T100 & WTCS French Riviera | Talking Triathlon | Episode 101

UTMB delivered a huge weekend of trail racing, with Tom Evans winning the men’s race and Ruth Croft taking the women’s title to complete the UTMB triple.

Georgia Taylor Brown has made her ambitions clear, she wants Olympic gold in Los Angeles in 2028. We discuss what it will take to get her there.

At the T100 French Riviera, Ashleigh Gentle produced another world class performance to win the women’s race, while Hayden Wilde backed up once again to take the men’s title ahead of Jelle Geens and Samuel Dickinson.

The WTCS French Riviera races were just as stacked. Matt Hauser stayed perfect this season with victory in the men’s event, and Cassandre Beaugrand delivered a huge win in front of the home crowd in the women’s race.

We also recap Zell am See 70.3, where Kat Matthews took the win in the women’s field and Fabian Kraft claimed the men’s title, continuing his rise in the Pro Series standings.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro
08:54 – UTMB
16:26 – Georgia Taylor-Brown Wants Gold in LA
21:57 – T100 French Riviera Women
32:10 – T100 French Riviera Man
43:58 – WTCS French Riviera Men
51:47 – WTCS French Riviera Women
59:01 – Zell Am See 70.3

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This week’s episode is sponsored by the running algorithm, your one-stop solution for running coaching. [Music] Welcome back everybody to another episode of Talking Triathlon, the podcast where we talk about triathlon. My name is Tim Ford and I’m going to talk about triathlon with that guy right there whose name is James Bale. Jimbo, mate, how you going? Yeah, very well mate. Very well. The week is progressing and it’s podcast recording time which is probably my favorite time of the week. How are you, mate? I’m honored to hear that. Thank you very much. I guess you just uh you’re still riding the high of giving me some compliments the end of our 100th episode last week. So, it’s uh there you go. It’s it’s it’s very hard to shake once I started down that road. Beacon of positivity. So, I shouldn’t be too surprised, I suppose. Like enthusiasm, positivity, you know, exuberance, all the There you go. You You’ve been away, haven’t you? No, I’ve not. I was I was I was on site. So, uh the company I work for, Mana, was part of the organizing team for the Sydney Marathon last week or on the weekend, which was the first uh time it has been a major major marathon. So, I was yeah on site a couple of days last week with the team setting everything up. And what did you have to do? Uh lots of manual labor to be honest. It was kind of all hands- on deck. So, uh we took care of what you called like the look and feel event. So all the design, the branding, the consistency with the colors and all that stuff. So um like putting the the branded socks over um the fences and the basically anything you saw that had any branding on it was done by us. So with the we did not set up the LED screens at the finish line, but um and you just found you knew you actually found yourself on site doing that uh doing that work. Putting my hand to volunteer, mate. I’m a team player. though to be honest the main reason I did it I mean I always got to help out but I got an all access pass so then on Sunday I could go wherever I wanted which was pretty handy so I got to um be right at the finish line when Kip Chay and you know Hassan and everybody else you know crossed and stuff so that was pretty was pretty epic and then I had one of my friends who was racing guy that I ran with last year and it’s so funny because I know that Rob his name’s Rob I’ve spoken about Rob a lot on this podcast but I know Rob’s a much better runner than And I was very grateful that he ran with me last year, but he kept going, “Oh, man, it was a really hard run.” I’m like, “Fuck off, mate. Like, I know how much I know how much fast you are, man. Like, don’t take the piss.” He’s like, “No, it was really hard, blah, blah, blah.” So, we went 254 together last year. He went 240. 241, I think. Like, yeah, 15 [ __ ] minutes, mate. Like, you can say what you like. The results speak for themselves. But, no, it was um there was some really, really fast times out there. The It’s such a good venue for race. I think a lot of people I think a lot of people don’t realize how important the major thing is and now that it’s happened like everybody I know has been like Jesus Christ you see the marathon in Sydney it’s like yeah it’s a big deal guys man you want to talk about an iconic race because it it literally takes in all the all the sites of city you run across the harbor ridge you run through the city you go out Pont past Dan Harour cut back through the city up past you know um uh like Parliament and everything, Martin Place, and you go out uh into Centennial Park, past the stadiums, go down to Lady McQuary’s chin, you finish the opera house. It has got to be one of the most scenic marathon courses out there. And it’s hilly, like it’s not it’s not a flat course. And it’s funny to see a lot of people like, “Geez, I didn’t realize how hilly this marathon was.” Uh it’s it’s got some climbs in it, but I was really um I got massive FOMO not running it on Sunday. I’m going to put an entry in next year and do it again. And uh I see a lot more marathons in my future actually. I just loved it so much last year. Uh so I think I’m going to do a few more in the next couple years. So that’ll be there’s a rumor going around, mate. There’s a rumor going around that you got a spot in London. It might be still a rumor at this point, but yeah, it’s looking the chances are looking pretty good. So you may see me on the start list of London. The only thing is the timing. I just need to go double check the timing. But yeah, if I can do that, I will uh be there with bells on. Uh nice. Cuz I I had FOMO this year when I was in London watching the event. And yeah, it’s I mean it’s it’s just my favorite race in the world. I love it so much. I cannot wait to race it next year. And it’d be great if you came along and joined in as well. It’s crazy to see what’s happening with running at the moment, isn’t it? Like it’s so good. probably because we’re runners, but just to see the the way it’s booming and you know, I was at the opera house for sure, you know, 3 days last week and there just the people and the accents and the voices and there were people from all over the world coming and it it just it’s like this is it actually gave me like real um like triathlon vibes a bit like that race feeling just I’ve never really seen that with a you know I’ve been to a number of marathons and I’ve never really experienced it quite like this and and it’s I think it is just because it’s a major like you know so many people want to do the you know tick them all off and I tell you and I I apologize to people that heard the name of the podcast talking triathon and now listening to us about talking running but this was a detail that I loved so much so in 2000 Sydney hosted the Olympics and the marathon it’s actually it actually started at the same place as the Sydney marathon different course but similar but in 2000 they put this uh blue you know like the white lines on the roads they put this blue line on the road that was based at the marathon course and the racing line. Yeah. Yeah. The racing line. And it was there. You know, there’s still parts of Sydney where that line still exists. And I’ve always had this grand plan of like one day I’d love to go and run the original marathon course as closely as possible. Obviously, I’m not going to run along the the major motorway that it went on for a bit, but I was talking to my boss Trent about it and he said, “You know, it’s funny you say that because the branding for City Marathon, everything is blue. Like, it’s blue blue.” and he said they found a patch of road that still had the the race line on it and they got a they matched the color pon or whatever you call it. They matched the color and that’s the core color for the city marathon is based on that race line from the Olympics. And I thought that was such a cool like piece