- Welcome back to The GTN Show.
This week we are discussing the best road
in the world for cycling.
- Yes, I think there's going to be a few opinions on
that one and we certainly got our own.
Well on top of that we've got
some ultra triathlon news
with Deca Iron Man, plus a new world record
for the Enduroman.
- Yeah, and we also have results from
one of the toughest Ironman-branded races
that's out there.
We also have the European Championships
that took place in Valencia over the weekend,
and possibly our most unusual pain cave to date.
(upbeat electronic music)
(clapping and cheering)
Right, we've had some incredible races
over the past few weeks with also
some very, very impressive bike courses.
We had the Ironman 70.3 World Champs
just the other weekend, which took in
the rather grueling but beautiful Col de Vence.
We also had Challenge Davos just over
the past weekend, and that went up
the Flüela Pass which is in the Swiss Alps,
and that goes up to an altitude of 2,383 meters.
So yeah, pretty, pretty high.
We also had Embrun Man, just a month ago.
And that's takes place in the French Alps,
I've actually raced in a very similar,
but much shorter course,
and that is absolutely stunning also,
and then not forgetting, obviously,
the infamous Alpe d'Huez with its switchbacks,
that takes place within the Alpe d'Huez,
amongst all these other races that are
popping up with, well,
grueling but beautiful bike courses.
- Yeah, I mean, those are all incredible routes.
But obviously, they involve a lot of climbing
and quite often some technical descent,
which isn't necessarily everybody's cup of tea.
And it's often described the "best" bike course
in triathlon, is quite often the flattest,
or we should say the fastest course.
Well, I'm going to make a bold statement here.
Faster isn't necessarily better.
But I'm not saying that mountain climbing is either.
Surely the enjoyment factor's got to
play a big part in this.
- Yeah, and this has got us thinking,
what is more important for you?
Or what is your favorite bike course?
Or actually, let's open to that further.
What is your favorite road to cycle,
irrelevant of racing?
So, please do drop down in the comment section below,
maybe even just send in some photos,
or even videos using our photo uploader.
And that link's just below.
- I mean, that's a pretty big question, Mark.
I reckon you're going to struggle
to even narrow it down.
What's your favorite?
- Yeah, there's numerous, and I think,
I mean, I often joke about this.
It's a bit like finding the perfect wave
in surfing, but it's kind of that excitement,
that drive to find that keeps us going
and really enjoying it.
So, one that really stands out for me,
and I believe it's called the Coll de sa Batalla?
Batalla, I don't know, probably butchered that,
but it's in Mallorca, it heads up to the Lluc monastery.
And I used to spent a lot of time out there.
I know it inside out, every switchback.
I love it.
It's also the descent on Ironman 70.3 Mallorca,
so it's handy that I know it quite well.
There's also, on the flip side of that,
I love a road in South Africa that is pancake flat,
basically follows the coastline,
I believe it's the R44 that heads towards Betty's Bay
and Hermanus, and you get really fast.
Also some terrible headwind,
but it is absolutely stunning.
And you can see a bit of wildlife on the way
I also like my road to my house.
Quite nice.
- Ah, don't we all. - At the end of a ride,
just when you're struggling,
just that last couple of kilometers,
and phew, I made it.
And one more, I actually, sorry.
- This is number four here, Mark.
- Yeah, I haven't, like I said, I can't pick it.
When I did Land's End John o' Groats,
we accidentally came across a road
that was just stunning.
And maybe that was the nice thing about it,
it was just unexpected, and that whole excitement,
also helped that we then just emerged,
popped out on this road at Loch Ness.
We would set off really early,
so the fog was coming off the water,
the mist coming off the water, and it's,
yeah, that was an incredible, incredible road.
- Wow, some selection there.
Well, I'm quite excited I'm about to
go out to Mallorca on holiday,
so I might have to check out that one.
I do have a few crossovers as well,
'cause one of my sort of favorite
actual courses was Ironman South Africa.
My first Ironman, and it's fair to say
I was cycling fairly slowly,
so I got to enjoy the sights,
but just going along next to the sea,
and I could feel the sea mist just on my face,
and thinking, "This is an Ironman,
"I'm in a race, but this is just
"the most magical experience with like,
"you know, pretty rough road surface."
