What We Can Learn From The World’s Best Athletes

This podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo Coaching, Jared Donnelly. Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. This is going to be another one of our favorite episodes because we get to talk about all the things we love and there is just so much happening in the world of the sports we love. Cycling, athletics, triathlon. We just want to talk about it all and really look at what can we learn from some of the races happening. Because some of the best lessons you can take, and I know personally, for me, some of the best lessons I learn are when I watch professionals race and watch what they do and you pick up on little things and little habits that they do that can have an impact, a really positive impact on your own racing performance. And so we're going to break down what the top athletes are doing, what they're doing well, and maybe some of the mistakes they're making and just talk about our favorite things. Dad. So we love talking about these episodes because we basically get to turn on a mic and talk about some of our favorite things. Welcome into the episode and let's start before we get into that, with the gratitude. So what are you grateful for?

Thanks, Jordan. And you're dead right. July, August for the Northern Hemisphere is just the Mecca of sport, isn't it? Everything's happening. I could be grateful for that, actually, but I'm not. I'm absolutely grateful when you get to watch some of the world's best in any sport. One of the ones that I actually enjoy the most is going to the spring Classics, which we have done for, for those who have been on the Tour with us many times. And we haven't done it since COVID started, which is, you know, we haven't been there since we missed 20, 19, 20 and 21, so. And 22 actually. So we're actually going back to Belgium. So the preparation started for that for Paris. Roubaix and Tour of Flanders are the two events we, we love to take people to. And I'm so excited and GR to be able to get that preparation going again and look forward to. I've got a full, full contingent of people already who signed up. So it's absolutely fantastic. Can't wait to, to go down the. The track of the exciting bit of getting it all organized and getting there. So I'm grateful for, for that to be opened up Again, Yeah.

I tell you what, got butterflies in the stomach when we started looking at accommodation and looking back at the area again. And you just get taken straight back into that world and it's just so exciting. So that's a great one. And very excited for that to happen.

And it's funny, I've been talking to a few of the people who are coming on board and just saying, you know when you see it on telly and the Tour of Flanders comes on and all the people we've taken on those tours, they instantly text me when we're watching the event. I remember we stood there and we rode that hill and it's, it's. You're reliving the memories of Rhodes and those unbelievably hard cobbled hills, the Paderberg, Koppenberg and Quaromont, just to name a few, where the guys really struggled on them and pretty back. So many good memories and it's exciting to rekindle. We might not have spoken to those people for a year and yet that's their common link now. It's fantastic.

You actually appreciate the, the race so much more because you know all the roads and so when they're on a section, you know how hard that section is because you've done it. And then when you see someone attack on a certain section, you go far out. I was just hanging on in that. I was just trying to get up the hill and someone's actually launching an attack. And it's actually one part. If you know the Tour of Flanders, if you're listening, you know the Tour of Flanders race, they got the Quarremont three times. It's the one of the most famous cobbled hills. And actually when they go, when you come out of the Coromont, you turn left back onto the main road and it goes down for maybe so short 50 meters and it goes straight up this long, steep drag hill. And a lot of people don't realize when you're watching the race on tv, that is such a crucial part of the race all the time because they are on their limit to the top of the Quarrymont and then they get a 10 second rest on their legs and your legs are absolutely gassed. And then you've got to go up this hill again and then whoever can back up that effort after that 10 second break usually does really well in the race. And so that's just a small part where you absolutely love it. I wonder if it's worth those guys that want to win training that way and doing a 3 minute VO2 max effort, having 10 seconds rest and then trying to do another 30 second effort after that. Something like that.

Yeah, it's spot on, Jordan. And funny you should say that because it was a five minute effort for us and a 40 second rest, so depending on your skill level. But there's been so many attacks on that.

Right.

How the hell. I'm barely hanging on yet these people thinking I'm going to attack here. You know Sagan, when he got hit by the spectators jumper and dragged onto the ground, you know Tom Boonen attacked there and Cancellara attacked there. And there's such an iconic place to attack the Pelotoni because they go up at three times, people are just had it by the time they get to the third time. Yeah. So we could talk about this all day, but that's my gratitude.

Yeah, yeah, good one. Mine is for actually a supplement and this is not a sponsored gratitude, but if you listen to a lot of podcasts, a lot of podcasts around the world, especially sporting ones sponsored by athletic greens, and I thought I'd try them out and I've been trying them for about six months and it's basically this supplement where it's supposed to give you as many vitamins and minerals in one little kind of supplement drink in the morning. It's just a little bit of scoop of powder that goes in 200 mils of water. And I don't know if it's pure placebo, but I just find it absolutely amazing. I feel like you've had a coffee or something at the start of your day and even if it is 100% placebo, I don't care because I absolutely love it and I really notice the difference of the days that I don't have it. So not a sponsored plug, but athletic greens are doing a good job and even if it's just their marketing, so be it. I really enjoy athletic greens for anyone out there that wants to try it.

Well, you're giving them a free plug.

Exactly.

And had nothing in return because you paid for. That's so true.

I might email them and say, actually we mentioned you on our podcast. So anyway, getting into the wide world of sports. So let's start with the Tour de France men's and women's. We last time we spoke, the men's had a few days left and we weren't sure if, you know, the pog was going to be able to break vinegard and turns out he didn't. What are your thoughts on the end of the tour? Anything stand out for you any performances worth talking about in the last kind of few stages?

