- This is the GTN Show, and welcome.
We're back into the swing of things,
and we've got plenty to bring you.
- Yeah, now just because there isn't any
racing at the moment, we still have plenty of news,
including some that's gonna motivate you to train.
Caption comp is back, and we have plenty of your photos
that we're gonna be sharing with you.
- And we've got some GTN predictions but with a difference.
(upbeat techno music)
(cheering)
- Now, I know we have already covered our race predictions
for 2019, but we thought, we need to give our
GTN predictions a slightly different angle,
and we're going to be looking
at all things triathlon-related,
predicting what's gonna happen this year
but not purely around race results.
- Yes, so our first prediction for 2019
is that Flora Duffy is gonna come back with a win.
Unfortunately, we didn't an awful lot of
Flora racing in 2018 because she was,
well, she was injured for most of it,
and she tried to come back too soon
because of her wish to defend the title she'd won in 2017.
So now that she's hopefully back to full fitness,
we're gonna see her focusing completely on Tokyo 2020,
and I don't think that means she'll be back
until she's absolutely ready to win.
- Yeah, and next on our list, a little closer to home,
we predict, well, most notably, Mark isn't here,
but we predict that Mark is gonna go out too hard
when it comes to competing in the Norseman Triathlon.
- And our next prediction is that Laura Philipp
will podium at the Ironman World Championships in October,
and we're basing this on the fact
that when she did her debut Ironman last year in October,
she, well, she did it pretty quick, huh?
- Yeah, she did. She broke the record, I think.
Was is 8:34?
- [Fraser] It was.
- [Heather] That was 34, and I mean, anyone competing it
kind of the first time, it can be make or break as you see,
like with the conditions, quite extreme, but
with such a dominating first performance,
we're gonna put it out there.
We won't know this result until October.
We're gonna have to wait, but we reckon
we'll see Laura Philipp on the podium.
Next up, we've got two tech predictions,
so delving into the unknown world a little bit here,
but we did see a lot of tech inventions and
new releases of things last year in 2018,
including the Nike Vaporfly 4%,
so I reckon, Adidas are gonna have to come up with something
to rival that, so watch this space.
- Yeah, and I'm gonna hope for the fact that Trek
are pretty much the only company now
that don't have a disc-ready TT bike on the market,
and ironically, they were pretty much the,
the flag bearers as such with TT bikes in 2010
when they launched the speed concept.
It's barely changed since then, so
I think we're gonna see a new Trek.
- And our next prediction, well, more mine and Mark's,
and I'm pretty, feeling confident on this one,
we're not gonna have to wait very long
for Fraser to big up a Scottish athlete.
- I'm patriotic.
(Scottish bagpipe music)
- Now, our next prediction is that the Ironman
bike course record will be broken.
It will probably be Cam Wurf.
- Mkay, well our next one, which Fraser has said,
but I think we will quite have to back this one,
that Jan Frodeno is gonna come back to racing with a bang.
He's obviously got a lot of frustration after last season,
missing out the World Champs in Kona,
and we know that he likes to prove a point,
so I think when he does come back,
it's gonna be similar to Flora.
We're gonna see him dominating and
taking the title of whatever race he chooses
as his comeback.
- Our next prediction is that Lionel Sanders will choose
another radical change of diet or position or something.
- Yeah, I mean, we saw quite a lot of changes happen
in 2018, some of them not quite so successful as others.
I think one of the most memorable ones was the
sudden need to lose weight 'cause he realised that maybe,
well, he thought that if he was lighter
from watching the other athletes, that maybe we would
race faster.
Didn't quite work out for him.
So, I mean, we hope that he's learned from those mistakes,
but still, let's see.
I reckon we'll see some sort of crazy change
coming from Lionel, but that leads us on, finally,
our final prediction, which is one
that we are most certainly hoping is gonna come true,
is to reach our 200,000 subscriber marker.
We've been incredibly grateful to you guys helping us
to the 100,000 marker and beyond,
and we launched 18 months ago.
200,000 is now on the horizon, so
we look forward to celebrating that one with you
when we get there hopefully quite soon.
- And obviously, 'cause I'm here now,
surely, that'll happen a lot quicker, right?
- Yeah, it'll be no time.
(upbeat music)
- We have talked all about our predictions,
so we want to ask you to vote
which one you think is most likely.
Is Mark gonna go out too hard at the Norseman?
Am I gonna be patriotic and big up another Scottish athlete?
Probably, and is Lionel gonna come up with a new,
funny trend, strategy, or diet?
And finally, another one that you might've come up with.
- Yeah, if you do click "other",
then make sure you let us know
what your prediction is in the comments section below,
and to enter that poll, just click on the link
above my head.
- So now it's time to rewind to,
well, we, before Christmas, when we asked you,
does popularity matter in sport?
- Yeah, and the answers were pretty clear-cut, to be honest.
84% of you said yes, it did, and just 16% said it didn't,
so yeah, clear-cut.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, onto the news, and this first one
that's caught our eye is Lionel Sanders.
Now, we do keep an eye on what he's up to
'cause there's usually something interesting there.
