Episode 138: Frankfurt Heat, Nice Cancellation and the Challenge Roth Showdown

This week on Another Triathlon Podcast, Jenna-Caer (@jennacaer), Josh (@joshmvernon) and Fede (@fedemultisport) catch up on training, racing, World Cup energy, Tour de France excitement and a very strange weekend in long-course triathlon.

Josh recaps his local triathlon turned duathlon, including a fogged-out swim, a hard run-bike-run effort, and another year of lowering his time on a familiar course. Jenna-Caer shares stories from Montreal after catching up with Alberto Contador and checking out the expansion of his bike brand, Aurum.

From there, the crew dives into a chaotic race weekend, including the cancellation of Ironman 70.3 Nice due to extreme heat, the shortened Ironman Frankfurt format, and the debate around how shortened races should count toward Kona qualification and Ironman Pro Series points.

The episode wraps with a full preview of Challenge Roth, where Kat Matthews and Lucy Charles-Barclay headline the women’s race, and Kristian Blummenfelt, Sam Laidlow, Jonas Schomburg, Patrick Lange, Rico Bogen and Magnus Ditlev make the men’s race one of the most exciting full-distance matchups of the season.

Highlights

• Fede’s World Cup fever in Mexico City
• Josh’s annual race turning into a duathlon
• What it feels like to bike hard after running hard
• Jenna-Caer’s trip to Montreal with Alberto Contador and Aurum Bikes
• Ironman 70.3 Nice being cancelled due to extreme heat
• The tragic accident following the cancelled Nice race weekend
• Ironman Frankfurt being shortened to a full swim, 125K bike and half marathon run
• Casper Stornes and Gustav Iden making another Norwegian statement
• Magnus Ditlev securing his Kona slot and backing up at Challenge Roth
• Jamie Riddle’s swim cap fin and wrong-bag moment in T2
• Whether shortened races should receive full Pro Series points
• Kona qualification and Ironman Pro Series ranking movement
• Challenge Roth women’s preview with Kat Matthews and Lucy Charles-Barclay
• Challenge Roth men’s preview with Kristian Blummenfelt, Sam Laidlow, Jonas Schomburg, Patrick Lange and Rico Bogen
• The possibility of fast times and record attempts at Roth
• How Roth shapes the conversation heading toward Kona

Race Breakdown

Ironman 70.3 Nice Cancellation

The weekend started with the cancellation of Ironman 70.3 Nice due to the extreme heatwave in Europe. The decision came from local authorities, with concerns around medical support, infrastructure, volunteers, athletes and the broader pressure already being placed on the region.

The cancellation was frustrating for athletes, especially age groupers who had travelled and trained for the event, but the crew also discussed the wider safety picture and how race-day decisions become much bigger than just the athletes on the start line.

Ironman Frankfurt

Ironman Frankfurt still went ahead, but in a shortened format because of the heat. The swim stayed the full distance, the bike was cut to 125K, and the run became a half marathon.

The swim was non-wetsuit and extremely warm, which kept a large group together early. On the bike, Nathan Guerbeur took the race on from the front, while the Norwegians stayed controlled and positioned themselves well for the run.

Once onto the run, Casper Stornes took over and looked strong in the heat, with Gustav Iden also moving through for a major result. The race created big changes in the men’s Ironman Pro Series standings and brought up a bigger question: should shortened races count the same when it comes to Pro Series points and Kona slots?

Challenge Roth Preview

Challenge Roth is shaping up to be one of the biggest races of the season.

On the women’s side, Kat Matthews and Lucy Charles-Barclay give the race a completely different dynamic. Lucy brings the front-end swim and bike pressure, while Kat has been running incredibly well and looks ready to chase from behind. Daisy Davies, Fenella Langridge and Alana Seifert also add depth and could shape the race early.

On the men’s side, Kristian Blummenfelt enters as one of the biggest names to watch, but he’ll have serious company. Sam Laidlow, Jonas Schomburg, Patrick Lange, Rico Bogen and Magnus Ditlev all bring different strengths, which could make the swim-bike dynamics very interesting before the marathon decides the race.

Quickfire Q&A

Biggest race-weekend shock?
Ironman 70.3 Nice being cancelled due to extreme heat and local safety concerns.

Strangest race format?
Ironman Frankfurt becoming a full swim, 125K bike and half marathon run.

Biggest Frankfurt question?
How much should a shortened race count toward Pro Series points and Kona qualification?

Most unexpected gear moment?
Jamie Riddle racing with the swim cap fin setup and then grabbing the wrong run bag in T2.

Biggest Roth storyline?
Kat Matthews vs Lucy Charles-Barclay on the women’s side, and Kristian Blummenfelt testing himself against a stacked men’s field.

Follow the show

📸 @anothertriathlonpodcast
Host, Jenna-Caer Seefried, @jennacaer
Josh, @joshmvernon
Fede, @fedemultisport

Presented by @maunaapparel

Transcript

Jenna (00:02.018)
Welcome back to another Trathon podcast brought to you by Mana Perel. We're back to chat everything going on in the Trathon world and I'm joined by Josh and Fede. We're gonna dive into it all, but first we're gonna catch up with the crew, see what's going on, and yeah, let's start with you, Fed. How are things going?

Fed (00:18.631)
Yeah, hi guys. It's been it's been a while and yeah, things are good. Right now the city's a bit crazy with the World Cup and everything. And yeah, just enjoying that, watching a couple of of matches and just getting my runs in between matches and job and work in between matches. So it it's gonna be it's gonna be an interesting couple of weeks because

Josh (00:41.272)
Yeah.

Fed (00:47.913)
The Tour de France starts in a couple of days, so we have that plus the World Cup. So I'm not gonna be very social for the probably next month and a half. other than training and watching sports, that's pretty much my life so far.

Jenna (00:56.458)
Yeah.

Josh (01:05.302)
Mexico City's been showing off, that's for sure. That stadium with that backdrop is really, really cool. Yeah.

Jenna (01:05.46)
it's

looks unreal.

Fed (01:11.155)
Yeah. Yeah. Eighty eighty plus thousand people at the stadium and this Sunday we play against England so it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting to see to see how the atmosphere is and definitely the the crowd is being playing a role in every single match and it's the last match before the the World Cup heads to to the States solely because obviously actually

We are the World Cup, Canada, US and Mexico. So so yeah.

Jenna (01:43.299)
I know, and it's bizarre the way it's set up. Canada has to go play in the US, even though we're one of the co co-hosts, I guess. So we have to go over and play in the US there too. So but it is cool to have the it across three countries and just see some of the incredible just stories and just intermixing of the cultures too. It's been really cool to see people kind of come over and explore all three countries.

Fed (01:52.614)
Yeah. Yeah.

Fed (02:08.691)
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

Josh (02:11.415)
Definitely been fun to to be around it. The stadiums like for here in Boston is twenty five minutes from my house. So we've gone by there. Like we went there we went by there to to eat last weekend. and it was hilarious being in the bar and restaurants. There was no game going on, but everyone still is kind of being tourists there and coming for the games. And then we went into the city and saw a whole bunch of the the Scottish and then the Norwegians took over and it's just really cool.

Fed (02:37.567)
Horizon.

Josh (02:38.795)
I think it's just and I was talking to my boss about this this today and we're just he's obviously UK and England. just the vibe that everyone's getting, like the reports about like Americans and the Canadians and the Mexicans, like the whole like s atmosphere has just been really, really cool for all the other countries to come and experience and hey, maybe it's a

turnaround for for the entire world and everything that we have to deal with on that side of it. So it's been really cool to see and and everyone just seems like in a really good mood right now, which is nice.

