2016 Ironman World Championship Kona Hawaii 140.6 #triathlon #triathlete #ironman703 #hawaii

hello everyone and welcome to the 2016 iron man world championship and it's going to be a great one i am greg welch and joining me here in studio all the time is my co-host today michael lovato and also matt lietto who's on the ground he's standing right in the thick of things at the moment in the transition area in the thick of the action it's already been time to check in the athletes have come through and now some of the professional athletes are starting to get themselves ready for the opening swim leg today michael welcome back to kona thank you very much greg it is just the sun is just starting to come up we've been dark all morning long and it's just coming up and that means the athletes are just getting their first real live view of what the weather's gonna be like you start to see if it's cloudy or not and that's always exciting just kind of trying to tickle in looking at the master spas weather report currently at 74 degrees water temperature as always about 81 degrees the wind just kind of slightly coming in at north seven miles an hour humidity levels pretty high 80 percent 82 percent and the estimated high 87 with a low chance of rain but greg you see that 87 as the predicted high temperature as we know that's just the number it's a feels like it's a heat index that really matters here in this area so that is going to be a little higher we talked about this we've looked up down and around that that master supplies weather report and we see it's going to feel a lot warmer greg in the low 90s when these athletes are hitting that run so greg it's going to be typical i mean that's normal it's always hot it's always humid and a little bit of wind in kona yeah it feels like uh today is going to be a replica of uh yesterday when we were here you know watching all the athletes check their bikes in and it was around about 90 92 degrees i'm looking at the sunrise over the top of mount hoala line right now i see this beautiful crimson color you know what that means there's no clouds on top there so it's going to be a hot one a very warm one in town very humid this morning and it's going to be like that as we get through the day and there's a beautiful shot this is mount hawala and this is absolutely gorgeous exactly where the sun's going to rise when the athletes are swimming out on the course today it's on the left shoulder on the way back over the right shoulder race start times today pro men coming up in around about 20 minutes from now at 6 25 local time here in hawaii pro women start at 6 30 a.m and just a little bit after that 25 minutes in there we've got the age group men and another 15 minutes back is the age group women so our swim cut off times mike today is going to be 9 15 for our age group men and 9 30 for our age group women today sure just remember that two hours 20 added if you ever get confused two hours 20 that's that cutoff time each gender each wave gets that of course the pros which they don't need it but we do know that this is a really exciting thing they did last year where they gave us four waves for the pro men pro women later age group men age group women it really allows each individual category to have their own space their own clear start speaking of their own clear start we always love to go down to matt lieto he is about uh at water's edge he'll get on the boat just before this race starts but matt is down there and he is going to give us his perspective as this daylight starts to break matt yeah thanks so much michael yeah beautiful sunrise coming over uh this morning uh pretty calm down here uh in the transition area i wasn't so calm a few minutes ago we had you know a few hectic moments some of our pros getting ready right behind me we've got the pro racks and for the most part everybody was pretty organized had their things dialed had the routine dialed we had a flat tire from one athlete he had to fix he wanted insisted on fixing it himself so he didn't get out of transition here until a little bit later than he wanted he was hectic we had some athletes trying to decide last minute if they wanted their helmets in the bags or out of the bags a lot of little things in in most days but today ended up being a little bit stressful for some but all in all nothing nothing too bad a lot of relaxed folks a lot of athletes that are are clearly just ready to get out there and put their prep to the test there's a lot of stress going into a race like this a lot of preparation and all you want is that day to come and i got that vibe from a lot of athletes that finally there's a calm actually because that day is here but speaking of calm i'm going to go out on the boat here and check out the swim course and see whether it's calm or whether it's a little bit uh sergey as it's been uh swelly in the years past uh to see what those conditions are like and i'll get us kind of a fisheyes view of what that swim course holds uh for the race here this morning guys just before you get out on the boat there matt uh give us an idea if there was anything different this morning who was looking calm and relaxed and who was looking a little bit stressed amongst our pro field yeah i mean uh you spoke of andreas