This was back when he was training in Palm Springs,
and he actually ventured outdoors to tackle
the King of the Mountain, the Tramway, which is
a fairly famous climb in Palm Springs
in southern California.
It's a almost 5K stretch that averages the 9% grade,
so that's pretty tough.
Doesn't have that many turns in it, so maybe
it's slightly more aimed
at those who cycle indoors quite a lot.
- But fast forward just two weeks later,
the week between Christmas and New Year,
and there was a full minute taken off of Lionel's time,
and that was done by an ex-pro rider call Phil Gaimon.
Now he retired in 2016, but he makes
an effort to go around the US and capture KOMs
that are held by, in his words, often "ex-dopers".
He doesn't like that, as a lot of us don't,
so he makes an effort to go and grab those KOMs
and take them back.
- Well, he didn't actually, you know,
that sounds that we're alluding to the fact that
he thinks Lionel's an ex-doper, but he doesn't,
and his title for his Strava segment
or his attempt, I think, was something like,
"No beef with Lionel, just couldn't let a triathlete
have the Tramway."
So I think a triathlete needs to go back
and get the Tramway.
- Now, and sticking with Strava,
and for those of us who use it to upload all of our training
and there are plenty of us because, well, let's face it,
if it isn't on Strava, it doesn't happen.
Right, Heather? - Exactly.
- Yeah, well, you might have noticed that they've done
a really fun little highlights package of
our training for the year.
- [Heather] Yeah, if you log onto your Strava account now,
you can find the guest review of 2018
that's personalised to you,
and they've made it into a video,
little bit of music, including photos that you've uploaded
throughout the year, and they come in at certain stages.
It gives you stats and how many hours you spent,
how many metres you've climbed,
how much time you spent on your bike, swimming, or running,
and I must admit that I find it
a little bit, like, shocking.
If you look at those many hours and think,
"God, I could've ... " how much reading I could've done
or how much educational stuff I could've done with that,
but then on the other hand,
you also realise, "I probably should've spent more time
on my bike," so it's just quite fun,
but it could give you a little bit of a gauge
for how last year looked and help you plan your 2019.
And we have mentioned it before,
but the Zwift Triathlon Academy
is now open for applications.
Last year was its debut season with 40 members.
Well, they've doubled that, looking for eight,
and they're hoping to find amateur triathletes
that they can help reach their goals
at Kona later this year.
- [Fraser] Now, at GTN, we followed
their debut triathlon team right from the four of them
trying to qualify for the World Champs
up to and including their performances at Hawaii,
and if you want to see those videos,
you can find them in the description below.
- Yeah, and they're gonna be using the Zwift
Triathlon ID platform to try and find these
amateur athletes, and they're looking for
all ages, all abilities, and a real mix of nationality,
so it really is a global search,
and it doesn't matter what level you're at,
whether you've already been to Kona
and you might be tie leading a podium
this year, or you've never made it to Kona before.
It that does sound too good an opportunity to miss,
well, you better get onto Zwift
'cause you've got to be at a level or 12 or above,
on cycling, a level three or above on running,
and then, you can fill in your application.
- Now, this is the last bit of Zwift news, we promise,
and if you're a little bit like us,
then you're late to the party because the Tour de Zwift
has already begun.
The Tour is a celebration of all things Zwift
and the worlds that are within it.
It's nine stages long over five different courses,
and each stage runs for two days,
and there's a roll-out every two hours.
- [Heather] Yeah, and it actually starts on 3rd and 4th
of January with the jungle circuit
held on the Watopia course, and then the ninth stage
will be at the end of the month, 29th,
30th of January with a park perimeter course
in New York City.
Now, there's three groups for each of these events,
A, B, and C.
A gives you the longer option,
and then C actually is women only,
and once you've completed all nine of these,
you get a chance to unlock a special Tour de Zwift jersey,
which you can then wear with pride
when you do your Zwift training.
- And if you are like us and you've not
managed to start yet, don't fear
because there are actually some
make-up days where you can catch up on
February the 2nd and 3rd, so really,
there's nothing stopping you.
- We have previously mentioned the 40 extra slots
that Ironman has put up for grabs
for athletes to get a slot for Kona 2019.
Well, they've just actually selected another 10
for that draw, so if you are one of those lucky 10,
you will now get a chance to accept that entry for 2019.
- [Fraser] Yeah, and there are still 20 slots left
in the final draw, so as long as you get registered
by January the 20th, then you're eligible,
so, get entered, I'd say.
(upbeat music)
- It's time for the caption competition,
and you do actually have to cast your mind back
'cause it was a show before Christmas
when we had this photo from the World Triathlon Series,
World Championship three days in Hamburg,
and it was a pretty good party going on on the podium.
We had some great suggestions.
- Yeah, and the first one that we're gonna talk you through
is from Morton, and he said, "Somewhere,
there is a German crying.
Such a waste."
Yeah, I know what you mean, Morton.
- [Heather] I like that one, but it was a close
runner up here by Fat Bloke on a Bicycle.
"The entire podium was guilty of draught-ing."
- [Fraser] Which is good. I do like that one,
but I have decided to take
Sara Danielson's as the winner, and she said,
"Just another pitcher perfect victory ceremony."
