Haven’t you heard? Matthews is out after getting hit by a car last week
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Great interview with Kat on Breakfast with Bob, such a shame we won’t see her race this year
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I had to look up what VinFast is… I thought either wine, or vehicle tracking but it seems an EV manufacturer.
Nice work on wheels and cranks being straight in the picture!
Serious bike porn there. Very nice 
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I only clocked that VinFast were a sponsor when I saw Matt’s picture here against the backdrop. I did see it on a YT thumbnail that I didn’t watch and assumes it was a team or something.
Who have been the longest sponsor of IMH? Ford is the one I think of automatically.
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Timex were around for quite a long time too, though now that I write that I don’t think they were a headline sponsor like Ford (and Vinfast) did they just do the prizes for fastest splits?
Thanks.
Thought she was down but not out. Crash was why I didn’t put her higher.
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It was very serious. If you watch the Lange interview, who was riding with her when she was hit, you can see he genuinely thought she might not have made it
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I was watching a clip with Ruth Astle, who is staying at the same house but obviously filmed before the crash. It was quite sad because she was saying how strong Kat was looking this year.
Yeah, I’d not realised that re three of the men’s AG’s. There can’t even be a concept of an overall AG winner now for the men. Still possible for the women, if you park the impact of wave starts.
Ruth Astle’s BwB interview is quite cutting about it. She’s not a fan. As a lot of us have said, who’s going to truly stay up and watch the women’s race in Europe on a Thursday night? And the likelihood is, there will be no better coverage from Ironman as a result of only having one pro race to track. As Kat said in her interview, they’ve had that chance repeatedly at 70.3 worlds and it’s never been any better
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Yeah i thought the same. Very brave of RA to state that, when many pros will have just kept quiet about it.
I don’t know if they’re all truly on the PTO bandwagon, but a lot of them are going out of their way to really big it up. I’m not suggesting it isn’t positive by the way, I’m more speaking from observations of the interviews. Are they doing it themselves, or has the PTO nudged them to be vocal so as to disseminate trickle down support to people watching/Ironman etc?
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probably something to do with keeping PTO onside so they can collect their fees and be selected for future PTO events
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It’s probably less about viewing numbers and more about PTO positioning themselves as a viable alternative income source for pros.
I think PTO and the SLT are the biggest disrupters that IM and ITU have had to deal with in a long time. Interesting times ahead!
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World Triathlon (ITU as was….
) are probably less bothered by SLT as it fits within the WT calendar and keeps athletes sharp and engaged - plus WT provide support with TOs, rules etc.
PTO and WT is a more troubled relationship from my experience but I best keep schtum on that.
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You go wash your mouth at with those “buzz” words.
They’re just another player in a niche market.
There’s nothing “disruptive” about what they’re doing.
I’m unsure why having a USP is now classed as “disruptive” for any business 
Anyways…just watched the RA interview.
I’m guessing she had her Lloyds Banking Group Inclusion and Diversity hat on.
She wasn’t wrong.
M35-39 rolled down to ~80th place at Bolton 2021 
IMO, it should only be Top 2-5 AG. (Or more if it’s a bigger category)
Any not taken slots should then be redistributed based on finish time, but only to Top whatever in AG, with the aim of keeping male/female slot take up at the same ratio as overall finishers at that race.
No slot taking at the awards ceremony.
It’s simply calculated Monday morning and emailed out - to everyone.
So everyone knows where they stand.
“Oh, if the 5 in my cat don’t take it, then I’m 7th in line”
Etc.
Easy Peasy and maintains the kudos of a world champs.
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Well it’s disruptive in the sense that hey had no viable competition, and now they do! 
But listening to Bob play the IM card about coverage etc is a bit cringe. ‘Oh there’s 5k people on the course, what can you do?’. Exactly what @Poet said … you don’t invite 5k people to the bl00dy World Champs!!! But that’s obvs never gonna happen. Capitalism y’all.
There is no excuse for the sh!tty coverage though. We live in 2022, an age where the BBC can send a racer drone filming an avalanche from inches away, in Antarctica (!) that moves at over 100 mph. Yet they can’t film a few different athletes on a pre planned course in the GREAT U S OF A.
It’s crap.
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Have you not read The Rules?
Even though Kona is in the USA.
It’s not the U S OF A 
You know i am not a man of the rules. I’m an eagle, you gotta let me fly my way!!
Yeah, that was quite a tough listen. I watched the Kat one first, then Patrick’s.
They became part of the USA when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour and started WWII.
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It’s the 50th state IIRC, so if LIFO applies…
I’m a bit odd re Kona coverage. I like the fact that it’s a bit shit. Gives it a bit of grass roots feel, not an expensive made for TV extravaganza. You spend the hours triangulating between footage/commentary, the tracker and ST/TT forums to try and work out what is actually going on, which passes the time!
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