raylor maybe having a hand issue he sought me out and threw up that hand and gave me a good handshake this morning and he looked calm and ready to go as far as stress goes uh you know nobody over the top i think daniella was in a little bit late uh our last man or last person out of transition today was will clark he was in there late pumping up his tires so maybe a little bit of stress there but honestly there's nobody frantic usually we have somebody that's frantic every year has forgot their nutrition or something like that but didn't see any of that here today so good news they're all as far as i know heading down to the swimmer in the water already warming up and i'm gonna jump over there and see where they're at hey matt before you do if you wouldn't mind just pull out your camera and grab a photo of that sunrise pop it up on instagram because we know and everyone at home at home knows social media is all on all day today so if you want to check us out uh here be sure to do so from home greg we've got social media outlets all over the place all right man you want to go through that with us yeah absolutely you know just head on over to our social media all day today facebook.com forward slash ironman try also on instagram forward slash ironmen try as well and also if you're on twitter at ironman try if you'd like to hit me up with a question at imenlive greg for michael it's at michael lovato and for matt at matlieto so a beautiful sunrise today coming up out over mount hoalai to the eastern side of the big island of hawaii we're getting ready for the roka swim today 2.4 miles 3.9 kilometers it's going to be absolutely beautiful michael i haven't seen it this calm down here in kailua kona for a long time it hasn't been like this you know for quite some uh years now so it's going to be a very fast uh swim course you know what the hot islands training swim course the other day lucy charles an age group athlete actually she just turned pro she took the race out in a time of 48.56 and andy booker was second across the line but first male at a 4903 so very fast swim times for the training swim i'm looking forward to seeing fast swim times today now if you remember back to last year in our men's race we had jan fradino and andy potts coming out at 50 50 and 50 56 on our women's side of things you know we had jody swallow and meredith kessler right up there at just a touch over 52 minutes so you've got to look at these races today and being very fast to kick it off for 2016. absolutely greg and you just teased us with one name two names of this incredible men's field looking at this close-up we've got last year's winner the defending ironman world champion from germany jan ferdino he's a gold medalist he's a kona winner he's a two-time iron man 70.3 winner this guy is incredible and he is back to defend that title bib number one right behind him just as hungry just as talented from the same country sebastian quinlay he won this race in 2014 and he wants that top step back he really does brent mcmahon from canada he's done four man races three of those under eight hours who does that does brent mcmahon stand a chance of getting on the podium today andy potts for the last two years in a row has been in fourth place from the usa and then first of the four teams that we're going to talk about there is timothy van burkel from australia looking like he's in great shape this year a guy that everybody talks about as one of the best bike runners is lionel sanders he comes to us from canada and he's done extremely well at 70.3 however can he get through that swim to be close enough and then patient enough to execute a top 10. right behind him is another tim on our list tim o'donnell from the usa he is our u.s american champ he got third here last year and kind of a surprise effort off the front a lot of tim o'donnell fans t.o in try he's on twitter he's on that handle and this guy is prepared by our six time world champ master coach iron man you guy mark allen there he is and tyler butterfield from bermuda he's always right up there i call him the turbo diesel he doesn't have anything special in the kit like a fast swim fast bike or fast run he's just very good at all three so from bermuda tyler butterfield fifth place last year look for him freddie van lieder the 2013 champion from belgium is awesome he looks great this year he did his final preparation in the united states and he looks good ben hoffman from the usa love to see ben have a great race again second two years ago to sebastian kinley looking really good and then we've got our 70 ironman 70.3 world champ from australia tim reid he's here he's under the radar at this event tim dawn another incredibly talented former world champ from great britain he's under the radar but he is an absolute threat such an incredible athlete he's been third in this race he wants to step onto the top spot on the podium jesse thomas one of our wild cards from the usa he took down jan fradino at iron man lancer roddy earlier this year rudy wilde he is the wild card he was third place in 70.3 worlds in malula when you and i just witnessed a fantastic race down there so look out for rudy an incredible athlete and finishing off with joe skipper from great britain biker runner