Jenna (03:09.622)
Mm-hmm. Well, I'm about a five hour flight away from where it's going on in Canada, so not seeing much there. But yeah, it's been so cool to kind of follow along and see what's going on. How about you, Josh? How are things going outside of watching the World Cup there?

Josh (03:23.965)
I felt like I was channeling my inner Jenna over the weekend when my triathlon, my annual going back to my first race, Cohaset triathlon here in just south of Boston. So for the fifth time in last year I had gotten on the podium and finished second and I was looking at the list this year and the same guy was back and I was like I knew I could be close to him and then

In transition Sunday morning and they changed it to a duathlon. I was like, all right, well need to get my shoes on and go warm up because I'm not gonna be able to run that pace of unless I'm warmed up and ready to go. And yeah, the fog was crazy. It w it would have been unsafe for anyone who well, a lot of people haven't been in the water and that's a wet suit required swim because it's so cold. You add the fog in, you couldn't see two feet in front of you. and it was pretty epic. So

Jenna (03:53.427)
okay.

Yes.

Josh (04:19.241)
Got warmed up and we did it was what they were gonna do for the first time this year was a T T style swim start and it was gonna be three at a time and you could self seed yourself and there were gonna be a couple of waves in each age group. I think we were forty five to fifty four were in my wave. forty five to forty nine was still in age group though. So that was the one I was going after. Came down to it, I was the oldest one in the age group that was at that top,

six, seven of us and we were all looking around in the corral and like, he's here, he's here. There was one guy we didn't see and he won the forty f forty to forty four last year and aged up to forty five and he's hard to miss. He's like six six, six seven. We're like, he's he's not here. And he's a big swim biker and people are like, Well, maybe we got him anyways and Nope. He can run. And he was started in the back, so he must have been in some other wave and started behind us. But

Yeah, it was a really fun atmosphere and I was the second group to go. The first guy went out and I couldn't keep up with with one of the guys in that group and just kind of stuck to my pace, but I had no idea. Never done a duathlon. Like how hard can I go? How close to that all out mile can I go? And and it ended up being one point one miles and it was a good uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill on the out and back. And then running into transition to get on your bike was just really weird.

And I was like, I almost stopped when I went over the T line to like slow down. I was like, no, I have to continue running at this same pace. And it turned out to be so fun. and and got on man, it was hard to hard to get on the bike. My heart rate was probably one seventy four, one seventy five at that point. I'm like, all right, well, it's still not too, too bad. It's been worse probably coming out of the swim. but the transition is still difficult.

Jenna (05:49.954)
How terrible does that bike feel after running hard?

Yeah.

Josh (06:07.669)
Everyone's times ended up being almost exactly what we had done in years past from the swim. Cause that swim is so short. So my swims have been six fifty, six forty on that. And I ran, I think, a six twenty or six thirty mile, and then it was one point one. So it ended up evening out almost exactly what our times had been in a in the regular swim bike run. And then what I did realize in a duathlon in that situation.

Jenna (06:11.912)
yeah.

Josh (06:35.457)
With all the guys that were going to be competing going first and going early, when we got into transition, I let a couple guys get out in front of me and wasn't being cognizant of the fact that I needed to be with them to ride with them. And we had traffic in front of us. The the forty plus year old females, there were two age groups of them that went before us, and then the fifty plus men were in front of us as well. So there was gonna be some traffic on the way.

But once I lost touch with them, two guys I never saw again. One guy I caught on the bike and we worked together for a little bit and then I went ahead and knowing that he'd already caught up to me on the run on one time, so I had to get a gap on him, probably got like a thirty second gap coming in a T two and then the other two guys I never saw and I shouldn't have let them go. And that's what I kinda realized afterwards and

Rainwood I could run on the way back, but I I mean, for me it was a a really good sign to have a VO two max workout like that and and walk away from it feeling pretty good. Came home and did another six miles, but ended up sixth in my age group, which was insane. but PR'd all three legs. Well, the bike and the run. PR'd the bike and the run again, P PR'd by a minute and forty seconds from last year overall.

Jenna (07:47.106)
Well Yeah.

Josh (07:56.024)
So five years in a row lowering my time there down to a one three seven, I think. So getting closer to that magical hour. We had four guys go under an hour. one guy finished fourth overall and and these old guys, six of us finished in the top twenty nine out of over a thousand people. So really, really fun. and just respect for that kind of racing and being around it and being able to like get after with these guys that were all kind of sizing each other up and having fun being out there going hard. So

That was really cool and and yeah, just kinda like Fed just kinda soaking in all the the World Cup stuff since and watching the US and looks like it can line up to US and Mexico could play each other in the end, US, England could play each other in the end. I think Canada and the US would have to play each other before the final. so a lot of stuff's lining up there and then we got the tour kicking off and we've had some pretty epic Ironman trathlons and we got a a big one coming up this weekend, so

And I got the day off tomorrow. So after a l crazy heat training session, I decided to go outside tonight, hundred and three, hundred and five feels like temperature. So thirty eight ish, thirty-nine, something like that Celsius, and adjusted my my tempo workout to the conditions and made sure I had a whole bunch of ice and water and electrolytes and fuel and and got through it, but I still have two mile cooldown to do. So but I got through it and that was fun. So yeah.

Jenna (08:57.194)
Even better.

Jenna (09:23.764)
Awesome. Yeah, all the endurance sports. It's so fun to just see people get fired up and kind of come together for sports, and the Tour de France will kind of do the same thing here, too. I had a the closest experience to going to France yet. I still haven't been to France, but I was in French speaking Montreal with a Tour de France winner. So, I mean, we're getting closer. We're almost there.

Josh (09:39.821)
Yeah.

Jenna (09:51.457)
Yeah, it was so fun last weekend head over to Montreal. I'd never been there before, so it was fun to explore a little bit more of Canada. I do a lot of traveling around, just I haven't done a ton outside of Western Canada to explore my own country. So that was really, really cool.

Alberto Contador was in town because he was doing some promo. They're gonna have the world championships in Montreal later this year in September. And he was expanding his bike brand. Aurum has another shop that was opened up with it there too. So

Always fun to catch up and geek out a little bit on Tour de France. There wasn't a lot of Tour de France talk for this season, but a lot of fun stories from the past and kind of his experiences, which is always a good time. yeah, so it was a blast just to run somewhere new too. Like just the best way to explore somewhere new is just kinda on your feet, taking the sights. It was beautiful weather, which we have had such a rainy spring in Calgary, which is insane. So

got sunshine, got to run outside, got to really enjoy it a lot more. So it was a good refresh weekend ahead of yeah, some epic racing to come. So it was a blast out there. But

I think everyone here listening wants to talk a little bit more about Trathlon and what's going on in that world because we had some crazy almost Ironman's not Ironman's It was a bizarre weekend when it came to Iron Man racing. We had first off was Iron Man France, or 70 point three niece there, completely canceled. So it sounds like this was something that was completely out of Iron Man's control with the

Fed (11:19.861)
Yeah.

Fed (11:23.295)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna (11:32.097)
the city council or local authorities just saying, hey, there's this heat wave going on all across Europe right now and I guess they just didn't feel that they could support the race with you know, support crews, medical, all of that when they were already having complications from the heat locally. So that was really unfortunate to see. But what do you guys think about the cancellation there? It's kind of feels a little ironic with like Kona being the key.

race and the conditions weren't conna conditions, but yeah, what you guys think?