Yeah, there's so much to talk about there. I don't even know where to start. But when we last gave our predictions, we didn't know what was going to happen. We gave Ineos a bit of a, bit of a big, of a big rap and one they probably didn't deserve in hindsight. Now they didn't, they didn't really have the look. What we said was that the Pog and Vinegar were far and above better than everybody else. And to Geraint Thomas's credit, he absolutely did a great job in securing third place, but that's as good as Ineos could do. Would be different with Bernal there. I imagine he would be matching the other two young guns and that would be a different race. Ineos did a really good job, but they just weren't up to it and neither was the rest of the field really. So it really played out to be, you know, a competition between two people. And Vinegar was just outstanding and, and no matter what the POG threw at him, he defended brilliantly and he was actually the better rider and rode away. And I don't know if we talked about the stage. Where Van Aert was was just the instrumental difference, riding Poga off his wheel and allowing Vinegar to take off. I think that was the next stage after the last podcast that we did. That was the stage of the, of the decade for me. Is there anything wow can't do? Wow, Van Aert, it was incredible. And I saw some footage afterwards where he swung up and you know, as, as the helpers to the yellow jersey often do, they can barely pedal because they've given their all in that period of half an hour or 10 minutes or four minutes. And Van Art had been up the road in the break and he'd done everything all day and then he dropped back to time trial, Pog a chart off his wheel, which was incredible, and then swung up, gave himself 10, 15 seconds rest, turned around, saw the POG was coming back, got back on the back of Poga Cha's wheel and followed him the whole way to the top. I just found that was. It's almost too hard to believe, but, but boy, that just. They just exerted their dominance there and then on that stage and there was nothing more really that, that, that Poga's team could do about it. And look, the time trial was his last go to have a chance at winning another stage and wow. Well, Van I came out and beat them all and I think that Vinegar could have matched Van Aert's time within a second or two. But out of respect, I reckon, and winning the event, I think he eased up in that last 2 or 300 meters and, and I'm not saying he gifted it to Vanna, but I think out of respect, you know, he probably would have. I reckon he would have missed out by a second or two in winning the stage, but it wasn't what his goal was. His goal was to. To win the yellow jersey. And it was great and just justice that Van Aert won the time trial. So I just thought it was an unbelievably spectacular last period of. And then obviously Champs Elysees. That was interesting. I thought that Jumbo Visima were going to go for it and try and get Van Aert to win the stage again. I was absolutely wrong. They were so happy with what they'd done. They didn't want to have a bar of it, really. They just, they stepped away from it. And I was only frustrated because I was tipping them in my. In the Tour de France tipping competition. I tipped the wrong people. But I was really hoping Caleb would come through and, and just get something out of the Tour.

Frustrating.

So frustrated for him in the mountains.

I know.

And then not even. Not even fire a shot because he got boxed in and was in a bad position. And when, when things are not going your way, boy, they're not going your way and you just picked the wrong line and. And you know, and when you're confident and things are going well, it's amazing how gaps open for you and it's just the way the rubber, the green, isn't it? It's.

So what the bad. And yeah, I want to ask you about this with Van Art, because a lot of people have been saying he can win gc. You know, he's just shown how good he is. He can. He's making it up with Pogacha. And there has to be something said about the fact that he's on Overall, he was 30, 40, 50 minutes behind or whatever because he would. He would give his oil on a stage and then drop off and be 20 minutes back. And there has to be something said about the fact that GC riders can't have any days like that. They don't get any rest. And while it's unbelievable what Van's doing, he can do it because he has days where he. He does those efforts and then. And then backs off. And it's a totally different race for him to be at the front all Day, every day and not lose that 30 or 40 minutes. And also mentally I think that helps you because the top guys pocket and vinegar. There's so much pressure each day to not get dropped. Whereas if you know that it doesn't matter, you get dropped. There must be some sort of mental edge there where you just go, I'll just sit on and hang on for as long as I can. If I get dropped, that's fine. What do you think about that mental edge and how can we use that in our own racing? Because it's just perceived pressure where if Fernande was in the same position behind Poga and he was contending for gc, maybe he would start mentally going, this is too tough, I'm going to drop off. This is too hard. Whereas when you, when it doesn't matter, it's almost like the pressure's off.

