Mark Threlfall: Welcome back to the GTN Show. Now, ask me this, does anyone out there really
struggle in the cold? I've got to be honest. I try to be tough, but I really do feel it,
and actually turns out that the difference between some of us feeling the cold and others
not may actually be down to our genes. I will be covering that in today's show as well as
one of the most impressive marathons in history and some really cool 3D-printed tech for cycling,
including a bike that's going to be made by Adam Hansen himself.
[music] [applause]
Mark: All right then, I don't know about you folk out there, but I am an absolute wimp
when it comes to cold temperatures. I try my best to put on a brave face, but I've got
to be honest, I really struggle. I've swum in water temperatures well below 10 degrees
celsius on countless occasions, but I absolutely hate it. On the flip side of that, there are
some people out there just do not seem to be fazed by it at all. It just really doesn't
affect them annoyingly so in fact. I may have an answer to this because new research
actually suggests that some people may be lacking a skeletal muscle gene called alpha-actinin-3
or ACTN3, which actually helps them to become, or be more resilient to cold temps, which
I got to be honest, does make me feel a little bit better when you think of the likes of
Lewis Pugh doing these crazily cold swims through the Antarctica. Obviously, I'm not
discrediting by any means the achievements and accomplishments of someone like Lewis
Pugh, and other folks out there because they have clearly spent months and years adapting
and are training to be able to do this. This recent study does suggest that if you
are alpha-actinin-3 deficient, then your body just can maintain a higher core temperature
and therefore, shiver less when exposed to these cold temperatures. I probably should
add if someone like Lewis Pugh isn't deficient in this gene, then they are doing an amazing
job. Anyway, back to this study, they looked at 42 men with a mix of this gene and without.
They exposed them to cold water around 14 degrees celsius for a maximum of 120 minutes,
or until their core body temperature reached 35.5 degrees celsius. They broke that exposure
up into 20-minute blocks with 10 minutes at room temperature between.
Only 30% of the participants with this gene reached the full 120 minutes in the cold exposure.
Whilst 69% of those that were deficient in the gene completed that full cold water exposure
time. They also actually assessed the amount of shivering during cold exposure, which they
actually said those that were without this gene, the alpha-actinin-3, actually shivered
less than those with it. Sure. This study has shown that those without the gene can
tolerate cold temperatures better, but more crucially, they're actually able to preserve
and maintain energy because they're not shivering as much.
They have also stated that future research will need to investigate whether similar results
are seen in women. There we go. Next time I am shivering away in the lake, I'll be quick
to tell people that it's probably because I have this ACTN3 gene and they may not. It's
probably going to be quite embarrassing if I'm the one deficient in it and they've actually
got it. Anyway, that's going to be my excuse anyway.
It's probably a good time actually to tell you something me and Heather are doing whilst
we're out cycling because as you would have seen, we've been filming in some pretty rubbish
weather here in the UK. Whilst it is a very glamorous story, it's been absolutely amazing.
When we're filming, we're not always moving that much. We can get quite cold. We've been
really fortunate to be sent some products from Vulcan, which include heated base layers,
[unintelligible 00:03:51], heated gloves. We're going to be keeping warm on the shots
from here on and next winter and so on and so forth. Do go check them out. It’s honestly
something I probably could have done with years ago in fact.
[music] Mark: All right then, on with the tri news.
I've got to start by talking about this phenomenal marathon over the weekend that likely wasn't
on any of your, or many of your radars. It was the Lake Biwa Marathon was not only one
of the most competitive real-life marathons that we've had for a very long time, but also
insanely fast. It was won by Kengo Suzuki. He took the tape in a new Japanese record
time of 2:04:56 and set a huge PB of over five and a half minutes.
