- [Narrator] The highlights
of the Half Ironman World Championship.
Oh, good job boys.
And Daniela Ryf did what Daniela Ryf does.
What's up trainiacs?
Today, we're taking a little bit of a departure
from your regularly scheduled vlog
because yesterday and today
were the Half Ironman World Championships
held down in Chattanooga.
Now, a couple of weeks ago I did a preview
of who I thought were going to be the main competitors
in the pro men's and the pro women's field
and how tough that race course was
like, half the swim was into the current,
the bike, crazy hilly, about 1000 feet of climbing,
the run about about 300 feet of climbing
and we had a super deep field
especially with over the last little while
all these fast, olympic-distance, ITU athletes
getting over the Rio hurtle
and now coming into Half Ironman,
I was expecting an awesome race on both sides
and we had it.
Now, before we get into that fun story about this morning
when Pat and I were running it was super hot out
so we took our shirts off right away,
give the people of Winnipeg a show,
ran past an old grandma,
as we're running past she goes,
"Oh, good job, boys."
(hands clapping)
I mean, I'm flattered. Thank you, ma'am,
but act age-appropriate.
Okay, onto the highlights
of the Half Ironman World Championship.
Basically, what's happening right now
is with all these ITU athletes coming up,
graduating out of Olympic distance racing
and going into longer course racing,
we're seeing the speed go way up.
We'll start on the men's side
and the three first athletes out of the water
were all former ITU athletes.
Ben Kanute got out in 24:03
with Javier Gomez five seconds in behind him
and Tim Don 55 seconds in behind him.
Like I say, all three, former ITU athletes
with that greasy fast ITU speed
where they had to swim so well
or their race was lost if they weren't in the front pack,
but on the bike what happened is as expected
former world champion
in the Half Ironman and full Ironman distance races
Sebastian Kienle had the fastest bike split.
He started out of the water
four minutes down from that lead pack
and he had to work his way back up
and because of his awesome bike legs,
he was actually expected to do really well,
if not win this weekend,
but the issue that I feel is going to keep
fellows like Sebastian, who don't have that
ITU racing background, and forces them
to have to work really hard to catch up on the bike,
will end up hurting them on the run
and it will keep them from winning.
So, while he ended up catching basically
right back up to Ben Kanute who had a one minute slower bike
he was still basically neck and neck
and Ben Kanute is used to going out onto the run
and having, basically, these 10k running races
that decide the ITU races.
So, in the lead coming into T2 Ben Kanute,
from the U.S., was in the lead
with the awesome runners Javier Gomez and Tim Don
actually three and four minutes back.
So, with his ITU experience, I was expecting Ben Kanute
to actually do really well
and hold off those ITU athletes,
but in the end, it didn't end up being enough.
Javier Gomez is the class of the field
in just about every triathlon that he enters
when it comes to running
and that was what happened today.
He ran a 1:10, a 1:10, in a half marathon.
If he were here, racing the Manitoba Half Marathon,
he would win about nine out of ten years
and he did this after swimming and biking to warm up
for three hours, too.
So, in the end, Javier Gomez was the only triathlete
to go under three hours and 50 minutes.
He did that by just a few seconds.
He passed Ben Kanute in the last few miles of the run
and held that lead coming into the finish line.
Ben Kanute was just about a minute behind him
and Tim Don ended up placing third
and then forcing shoe shots down everyone's throat
on the podium.
Good on ya, Tim. Good on ya.
The women's race is getting just as fast
with all those ITU athletes coming in.
The first women out of the water
in 25:23 were Laura Brandon, Haley Churra, and Sarah True.
One of my picks to do really well, Daniela Ryf,
was only a minute and three seconds back
and you had this big group of women
all within one minute of each other.
So, all of a sudden it became a bike and run race.
And Daniela Ryf did what Daniela Ryf does
and that is smashing the field in the bike
and building a huge lead.
She had the fastest bike split on the day
by over five and a half minutes
and coming into T2 her next competitor wasn't even in sight.
One of the more interesting things that happened
throughout the entire day is the defending champion,
Holly Lawrence, who,
I said earlier two weeks ago
that she was questionable coming into this race
because she's been battling injuries and sicknesses.
When she was in second place on the bike
she pulled out at mile 22.
Kinda strange that if
you're able to get yourself into second place
in a World Championship that you drop.
Mmmhmm. Very strange and very unfortunate.
And then just like what happens in ITU races
once we got onto the run and out of T2,
the top four women, who finished overall,
ended up being the women
who had the four fastest run splits on the day.
The fastest women's half marathon was Emma Pallant
who did 1:19 and change,
but it wasn't enough to even close the gap slightly
on Daniela Ryf who won by over seven minutes
on second place Emma Pallant
and eight minutes on third place Laura Phillipp.
I didn't see the podium,
but I don't think these women drank out of their shoes.
(crowd clapping)
So, all in all it was an awesome day of racing,
it was a brutal course
and looking back at my picks,
I picked Javier Gomez to be my favorite
and I picked Heather Jackson,
which was a really bad call because
she didn't race and publicly announce that
even before I picked her to win,
but I said Daniela Ryf was probably the next best competitor
So...
Uh huh, uh huh...
Call Vegas, tell them you know Triathlon Taren
and just go with whatever I say.