how fully dialed in he is. know he, he can't be like, there's no way.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:03:22.442)
Another Triathlon Pod (01:03:33.762)
Crazy.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:03:45.739)
Yeah. That's everything.

Josh (01:03:46.817)
as much as he would normally be. So for Marquat, this is just getting one of those four slots would be my guess at this point. And to me, it's Jamie Riddle for the win and then the rest of the guys trying to fight for those last three spots.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:04:03.369)
Yeah, I'd love to see Erasmus go in healthy and have like he could have a killer bike ride and put in some time there and then see a battle with Jamie Riddle, which would be cool to see. Yeah, we'll definitely we'll be following along that one. Unfortunately, not watching it. What do you think?

Fed (01:04:19.191)
Yeah, I mean, I'm with you. I really want to Joe Skipper having like a bit of a comeback and rooting for him. I want him to win. Obviously Jamie Riddle is the man to beat, especially, especially racing in home soil. So, but I, I'm going to put my money on Joe, Jamie second and probably Rasmus third.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:04:23.328)
Yeah.

Fed (01:04:43.951)
Definitely Mark Quad is going to get his KQ. I think he's at that level right now where he knows he can get the KQ on the type of fitness he is right now. And he's going to be racing smart in his own race. And that's probably going to be enough for him to get the KQ.

Josh (01:05:01.1)
Wait, did you say Joe Skipper for the win?

Fed (01:05:02.967)
Yeah

Another Triathlon Pod (01:05:05.547)
I love your calls, Fede. What has happened where you've made the crazy calls and you get it right and we're all just like, yeah, no.

Fed (01:05:08.48)
Hahaha

Josh (01:05:12.974)
Yeah. No, mean, I don't think there would be anyone upset about it. That's for sure.

Fed (01:05:14.113)
Amen.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:05:18.421)
No, not at all.

Fed (01:05:18.763)
I mean, everything, everything sounds crazy until it's done. Right. So why not?

Another Triathlon Pod (01:05:24.027)
Love it. On the women's side, we've got a bit of a smaller field here, but we've got Katrine Christensen, Meryl Brene, Laura Janssen, Anna Paplinger, Penny Slater, Danielle Blamel, Rebecca Anderbury, Julia Scala, Fiona Moriarty. this one, really don't know.

Josh (01:05:39.31)
See later.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:05:45.419)
gonna see in there. It'd be cool to see Penny Slater have a good day in there. She was kind of an upward trend and we didn't see it come together. What do you guys think? Any thoughts on the women's race?

Josh (01:05:56.559)
I think Penny's in a better spot right now. She's got a race under her belt this year and it was a step forward for her, I think coming off of a disappointing last year, changing coaches, injuries and fitness just not being the way she wants it. So I think there's a good shot for her to be on the top step for this race. It's a hard field to pick otherwise. think Fiona Moriarty and her experience plays into this.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:06:18.897)
is,

Josh (01:06:23.732)
Again, there's only one KQ taken and four slots available. it's literally who can get to Kona and I believe Penny Slater will be one of them. I think she will take the top step. think Fiona Moriarty will be up there. Rebecca Anderberry on third.

Fed (01:06:41.451)
Yeah, yeah. So, help me out. Because Marta Sanchez is on both star lists, Texas and South Africa. Do we know which race is she doing?

Another Triathlon Pod (01:06:52.395)
I don't see her on the latest Iron Man South Africa one. Yeah, I think so.

Josh (01:06:58.625)
Nah, she's doing Texas.

Fed (01:06:59.821)
She's in Texas? Yeah. Well, yeah, probably Penny Slater is gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna go win it. I also see Anne Reichman from Germany being up there in the mix. And yeah, there is another Danish racing, Catherine Grasvold Christensen. And she's young and I think she's...

Another Triathlon Pod (01:07:22.537)
Mm-hmm.

Fed (01:07:27.349)
staying in the download kind of like Magnus has, but I think we're gonna see here in the mix, especially on the bike. yeah.

Josh (01:07:34.156)
Yeah, this swims not there yet. We'll see how well she's done with her swim in the offseason.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:07:36.907)
you

Fed (01:07:39.32)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:07:40.107)
Absolutely. Well, we will be following along on the Ironman Trekker because unfortunately there won't be coverage of this one. But we are excited for a weekend of racing ahead. This Ironman Texas is going to be absolutely stacked in.

I can't wait to see how it all unfolds there. It's going to be one heck of a race. So I will be go follow at another Traphon podcast. I will try to get some on the ground coverage race day so you can see what's going on there in the moment and try to get some pro interviews and do all of that fun stuff while I'm down there. Stick a microphone in a bunch of pro spaces and see if they'll talk to me.

Josh (01:08:14.262)
This is where I get good at us working the social media tag team together, Jenna on the ground and me managing it from afar. And when I'm in between shakeout runs.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:08:17.544)
Yeah.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:08:24.043)
Works excellent. Awesome. Well, thanks as always guys for joining me and we will be back next week to break down the action in Texas.

Fed (01:08:32.332)
Awesome. See you.

Josh (01:08:32.481)
Awesome. Have a good weekend, guys.

Another Triathlon Pod (01:08:33.984)
See ya.