extraordinaire can he pick up lionel sanders and mickey weiss perhaps and you know really pedal through the rest of the competition what about our pro field there mikey oh it's incredible and greg look at those images this i mean i've been watching this race for better part two decades you even more and let me tell you this is no exaggeration one of the more beautiful mornings i've seen it's rare to get that mixture of great light great clouds it just looks incredible i think something special in the air today and i do say as i always when i see that entire hualalai you do that mountain you do know that it is going to be hot out there so uh clouds are staying away for now as far as this side of the course and it is going to be a steamer but as exciting as our men's race is our women's race defending champion from switzerland is back daniela ryf wearing bib 101 she is chased down bib 102 by great britain's suzy cheatham an incredibly talented runner got seventh last year yeah let's see what she can do on the swim in the bike this year and put the pressure on daniela ryf sarah piampiano she had one of the fastest runs in last year's race and heather jackson from the usa as well look for heather jackson she's been doing very well in her training as as of late joe gambles a professional uh male athlete he's been training heather up in bend oregon i'm looking to see heather jackson possibly go up from her fifth place last year julia gaia from germany possibly the top european in this year's race and then camilla peterson from denmark now remember back to two years ago mike camilla peterson was in a coma for three weeks she came out of it and less than a year later she was eighth place at the iron man world championship that is nothing but a fighter she's amazing and it's funny when you see someone that has the course record and three ironman world championship titles to her credit be this far down the ranks ranked 11 wearing one one one from australia mirinda carfrae she is here and she is hungry you can see it you could feel it but also calm as she always is lianda cave from great britain another athlete who won this race and to win this race means you have the confidence and ability and the history of how of knowing how to get to that that start that finish line first what a talent michelle visterby she's surprised this last year taken denmark all the way to fourth place in the women's race yeah it's the greatest star finish that the danish girls have ever had she's the ever smiling the uh the energizer bunny as you want to call it uh absolutely fantastic girl meredith kessler she's done everything in the sport of iron man triathlon she has won many many races around the world but can she pull it off here in you know at the world championship she represents the usa jody swallow just two weeks ago had an incredible race mike let's talk about it a little bit two weeks ago she won the itu long distance world championships in oklahoma and that just two weeks out from the ironman is that too close or is it enough for jody i mean she's a seasoned athlete can she pull it off just acknowledging folks i know back home you're saying meredith kessler she's american we know that too we just put a little bit of a slip up there we'll catch you later guys we do know that's a u.s american councilor great point as we jump ahead again we've got canada's heather wartell canada has rich history of doing well in this race men's and women's but heather wartell does not she's had one top 10 which compared to her massive amount of results across the world it's a surprise heather ratel can she overcome the heat and humidity to do well again mary beth ellis she's done one well here she's won 11 races this is her retirement race right after that lindsay corbin coming in for her 10th race from the usa and lucy gossage an incredibly quick runner from the uk but right now greg that's tim o'donnell he's standing on the edge of the water he's ready to get right in and get right after this guy the forming a former navy man can swim with just about anyone he is calm cool and collected shaking out the arms greg yeah he'll be right up there the whole way there mike i mean he's really focused you can see that he's just you know swinging the arms around talented athletes he's very flexible as you can see now this is the time where the athletes have to just you know seek a little bit of solace you know you're inside of the last 10 minutes now before the race gets underway lindsay corbin's right there as well just getting warmed up as well but this is the time that they want to you know make sure that the flexibility is there they've stretched out nicely they've gone through their game plan you know they've had a little bit of time to think about it and uh and go through it you know the roku swim course as we can see right now is laid out absolutely beautifully here in kailua kona this is the famous dygmy beach this is the beach that everybody wants to plant their feet in the sand and i tell you what today is no different for the 2016 iron man world championship these guys and girls just want to get their day underway and what does it look like we know you want to know it's the same as we zoo have seen but let's have an up close look at this roca swim