Take aways from the pro men’s Ironman World Championships in Hawaii
It’s all just a little bit of history repeating.
For a decade now, we haven’t seen the Hawaiian gods punish some of the fittest athletes with the trade winds. However that doesn’t make the race any easier, the faster bike also means an incredibly hot run. While 2024 conditions were fast with the low wind relative to Kona, the run was about as brutal as it could get and it showed with so many favourites and dark horses like Aussies Sam Appleton and Steve McKenna imploding on the marathon.
The comments I heard from pros were along the lines of ‘holy volcano farts, the first 90kms of the bike was so bloody hard, I don’t know how anyone can ride that hard and run well.’ Well, not many did!
While it doesn’t happen every year anyone who’s raced or followed the race closely over the decades has seen the same dilemma arise where some brave lunatic like Sam Laidlow lays it all on the line for the performance of a decade or a volcanic eruption by riding like there is no marathon, applying a lot of pressure on anyone else serious about winning and the bike power across the board for anyone keen on a podium is very damn high.
As much as the simple plan for guys like Sam Appo was to ride in the front 3 of the chase or drop back and ride their own race it’s a whole other issue when you’re in a pack amongst all the guys who you think will be top 5 and to have the kahunas to let them ride away and stick to your numbers.
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10 Take Aways From The Big Dance
1) If you haven’t been top 3-5 in this race before, NOT racing for the podium will set you up for a much higher chance of a top 15.
Especially when the wind is low, the old, wily veteran spectators aren’t getting too excited about barnstorming bike rides, as they know full well that half the favourites could be walking.
2) Steady bike riding is key to a fast marathon.
Sometimes it can be an advantage not to be in the pack and certainly, it can be to let the front chase pack go and ride steady. We saw plenty of guys like Cam Wurf, not swim so great, remain unfazed and simply ride their numbers and go on to have a superb marathon and finish amongst the top few.
3) The course is up and down the whole way and a long pace line of pros makes for a brutal bike.
The shock from the first timers there is always about how the course is never flat and how much it gradually wears you down. With the exception of the first 15kms of the run, there are no other truly flat sections of the course.
For the pros, the problem there lies in sitting with a long pace line over rolling hills. There is a massive concertina/accordion effect where the pros have to hold the front wheel to front wheel 12 metre gap (actually 10metres between bikes) very closely as if it opens up to even a metre longer, technically a rider behind can overtake and slot in. If they slot in and the gap is right on the legal gap then they receive a penalty for dropping in. So pros in that pace line more than 5 athletes back are jamming on their brakes when they get too close on the downhills then surging way above their optimal Ironman power range to stay at the legal gap on the uphills.
If you have 18 athletes in a pace line, not many athletes can get to the front as to legally pass the whole group, given you’re permitted 25 seconds to pass each athlete before being handed a penalty it could be 6 minutes plus of very high power to get to the front of that group. 6 minutes at 100 watts higher than the rest of the pace line is basically signing a contract for running 5-10 minutes slower in the marathon.
There is no doubt a huge advantage being at the front or in the front 2-3 of the chase. The media motos, draft marshals, and the 1-2 riders in front help create a nice vacuum that can easily provide a 1-1.5km/hr advantage. Patrick Lange swam incredibly well and then placed himself in the golden position on the chase rarely dropping back past 3rd or 4th wheel in the pace line. For the poor buggers sitting 5th wheel and back, even if their average power is lower than a solo pro riding steady, the surges are what really destroy a race, especially in the heat where carbohydrate ingestion is a struggle compared to cool events.
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4) If you don’t have a different hydration and fuelling plan for your cooler events you definitely should.
Athletes who know their electrolyte and total fluid losses and replace a certain percentage of that in the fluid they’re drinking will be able to stay hydrated better. Hydration should take the highest priority in Kona. You can have as much glycogen as you like but if your blood volume gets too low, good luck being able to stay cool and economical in the heat.
Carbohydrate intake should be lower than in cool races. If you’re maximising your hydration coupled with your blood being shunted more away from digestion to your extremities for cooling often less can be best for maximising carbohydrate oxidation. Too high an intake on top of your electrolytes can shut down digestion altogether and is as good as having no fuel.
