Kevin: Ryan, in addition to your thoughts, let’s bring Eric Wynn into the discussion, too – I think he has some very strong feelings on this subject.

I’m not sure if we need to have any specific parameters for this topic, other than it should be endurance sport oriented, and available in 2024. I don’t think said product necessarily needs to have been released in 2024, that way we can take into consideration products that might have been launched in 2023, but weren’t widely available until last year. 

Ryan: I think that makes sense – if a product “launched” in 2023 but was largely unavailable to the general public until 2024, I think that fits our criteria.

Kevin: To get started, here are a few products that caught my attention in 2024 that I would happily throw into the mix: 

There were a few bike launches that caught my attention last year. Cervelo’s new P5 is a great ride, and innovative in a particularly “Cervelo way” – the big changes were around comfort and adjustability. The new P-Series was probably more of a breakthrough – it really is all the bike most triathletes could ever need for a lot less money. In that vein, Argon 18’s new E117 was another mid-range bike that offered a ton of high-end features. You can add Factor’s new Slick and Van Rysel’s new XCR to that “lot of bike for the money” group. My guess is that none of these will fit the bill as our award winner – the bike world seems to move in such tiny increments these days. 

One product that was released in 2023 that remained almost impossible to find for much of 2024 was Profile Design’s 43 ASC Carbon Extensions. (The company added the 52 ASC last year that offers an “increased grip angle.”) For $300 you got the extra support and aero features seen in bars with a much, much higher price tag, which is no-doubt why they were in such demand. A more affordable way to get into the world of the aero-cockpit was hugely appreciated by many in the sport.

On the electronics front, there’s been a lot going on over the last few years. The Apple Watch Ultra has been a game changer for many, allowing serious triathletes to track their training with a smartwatch that does all they want on that front. There were no changes to the Ultra last year, but the new Apple Watch Series 10 offers almost all the same features for half the price, making it a viable option for triathletes who aren’t gearing up for a full-distance race. I haven’t had a chance to play with Garmin’s Fenix 8, but that AMOLED screen with decent battery life sure looks good.

I’ve purposely left out a few categories here, knowing full well that you’ll have some running shoe options to throw out, Ryan. Eric, I’ll let you throw your two-cents in, too!

Eric: I think the most important product of the year is FORM Swim 2.0.

As triathletes, what do we struggle with the most? Outside of the overall price tag of the sport of triathlon, it’s the swim. The swim is by far the biggest hurdle of the three disciplines we have when it comes to getting and keeping athletes in the sport. It’s the least natural thing for the masses to wrap their heads around. And it takes the most consistent effort to become and stay efficient in. It’s the biggest problem we see when it comes to safety in the sport.

What I love about the FORM goggles is that it’s the first product to truly help the newbie be able to manage some of the biggest hurdles they face in a consistent way without costing a lot of money. Some examples: 

#1 Measure stress and effort.

With heart rate and stroke count visible in the goggle display, athletes can now focus on effort at the start and during a race and for the first time really doing a race like they have trained. For years we have been able to do this on the bike and run. And it’s one of the main reasons why athletes are getting so much faster. They know what is going on with their body and they can match that effort on race day and know what limits they can push. Up until FORM came out, measuring that in the water just wasn’t really available to the masses in the way FORM has presented it, with a visual display for athletes to be able to calm themselves as they measure true effort within the swim. 

#2 Directional help aka swimming straight.

I’m sorry, but I don’t care who you are. You don’t always swim straight. We have seen everyone get lost or mess up a line on a swim at some point. Does that mean this device will make you perfect? No, but it will make your swim path better at a much less expended effort (AKA a lot less sighting required.) If I’m the average swimmer I can spend way less time focusing on lifting my head out of the water and focusing on stroke, heart rate and breathing. 

The masses worry about the swim the most. Race directors worry about the swim the most. Insurance companies care about the swim the most. FORM 2.0 is the biggest and most influential product in my opinion for 2024.

Ryan: Eric raises some really good points on the FORM 2.0, especially with the integration for open-water sighting.

That said, I think most innovation and impact happened in the run space over the past year. For me, it comes down to three potential products.

I’ll get the two running shoes out of the way first. I think ASICS and the MetaSpeed Sky Paris has done something that no other shoe has been able to do, which is supplant Nike as the shoe of choice for non-sponsored athletes. Having done a fair amount of testing in that shoe last year in my build-up to Lake Placid, it is shockingly quick for someone with a longer stride length. As I build back up into my running, that’s probably my default choice for a racing shoe. It’s everything you could want in a carbon racing shoe, and it’s selling extremely well.

The other shoe innovation comes from On, and it’s the Cloudboom Strike LS (seen above on Paula Findlay at 70.3 Worlds). Although the midsole and outsole construction are shared with the standard Strike, it’s the upper that sees all the innovation. It’s a single thread of filament, 1500 meters long, spun by a robot to turn it into a mesh-like upper. It’s both significantly lighter than a standard shoe upper, and it reduces carbon emissions during the build by 75% versus a standard upper. Considering the environmental impacts of our sport, generally, any kind of cut during product construction should be seen as a boon.

But I would argue that the greatest innovation came for indoor training, and that’s Wahoo’s KICKR Run treadmill. You first have the run free mode, where the treadmill senses your pace and adjusts the belt accordingly. No more playing around with the speed toggle for interval training; it’s just done. But then there’s the smart connectivity – whether it’s in Wahoo’s own ecosystem, Zwift, or others, the treadmill can be fully controlled for terrain or intervals. It brings the gamification benefit of indoor training apps to running, which has always been what hampers indoor run training.

