- Morning, Trainiacs.
We have the super good looking Breathe Right nasal strip on
so that can only mean that today is an easy recovery ride,
but it's not what we're talking about.
What we're talking about is the fact that last week,
I booked our condo for Kona, the Iron Man World Championship
and I, even in July, already have Kona fever.
We are three months away and it's got me
thinking about who's gonna win.
With that last little show down at Iron Man Frankfurt
between Yon Ferdino and Patrick Langa,
I wanna look at them.
Heads up.
(upbeat music)
- The hierarchy is it was an emotional experience.
Standing in line and sitting next to...
- Who do you think was most prepped?
(bike wheel whirring)
Totally crushing the watts this morning, 45 minutes,
average power of 88 watts, whoa.
See, really easy, recovery means recovery,
but what you can do during times like this
to make it slightly useful that I did there
is something as simple as some one legged spinning.
You do a little bit of one legged spinning
in the arrow position, you're gonna be
activating this whole area here,
so when you get to a race, all of a sudden,
your lower back isn't gonna have that same shimmy.
You're gonna be a lot more aerodynamic.
You're gonna be able to transfer
a lot more power into the pedals,
'cause you're nice and stable,
and if you got a sore lower back
towards the end of the race, it'll help with that.
But that's not what you came for.
You came to know about Yon versus Langa in Kona.
Let's get into that right after breakfast anda coffee.
So, alright, Trainiacs.
Normally I only do kitchen-y type things in the kitchen,
but out there we got air conditioning going on, see?
Also, 51 Speedshop sent out a hat that finally fits me.
I like it, 51.
Alright, so comparing Yon Ferdino and Patrick Langa,
it's tough to make really direct comparisons
in some of the races that they've done,
because let's say two years ago when they were both healthy
and Yon won in Kona, Patrick Langa was just getting into it.
2017, when Yon and Patrick went head to head in Kona,
Yon was not healthy, had a seized up back,
Patrick Langa, very healthy, he wins.
But we can kinda take little bits and pieces
over the four races that I was able to look at
where they actually did go head to head,
and I think, from that, I've got
a pretty good idea of how they stack up.
Now first, the swim.
Yon with his ITU background, you expect him
to be a really good swimmer.
He is a really good swimmer, that's the case.
He's almost always coming out in,
no matter if it's full Iron Man or Half Iron Man,
towards the front of the front pack
or coming out of the water outright first,
whereas Patrick Langa is typically in the front pack,
but somewhere in between about
30 seconds to a minute further back.
First you might be saying, "Well, you know what,
that doesn't really make a difference."
But what we can pull out is this,
in Half Iron Man Crichlow, that is a speed focused race,
it's very different than a long endurance focused race,
because these Half Iron Man's are become
basically like an ITU race, it's all speed,
and what we see in that earlier this year is
Yon came out in 23:29 where Langa came out
almost two minutes back in 25:25.
Now, that's a very big difference,
so what this is telling me is that
Yon has way more top end speed
and is a better overall swimmer than Patrick Langa,
so that then tells me that when it comes to Kona,
even though their times might be kinda similar,
Yon is essentially coming out of the water fresher,
because he's not using as much of his potential.
He just needs to get himself up to
the front of the front pack so that
he's in the chase on the bike,
where Patrick Langa has to work to stay in that front pack
to make sure he's in the chase.
So they're not getting to the bike in the same state.
Give the edge to Yon even though his time
might not be that drastically different.
Then let's talk about the bike.
And when Yon changed from specialized bikes to Canyon Bikes,
his bike strength became really really strong,
and we saw that last year where Yon came out,
basically not toe to toe with the super bikers,
the Sebastian Keenley's, the Lionel Sanders,
the Cameron Warfs of the world,
but he was right up there biking around 4:20.
These are times that are like,
all time probably top 20 best bikes ever to happen in Kona.
And we look at all of the full Iron Man distance races
that Langa and Yon went toe to toe in
and Yon was consistently around five
to eight minutes faster than Langa,
and in Half Iron Man Crichowl earlier this year,
that time was about three minute
over the course of the Half Iron Man.
Now, the one time that Langa did bike
almost toe to toe with Yon was actually this past weekend
in Frankfurt where he biked only 25 seconds slower than Yon,
so you could be saying, "Well, hey, there you go,
he's made himself as good a biker as Yon."
But what we saw is that had a huge effect
on Langa being fresh for the run, he wasn't.
Let's talk about how they stack up in the run.
Iron Man Kona last year, Yon Ferdino didn't have
a very good run, he was injured.
We gotta kinda count that out.
The year before, 2016, Langa set the run course record
going about five to six minutes faster than Yon.
Half Iron Man Crichowl earlier this year,
Yon ran a minute 14 faster, but then what happened in
Full Iron Man Frankfurt when Patrick Langa biked with Yon?
He fell apart on the run.
Now, was that just during the day?
Was there something wrong with his run fitness?
Or was it because he biked too hard?
(blowing raspberries)
So all this stacks up is, you give the edge
to Yon in the swim, although he might not have
a whole lot of time on Langa.
You give the edge to Yon on the bike.
You gotta assume that he's somewhere around
five to six minutes up on Langa off the bike at least,
and then it comes down to the run.
And in that case, I would put them
pretty close to toe to toe.
I would give Langa the edge in the run in Kona,
but then comes down to intangibles
to separate out how do they stack up.
Now first intangible, how well suited
are each of them to Kona?
Yon is a big man, he's six foot four, 165 pounds.
Langa, very small, five foot eight, 139 pounds.
The smaller people do tend to do better in Kona,
but Yon has won this, very convincingly.
So, I gotta think that they are equally suited to Kona.
Injuries, Yon was injured last year,
but this year, he's firing on absolutely all cylinders,
however, he's got a lot more miles in him coming through
the entire ITU development circuit over many years.
Langa was injured in 2016, he doesn't seem to be
injured at all over the course of 2018.
He's got a lot less miles on him.
So then it's gonna come down to freshness.
Not only freshness in the day, how are they gonna feel
getting off the bike, which I give the edge to Ferdino in,
but freshness over the course of the year.
Now, Ferdino has raced a lot more in the beginning of 2018
and he's raced a lot harder in the beginning of 2018,
winning multiple events.
He's only done, however, this one full distance race.
All of the other ones have been
shorter Half Iron Man distances,
and he's got three months to recover
from Frankfurt up until Kona,
whereas Patrick Langa has kinda been known,
as far as I can tell, for holding back
over the first half of the year,
and he says that this is due to lessons that he learned
in 2016 when he got injured,
and he just can't do that intensity early in the year.
So, we almost don't see Langa's potential
right up until Kona, so I would say that
he would be a fair bit fresher,
but Yon's been at this a long time,
so when it comes right down to it,
who do I pick and how do I justify that?
I'm gonna go with Yon Ferdino. (bell ringing)
He's been so dominant this year.
All I need to see from him is that he stays injury free,
he stays fresh, and rests in between now and Kona,
has a really good block, and doesn't get sick.
If he can do that, he's one of the best swimmers
in the field, he's one of the best cyclists in the field,
and he's one of if not the best runner in the field.
You put that all together with a good preparation,
the man wins, simple as that.
There's my pick, mark it here, in July,
I'm picking Yon Ferdino.
When it comes to Patrick Langa.
But Lionel Sanders might have something to say about that.
For that video, check out this video
right over here that I did with the head to head
between Yon and Langa and this video up here
that I did with the head to head between Langa and Lionel.
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