Not sure if this is hilarious or tragic...

70.3 Worlds...Caster and the BladeRunner...and Contador...

Hi All,

Let's start our weekly recap with last weekend's Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida. Let's just say - it was fast. Very fast. How fast? According to triathlonranking.com, in the 33 70.3 events in 2009, there was one man who broke 3:45 over the 70.3 distance - Marino Van Hoenacker at Antwerp 70.3 (3:41:46). That time would not have earned Van Hoenacker a place in the Top 10 at Clearwater last weekend. Unreal. The winner, Michael Raelert, posted remarkable splits of a 21:58 swim, a 1:59:35 ride, and a ridiculous 69:05 run to win the world title by 2-and-a-half minutes in a record-shattering 3:34:04! Raelert, a relative unknown (he has one Top 10 finish in a 70.3 race this season as he raced mostly non-drafting Olympic distance this season) who might be confused with his older brother Andreas, who was 2nd in last year's 70.3 Worlds before making the huge leap to finish 3rd at Ironman Worlds in Kona this year.


Raelert was not the only surprise in the men's race. It was expected to be a battle between Americans Tim O'Donnell, Greg Bennett, and Matt Reed, but O'Donnell got one of the few drafting penalties on the day and finished 12th. Bennett faded badly and finished outside the Top 30. Last year's winner Terenzo Bozzone didn't have enough run speed after finishing Kona a month ago and finished well back. Matt Reed did have a great race but could only hold on to 3rd. Italian Daniel Fontana was 2nd. Top Canadian was Brent McMahon, but he finished 25th place, over 10 minutes behind Raelert.

The women's race went a little more according to plan, with Julie Dibens underlining her pre-race favorite status by blowing away the field on the bike to take a 4 minute lead into T2. From there, she held on easily to win her second world title in a month (she won Xterra Worlds in October). Her finishing time of 3:59:33 was the first time a woman has broken the 4-hour barrier and left her with a 4 minute victory. Mary Beth Ellis (another ITU veteran) finished 2nd for the second year in a row. In a breakthrough performace, Canada's Magali Tisseyre finished 3rd after a race-best run 1:20:31 run split. She might be the next great Canadian Iron-threat, as she will hopefully follow Sam McGlone into the Ironman distance in the near future. Congrats Magali!




Regardless, Michael Raelert's and Julie Dibens' day were the best among a record-breaking day in Clearwater. 5 men broke the 3:40 barrier (which had never been done before), 14 men biked the 56 miles in less than 2 hours, and 25 men finished the race before 3:45 had passed. It is interesting that we are seeing more and more fast athletes coming up thru the ITU and 70.3 disciplines, and that those times are steadily improving (Brownlee's 29 minute 10K speed comes to mind) but that some of the sport's Ironman records have stood for 15 or 20 years. Mark Allen's run record at Kona has stood since 1988 and the Top 6 men's finishing times at Kona are all at least 13 years old. True, Chrissie Wellington did break the women's course record and Mirinda Carfrae the run record in 2009, but the women's bike record has stood since 1993. Will we see more records broken in the future?

Let's change gears and update you on some of the most famous male and female track athletes. Not Usain Bolt and Yelena Isinbayeva, who might be the most consistent male and female athlete, but Caster Semenya and Oscar Pistorius, both from South Africa. Semenya is famous for winning the Women's 800m at Worlds this summer, then undergoing a public blitzing about her gender identity. It was assumed that once these tests were finished, the IAAF would make some decision about her eligibility for future races, whether she could keep her medal, etc. However, her South Africa Federation announced this week that they had reached agreement with the IAAF that Semenya will keep her gold medal, regardless of the outcomes of her tests, which now will not be known until early 2010. However, there will be no official public announcement about the results of the tests will be made public, as this is will be treated as "a confidential matter between a doctor and a patient". So we might never know the full truth...


Oscar Pistorius also made headlines this week, when a study was released that shows that his carbon-fibre lower legs might make him 10 seconds faster over a 400m race. Ten seconds in a 45 second race is a lot! Anyhow, this is making news since Pistorius did win a court case (in the Court of Arbitration for Sport) in 2008 that "allows" him to compete against able-bodied athletes. This trial stated that "at the moment, not enough is known scientifically to be able to prove that Mr Pistorius obtains an advantage from the use of the prostheses. Consequently, it has cleared him to run". Does this new study change the ruling? A complicating factor is that the scientists/authors who made this "10 seconds faster" claim were actually scientific advisors that helped Pistorius win his court case in 2008. So obviously they have changed their mind, and the future of Pistorius being able to compete is going to have to be re-decided...lots more good editorial content here.