It wasn't about going fast, it was just
about the whole experience of that,
and I don't know if I've kind of sugarcoated it,
if I went back there it wouldn't be quite the same.
The same with, when I first started cycling,
was John o' Groats to Lands End,
and Scotland is kind of notorious
for being really hilly and tough,
and really bad weather.
And Fraser's not here, even, so I'm
going to big up Scotland for him,
'cause that was an incredible experience.
The first three days felt like I was
kind of just cruising downhill,
and the weather was nice,
and it was great company, and yeah.
Again, maybe I shouldn't go back to that one,
but my final one is, I mean, it's just
where we live, in the West Country,
we're so lucky, and just spoilt for
routes around here, and, but at home home,
where I live, there's a two mile descent to my house,
and I'll quite often go the long route home,
just so I can cycle two miles downhill,
and I don't have to pedal for the last two miles.
I can see my house, I just know
I'm going to get there whatever I do.
- I do wonder sometimes, whether it's
the memory that we have.
If we went back on a rainy day,
without the company that maybe we had
when we set-- - [Heather] Yeah.
- Maybe it wouldn't be the same,
but I'm going to hold on to those,
and I love those roads, and I'm sure you do.
- Well now we want to actually ask your opinion,
'cause it's time for this week's GTN poll,
and what is your favorite type of bike course
to ride, or favorite type of road,
and we've got five options here.
Mountainous, fast and flat, sea view,
technically challenging, or other.
And to let us know, do click on the poll
above my head, and if it's other,
let us know in the comments section below.
(upbeat electronic music)
And it's time for Tri News,
and to start things off, we've actually
got a retirement announcement,
from Yvonne van Vlerken, the long distance pro
from the Netherlands.
Well, she certainly went out with a bang,
'cause she finished on a high,
with a win at Challenge Almere.
This was her 45th long distance race,
her 16th win, and her third win in a row at Almere.
And just to top it off, she went
another sub nine finish.
- Yeah, and after a very very consistent
and illustrious career, she has decided
to move on to full-time coaching.
And just to recap on some of the amazing
achievements she's had over the years,
her first Iron distance event,
she went sub nine hours, I believe with an eight 51.
She's actually the only female athlete
to hold both the half Iron distance
and the Iron distance world records,
and I believe that was in eight 45
that she set in Roth in 2008,
when she went on to win it.
She also came second in the Ironman World Championships
in 2008, and she also got loads of other titles
and medals from Duathlon, ITU Duathlon, Powerman.
She's also, I believe, got the most sub nine hour
finishes for a female.
- [Heather] Something incredible amount.
- Something like that!
All in all, though, a very very impressive career.
Our next bit of news comes from Gareth Thomas,
who is the former Wales and British Lions
rugby captain, and he revealed,
on Sunday, that he had tested positive
for HIV a number of years ago,
and then just moments later,
went on to complete Ironman Wales,
in a very impressive time of 12 hours and 18 minutes.
And actually placed, I think it was 413th,
out of over 2000 participants.
And just to put this into some perspective,
Ironman Wales is quite often referred to as
one of the toughest Ironman branded races out there,
so yeah, an incredible feat there.
- Yeah, it was, but I mean it's sad
that there is still such a stigma around HIV,
and that he's been forced to kind of
openly talk about this, but he hopes that
by talking about it, he can actually,
I mean, raise awareness, and make people realize
that, I think he only has to take one pill a day,
and can live a perfectly normal life,
and the fact that it is just like,
in a sense, any other long-term illness,
and by completing, in a pretty respective time
as well, an Ironman as tough as Ironman Wales,
certainly goes to show that.
- Our next bit of news, Mayank Vaid has become
the 44th person to complete the Enduroman triathlon,
which takes place between England and France,
also known as the Arch to Arc.
Starts at Marble Arch, in London,
through to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris,
and in doing so, he's also become
the first Asian person to complete this triathlon.
Rather epic triathlon,
and also broke the world record.
A new time of 50 hours and 24 minutes.