of attention to detail that they’ve gone and and based their entire brand around what I think is quite a historical part of Sydney from the Olympics. Yeah. So, I just heard that. I was like, that really um tickled me a little bit. Lives in my memory as as one of the one of my favorite watches when I was a kid. The uh the greatest ever fact. That’s what old one Antonio Samaran said, didn’t he? The greatest Olympics ever. I think London gave it a I think London’s a close second. London was pretty good. Uh, I think London was the greatest Olympics ever myself, but uh, one of my happiest childhood memories was watching that triathlon in bed in Sydney. Um, being very proud of the fact that the sport I kindly did at that point was uh, was suddenly an Olympic sport. It’s funny because the 2012 Olympics was the first time I watched triathon. I mean, I probably watched it, but like that was when I was a triathlete for the first time. So, watching it at the Olympics was also a really cool moment. watching Alistister Brownley do what he did was anyway I get into philosophical if you want to reminisce with us about these sort of things we’ll probably do a bit of that we have to do a bonus podcast actually pretty soon mate so maybe in the next couple of days uh that’s where we’ll do it uh we are going to answer even more of the questions that we didn’t get to last week and uh there’s been more that have come since so that’s what we’ll do on the bonus episode this month but if you want to contribute head to patreon.com/talking triathon $5 a month gets you the WhatsApp group gets you the bonus show gets you the tipping competition which I got no points on a technicality with Zelmc, but all that stuff supports the show, keeps us motivated to keep doing it for 100 more. Uh, yeah. patreon.com/talkingtriathon. Jimbo, mate. See the what competition? The what did you say? Tipping competition. Yeah, the tipping comp. Fantasy League. Sorry. Fantasy league. Yeah, we call that a tipping comp here. Sorry. Fantasy league. Okay, fair enough. Um, yeah, you didn’t do very well, did you? I did well in the T100 and then ZMC, somebody I picked mustn’t have started because I got zero points. So So if one person on your list doesn’t start, you get zero points. You have to have a full a full start list otherwise Oh, that sucks. I know cuz I I know somebody just drop out last minute. Yeah, I don’t follow it that closely either. Um, but yeah, I did I did pretty well in the pretty well in the the women the the 200, but I don’t Anyway, where should we should we get struck? I think we should start with more non-triathlon chat about how the UTMB unfolded. Let’s do it. UTMB happened. And I will link it back to triathlon a little bit, mate, because No, absolutely. Tom Evans, who won the men’s race at UTMB, is actually married to Sophie Cowwell, the British triathlete herself. Indeed. And that’s probably the only reason we’re talking about it on a Talking Triathlon podcast. So, yeah, Tom Evans, who um who is married to Sophie Coldwell, took the men’s win. um he has had two DNFS in the last 2 years and then he’s taken the victory which um in his own words he said I’ve had two DNFs in the last two years and then to take the victory today hoping it proves to everyone that if you put your mind to it then anything is achievable. I mean well done to him but uh I’m not sure I believe anything is achievable if you put your mind to it but you know good on him. I would like I I I know a lot about this race, mostly through osmosis, other people talking about it. It’s not something that I’ve ever On the women’s side, it was New Zealand’s Rof Croft who won the race in 22 hours, 56 23. Yeah. Um, and what I was going to say is I don’t understand why anybody would want to do this. It is too far. It is too long. It is uh it does not sound like a good time to me whatsoever. But one thing that I heard repeatedly last week uh was that the broadcast they do with this is very very very good. And it is ironic because it is owned by the same company that owns Iron Man. So what’s going on there? Well, I mean UTMB has always done well I say always. In recent years they they they put out a high quality broadcast and that was true before Iron Man bore them. Um, so Iron Man have stepped into a uh into something that is very well marketed, very well supported, and very well broadcast and just gone, “Awesome, we own this now.” Um, so yeah, and I mean it’s it’s it’s a very difficult race to get into. So for sitting here someone like me or someone like you saying, “Oh yeah, I’d love to do UTMB.” It’s like, “Oh, you know what to do.” But good luck. Good luck collecting those stones, doing a Yan Fredino and uh and actually getting yourself on the ballot. And then once you’re on the ballot, you got to hope you get a spot. It’s a difficult race to get into, but it would be it would be a stunning race to go and do. Um I would love to do it one day. Right now, it’s it’s it’s right down on my list of priorities because uh feeling well again. I think staggering around mountains quite slowly is not really up there for me right now. But um but yeah, what a place and it was a stormy stormy weekend. Um Courtney Dewalter, who was the pre-waist favorite on the women’s front, didn’t um she finished, but she didn’t she didn’t uh she didn’t get the victory that everyone was expecting and instead it was New Zealand’s Croft on the women’s side who won it and Tom Evans who uh who took the men. So very cool to see. What sort of gaps are we talking like? What’s what are the gaps between first and second and things? Do you have access to that information? Like I want to know how close the racing is. Probably do. Let me uh let me have a little scroll down here. I mean, so men’s results, Tom Evans won it in 1918 and then Ben Deman uh was second in 195137. So 18 minutes and 51 minutes. That’s That’s the same margin sometimes in an Iron Man and this is like diabolical distance. So I mean yeah it is it is I mean yes I I just think historically it would be the same margin in an Iron Man. I think nowadays for example um this weekend in ZMC um Andrew Horseful Turner came 20th and he was 16 minutes back. M you know this is this is what half an hour between first and second. It’s they’re quite substantial um time differences but it is a quite a substantial distance. So it’s you’re you’re it’s almost like watching a um a test match. I think if you going to indulge in this kind of thing you’re not you’re not there looking for that looking for that sprint finish. you’re uh you’re watching the um the race play out over many many hours and watching that uh that tension build as as athletes take on something which is really quite an astounding feat of human endeavor. On the women’s side it was Ruth Croft in first in 225623 and the second place was 232848. So a very similarish time distance difference between the men’s and the women’s. So what are the lessons then for triathon from this? Because you know we’re talking about 20 20our race 20our broadcast. I’ve heard repeatedly from many people that the broadcast is very good. So how is it that this race that is 20 hours that is really not so much about the actual race, it’s more about the the execution or as you said that you know delivery. What are the lessons that then triathon could learn? Because our races are considered long even though they’re, you know, seven and a bit hours now. What is it? What is it? What are people watching this for? Because it ultimately, I’m guess, is just footage of a person running through the forest or, you know, the mountains. So, what what do you think is it? What is the difference? Why does this work so much better than what’s happening in Try at the moment? I mean, you you’ve got to understand that the I think we’ve got to take into account that you’re not having to manage broadcasting three sports. Okay. So, you’re not out on a motorcycle chasing bikers around. You have a Yes. The UTMB is in a difficult location because it’s a mountain location. So, it’s it’s not easy to broadcast. I mean, I’m I’m no expert in broadcast sport, but it is it is on the same