I totally agree. And I don't think that like there's been plenty of commentary about he could do that and, and Sir Bradley Wiggins absolutely did that. He was an example of someone who completely changed from a one day classics writer. And I, I love the interview he did with, I think it was with the move and they were talking about his career and he had to completely change his whole training regime, lose half his body weight, become an ABSO engine threshold rider and just completely changed the way he rode his bike. And, and so the first thing I would say is I love the way Vanart rides his bike and races and, and takes risks. If he became that type of GC rider, I don't think cycling would be better for it. I think, I think we would be losing. Like I love watching Remco Evanopol do what he does. I love watching Ella Philippe, I love watching Sagan. They're entertainers that they make race, you know. Sure. I love the GC riders in Tours. They're a different rider. They're having to show their sustainability over three weeks and that's a completely different event. So I think they've both, both styles of racing are really important to cycling and that's what people love about it. Because in the Tour and the Giro and the Welter, there's. There's about five races happening. The poker drop, the green, the young rider, the yellow jersey, you know, the time trial specialists, the hill climbers, the sprinters. There's just something for everybody. And you know, I just don't. I just. Yeah, sure, well then I could do that. But I just think he's better off sticking with, with where he's good and And I think that enables him and van der Poel to do what they do or an alpha leap or, you know, they can make the sport exciting because of their ability to not have that pressure of having sustained. You're going to make different decisions when you're in the middle of a bu on day four as a GC rider than you are as a rulier who's going to get a chance to win a stage somewhere. You know, the GC rider has to worry about keeping his nutrition up every single second of the day because he needs it to be performing. He can't have a bad day, he just can't have an off day. He's got to stay with the main bunch within sight of the breakaway or whatever's happening so that he doesn't lose any time and he can't push too hard because it's could burn matches and, and he's got to avoid crashes and not lose time. And there's just so many. That's. There's so many things that he has to worry about other than, I'm just going to have a free crack at this today. They don't get that opportunity. And look, I thought Pocket Char was becoming one of those riders in the Tour because he was almost giving away that, oh, I don't care about, you know, the gc, I can still do this, I do care about the gc, but I can still have fun winning stages and, and as we talked about that caught up with him and probably cost him the Tour with those burning matches that where he shouldn't. And had he had a different director sport, if I don't reckon Valen Piper had still been involved, I don't reckon that would have happened. So it's a complex question that you've asked me, but I think I, I think yes, the freedom to do things and recover. It's a completely different style of bike riding than being a GC rider. And I think that Van Aert needs to stay where he is in the, in the genre that he selected is he's so. He's so good for the sport and I think it'd be. And even Brad Wiggins said it was like I had to become a boring rider to win the Tour.

Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. And look, to, to be fair to Vinegard, he was not a boring threshold rider like Wiggins was when he won it and Froome was when they won it four years in a row. And that's not to take anything away from them. And boring is a harsh term, but they were just they just rode the consistent numbers, won the Tour that way. Whereas Vinegar was so exciting. The Vinegar Verse pocket chart show this year was unbelievable. And to be honest, it was absolutely the most exciting Tour de France I've ever seen in my life. And it just had unbelievable stages. And cycling itself is in such an incredible position, I think because of all those reasons you just listed, all these really amazing, exciting cyclists are coming in and just taking on races and taking chances and riding aggressively, and it's just so much fun to watch. And I said this to you that I. I found myself on YouTube a. A Lance Armstrong climbing up Alp d' Wez video came up and got recommended to me, and I had to click it. It was. It was a guilty pleasure. I know I shouldn't. I shouldn't enjoy it because of what. What he is and what he was, but, you know, watching some of his classic rides up Alp d', Huez, and for me, looking at the crowd in that clip, it was an amazing crowd up Altoes, but it was nothing compared to the crowd up Alto is this year. I think I feel like cycling is just getting bigger and bigger, especially over in Europe, and the crowds are just astronomical. And the crowds in this Tour de France were just ridiculous. It's because they're putting on such an exciting show. So, yeah, no one can fault those Van Aert, Poga, Charles, or Vinegard who are always on the front from having fun in the Tour de France. And you saw, even on the last stage, they did. Van Aert and Pogasha did a little attack against the peloton almost as a joke, and they sat up laughing. And look, even though Pogachar might have ruined his Tour de France a little bit from burning too many matches, he absolutely had a lot of fun. And I actually wasn't sure in. In that first stage where he got dropped for the first time really badly, he was kind of showboating to the camera a little bit in the valley, and I wasn't sure if that was showboating or arrogance. And I think, on reflection, I think it was just an indicator of his personality that he just loves cycling. He loves attacking, he loves having fun. He wasn't saying, I'm too good for this. He was just saying, this is intense and I love it, or this is pretty crazy and I love it. And he showed that so much more throughout the rest of the Tour de France. So I think he's living his best life. He just loves cycling. He lost the Tour this year, but if all these cyclists keep going. It's just going to be so exciting to keep watching for a long time.

Yeah, there's so many youngsters are coming through who have got that no fear, no fear factor. And you know, watching Pidcock descendants, that was exciting, you know. And look, I know there's been some, there's been some great descenders over the year. Nibali and you know, there's been really good, good descenders. And look, Chris Froome was able to keep up with him and he's an older generation rider and that shows you the quality of Chris Froome's bike handling skills. But, but that was exciting, wasn't it, watching them descending and that's, you know, and look, most of the people now who follow the Tour have got the advantage of social media. Back in the 90s there was no such things as pH, YouTube or clips that you could see. We were lucky to get, you know, some footage of the race, you know, on the news or something like that. And now we're getting these incredible helicopter views and people are getting an insight into the race. Yeah. And so obviously the crowds are dictated by the publicity or the promotion. So I think, you know, what you're saying is dead right. The crowds are way bigger now. But there's reasons the racing was always exciting then as well. And I can remember watching Contador and you know, Cadell and, and the slicks and just giving it to each other the same way. So every generation's got those riders, you know, even Ulrich and Lance and I can name, you know, Pantani, you know, despite their drugs, they were still racing. They're all cheating and they're all still racing at that high level and attacking and it still came down to tactics and, you know, it's just been generational and now we've got a new crop and they're just as exciting. And you know, we thought Sagan was never gonna, you know, stop winning and all of a sudden now he's kind of getting to the end of his career and the new generation's taken over. So it's in a good, it's good, a good healthy state. But the one thing I don't think is healthy about it is I heard Johan Bruneel say that the, the prize money for each stage and koms on each sprint stage or they're getting like a thousand euro, you know, and at the end of the day, if you win the, if you win the stage, you get, I don't know what it was some really small amount of money to win the Stage and. And the riders don't seem to have much say. It seems to be dominated by the. The UCI or whoever's running. Running the show. So I feel that there could. There could be a bit of a revolution coming here from the cyclists. You know, you look at the elite tennis players or the elite golfers, you know, the cyclists aren't getting the same money. Look at the, you know, professional soccer, professional football, professional basketball. Well, cycling, because you don't have entry fees to a stadium, I think that could be the difference for a Grand Tour. It's all free to watch. I don't know. It's a whole different can of worms there, but I'm kind of. The sport's in a great position with the riders, but I don't think the riders are getting remunerated as they should be.