Josh (12:06.221)
I think it's just it like you said, you mentioned it. It came down to the infrastructure and the capabilities of the entire region to be able to handle an event like that when this heat wave had been going on for four days, five days, six days. It it had already put a a tax on the system itself and and EMS and and any type of emergency medical and and response and and I

the hospitals, I think a lot of that was already inundated and and then to say, hey, this athletic event is coming on and and we're gonna need to pull people away from the responsibilities of our actual citizens, I think that's what it came down to. It's hard for somebody who's registered for the event and and professional athletes that are ready to race, it's it's just part of it, but I get

the fact that they're ready to do those things and we train for those conditions. I mean, I was just out in the conditions I was in tonight to prepare for any type of situations that might come up in summer racing and in early fall racing. So it's just hard because there's thousands of people out there doing this that aren't prepared, or hundreds of people that aren't prepared and and then you have the volunteers and all of that factor into it and in the race operations that you have to look after and and care about. So

I think in our eyes as athletes we think we can get through all of that, but it's there's a lot going on in the background that we're just not aware of that. Yeah, in Kona they can pull it off, but they're ready for it 'cause it happens every day. They know that that's gonna be the condition. In Europe most of them don't even have air conditioning. There's another factor in all of this too. So how do you prepare for it? they don't, I guess.

Fed (13:53.524)
They don't, yeah. Yeah, it's it's a shame to see things like that happen. I mean, you wanna see people race and it's not it's not like something you can actually redo weekend after weekend. So it takes a lot of time to prepare for those events and I guess the organizers should have had like a plan B sort of situation.

Jenna (14:09.548)
Mm-hmm.

Fed (14:20.927)
for for the event to happen, even even if it got shortened or whatever, but not completely cancel the event, I think that's what what's really a shame that that happened. So I I don't know. I I think I think it's a good opportunity for Iron Man to always have a plan B because

Maybe pros can handle the delay or the cancellation, but a lot of age groupers looking to qualify for worlds or wanting to PR or wanting to finish their first, they deserve to compete and to race, because it takes a lot of time to get ready for for these type of events.

Jenna (15:03.146)
Yeah, and that's something I was thinking about. I think it's kinda easy to get a little bit jaded after years and years in the sport, right? Like for

me if I was going to an Iron Man and it got cancelled, it would really suck. But it's like, okay, I know I can go do another one, right? Like it's not the same. But you think about I thought I was thinking back to my first Iron Man and just my whole life was this big, crazy, insane goal. And you know, it was a big thing to be able to travel to another country to go do it. It would just I was thinking about that. I would have been absolutely like

devastated if it that had happened on your first one. So

It's really it's it's a hard call and you hate to see it happen. unfortunately the news didn't get better in France. It sounds like some athletes went out and rode the course even though the event was cancelled and unfortunately an athlete did end up getting into an accident riding and passed away there. So we really, yeah, hate to see that and our hearts go out to the family of the person involved there. But it just yeah, a a shame all around for that weekend.

And especially we've been seeing su so many good trends with Iron Man lately. It's just disappointing to kind of see this. And I I understand a lot of it was out of their control, but yeah, you just feel for everyone there.

Josh (16:25.439)
You wonder too, like when when there is a pro race involved and and we'll we'll get into Frankfurt, which had some similar disruptions, but like when the pros are involved, th there's gotta be better protocols on how they handle that race itself. Like it it started early in the season, I think Dallas Little Elm and they shortened the swim and is that the pros can handle that. Like they there's certain conditions where you just gotta let the pros do the pro thing and and then make adjustments.

I know it's timing of the course and if you shorten the the swim and the bike for the the age groupers, then they're interfering with the pro race a little bit differently and and there's some aspects there, but yeah. if anyone is going to seventy point three worlds, this is also a reminder, as Jenna just said, to when you're out there doing your bike recons and things like that, there are cars on the road and and to be careful. so anyone who's there in September of this year or before practicing

Jenna (17:18.432)
Yeah.

Josh (17:24.087)
Just be careful out on those those hills and those descents because the other cars are still out there as well. And hopefully on race day they're not. but I know in in the past that's been an issue too. So we gotta be careful. but yeah, the at least we did get one big race last weekend of some sort.

Jenna (17:41.313)
Hm. Yeah. No, and it just the other kind of crazy thing, I think there's some conspiracy theories going around about all of it because of the timing. So we just saw a whole ordeal where the mayor came out and said they didn't want the event going on. It sounds like

Josh (17:49.463)
The mayor.

Jenna (18:00.091)
Iron Man paid some money. We don't know the inside details of what actually happened, but kind of made it so that this here's race is gonna happen, the Iron Man World Championships in Nice France. But they also announced that they are not gonna be happening in future years and the plan was to have it there for a couple more years. So now Iron Man will have to find another location for that, which

I don't think it's a bad thing. Like I think the whole Nice got extended for 70.3 worlds there because they were supposed to do the Iron Man World Championships there for another few years. Yeah, exactly. So they're like, okay, that's our so I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing because there is starting to be some Nice France fatigue, I think.

Josh (18:29.227)
Yeah, they were making good on the switch to Kona.

Fed (18:32.5)
Yeah.

Jenna (18:41.162)
like just year after year between the world champs and we've seen that in the past. Like Saint George was one of the first places to open up to after COVID and stuff, but it was like every race was in Saint George. So it's like, okay, we Kona has the history. We want it to stay in Kona. Seventy point three worlds, we're having fun seeing it move all around. So at least now we're gonna see some fun new locations with seventy point three worlds. I know. What do you guys think about that?

Fed (18:46.911)
Exactly. Yeah.

Josh (19:05.291)
Well, we'll see how many people try and qualify for seventy point three worlds in Oman when we get there.

Jenna (19:08.332)
Oof. You think they're rolling now.

Josh (19:13.687)
Tw twenty twenty twenty nine, right? well that will all change though. We've already discussed it and it it's like looking at Chattanooga next year, it's gonna be some epic battles and and people who got rolled downs previously, it's not gonna be pretty early on. And who knows, maybe even all the way into this time next year, there's still gonna be people battling for spots that are used to going to World Championships. And if you can race in the next couple months, you're probably in a good spot.

Fed (19:13.918)
Yeah.

Jenna (19:17.075)
my god.

Josh (19:43.351)
Yeah.

Fed (19:43.69)
Yeah. I I'm always I'm always amazed how the qualification dynamics change location wise because I remember for twenty eighteen when seventy point three worlds was in South Africa. I remember the the roll downs in the North American races were just I think people who finished thirtieth got a slot. But now

Jenna (19:43.958)
Yeah. Get in early.

Josh (19:53.341)
Yeah.

Jenna (20:07.668)
Insane.

Fed (20:11.677)
but then I think the year after that worlds were in Chattanooga and it was unbelievably hard to to qualify. But then again, people from the from the other side of the world were getting roll downs left and right. So it's interesting to see the dynamics because I think when the world champs are on the on on the n northern hemisphere, we get a lot of competition from obviously northern hemisphere athletes. Same goes

with with the other with the Southern Hemisphere athletes. So I think you said Josh, Chattanooga it's gonna be really hard to to qualify for and you really need to pick A race to qualify for. It's not like you can just show up and get a slot like we were used to back in the day. So yeah, it's gonna be definitely gonna be exciting and we need to bring our A games in if we want to get a slot. I I want to qualify because hopefully

They keep the the full Iron Man swim, which is downriver swim in Chattanooga. And they don't make the the weird loop that they made in twenty nineteen or twenty seventeen, I think it was. Twenty seventeen. hopefully we get the the downriver swim for all of us to to

Jenna (21:18.992)
Yeah.

Josh (21:22.285)
Twenty seventeen, yeah.

Josh (21:29.037)
I I wouldn't hold your breath on that one, but I we we talked about this a little bit last week and I've talked to a bunch of my athletes about like, hey, if you are really looking to qualify, your best chances are gonna be when Nice is happening this year. so those early races in September, shit. I mean, I even looked at like when I'm in Vienna between world champs and the Berlin Marathon, I was like, is there a seventy point three I can hop in in that week?

Fed (21:32.563)
Ha ha.

Jenna (21:32.637)
Yeah.

