5 Takeaways From Today’s T100 Spain
Lucy Charles-Barclay wins T100 Spain. Photo: World Triathlon/ Professional Triathletes Organisation
While those of us who were in Nice last weekend are still doing our best to recover from that huge day of racing, the rest of the triathlon world has no interest in slowing down. Today the Professional Triathletes Organisation held its pro-only event in Oropesa Del Mar, Spain, which saw Great Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay become the first woman to win more than one T100 race this season (following on her big win in London), while Kiwi Hayden Wilde continued his domination of the series with a fourth win … out of four starts.
Hayden Wilde takes T100 Spain. Photo: World Triathlon/ PTO
For those who missed the race and want to catch up, you can watch the entire event here.
For those looking to just take in the highlights, here you go. (And if I haven’t already spoiled the coverage for you by announcing the winners above, I have no idea why each of the featured photos have the runner-up finishers …)
OK, so now that you’re caught up, here are a few of our observations from today’s racing:
Lucy Charles-Barclay Has Nailed Her Kona Prep
The last winner of the women’s IRONMAN World Championship in Kona appears to be on track for another strong day on the Big Island next month. Fresh off a training camp at her stomping grounds in the Canary Islands, the British star chose the T100 race as way to tune up for next month’s big race.
“Yeah that was pretty epic actually, a really nice day out there,” Charles-Barclay told World Triathlon after the race. “From the beginning, it was a pretty smooth swim, pretty calm in the sea. And then, just trying to go hard on the bike, see what happens, and then I felt pretty strong on the run … It was just about holding my game plan together the whole way and knowing that I had a little bit left in the run to make a dig at the end.”
“I had a really solid training camp,” she continued. “I was out at Club La Santa in Lanzarote for the last five weeks. I decided I would rather come and do this race than have a big training weekend at home. There is nothing better than getting a great race stimulus and being out there on the race course.”
Charles-Barclay also appears to be building to top form at just the right time, which certainly won’t hurt on the confidence side of things once she gets to Kona in a few weeks. Of course there’s going to be lots of competition on hand in Kona, and she’s not the only one who appears to be on a good roll leading up to the big day – Kat Matthews looked impressive in winning 70.3 Zell am See at the end of August, and Laura Philipp will arrive in Kona with three wins to her name this year.
What’s most impressive about Charles-Barclay’s build to Kona, though, is her running. She had the day’s fastest run in London, and was only 30 seconds slower than Ashleigh Gentle in Spain.
It’s Probably More Than the Shoes
Hayden Wilde’s season has been remarkable for much more than his impressive four-for-four streak at T100 races. The fact that he is even racing this season seems miraculous considering the injuries he endured after getting hit by a car while riding in Japan in May. He returned to racing at T100 London and took an impressive win, which was followed by yet another dominating performance at T100 Frejus last month.
That race result was marred somewhat by the news that Wilde had raced Frejus wearing the ASICS Metaspeed Ray shoes, which weren’t supposed to be legal until September 11. According to Wilde, wearing the shoes was an “honest mistake” (see the statement below). The new shoe is under the 40 mm stack height limit and doesn’t contain multiple carbon plates, but despite that Wilde did offer to disqualify himself from the Frejus race in an email sent to his fellow competitors, World Triathlon and the PTO.
In the end World Triathlon decided not to take any action around the shoe issue. Here’s a portion of the statement from the governing body:
At the T100 French Riviera event, the Asics Metaspeed Ray was worn in violation of the rules, as the shoe had not been on the market for the required minimum of one month according to the list of World Athletics. In this case, the athlete’s shoes were not specifically checked by the Technical Officials due to an oversight of some of the procedures at the event. As the protest deadlines have passed, World Triathlon is not in a position to open an investigation. (The 7-day deadline in section 6.4 refers to cases opened before, during, or after the competition, but within the protest timelines.)
Section 12.10 of the Competition Rules doesn’t allow the World Triathlon Technical Committee to open a protest procedure regarding “Equipment used by an Athlete”.
World Triathlon and PTO will work closely together in the future to prevent such oversights, especially in relation to non-Field of Play officiating matters.
My guess is that none of the other athletes in the men’s field were clamouring to have Wilde be disqualified after Frejus – his racing this year, and especially earlier today where he was able to run clear of one of the sport’s best (see below), speaks for itself.
That said, as he said he would do in that statement, paying attention to those emails from Asics on when shoes are legal will be important over the next few years, especially as the Olympics near. (And we’ll leave the water-bottle questions to the folds at Pro Tri News.)
Jelle Geens: “I tried but died.” (And More On His Crash)
The reigning 70.3 world champ is nothing but a class act – as his words after the race certainly prove:
“Yeah, like Marten said last week after Nice ‘I tried but died,'” he told World Triathlon. “I had a good swim again, but it stayed very close, everything together. I felt good on the bike, but unfortunately crashed at the start of lap two. When I was laying on the ground I thought that was race over. But, I got myself together and it took a couple of laps to get back to the group.”
He also provided some specifics on the crash, which wasn’t picked up on the live coverage.
“Basically, the second roundabout going on lap two, I got on the back with Hayden, so I had to overtake, but on the roundabout I went too quick and just slid out and hit the deck quite hard,” he said. “My shoe was stuck in my bike and it took me a while to get back up and tie my shoe again. I think I was 40-45 seconds back before I slowly made my way back up to the main group. I think I was there with two laps to go and tried to recover a bit from it and then had a good T2 and really went for it. Then the heat got the better of me and I had to go into survival mode. It’s also the time when you start to feel the crash; it’s all good until the adrenaline dies off and then you start to struggle. The hip hurts, elbow hurts. Anyway, I’m happy I still came second.”