In my opinion, being able to really unlock the gamification of indoor running for the millions of indoor training users is the biggest innovation of the year.

Voting is now open at the forum thread for this article.

The post 2024 Slowtwitch Awards: Product of the Year first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Ryan: Alright, Kevin – let’s look at who had outstanding season’s for women. I suppose we should really start this with Cassandre Beaugrand, right? Ran the table for the World Triathlon Championship Series events she raced, plus the Olympic gold.

Kevin: Yep, I think this conversation pretty much starts and finishes with Cassandre. Olympic champ, world champ, won on the biggest stages when it mattered most. (And, as I am sure you’re sick of hearing me say … won gold despite the pressure of an entire country on her shoulders.)  

Ryan: I think we can make a realistic case for Beth Potter. She won the e-Tri World Championship in February and then finished no worse than third in any other World Triathlon race she participated in during 2024. That includes dueling bronze medals in Paris for the individual and mixed team relay events, and then a second place at the Grand Final.

Add it all up and World Triathlon has Potter ranked number one, not Beaugrand. Couple it with her contributions to the mixed team relay rankings (second in the world, versus France in eighth), and you could say, just based on those rankings, Potter deserves the title.

But I also think it’s really hard to overlook the dual crowns Beaugrand took in 2024. If it was just the Olympic Games victory, you could maybe write that off as a one-off. But earning both that and the WTCS title in the same year? And she’s not the world number one right now? That tells me World Triathlon has some work to do on their points system.

Kevin: Yeah, hard to imagine how you possibly put Potter ahead in our Triathlete of the Year ranking. I think the World Triathlon Points system takes into account results from the previous year, too, which is why Potter remains at the top, but when you look at 2024, there really wasn’t any way you could say she was better than Beaugrand. Sure, she won the E World Triathlon Championship in London, but after that it was all Cassandre (almost) all the time. As much as I applaud Potter’s incredible journey from Olympic 10,000 m runner in 2016 to Olympic bronze-medal triathlete, when it comes to Triathlete of the Year voting, she just didn’t have the results.

Beaugrand’s season was so good that it even negates bringing up Georgia Taylor-Brown’s third straight supertri title – she took that after finishing fourth in the final race in NEOM which was won by … Cassandre Beaugrand.

Does this one even require a vote?

Ryan: For the sake of argument, let’s talk Taylor-Brown (and supertri) for a minute, as it’s definitely relevant. She won three of four their races before heading to the final in Neom. She beat Beaugrand head to head three times in a row. And was a critical component of that GB bronze medal in mixed team relay. She was arguably just as dominant at supertri as Beaugrand was at WTCS racing.

But that’s just the respective series crowns. And Beaugrand still won Olympic gold on top of that.

Kevin: Totally happy to have that argument, for sure. Although, I now find it interesting that the mixed relay suddenly factors into your voting process when it didn’t with the overall Triathlete of the Year conversation!

Ryan: Don’t you start bringing logic into the conversation.

Kevin: OK, I’ll give you that …  

OK, back to the supertri/ Taylor-Brown argument … I had a great interview with Beaugrand before the Boston supertri event, and she basically said she was just happy to have made it there after the insane few weeks she’d had since the Olympics. She knew she wasn’t going to be truly competitive, but still hung in for eighth that day. A week later she was second in Chicago and finished second to Taylor-Brown again in London and Toulouse. Then she took the win in NEOM where Taylor-Brown was fourth. So it’s not as though Beaugrand wasn’t competitive on the supertri front. 

There’s also the format question. To me it’s like the clay court tennis swing, where some athletes really excel on that surface, but aren’t always in the mix to be considered the top athlete of the year. (I won’t stir things up by asking anyone here to weigh in on which is more important, Wimbledon or the French Open …) Supertri is definitely a unique format that suits Taylor-Brown perfectly. Until that format appears at the Olympics, though, I think I’d prefer to have enjoyed Cassandre Beaugrand’s season over GTB’s.

As with Potter, that’s not to take anything away from Taylor-Brown and her incredible journey back to the top echelons of the sport, but I just can’t see an argument for putting her at the top of the list. 

So, in the end, I think this one is pretty simple – Olympic gold and a world championship makes this one a pretty easy pick! 

Ryan: Agreed!

Kevin: Cassandre Beaugrand is our women’s Short Course Athlete of the Year.  

The post 2024 Slowtwitch Awards: Women’s Short Course Athlete of the Year first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

As a reminder, voting is still ongoing for the women’s ballot.

Ryan: We had a good spirited debate on the women’s nominations for this award. Let’s turn it over to the men. Who’s on your short list?

Kevin: Well, this should be fun. I am sure you will be shocked that I would put Patrick Lange on the list – while his year wasn’t super-consistent, he came through on the biggest stage in record-setting style. While he ended up short on the IRONMAN Pro Series title, he still finished second in that. As I mentioned earlier with the women – being an IRONMAN world champion in Germany is huge (yes, I know he lives in Austria, but that won’t affect anything on the sponsorship or appearance front). Taking a third Kona title puts him in some pretty rare company, and 7:35:53 … well, that just takes it all to another level, too. 

While I feel Magnus Ditlev deserves mention for his Roth performance and general consistency through the year, I really don’t think he can factor into the discussion as he didn’t get a world title or contend for the top of the podium in either the T100 standings of the IRONMAN Pro Series. 