course every year, so you probably get used to how to broadcast that location. Plus, with the affforementioned time gaps, you haven’t got a huge amount of changing athletes to follow. And then you’ve got stunning scenery to back it all up and and a quality commentary team that can talk around the race as well rather than just focus on cadence. Why is my laptop not charging? Um yeah. Okay. I think that I I again I just hope maybe that there’s some lessons that they can learn and go from there. But look, that’s uh Ultra Trail Mlanc chat. Ultra Trail Mlanc by Ultra Trail M Blanc done uh for this year. I mean for me the most surprising thing to see on the women’s side was the according to Walter finished 10th 25 50 38. So you know over two hours down on the um on the women’s on the women’s winner. Well, let’s This is going to be a long bow to draw for a segue, but one of Sophie Cowwell’s very good friends, who is obviously married, Sophie Cole, married to Tom Evans, who just won UTMB, one of her very good friends, Georgia Taylor Brown, uh has come out saying, James, that she is all in on trying to win the gold in LA 2028. Uh she was interviewed by Tri 247 and basically said, you know, she wants to go there. She really wants to try to get to LA, but if she goes, she doesn’t want to just participate. She wants to try to win the thing. So, I’m I mean, yeah. What What’s your reaction to that, mate? I mean, she’s one of the most rounded athletes on the on the women’s side of the sport at the moment. Um, without question, that gold medal is a possibility for her future. She’s more than capable of doing it. And, um, if she hunkers down and focuses solely on that, then yeah. Um, obviously Cassandra BR had her moment in Paris and it was an incredible moment to see. She’s carried some consistency forward as we will see later in this episode. She’s she’s riding a rich vein of form right now. Um, but Georgia Taylor Brown is um absolutely one of the most impressive athletes we’ve ever seen in the women’s side of the sport. So, more than capable of doing it. I agree. I am a little disappointed though because again Tim Mill and Tim always wants to see the short people short course people step up to long distance and short people race longest. That’s why I want Tyler Machuk to go long so bad. Um no I think I’ve sort of assumed seeing her race some more T100 events this year 70.3 last year and sort of taking this gap year focusing more on cycling. I thought we were going to see her transition away from short course, which I was personally very excited for because I think that she represents that what I see as the ideal. I mean, she’s ideal at every distance. You know, that’s not to say that she’s not ideal at short course, but she’s very, you know, she’s capable of front pack swimming as we saw in um on the weekend. She’s front, you know, can be off the front or thereabouts rider and she’s also a very very strong runner. And I thought that that would all lend itself very very well to potentially Iron Man. But I also understand that there doesn’t seem to always be as big a crossover or step up in distance across the women’s fields as there is particularly from short course in the men’s races. Like you know, and I’ve I’ve spoken a fair bit about this over previous podcasts, but you just need to look at the middle distance women’s fields compared to the Iron Man distance fields at the moment. And the middle distance women’s fields are so strong. And then not to say the iron man distances are exceptional. They’re just not as deep. They’ve got some super talent, but there’s certainly not as much depth as there is at middle distance. Um, I think that Georgia absolutely has a shot of the god. I think she’ll have a hard time knocking off somebody like Georgia or some of these new people, Georgia Cass or an Emma Lombardi, Emma Lombardi who is what 24 years old and is, you know, just off the pace. I think, you know, give her a couple of form right now. Yeah. And, you know, you think Emil Lombardi came back from, you know, she’s been injured. So to come back and being so close to the front of races, I mean there’s so many athletes, I still think Cass is probably, you know, what are we four years three years out at the moment? Probably going to go into it as the favorite unless I don’t know she decides she’s had enough of it. But I I I love the I love to see the the challenge. I just I’m kind of torn, right? excited to see it, but then I’m also a little bit disappointed that we’re not going to go and get to see her. You know, imagine dropping her into a Imagine a a fully conditioned Georgia Brown to longdistance race and we drop her in a Kona against the likes of Laura Phillip and Lucy Charles and Taylor and those athletes. I think it could be so good. But yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, in reality, the fact we’re having this conversation just shows how the depth of talent on the women’s side at the moment. um short course and middle distance and all distances I think. Yeah, just watching her um her go for it. I would rather live in a world where Georgia Taylor Brown is focusing on on LA and trying to get that gold medal when that race comes around than not. say hello. Having her there in the mix so that people like us can discuss uh who’s going to win and who isn’t going to win when we get nearer the time is is brilliant. Yeah. No, I I’m also very happy cuz she has taken a sort of gap here and I know that she wasn’t necessarily sure of what her future was at the start of this year when she sort of told sponsors, you know, she sent an email to all of us basically and so to see her laser focus back on try I think is a very very good thing. Um because she makes the sport better and I’m against she’s not a pro she’s not a pro cyclist all of a sudden. Yeah. Exactly. Which was it was an almost thing I think. Yeah. I don’t know. I actually don’t understand what happened there. But I know that her and Ma went to the camp and then Ma’s now got the contract. So I think maybe George just went that’s not quite what I was after. I think and I think she’s been public. [ __ ] dear mate. Um there’s a fair bit of frustration I think about the way the races are raced these days. And that’s also probably why I could see her going quite well at non-draft in Georgia because she is so strong on the bike that she could, you know, rip the legs off him. But who knows? Maybe she’ll maybe she’ll dabble. We’ve still got a long time. I think Olympic qualifications don’t start for another year. So I’ve made that up. It could be next week for all I know. I I said that with such confidence. Uh should we start to talk about some of the races that happened over the weekend because there there was a few. Do you want to go short or long or do we go chronological? Let’s start with T100, shall we? Let’s start with T100. Let’s start with T100 women’s race because we’re already talking about the women. Yeah. So, we didn’t have Taylor Nib. Nope. We didn’t have um Lucy Charles. We didn’t have um whose name is escaping me? Kate Wolf. Yeah, we didn’t have Kate Wolf. Yeah. Um and so you know we going into this me and you predicted that perhaps it was going to be Jess Lemon’s time. Perhaps it was going to be um Georgia Taylor Brown’s time to to step up cuz you know going on recent form. I know Georgia Taylor Brown hasn’t had the easiest entry into the T100 world but she’s as we just mentioned one of the best female athletes out there. expecting her to roll on through and and find her her form, but it was Jess and George Taylor Brown that led the way out of the out of the swim with um Stiffett on the bike coming through strong, but uh Ashley Gentle mate came out of nowhere in my opinion and um and took the win on the run with um um Paula Finley coming a close second behind India Lee who made up a lot of spaces, a lot of places on that run with Georgia Taylor Bound dropping down the uh dropping down the order and Jess Lemonth pulling out of the race entirely. Yeah, it was it was an interesting race to watch. Now, this is the first time we’ve seen a T100 race that did a one lap