Fed (21:44.511)
Yeah.

Fed (21:56.042)
Yeah.

Josh (21:56.78)
Right after after Nissan do it in Europe. But not no no go there unless I think I go to like UK. But then you start to look and a lot of those races are starting to sell out already. I like I think Washington Tri Cities, there's a lot of events that were not sold out, the regular registrations. I looked this week and they're all starting to to pop off and and be gone. So I think Maine in at the end of July in a couple of weeks has some spots still available. So that one's probably gonna sell out soon, but

Yeah, those September races are are selling out quick.

Jenna (22:29.206)
Yeah, definitely. Well, we will see how that all rolls out. but let's talk about a race that did happen. Always more fun to talk about those ones. So we had Iron Man Frankfurt this weekend and we were looking at a pretty good showdown going into this. but unfortunately, surprisingly, it's in Europe as well. So it's been dealing with the same heat wave going on, but the Germans made it happen in a slightly different format.

So instead of instead of a half distance or shortening the swim like we usually see, they went with an interesting choice. With this is my worst nightmare, by the way. Like my absolute worst nightmare. And a shorter I usually make up most of my race in the back half of the runs. so they did it with a full 3.8k swim, 125k bike, and then a half marathon.

Josh (23:09.055)
Yeah. The longest swim possible.

Josh (23:17.613)
Yeah.

Fed (23:27.221)
I mean

Jenna (23:27.37)
I was curious how they came to those distances. But even the swim though, it was twenty-nine degrees in the water. That is I ha I knew one person who pulled out in the swim 'cause they were just so overheated from that. Like that is that's no fun to so I'm surprised that they kept the swim the full distance. before we get into the results, what do you guys think about the seventy point three plus ish?

Fed (23:47.306)
Yeah.

Fed (23:53.161)
No no thanks.

Josh (23:53.71)
What did it end up being? It was like ninety three K or something like ninety three miles or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, ha heck no.

Jenna (23:56.299)
Yeah. They couldn't even make it a hundred K. Like of course they would never make it a hundred K with a G one a hundred, but I wouldn't have been surprised to see it like the ninety nine point nine K.

Fed (23:58.998)
But yeah.

Fed (24:06.207)
Yeah. Yeah, it was a hundred and tw a hundred and twenty something caves, right? Yeah.

Josh (24:07.413)
And and the bigger issue was like the points too, right?

Jenna (24:12.034)
Yeah.

Josh (24:13.005)
How how like okay, so this is a pro series race. There's a there's a lot on the line. There's a lot of Kona slots on the line. There's yeah, I mean all the the so should that have been impacted and it wasn't. Not nothing changed. The Kona slots stayed the same, the pro series points stayed the same, and you only had to run a one twelve half marathon. I mean, come on.

Jenna (24:24.93)
Pro series points coming out there.

Jenna (24:35.33)
Mm-hmm.

Fed (24:38.897)
Only, yes.

Jenna (24:41.576)
Easy. Do that every other day. Yeah, no, it's definitely an interesting distance. But you know what? I don't think it changed the top top results too much in there. Going in Yeah.

Josh (24:53.557)
It impacted the swim though, like you said, that weather though I mean there was no gap in the swim. I mean, when Gustav is thirty seconds behind Jamie Riddle after a full Iron Man swim, you know the pace couldn't be pushed.

Fed (24:55.561)
Sure.

Jenna (25:06.114)
Well, and I think that was the temperature. I think that's the biggest thing. Like you can't get your heart rate up like that. Was it who was it that was wearing the funny thing? I thought so. I can't believe someone actually wore that. If you guys don't know, there's like this shark fin looking thing that you can put under your swim cap that's supposed to make you, I guess, more hydrodynamic and potentially cooler. that I didn't think anyone would actually wear, but

Josh (25:07.894)
Yeah. Yeah.

Josh (25:14.497)
Jamie Jamie Riddle had it on.

Fed (25:16.265)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Fed (25:28.116)
Yeah.

Jenna (25:33.768)
Yeah. J Riddle got I'm just surprised it fits under the swim caps, to be honest. But

Fed (25:34.493)
He did.

Fed (25:40.207)
It's funny looking thing. Definitely definitely a no go.

Josh (25:43.414)
Yeah.

Jenna (25:44.877)
Catholices never been the coolest, but that is next level. Okay. Let's jump into it. So the swim was non-Wetsuit, obviously, with 29 degree. my god, a wetsuit on top. That would be insane. no one was really pushing it. So we had a huge group at the front. Jamie Riddle leading it with his funny swim cap head thing. But he was gonna lead out anyways. Like

Fed (25:46.581)
This is true.

Fed (25:53.749)
Yeah.

Josh (26:03.681)
But he did lead out.

Fed (26:05.962)
Yeah.

Josh (26:08.115)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jenna (26:11.266)
I guess it's better than with them having it with Joe Skipper showing it off and then going. yeah, so big group came coming out of it, twenty athletes within about thirty seconds. So we had a big group heading into transition together, which made it a little bit chaotic for everyone to get sorted out.

Josh (26:16.321)
Yeah.

Fed (26:16.478)
Yeah.

Jenna (26:30.122)
standout was Nathan Gruber who was one of the big stories. He took the race on, pushed to the front and built a lead, which we don't often see with the Norwegians in these races. And unfortunately he was riding really well, but he lost a bottle, missed a couple chances to grab more fluids, and then had some issues with his bars and especially in late temperatures and conditions like that, that can

make a drastic difference pretty quickly, depending on how many carbs he had in those bottles or electrolytes. Like I know a lot of them are super concentrating stuff. So that could have been a significant amount of carbs lost.

Josh (27:03.179)
Something with that course, 'cause this was the one that Jonas had the issues on last year too, I think.

Jenna (27:07.594)
Yeah, with the error bars, so oof, that's never fun, especially at the speeds they're going. But we had the Norwegians exactly where they wanted to be with Casper Storns and Gustav Eden both in there staying controlled and just kind of sticking around. And Magnus Dietlov was in there, but we didn't really see the Magnus we're used to seeing with just like this dominating terminator bike split kind of deal.

but he's kind of coming back with his return to racing and still is not quite back at a hundred percent, but he did end up getting his Kona splot or Kona slot. So his day seemed to be about survival and just making sure he got that spot. But when they were on the run, Casper Storens took over. He definitely cl well, he closed the gap to Gruber.

and moved into the lead and then just kept building it up. Gustav Eden moved into second from there. And of course it was just the Norwegians at the front, which is what we've become very used to seeing. And then we had Anti Antonio Benito Lopez coming in third. So that secured him a Kona slot as well. Kaspar Stepniak in fourth. Vincent Louis ran his way into fifth and Jamie Riddle finished in seventh, which also got him the spot.

Whew, that was yeah, just a weird like not a weird race, but just weird with the distances. Like we saw some people completely blowing on the run, even though it was a half marathon. it would have been interesting to see how those gaps and everything opened up over a marathon in those kind of conditions.

Josh (28:37.227)
Yeah, I mean third to eighth was there was only like a two minute gap between those slots there. And and then you had Gustav a couple minutes ahead and and Casper even further out, three minutes or so f of Gustav. But less than two minutes, two minutes from third to eighth, there's a lot of battles for points, money. I mean th that's the thing. I mean a lot of guys still grabbed a ton of points there. You can definitely tell

Jenna (28:41.569)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (29:03.969)
Like Gerber had some issues with his run 'cause he had a a one twenty run. So he was out of the picture pretty early. But the fact that he had the fastest bike time dealing with the dealing with what he dealt with and still rolled out in front. he probably was just trying to get back so he could get some nutrition. Gotta go, gotta go.

Jenna (29:14.924)
Yeah.

Jenna (29:22.784)
Seriously.