I think you have to put Marten Van Riel in the equation (especially since we’ve decided T100 distance is “long”) – the guy won three T100 races and finished second in the other one he competed in. He also managed a seventh-place finish in Cozumel despite having to wait to file a police report after his accident. 

And then there is Jelle Geens. He ticks off the box of having won a world championship (Taupo) and was the only person to beat Van Riel in a T100 race this year (Lake Las Vegas). He was consistent in his other 70.3 appearances – second in Zell am See, third in Tallinn and fourth in Oceanside – and also managed another Olympic appearance (his third) before truly turning his sights to the long-distance stuff. 

Is there anyone you think I’m missing, Ryan?

Ryan: I think you have to put Gregory Barnaby in the discussion given the reasoning you have for eliminating Ditlev; winning the IM Pro Series has to count for something. Again, dueling top 10s at the two IRONMAN World Championships, plus three podiums on the year, counts for something.

But I also would put more weight on Ditlev’s season than you did, Kevin. Although he didn’t wind up contending in the season standings, it’s not like his results at T100 were lackluster. In four races he took a win, two fourths, and then an eighth at the finale – which came just a few weeks after his second place in Kona. 

This is probably controversial, but I think we might have to look at eliminating Lange from this. Yes, he’s the reigning IRONMAN World Champion. Yes, he also won IRONMAN Texas this year. But his 70.3 performances were abysmal by comparison. And I think we have to wind up giving more credit to athletes who are able to excel across the spectrum of what we’re calling long course. (No matter how important winning a world title is in Germany.) That logic also tends toward us eliminating Geens, despite the 70.3 world title.

So for me, this becomes a discussion of Van Riel, Ditlev, and Barnaby. Obviously Ditlev and Barnaby were both more successful at the full distance this year than Van Riel was. Van Riel’s got the world title in his pocket. Barnaby’s consistency got him a $200,000 bonus. And Ditlev was really strong at the two biggest full distance events in the world and had a solid run of T100 races.

I feel like now we have to get very nitpicky, Kevin.

Kevin: I hear you. And I agree that Gregory should be added to the mix, for sure. While I believe that we need to acknowledge his season, it seems crazy to me that we’d give him the Athlete of the Year award over guys who beat him at all the major races. The IRONMAN Pro Series rewards consistency, but are we ready to give the award to someone who was sixth at the IRONMAN World Championship and ninth at the 70.3 worlds? 

I would be happy to leave Magnus in the discussion, too, but remain reluctant to leave Patrick out of the equation. Maybe it’s the era I come from. Back when I was racing, Dave Scott won Kona more times than he didn’t, and often didn’t perform super-well at other races through the season. There was a reason his nickname was “The Man,” though – that ability to come through on the one day that really counted amounted to a lot. Patrick did that in style this year – his win didn’t just net him a world title, it put him in some very special company as one of the all-time Kona greats. The list of three-time Kona champs? Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Peter Reid, Craig Alexander, Jan Frodeno and now Patrick Lange. That, to me, is worth acknowledging.

Ryan: Here’s the thing I struggle with on Lange: yes, he won Kona. And he wound up earning the win in Texas, albeit a few months after the fact due to Tomas Rodriguez-Hernandez’s anti-doping sanction. But his record at 70.3 this year was atrocious – his best showing of the year was 16th place at Oceanside, more than 15 minutes behind winner Lionel Sanders. (Yes, forum readers, we’ve officially hit our Lionel quota for an article on men’s racing.)

And yes, to me, “of the year” by definition means we are looking at the entirety of the season, not just one race or performance. Just like a win in Kona or Nice or Roth carries a heavy weight, not being in the mix at another distance (or for a bunch of the year) should also carry a lot of weight. To me, Lange was so far behind in 70.3 events this year that it pulls the value of his two IM wins down.

Perhaps this all puts Ditlev’s season into further perspective – he was competitive every time he started, won the largest full distance race not named IRONMAN World Championships, and took second at IM Worlds (in the fifth fastest time ever in Kona). For as much as I like Barnaby, and that IM Pro Series consistency paid off in a healthy paycheck, I think Ditlev’s year probably outweighs it.

So to me it’s a Ditlev vs. Van Riel conversation. Ditlev was more successful at long course, and competitive at T100. Van Riel was near untouchable at T100 with a well deserved world title, and was on track for an excellent finish in Cozumel until that unfortunate collision. Results are results, though…

But I think we should put it to our readers at this point.

The post 2024 Slowtwitch Awards: Men’s Long Course Athlete of the Year first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Note that there is no double-dipping at this. With Taylor Knibb winning the voting for Triathlete of the Year, she is ineligible for this award.

Ryan: First, Kevin, I think we probably need to set some parameters as to how we define Long Course, because I’m sure that will ruffle a few feathers.

Kevin: You think? While I don’t necessarily agree with this, I think the PTO has pushed us into a world where T100 and up is now considered long distance. (Which, I note, is hilarious for an organization that was started to help full-distance IRONMAN athletes make more of a living – but that’s fodder for a completely different story or even a podcast!)

Ryan: Yeah. It comes down to thinking that there’s no need to divide up and have a 70.3/T100 distance award – and with World Triathlon dubbing T100 “long course,” we’ll follow along.

Going into the potential nominees, I still think the same case can be made for Kat Matthews that I made for her Triathlete of the Year nomination. Nobody raced more, and across more distances, than she did, and made an absolute killing in bonuses from the IRONMAN Pro Series victory and finishing 4th in the T100 standings. But I think there’s strong arguments for the two women who beat her on some of the larger stages: Ashleigh Gentle and Laura Philipp.

