The Tri Town Times: 12/7/20

Posted on 7 December 2020
By Antonio Gonzalez
Posted in the tri town times
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Challenge Daytona race report; Inigo San Millan interview; Vincent Luis interview.

Weekend Race Report:

With most of the triathlon world watching, Challenge Daytona lived up to the hype. The "just shy of a half ironman" distance event saw most of the world's top professional triathletes compete for a $1.15 million prize purse evenly distributed between the women and men. 2019 champion Paula Findlay lead the women's field most of the day, and held off 2019 Ironman Hawaii champion Anne Haug for the win. In one of the most competitive men's fields even assembled, 70.3 World Champion Gustav Iden took the lead mid way through the run and never looked back. You can watch the final 5 minutes of both races here.

This race was important for the sport of triathlon in few ways:

- Established a Challenge Family race as one of the most important races on the USA triathlon calendar.

- Highlighted the ability of the Professional Triathlon Organization to build hype and draw the best triathletes to their championship event.

- Athletes from all disciplines of triathlon competed against each other from spring and olympic to half and full distance specialists.

- And athletes from each category represented well: the race was not dominated by athletes from any one speciality.

- The substantial prize purse (for triathlon) paid 60 deep (as opposed to 5-10 deep for Ironman events)

- This maintains a high level of racing across the competitive field- the racing further back in the field was in many ways more exciting than the racing at the front of the field.

Event's I'm Looking Forward To:

- The UCI Esports World Championships is December 9th. This is the first time a world championship jersey will be on the line for a virtual cycling event, and the world's best cyclists will compete on Zwift for the title. A detailed explanation of the event can be found here.

- There's not much racing going on right now, but we can support our local YMCA by signing up for the Virtual Christmas Run.

Training Thoughts and Updates:

IMHO, Mikael Eriksson has the best podcast in triathlon right now. His interview with scientist and top cycling coach Inigo San Millan is an excellent refresher on the value of performance testing and how to use the results from these tests to make informed training decisions.

Gear That Caught My Attention:

If someone shows up to a local group ride with this cockpit, you know he/she means business.

Quote that Struck a Chord:

A series of insights on discipline from entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker Jim Rohn (who grew up in Caldwell, Idaho):

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment."
"Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day."
"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."

If You Have a Moment To Spare:

One of the athletes I was most excited to watch at Daytona was Super League Triathlon star Vincent Luis. Vincent ultimately served a 2min drafting penalty, and many athletes would have written the race off after such a setback in a field that competitive. Instead, Vincent ran himself into 8th place, just 2min15sec behind Gustav Iden. Before the race, Vincent gave a thoughtful interview with Bob Babbit that highlights why I believe he is one of the most exciting athletes in the triathlon world right now.

Have a great week!

Antonio Gonzalez

Tri Town Bicycles

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