Hey A-Race fans with 2015 coming to an end it's time that we think about which pro triathletes
out there dropped it like it was hot more than anyone else over the course of the racing
season.
So stick around because today I'm going to give you my five top picks of which triathletes
had the best season over the course of the year regardless of whether it was in the ITU
distance races, or the Ironman distances races.
Stick around, it's gonna be super fantastic.
To start off the athlete that I think had the fifth best season in triathlon over the
course of 2015 is Mario Mola.
He had an excellent season but it was really underrated.
Why is it underrated?
Well, he put up a few stinkers in three of the ten races that he entered finishing outside
the top ten.
But when he nailed it, he friggin nailed it.
And I'm talking book end wins at two of the biggest races in the world.
Starting off with a first place win at the ITU Abu Dhabi triathlon, then ending the season
with a win at the ITU Grand Final in Chicago.
Not only that but Mola finished just in behind Javier Gomez in the points list, and when
he and Javier went head to head on the run course, he actually beat Javier both times.
So he had a fantastic year, he was in great form.
Coming in with the fourth best season of 2015 is Javier Gomez who I just mentioned.
You might be wondering why, if Mario Mola drilled Javier when they went head to head,
why Javier would is ahead of Mario Mola in how well their seasons went.
One word: consistency.
Javier Gomez is by far the most consistent triathlete in the world, period.
He didn't have that absolutely unbelievable season in 2015 that he did the year prior.
But he still put the work in and nailed it, week in and week out and week in and week
out on the ITU circuit competing in nine races.
He only finished outside of the top three one time in the Abu Dhabi triathlon where
he finished sixth when he had the flu.
He ended up winning twice on the ITU circuit, had five first loser finishes, and one bronze
medal.
All in all he finished top of the ITU points list and won another world championship at
olympic distance racing.
Coming in with the third best triathlon season of 2015 is the big man Jan Frodeno, and like
big men do he won big man races this year.
Starting off with a European Ironman Championship, he then cruised and mean cruised into victory
at the half-ironman world championship, he then went on to win a few weeks later the
ironman world championship in hawaii in a wire to wire victory where it seemed like
he wasn't even challenged throughout the entire race.
What;s really amazing about this is that Jan's season happened in just his second season
of full long distance triathlon racing.
He seems to have dialled in the entire race strategy getting rid of all the overheating
issues that he had in 2014, and he even brought on a new bike sponsor in Canyon and he says
that that new bike fit has made all the difference.
I'll actually link to a video that I did up here profiling the exact Canyon Speedmax that
he used to win in Hawaii.
In second place with what might have been the best long distance triathlon season in
history is Daniela Ryf.
Like Jan, Daniela won the Ironman European Championship, the half ironman world championship,
and then capped off her season with the Hawaii Ironman World Championship.
But unlike Jan she raced a hell of a lot more.
She also won half iron mans in Mallorca and Switzerland.
And she also won the Challenge series Triple Crown winning three half ironman distance
races and cashing in a cool one million dollar cheque at the end of the season.
So Ryf raced a tonne this year and what's really impressive is that she stayed healthy
throughout the entire year almost getting faster having bigger and bigger margins of
victory throughout the races.
And the race at the ironman 70.3 Bahrain where she cashed that million dollar cheque happened
just weeks after Ironman Hawaii and she still just pounded the field.
So might wonder with this awesome season who could possibly beat Daniela Ryf's 2015 season.
Well, Ryf has done things that people have done before winning quite a number of half
iron and full ironman events throughout the year and a couple of world championships at
the 70.3 and in hawaii.
What we haven't had in the history of triathlon racing is Gwen Jorgensen's 2015 season, and
she comes in with hands down the number one best triathlon season of 2015: no question.
In 2015 Gwen Jorgensen raced 7 events and she had seven wins.
She went undefeated just like Ryf, but here's what Gwen had that Ryf didn't: it was an unbelievable
margin of victory in every single race that she entered.
On average she beat the second place female triathlete by 46 seconds on average.
And that is incredible when you consider that gold medals are won and lost by thousandths
of an inch at a photo finish in the Olympics.
To put this into perspective that these are the best female triathletes in the world and
they're coming off the bike together and then starting a ten thousand meter race.
If they were to do this on the track, Gwen would lap the second place finisher that's
how far ahead she is.
Gwen's seven wins came in Abu Dhabi, Auckland, Gold Coast, Yokohama, Hamburg, London, and
the Grand Final in Chicago.
Of course Gwen finished atop the ITU points rankings list, on average in every single
race that she went into she got about 28% more points than the next best finisher in
the field.
Well there you have it those are the five best triathlon seasons of 2015.
These are the tippy top of triathletes in the world at any distance event.
Let me know what you thought about the list in the comments below, or if you've got suggestions
about who you thought had a better season by all means let me hear it.
Train hard to burn off those holiday calories, and kill your nest A-Race!