Gentle’s year was similar to that of Matthews; she raced 7 times and was on the podium for 5 of them. Head-to-head, Gentle and Matthews raced 5 times together, with Gentle coming out ahead 3 out of 5 times, including at the T100 Grand Final in Dubai. And although it doesn’t count for the purposes of this award, Gentle also extended her unbelievable win streak in Noosa.

As for Philipp: obviously, she emerged over Matthews in that duel at the IRONMAN World Championships in Nice to take her first world title. She also had her strong second place in Roth. When you race nine times in a year, and your worst finishing position is 7th, that’s an awfully strong campaign. 

For me this comes down to Matthews and Philipp, and it’s not too dissimilar from the point I was trying to make for Triathlete of the Year: I think it’s important that you show the versatility of being able to race both T100/70.3 distance and 140.6. And that’s something that Gentle just has not done.

Kevin: For sure Kat needs to be considered the front-runner on this one. Some notes, though. There was one athlete who actually raced more than Kat last year – I did a profile on Els Visser yesterday. (I did note right off the bat in that piece that she wasn’t likely to be in the running for any Triathlete of the Year awards, but did enjoy a pretty spectacular season.) There’s another name I would add to the discussion – Anne Haug. If you asked me in July who was going to be the Triathlete of the Year, I would have been willing to bet it would be her. I was in Lanzarote when she broke Paula Newby Fraser’s long-standing course record, and wished I had made it to Roth to watch that otherworldly 8:02:38 performance. I truly couldn’t see any way she wasn’t going to win Nice at that point – I hope my beliefs didn’t jinx her.

Unfortunately, as amazing as those two performances were, the rest of the season wasn’t Triathlete of the Year worthy. (Yes, I am also asking myself why I even went down that road, but it just seemed weird not to have any mention of Haug in this mix!)

I agree on your Ashleigh Gentle points, Ryan. I don’t think she ends up ahead of either Kat or Laura based on her mostly T100, with a touch of 70.3 and a dash of Olympic-distance (Noosa) race season.  

Which leaves us with the Kat / Laura debate for this one. I do believe there is an argument for giving Laura Philipp the award here. As you pointed out, her two “worst” performances were the pair of seventh-place finishes at T100 Lake Las Vegas and T100 Dubai, both of which came after her incredible day in Nice. It’s impressive to me she even made it to those races. People in North America have no idea how big a deal it is to be an IRONMAN world champion over in Germany. The sponsor and media requirements for her after winning Nice must have been nuts. 

Philipp’s year was truly focussed on Nice, too. After the race she told me that she’d had it in her head that the race in Nice was her best shot at a world title from the day IRONMAN announced they would be heading there. So, I guess it comes down to what people think is most important when it comes to picking a Triathlete of the Year. Consistency? Being able to take the world title? A combination of the two?

Happy to hear any arguments, or simply send this to a vote!

Ryan: I think this one is awfully close. In my opinion, you have to give some additional weight to performing at both IRONMAN world championship races (and, for that matter, Dubai as well). But I suppose we can send it to a vote.

The post 2024 Slowtwitch Awards: Women’s Long Course Athlete of the Year first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

First up is the big prize: Triathlete of the Year.

Kevin: Well this one is easy. She won the T100 Triathlon World Tour. She took her third straight 70.3 world championship. She also put together an incredible sprint to get the Americans the silver medal in the mixed relay at the Olympics. (There were a bunch of other T100 wins, Oceanside 70.3 and the national TT championship, too.) On the “long-distance” triathlon front – I am anticipating we’ll have a good ol’ debate about that, too – she was unbeaten this year. I really can’t imagine how this can go to anyone other than Taylor Knibb.  

Ryan: I can go different than Taylor Knibb!

When I think of Triathlete of the Year, I think of remarkable consistency across the entirety of the year, regardless of what they were racing. Don’t get me wrong: Knibb’s run of success is remarkable. She’s unbeatable at 70.3/T100. But her individual results at Olympic distance events was lacking, outside of a single second place early in the year: 19th in Paris, 11th in Caligari, her last two races at that distance. I also don’t put too much stock in Mixed Team Relay results, especially when you had the early race collision between New Zealand and France.

So in my mind there’s another woman that comes to mind: Kat Matthews. Ten long course races in her year. Of her nine finishes, eight of them were fifth or better. Two wins and four seconds mark highlights, including her incredible dual silvers at IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. She managed to satisfy both T100 and IRONMAN Pro Series requirements, earning $275,000 in year end bonuses (on top of the prize money from her other finishes). 

So I think it really just comes down to how you define your parameters, Kevin.

Kevin: I 100 percent hear you that Kat’s year was incredible. I certainly acknowledged that in the story I did on her IRONMAN Pro Series win last week. I even acknowledged how impressive the year was considering the adversity she faced – torn calf in Miami, DQ in Hamburg. 

In terms of my parameters, normally a season like hers would get my vote. For me, though, the head-to-head competition has to be a factor when you’re handing out the “triathlete of the year.” Yes, Kat got to within 1:15 of Taylor in Taupo, but at no point was Taylor ever threatened in that race – you certainly got the feeling there was another gear there if it was needed. I won’t count the difference in any of the T100 fall races because Kat was still recovering from Nice, but you look back at T100 San Francisco and the gap was pretty close to four minutes. 