Alberto Contador and Team Astana are staying together. Today, it was announced that Alberto Contador will remain with Astana for the final year of his contract. This had been the cycling hot-stove topic for the past three months, but Contador will stay with Astana if they get their ProTour license approved for 2010. If not, Contador will be free to sign with any ProTour team (he has been linked to almost every team except for RadioShack). However, Friday is only a soft deadline, and it might take some time for all the documents to be signed. It is expected that Astana will do their part, get their license approved, and be ready to defend their Tour title in 2009. We'll see...

In other Contador news, he has signed a $1 million dollar endorsement contract with Specialized bikes for 2010. Does this mean that Astana has signed a deal to ride Specialized too? I guess we'll find out when and if their ProTour license gets approved. This article also mentions the possibility that Ivan Basso might join Contador at Astana next season as well. Interesting...

Worlds 70.3 and Canadian Content

Hi All,

Tomorrow bright and early in Clearwater, Florida, the 70.3 racers have their chance at winning the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. It's an interesting race, short enough for ITU athletes to use their superior speed, while long enough that Ironman pros and non-drafting athletes can use their biking abilities to speed ahead. But in reality, it appears that this event is a precursor to greatness at the Ironman distance. The winners in 2006 were Craig Alexander and Sam McGlone (who both finished 2nd at Kona the next year); in 2007 it was Mirinda Carfrae (2nd at Kona this year) and Andy Potts (twice top 10 in Kona since); in 2008, the top two guys (Terrenzo Bozzone and Andreas Raelert) both made top 11 at Kona. So if history holds, we might be looking at the next up-and-comers to make the jump at Clearwater...

Ok, so who's racing? The entire pro list is pretty lengthy. But a few names do stick out as the favorites..the men's field is loaded. I consider the race to have 3 main favorites: Matt Reed, Tim O'Donnell, and last year's champ Terenzo Bozzone. We might ordinarily discount Bozzone after just finishing Kona about 5 weeks ago, but he has the speed and youth to recover and reload to defend his title. Both Slowtwitch and Triathlete Magazine picked Matt Reed to win, based on his very good season so far. But I think something will go wrong and he'll be unable to stay away for the entire bike ride, leaving the race open to a foot race. And here I'll pick Tim O'Donnell, who has won almost everything this year, and who looks as though he is still peaking (won the ITU Long Distance title in October). I think it's his time to shine, he's 29 and ready to make the next step.

For my long shot special, I like Joe Gambles (from Australia) as a guy ready to fight for the podium with the big names. Other names to watch include Philip Graves (20 years old!)and Fraser Cartmell. Canada has 7 pro men (!) in the field, led by Brent McMahon, who has had a decent season in 2009 (unlike his rock-solid finish to 2008). It started off with a bang when he beat Craig Alexander in April at 70.3 New Orleans, but after an uneventful summer racing ITU, I'm not sure if he's ready to go all out in Clearwater. He's our best shot for a Top 5 finish.

Last year's women's race was a USA three-peat (Joanna Zeiger over Mary Beth Ellis and Becky Lavelle). This year could be a Great Britain three-peat. They have 4 very fast females in the field including Leanda Cave, Julie Dibens, Catriona Morrison, and Jodie Swallow. Dibens and Swallow have won world titles in the past month in Xterra and ITU Long Distance events, while Cave and Morrison are veterans who know how to show up at big events. It will be interesting to watch the British and the American go head to head. Zeiger and Ellis are back again in 2009, joined by very fast Rebaccah Wassner, Sarah Groff, and the veteran Laura Bennett. It should be a nice battle...

Triathlete Magazine likes Dibens-Swallow-Bennett-Zeiger while Slowtwitch likes Dibens-Swallow-Bennett-Groff-Zeiger (yikes, eerily similar). As much as I want to pick against Julie Dibens (who beat Chrissie Wellington at a half-Ironman this summer), I don't think I can. Let's go with Dibens-Bennett (Laura can always run with the best) with Canada's Magali Tisseyre in third. Yep, a complete homer pick but she's fast and might be ready to run herself onto the podium. A couple of dark horses could be Sam Warriner (shows up in big races) and Lucie Zelenkova (another TBB athlete who is really strong swim-bike). And yes, a Great Britain sweep will result in another "The Brits are coming" post...

Whole race is live on Ironman.com Saturday morning!\

And full recap to come next week...check back...

Where will they end up?

Hi All,

I have lots (LOTS!) to get to over the next few days, with lots of triathlon news, running news, etc, so feel free to come back in the next couple, but wanted to try and sort out the biggest story in Pro Cycling (and remarkably, has been since September) and that is the whole Who-will-Alberto-be-riding-with-in-2010?