Something else that's really exciting was the first edition of the Tour de France Femmes, the women's Tour de France. And that was also unbelievable. And the coverage was just as great and the crowds were just as good, and it was actually so exciting to watch. It was. Every stage had something crazy drama in it. There was so much happening, a lot to talk about. And we posted a few videos on our Instagram of some of the highlights we liked. But I think the one standout performance was the winner who just came through in the last few mountain stages. And a MC Van Vleuten basically just rode solo victories and dominated the peloton. And it was pretty unbelievable to watch.

I really enjoyed watching the Femme Tour de France. It was exciting racing. Everybody was having a crack. And you know why? I think the shorter stages really helps that. And I reckon the. The male races could take a little bit of a leaf out of that. You don't need to ride six, seven hours. Yeah. Marianne Vos definitely was the smart rider and was only beaten by Anna Maek Van Vleuten because she was the. The best rider.

Yeah. Mariana Voss certainly dominated the sprinting. And then it was good to see that even though Van Vleuten is just head and shoulders above everyone, Demi Vollering, who was second place, actually did so well to hold her own and basically rode solo a lot in second place. And she was just kind of one, two or three minutes behind Van Vlutin the whole time and shows a really good performance. She just couldn't hang on to her throughout the whole stage. Van Vluton really had to work for it because she got a gap but then didn't keep extending. You know, normally once someone pops that's it. They might lose. We saw with Poguchar, once he popped, if the stage kept going, he was going to lose 3, 4, 5, 6 minutes, whereas Volun kind of lost a minute and then she was just able to hold that and she ended up losing the whole Tour by only a few minutes. So that was.

That was really spot on. It was. Yeah, I totally agree. And the Van Vleuten's attacks, they were the difference. She'd get gaps and then they'd stay the same. And she did that quite a bit. And Vollering was probably matching her on most of the clients, but couldn't go with her accelerations. And, you know, that's a good sign for Vollering. She can work on that and she'll be a match for Van Vleuten, I imagine, in the near future.

Our favourite moment of the Tour, and we put this video on our Instagram, was when Ludwig, the Swiss national champion, won her stage. And her interview after is what we put up because she was so emotional. It actually gives you goosebumps where they had a really bad. They had some writers crash the day before. They'd had a really bad 24 hours. And she just spoke about the teamwork and how they all just kept going, no matter what they pushed through. She was actually dropped, you know, I think 15 or 20k out, and then got back on.

She crashed.

She crashed in that stage or the day before? Yeah, that's the. Yeah, yeah. And then she ends up winning. And the interview is just absolutely amazing. It's what cycling is all about. And a lot of the comments on the video that we put up just said the same thing. You know, goosebumps watching that. And that was just awesome. It's what you always talk about. You never know what's going to happen. It's. And honestly, we spoke about that in week one of the men's Tour de France, where Poga Charge just looked unbeatable. You know, they just didn't look like they could break him. And it's too arrogant to say, you know, it's, it's, it's over, because it's just never over and anything can happen. And we just. We just see these examples over and over again in world sport and it's. It should be the same for all of us in our races. You know, you could be having a bad day, but you could turn it around.

Yeah, but you don't know if this person's not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna turn up to this race because I Can't win because that person's there. Well, that person could have a puncture or a mechanical or have a bad day or actually not turn up and you don't go there. You can't have that approach to anything. You know, if you're gonna have that approach, you might as well, you know, quit the sport.

Yeah. Moving on to the Commonwealth Games is on right now. And for those who aren't up a Commonwealth nation. The Commonwealth Games is basically the Olympic Games, but for only the Commonwealth nations. And it's really exciting to watch. And in the triathlon scene, there was a great battle between New Zealand's Hayden Wild and England's Alex Yee. And they've had some great battles over the last 12 months. But Wild had a 15 to 22nd lead on him going into the run and it was a sprint distance. So 15, 20 seconds is a lot over 5k. But yee is a superstar runner and Yi caught him with a K to go, which was an incredible effort. And they were coming into the sprint finish and instead of sprinting, Hayden Wild shook his hand and said, you go. Because Wild had to serve a 10 second penalty just before the finishing straight. And so Yee got the gold medal. Wild had to settle for second and he only just got there. Australia's Matt Hauser was coming through and finished only five seconds behind after he served his penalty. But it was interesting because the penalty was very harsh for what it was. There's a bit of controversy about it. Again, we put up a video asking people what they thought and that video ended up getting millions of views because there was a lot of arguments happening about whether it was a penalty or not. Basically, he started unclipping his helmet just as he was racking his bike. And the rules are you can't unclip until the bike's fully racked. A lot of people saying that just because his hands were at the clip doesn't mean he was unclipping at the time. It was like a matter of millimeters. So should you lose a chance at a gold medal based on that? Other people are saying, you know, rules are rules, don't do it. But it was sad not to be able to see a sprint finish because it would have been great between them. Ye had just done a massive effort to catch Wild. Could he have out sprinted him still? But we didn't get to see it and that was a little bit disappointing.