- Yeah, that record that was previously held
was two hours slower than that,
or just over two hours,
so an incredible margin off it.
And a quick breakdown of how he managed that.
The run took 16 and a half hours,
then it was a five hour transition.
- [Mark] Fair enough.
- [Heather] Yeah, the swim, which was crossing the Channel,
33 kilometer sea swim, took 12 hours 48 minutes.
Then another two and a bit hours
resting in Calais, or transition,
and then a final 13 and a half hours on the bike.
- I'm quite intrigued by this whole event,
because actually, I know swimming the Channel is--
- Your next challenge?
- No, no interest.
Sorry, I think it's amazing, but no interest.
Swimming the English Channel,
actually getting that timing for the swim,
but it's not like you just do it
on shore waiting. - You can't, yeah.
- You've got to run before.
You don't know when you're going to finish that run,
so, absolutely amazing,
whoever does this event. - Yeah, it really is.
- Now, you may remember us filming
with Matthew Pritchard earlier this year.
Now, Pritchard was part of Dirty Sanchez,
which was a stunt show, and essentially,
a Welsh version of Jackass.
Now about five years ago, Pritchard had
a little bit of an epiphany after
years of addiction to alcohol, drugs,
and also just mental health issues,
and he started to turn his life around,
he's gone vegan, he's started honing
all his attention in on fitness,
and endurance events.
So much so, he's now turned to ultra endurance events
and triathlon cycling, so yeah,
really nice move for him there.
- Yeah, well, the story goes,
we're a little bit late on this, but back
on the 31st of July, he completed the Deca UK.
Now that took him 248 hours, 42 minutes,
and 30 seconds, those final 30 seconds, very important.
Well, that's over 10 days of being
in a continual race.
- [Mark] It's absolutely insane, isn't it?
But having spoken to him, he's probably
one person that I could sort of
actually see doing this.
He can really set his mind to something.
- Well, I mean, he wasn't that far,
if you look at the grand scheme of the winner.
So the event was actually won by Mark Dodgson,
who finished it in 235 hours.
So when you're looking at that scale of things,
that's actually not as large a margin
off the winner, so, just, it's a
battle of the brain as well as the body, isn't it?
- It is, and I think we maybe have to speak
to Pritchard on this, 'cause I'd love to know
what's going through his head
during an event like this.
- Cool, I think that would be a whole another video.
Well, in other slightly more lighthearted news,
I suppose, there's been a little bit of a craze
in Taiwan, over a certain baseball cap.
Now, Gustav Iden won the 70.3 Ironman
World Championships wearing this navy cap,
with this yellow emblem on,
which came from a Taiwanese temple.
It actually came from Puyan Shunze Temple,
in Changhua County, and apparently
it's a free cap that you get when you visit
the temple and it's about befriending and goodwill,
and he chose to wear this,
and it turns out that there's a lot of
triathlon and cycling fans in Taiwan,
and as a result, they've gone queuing
to this temple to pick up a cap,
and there's been orders of in excess of a thousand,
trying to get a cap, and Gustav's
also got a lot of new followers.
- Right, Heather, we have something
pretty exciting here, because Oakley
have kindly sent us through
their AR07 aero helmet.
In a medium, in a black, to give away
to our viewers.
- God, does look pretty nice, doesn't it?
And I like the box as well.
Well, you might have noticed it
on the likes of David McNamee,
when he finished third
at Ironman World Champs last year.
Holly Lawrence wore it, finished second
at the 70.3 World Champs just recently in Nice.
It's certainly a popular helmet.
- Yeah, indeed, indeed.
And we've got this helmet in black, in a medium,
to give away, along with its Prizm Road visor,
which he have discussed a fair bit in detail
on the channel before, and also a video
that came out last week that discusses that,
which in itself is pretty neat,
because Oakley engineered this lens
to basically work well for specific
conditions and environments
for the different sports.
- Yeah, for example, when you're cycling,
the light that you want to see and catch
when you're on the road,
is very different to, say, if you're playing golf,
or if you were out skiing, in the bright light there,
so it picks up the certain wavelengths,
just basically makes everything that much clearer.