There were a lot of vomiting and bloated athletes out there and I think not adjusting their plan for the heat in addition to getting caught up racing at excessively high intensities is the major culprit.
High volume athletes tend to do well in Kona partly for this reason too. Nothing boosts fat oxidation like lots of training and if carb intake has to be lowered you need to get the energy from somewhere.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-carb! There is now solid evidence that doing regular training on high carbohydrate intake is also important to up-regulate the enzymes that break down carbohydrates. The gut is highly trainable, so while I’m still a big fan of a lot of easy sessions not being fuelled with super simple sugars (instead of real food with a lower GI) I also now advocate that athletes do their race specific sessions highly fuelled on the sports nutrition they plan to race with to condition the gut to the fuelling load needed to succeed in Ironman events.
5) Genetics will always be a major factor in Kona.
Guys have definitely won here who are not suited to the heat. In my mind, those guys were so bloody good in the years they won that they would have been hard to beat in any conditions and most of them would have won more titles with a rotating world champs.
Patrick Lange is exceptional in the heat. I first raced him in the Philippines and then later in Vietnam where conditions were crazy hot. Running away from me in the Philippines chewing up a 3 minute lead I had on the bike in Vietnam and passing me by 10kms like he was running in temps 20 degrees cooler and finishing unbothered by the heat at the finish. While we’re all collapsing, his skin is not even slightly rosy.
I think Patrick is now in the mix for the win if the World Champs is anywhere in the world but do I think he would dominate like he has in Kona, absolutely not. For the sake of fairness to athletes with a different genetic make up and while I appreciate the history and appeal of Kona, I would love to see Kona rotate to a different location every second year. Although I understand that age group entries will drive that decision and it’s a hard sell to move away from Kona, history, and prestige take time to build. Nice is such a good race to swap off with but of course, it’s not going to have the appeal of Kona. It will take a decade plus and a lot of marketing spend from Ironman to build up it’s mystique and give it the same buzz Kona enjoys.
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6) Altitude training into heat adaption still seems to be king for maximising performance in Kona.
The altitude training increases red cells, the heat training increases blood plasma volume. It’s a winning combo that nearly every pro who’s won in Kona seems to use. The exception maybe being Jan Frodeno. Although, at a guess, he likely had an altitude room at his house.
7) Ironman needs to tighten the rules on positions and bike designs.
I love tech but I also love triathlon and it being an accessible sport to the masses. Increasingly, that’s not the case as it is drifts more and more to being a rich man’s sport. Of course, no-one wants to see the level of restriction that the UCI put on their bikes but I do think somewhere in between would be good. Athletes with a lot of talent and who’ve done the work, should’t have to spend 15-20k on their bikes to have a chance of being in the mix.
We also saw the old superman position dusted off and implemented by the Norwegians. I know from my own testing how fast this position is. I would never recommend anyone use it in Kona if they want their back to function on the run but for some low wind races, it is going to win races. From a safety perspective, I’m not sure we want too many athletes going full superman.
8) Let’s at least extend the draft distance to 15 metres for pros.
Not a new suggestion here but the difference in draft benefit from 10 metres between riders to 15 metres is really significant. This has been suggested for decades but I’m still yet to hear a coherent argument as to why this can’t be implemented.
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9) Men and women need to race at the same location.
Nothing more to add here that hasn’t already been said about the downsides of separate locations. However, it’s not a simple solution as I truly believe Ironman didn’t just do this to increase World Championship numbers but also to try and give female pros a much more fair race without getting caught up with the AG men.
Here is my left-field solution given I don’t think racing over 2 days in Kona is ever feasible again given the disruption to locals:
- Start the pro men late morning at say 10 am.
- Start the pro women 5-10 minutes after that.
The wind will be up making for a more entertaining bike, the women will get a clear run only passing age group athletes much slower than them.
Men finish around 5:40/6 pm with a huge crowd at the finish line. Women after that.
Alternatively, you start the women an hour before the men, and pro men and women finish at a similar time.
10) The Big Island is so freaking awesome.
If you’re remortgaging your house to race there, spend some time after the race to go and see it all. There is so much besides the Queen K and Ali’i Drive.
Ride up one of the mega volcanoes, go cliff jumping, go out and catch a tuna, see the other side of the island (Hilo is epic), swim with dolphins and so much more.