course the 2.4 mile swim begins on the east side of the kailua pier roughly 60 yards from shore the swim course is an elongated rectangle 1.2 miles long and 100 yards wide athletes swim south in a clockwise loop keeping marker buoys on their right hand side as they make their way to the turnaround point lane lines mark the channel back to the swim exit and the stairs to transition one to bike course is 112 miles long 180 kilometers in distance it may not be the toughest one on the iron man circuit but it's the elements that make this race so hard let's take a look at the bike course the iron man's legendary 112 mile bike course begins with a short loop through the city of kailua kona before turning onto the queen ka'ahumanu highway for the more than 50 mile ride to the bike turnaround in the village of javi winds along this portion of the course can blow riders over in extreme conditions and the heat often sends temperatures above 100 degrees fahrenheit after the turnaround athletes retrace their route back to the queen kaumano highway and the transition area in kailua kona and that's the same ventum bike course that we've had in the last few years it's incredibly challenging but what makes it even more difficult is that you go straight into the hoka onee run course let's have a look at that course the 26.2 mile marathon begins at the transition area on kailua pier and makes a short loop through town before the first turnaround point at saint peter's church after the turnaround athletes head north on ali'i drive along the coastline and up to the queen kaumano highway for the long stretch to the final turnaround point in the natural energy lab once back on the highway athletes head south back to kona and the finish line on alii drive so the hoka one a run course will be coming a little bit later on today probably about six hours from now as we see the sun rising over the top of mount hualalai we've got the rocker swim coming up the ventum bike and the hoka onai on a run course today for a total of 140.6 miles professional athletes will be participating today and going for that top prize 120 000. for first 60 grand per second 40 thousand dollars for third and 2-5 for fourth place all the way down for 10 000 in 10th place today and also some challenges out there today and i tell you what ready to take those challenges we've got some of the other athletes that we didn't mention at the top of the show that we want to talk about uh now and i'll tell you what we talked a little bit about terenzo bizzoni you know there's a whole bunch of other guys out there what are your uh dark horse picks out there today mike well it's hard to even call them dark because they've done well before but ben hoffman from the usa you can't stop thinking about when he got second here two years ago he is charged up he went to africa and won the ironman africa championships earlier this year in a battle with tim van burkel he came out on top that's another athlete i'd expect to do very well we've also got um some of the people that we did mention but we didn't really touch too deeply on these guys um what about guys um like like uh jordan rapp i mean this is a guy that could come in there and and play with that back in talent that has not a strong swim but a great bike run so he's another one to look at james kunima he's a guy that you just leave off the radar because he's not consistent but he's so good when he's on oh man watch out yeah and he's been fourth place before you know you're going back to jordan rap i mean he's one of the guys that'll pick up you know with lionel sanders and you know and also uh joe skipper so let's look at that boris stein you know we didn't talk about boris stein who was right up there just outside of the top 10 last year and then also cyril vino cyril we never talked about him i mean he was sixth place last year was absolutely amazing from france and then the guy that we have not spoken about at all had a fantastic race at the ironman texas race so he was the north american champion patrick lang from germany and he ran 240. so how do we not talk about a guy that runs 240 and heat the heat of texas in mid-may so patrick lang coached by the 2005 iron man world champ ferris all sultan the german is young and hungry he's well guided and he has the tools so look for him there's going to be someone that is off the radar that comes in and it finishes very well there's an effect that matt and i have spoken about i've just referenced this for the last four or five years it's the second place effect it's the third place effect at times but it's someone that comes in a tim o'donnell uh a chris lietto a luke mckenzie a ben hoffman rutger bedke any of these guys that come in and all of a sudden sort of out of the blue they reach that second or third podium step and then it's a it's a step back it happens in the women's field as well we saw it desiree thicker in 2006 we've seen this through and off where a person pops into the second and third position and it's kind of like the competitors around didn't anticipate that he or she didn't anticipate that yeah and then they really struggled to stay there so they draw back out we'll have someone like that this year greg top five that you just haven't picked absolutely and also