The Belgian was quick to point out that he didn’t feel like he really pushed Wilde too much, but hopes that a good training block over the next few weeks will put him in good stead to be more competitive for the 70.3 worlds in Marbella and then the T100 final in Qatar.
Remember When We Used to Joke About the Lack of Penalties at PTO Races?
I am sure I’m not the only one who recalls lots of races where we’d see a line of red RaceRanger lights on the back of bikes at T100 races and wonder what on earth was going on? The new rule of a one-minute penalty for a first draft offence (announced in April) is no-doubt helping on that front, but the bottom line is that drafting penalties are far from rare at T100 races these days.
Today Jess Learmonth (GBR) was reportedly quite vocal in her disdain for her call, but despite serving the one-minute penalty she was able to bounce back and round out the podium in the women’s race – which meant we saw a all-British podium.
“It was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster to be honest, I was absolutely fuming about that penalty,” Learmonth told World Triathlon after the race. “I kept thinking about it and I was like ‘Oh my god, I was so moody,’ but honestly I was so confused. Anyway, never mind. I’m so glad I came third and it’s not like I lost anything from it.”
The other two drafting penalties handed out were to German uber-cyclist Rico Bogen and Kiwi Kyle Smith. Despite the penalty, Bogen would end up with the day’s fastest bike split (1:46:10, nine seconds faster than Wilde), while Smith would end up as a DNF.
According to World Triathlon, the head referee, Spain’s Monica Zubillaga, had made it clear at the pre-race meeting that “no warnings would be issued to athletes considered to be drafting.”
Jonas Schomburg’s Guide to T100 Tapering
Jonas Schomburg on the run at the IRONMAN World Championship Nice. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
Since I named the first- and second-place finishers in my intro (and third for the women in the last point), I might as well finish up by letting you know who finished third in the men’s race. After taking sixth in Nice last weekend, Germany’s Jonas Schomburg managed an incredible podium finish against the speedy T100 field on hand in Spain.
“I’m super tired, six days after IRONMAN racing here with the top guys,” the German told World Triathlon after the race. “I’m super stoked with the result. I had no expectations coming here, basically just the whole week nothing, just resting and try to recover from Nice last week. Coming here with a podium – even better. I did a 5 minute swim and a 10 minute jog. That’s it, basically. I tried to sleep as much as possible. Eating, sleeping, resting. It kind of worked. The swim, I had a good position and tried to play defense all day not pushing against my odds.”
“Good position” is a bit of an understatement when it comes to describing his swim – Schomburg led out of the water. He remained in the mix on the bike, then managed the day’s fifth-fastest run to take third, just over three minutes behind Wilde. While 15 minutes of training during race week probably won’t be his normal taper from here on in, it certainly worked this weekend.
It didnt have to be this way… but T100 and Hayden brought it up… We were ready to let it go! Glad its compliant now…
what about the shoes? haven’t seen any comment from t100. Did they accept Haydens self DQ or not?
We reached out for statements from t100 and World Triathlon and they have declined to comment
So T100 trying to make Hayden vs anyone questioning their enforcement of the rules the new Sam vs Sam. Interesting direction to go.
“We were ready to let it go!”
LOL this doesn’t quite work with your next statement:
“We reached out for statements from t100 and World Triathlon and they have declined to comment”
It’s a bad look for world Tri and t 100.
“We were ready to let it go!” was related to the bottle cages
“We reached out for statements from t100 and World Triathlon and they have declined to comment” - was related to the shoes
So two different things.
Anyway “for all the haters out there” is just lame and pathetic
BUT in the microvideo Wilde is using an incorrect reference point for the front edge of the 25cm template.
The reference point the lowest (under the elbow point) part of the arm rest, not the rear ‘edge’. Otherwise one could just extend the armrest a few cm to get the ‘extra’ distance for a bottle.
So even this new Canyon aero bottle position, with the cut out after Frejus and in time for Oropesa del Mar, may be illegal Would need informed visual inspection rather than from video images.
Danger of knocking bottle off when in BTA position is a fair shout. In which case why not leave the bottle on the down tube: access is not improved when lifted, upside down, BTA.
WT Interpretation doc: “When measured from the lowest edge of the arm support (if none exists, the lowest edge of the athlete’s elbow in the rider’s intended aero position)” Image below is from the ‘hydration/fairings’ thread hopefully illustrating the correct reference point.
Yeah,the old Kafka Trap argument. A very common way to try to throw your “opposition” off balance in a discussion.Accuse people of being haters,making them try to defend an unprovable accusation instead if the actual issue being discussed.
Happens here on ST all the time.
Why is T100 marketing so cringe?
back on topic… Endurance Picks
It’s how you get clicks…
Actual wording is “When measured from the lowest edge of the arm support (if none exists, the lowest edge of the athlete’s elbow in the rider’s intended aero position)”
The lowest edge of the arm support is what Hayden pushes it against in my interpretation.
It probably should always be the lowest point of the elbow (to avoid extending the arm supports backwards like you say) but that is not the current wording. Presume they chose the lowest edge to make it easier to check.
Yep. Without visual inspection I cannot tell from the images whether Wilde’s armrest curls up slightly* (most do, including the Canyon cockpit I’ve checked) or whether it carries on down, thus making the rear edge also “the lowest edge”. Other athletes at the sharp end have been careful (and made effort) to ensure their set ups are clearly within the rules. Worth noting that this interpretation is a World Tri doc and no IRONMAN rules refer to it. But Wilde is subject to WT Rules for ‘all’ his draft illegal races.
Dragging this across for the image:
From the T100 preview video:
This is the reference point as defined not the rearmost edge of the armrest (obv imho):
at 7:05
The top bottle cage with a one litre bottle fitted (which is the implementation criterion) is also illegally positioned, or on the limit (depends on reference point choice).