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The Roadrunner Rankings

Domination in any sport is tough. Whether you are at the top of the tree in F1 or tennis or underwater flaming archery it is tough to be at the pointy head of affairs. The other side of this proposition has an "Everestorian" (made up word but hang in there!) thread to it. Once you climb the mountain you have to remain alive. There have been some very successful dynasties in triathlon. The Allens, Scotts, Newby Frasers and Badmann's of the tri world were very successful at plying their trade not only at the big island but also around the world. Other athletes have been profficient on various courses. Jo Lawn and Cam Brown own Ironman New Zealand whereas Macca, Pauli Kiuru and now Patrick Vernay have had extended stays at the top of the Ironman Australia heap. This leaves us with two questions.

1.Are we going to see big time multiple winners in Kona anymore? And 2.is there anyone in triathlon who is a lock certainty to win they show up to a race? To answer question one Chrissie Wellington is well on the way with three wins to making a huge run at a big multiple. Crowie (the pros pro) is also on the same road but with his age it is hard to see him knocking out 5 or 6 wins. Although we love the pros pro and it would be great to see that happen and with Alexander how can you bet against him?

The multiple winners like Wellington tend to be once in a generation athletes and are super rare. She may well rewrite triathlon vernacular and redefine the benchmark of what both men and women can do in endurance sports.

To answer question 2 is a little easier. We kicked the idea round the office and came up with a few of the big triathlon names and a percentage on what we thought their win capacity was at any given race. We call this the road runner rating (the road runner being impossible to catch).

www.firstoffthebike.com's inaugural Triathlon Road Runner Rankings (% being their win capacity.)

• Chrissie Wellington (100%) She wins all the time and right now she is the embodiment of the road runner... beep beep!
• Alistair Brownlee (100%) The ITU world has yet to catch him.
• Craig Alexander (98%) The pros pro. When he turns up to a race the other pros throw out their thank you speeches.
• Emma Snowsill (97%) It took about 5 minutes for Snowy to get her mojo back. She just knows how to peak for the big races.
• Mirinda Carfrae (95%)  Rarely has a bad day.
• Eneko Llanos (95%) This season Llanos has been awesome. He is is mint form.
• Terrenzo Bozzone (90%) Bozzone is a triathlon genius. From Olympic to 70.3 to IM he does it all and has a win % that says he is a viable threat at any distance.
• Luke McKenzie (90%) McKenzie is a big time player these days and rarely puts a foot wrong.
• Julie Dibens (85%) The Dibens shadow over the triathlon world is starting to grow.
• Michael Raelert (85%) He too will be a name that, in a few years will be talking about as the best there is.
• Belinda Granger (85%) Prodigious talent that gets better with age.

If you have any to add feel free.