david mcnamee and jesse thomas just another two guys that we should talk about all right so matt liedo standing by he's on the boat down there and we're uh only around about five minutes away from race start so let's go on down to mount lloydo we're getting close guys thanks so much i actually got the national anthem going right now behind me uh michael as you referred to that second or third place effect um uh you know i i agree with you there obviously we've talked about it i think it's a challenge but uh interestingly enough we just did a few of the athletes we could kind of spot uh were second place uh ben hoffman from a few years ago and last year as you were referring to tim o'donnell doing their last little warm-up parallel to the shore getting their efforts in maybe to get the arm speed up that first hundred 200 meters in this race is brutal it's a full-on sprint it might be the fastest you've swam in the last few months so you got to make sure that that arm turnover is high the warm arms are warmed up uh some people think you you want to be rested going into an iron man but for these pros it's full on the first couple hundred meters so those athletes getting warmed up also saw brent mcmahon a favorite i think for the race here today uh 10th place last year uh he's definitely looking for a better result as far as conditions go uh here today guys it's uh you know from the from the the screens and from the cameras it probably looks pretty flat not too bad it's lumpy i wouldn't say it's a fast swim you know there's a little texture on the water but it is a little bit a little bit swelly so i don't think it's going to be a record-breaking conditions today but nothing that's gonna you know cause a 55-minute swimmer to swim an hour and two minutes i think it'll be kind of in the normal wheelhouse of the front guys swimming 48 49 uh the front women's pack maybe swimming 53 54 that sort of thing so it's pretty hectic down here right now as i said those athletes trying to find that last spot uh they can get their their warm up in but then uh reaching over and finding where they want to start the race and if you look behind me we've got some of the athletes are are stacking up now and generally guys i think we've talked before uh people that uh start left generally are used to generally used to having more space and if you start left that means you're gonna have open water and uh to the right is where uh it's a mess and it usually gets pretty hectic and people get pushed around but it is not right is almost the calm space to be today it's it's very packed in a lot closer than we're used to so a lot of athletes lining up left to try to get that straight shot to that first turn i usually recommend uh being left even if you breathe to the left but um just because the right's so hectic but this year i don't think it's going to be that way but here are those guys and right now we're going to have our race officials just making sure everybody stays behind the banner they've got to stay behind this roca banner and that yellow buoy before the the gun goes off or they'll be penalized or removed back before the start so those guys lining up here trying to recognize some of these athletes here we do have i think we've got luke mckenzie out here to the left i did see tim burkle lining up uh over here as well um we had andy potts just popped up he's hiding annie potts is hiding behind the banner uh so andy potts is uh way left trying to get maybe he's trying to sneak and get away uh here early but annie potts definitely way left but uh hiding under the banner right now so sneaky pots number four but right now it's uh you know just a few minutes to go maybe you guys can give a little bit more insight on on what you expect michael did do you expect uh something a little different now that we see everybody packed in that's not really a separated start line that's right madden you know what you're swelly as usual down there swell as can be we see nobody to the far right touching that pier we are a minute away from the start mat and it is exactly as described all bunch left everybody went with the flow it's a flock of sheep over there not anyone trying to stay narrow you mentioned some of our highlight people and i absolutely think we're a minute away i think that when we hit this start start line you're going to see guys like andy potts just and jan ferdino just really decide to stamp their authority on it thanks for mentioning who you saw up close luke mckenzie is another one that has has been right there if he wants to he can be first through fifth out of the water he's a great great swimmer he's had some bad luck in some of his past swims but matt it is absolutely from an overhead view there is a full entire half of the course that is empty on that right side greg we're 30 seconds 30 seconds away from the start of this 2016 ironman world championship we are live above the roca swim course here in kailua bay and it is a little lumpy as he said but i expect this to be a fast start to a fast day yeah i think it's going to be a great start i don't you know it may look lumpy and there's maybe a little bit of texture on the surface here but let's just uh let's just take a moment to uh watch the start so there we are we're underway