- Yeah, and do get involved in this giveaway,
you can find the link for that giveaway
in the description below this video.
If you'd like to find out a bit more,
see this helmet in action,
I actually had a video, went out last week,
and we looked at visor versus no visor,
but this is a very nice helmet.
(upbeat electronic music)
Well now for the race news, and kicking off
with Ironman Wales, as we discussed earlier,
it's well-known for its rather brutal bike course.
And in the men's race, it was Dylan McNeice
that led the swim out, no surprises there.
Absolutely incredible swimmer.
And it took actually until halfway through
the bike for the chase pack to actually
catch him, and pass him, and that included
Joe Skipper, Phil Graves, and Arnaud Guilloux,
and then actually, soon after that,
Joe Skipper suffered a flat,
and also a littering penalty,
so that more or less put him out of the race,
and left Phil Graves and Arnaud Guilloux
to come in to T two in the lead,
and it sounds like Phil Graves
burnt all his matches a little bit earlier on
in the race, and went quite quickly back,
which is a shame, to see a past winner
having such a hard day there, and he left it
open to Arnaud Guilloux to take the win,
Maximilian Hammerle take second,
and Fabian Rahn in third.
- Well the women's race was led out
by Rebecca Clarke, but she didn't feature
for that much more of the event,
as it was Simone Mitchell in her first pro race,
who actually had a really strong bike,
but Manon Genet, who just competed
at 70.3 World Champs, was hot on her heels,
and those two kind of stayed in touch,
and then on to the run, it looked like
the French woman was actually going to be able
to take the win.
She went ahead of Simone Mitchell,
and it wasn't until sort of the latter stages,
Simone Mitchell actually came back through
and ended up finishing with a time of nine 41,
to take the lead, over 10 minutes ahead
of Manon Genet, who was second,
then Laura Siddall in third.
So an incredible performance for Simone Mitchell,
her very first pro race, and taking the win.
- [Mark] And then over to the XTERRA Netherlands race,
and that was won by Jorik van Egdom,
from the Netherlands.
In second, Geert Lauryssen,
and third, Francois Carloni.
- [Heather] And the women's was won
by Kate Bramley from Australia.
Linda van Vliet from the Netherlands was second,
and then third place went to
Great Britain's Nicole Walters.
- And we also had another XTERRA race
over in Marunuma, and this was won by Keiran McPherson.
In second we had Yoshitika Nakahara.
Got that one.
And in third, Alex Roberts.
- I think I've got a slightly easier job here.
The women's race was won by Fabiola Corona from Mexico.
Second place went to Leela Hancox, of Australia,
and then third was Mieko Carey from Japan.
- And to finish our race news off this week,
we have two Challenge races.
We have Challenge Almere, which was won
by Matt Trautmann.
Second was Kristian Hogenhaug,
and third was Tomas Renc.
- While the women's race was won,
as we've already talked about,
Yvonne Van Vlerken, in her final race of her career.
It was Lina-Kristin Schink of Germany
who was second, and third was Sarissa De Vries.
- And then, to finish off, we have Challenge Davos,
and this was won by Pieter Heemeryck,
after having quite a big duel
with an ex-pro cyclist.
Second went to Alberto Moreno Molins,
and third went to Ruben Zepuntke.
- Well, Radka Kahlefeldt took
the title on the women's race.
Second place, Emma Pallant, and then third,
it was Giorgia Priarone.
(upbeat electronic music)
Okay, it's one of my favorite parts of the show.
It's time to have a look at some
of the wonderful photos you guys have sent in.
And we're going to start off with this one
from Coll, which is his A-Squared bike.
He sent it in, a picture from
Lake Stevens in Washington.
- Yeah, I've never heard of an A-Squared bike,
but they've said they used Heather's video
on learning the flying mount and dismounts
to simplify their transition.
They went from having the slowest transitions
within the top 20 finishers at
his Olympic-distance triathlon last year,
to having the second fastest in the race
this year, with the only person being faster
a US 80 elite athlete.
- Well, that sounds impressive.
I'm glad that my video helped.
But, I mean, the fact doing an Olympic race,
and then still managing to get socks on.
- [Mark] Some time to be saved there, I think.