Yeah, there's a lot to talk about from what you've just said because it was a really great spectacle. For triathlon. And unfortunately, once again, I'm. I don't want to bag official room because without them, we don't have events. And 99% of the volunteers around the world who turn up every Saturday at the local clubs do a fantastic job and love having. And we need them. But sometimes officialdom just goes too far. And they actually ruined the race by a technicality that I can't. I've watched the video so many times, I can't even see whether the thing's unclipped or not. The fact that you've got your hand on your helmet is just probably good preparation, but maybe that now the lesson is don't put your hand near your helmet. But did it make a difference to the end of the race? It sure didn't. And so that's the spirit of the rules. If you're getting an unfair advantage, then sure, people need to be penalized. There are rules for that reason. But, you know, it was literally, you know, my minute. Second, if it. I can't even prove that it did happen yet. They. They penalized him 10 seconds. And they spoiled the finish of the race by. Instead of having a sprint finish to see who's the best they had. I was, I didn't understand that why was. He was saying, you go for it until later when. When it made sense. But I was yelling at the telly going, what? You're giving up? What are you doing? Why aren't you sprinting? But it was kind of a really weird scenario because I watched the race live and I. I had no idea that was going to happen. And it spoiled it totally, I think. But anyway, I like that.

Yeah, I like that expression of it's against the spirit of the rules. Are there for a reason. And people are asking, you know what? Why is that rule there? And I think, like, originally, it's a safety thing. You know, it has to be a certain point in time where people can't unclip their helmet because they want to make sure that people have their helmets on whenever they're near their bike or on their bike. And they have to pick a point somewhere, whether it's a meter before the transition line. And they've just chosen that you can't touch your helmet until your bike's fully racked. And that's where they've decided to make the rule. And I assume it's first and foremost a safety thing. And then they have to pick somewhere because, yeah, there has to be a line so they can say that's illegal or not legal. But like you said, what he did didn't give him an unfair advantage. You wouldn't say it was a safety issue. And it's probably, if you looked at the spirit of the rule, was probably unnecessary. But that said, in the women's triathlon, there's a great battle in first and second between Georgia Taylor Brown and Flora Duffy, the Olympic champion. And I was really keen to see how this one played out because Georgia Taylor Brown probably would have challenged Florida Duffy for the gold medal at the Olympics, but she had some sort of mechanical with her bike and so she ended up losing a lot of time and just couldn't even compete on the run. And so they got off the bike together and Duffy's transition was marginally faster than Georgia Taylor Brown, who's a really good transitioner, because if you see her in the, in the super league triathlons where transition is everything, she's always out first. But Flora Duffy, this shows the importance of transition.

Beat her.

I'm not sure why, how long. She was just fractionally quicker in everything she did in transition. They came in together, she came out 15 to 20 meters ahead and again in a 5K sprint, that's just game over. You know, it's so hard to close down a 15 to 20 meter gap in running. So when you look at the ye and wild thing, every millimeter counts. Every millimeter or every millisecond counts in that transition area. And Flora Duffy showed it. And look, she ran away from Taylor Brown quite easily. But it would have been interesting if Taylor Brown at least came out of transition with her and could hold onto her for the first K. Yeah, that's my thoughts on the transition thing. It does make a big difference. And so every second counts.

Of course, we have false starts in running and swimming and it used to be an absolute pain in the neck when 100 metres would take four hours to go through the heats because every race had a break and they fixed it by saying if you break, you're out. So in the old days you get a warning and then a second warning and then you're out. So the event took twice as long as it should. And so, you know, they fixed it by saying, you know, that's it, you're out. One break and you're out. And that sounds harsh, but you can gain, you know, 0.1 of a second advantage, which will be the difference in you qualifying to the final or winning the race. So, yes, you have to have rules. And, and I, I'm not saying that the rule for triathlon is wrong. I'm just saying it was unclear whether he got an advantage from unclipping his helmet. So I think the rule for having a helmet on until the bike's racked is absolutely right. That is the rule and it should be enforced. But it's got to be enforced. But clearly the guy's unclipped and the straps are hanging down and he's got his helmet off before he's wrecked his bike would be more an infringement because that's getting five second advantage ahead of everybody else who. So yes, you know, the transition is part of the event, just like starting in running is part of the event and swimming on the blocks as part of the event. And that's the thing you have to get right, you have to have good reaction time and you have to be good in transition. And many events have been lost in transition, you know, equal, equal athletes have swim, ride and run and they've lost it in transition. And so you need to practice all those things. So yeah, it's kind of, of all part of the, the, the story, isn't it, that if, if you don't. I'm the best runner, I'm the best rider on the best swimmer, but I lost because I'm the worst transition person. We'll get better at transition so, you know, so you can win the race if that's the difference.

We absolutely see it at age group level where people miss out on a podium at age group races, triathlons, by 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds. If you've spoken about this, where that was lost in transition, T1 and T2 people are quite relaxed in T1 and T2 at age group kind of races and non pro races. But they could be gaining so much more time by getting that right and making that as efficient as possible.