with the 2016 iron man world championship here in kailua kona and off to a fast start to the left-hand side is andy potts already jan frodeno's right up in the front there you can see that we've got two sides of the course mike and as you were mentioning just a few moments ago nobody was really starting over on the right hand side of the pier where you will see all the age group athletes you know starting today which surprises me a little bit but the 58 strong men athletes in our pro division are all choosing to start you know very close to each other now as we see the group just splitting off into two sections the left-hand side of the course is definitely the side to start on why because that's where randy potts is and he was almost you know an olympic swimmer he was uh incredible you know this is the rocker swim course the official swim sponsor of the 2016 i'm a world championship and the us series and now look at it as he stretches out there absolutely beautiful beautiful to watch andy potts from the usa that's right and we do know across the usa roca is the official swim sponsor of the 2016 i'm world championship and the us series andy potts putting his stamp of authority on that rogue swim course here's what i like to say about andy potts he has learned that fourth place is good but he wants to do better and he is doing something new and different this year it's something that i really feel is a great move i saw that he's done some technical changes to his bike i've read some of his interviews some of his uh features and annie potts i think comes in here as a fourth place uh dark horse i mean he's done four i think he's on that podium if he executes as we've seen looking yeah you can see uh in the blue and black uh wetsuit sorry not wetsuit the uh tri-suit there of paul matthews from australia he's right up there at the moment as well but another athlete has come up right now under the shine outside of andy potts there and that's none other than jan frodeno he's right in there you can see marco albert sitting right up at the front of that group as well so a very fast start to the race right now so less than three minutes away from our women's start at the moment we can see the right side of the course today you can see now that uh on the left hand side look at these swimmers coming over to join the back of the pack maybe realizing that they've done the wrong thing this morning by starting off to the right side because frodeno and potts are off to a flyer let's go down to matlierdo who's got a bird's eye view of the swim force here the rocket swim cause matt yeah thanks so much guys uh yeah i think you noticed potts was uh right out there in the lead right now we've kind of got the group in two little lines in that front group people that started right are a little bit behind but on the left we have pots on the right it's marco albert uh leaning uh leading uh that right group uh jan for dino i believe is the athlete behind him t.o is uh behind him paul matthews is uh right behind him as well um so uh you know potzik going a little bit offline here as well and uh uh paul barney paul barney is right behind him paul matthews sorry uh brent mcmahon is behind him in third place so this group right now this this little group here is uh andy potts paul matthews brent mcmahon and they're a little bit breaking away from the field on that left side but most of the contenders right now as far as we can tell are in the group some athletes uh you know this group on the left that's kind of broken away is it's going to cause a fracture so we we do have some athletes uh getting dropped off here earlier maybe uh than you would expect we did see luke mckenzie was in that group as well jesse thomas was in the group last time we saw him but as we said i think things are splitting up right now i see tim burkle is uh veering over uh quite hard to try to get to try to get over to uh that main field uh potts still uh very much uh taking his his own line here putts is is continues to veer pretty far left and i think now he's maybe just gotten uh uh the vibe that he needs to go right you know he's trying to separate himself from the main field that's why he's doing that but uh that's uh you know that's a tactic uh he needs to kind of gonna get on back on course and uh get ready but uh we got the women's start we're gonna have you guys go to the women's start uh here just in a few minutes right inside up front and now we're overhead shot of this roca swim course where our women are lined up and notice they're all lined up behind the boats the women so good at staying behind and greg good eye right between those right in the middle of that we have a big gap the women are pushed all the way to the right side you don't have anyone lined up against that roca swim nine seconds away greg before this cannon fires for these women underway with our women's race in the 2016 iron man world championship and unlike the men the women choosing to start right on the buoy line which is probably the faster way to go you saw that andy potts started on the far left or on the eastern side of the course today swimming a little bit of a zigzag you know line at the moment was parts but now our girls you can see that our 44 you know professional women