Triathlon and Hamburg Championship

It was nice to watch the last World Series.  It was FAST AND FURIOUS.  The same winners won except for Vincent Luis who got silver.  Gómez rightly said that Luis did not work on the bike; reason why he was second.  Alistair Brownlee made him work on the bike next day, so Alistair won the relays.  It is just very simple!  Luis has not trained enough to be able to be winning at Olympic distance.  It is not a matter of mileage but also technique.  Luis running does not allow him to run a 10k at high speed; he runs with the heels; his hips are behind his center of gravity; his cadence is kept at a very high energy price.  He runs as an 800 meters runner with a poor technique.

2014 ITU World Triathlon Auckland : Apr 06 2014 : Elite Men : Results

1	Javier	Gomez Noya	ESP		01:54:13	00:17:53	00:00:53	01:04:15	00:00:28	00:30:42
2	Jonathan	Brownlee	GBR		01:54:33	00:17:51	00:00:52	01:04:19	00:00:26	00:31:03
3	Aaron	Royle	AUS		01:55:49	00:18:02	00:00:54	01:04:07	00:00:29	00:32:16
4	Dan	Wilson	AUS		01:55:52	00:18:04	00:00:52	01:04:04	00:00:26	00:32:24
5	Ryan	Bailie	AUS		01:55:59	00:18:03	00:00:54	01:04:05	00:00:27	00:32:27
6	Ryan	Sissons	NZL		01:56:23	00:18:46	00:00:54	01:03:24	00:00:29	00:32:48
7	Vincent	Luis	FRA		01:56:30	00:18:02	00:00:53	01:04:08	00:00:29	00:32:55

At the same time, it was also nice to see Alan Webb doing the relay.  It gives a lot of information for whoever wants to look for talent:

Alan Webb (athlete)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alan Webb
Webb at the KBC Night of Athletics in 2007
Personal information
Nationality	American
Born	13 January 1983 (age 31) Ann Arbor, Michigan
Residence	Portland, Oregon
Height	5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m)
Weight	145 pounds (66 kg)
Sport
Sport	Track
Event(s)	1500 m, One mile
College team	Michigan
Club	Nike Oregon Track Club
Coached by	Jerry Schumacher
Achievements and titles
World finals	2005 1500 m 2007 1500 m
Personal best(s)	800 meters: 1:43.84[1] 1500 meters: 3:30.54[1] Mile: 3:46.91[1] (NR) 3000 meters: 7:39.28[1] 5000 meters: 13:10.86[1] 10,000 meters: 27:34.72[1]

Alan Webb (born January 13, 1983, in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is a former American track and field athlete and current triathlete. He holds the American national record in the mile, with a time of 3:46.91 (min:sec). Webb represented the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men's 1500-meter race. He competed professionally for Nike until the end of the 2013. He retired after the 2014 Millrose Games to focus on training for the triathlon.

  

He possesses the USA record for the mile.  He was supposed to be faster than the triathletes for the distance in the relay competition (1,500 meters run).  Something that did not happened:

2	Jonathan	Brownlee	GBR		00:18:34	00:03:47	00:00:29	00:09:33	00:00:20	00:04:27
4	Alistair	Brownlee	GBR		00:18:41	00:03:56	00:00:30	00:09:32	00:00:19	00:04:25
4	Vincent	Luis	FRA		00:18:46	00:03:53	00:00:28	00:09:37	00:00:20	00:04:29
2	Aaron	Royle	AUS		00:18:53	00:03:52	00:00:30	00:09:39	00:00:20	00:04:33
4	Dmitry	Polyanskiy	RUS		00:19:33	00:03:53	00:00:31	00:10:15	00:00:20	00:04:36

4	Akos	Vanek	HUN		00:19:05	00:03:57	00:00:30	00:09:44	00:00:20	00:04:37
2	Crisanto	Grajales	MEX		00:19:17	00:03:51	00:00:30	00:09:59	00:00:24	00:04:35

2	Alexander	Bryukhankov	RUS		00:19:08	00:03:46	00:00:31	00:09:54	00:00:22	00:04:38
4	Alan	Webb	USA		00:19:27	00:04:04	00:00:28	00:09:57	00:00:21	00:04:39

We have not had athletes like Webb to know more about how to proceed to make Webb a talented triathlete.  Webb was a swimmer before turning a full time runner but never was a cyclist.  It is obvious that his bike leg made him pay a toll on his running.   We had had a program in Mexico where they emphasize swimming and running but at the end they cannot run because of the bike; it is sponsored by the Mexican Federation. Crisanto Grajales was unable to draft after Jonathan Brownlee when he left transition zone just a step in front of Jonny.  Learning to ride the bike takes years to improve power, skills, tactics, etc. and it looks like our Mexican triathletes are not going to be able to increase their power to 370 watts average for a 40k bike ride in their life.  This power is needed to be in the first peloton taking turns at the front.

There were first class swimmers going into triathlon as it was the case of Andy Potts who never ran fast enough to compete with today’s speed.  There were cyclists like Steve Larsen who did ironman but was unable to run after the bike.

Steve is the only American to have ridden the Cycling World Championships in 4 different disciplines (road, mountain bike, track, and cyclo-cross).
1998 NORBA National Cross-Country Mountainbike Champion
2000 NORBA National Cross-Country Mountainbike Champion
2001 4th Place Wildflower Triathlon - 1st American (Bike course record)
2001 1st Place Half-Vineman Triathlon (Course Record)
2001 1st Place Ironman USA (Bike course record)
2002 6th Place Quelle Challenge (Ironman Distance)
2003 6th Place IM New Zealand (New bike course record 4:26)

http://daviswiki.org/Steve_Larsen

It will be interesting to see Webb how far he can go to become a talent in triathlon at 31 years of age.