Yeah. And the thing is to not make it intense. I'm big believer in getting efficiency over intensity. So if you get out of the water, I don't want you sprinting to get your heart rate up 30 beats between the water and the transition. I want you to be efficiently getting to transition. I want you to efficiently take your helmet off, put your shoes on or whatever method you're using, but not spiking your heart rate. And so it's efficiency as you said, rather than intensity.

Yeah, I had my own example a few months ago where disastrously, I just couldn't get my shoes on in transition. And then I went away after that and practiced it in a whole bunch of training sessions and the same thing kept happening. I'd run to my shoes, try and get them on as fast as possible. And I was saying to myself, relax. But my body wasn't doing it. I was being intense as you said, and I just couldn't get them on. And then I finally changed it to like you're saying efficiency and just relax that little bit more. Sacrifice half a second of what you think you could get them on in. And suddenly the shoes started coming on straight away and I was having no problems. So it's almost like slowing down a fraction of a second gains you more time in the long run. Whereas rushing through that process where you think you're going to gain an extra half a second, there's. You end up losing. So yeah, it's an interesting one.

And you know that, you know, on a time trial course where there's lots of cornering and U turns, you know that can be the difference in the race. You could all be riding the same but you're slower in the corners so.

You'Ve got to go practice.

U turns. The difference between. That's right. There's so many facets downhill riding, you know, you're quite nervous about downhill riding where someone's really skilled at it. Example I can give you is our bunch ride last weekend. I got left by the whole everybody who's just riding so much better than I am at the moment, which is fantastic. And I caught a bunch because it is. But I caught back up because of my descending skills for them to just drop me again on the next hill. But my descending skills were really helpful on the day and I think guys are shaking their heads going how did you get back? And it's, you know, it's because I'm good at descending.

Yeah, for sure. Moving on to probably, I don't know, it's my favorite sport at the moment and I think it's yours as well. We've both got such a love for it. And that's the World Athletics Championships. The World Championships of athletics were on in Eugene, Oregon last week and it was unbelievable. It was just such an amazing World champs across all events. And I generally tend to watch more than middle distance events, maybe go down to a 400. I don't tend to. I see the results of the sprinting but I'm not fully into it. Whereas this World champs. I was watching every race because there was so much stuff happening and there's so much for us to talk about about what unfolded. First thing I want to mention is the under 20 world champs are on right now and the guy who is Touted as the next Usain Bolt, just broke the under 20 world record, around 9.91 seconds for the 100. That's Sealy Topogo. It is an unbelievable footage of the race. And he looks like Usain bolt because he's five meters clear of the rest of the pack and 30 meters out from the end, he starts waving his finger at the rest of the race, letting him know that he's way out in front and still runs a 9.91. So it was very Bolt like. And it's pretty, pretty fun and interesting to watch.

Isn'T it? As we talked about in cycling, you think there'll never be another Usain Bolt. You know, Carl Lewis was the same in the 80s and 90s. Jesse Owen, you can just keep going back, but every generation will produce another Usain Bolt or, you know, it's just another guy has come out of the woodwork who's just as talented. And boy, it's going to be interesting to see how, how good this guy can be because that's an incredible time with for a guy who was showboating in the last 10 meters. And then I can't wait to see what he could do.

Well, actually in the last 24 hours. So in the 200 meter heat, he broke the under 20 world record and ran a 19.98. And he really, he kept his foot down in that. He didn't. He wasn't showboating. And an unbelievable time. And then he got done in the final in a photo finish. And the guy that beat, they both ran 19.96. So they both broke the under 20 world record or championship record. Sorry, again, not the world record, but he was under pressure and he got done. And so, yeah, a lot of showboating throughout the week. And yeah, the medal's not always yours. Even though he looked that much better than the rest of the field.

That's a great story. And look, you know, the fact that it was in Oregon, you know, the home of running, I think it's everything to be excited about it and your history of running is better than mine. But, you know, just explain what this means to be running there.

Yeah, that's a really good point. It is such a home of running. And you could tell that when you're watching the world champs because of the crowd. The crowd was just awesome. They've rebuilt this stadium. But basically, Oregon is the home of Steve Prefontaine and he was electric for athletics and he was obviously before my time. I've just read about him, but you look at the crowds that would go to watch him. And he would pack out stadiums because everyone wanted to see him, watch him run. And he ran pretty funny. I don't know if you ever watch many races of him, but he would just run as hard as he could from the front, basically, and try and run the legs off everyone. But if you've ever read the Nike book, I actually don't know what it's called. I don't know if it's called Just do it or something. But about the story and the foundation of Nike. Nike was founded in Oregon, and Oregon is just a running city. It's a running town. They're running fanatics. Everyone there runs. And that's where Nike actually started. And so they've just got such a strong running history, running culture. And to have the world champs there after a few years off with COVID it was just unreal. And the crowd throughout a lot of the events. The crowd noise was just amazing. And yeah, I guess we want to go through to finish off some of the. Some of the events that stood out. I think 1500, always one of the keystone events of any athletic championships. And Ingebritsen got beaten, which was a massive shock.

Whoa. Who saw that coming? And watching his heats, whether he's running up the front straight, running three or four lanes wide, for those who didn't see it in the heats, with both arms waving to the crowd, telling them to roar more, to cheer more, I just thought, what are you doing? You are an incredible athlete. Just run. Stop trying to be the crowd organizer. You know, your job is to run. I think you're getting a confusion happening here and you're going to have a cropper soon. And funnily enough, two days later, he loses the 1500. To me, it was almost like, you know, you're concentrating on the wrong stuff. Your mind is somewhere else. Are you that arrogant that you know, I know you're an entertainer, but you're a runner first.