now are now underway now in two little groups they were split a little bit you can see on the left side of the screen that you've probably got jodie swallow right over there meredith kessler and you can already see that that gap is coming together they're trying to get off to a really fast start now you've got about four different groups out here today with our 44 women now you can see that they're coming together there's going to be a very fast group on the left hand side there's around about 12 girls that have already got a little bit of a gap there to about another 15 girls right behind so our 44 strong field here and our women's are now underway now in our men's race you can see now that paul matthews has moved right up onto the back of andy potts you can see that now jan fradino and also uh marco albert from estonia were off to a flying start and look what it's done to them they've separated themselves now you can see on the left-hand side jan frodeno is now leading our competition from marco albert so yarm was on the feet of marco for quite some time now mike he's now going to keep the pace going and separating himself look for andy pods to come back up onto the back of marco albert and do some of the work on the way back and just for you viewers at home uh jan ferdino's the sleeveless one on the left side bottom part of your picture white sleeves is marco albert right there next person is andy potts right behind with the blue that's paul matthews and then we also have brent mcmahon right behind paul matthews the next person in line throwing a high recovery arm that's tim o'donnell uh so he's there in that in that next spot right there just lifted his head up so it is hard to pick these guys out we see their stroke up close and personal you can see tim o'donnell's straight left arm recovery and then we see a lot of these athletes lined up behind always interesting for me to see is who chose to wear their arrow sleeved kit out and fully pulled up and who chose to pull it down underneath their swimskin personally i just can't see how it's a great idea to have that over your shoulders no matter how tight and snug it is when you're swimming open water i'd really uh rather see these guys tuck it in but i'm not in that front pack i'm sitting here on the booth so that tells you something who we got there greg looks like sebastian kinley uh just sitting a little bit back there in the uh the back of the first pack at the moment remembering that he was just a couple of minutes behind the lead group in last year's race but he was right on the back and you know a lot of the favorites it was jan frodeno and andy potts that led last year's race out of the water and they did such a great job jan frodeno last year swam a 50-minute second race and that was andy potts that swam at 50 56 so he was six seconds in front when he got out you know off the transition area or actually out of the swimming running up into transition but jared frodeno right now is really hammering there's andy potts on screen trying to get up onto the back of marco albert at the moment paul matthews still swimming a very good race here but when they're in single fire line there you can see that the pace is really on so let's go down to matt lieto who's got a bird's eye view on this lead at the moment matt it seems to me that the pace is more furious than last year yeah i think you're right greg i think uh you know we had uh fradino and uh marco albert you know get away a little bit i think you noticed you guys noticed that and uh right now marco's leading them a bit in course a little bit off course um and they had a gap and then the next athlete behind them was andy potts who had you know they had like three or four meters on andy potts and then andy he's not getting dropped right so he slowly you know puts it into uh his diesel engine and gets up uh to those guys feet and when that happens things strung out and right now things are stringing out because marco albert was going right he immediately corrected went left and now people are getting sorry that was yawn that's in the lead there and he got uh the little gaps to be shown there but paul matthews swimming in about uh fourth place brent mcmahon and fifth tim o'donnell right behind him marco albert was in about eighth place right now where i'm i'm right now we're at where the group is splitting and the athlete that is right at the split and is is a little off course is jesse thomas uh so right now the gap has gone and there is now a break from the front group to a second group uh just six and a half minutes in uh we'll get uh names on who that is but um i think we have is it boris maybe is behind him as well um in the sleeved shirt we have uh matt russell is in that group um i'm not gonna uh guess as to who these other athletes are until we get the numbers but that gap is open some athletes are trying to go around and close that gap i we i thought we had patrick lang in this group i can't verify that but then there's another group behind there right so right now we've got one main field that's swimming behind john frodeno leading about six guys behind with jesse thomas in it and then a group of about uh 12 athletes uh kind of holding up the back end of the course uh but as i said greg as you