bike course compared to the usually, you know, multi multilaped one. Uh, and I think it was probably just towards the end of the first lap of the swim, Jess and Georgia had gapped the rest of the field and then the second lap there was who was there was another athlete who came got ahead of them. Who was that? Basically, three of them got out of the water together. But I thought at that point, oh, Jess and Georgia are going to ride away from everybody here and I think be lights out because again, we’ve seen what Jess did in that Singapore race where she was working with Kate Wolf. I consider Georgia to be as good a if not better cyclist than Kate Wolf. So I thought those two would work quite well together. And then yeah, next minute Alana Ciffort just pops up out of nowhere and not only rides past them but puts a really decent chunk of time into them. And watching them get off the bike and seeing the gap back to gentle and and I mean it became apparent very quickly that Jess basically went backwards instantly. Uh that calf nickel I guess is still there. Um really unfortunate to see is obviously still battling that. I thought she’d cleared that. She’d done such an upward trajectory since we saw her first um her first inclusion in the T100. I thought the car thing was behind her. But you know, if it’s still there, then she’s obviously still managing some discomfort. It’s funny though because I thought pretty quickly I thought Ash would probably get out there. I I thought Georgia would win um just because it’s again Georgia and again I have a bit of a bias towards the short course people but again I’d seen that she’d been doing quite well at super try and I just expect you know she won that debut 7.3 last year she had the disaster in London but I I thought okay George has got this. So for me after result I think once it became apparent how quickly Ash was running compared to everyone else I was like yeah Ash is going to win this one. Uh I think the gap was never big enough that probably you know again in hindsight it’s easy to say but the gap wasn’t significant enough that Ash Gentle couldn’t run that down and without the likes of um Julie Darren etc there or you know when Luc is running the way she ran in London and stuff I think it was bit of a yeah you didn’t have that that group of strong bikers at the front to make that gap to negate Ash’s incredible run come the end of the race um she ran a 10451 Yeah, which was head and shoulders above everything anyone else put out that day. For example, Paula Finley ran a 10626. Hey, I think that’s the second. Yeah, I think that’s the second fastest. It’s the fastest in the top 10 by a considerable margin though. No, no, I think sorry. I think that um Paula was the second fastest runner is what I was saying. Ashen definitely Ashen 100% fastest runner and then I was like second fastest to who? No, no, sorry. I was talking about Paula. Yeah, Paula 626 and India League run a 10656 to make make up those spaces come the end. Everyone else was um was in the 108s or 107s and then it and then Georgia Taylor Brown won a136 with Stiffett running a 1523 obviously suffering after that bike she put in. I’m going to um name and shame myself a little bit here, Jimbo, because I’m assuming that you’re also looking at the stats or the results page on the T100 website at the moment to get the splits. Is that what you’re using? No. Okay. Well, I am. And I was like trying to I was like, “Okay, so there’s 106.” I was manually going through the list trying to see if there’s anyone uh on the T100 website, this little bracket next to the time it shows what order or what rank their split was. Oh, yeah. The T100 website’s really useful for that. spent like a good minute trying to see if anybody was faster than Paul Finland. It was like number two in brackets and I made this big like declarative state like I think I’m right. It’s yeah, well done Tim, you stupid idiot. But I mean Paula Finley having a Paula Finley day, you know, when she’s on and she’s there. She’s she’s uh she’s a guaranteed podium almost every time. Uh it’s just sometimes she’s not. Um, India Lee making her way up the making her way up the standings to round off that podium. Unexpected if I’m honest, not because it’s India, but just because where she was in that race, I wasn’t expecting to see her climb up the uh the standings quite like she did come the uh come the run. There was lots of that’s there’s a lot of unexpected things for me. Like I’m not that surprised about Ash. I look at the splits here and I like I was a bit surprised by Paula’s swim because you know she was a minute 14 back from Ash in the swim but she only lost to Ash in the end by 50 seconds if her swim had have been just a bit better I mean a bit better nearly a minute better or probably I would have expected her to probably be closer to Ash we would have had one hell of a race because Paula rode significantly faster than Ash then Ash ran significantly faster so we could have had this scenario where you know Paula actually got off the bike ahead of Ash and then you got Ash just running her down running her down, running her down. That could have been really exciting. But um Ellie Salt House, I was really surprised because I’ve been also surprised, but I’ve expected to see Ellie doing better this year. So to see her make the was it another fifth? Great. Lucy Barum is another athlete. I mean Ellie’s coming back from that from that um knee surgery. I mean, that’s that’s a long road. Getting back, not only in terms of rehab, but getting your getting your pointy end of fitness back after a break like that and having to have some um medical interventions is never easy. So, seeing her round it off with a fifth place. You know what it is in my opinion that um led to Ellie finally getting over that injury and coming back to some form like this? Tell me, were you sore in London? No, she spent a week and a half in Leon before the race and uh missioning around some mild haunts. That’s it, mate. There we go. Ellie Soul House, can you please confirm? Gave us some advice on where to go and what to look at while she was there. Other surprises? Uh I I was surprised to see George drop so quickly through the runfield. I thought she’d at least hold on for a podium. So, you know, what did she run? She ran a 111. So 15th fastest run. So definitely not there in the run. Uh Hannah Berry really impressed me as well. Very very well-rounded athlete. You know, well she’s sixth fastest swim, third fastest bike, ninth fastest run for sixth place. I think it’s really good for Hannah who I’ve always considered more of an Iron Man athlete. So to see her doing quite well at T100 distance is really good. Uh yeah, I mean the big pick with our picks or sorry our fantasy league. Uh I had Marta Sanchez and she was sort of well off uh the pace in the end. which is probably what cost me a lot of points. But then there’s a, you know, a number of names I’m actually not that familiar with. But, uh, overall, I thought the women’s race was quite good. I found it a lot more entertaining than the men’s race just because things actually sort of happen. A different different kind of entertaining. I’ll always argue the point that that a domination is is its own category of of enjoyable. You’re allowed to argue that. Uh, let’s then turn our attention to Sedman’s race. Let’s not let’s just quickly summarize the uh the standings on the women’s side after following this race. Julie Darren is still leading with 96 point. Kate W in second with 90. Nib in third with 90. But Ashley Gentle has catapulted herself up the standings to fourth place with 89 with just ahead of Lucy Charles Barkley with 84. Cool. And how many races left? Um, we’ve got what was Valencia that I’m still calling Valencia. And then there’s the grand final, isn’t there? Wingong and then there’s Dubong. I forgot about Wooling Gong. Yeah. And Dubai and Dubai. So, four four. Yeah. So, four races left. Okay. And athletes only have to do four races, right? It’s their top four scores that count, I think. So, okay. So, you expect Lucy to probably get a few more better