Josh (29:26.135)
But yeah, Magnus grabbing that last slot and and knowing that he had it and and still pushed a 115. So he had a decent run. And that's been his issue in kind of losing leads off the bike and and battling this race last year. This is the one that he got the red card, not the red card as well. and and he was able to

Jenna (29:33.996)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna (29:46.102)
Yeah, I forgot about that. It's crazy.

Josh (29:50.136)
So this was a little bit of redemption and to run a one fifteen on that day was a pretty pretty good run for him. So good to see him locked into Kona, but he's not done racing apparently this week and wants to r run it right back.

Fed (29:56.287)
Mm.

Fed (30:04.883)
Yeah, that's well.

Jenna (30:06.018)
Yeah. We've seen if you didn't see Magnus State Loves there, he's headed to Challenge Roth. So we've seen a few kind of back it up and like, Hey, didn't do it, Iron Man. So you're still fresh, you're fine. Just go race Challenge Roth the next next weekend. Be good.

Josh (30:17.197)
Yeah.

Fed (30:19.261)
Yeah. It was just a half marathon, so I mean

Jenna (30:23.244)
Still a little shakeout run.

Fed (30:24.696)
Yeah.

Josh (30:24.979)
That is the impact of that shortened run though. Because if if that if that if that runs anywhere between twenty one and forty two K, he's probably not going to Roth. But when it's only the half marathon, he's all right. Well, that's the true pounding on the body. and and these guys were out there for less than five hours, so that's not a a big seven and a half hour day, eight hour day. So we'll see how he bounces back. He loves that course, we know that.

Fed (30:27.679)
Yeah.

Jenna (30:34.412)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna (30:50.283)
Yeah.

Jenna (30:53.728)
And you can't like, especially with the heat, you're not able to push to that absolute max on the run, at least muscularly, right? So he wouldn't have done as much damage as if it were a cooler race where he could even go full gas at the half. So makes very exciting thing. And then one other thing that came out of it too, did you see Jamie Riddle grab the wrong bag and T two? Open up, it's not his shoes.

Josh (31:14.689)
Those aren't my sneakers. Very very obvious.

Fed (31:16.821)
Classic.

Jenna (31:18.594)
my goodness, could you imagine? That's one of those things I've had like pre-race nightmares about doing, like grabbing the wrong bag or having the wrong shoes and equipment in there. It's just like, make it happen.

Fed (31:24.277)
Well

Josh (31:28.041)
I wanna know what Casper and Gustav were saying e to each other 'cause it was the three of them all in there together and they're like, you could just see like what the heck is this kid doing?

Jenna (31:35.326)
Yeah.

my goodness. Well, definitely made it interesting there. It was yeah, drama filled for sure. So

Fed (31:39.221)
Crazy.

Jenna (31:47.171)
obviously no updates to the women's rankings with Iron Man Frankfurt was a men's only race. If you're wondering why we're not talking about any of the women in here, it was only the men's race. we have for the Pro Series ranking, Christian is still in first place. We had Casper moved up seven spots into second place, Gustav moved up nine spots into third place, Matt Hansen got kicked down two to fourth, and Caspar Stefniak was the other big mover moving up nine spaces or nine places to fifth.

in the pro series rankings. So that definitely had some big changes to the actual rankings here. It's been fun to follow that along. The other thing, so like you mentioned, Josh, was the debate about should they be changing the points or the Kona qualifications or anything when we have a race like this. What do you guys think? Do should there be adjustments to the points when the race is shortened?

Fed (32:42.021)
Don't I don't think so. I mean, you can only raise the race that it's in front of you. And obviously a lot of athletes wanted to race a full. I think there were people who benefited from it, like Antonio Benito, who we know it's an incredible swim swim biker, and he held on onto the run. But I think if if there was a full marathon ahead, probably we would have seen a lot of changes.

from from the spots Josh was mentioning. So I don't know. I'll I'll take the results with a grain of salt, but when it comes to rankings, I think that's why they have multiple races because stuff like this can happen and everything's gonna average out at the end of the at the end of the year. So I don't know if it's if we should have changed the the rankings or the or the points. But it definitely altered the results on the day.

Jenna (33:24.418)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (33:40.994)
Do it's hard, it's one of those things where like at the end of the day they're probably like, This is what we're going with this season, and we're not gonna make any adjustments. Now, this is something that okay, we didn't think about that. And now there's probably gonna be a plan B for a pro series race that gets shortened or and and Kona qualification slots or in or 70.3 world slots. If if things get adjusted, maybe they have a protocol in place going forward, but

Jenna (34:08.065)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (34:08.225)
To not do it at this race, I kinda get it, and that's probably the reason why they didn't, 'cause it's this was a race these guys signed up for. It was out of their control that it got shortened, but they were here to get the points and everything. So I can see both sides, but I'm pretty sure that's kind of the line of thinking along Iron Man's upper staff that had to make that decision at the end of the day.

Jenna (34:32.256)
Yeah, one thing they were bringing up on Pro Chinas that I thought was a good idea was potentially at points multiplier, right? So I think the winners should still get the maximum number of points because they're ready tapered, going to go race an Iron Man. but they brought a a good point that the gaps are a lot smaller when you only have half the distance because with the every second counts, the farther are

behind you are the more points you lose. So potentially if you do this race and say you come in fifth place or whatever, if you don't have that full marathon, and we saw some of those times were really starting to blow out a over the marathon, especially in heat like this, say fifth place to tenth place, they would have lost a lot more time if the whole marathon played out. So they're talking about something like a points qualifier, like maybe one point five times or one point five points per second to kind of

Josh (35:24.321)
Yeah, like every half second instead of every second.

Jenna (35:25.06)
Yeah, someone like that instead. I thought that was an interesting point just because that like you see someone like Kaspar Stefniak moved up nine places in the Iron Man pro series, where if that had been a full Iron Man, would he have moved up that far? Probably not, 'cause you'd have a whole ha other half marathon to either lose or gain time.

Josh (35:47.724)
Yeah, especially with a Casper running the way he can run and and a Gustav and those boys from my all accounts in like great shape and in perfect fitness and and maybe not peak, but we know there'll be peak come no come Kona. But those guys were ready to run away with it. And and yeah, there were others that probably could have run into some more points as well, at the end of the day. So Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jenna (35:53.525)
Yeah.

Jenna (36:14.038)
Yeah, like at Vincent Louis, he was running faster than some of the guys behind him kind of thing and or in front of him, sorry. Yeah.

Josh (36:21.387)
So it definitely impacted the race. My guess again is I love that way to solve the problem. I just think it's a twenty twenty seven conversation.

Jenna (36:32.438)
Fair enough. Well, let's go on to the big race happening this weekend. we've got Challenge Roth. This is one that I keep saying I need to go to one of these years. It'll happen one of these years. but it just looks like such an epic adventure. Just the size of it and just the passion that they have for Trouthlon. The whole, if you haven't seen it before, the whole community is overtaken with Trouthlon. Locals seem to embrace it and love it, which is a really good thing as well.

But since we've been talking about the guys, let's start with the women's race here. Now, interestingly, we keep seeing these big names, but the strength of field is only twenty nine percent of a typical Kona field, here at Roth, which I would have thought it was higher, but now that I'm looking at the list it's very very top heavy. Yeah.

Josh (37:17.761)
Yeah. Top heavy.

Jenna (37:20.642)
And then it doesn't go down. So if you don't know too, Roth offers a lot of those top pros appearance fees, which is something that Iron Man doesn't typically do. So Felix and Blinda and the crew there are really good at getting some of these top names, kind of really racing it out at the top. And then they have, I believe, some good bonuses for world records and fastest times and stuff. So it's definitely attractive if you're one of the top pros.