- Yeah, you could speed up your T two as well.
- Yeah, but very cool, really good to hear that.
- Well, our next one is from Alexander,
and it's his Canyon Speedmax.
Oh yeah. - This is a really nice shot.
And this is from New York, getting in
the last bits of training before
their first Olympic-distance triathlon
in Westchester, New York.
So, beautiful bike to be doing your first
Olympic-distance on, though. - I love it.
And I love the symmetry, and the flag,
I mean, he must have taken quite a few shots
to get the right sort of bit of wind
for that, and the sun behind the flag.
- [Mark] That is amazing, isn't it?
- [Heather] A lot of thought went into it, we like that.
Very much appreciated.
- Next one, though, I mean, this is
probably the most unusu-- - Raising the bar.
- Yeah, this is possibly the most unusual
pain cave that we have had sent in on GTN.
This is from Chris, and this is from Cannes in France,
and this is a pain cave on a yacht.
- Yeah, it is, so we've got,
I think two, maybe three, no, two exercise bikes,
a cross trainer, a treadmill,
a standing weights machine, and free weights.
Now, I have actually tried running on
a treadmill on a very big boat before,
and it's just a really weird sensation,
as you're slightly like moving, so,
I would love to know, I mean,
it looks pretty flat. - Good for proprioception.
- Yeah, pretty flat water there.
- I do have one thing, just to pick up on,
though, where is your Zwift set up?
- Yeah, and where is, you know,
your Candian Ultimate?
Is that just-- - [Mark] To be fair, I think
you got pretty good views, so you maybe
don't need that sort of set up.
But yeah, very cool, and next one sent in,
and this is from Nick,
and this is in Croatia!
Wearing our GTN cap.
- Yeah!
We love to see our GTN kit, wherever it is,
around the world, but also,
you can't ignore that amazing water,
I mean, look at that.
He says, "Swimming in the most beautifully
"clear water I've ever seen on vacation.
"In Cres, in Croatia.
"Sure beats the water back home in Santa Monica."
- And some fantastic color coordination
going on there with his watch,
his heart rate monitor, and the cap, well done!
- This is our final one here,
from Lucas, and it's his Felt B14.
- [Mark] Yeah, and this is in Rheinfall,
and this is in Switzerland.
This is their first longer ride,
after my holiday break.
Pumping the legs for an upcoming race.
- Well, a lovely photo, and from that
view, I'd quite like to go on a holiday there.
I mean, if that's where you've come home to,
not bad at all.
Well, a wonderful selection of photos
again this week, and if you've got one
that you think we would like to look at,
well do share it with us.
You can either copy the link that's
on the screen now, or head into the description
and click on the link down there.
(upbeat electronic music)
- Well, now time for the caption competition.
This week, we have a photo from Ironman Wales,
and it's actually of Lucy Gossage.
- [Heather] Yeah, she's celebrating before
she's even started.
I like it.
- [Mark] Yeah, do drop your captions
in the comment section below,
and get your chance to win a GTN cap!
- Well, before we head off
at the end of the show, we've got
plenty coming up this week, including a battle
between, well, Fraser and Mark teamed up
against Team Charles Barclay
in a Zwift duathlon, I suppose it almost was.
- It was, yeah, it was pretty brutal.
- Yeah, I've sort of seen the sort of sweaty
outtakes, I'm looking forward to actually
watching the real thing.
Also, we're going to see Mark and Fraser
talking through a little bit of their experiences,
yeah, you can tell us a bit more
from Norseman. - Also quite brutal.
- And Celtman, yeah, it's a tough week
coming up, I think.
- Also got a swimming for weight loss video
coming out, and don't forget,
you can head on over to our shop, get things like
our caps, our GTN kits,
we've got some new running tees as well,
which are fantastic.
So yeah, you'll find the link for the shop
on screen right now.
- Yeah, and if you've enjoyed this,
give us a thumbs up like,
and hit the globe to subscribe,
and we've also got a video on
five types of triathletes,
which you might recognize.
You can click on that just down here.
- It's rather funny.
And if you'd like to see our freestyle
body position video, you can see that
by clicking just down here.