However, imagine this, running a 2:09:54 and placing 42nd. That's right. 42 athletes all
run under two hours and 10 minutes for the marathon. What also makes this incredibly
amazing is pretty much all of those athletes were Japanese, which just shows the huge depth
in talent that they have in Japan and pretty much, none of them are on the Olympic team,
which is just mind-blowing. Onto another very impressive performance. Billy Monger was a
racing car driver or is a racing car driver that lost both of his legs in a crash. He
has just finished a triathlon covering 140 miles in just four days all in aid of Comic
Relief. In April, 2017, Billy was pulled from the
wreckage of his F4 racing car at Donington Park here in the UK after slamming into another
car at 120 miles an hour. At the age of 17, he was placed into an induced coma. When he
awoke, he was suddenly told by surgeons that he'd had to amputate his legs below the right
knee and above the left knee. He astonished everyone because 11 months later, he was back
in the car and racing in the British F3 Championship races at Oulton Park in Cheshire. Now he has
just gone on to complete a triathlon. He started his incredible challenge last Monday when
he did an 18-mile walk in Gateshead. He had then planned to kayak in the Lake District
on the Tuesday. That had to be delayed to the Wednesday due to bad weather, in which
he completed 6.5 miles across Ullswater. On Thursday, he then completed the 65-mile bike
ride from Birmingham to Blenheim Palace. Then on Friday, he finally finished a challenge
with 18 laps of Brands Hatch, which is again, a motor racing circuit here in the UK on a
bike. Then three laps on for crossing the finish line at gone 8:00 PM on a Friday. Wow.
Incredible achievement, incredible story there. Serious hats off to you, Billy.
To round out the news this week, we've got a couple of fun techy bits here. Firstly,
3D-printed cycling shoes custom made from scans of cyclists’ feet. These are a creation
of Olympian and longtime bike fitter Colby Pearce who's actually partnered with a new
company called Lore, spelt L-O-R-E. They will scan your feet and then be able to print a
carbon fiber monocoque design. For any of those skeptics out there, this company Lore
is actually formed of some pretty well-established design and engineering folk from the likes
of Adidas, Tesla, DPS, Nike, and even Black Diamond so don't just think this is all just
talk. They actually have some pretty good substance
here to potentially make something quite impressive, or at least we hope. As I said, this isn't
just about fit and comfort. This is also about efficiency, which you'd expect from a carbon
fiber monocoque design. Unfortunately, don't really have much to show you just that they're
really keeping us on our toes. If you'd like to find out more or be kept up to date because
they'll hopefully be releasing imagery in around April springtime, head on over to their
website, lore, L-O-R-E, .cc and you can sign up to find out more then.
Whilst we're talking about 3D printing, I've got something that I'm pretty sure it's going
to capture everyone's attention here. Adam Hansen who, for those that aren't aware, is
a retired professional cyclist. He retired in 2020 having had an amazing career as a
cyclist. Has been to countless grand tours and shifted his focus towards triathlons and
Ironman racing for 2021. Obviously, we didn't get to see all that much of him in 2021. It
sounds like he's kept himself busy because he has taken full advantage of not having
the UCI rules clumping him down and stopping things that he can and can't do.
He has decided to design and built himself his own bike. Yes, that's right. It is pretty
radical. This self-designed and self-made frame will measure just 28 millimeters wide,
excluding the forks, and feature custom-made wheels and derailleurs as well as, wait for
it, a floating chainring that optimizes chain line. I don't know how that's going to work,
but I'm so intrigued. He says, "I'm going to do everything in-house. For me, if I just
design it and give it over to another manufacturer to produce, then I would never be able to
say I made the bike. I really wanted to do it all myself."
I take my hat off to that. "I'll 3D-print the plugs for the mold, and then I'll make
the mold from the 3D-printed piece. Then from there, I'll make the bike from the molds.
I've got all the equipment." In case you're not aware of this certainly isn't Adam's first
foray into custom-built cycling kit because he's well known for his innovations and meticulous
approach to equipment choice. He's been known for shaving weight off bike to get down to
that 6.8-kilogram UCI limit or even very famously known for designing his own custom-made carbon
fiber shoes. I've got to say, looking at this bike or the
mock-up design images, the CAD images, it still reminds me of that Ceepo bike that we
saw a few years back, merged with that Diamondback Andean as well as maybe a bit of that Tririg
Omni bike with that sweeping curve from the stem all the way through past the seat post.