results, I guess. I don’t know. Um, I love the season long narrative. The running algorithm is a brand new tool that gives you a training plan for everything from 5 km to marathon. You know that your schedule can change and if you have to skip a session or just end up running with a friend and doing some extra, the running algorithm will adapt and adjust your plan to keep you consistent. Head to ther running algorithm.com and use the code talking triathlon all capitals and you can use the running algorithm for free while they add lots of exciting new features over the next three months before you decide if you want to go on and pay later. Men’s race. Yeah, I mean the most surprising thing about the men’s race early on was how close Hayden was in the swim. Um only yeah only 8 seconds back coming out of T1. I know that he was probably about 10 to 12 seconds back actually getting out of the swim, but a swift transition saw him and he put that down to not having to wear a swim skin, I think, cuz he didn’t wear a swim skin so he didn’t have to take off a swim skin, making his transition faster, which surprised me a little bit because I’d have thought if he was the one athlete not wearing a swim skin, he would have had a significantly slower swim than everyone else, but he was there or thereabouts. Um Sam Long again 4 and 1/2 minutes back. Um but it was basically Bogen and Wild pushing ahead on the bike um on the main climb putting 45 seconds into everybody and then Wild kind of managing that gap on the run. He was 50 seconds ahead of Yellow Gaines at 9K into the run, 22 seconds ahead of Gaines on the at the end of the run. I think he’d probably started to ease off a bit towards the end considering the fact that he was going for the double, but a very comprehensive win by Hayden Wild. I made the call the second he got off the bike with the gap to Yellow Games not being that big. I said Yellow Games wins this thing and I was wrong. Uh yeah, this was a very Yeah, good performance, I suppose. It’s not necessarily the best in terms of viewing experiences, but um Sam Dickinson debut finishing third I thought was great to see. I’ve I’ve uh yeah, I I expected him I think I I think I might have had him in my fantasy draft actually. Yellow Gaines I actually thought might cat there was a moment towards the end of that race where I thought Yellow Gains might run him down. It was looking pretty, you know, he was really digging deep and Hayden seemed to be sort of just jogging it in basically and I think he must have got the signal because he picked it up and it became a bit of an uh not possible. But I thought on the bike there was a point where that climb start I expected Yellow Gains would probably stick with them, not lose as much time to those guys just because he’s so much smaller and you know you traditionally expect you know and Gains also is not a bad cyclist. So decent cyclist, much smaller. You’d expect him to sort of do quite well on the climb, but uh yeah, that’s where he lost the time to those guys. And I don’t think there was much of a change on the descent. But um yeah, Morgan Pearson obviously has a lot of work to do on his bike because he was fastest swimmer, fastest runner, and he finished sixth. You know, he was 12th fastest bike. So he was miles off. Decided to keep the shoes on the bike this time, I think. didn’t try to run with the shoes on and fall over like he did at Super Try the other day. Um, any other interesting performances or things that stood out to you, mate? Not really. Um, Sam Dickson rounding off the podium. Good for him. Um, Bogen falling down to fifth on the run. I I still I love the way Rico races. I’ve said that before. I’ve said it many times. I’m probably sounding a bit repetitive, but he’s had his result. He’s had a win, but he’s still putting it out there. He’s still finishing top five. He doesn’t disappear down the standings after having a strong bike. He he manages that decline on the run and uh you know the another day will come where he takes another victory. I’m sure and learns how to um how to manage his effort a bit better than he currently does. But um Hayden’s post-race reaction, he said today was always going to be a super calculated day, but I took some risks out there. I think it was the I was the only one on the start line who didn’t wear a swimskin and it paid off super well. Coming out about 10th out of the water. I didn’t have to take the swimkin off and straight out into the transition into fourth which is perfect. From there the boys really took control and I didn’t want to see the front of the race until I got to the climb and that is where I was going to make my move, put my head down and just pushed hard for 15 minutes. I got to the top of the climb and saw that Rico was there. We just looked at each other and I was like, “All right, let’s do it.” So yeah, that’s that’s pretty much how it played out. Yeah. Uh, other little things to note, you saw Leo Bier overcook one of the corners. It looked like he might come aunder. Did you see that during the race? I didn’t actually. No. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yeah, of course I did. He almost hit the barrier, didn’t he? One of those moments where if he’d hit that barrier at speed, he may have flipped over it as well. And I think it was quite a way down on the other side of that barrier. Yeah. Yeah. You don’t want to be You don’t want to be [ __ ] with those barriers in in that part of the world. They’ve got them on the Nice course uh which obviously is next weekend and there’s a point probably it’s I mean you sort it’s the second descent before the big descent and it’s beautiful. It’s the James Bond area, you know, with the the overcropped rocks that you drive through, but there’s it’s a huge drop off the edge and they’ve just got like a 70 cm high brick wall. And I remember Ryan being like, “Fuck, I’d imagine I bet there’s been somebody at some point that’s not been paying attention, overcook the corner, gone straight into that, and just gone goodbye all over Red Rover.” So yeah, you don’t mess with those barriers. Um, yeah, I think Hayden Staint was Calculated was exactly what it was. It was just a very, it was a very, it was a very Christian Bloomfeld performance, I think, in the sense that he just or like Magnus Dit Levy style sort of. No, not Christian. I see much less Christian Blumenfeld. Yeah. Than uh than Yeah. Ditlev. Yeah. More sorry, that’s what I meant to say. More Dit Levy. That very much like I’m just going to do my things and what happens happens. And you know when when Yellow was coming for him at the end and like how easily Hayden seemed to react. I’m like he’s not he’s not even he’s breathing through his nose at this point. So you know he was signaling to the the crowd. It’s it’s it’s as I just said it’s such an impressive comeback to consider where he came from uh you know 3 months ago to back to this. Uh I think he’s going to be hard to beat now for the T100 series. I think there was a point last week where if yellow got it he might have been unbeatable. Sorry Yellow Gains. Uh, I think Hayden might have this one in the bag. Anyone else? Anything else that was of note for you? Cole Smith had it mechanicals. Sam Long, that’s what I was saying before. Sam Long. So, obviously Sam Long is there preparing for Nice in a couple of weeks. What did you think of Sam Long’s performance? Where did he finish? 