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Monday, 15 March 2010

The Crank

  • This weekend in Abu Dhabi proved the death of the so called Uber Biker. First that name makes you sound like a tool when you say it but more importantly in a race that should have seen the two so called menacing bike riders in the sport Phil Graves and Bjorn Andersson dominate it saw them falter. They were unable to get away from a very god bunch of triathletes.

    Trying to dominate the bike in a field like that is very difficult. Yes we saw Lieto do it in Kona last year but where was this weekend? In Miami. You have to be in running form to win races around the world right now. And that stretches from ITU (Brownlee is a 29 minute man) all the way to Ironman where the Carfrae's, Alexanders and Raelerts are very very tough to beat. There are exceptions to the rule but this race was supposed to be a discriminator and it di nothing to discriminate.

    It was cool thopugh to see a race of this calibre so early.
  • And on Abu Dhabi, how much do you think Leon Griffin and Rebekah Keat have left for Ironman Australia? Both raced on the weekend. And are going to be in Port Mac. They would be considered favorites for the event too. Will they have enough in the tank?
  • Nice to se Luke McKenzie take out Ironman China. This further strengthens our argument to make the national championships more meaningful And you can't tell me the corporate world is not interested in triathlon. The BRW triathlon series attracts 16,000 of them a year to race that series. But back to McKenzie, he is a racers racer. He loves to get out there and go and we love to watch that. Bad luck to Macca. This race was shaping up to be a cracker when he pulled out.
  • Is it tougher to win in Asia or the U.S? Some folks argue that racing Asia is a 'softer' than in other areas of the world. Hmm I doubt it. At the end of the day the weather is tougher and the distances are the same. Let's face it, some athletes would rate a whole career to win an M Dot race.
  • We hear specialised is putting together a super team. This is good to see athletes getting looked after but at the end of the day triathlon is an individual sport and you could show up in a bus with the best on the business and all it means is that they are wearing the same kit. Still it's fun to watch these teams getting put together.
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Comments (2)

by Mike , 15 March 2010

Matt... You can't put all the blame on the coach. He coaches Bek and Carolin Steffen, both of which raced Abu Dhabi, and are entered into Ironman Australia. But also, Leon Griffen, Carrie Lester, and Lisa Marangon have entered into both of those events as well. These Pros have to race where the money is, as well as looking after their Australian-based sponsors.

by Matt, 15 March 2010

What's going on with Rebekah Keat, or more importanly here coach Brett Sutton, she raced ITU long course two weeks after Kona and now she's racing ironman Australia just two weeks after Abu Dhabi, surely this cant be good.