What I've got to say is I really do hope we get to see this and maybe even get to feature
it in person here on GTN. [music]
Mark: Now for the race news. We had an exciting weekend of racing over in Australia because
we not only had the Australian Long Course Championships but also the Australian Sprint
Championships. Let's start with the long course championships which actually took place at
the Big Husky Tri Festival. That was won by Simon Hearn, Tim Reed just 30 seconds back
in second, and then just under 30 seconds back again, we had Caleb Noble. Very competitive
on the men's side. Equally so on the women's side with Ellie Salthouse taking the win there
and just under two minutes back, Amelia Watkinson and then Annabel Luxford in third.
Then over to the sprint championships which actually took place in Devonport, Tasmania,
we have Emma Jeffcoat taking the win there, Kelly-Ann Perkins is second, and Jaz Hedgeland
in third. On the men's side, that was won by Matt Hanson with Jaden Schofield in second
and Luke Schofield in third. Back to our over-familiar Z Pro Tri virtual racing on Zwift. This is
series three but we're into week four of this series. As we have done for the previous weeks,
we start with this individual time trial. That was won by Lucy Charles-Barclay in the
women's side, with Emma Pallant, and she's now called Emma Pallant Browne in second,
and Amelia Watkinson close behind. We had Matt Hanson winning the TT for the
men just beating Seppe Odeyn but a big gap surprisingly over Antony Costes and the rest
of the field where we've actually seen Antony Costes really dominating on the TT in the
past. Onto the run, as I've mentioned previously, the runners just had to fit into or make certain
time ranges to get a certain set of points. We had Meredith Kessler actually taking the
women's run-on, but obviously, they just need to be within that target and which four of
them were. On the men's side, we had a larger group of members Aaron Royle tensing his guns
and crossing that line in first. Then it really came down to that final race
where Lucy Charles-Barclay crossed the line in first and took the most points meaning
she actually took overall point or overall win for week four, with Meredith Kessler in
second, and Emma Pallant Browne in third. Antony Costes crossed the line first in this
final race, took the overall point, and took week four over a point. Seppe Odeyn in second
and Aaron Royle in third. [music]
Mark: Moving on, before I take a look through some of your brilliant photos and videos that
you guys have been sending in to us, I just wanted to stop for a second actually take
a look back at last week's show, in which we addressed and looked at this rather empty
message from Ironman CEO, Andrew Messick which they posted out over their various social
media platforms. We discussed on the show, we asked for your thoughts and to send in
any comments. It was really interesting to hear from you guys. I actually just wanted
to take a moment to read out some of these comments sent in because I genuinely found
it very interesting. Dan Florez said, "Communication is everything,
even more so than refunds and Ironman have failed miserably. Ironman has destroyed our
trust and their brand name with this entire issue. It's so sad because they did it to
themselves. We all know that Ironman has been horribly mismanaged for years, and is buried
in debt, but that's not our fault, it's theirs. It feels like Ironman is taking as much of
our money as possible before they file for bankruptcy." El Goose on a slightly more light-hearted,
I feel bad saying that because it really isn't but he said, "Sounds a lot like the Fyre Festival
shenanigans again." If you haven't heard of Fyre Festival, give
it a Google, I think there's even a documentary out there on it. Interesting stuff. Blake
Roberts said, "The lack of communication is poor but the lack of flexibility and empathy
is far worse. Often athletes are given you have next year's event or one of these three
ultimates, and when I and others emailed asking for a different event in the next six months,
there was a complete refusal or willingness to be flexible. They've lost a lot of customers
for along time." The Triathlon Channel said, "Challenge family
have been by far the best in handling cancellations. It's just unfortunate that even though Ironman
have been the worst and treats us, customers, awfully, we will all still go back and events
will continue to be sold out leading to no changes by Ironman sadly," which is a very
valid and interesting point. I think this communication aspect really was key. We saw
that a lot in the comments coming in. Thanks ever so much for sending in your thoughts.
