Your Kona Picks - 2019

Sanders is good, but with his fracture and performance at Tremblant I expect he will chase for the win and collapse. I don’t see that as a bad thing either - you’re in it to win it, not come second. Different story in qualifying.

Is Facebook the only viewing option in the UK?

Iirc it’ll start Sunday evening about 6 right?

Sunday… Saturday … IIRC

I think coverage started 17:30 our time last year.

Think it started with ‘live bodymarking’ about 16:30 UK. Get to your theatres…

Swim start is 5:25pm for the men and 5:30pm for the women. On Saturday.

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AB takes out the Ho’ala practice swim in 46:07

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Amberger (the fish) a bit back there!

Happy to see The Don is out there and getting into the mix, too :+1:t3:

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Group of 5 3 mins clear of the field, suspect Ali kicked with 200m to go which broke them up a bit.

The MIGHTY Lionel 6 mins back…

No shows from Lucy, Jan etc.

Having seen the startlists recently I’d forgotten about Sarah True, but has probably raced a bit too much but might have given LCB & Haug a run for a podium slot, if she gets her nutrition and pacing right, wasn’t she miles clear at Frankfurt when she went bang, and was it NZ as well?

Jeff

Was just about to post the same thing! Tim Don 3.5mins back. Seeing as Cam swam with Tim in Italy, I was thinking that might me a representative gap to assume next Saturday.

Yet it was Sanders nearly 6mins back, and Cam nearly 6.5mins :flushed: Gotta think Cam was sandbagging. Surely?!

I would expect Ali to be in the first group out of the water either way, shows that Lionel is going to have a bit of work to do.

Possibly just a reminder to people he’s there and testing out the swim course.

Jeff

Will Ali be smart enough on the bike, suspect Jan will be there, urging Ali to push hard. Then if Wurf or others bridge Ali will have another decision to make.

Smokin’!

Hope Ali is sensible on the bike but can he resist the urge to go for it.
I’d have thought a top 8 would be a good first Kona for him…or are we expecting more?

I think top 8 would be a good result for him and he’d be happy with that to learn from, but of course he’ll race to try and win which could see a blow up.

I really don’t think it’s in his nature to race for a top 10.
The chances of him blowing are high, he’s in the best field for years and the heat looks awful.
The men’s race could see multiple lead changes from gun to tape.

If he uses his noggin he’ll sit comfortably front pack on the swim (but not leading it out). That should put him on the bike with Frodo; he should stick around there, sharing the work but not trying to ride the field off his wheel with any suicide missions, and parking the ego if Starky/Wurf go off the front.

He’s more than capable of reaching T2 around the same time as Frodo with something in the tank for the run. Then it’s just a case of dialling in a run pace he can hold, no trying to win the race with 3:30 IMs out of T2, and managing heat and nutrition.

He could still blow of course, but I’ll stick my neck out and say he will play it smart and come around 5th.

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I bet there was a lot of sandbagging on that practice swim, by those that bothered to do it.

The race is where Jaan is. AB needs to remember that.

I looked at Wurf’s previous times and his ho’ala swim is usually fairly close to his race day swim, just a little quicker. I reckon Ali, Jan and Amberger will be out in front and get a decent lead. With the heat I hope AB is patient and knocks it back a bit, it could be a very hard lesson otherwise.