Alistiar Brownlee wins again

Im sure i remember an interview with him a while back where he said he was dead keen to move to IM racing but not until he's in his 30's

Cheerful Dave wrote (see)

Does Yorkshire have a separate team in the Commonwealth Games?

In the same interview, they did point out that if the Brownlee brothers were a country, they would be 28th in the medal table, which is higher than Canada, Kenya and many other Commonwealth countries...so maybe

Dreamtwister wrote (see)

Love the Brownlees. Great Yorkshire lads. Hate this sport. It's an absolute farce, and until someone gets a grip of it, it always will be. The Brownlees are great runners. Jonny ran excellent this year at the inter-counties x country and they both have an excellent pedigree going back to their youth. National x-country etc.

The first 2 elements are all but pointless. Phelps wouldn't be able to stay away from a group after a swim, and Wiggins would struggle to leave a group on the bike. It's laughable.

Make the bike leg extremely hilly to eliminate drafting, and as already been said, put it first, then the swim and run. The sport will change drastically tho. No more fat boys!

 

 

If you're taking THAT line then the heptathlon must be more of a farce? Yet everyone loves Jess.

Extrapolate your reasoning further.. in regard to athleticism

Agree with a lumpy bike to spoil drafters but swim second could cause all sorts of cramp issues then?

Hobbling Harrier wrote (see)

The 10k isn't accurate- official triathlon guidelines allow a variation of up to 10% in the race distances so a "10k" could be anywhere from 9k to 11k.

Claims from yesterday that he ran 2915 sesem unlikely as his best ever officially measured 10k in a top quality race is about 29:30. Similarly I think Will Clarke was timed at 27:45 for 10k at the London Triathlon- his best is about 30 minutes in a properly measured race. 27:45 would have him as fast as Farah!

 Brownlee is regardless a very good runner - especially for his age- in his year group he's probably number one- though there are a couple that could beat him if they get uninjured for long enough (Pepper (used to be here!) and Deighton spring to mind) but he's not in the same class yet as Vernon from the year above. 

 Smart too- got into Cambridge for Medicine but left in his first term to train harder whilst at Leeds.

Steve Cram mentioned this but said that the Olympic one had an officially measured 10k.

Yes wasnt it Hugh Jones the VLM course measurer who'd certified the run as being 10k ?

They do have hillier bike legs - but if you're racing round Hyde Park - you'll struggle to find a hill. Unless theres a multi story car park to race round. THAT would be interesting.

If thats the case - why havent they  ?  I think you're underestimating the talents of the Brownlees and co.

Firstly I love triathlon and love the Brownlees and Yorkshire and Jess Ennis depite the fact she has bigger guns than me - I think I edge it for looking good in a dress though.

However I do feel that with drafting allowed it does always result in a 10km sprint at the end. The speed they came out of T2 was mental. However the number of competitors of equal-ish performance means they have to allow drafting on the bike or go for a TT style start.

Yes that means it becomes a 10km foot race. So maybe that is modern triathlon. Heck look at modern rugby compared to that of the eighties. The players of the 80s would get ripped to bits.

Not sure they want to lengthen the bike as the current event time is

Dreamtwister wrote (see)

. Alot of sub 30min 10k runners could take the sport up and very quickly be in the worlds top 10. This shouldn't be the case.

I think you are underestimating how good they are at swimming and cycling.  It would take a non swimmer about 10 years to get to the same level as them.  Look at Adam Bowden, former steeplechase athlete and sub 30 min 10k runner, he took up tri in the last few years and even with a county swim background is miles off of the pace.  Chris McCormack, world IM champ and former world Oly champ, got dropped by 2 mins over the 1500 metre swim when he went back to olympic racing.

These top athletes are phenomenal talents and very stong at all 3 hence they are at the top. 

I think what Tuesday showed me was how far ahead of the field the Brownlees (and Gomez) were. On the bike they came past fast, the pack were pedestrian by comparison. On the run they were absolutely steaming.

Dreamtwister wrote (see)

KK - Anybody that has cycled in a group will know how much energy you can save by drafting. No matter how strong a rider is, he won't leave 3/4 slightly weaker riders working together. 

To add to what others have said, even if energy is being saved in a pack, if it's moving fast there'll be some working hard to stay in it while better riders are finding it easier.  Elite triathlon isn't simply about who is the best runner, it's about minimising the energy used swimming & cycling so that you can run 10k as close to your 'fresh' 10k pace as possible, but at the same time working sufficiently hard to be in the front group and keep it quick enough that your rivals are not going to be able to run as quickly as you.  There's a lot more to the bike leg than simply pootling around in a big group, although I would agree that it doesn't make for great viewing.

There may well be some in the field who could beat the Brownlees in a straight 10k race, but they're not able to run to that potential in a triathlon because they're working harder on the other legs.  There's a young American guy at one of the world cup races who had the second fastest run on the day, but he hadn't been able to keep up with the lead group on the bike and ended up down the field, although he made up a lot of places on the run.

The Brownlees only know how to race one way and that is hard from the front in the swim, bike and on the run.  I almost every race they will be dominating on the bike leg and even with a 'domestique' they still worked hard sharing the load. 

I read regular tweets from stong road cyclists who train with them and the Brownlees regularly rip the roadies legs off.  They are phenomenal at all three diciplines, that is why they are the best in the world, not because of just one. 

Dreamtwister wrote (see)

Love the Brownlees. Great Yorkshire lads. Hate this sport. It's an absolute farce, and until someone gets a grip of it, it always will be. The Brownlees are great runners. Jonny ran excellent this year at the inter-counties x country and they both have an excellent pedigree going back to their youth. National x-country etc.

The first 2 elements are all but pointless. Phelps wouldn't be able to stay away from a group after a swim, and Wiggins would struggle to leave a group on the bike. It's laughable.

Make the bike leg extremely hilly to eliminate drafting, and as already been said, put it first, then the swim and run. The sport will change drastically tho. No more fat boys!

Ever put on a wetsuit when you've been sweaty DT?

Dreamtwister wrote (see)

The top 3 would have still been the top 3 if there had been no swim or bike. I have no doubt about that.

That's probably true in the Olympic Games, but that's because the other sub-30 10k runners (like Adam Bowden) aren't good enough triathletes to make the Olympic team.  It's certainly not always the case at all world cup events.

I'd be interested in seeing how a swim-run-bike race went though.  Would the gaps at the end of the run be big enough to keep everyone dispersed during the bike, or would the fact that the quickest runners would be conserving something for the bike mean that bunch sprint at the end of the race is inevitable?