I also asked for your thoughts last week on the pros and how you would feel should there
not be a pro-field. This past year has obviously been incredibly
hard for them. That's not an understatement in the slightest because their main source
o income has literally been taken away from them. Had it not been arguably for the PTO,
a lot of them would not have survived this past year. I debated what would happen if
the pro-field just completely disappeared, what would you guys think to that? A couple
of people commented and again very interesting. Mike Scothern said, "Pros in races makes for
a better spectator event, also nice to say you've raced against the best even though
they finished four hours ahead of you," which is really cool. I've got to say that's one
of the things that I loved when I was racing professionally is that I'd be leaving the
hotel at the same time as age groupers and you'd be chatting to each other about the
same race that you're about to do. Likewise, at the end, you'd then be reminiscing on parts
of the course which you both experienced together which I think is absolutely awesome.
I really like this one though, Maria Tooker said, "No pros? That's like being told there's
no Santa. I'm 49 and I want to be like Heather Jackson when I grow up," which in my opinion
says it all. That is absolutely brilliant. Now let's take a look at some of these photos
and videos that you guys have been sending in. First up one from Julian. This is a very
nice photo of his BMC Timemachine in Oakland California. He says he's taken around the
Golden Gate. He said, "Beautiful sunset over San Francisco Bay with the Golden Gate," which
I can't quite see, but I assume it's there in the distance. Beautiful, beautiful photo
there. Next one from Simon and he's on his Giant
Trinity in Cairn, Australia doing his first full Ironman race. Awesome. Well done to you
there. Then another one from Charles. This is the Avanti TT Chrono set up in transition
area Brisbane, a bit of a tongue twister, it shouldn't be, in Queensland Australia,
and doing a long course sprint triathlon race. Brilliant stuff. Please do keep sending in
your photos and videos. If you still want to comment on last week's video I'll show
regarding the message from Ironman, then please again just drop them in the comment section
down below. [music]
Mark: Finally, we have the caption competition. Last week's photo was this one from Carla
Berry which is infamously a tough course and a multi-lap swim, so we get some cracking
dive photos like this one. Great captions from you guys. Beckett Barnett playing on
the COVID stuff. "If this last year was a dive, it would be this." Greg Daniel, "Did
I put my timing band on? I hope so." Backyard Engineering, "That moment you realize you
forgot to check the depth before diving." The winner for this week is Paul Shaw said,
"Racing post lockdown, frogotten how to dive" I know it's terrible but go on, you're the
winner Paul. Get in touch and we'll ping a coupon to you ASAP. For this week's caption
comp photo, it's actually not of the pros. This one is of the age groupers at the 2016.
We're going back some years here to the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in Cozumel. That
same race that were in the pro race that Alastair helped Johnny across the line. Anyway, someone
else going for the flying finish diving across the finish line although it doesn't look like
they actually managed to seal that spot and nick that spot of the other person.
Anyway, get your captions in the comment section down below. That is it for the show this week.
We do of course have plenty coming up on the channel including a very exciting Norseman
Viking chase race that we did on Zwift with Gustav Eden and Christian Blumenfeld which
is worth watching just for the banter between Christian and Gustav. Do stay tuned for that
one as well as an aero helmet versus road helmet video. If you're debating the difference
between the two helmets, then stay tuned for that one.
Don't also forget that you can head on over to our GTN shop, grab some of our t-shirts,
jumpers, towels, all of our other merch. If you enjoyed today's video, please do give
it a thumbs up, give it a like. Don't forget to give us a follow over on social media and
subscribe just down below. If you'd like to check out some of our other previous videos,
we also have time versus distance for running which is a common debate in running. Also,
Dan Lloyd's half marathon training plan with a little bit of an update as well as some
advice going forward. If you're not already following that plan, do head on over and check
that one out. [00:19:28] [END OF AUDIO]