15th. Yeah, I didn’t really think of Sam Long’s performance to be honest. Um, 4 and a half minutes down on the swim, finishes 15th. Barely noticeable. doesn’t even ride like not even a factor. He was 13th fastest bike. His run was okay fifth fastest run but still you know quite far off the pace. Yeah. I’m not you’re four and a half minutes down on the out the swim and then you’re riding poorly and then having the fifth fastest run, you’re still not an impact on the race. So I don’t Yeah, this does not bode well for for Nice. I think for for Sam because maybe the saving grace he’ll have in niece is he might come out of the water with someone like Joe and then they can try to do some work together. But yeah, I don’t see it. I don’t see it. Harry Palmer I expected to do better, but he was his run was obviously off. He had the one of the slowest bikes and then one of the slowest run. So I’m guess he was just he was 18th fastest swim, 18th fastest bike, 15th fastest run. So I think he was just having an off day. Uh yeah, that was the men’s race. Overall thoughts, James T 100 French Riviera. What did you think about the actual race? Yeah, man standings currently after this race. Yellow still leads in with9 points. Wild in second with 105. Bogen in third with 93. Ahead of Mkan in fourth with with 93 as well, but obviously Bogen’s ahead of him for for results reasons. And then Vanreal in fifth with 73. It’ be good to see Martin get back to racing soon at some point when he’s got that ankle better and um spent some time. He announced he’s racing Nice. He’ll be on the start list in Nice. Oh, yeah. Good news. Good news. Overall, yeah, I think I I mean I love that part of the world as you well know. I love the uh the coast and and I think it’s beautiful. I think um overall, yeah, it was a solid execution of a T100 race. Um, run course was a little uh bland, but you can’t have everything, can you? Good lord. One thing we’ve learned in triathlon, mate, is you can’t have everything. Sometimes you can barely have anything, let alone everything. I I think the swim, the location, the I really like the bike course. I think the way they broadcast the bike course was very good. The run course looked atrocious. Like it literally just looked like they were running around a school oval or of you know football field or something and it was just brown and just witches hats. But I think that again their broadcast is very very good standard. I think they did a good job of balancing out both the men’s and women’s races considering how close they started this time. They were minutes between them, not you know like a big chunk of time like I think there was in London. Uh yeah, I I I I did feel like it looked like a big downgrade from some of the other races we’ve seen though. This one did feel a lot more like a Iron Man race or something. And I I don’t mean to say Iron Man race like a criticism, but it kind of is, right? Like just that shot of them running with the witches hats. I thought, “Wow, this is this isn’t probably what I expected from a sport trying to be broadcastable.” But I think that they had Emma I’m not a fan of the cones. Yeah, not a fan of the cones. Emma Fredino commentary was really good. I thought Emma with um Vicky Holland. I assumed that Yan was out because he was doing the UTMBB and then I remembered he couldn’t. So uh the internet stopped him, mate. The comment section raged against him. Yeah, tier 100. Uh it presses on. The next one is in a couple of weeks somewhere in Spain. I don’t know where. Uh but we’ll see. But again, I thought it’s it’s funny because and we’re going to transition now to talk about WTCS and we might as well just stay on the on the broadcast thing a little bit, but it’s funny that watching the T100 race the day before and then watching WTCS the next day, how much better I thought the course was or looked for the WTCS race than it did for the the T100. Um, and I think it was obviously they did a lot of the bike riding in town, but even all they seem to do is they did that bit of the run, they just did laps of this this field basically. And yes, it still had the cones, but from an actual race dynamic, I thought it was [ __ ] awesome. I thought it was such a cool way to see the entire field at all times and have a really good understanding of where everybody was. like it. I know they do lap courses often in short course, but to actually be able to see the field, you know, the way the camera angles are work, I mean, the the camera work on the bike and the WTS was terrible, but on the run, uh, yeah, I really enjoyed it. And I thought what they did was good is they brought the commentary team from T100 across to do WTCS, and they added Vincent Louie in. And man, it was ve I’ve enjoyed I’ve enjoyed all the WTCS races I’ve watched this year. I’m really surprised how a couple years ago I thought it was the worst broadcast sport, you know, triathon events around. I I think they’re doing such a good job with their their broadcast and the racing has been very very good. Any thoughts of the the broadcast before we talk about the racing? No, I mean I echo those thoughts. I think um yeah, I think um it wasn’t long ago that both of us were constantly and consistently slamming the WTCS broadcast and it is definitely up to a standard now where that is not that wouldn’t be fair or um or uh yeah, it just wouldn’t be right. So, what do you think? Let’s talk about it. Do you want to start with the Let’s start with the men’s race because we finished with the men’s race and we um obviously have to talk about a certain guy who or two certain guys that did backto-back races. There’s I mean there’s in the men’s race there’s a lot to discuss because there was the Alex versus Hayden Wild return. There was Morgan Pierce and Hayden Wild both doing the backto-back races. There was uh you know Hower potentially trying to maintain his lead. Like lots of different uh things happening in this race. What did you think of it? Yeah, I think it’s brilliant. I mean, I being that I called Matt Hower for the win, I’m I’m very happy. I think we both had him for the win to be honest, which was Yeah, but I called him first and you just copied me. I mean, that’s that’s that’s all I do to be honest. So, that’s like my move. Yeah, I think I think um you know obviously with Hayden coming in to do the double, Morgan Pearson as well, but Hayden being the one that everybody was saying, right, he’s coming into this off the back of the T100, is he just going to show complete dominance in both forms of racing with the T100 victory and then rolling into the WTCS and dominating that? I think both of us said that would be incredibly unlikely um for Matt Hower having had the season he’s had so far with Hayden and Alex not f really focusing on the WTCS quite as much as they have done in the past. There’s been a few there’s been that thought in the back of your head that maybe is just having his year because those two aren’t there. But for him to to come into this race, have the race he did with both Alex Yei and Hayden Wild on the start list, and to get this victory in the manner that he did, it kind of underlines his class and quality this year and really validates the season he’s having. And I think it’s it’s a welldeserved validation. I mean, the fact that he ran the fastest run split of the day, he was 5 seconds faster, sorry, 3 seconds faster than Alex Ye. Uh Hayden was, you know, 30 seconds off the pace basically on the run. I was just happy to see Hayden’s human. Like honestly, I was like, “Oh, thank [ __ ] because Jesus.” But yeah, Matt Matt was We talk about Hayden being quite, you know, sort of calculated. It felt like Matt was a little bit like this. It just looked like sort of like what I’ve said in the past with Ye and Hayden where if Hayden and Alex are together, I think Alex will always win because there’s nothing that Hayden W can do to beat Alex on the run. And I probably feel a little bit the same with Vasco and and Matt where Matt sort of just was there and then at the end just pushed and Vasco couldn’t couldn’t react. So yeah, I think he’s going to have perfect points going to the grand final. You know, three wins, 3,000 points going home grand final. Very motivated to win it there. It’s it’s really good for him. Um there was obviously a crash. Tyler got um taken out of the pack and DNFED which was unfortunate. Yeah, he I saw scrapes. He’s a bit beaten up. Uh and then his travel home became an absolute disastrous flight got cancelceled. He had to spend the night in Toronto. Uh which wasn’t ideal, but yeah, there’s there’s it it’s good to see those three guys. Matt Hower, Baska, Miguel had sort of always up there or thereabouts in every race they did. And yeah, top top three in this race. Matthew ahead of Ask Valasa, ahead of Miguel Hadalgo, ahead