If you don't know the whole story - here goes. Alberto Contador signed a 3-year contract with Team Astana for the 2008 thru 2010 seasons. Then Astana got blackballed (thank you Alex Vinokourov) for the 2008 Tour, so he just won the Giro and the Vuelta that year. Then Lance comes back in 2009, Alberto and Lance try to play nice, end up sniping thru the summer, Alberto wins the Tour as Lance tries to upstage him, then Lance leaves Astana to start his own team and takes most of the key Astana riders with him. Then Vinokourov comes back from his suspension to rejoin Team Astana (which was essentially created to support him) and Contador wants out. Problem is that he still has a contract and Astana really doesn't want to let him leave. So he's stuck...


The last few months have been full of rumours. At least 5 big ProTour teams have been rumored to be interested in signing Contador if they could work out a deal with him and Team Astana. Once it became apparent that Team Astana was not going to just release him from his contract to save his reported €2 million per year. But Astana insisted he would ride with them for 2010. However, Astana still haven't secured their ProTour license for 2010, which needs to be completed or Contador could walk away and become a very big free agent cyclist.


That is not nearly the end of the story. In the past week, all of these stories have been posted.

1. Last week, it was reported that Contador was re-negotiating a new contract with Astana for upwards of €4 million per year. However, his new contract would contain a provision that if anyone on Astana tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, he would be free to leave the team.

2. Then came news that Astana has offered Contador a new contract for 4 more years, at a reported €8 million per season. Wow. It appears that Astana wants to simply offer Contador more money than anyone else to keep him. This is twice as much money as they offered him in late July on a similar 4-year deal.

3. Contador's brother and manager is now trying to clear up some of the confusion, saying that Alberto would only remain at Astana for one more year at most. Is this a strategy to maximize the amount of money he can get out of Team Astana? Or are they seriously looking at leaving €32 million on the table?

With all these stories, it might be evident that Contador will be riding in the teal of Astana in 2010. Well, maybe not...

A story today suggested that Team Quick Step has offered Contador a €20 million contract over 4 years. So maybe that explains why Astana upped their offer so much. So they are betting that Contador doesn't re-sign with Astana and that they lose their ProTour status in 2010. Very interesting...

Contador is not only the big name still out there...Bradley Wiggins also has a contract for 2010 (with Garmin) but continues to be rumored to be moving to Team Sky (the new British ProTour team). Team Sky was supposed to announce their entire 2010 team at a media event last month, but delayed the event for unknown reasons. Similar to Quick Step, Team Sky is very vocal in their pursuit of Wiggins. Plus the Contador-to-Garmin-if-Wiggins-leaves-Garmin-for-Sky circle has been rumored for months as well.


So while we are about 2 months from the beginning of 2010, we are still waiting for the last few cycling dominoes to fall? It should be all done by the end of November, but we were assuming that it would all be done by the end of September. Once these two cyclists find homes, then we will sort of the rest of the questions for 2010...but let's deal with those later...

More to come this week - including a preview of Ironman 70.3 Worlds...see you soon!

Cadel on the move...

Hi All,

Some late-breaking pro cycling news this weekend concerning our current World Champion Cadel Evans. Normally late-breaking news about a pro cyclist would involve a positive doping violation but not this time...


Cadel Evans surprised a lot of people in the cycling world on Saturday by exercising an out in his contract with Silence-Lotto and deciding to leave the team with whom he has twice finished second and once third in the Tour de France in the past 4 seasons. There had been speculation that Evans was dissatisfied with his team over they years for not surrounding him with strong enough helpers to help his ascent of the TDF podium. Evans had been with Silence-Lotto since 2005, and finally broke thru with the biggest win of his career when he solo'ed away to win the World Championship Road Race in September.

Of course, with a GC rider of Evans stature on the free agent market, the rumor mills were very busy yesterday. Would Evans go to Team Sky to be their leader in 2010? Would he join Vinokourov on Astana? Perhaps Garmin would grab another GC contender? However, the discussion were short-lived when it was announced on Sunday that Evans would be joining BMC Racing Team for 2010 and beyond. This gives BMC - who are making the jump from a continental team to a pro-continental team, a giant extra reason for race directors to invite them to prestigious races in 2010, including Grand Tours like the Tour de France. Evans joins 2008 World Champion Alessandro Ballan and American George Hincapie on BMC in 2010, which has gone from a "Who?" team to a solid race contender with the addition of those 3 racers, plus a couple of other veteran riders.


So in 2010, we will perhaps have 3 more brand new teams in the Tour. We have the Lance-lead Team RadioShack, the mostly British Team Sky, and now Team BMC. It is already shaping up to be a very good 2010.

Of course, Evans' defection does mean that Silence-Lotto will lost out on the chance of having the rainbow jersey on one of their riders in 2010. But perhaps the extra money this frees up could help them attract a certain Spanish rider who still might need a new team in 2010...as always, stay tuned...