The other factor, for me, comes from Kat herself. At the post-race press conference in Taupo, she (and the rest of the women in attendance) acknowledged that Taylor was in a different league this year. Yes, I know they’re likely being professional and respectful (Kat Matthews, Ashleigh Gentle, Imogen Simmonds and Julie Derron are all class acts), but they all made it pretty clear that Taylor was a step above them over the half distance this year.

And I might be a bit biased since I was there watching the Paris Games, but it is really hard to discount Taylor’s performance there. Bouncing back from a brutal time in the Time Trial, and a tough day in the individual, she found another level to get the US up a spot on the podium. I get that France should have dominated that day, but that’s racing. You can only compete with the people who are there.

Back when I used to do this for Triathlon Magazine, one of our criteria for Triathlete of the Year was that the athlete had to have won a world championship or major event (Olympics) to be considered. Part of the logic for that idea was we wanted to celebrate an athlete who “rose to the occasion” – was able to come through on the big day. I feel like Kat even got that – in Taupo there was no thought of “playing it safe” to ensure she took the IRONMAN Pro Series – she was going for the win, plain and simple.

Ryan: I hate the logic that you must have won a world title for consideration for this. You don’t vote for the year-end most valuable player in other sports based on their performance in the playoffs or a series (there’s usually one specifically for those events). It’s off of what they did in the entirety of the year.

Knibb would be my immediate pick for another award that we have coming. Her dominance is undeniable at 70.3 right now. But by that logic of having won a world title, I think we’d then throw Cassandre Beaugrand into the mix for Triathlete of the Year. To take Olympic and WTCS gold in the same year, IMO, is a bigger deal than Knibb’s display at 70.3/T100. She swept WTCS events. She finished second at eSports worlds. And that dominating display on home soil for gold is something else.

Ultimately, though, that’s why I think Matthews winds up the pick; she didn’t just do it at one distance. She does it at 70.3/T100 and at full iron-distance events. From the hilliest of course in Nice to pancake flat ones in Texas, she’s at the front of the field.

This might need to come down to some run-off voting.

Kevin: I totally see where you are coming from, and we argued long and hard over that criteria. In the end, though, we were looking to acknowledge the people who came up big at the major events. It’s funny that you mentioned Cassandre Beaugrand – I was going to suggest that if there was anyone who could arguably win the award not named Taylor Knibb, it would be her. To have won the Olympics in front of a home crowd was an incredible performance – I can’t imagine the pressure she was dealing with. She followed that up with her first world title, showing the consistency required of a world champion by winning the Grand Final to go along with WTCS wins in Cagliari and Hamburg. 

I do feel that there needs to be a level of consistency throughout the year to win the award. Taylor won middle-distance races from April to December – remember, she was unbeaten on that front all year. Cassandre’s only two “losses” in the World Triathlon realm this year came in March, a second at the Europe Triathlon Cup Quarteira, and April, a second at the E World Triathlon Championships in London. That’s why I would happily argue that either Taylor or Cassandre take the award over, say, Patrick Lange. While I would happily give Patrick the “performance of the year” for his incredible race in Kona, he wasn’t nearly as strong through the rest of 2024. I don’t think Patrick will be too worried about that, though – my guess is that even though he wasn’t as consistent, he’ll happily take his Kona win over Gregory Barnaby’s IRONMAN Pro Series title.

While I am not crazy about the coin flip idea, I am more than happy to let this be decided by votes – maybe through the forum?

Since I am the newbie editor here, I will leave that up to you, Ryan!

Ryan: I think that’s a very fair way of doing this.

Alright, Slowtwitchers: it’s now your choice. You can vote now in the forum thread for this article between our final three nominees.

The post 2024 Slowtwitch Awards: Triathlete of the Year first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

After not being worn at all in the women’s top 10, Nike makes appearances again in the shoe count with both sponsored and unsponsored athletes, also with four. On took the other two spots in the top 10, including by your 70.3 World Champion, Jelle Geens.

Here’s what the speedy runners wore, with photos courtesy of our own Kevin Mackinnon.

1.) Jelle Geens – 70.3 World Champion – 1:07:34

Shoe: On Cloudboom Strike

Geens, who chased down Wilde, used On’s carbon racer to do so. The various mixes of foam and carbon plating have proven to grow more popular with professionals, especially as they appear to be increasing their sponsorship opportunities.

2.) Hayden Wilde – 1:09:05

Shoe: Nike AlphaFly 3

Wilde came tantalizingly close to another top step on the global stage. Nike’s third generation AlphaFly has seen the shoe grow in platform stability, and amongst triathletes, has almost completely eliminated the VaporFly from the equation.

3.) Jason West – 1:09:52

Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Edge Paris

West used the latest generation MetaSpeed Edge, the Paris edition, on his way to the third fastest run split, and the only other man to run under 70 minutes. The Edge is meant for athletes who gain speed from increased cadence versus longer stride length.

4.) Matt Hanson – 1:10:17

Shoe: On Cloudboom Strike

Hanson appears on the fast run list for yet another race, as it’s long been his bread and butter. Hanson, one of the original On sponsored athletes, also wore the Cloudboom Strike.

5.) Léo Bergère – 1:10:28

Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Edge Paris

Bergère swapped into the Edge Paris somewhat recently. It (and the Brad Williams inspired bucket hat look) served him well. Perhaps somewhat surprising is the prevalence of the Edge to the longer-stride intended Sky models amongst the men.