of Dorian Conics. Great to see Dorian Conics racing and getting strong result as well. Did you see Charles Pquette what he did? Going across the finish line in sixth place and started high-fiving the crowds and then Alberto Gonzalez Garcia. Oh, I did. Yeah, I did see this. I saw somebody dropped it in the uh Come on, mate. Don’t do that. Um, I thought for a second you were going to say he did the classic cycling thing where um he finishes in sixth place and starts high-fiving the crowd thinking he’s won the thing because there’s people so far ahead. But but no, yeah, I did see him get usered by Alberto Gonzalez Garcia the in the in the death. It’s it’s also interesting to me that we saw Alexie make his return to short course racing super league super trikes ago and he won the thing. I think that company with his crazy 5K the other day, I probably expected him to come back in and do very very well. I mean, what was he? He was not, so it’s not like he’s bad, but yeah, I think that was a bit of a surprise for me. And then talking about Hayden doing the double, we we spoke earlier about how he was, you know, was he 10 seconds down, 15 seconds down, uh, in the swim. You want to talk about the difference between short course and long course. Hayden’s swim was 50th fastest in the WTCS. He swam at 10:01. He was a minute behind. A minute behind Hower or 50, you know what I’m talking 56 seconds behind in a swim that was a third of the distance. Less than or more than a third. Like it’s it shows just how [ __ ] good these short course guys are, especially in the water. Uh, and I obviously I know it’s not a direct correlation, but I think it just does give that perspective to understand. I know these short course guys, you know, really and I mean I’m I’m assuming that this course must have been a little bit short cuz it has Matty Hower with a 1336 5K. I don’t think he’s probably running 1336 off the bike. Uh I mean he did but I don’t think that’s probably a legit 5,000 meters. But you know Vasco 4 seconds back they basically swam and you know there in fact the difference between their run splits is the difference at the finish line. So he really did win it on the run. Um yeah it was good. Yeah really good. Really good. Do you have the overall standings before I move on to I get caught out again? Yeah. Yeah. WTCS overall standings um which is race five. Math House Matthew Hower is leading with 3,000 points ahead of Vasco Velasa on 2775 points ahead of Miguel Miguel Hidalgo on 27711.26 points ahead of Dorian Conics who’s 982.12. Thank you for the question. What is it with the point? Do you I What is it with the point something points? Why is that a thing? because some person who works at World Triathon said, “You know what? This isn’t complicated enough. We need to make it more complicated. Let’s put in decimal points. Let’s put decimal points.” Yeah. When you’re dealing with over 2,000 points, why do you need a decimal? It’s a It’s a great qu I mean, it’s a great question. Why are they in the thousand? It’s like like T100 is like 35 points. 30 25. No, it has to be I don’t know. I is it just is it just I’m asking you and I know you don’t know the answer but is it just for where you finish or are there extra things for like swim pre and stuff like that a bit more like super try or I don’t know it is uh it is diabolical stop its stop it we praised your broadcast when someone’s over 200 points ahead you don’t need a decimal I think what I was thinking of sorry what I meant to ask is it based on their finish place or is it like with the pro series where the time is what indicates the points I think that’s what I was wondering because then you could kind of understand the decimals because they do keep they don’t go to seconds they go to you know seconds or what milliseconds then you could understand there being decimal points but otherwise just there’s absolutely no place for it in in a triathon. Yeah. Yeah. Women’s race. I thought you were frozen then by the way. You were staring so like I was like is he frozen? Oh really? Oh, no. No. I just checked out, mate. I’d mentally checked out. As soon as we started talking about decimal plays, you were just like, I don’t give a [ __ ] Uh, let’s talk about the women’s race. The women’s race was exceptional. Women’s race to me. That was my favorite race this weekend. I loved this race. It was brilliant. What happened, James? Cassandra BR won it ahead of John Laareer, ahead of Leomi Perio in third, ahead of Emma Lombardi in fourth, ahead of Beth Potter in fifth. I mean, that’s a strong lineup for the top five. and Cassandra Bro Grant continuing to show why she’s such a good athlete, but only finishing five seconds ahead of Jan Leair, who only finished 4 seconds ahead of Leon Piro, who uh who only finished 10 seconds ahead of Emma Lombardi. It’s it’s funny because you say those gaps and they do sound relatively small, but when you watch it when you watch it live, like it was, you know, when when they broke Emma Lombardi, you’re like, well, the gap’s huge, and then you realize it’s actually not that big. It’s it’s very very very close. Did you at any point think that uh Cassandra wasn’t going to win or did you think that she’s just playing playing abiding her time attack when it when it counts? I think pre Paris there would have been elements of my brain that are thinking there’s no way Cassandra is going to win this. Mhm. But I think post Paris I have this steadfast confidence in her ability to compartmentalize her race and be there when it matters. And watching her momentum post that gold medal win, you’re just like, “Yeah, she’s still there and she’s she’s she’s got this.” I realized we we should probably explain because some people probably haven’t watched this race. Basically, uh there was a group on the bike. It came together. So, it was one big bike pack. So, the bike was basically neutralized. I probably expected to see my Kingar. I was I was expecting at some point Mai to take an absolute rip off the front, but it didn’t eventuate. And then very quickly, uh there was three of them at the front, which was Cassandra, Emma Lombardi, and Gian Leair. and with like was a threelap course and I think Jeian attacked at the end of the first lap and then dropped they dropped Emma Lombardi and then it was just Cassandra and Jean and I will be honest mate there was a point where Jeian put in a dig and the gap probably got out to maybe 5 m and I thought [ __ ] hell has she done like has she actually done enough and it was probably halfway around the last lap where that gap was getting a little bit big and you you saw Cassandra just like shut it down so quickly she just went like nope Bang bang. I’m like, “Oh, no.” Yeah. I wish Jean Air had won it because I called her for the win. I said she was going to roll into this strong after Super Try and I think you said nah, she’s she’s not going to carry that form through to this, especially because of the travel, James. And I said, “I don’t know.” I don’t think I said it specifically that way, but I said it might be a factor. Yeah, you didn’t say it quite as condescendingly. You’re right. Normally, I do. that that is the rare occasion that I haven’t been condescending. Um um but I mean yeah, I’d have loved it if Jan Leair had won this. Um I love watching her race. Yeah, I do as well. I do. I think she’s an amazing athlete and and she made it exciting. Like this race was exciting because of what Gian Leair did. Like she really just took it, you know, just grabbed it by the throat and went, “You know what? If you’re going to beat like I’m not going to let you beat me, I’m going to you’re going to have to actually beat me.” Um, you know, I like as well because I mean, you know, I’ve got this affinity for France. I love France. I’ve spent a lot of time there. Live there. Hey, that she gave up her citizenship. She’s like, I don’t want to be French anymore. Yeah, I love it a little bit cuz I mean, I’ve got this I love France. I love the French, but you know that you can take the piss out of the people that you’re closest to. And um yeah, she now races for Luxembourg. And