Yeah, it's good for the sport, no doubt, but.

Yes, but I don't think it was good for him.

Exactly right.

He got done by Jake Whiteman. And that's a great story in itself. Give us a description of what you think about that run.

Yeah, I think we spoke about the boldness of his move with 200 meters to go won him that race. And Ingebritsen does his normal thing. He eventually gets himself to the front and just gets himself on the inside of lane one and runs a pace where it is really hard for anyone to come around. Him once they come to the last home straight. Ingebridson's always in a good position and runners have to sprint round him to beat him. And he's already going such a good pace, he's got such good kick that it's almost impossible. And Whiteman put in a huge effort between 150 and 200 meters to go. Got half a shoulder in front of Ingebritzen and then just cut him off and just went straight into lane one and, and chopped his stride and got himself in the best position. And Inger Brigsten couldn't come around him. And it was unbelievable. And what was also unbelievable was his dad was commentating and there's great footage and we'll actually put this up on our Instagram as well. But there's great footage of his dad commentating the race and then watches his son win. And he just is left speechless mid commentary. He just. It's so fun to watch because he just can't believe he's just watched his son win a world championship.

It was brilliant race and you know, you've got to try something new. And this guy had, I think he came ninth at the Olympics in the 1500 and he was in good form, he thought, but didn't get the result he wanted in Tokyo. And you have to try something different. And what a bold move. Inger Britzen style is always running the legs off the other people. And if you come around the straight and you're a meter behind a guy, you've got to run faster speed to get in front of him. It's no different to a bike race. You know, why give someone four bike lengths with a tailwind when you basically gonna ride 65Ks an hour each? You've gotta ride 67Ks an hour to get in front of the guy. But you're giving him four bike length start. You know, this is the same as in running. So Whiteman did the right thing. He basically cut him off and, and, and threw his rhythm out. And then Ingrid Briggson didn't have the legs to come back around him. It was a brilliant tactic.

And you say, you know, why give the world champion the best runner in the world? And he is the best runner in the world. Why give him the advantage? Why give him a head start, you know, And Wyman didn't. He said, no, I want this advantage and Ingrid has to come around me. And it really worked. So. And look, to Inger Britton's credit.

Interesting. Jordith. I was going to say it'd be interesting to see if other runners now use that tactic, and you know this, there's this big thing down the back straight where they're running absolutely flat out so that no one passes you. Well, what are you going to have to sprint in the back straight? You're going to have to do two sprints to get the lead.

Yeah, exactly.

Very interesting.

And to Ingerbertson's credit, he finished the race and he said, I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed with silver at the world champs, which he'd never won a world title at this stage. And to say that shows he really thought he should win it. So I don't know if he was embarrassed because of his antics or just because of the race itself, but he came out and dominated the 5,000 and just ran the legs off the guys in the 5000 race. But once again use that tactic of he was getting the crowd involved up down the back straight. He was running three or four lanes wide again and amping the crowd up on lap six and lap eight. And I thought, gee, you better win this if you're going to do it again. And I, I loved it because the crowd noise in that race was unbelievable. The commentators could not stop talking about it. They were saying it's hard to hear on the tv, but they just said, this is thunderous. The whole crowd is just on their feet watching this 5,000 meter race. It was such a great race and I think Ingratston was just lapping it up and yeah, he's waving his arms to the crowd and then. Yeah, and won his first world title, which was awesome. And then interestingly again, it was very hot there and they had water on the side for the 5,000 and 10,000 and Ingen Ritson took it twice.

He went and got a drink.

Yeah, I find that fascinating in a 12 minute race. I know that the Norwegians talk about dehydration is really a big deal, but in a 12 minute race or 13 minute race, I'm not convinced that that's going to make a difference.

Yeah, it was interesting seeing him run off to get a drink. He said he was thirsty so he wanted to have a drink. His mouth was dry so it's that confident look. He is great for the sport. I, yeah, I love in Gibritsen, but I just want, I want him to be just a little bit careful and that's all I'm. The coaching in me is coming out. You know, we should have more entertainers. It's, it's what it's about. But first and foremost you're a runner. So. So yeah, it was, they've been really interesting. There's, you know, the 800, the 5000, the 10K, the marathon was fantastic. You know, everything about the event was sprint. The field events. We, you know, the Australians did well.

Yeah. Eleanor Patterson won the high jump. I was about to say, I think you'd disown me if I started running down the straight with my, with my arms in the air. That's how much the coach would come out.

You'd want to be a long way in front, George, if you did that.

This is a funny story, actually. I remember when I was 8 years old and I watched a guy who was a few years old and he was. You always look up to the runners that are older than you and he was one of the best runners in the country and he trained at our club and he was well in front in a race and he, and he put his arms out like, like, like, who cares? When he was 20 meters out, I thought that was so cool. And then my next race, I was running the school cross country, which was kind of easy competition when you're a runner back then. And I passed you and I was 100 meters clear, everyone. And I did it. You were not happy. You absolutely let me know about it and said, don't ever do that again. And I learned my lesson pretty quickly. So you said, concentrate on the race. Who cares about the field behind it?

Yeah.