6.) Ari Klau – 1:10:39

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A post shared by Ari Klau (@archmdz)

Shoe: Nike AlphaFly 3

Klau finished well down the order on the day, but he showed off that his collegiate and professional running background still might make him dangerous down the line. Perhaps in a throwback to his Virginia days, he wore Nike’s AlphaFly (UVA is a Nike school for track and field.)

7.) Harry Palmer – 1:11:25

Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Sky+

Palmer had a phenomenal 70.3 Worlds, finishing in eighth place. He was the only of ASICS shoe wearers to not have one of the Paris models on his feet, opting for the MetaSpeed Sky+. It’s ever so slightly heavier than the Paris counterpart, but otherwise, it is much the same shoe.

8.) Colin Szuch – 1:11:31

Shoe: Nike AlphaFly 3

Szuch finished outside of the money in 19th place, although if he had a little more real estate he might have gotten into the top 15, with less than 40 seconds separating him from a pay day. He, like all the other Nike wearers, was in the latest generation AlphaFly.

9.) Gregory Barnaby – IM Pro Series Champion – 1:12:05

Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Sky Paris

Barnaby did what he had to, beating Matthew Marquardt on the day to claim the $200,000 prize and title of IRONMAN Pro Series Champion. Barnaby was in ASICS long-stride race shoe, the Sky Paris.

10.) Marc Dubrick – 1:12:05

Shoe: Nike AlphaFly 3

Closing out the top 10 splits is Marc Dubrick. A tenth place run split matched his finishing position. Dubrick wore the AlphaFly 3 — the only one in the yellow color way, as opposed to the white and red all the other athletes had.

The post The Shoes of the Fastest MPRO Runners at 70.3 Worlds 2024 first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

It’s somewhat surprising that there wasn’t a single Nike wearer in the mix, given how ubiquitous the AlphaFly and VaporFly have been at races for the past half decade. It’s the first time we’re not seeing someone wear Nike in the top run splits since 2019 at any of the world championship events. That said, every brand seems to be following a similar formula: carbon fiber plates with branded Pebax foam, all wrapped in a relatively lightweight package.

Here are the top 10 pro women’s run splits and the shoes they wore during it.

1.) Daniela Kleiser 1:14:15
Shoe: Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 3 Ekiden

Kleiser outran everyone by almost 80 seconds. That shouldn’t come as much surprise, as she’s routinely one of the fastest runners in the sport. However, her spectacular run was not enough to overcome a sizable deficit coming out of the water, and she would finish in 19th position.

Kleiser is a Puma sponsored athlete, and wore Puma’s Deviate Nitro Elite 3 in a limited release color way from Japan. It’s a carbon-plated racer that, similarly to Nike’s line, features a slightly higher heel-toe offset. It’s also on the light side for a carbon plated racer, coming in at 6.3 ounces for a women’s size 8.

2.) Kat Matthews – 1:15:34
Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Edge Paris

Matthews continued her streak of second place finishes in world championship events, narrowly missing out on chasing down Taylor Knibb. Still, her performance was enough to claim the 2024 IRONMAN Pro Series title, and a bonus check of $200,000 for her effort.

Matthews moved to ASICS MetaSpeed Edge Paris after Nice this year. The Edge Paris shaves a 15 grams from her prior pair of shoes, while a re-designed forefoot curvature gives a slightly longer stride length than the prior model. Still, it’s meant for athletes looking for faster turnover, versus the MetaSpeed Sky that is meant to increase pace by increasing stride length further.

3.) Tamara Jewett – 1:16:12
Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Edge+

Jewett is no stranger to running through fields, dicing her way to the front once she puts her bike away. Taupō was no different as she used her run prowess to charge into the top 10.

Jewett is another athlete wearing ASICS MetaSpeed shoes. The Edge+ is slightly cushier than the standard Edge, with 16% more cushioning underfoot. There’s a carbon fiber plate, married to ASICS proprietary foam blend, called FF Blast Turbo. It’s slightly heavier than the Paris version that Matthews wore.

4.) Ashleigh Gentle – 1:16:26
Shoe: On Cloudboom Strike

The top-rated runner in the field (per the PTO’s ranking system), Gentle’s run prowess was again on full display at 70.3 Worlds. She pushed into the podium slots midway through the run and was able to stay there, adding to a season where she only finished off the podium twice.

Gentle wore On’s carbon racer, the Cloudboom Strike. It is slightly heavier than some of the other shoes mentioned so far, but at 6.8 ounces, it’s not a particularly bulky shoe. On claims that their spoon-shaped Speedboard (their take on a carbon fiber plate) provides increased running efficiency by transferring impact energy through toe-off.

5.) Grace Thek – 1:19:14
Shoe: HOKA Rocket X 2

Thek led the “best of the rest” run class — nearly a full three minutes behind the pace set by Gentle and crew above. But that run was still enough to move up to 10th place on the day — Thek’s first top 10 and first paycheck from 70.3 Worlds.

Thek wore the tried and true HOKA Rocket X 2. First making its debut at Kona 2022 as an unofficial prototype, the Rocket X 2 brought the brand’s trademark rocker profile, light weight (for the amount of cushioning offered), and carbon fiber plate together in a cohesive package for the first time. (The original Rocket lacked cushioning.) It’s getting a bit long in the tooth, at almost two full calendar years on the market, but like Nike’s VaporFly and AlphaFly, it’s still on the feet of plenty of athletes.

6.) Ellie Salthouse – 1:19:15
Shoe: HOKA Rocket X 2

Salthouse, another HOKA sponsored athlete, utilized her sixth fastest run split to wind up seventh.