uh and that’s France’s loss here. I know that obviously Cassandra races for Franches. She run the run the won the race but she was up there and pushing um pushing Cassandra hard. Um yeah, great work from Jean Laair and and it’s funny you say that because I’m on the I’m using the T100 or the pro uh PTO stats website to look at the results and they’ve got a little French flag next to Jeian Laair. So come on guys. No, no, no. I mean, French by nationality, but by um she’s dual citizen, I believe. Yeah. I mean, she’s just racing under Luxembourg for the WTCS, isn’t she? Yeah, but I think that’s Anyway, I don’t know. Uh Beth Potter, I did not realize she was leading the series when they cuz she had number one. I’m like, why the hell is why the hell has Beth Potter got number one? I don’t even actually really remember her racing much this year. And she’s just been very consistent, always, you know, quite high, but hasn’t won one yet this year. Uh, yeah, fifth place and only six seconds off Emma Lombardi. You know, there’s there’s um there’s only 25 seconds covering the top five in this uh in this women’s race. That’s your course, mate. Like, it really is so tight that, you know, they say every second counts. It it really really does. Uh any other things that are worth talking about? Uh, Summer Rapaore first out of the water, went backwards on the bike and finished in 30th place and like quite far back. Um, I was happy to see Taylor Spivey in seventh, not fourth obviously, which is her standard place, but you know, Taylor’s been sort of a bit absent this year, so to see her, you know, and she was with Beth Potter and that for a big chunk of time, it was, I guess, a really positive sign. But mate, I just think Cassandra Grand is unless she makes a mistake like she did in Chicago, she’s unbeatable. Like she’s just what whatever has all those pieces have fall into place and she has just worked it out. Whatever those mental challenges I used to say that I’ve sort of worried about, they’re gone. And any race that she is there or thereabouts, I just don’t see her being beaten at the moment. And it’s it’s funny because I I’ve criticized that in men’s racing yet for some reason when it’s with the whims like cuz even though she wins it’s not like she just runs away with it. It’s still like this is a perfect example of that right where you know Jean who I probably didn’t think was going to but genuine I was like I think Jean could do this like you get so caught up in the moment that it’s really exciting and then Cassandra does the thing that you know she’s going to do and it’s like okay there we go. It happened but yeah. Yeah. So after off the back of this race, Cassandra Burgand is leading the series with 2925 points. Leo Pereo is in second with 2587.72. Jean Laair is in third with 2551.40 and Beth Potter is now in fourth with 2512.72 points. Yeah, good stuff. I loved it. Honestly, if you haven’t watched already, go watch this race. I think to be honest, watch all the that triathon live membership gets them gets a lot of use in my household. So, uh it was it was good racing. Yeah. Yeah. Same same same. Many same all the many. We have one more race to touch on. We don’t have a lot of time and I actually don’t have a lot of stuff to say. So, do you just want to give us the results from Zelmc 17.3 Zelmc on the pro side? C Pro Women’s side. Cat Matthews won it in 40850 with Lisa Petier in 41236. Um on the pro men’s side, Fabian Craft won it in 34431 ahead of Gregor Payatt from France in 34714. I want to shout out uh Steph Clutterbuck who I know was injured and made her return to racing which I was very very happy to see. Cat doing cat things. uh expect her to probably win the tea uh sorry the pro series again this year. I think the most interesting point about this race on the women’s side was that Cat Matthews went into it with doubting her form a little bit, doubting how she was feeling and took her power meter off the bike so that she wouldn’t be seeing um negative. She didn’t she didn’t want to upset herself by seeing numbers she wasn’t expecting to see. So, she completely removed her power meter and just went out and raced on feel. And I I really quite like that as an approach when you’re when you’re not feeling it because we’ve all been there. We’ve all gone for that run or that bike where we’re like not seeing the pace we expect and our heart rate’s up where it shouldn’t be and and the numbers aren’t coming and then it upsets you even more. So yeah, fair play. I like that. Well, what I I’m looking forward to is because what people don’t realize a lot actually is much like L Sanders likes to follow what the Norwegians do, James really loves to follow what Cat Matthews does. So, I expect that we’re going to start seeing Jimbo, go out Verizon at power meter, no nothing, just riding naked. Yeah. Well, I mean, the the broadcast team made an absolute meal of this, as you can imagine. Rather than just mentioning it once, it became Oh, god. They’re probably still talking about it. Um, I uh have only ever ridden with a power meter once or twice. I got a bike with a power meter many years ago. So, Cat was actually copying you. Okay. She’s copying me. Yeah, cuz I I I remember getting this power meter and thinking, “Oh, I finally got a power meter. It’s going to make all the difference. And then I used it a couple of times. It ran out of battery. I never charged it again and just realized I didn’t give a [ __ ] about my power numbers. And I’m a child of the ’90s. I mean, the 80s, but yeah. Um, child of the 80s, grew up in the ‘9s. Same as me. No. Uh, yeah. Cool. I This is a race I’d love to go do one day. Every time I see it, it looks so beautiful. Uh, it was a It was a weaker pro. Like I I’m surprised that it was quite a weak field. I guess it’s probably just that we’re getting so close to world champs. Uh especially with Nice like you know what are we talking 11 days away at time of recording less than hard now aren’t we? Yeah. And as I said Martin Benal is racing which will be good. Um I’m we will do a full preview of Nice ASAP. I’m not feeling the excitement for it that much to be honest. Like I don’t know why you’re going to be there. Yeah I’ll be in Nice. Um, yeah, I don’t know. But anyway, I’m sure it’ll build next week. I actually have to work that out because I’m on the road next week. Uh, Jimbo, thank you very much. If people want to find out more about Talking Triathon, where do they need to go? Yeah, if you want to support the show, jump on at patreon.com/talkingtriathon. If you want to follow Tim, he’s at T414 on Instagram. And I’m bale.jame85 on Instagram. We are talking on Instagram. And uh if you join the Patreon group, you get access to the monthly bonus episode and the social group and we’ll put you in the WhatsApp group, which has been um a source of never entertainment for me. Um I appreciated Sean Green’s little attempt at using AI in the group. Uh good, wasn’t it? It was good, but he didn’t he didn’t get the double discs. I was I mean that was the whole point was the double discs. But there you go. If you want to find out I thought he was going for the screaming face to be honest. That’s what I thought he was going for. But yeah, it’s great. I mean, it’s all it’s all part of the package, isn’t it? But the double discs was the uh was the backbone of that of that comment. Um, if you’re not a member of the Patreon group and you don’t want to know what we’re talking about, then uh leave a comment on YouTube and we are more than likely to see it and respond. And I also want to give a shout out to Lizo Beach for her lovely comment on YouTube last week. So, thank you very much. Uh, oh yeah, that was really kind. Yeah, it was very kind. So, thank you. It uh Yeah, actually meant a lot. So, thank you so much and thank you everybody else who gave us your thoughts. some people making wild calls and stuff and much like myself it doesn’t always work out but don’t worry we won’t belittle you for that but Jimbo a pleasure as always guys thanks for listening yeah next week we will preview uh IMO champs and until then talk to you later cheerio