Anyways, that's funny. That memory just popped up.

Yeah.

I don't know if you remember that.

I don't. You should have gone to therapy for that.

So the last couple events we want to finish off are the women's 800, 1500, which we really loved, and the 1500 faith keep Yagon is the queen of the 1500. She just absolutely dominated it again. But I was gobsmacked that three of them went out in 55 seconds. The first 400 of the 1500. And it was incredible to watch. It was an elite field. Australia's Jess Hull was in there, who got seventh at the Olympics, I think one of the world's best runners. There was two clear groups after 300 meters because three of them went out absolutely flat chat sprint. And to the rest of the runners credit they went. We are not going to run that fast because that is ridiculous. And so there was three women 30 meters ahead of this second pack of the world's best runners. It was so bizarre to watch. And for reference, for context, they went through 455 seconds in the 800 at the World Champs. They only went through in 56, 57. So Faith, Kip Yagon and Laura Muir with a three there, went with each other at the start and they were just miles ahead. And again to their credit, they didn't hold that pace. But they stayed 30, 40, 50 meters clear of the rest of the runners and blew them apart. And they were the three medalists.

Well, if you've tracked practice and trained that way, that is a good tactic. And if you can gap the field and put them in the red zone straight away and you'll separate that because people were running sensibly, then you're going to absolutely stay that same distance apart. If your body can cope with that strategy. And you would have had to have trained that way. And I think it's a great strategy to get rid of pretty much any contenders. Anybody who's a roughy, they don't have a chance anymore because they can't sustain that pace. The three front runners didn't sustain that pace either. They all slowed down incredibly. I think they were running 1662s and 63s for the next laps. But certainly the tactic worked by doing something different. But you need to be prepared for that. And we've talked about that championship style of racing and time trial of racing, how they're two completely different methods and you need to be able to cope with both. And it's like a GC rider who can just ride up the hill that threshold compared to one who can over under a 10. Attack, recover, attack, recover. Two different styles of racing.

And I guess you've got to train for both and be able to, like you always say, have more tools in your toolbox and use them when necessary.

Yep, I totally agree. And you know, that's what training and practicing is about, so that you can race both forms of championship racing and time trialling.

One last thing, we'll finish off there. But one last event I wanted to give a notable mention to and it's not something that I would often find myself watching, but I found myself in the last two years getting really obsessed. And it's one of my favorite events now is the 400 meter hurdles. I just think it's such a fun event. The 400 is so hard because it's 400 meter sprint and the lactic in the last hundred is just unbearable. Let alone jumping over these hurdles. And try jumping over hurdles in the last 100 meters or 400 and it is just impossible. Your legs can barely get over the ground. And these professional athletes that do it, it's Such a fun event. It feels like a real original kind of Greek event was, which is what the Olympics were made for. And Sydney McLaughlin, oh, my goodness, she is just unbelievable. She's. She just gave one of the greatest athletic performances I've ever seen. If you haven't seen it, go and watch it again. We might chuck a video up on it. Because what she did and the commentator put it perfectly, he said, we may never see an athletic performance like this ever again. For context, again, she ran 50.6 and she broke her own world record to run 50.6 and win the gold. No one had ever broken 51 seconds before. It was 0.7 seconds faster than the previous world record just over a year ago. No one had broken 52 seconds. And then a few of them did it. There's three of them that have done it now. But she now holds six of the top eight fastest times ever. And for the most ridiculous and absurd context, if she ran that same time, she would have come sixth in the women's 400 flag lap. And she was running over hurdles. And that just shows how ridiculous it is. And it's, it's such an elite performance to watch because it's someone just at their absolute prime. Her style is just perfect. She gets over the hurdle so smoothly, she barely breaks stride. It's. It's really a pleasure to watch. And I just can't wait to see. She's got more in her. So I can't wait to see how, how much better she can go because, yeah, the commentator put it so well. He just said she is without a doubt one of the greatest athletes of all time.

So you don't see, you don't see someone winning the race by that much that often, do you? She's just so far ahead. A second here or there doesn't sound much, but when you put it in context of distance traveled, it's, you know, it's nearly 10 meters and, and to be that far in front at the end of 400 meters seems absurd. But don't forget, the shoes are different. But the shoes are different for everybody in that race. So they're not. The other runners aren't running her times and they're all running with the best shoes. So that's certainly giving her an advantage. She's coping with that well. But, you know, she's still doing the performance that is outstanding.

I guess whichever way you look at it. You know, if you, if you don't want to compare world records, that's fine. Previous eras. But, you know, put her in the. Put her in a 400 meter race and she has to run the hurdles, she'll still come sixth in the world, which is just ridiculous. And again, I'll reiterate that the top three in that race are the top three fastest women ever over 400 meter hurdles. And like you said, she's a second ahead of them. So that is just. Yeah, phenomenal.

I think she did run the 4x4 relay team. I think she was the fastest runner on the in that race.

Fastest leg of the race. Yeah. Thank you very much for listening. We love talking about this stuff and we hope you love hearing it. We love sharing as much news as possible. I think that athletics, cycling, triathlon, because of social media, they're all just getting more and more rap and we absolutely love it. We can't wait to see what the pros can do more. And we really encourage you to keep watching and learning because that's where we get a lot of our best tips and our best methods. And you want to watch what the world's best are doing and model it. So that's our best advice for you. So thanks very much for listening and as always, we'll see you in the next episode.