So .. - [Heather] I like it.
Well, Sara, get in touch, and we will send you a
GTN swim cap, and for your chance to win a GTN swim cap,
the photo this week is from the Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells,
and it's Carrie Lester, I presume, walking
or flossing her way to the finish line.
- [Fraser] She challenging her inner Tim Dunn from Iron.
- [Heather] It does look like it.
If you haven't seen that, you do need to check out
Tim Dunn doing the floss, or was it the rainbow as well?
Or something. - It was.
It had an extra edition. - I mean ...
He told us. - Yeah.
You have to watch the Christmas show to see
Tim Dunn in a reindeer outfit doing the floss,
but anyway, we have digressed.
More to this photo, if you've got any great
caption suggestions, make sure you leave those
in the comments section below.
(upbeat music)
- So now we're gonna look at some of the
pictures and things that you've sent in
through our uploader, which we always like to see.
Now, this story is one that I really quite like, actually,
because last week, in our New Year's show,
we had a Softride that was featured,
and it was at the Super Frog 70.3, southern California,
and we then got a comment in from Rory Francis,
saying that his parents have a beam bike,
one being a Softride and another being a Zipp,
and I just said, "Well, can you send us in a picture?"
And, well, here he is.
- [Heather] Well, Rory actually wrote in and said,
"I've ridden my dad's Softride on the Queen Cay.
Unfortunately, the beam joint collapsed
two days later in the race, and he couldn't finish."
Oh, gosh. - [Fraser] Shame.
- [Heather] "I'll send you a picture of my dad's Softride
and my mom's Zipp beam."
Well, here they are, I guess.
"Mom's 77 this month and still rides a Zipp."
- I think that's pretty impressive, if you ask me.
- Yeah, that is very impressive stuff.
Well, our next photos here looks
a little different.
Now, we've a got a walk bike that has been
sent in by Alvin from Birmingham in the UK.
No wonder he wants to be indoors.
- [Fraser] Well, he's actually got a bit of a story here.
He says, "After being hit by a car,
my bike is away for repair, so
I've got to spend two min hours on the indoor bike
riding this in the gym," but,
good luck with the rehab and hope it's going okay.
- [Heather] Yeah, I guess it's like western bikes.
If you've got a working walk bike,
you know, the gym that I use,
the walk bike is never working, so
you're doing well with that one at least.
- Yeah, they're pretty good bits of equipment.
- Yeah.
We are staying indoors for this next one,
and surprisingly, this time of year,
comes in from David, and it says,
"TTR Columbus" in his garage.
- [Fraser] Yeah, and he says, "It's a project
that I did in my garage while being at home
with my one-year-old son, doing work while he had
some time between his naps."
So, I think you've done quite a good job there.
It looks like you've got all the sort of things
you might need for indoor training.
- [Heather] Yeah, apparently, it hadn't been renovated
since the '60s, so he's made a good effort with it.
I'm interested by the paperwork that's sort of
propped in the treadmill.
I'm not sure how much reading you're gonna do
whilst you're running.
- Yeah, it does look quite formal, doesn't it, yeah?
- [Heather] For the cycle, but ...
- [Fraser] But he's got, I mean, I noticed that he had
his race wheel sitting here on the front,
but he's taken the rear one off, which is good thinking.
He's got a nice turbo tyre on there, which is good.
Fan, flat screen TV, and it looks like there might be some
gym equipment tucked in the corner there.
- [Heather] Yeah, pretty comprehensive, I would say.
Well, our filer one this week comes in from Hendrick,
and it says, "Rose Pro SL."
He's in Berlin, and it doesn't say any more
other than, "My neighbours will hate me."
So we can only imagine that he's got very
thin floorboards? - [Fraser] Yeah, he's
in a flat, or yeah, I mean, but
it's very neat and tidy.
- [Heather] Shots whilst he's on his,
when he's suffering on his Zwifr or something like that.
Who knows? - [Fraser] We don't know,
but nice and compact, neat and tidy setup there,
so I quite like that.
- [Heather] Well, I like the effort he's gone to
to make sure he's got the holding screen of GTN
on his laptop.
I mean, that's, that wins points.
- [Fraser] Well noted.
- [Heather] Yeah, very nice.
- Thanks for those pictures.
We always like looking at them
and seeing what sort of stuff you've got
for your indoor setup, so please keep sending them in.
So it's a New Year, and we've got a
new gear message for you.
Now, if you like the hoodies that Heather and I are wearing
or any of the other things that are in the GTN Show
like the cycling gear or the casual stuff
that's in there, then please do
head over there and have a look around
and see what you can pick up.
- Yeah, and hopefully, you've enjoyed this.
Hit the thumb up, like button if you have,
and again, one of your New Year's resolutions
I would recommend is subscribing to GTN
to make sure you get all of our videos,
so just hit the globe for that,
and if you are still sort of starting off
a little bit sluggish in the New Year,
and you want a little bit of a detox with all things
triathlon, we made a video on that just down here.
- And if you'd like to see another video where we did
about GT Ask Anything about triathlon,
then you can find that here.