7.) Taylor Knibb – 1:19:20
Shoe: HOKA Rocket X 2

If you remove Knibb’s port-o-john stop, she had the fifth fastest run on the day. But we don’t remove stops, as the clock does not stop, so she slots in here. Regardless, the now three-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion did enough to hold off Matthews’ charge on the run.

Interestingly, all three women opted to eschew HOKA’s more recent carbon-fiber racer, the Cielo X1, for the tried and true Rocket X 2.

8.) Julie Derron – 1:19:38
Shoe: On Cloudboom Echo 3

The Olympic silver medalist, Derron tried valiantly to repeat her performance from Paris. But she wound up losing out to Gentle and Imogen Simmonds to wind up sliding to a fifth place finish.

Compared to the Strike that Gentle wore, the Cloudboom Echo is the lightest racer in On’s line. It, too, features the Speedboard (although in a unique shape) and a blend of On’s Pebax and “standard” foams for cushioning.

9.) Paula Findlay – 1:20:31
Shoe: On Cloudboom Strike LS

Findlay closed out her 2024 campaign with another strong showing at IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds, finishing sixth. It’s her third straight top 10 finish at 70.3 Worlds.

Findlay ran in a shoe yet to be released to the general public, the Cloudboom Strike LS. Take the Cloudboom Strike and put a laceless upper, called LightSpray, and you get the Strike LS. The upper weighs a total of 30 grams and is made from a single, 1,500 meter long thread. There’s environmental benefits, too, since the design eliminates the need for adhesives, and reduces the carbon footprint by 75%. It comes at a cost, though: the shoe carries an eye-watering MSRP of $330 USD.

10.) Solveig Lovseth – 1:20:36
Shoe: Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3

Loevseth’s tenth best run was the key to her top 15 finish and a paycheck, nipping Hannah Berry to the line for 13th place.

The Adizero Adios Pro (say that three times fast) is — you guessed it — another carbon-fiber plated race shoe. Lightstrike Pro is Adidas’ take on Pebax foam, with two separate layers sandwiching the plate, dubbed Energyrods 2.0. Coming in closer to the 7 ounce mark in a women’s size 8, it’s a little closer to the AlphaFly formula than others.

The post The Shoes of the Top 10 Pro Women Run Splits From Taupō first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The first is a boon to both athletes and coaches who are using other systems to track or schedule their training. Velocity will now integrate with all major training platforms, like TrainingPeaks, and import structured workouts into the platform. That day’s scheduled workout of choice is then brought over into Velocity’s system and rideable. It’s a similar function to one used by other platforms — but, with Velocity’s enhanced data and video capabilities, there’s more for both athletes and coaches to be able to review post-session.

The second new feature, however, is cool functionality if you’re the kind of person that likes to watch a movie or binge a series while on the trainer. Velocity’s new Stream Mode feature allows the platform to overlay data onto your preferred streaming service. No more toggling between two displays, or screen windows. Instead, you can have your workout and data at your fingertips, all while watching whatever show or movie you’re deep into (for us, that’s Hilda on Netflix because, well, everything is dictated by the Tiny Tyrant).

Steaming Mode works like this:

• Create a free account on Velocity.
• Connect your training platform (e.g., TrainingPeaks, Final Surge).
• Automatically import your workouts into Velocity.
• Execute your workout while streaming your favorite media.

It now gives Velocity more options in addition to their coach-led, community-driven experience.

Robbie Ventura, CEO of Velocity, said, “While our primary mission is to support coaches in strengthening their communities, we also recognize the need for an engaging, data-rich platform for athletes completing non-coach-led workouts. Stream Mode bridges that gap.”

Velocity is available for a free 45 day trial membership. After the 45 days, Velocity will run you $4.99 per month.

The post Velocity Launches Updated Platform; New Stream Mode first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Former professional IRONMAN World Champion Michellie Jones headlines the list of 28 men and women who can call themselves IRONMAN 70.3 age group world champions.

Jones, the 2006 IRONMAN World Champion, won the women’s 55-59 age group in a time of 4:52:28. Her title was one of 8 won by Australian athletes this weekend, which is the highest total of age group champions from any one country this weekend. The United States placed second with 7 champions. France and New Zealand were the only other countries with multiple winners, with 5 and 3 age group champions respectively.

More than 6,000 athletes from 119 different countries, territories, and regions, ranging in age from 18 to 85, competed in the 70.3 World Championships this weekend in Taupō, New Zealand. It was the 17th edition of the race, as the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 edition of the race.

Your 2024 IRONMAN 70.3 age group world champions:

Women’s Champions

Men’s Champions

These athletes will have the opportunity to defend their title at the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, held in Marbella, Spain in November next year.

Photos: IRONMAN, Fiona Goodall / Getty Images for IRONMAN

The post The 2024 Age-Group IRONMAN 70.3 World Champions first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

For this article, we’re looking solely at the viewing experience from this weekend’s IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds coverage broadcast on the Outside Watch platform. Although I could have easily VPN’d myself into a YouTube coverage experience, I wanted to be able to review it as IRONMAN intended the experience for American and Canadian audiences.

Race Action Coverage: B

For the most part, across both days, the critical moves on course were captured. On Saturday alone we got to see, for instance, Taylor Knibb rocket her way past Sara Perez Sala and never give that lead up again. We were with Kat Matthews as she made her critical bridge up to Imogen Simmonds and Paula Findlay. And we saw the gap get agonizingly tight between Knibb and Matthews on the second lap of the run.