But looking at the list here, here are some of the names that we got racing this weekend. we got Kat Matthews. Unfortunately, Laura Phillip ended up pulling out for health reasons. But we had a Lucy Charles Barclay be a last-minute edition here. We got Daisy Davies, Penella Langridge, Alana Siffert, Franzi Hoffman, Danielle Blame. let's see. Caroline Poles over there. she hasn't done an Iron Man, has she?

Josh (38:07.095)
Caroline Poole.

Josh (38:14.613)
I don't think so. she's done a bunch of challenge races, but all at the half distance.

Jenna (38:17.29)
Yeah, I don't think so.

Jenna (38:22.646)
that's a cool way to jump off your first Iron Man race is to go to go to Challenge Raw. So yeah, interesting to see how she'll go in here. but we're gonna have some fun battles. We haven't seen Cat Matthews, Lucy Charles. We haven't seen a race with both of them healthy in a long time. Cause we hadn't Yeah. Last year we had the Kona meltdown with yeah, Lucy having her meltdown.

Josh (38:25.191)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Josh (38:42.313)
It's outside of Kona you don't ever see them racing.

Josh (38:48.257)
Maybe the T one hundred, so it's been a while. Yeah.

Jenna (38:50.494)
Yeah, and then we had seventy point three worlds, Cat Matthews had to pull out, so like we haven't seen it going for a while. This'll be a fun one to watch, but you gotta think it's a two woman race kinda at the front there.

Josh (39:05.345)
It'll be interesting to see how long Alana Siffert hangs around. That's I think that's the question. But yeah, the how long does it take Kat to catch Lucy? Because Lucy's going to absolutely slam that swim knowing Kat ha is is out there coming for her and that's the the MO every time they do race is how far can Lucy get ahead and how long can she hold off Kat and the way Kat's running right now. She Yeah

Jenna (39:08.951)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna (39:32.02)
scary fast right now.

Josh (39:34.751)
Really scary fast. so yeah, it's a it for sure is going to come down to the two of them at some point during the marathon. We just don't know when that's gonna happen.

Jenna (39:43.955)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and we just wanna see hopefully Lucy's like healthy and fired up. I can't imagine she'd jump into this if she's not. and that's kinda fun part 'cause she'll swim like five, six minutes faster than cat, and then on the bike it'll be loose well, it'll be pretty even, I think, between

Kat and Lucy, but on the run, you're looking at like maybe ten minutes for Kat on the run. Like really, her run has just been on fire lately. So I like these races where they have different strengths and it's a cat and mouse. But usually on the Iron Man or the long distance c bridge, we don't see the person coming from behind. But the coverage has gotten so much better on a lot of these races and challenged us out a lot better too, just kind of showing more of the story and we know the big names and we know kind of how this will play out. So hopefully this weekend they'll show.

Josh (40:10.144)
Yeah, yeah.

Jenna (40:33.396)
So a lot of that story kind of cat moving through Lucy's ahead, where is she hunting her down? Because that makes it a lot of fun to watch.

Josh (40:41.239)
Well what a huge get for Roth and Felix and Belinda to be able to grab Lucy the week of the race and have her replace Laura. just kind of really changed the whole dynamic of that race. Instead of Kat kind of running away with it and managing managing her day. she's now gonna be on full gas if she wants to win this one.

Jenna (40:43.65)
Yeah.

Jenna (40:50.402)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna (40:56.158)
Anyway, jogging it. Yeah.

Jenna (41:03.028)
Mm. It makes it so much more fun. Like you're exactly right, 'cause Kat could have just jogged through this. no offense to the other athletes racing by any means. It's just we know kind of their historic times. But we got one of those Daisy Davies, she should be pretty solid in there too. She's gonna swim a little slower than Lucy well, a couple minutes slower than Lucy, but she should be ahead of Kat and then she's super solid on the bike, so she'll be kind of in that ma in that

group around them. she might even cat like maybe she might catch up to Lucy's in there. She's super solid, so she could potentially catch up with Lucy and Lucy will have someone to ride with. we always love to see a finella Langridge out there racing. She's got such a yeah, a fast swim. whether she holds on to Lucy or not, she'll at least add to the dynamics and hold on as long as she can, I'm sure. And make it a little bit more

Josh (41:56.162)
That'll be interesting this year though, because Finella, with the nature of her injury and her comeback, has probably done a ton of swimming. and and she's always been up front, but can she hold on to Lucy? Maybe this is the year that she does. And it'd be interesting to see how she factors in. It seems like every race that she's been out there, she's gotten a little bit better and a little closer and and she got her KQ in her last out outing. So

Jenna (42:05.718)
Yeah, fair.

Jenna (42:12.118)
There we go.

Jenna (42:18.85)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (42:23.969)
It'll be actually she got her seventy point three slot and then before that she got the KQ. So she's sitting good. she can definitely change the race if her bike is is where it needs to be. And it looks like the weather has finally broken in in Europe and we're looking at like seventy five Fahrenheit, so twenty three, twenty four ish Celsius. so nothing crazy and these guys will be able to handle that.

Jenna (42:51.776)
So funny when you say that. It's it just was thinking about this. When you say like twenty three, twenty four in an Iron Man, that's like, that's a great day. Like it's just normal day. If you talk marathon, they freak out at twenty three, twenty four degrees. That's like scorching hot kitchen. Yeah, travelites are a different breed for sure. yeah, could you imagine a marathon being run in forty degrees? I don't I mean they right.

Josh (43:02.367)
Yeah, yeah. god. No. Any any anything over yeah yeah. my god, it's over sixty degrees.

Josh (43:18.827)
Called a PR day. Well, yeah, no, there's no way. 40 degrees Fahrenheit Celsius, no way in hell.

Jenna (43:22.176)
Or sorry, forty Celsius. Sorry, Celsius. Two different thoughts there. yeah. So you know, let's go between who do you think? Kat Matthews, Lucy Charles, who's gonna take the win at the end?

Josh (43:37.952)
It is t really tough to decide on that, but I think this is the time that Kat gets her. I think it's a statement for her. Kat has had this race targeted since Texas. And she hopped in and got that, got some points in the 70 point three and had a great outing there and a a a good run and a comeback there. So she knows what her body's capable of, and that was two weeks ago. So perfect little training into Roth.

Jenna (43:48.279)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (44:08.279)
She seems really dialed. I I just I'm gonna take Kat and and it's gonna be close. And I think if Lucy is healthy and can get to the line, it's it's gonna be close at the end, but Kat's gonna get the job done.

Jenna (44:22.954)
And who do you think will be in third place? I think that's probably more the it's almost like a wild card.

Josh (44:26.189)
Ha.

man. I I may I Alana Sefford had a great race here last year. And I think that was kind of the race where we were like, Wait, who's that girl with that crazy low cadence? And that's where she kinda got put on the map and and she's back. So I'm gonna go with Alana Sefford.

Jenna (44:39.776)
Yeah.

Jenna (44:45.76)
Okay. yeah, I gotta agree with you. I can't go past Kat Matthews for this. and I don't know yeah, I don't know how close it'll be either. I think there's a little like rust that you have to get off after not racing for a while there. I'm sure she'll be mentally Lucy will be mentally fired up and ready to go and wanting to get after it, but it's hard to go past the form that Kat's been in, just kind of ticking these off. So

I'm gonna go Cat Lucy and I'm gonna go Daisy Davies for third. I just really like saying her name, so you know, but she's a super solid swim or super solid biker and some more so hopefully she'll

Josh (45:18.017)
There you go.

Josh (45:24.171)
Yeah. She she's gonna be another one that's up there on the swim too. So it'll be interesting to see 'cause we've seen Lucy kinda come back to the pack a little bit in some of her most recent races. So what kind of form is Lucy in? that's gonna really dictate the day if she's got people with her on the bike to start.

