It’s Kona week! We aren’t there this year, but the hype is still strong.
If you’re racing, congratulations! And if you used TrainerRoad, let us know so we can all follow you and cheer from afar .
Weather and course are normal, but the pro field is super intriguing. Kristian seems to be on the right track, Gustav is on his way back (maybe better than we think?), and Laidlow and Magnus seem to be in good form. Tons of other players too.
Who’s gonna win?
Magnus Ditlev
Sam Laidlow
Rudy Von Berg
Lionel Sanders
Leon Chevalier
Gustav Iden
Kristian Blummenfelt
Patrick Lange
Arthur Horseau
Clément Mignon
Antonio Benito López
Other
0voters
Kristian and Gustav’s positions are wild and I have no clue how they are going to hold those positions for 112mi, let alone run a marathon after, but there’s no question that group does their homework.
What’s up with their positions?
It’s just elite level trolling
They’ll be faster on the bike, but they’ll pay for it on the run
It is too hard to hold at high power, so they’ll be slower on the bike
It’s going to make them faster across the board
Other
0voters
A lot of athletes will have contractual incentives to get fastest splits. Who will have the fastest splits?
Swim
Magnus Ditlev
Sam Laidlow
Rudy Von Berg
Daniel Baekkegard
Leon Chevalier
Gustav Iden
Kristian Blummenfelt
Patrick Lange
Clément Mignon
David McNamee
Gregory Barnaby
Menno Koolhaas
Kacper Stepniak
Ben Kanute
Other
0voters
Bike
Magnus Ditlev
Sam Laidlow
Rudy Von Berg
Lionel Sanders
Leon Chevalier
Gustav Iden
Kristian Blummenfelt
Patrick Lange
Trevor Foley
Clément Mignon
Peter Heemeryck
Matthew Marquardt
Kristian Hogenhaug
Robert Kallin
Other
0voters
Run
Magnus Ditlev
Sam Laidlow
Lionel Sanders
Leon Chevalier
Gustav Iden
Kristian Blummenfelt
Patrick Lange
Peter Heemeryck
Daniel Baekkegard
Trevor Foley
David McNamee
Menno Koolhaas
Matt Hanson
Antonio Benito López
Other
0voters
And most importantly, what will Lionel’s race day look like (this YouTube series is giving me anxiety, lol)?
Well definitely not blummenfelt as he’s pulled out of road riding in the pro tour. Personally i dont think he’d have cut the mustard on the world tour level.
It feels bad to bet against French triathlon when they are Laidlow from Olympic disappointment, but another athlete Blu away the field at Frankfurt and it won’t be Lange before we see him atop the podium.
I’m pretty sure I could handle 180g/hour if I could figure out how to carry it all. I had great success with 120g. At least, I had no stomach issues or electrolyte issues that I noticed. That was on Saturday nutrition app’s “SpeedNectar” (literal table sugar and table salt, with lime/lemon juice for flavor), too. I can imagine there’s some sort of special sauce he and his team could have access to that could push it even further.
The carb craze hit well after I got out of tri and went back to just the bike, but isn’t the strategy here to load up on more fuel on the bike in order to minimize the amount you need to take in on the run (and avoid stomach issues)?
In that case, 180g / hour for a a little over 4 hours in a ~9 hour day doesn’t seem too crazy.
Less than 8hrs these days. Problem is still the balance between under and overeating on the bike for either a bonk or nausea on the run.
Blu displayed mastery of handling when it goes wrong at both ends at Frankfurt this year. I won’t link to the clips for everyone’s sakes, but he still won convincingly.
180g seems yuge. Is that every hour, so 4x? He’s not a small guy but still.
That was my assumption too, but Dr. Pfaffenbach pretty well debunked that theory in this podcast recently.
Essentially, energy consumed on the bike will not be stored, and high intake rates are likely to elevate blood sugar to functional levels well before needing to go to +120. All of that said, Dr. Pfaffenbach could be wrong on that, but he is in the trenches with athletes and also in the lab, so I do trust his perspective.
However, we often see examples of the best athletes leading scientific deiscovery, and perhaps this is an example of it?
Yep! That’s taking in ~2,900 calories in sugar during the bike leg. Wild!
Rumors have his FTP around 485, so I wouldn’t be surprised if his bike power is between 375-390, and that puts his calorie burn around 5,200-5,600 calories for the mechanical work alone on the bike leg. The metabolic work required to do that in those conditions means he’s likely burning a not insignificant amount of additional calories.
So just from a pure energy balance perspective, 180g/hr seems completely insufficient. It’s just insane to consider!
I’ll definitely watch some of it….have a buddy who is there and I’ll be tracking him, as well. He got hit by a car 2 years ago and was in really bad shape. Multiple broken bones, surgeries, etc.
A year later he both KQ’d and BQ’d and just KQ’d again last month at Madison. Hope he tears Kona up….amazing recovery.
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