On the men’s side, we had a healthy back and forth between the leading group of 8 men and the 9 man deep chase group. We also got to see the pack dynamics within those two groups, as the likes of Lèo Bergère, Hayden Wilde, and Rico Bogen traded places back and forth throughout the lead pack, whereas Kristian Høgenhaug repeatedly tried to break the chase apart. And, of course, we watched Wilde’s lead evaporate in the span of two kilometers as Jelle Geens wrested the title from his hands.

We also saw a fair amount of “the race within the race” battles for positions within the IRONMAN Pro Series. It helped, of course, that Matthews was right at the front of the women’s field, but we also saw Matthew Marquardt’s struggles on the bike and run as he came up short in his bid to take the Series crown. On the flip side, Gregory Barnaby’s run and finish were missed completely. It also was somewhat surprising to not have him included in the immediate post-race interviews, having won the Series.

Camera Work: C-

I am admittedly sensitive to camera jostling and shaky images, thanks to my concussion history and mild visual processing issues. So when, during the broadcast Sunday, the camera feed swapped to chasing Høgenhaug as he looked to establish himself with the chase group on a downhill, I started feeling sick to my stomach. Høgenhaug was, at best, half in frame, and with the image bouncing everywhere.

It, unfortunately, was not much better on the run segment for the men. Even the critical pass for the race featured a fair amount of bounce.

The women’s race was not as bad. Whether that was due to the bike pace being slower, or if there were different camera operators in place each day, it made it slightly better. But clearly there was an issue of either equipment or operator given the conditions that were faced on the day. I was very glad to be done watching at the end.

Studio Broadcasters: B-

Michael Lovato and Dede Griesbauer have a thankless job. Being able to talk for hours on end, with what amounts to the same talking points, and make it at least mildly entertaining is extremely hard. There are precious few traditional broadcasters who are able to pull this off.

Lovato and Griesbauer have good chemistry with one another, and their passion for the sport comes through, which on the whole makes their broadcasting palatable. However, there are two areas with plenty of room for improvement. First is on athlete identification; both misidentified athletes on camera multiple times, but particularly during the men’s race. That would be more forgivable if more information about what was happening off-camera was being relayed to the pair and able to tell that story effectively.

For example: it was not until after the race that we heard of any bike penalties beyond the one to then-leader Mathis Margirier, and we only knew of that because we saw him pull into a penalty tent. More often than not, the duo are being forced to rely on what’s coming in via the tracker versus getting any information from spotters on the ground. That means when you have situations where timing boxes aren’t relaying information — like they failed during the women’s race on the bike — they, and us the audience, are left to wonder what is happening on course.

On Course Broadcasters: B+

Craig Alexander, Mirinda Carfrae, Matt Lieto, and Greg Welch combined to give great detail and analysis throughout their hours on-screen. In particular, Carfrae has proven herself to be an excellent addition to any broadcast she’s on. She is knowledgeable, insightful, entertaining, and versatile; she’s able to go from reporter to interviewer to host relatively seamlessly. Lieto, too, does a good job in his role heading out on course, whether on the back of a motorcycle or at a specific point during the run.

The primary letdown? Technical issues out on the bike course when Lieto was attempting to relay information.

On-Screen Graphics: C

Can we all please just admit that trying to use AI to write race predictions, based on old timing split data, is a terrible idea? It was at its worst as Wilde’s lead was evaporating, as the AI predictor was still trying to say that Wilde would win and run a time that he clearly was no longer capable of.

Perhaps the most useful graphic on screen was the topographic map to show where the lead of the race was. However, the placement of it in the bottom-third, which was cluttered with AI text and other items, versus in some of the empty space at the top, hindered the intended effect.

And, much like with other race formats, it only focused on the head of the race; it never gave splits back through the field, so unless you had your IRONMAN app on the entire time, you’d have never known what was happening for non-podium places until athletes crossed the finish line.

Commercials: B-

I am not counting any of the infomercial / in-broadcast advertising; this is just in reference to the actual ad units that the broadcast would cut to.

It’s very easy to hate on the advertising during an IRONMAN broadcast. You’re pretty much guaranteed to see ads for Qatar Airways, HOKA, Wahoo, Maurten, Breitling, Vinfast, etc. on a countless loop. And the ad breaks themselves often have impeccable timing; for example, starting the women’s coverage, there was an ad break less than three minutes into the broadcast. Coming right off of the back of the ad unit that had to be watched in order to access the broadcast, it can leave a sour taste in your mouth.

That said, I wound up counting up and timing the broadcast breaks on Saturday. There were 20 total commercial breaks during Saturday’s race, which constituted roughly 11% of the total broadcast time. For comparison’s sake, in your average NFL three hour game broadcast, a full 25% of the broadcast is commercials.

In other words: it’s really not as bad as it seems, at least from a time perspective. But better ad break coordination (especially, say, not missing the finish of your Pro Series champion on the live stream) would improve the experience greatly.

Platform Stability: A-

For as poor of a platform Outside Watch was during the original go-round of IRONMAN broadcasts, it has come an awful long way. There was only one moment towards the end of the bike during the men’s race where I suffered a moment of buffering. Otherwise, the platform was about as bulletproof as it possibly could be.

Overall Grade: B-

IRONMAN produced another decent triathlon livestream broadcast. It’s free for us to watch. We saw the major moments of the race, and it didn’t glitch. Although there’s definitely room for improvement, it scratches the itch for most of triathlon’s existing audience.

The post Grading IRONMAN’s 70.3 Worlds Broadcast first appeared on Slowtwitch News.