Jenna (45:43.787)
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Okay, let's go on to the men's side. Now, this says the strength of field is 29% of a typical Kona Field, too. I don't know that I believe that. No. They're not the same in the two of them. But let's take a look who we got kind of ranked near the top. We got Christian Blumenveld, Jonas Schaumburg, Sam Laidlow, Mena Kulhaus, Patrick Lange, Frederick Hunk, Christian Hoganhaugh, Arthur Horso.

Josh (45:51.995)
Yeah, no.

Jenna (46:11.028)
Will Draper, like I said, Magnus. He's not even on this list of looking at, but we know he'll be there. Rico, he hasn't done an Iron Mad either, has he? Yeah. I think that'll be his first Iron Man too, so that'll be fun to see. seeing other names. Andreas Draits, Ben Hoffman, Bronk. Yeah, this

Josh (46:14.923)
Rico Bogan.

Josh (46:31.703)
Freddie Funk.

Arnold Guillot, like I mean there's some n Nick Chase shows up again. yeah, there's a lot of a lot of names on this list and wow. I mean, Roth pulls out the best of a lot of these guys too. So to see KB and Roth for the first time is just I mean, that's pretty epic. The fact that he threw this race on his calendar this year with what he did to start the year, like racing four times in three days, is pretty epic too. So

Jenna (46:49.986)
Seriously.

Jenna (46:58.496)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (47:03.625)
I'm looking forward to this race. Absolutely.

Jenna (47:05.884)
It's gonna be a showdown. Like we haven't

Kristen Bloomfelt, we know how good he is. Jonas Schomberg has just been moving up the ranks of this Iron Man racing. We haven't seen Sam Laidlow. Like we have no idea what kind of form Sam Laidlow is. And that's where it's kind of fun. We're seeing the the Christian Bloomfelt, the Sam Laidlow, the Patrick Lange. These guys, we only usually see them racing in Kona. Like they just kinda aren't racing together the rest of the year. So this'll be a bit of a warning shot for whoever takes the win here, or if we see anyone like completely off the pace.

Josh (47:28.533)
Yeah.

Jenna (47:39.417)
this will be fun to see, but will Christian be able to make it through a race without his Norwegian buddies there? It's like feels like that'd be lonely. They all seem to have so much fun together.

Josh (47:48.43)
They were still together. They were just in the freaking wind tunnel, the week of Roth. So they were all together leading it. So they all came to see him 'cause they were in Frankfurt anyways, right? So it's it's not like they were far off and then they all popped into the wind tunnel this week. Like, you know that that wind tunnel is not impacting Roth or their like so that is literally Kona testing that they were doing.

Jenna (47:54.146)
Of course. Of course they were.

Good. Got all the good facts. Yeah.

Jenna (48:06.838)
Yeah.

Jenna (48:13.597)
for sure.

Josh (48:15.585)
So that's pretty cool. And and Lalo is definitely full distance ready. he did win Lanzarote. and and same with Lucy. So they're they've they've raced somewhat recently, a month or so ago, right? it all comes down to how hard do these guys want to push themselves to win Roth? And and do they just have Kona in their back of their minds?

Jenna (48:34.786)
Yeah.

Josh (48:42.103)
There's no qualifications, there's no points. This is just straight up clout and money. And trying to say that you've you've won the one of the most epic races on on the planet and the whole atmosphere just kind of seeing like so somebody posted the other day, like Lucy Charles got there, she hopped in the pool, and she just happened to hop in the same lane with this age grouper and like swim around. Like you don't see that in any other sport, let alone in the

professional ranks of of that level of triathlon. So it's just really, really cool in an atmosphere that we talked about this time last year. Like we gotta get there. We gotta get there. And we just couldn't make it happen this year, but we'll see. We'll get there.

Jenna (49:23.946)
Yeah. No, and this one it's so funny because you do mention how there's no points on the line, no kind of qualification. The funny part with these athletes, I think so much of it is more just the bragging rights is a big thing, but just like accomplishing or winning one of these iconic races, one of the classics of Trathon is definitely something that you can put into the legacy of your racing career. So that's why it's exciting to see Christian Blumenfeld out here. This is one he hasn't conquered yet.

when we're looking at this, are we gonna see Patrick Lang at full force here, right? Like it's been a little up and down since that last win. Wanna see him out there and have a have a good day 'cause, you know, the Germans on the home course, we got Jonas Schomberg, Patrick Lang, Frederick Punk, Andreas Dreitz, like there's some serious German pride when it comes to this event. And Rico doing his first one

ever will be. Could you imagine if he just has like a he is one of those Ironman prodigies we've seen a few times, especially some of the Norwegians, just come out, race their first Iron Man, win a world championships.

Josh (50:26.547)
All all that ten K and half marathon running he did all of a sudden k kicks in and he's off I mean I mean let's see what he can do at that distance on the bike. I mean that's the like what how does he strategically go after this? And we know he's been great at the one hundred distance and and he's a past seventy point three world champ. But with Christian in the field and Jonas, I mean Jonas and Rico together, my

Jenna (50:31.318)
Just clicks. It'd be a pain.

Yeah, the

Mm-hmm.

Josh (50:56.161)
They're both gonna be close on the swim and the and so Rico needs to have a good swim and he the he and Jonas just like off running through their country together. Who knows how far away they can get? And laid low.

Jenna (50:57.439)
Hello. Yeah.

Jenna (51:05.96)
Mm-hmm. Be crazy to see. Yeah, Laidlow's right there too. I think we're gonna see a bike pack kind of form in here too, 'cause we got like Kristen Bloomfeld, Jonah Schaumburg, Laidlow, Coolhouse, Patrick Lang, Christian Hoganhoak. and you will see Rio Rico, like in that swim pack, there'll be

Josh (51:19.159)
Christian Hogan Hogan

Jenna (51:24.882)
in and around each other, right? So then you get onto the bike and a lot of these guys are just powerhouse on the bike, like again, Christian, Jonas, Sam. I think Sam will try to pull away at some point, but if he can get

Josh (51:37.589)
What is the gap that Christian can allow?

Jenna (51:40.289)
Yeah, to get in there. I think it's fairly pff it's decent. Like Sam Leo, he could be

three to five minutes faster if he goes out and there and just smashes it, right? Like he could get a time gap on them. He'll be at the front end of that swim pack. probably hanging on to Jonas's feet if he can, if not like a minute thirty seconds a minute down. So we'll see him right at the front. Can he make a gap on Christian before Christian gets on the bike? I think that'll be like the decisive point. If like Sam Bladlo can push the swim, stick with Jonas, get out out of sight on the bike.

He's gonna put some time into Christian there. Or Christian will just smash himself to go catch up to not be at the

Josh (52:22.765)
That's the thing. Like what is what is Christian strategy here knowing that Kona is still weighing over him. He's never won it. And and he

Jenna (52:33.25)
See, I don't think it'll be in his mind too much. I think he's one of those athletes where he gets on the race course and it's just like must destroy.

Josh (52:39.273)
Yeah, and it's it's so it's it's so far away technically still. he's got plenty of time, but he's going to be behind coming out of the swim. And can he afford to drop six minutes, eight minutes, ten minutes? What what is the gap that he can allow before he has to absolutely smash himself to run a two twenty eight marathon to win this thing?

Jenna (52:44.022)
Yeah. The way these guys recover.

Jenna (53:04.47)
Yeah.

Josh (53:05.229)
and what k what what is is what it what is somebody gonna run? Are we gonna see two two thirty with this that temperature in the low seventies and and twenties and Celsius? So I think it could be one of those record days with this field and that bike pack. If they're three or four of those guys together pulling each other, taking turns up front. Even at twenty meters, that's huge when they're going the speeds they're going.

Jenna (53:30.482)
Mm-hmm. And to give you an idea of some of the previous course records in there, it's crazy fast in Roth, which is funny because like when you look at the course profile, it doesn't look that fast. but it we have the overall time is held by Magnus Datelev with 72324. the swim overall is 4335 by Michael Pruvert. The bike overall, 35745 by Magnus Datelev.

Josh (53:35.573)
Ha.

Jenna (53:57.355)
And the run was one of the first sub two thirties we saw with the two twenty eight from Matt Hansen in twenty twenty five. So there are some crazy times. And then on the women's side, the fastest time is an eight two thirty eight, which that's something we didn't talk talk about was could we see that sub eight? Right? Like this if her if Lucy is pushing her and they're both going after it, like their predicted times are both a lot slower, but we know Roth is the fast course here, so

Josh (54:11.511)
Yeah. Is cat going for the sub eight?

Jenna (54:27.134)
Man, if Lucy and Kat are on it, could you imagine that'd be so fun to see a battled to push to the sub-eight for the first time.

Josh (54:33.453)
The w the w the women go sub eight and do the men go sub seven twenty?

Jenna (54:40.542)
I have to have like perfect wind conditions there for that too.

Josh (54:45.781)
I did not look at that on the weather. I think it's like eight or nine miles an hour, so it's not a huge impact. no.

Jenna (54:50.39)
that at all. Yeah. my goodness. This is gonna be so good to actually see. the last time we saw Roth we had Sam Laidlow, Yona Schaumberg, and Jan Strautman taking the podium. And for the women said it was Laura Phillip, Grace Beck, and Alana Siffert. So

This is gonna be fun to watch there. And when we're looking kind of back to the men's race there, somebody's runtimes like fastest from total history is like a Patrick Langer on the run. He's got the fastest runtime. But the way Kristen's been running, he's down into those two thirties consistently now too. So he could definitely give it a run for his money. I just yeah, you wanna see Yeah.

Josh (55:29.249)
And this is coming off of a serious altitude camp and a full block from Texas to now into this race. It's scary what he's capable of doing this weekend.

Jenna (55:37.245)
Lethal. Yeah. And if you got the timing and everything with altitude right, like absolutely insane. I can't no part of me would be surprised in the least if we saw Bloomfelt like crush the course record overall. Like because there's enough depth in the field too, they're all gonna be pushing each other and he's gonna have someone to chase and a sand laid low and bike power around him with a Jonas and a menow and it's just yeah.

Josh (55:43.586)
Yeah.

Josh (56:03.413)
This is the this is the race too. Going back, we got we got the Jonas Sam Laidlow shirt on. This is the race that Sam Laidlow had no clue where Jonas was and thought Sam Sam thought he was in first place last year and Jonas was gone. Sam never knew he was out there.

Jenna (56:15.67)
I forgot about that too. man. Just in and out. Absolutely crazy. my goodness. Well, cannot wait to see this go down. That would have been so funny just realizing that there is someone up there. It's like, shit. Nope. Mm-hmm.

Josh (56:34.285)
No, he's not behind you. That's not five minutes to back. It's five minutes to the front. Two and a half to the front, wherever it was at that point. Yeah.

Jenna (56:43.274)
Yeah. Okay, the question, who you got? That's a tough one.

Josh (56:47.497)
Hey.

Josh (56:52.237)
We got the big names in this one. And and we I I don't think Magnus can back it up with these guys coming off of what he just did and the fact that he has I d I still don't think he's fully there. He said he didn't feel like he had full legs last weekend either. So I think Magnus is out. especially with the bike power off of the swim, the swim bikers that we got in this field. And

Jenna (57:06.73)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (57:18.741)
I just think KB's on a mission right now. So it's going to be hard to say anyone but KB for that top slot. Again, similar to Kat, like when does KB catch them on the run? I don't think we've seen him come from behind on the run in every race he's pretty much won. And he's been strategic on the bike. I don't think he's going to chase these guys to the point where he's going to blow up his run. And he's just going to trust it that he's going to get there close enough to run them down. Laidlow will probably.

Jenna (57:29.142)
Mm-hmm.

Josh (57:48.6)
be chasing Jonas down again and does he get to him this year knowing that he's out in front of him? that'll be the question. And he's gonna he's got more people to work with this year. So I think you are going to see a bike of four or five trying to chase down Jonas. And then they will come together and that's the scary part for Christian is that he's gonna have to contend with some guys that are pushing the bike together. But I think they are going to overbike. He's gonna get and it'll be Christian, Sam, and Rico in third.

Jenna (58:19.508)
Okay, Christian San Rico. Okay. Yeah, I can't I wanna say something.

Josh (58:24.031)
My podium peaks will be completely different, but

Jenna (58:28.098)
I wanna say something different, but I can't go past Blumenfeld taking this out there. But my goodness. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna change up. I'm gonna say Jonas is gonna have his day out there. He just has his way of his whole thing from WTCS onwards has been sprint off the front, keep doing it until it sticks. At some point it sticks.

Josh (58:33.441)
Yeah.

Josh (58:45.537)
Yeah. Slam it.

Josh (58:51.873)
Didn't stick in Texas, that's for sure.

Jenna (58:55.846)
So I'm gonna say we're gonna see a German day out there and we'll see Jonas Schomberg take the win. I head it sounds crazy to say that. Ahead of a Christian Blumenfeld and then let's say Yeah. Yeah, same Sam Laidlow in third here.

Josh (59:14.783)
I like it. I think it's they're all possibilities and we we know Christian's always got issues with mechanicals and things like that and and can he hold down his nutrition? So camp and all that might have gone great. But we he hasn't had a bad race when it comes to like the technical aspect of anything. I mean, maybe a little bit in that first race in New Zealand, but he's just been on one. So I think it's going to take something like that to knock him down. But I know you would have picked him in a normal world.

Jenna (59:31.072)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna (59:36.874)
Yeah.

Jenna (59:42.142)
Yeah. And I wanna see someone like Patrick Lang in pr or in Challenge Roth, just you wanna see him up there on there. But with the cooler temperatures, like his strength is just that insane run split in stupid heat. So if this were like last weekend in Frankfurt in a full race kind of thing, he would be near the top of my list for sure. But moderate temperatures, bike power.

Josh (59:46.957)
Yeah.

Josh (59:57.707)
Yeah.

Josh (01:00:01.449)
It'll be interesting to see what kind of race Patrick has 'cause he's had a rough go. And this'll be that like, okay, is Patrick going to be a contender again in Kona? And I think he still can show up in Kona and it's still people are still gonna talk about him 'cause they have to. But I think this is a race that is really important to his confidence going into Kona.

Jenna (01:00:16.78)
For sure.

Jenna (01:00:22.344)
Mm-hmm. Well, we will definitely have some shots fired for Kona coming up here because this is a few of the f favorites definitely going in, most of the so many of them who got the Kona qualification. So it's fun to be able to get a preview of what we might see in Kona. I say that, but then we see Kona every year. Just absolutely the stats do not matter. It's whoever can survive the Kona conditions.

Josh (01:00:26.998)
Ha.

Josh (01:00:47.517)
Exactly.

Jenna (01:00:49.266)
Amazing. Well anything else, Josh, before we wrap up here for the day?

Josh (01:00:54.113)
I think that's it for this week. We got a lot covered, so enjoy the racing this weekend, that's for sure. And happy fourth to all our American listeners.

Jenna (01:00:57.398)
Yeah.

Jenna (01:01:02.228)
Yeah, I think we might have lost Fed his internet signals taken by all the World Cup participants, so we will sign off for a Fed here. But we will be back next week to break down everything that happened at Challenge Raw.

Josh (01:01:07.159)
Yeah.

Josh (01:01:16.396)
Have a good one.