said it does look a little bit faster and i think this group that's in the front right now is going to split again and uh by what's going on here i think i think frodo is going to be aggressive today he's being aggressive in the swim i think he's going to get out of the water and we're going to have a race straight as we get out of the water but right now these guys are absolutely suffering trying to hold on to this pace greg that's right madden i mean you're talking about jan ferdino last year he was having company with sebastian keanely on the bike he was having company out there with tim o'donnell you know he knows that if he can get away i think it's a really it's just to his benefit to have that that that break is out of sight out of mind and why why drag this group along at a comfortable pace i think where it hurts people is guys you mentioned jesse thomas uh you know even boris stein some of these divorce simon's tenth last year you know we've got patrick lange he's a great runner if you can hurt those guys and even if they do hang on they're it's costing them a bit more uh who else can you see up there at the front greg as far as we've spread we've seen little breaks through and off so matt can you tell us if you see the back part of that break as well yeah sorry the back part of the grig i'm sorry we were a bit hectic uh looking here it looks like keenly is in the yes it is keenly in the front of that chase group he moved around jesse thomas and the gap that was opened up now keenly is trying to close down so this is important because last year kind of the huge thing of the race was that we were all a little bit shocked that keenly was able to be in that front group once we got to the finish of the swim most of the years we've been able to see um keenley actually be with the group people don't think he's with the group that long but he's been with the group near the turn um boat so the fact that jan ferdino is is pushing the pace right now he's getting rid of what i believe is his main competitor for the win here today and sebastian keemley has been draw from the group as pair bittner is uh the one that is now at the front of the group uh trying to close it down and that group is or that gap sorry is holding at about 10 meters so that we got six athletes including uh jordan rapp jesse thomas sebastian keenly a bittner that are all chasing about 10 meters back from this main group but i think it's the point will be moot if they catch because i think this group is going to break again because that pace is being set quite strong that's right matt and we're only a thousand meters we're just over a thousand meters just at 12 minutes into this race i mean these guys have hit the pace hard i remember that still gives us almost 3k to go um and and matt we see also a nice look let us know when you drop back to the women's field we're having a look and there's no clear breakaway i mean i think we do see jody swallow up front but we've got a long line of about a dozen women in that group and and even you know a woman hanging off the back actually it could be even more than a dozen in our camera shot we're seeing 12 uh to 14 actually so as these women approach that first 600 meter mark we we really see i mean just a nice tight group no breakaways as initially predicted to get away and crack these women so interesting stuff some changes and of course as matt's dropping back we will check with him here momentarily he is just backtracking and folks overhead views you can see he's that boat coming back lead paddleboards keeping these women on track making sure they stay the course all right so uh as we go through the one kilometer mark there michael we have jan frondino our last year's winner leading the race from marco albert from estonia andy potts is in third place paul matthews in fourth place they're towing about 25 guys at the moment in that lead group and then there's a little break back to kinley jesse thomas lionel sanders and crew back there so jan frodeno doing what he does best and that is in the lead he loves to control the races 2008 olympic champion he's the 2015 70.3 world champion from zelumc austria and this year he's already had a fantastic year second place in iron man lanzarote as he prepares to get himself ready for this world championship so leading the way you can see jenny calm back there she's a molokai to oahu paddling champion she is going to set the girls off on a very straight course today they are approaching that uh 800 meter mark when they get to the royal kona resort there they are at one kilometer right there you can see the hotel there that is the one kilometer mark there so our women off to a great start meredith kessler jody swallow right up there as you can see that our women's race is well underway as well so our men's race off to a great start today andy potts well he was swimming all over the place again as we know andy to do in the first part he's a great swimmer don't get me wrong he'll get back to where he needs to be and he's right in third position right now but jan fradino and marco albert drawing the perfect line they are being let out by rock fry he's a great paddler as well and he's going to give a great navigational line to that first turn buoy now once they hit that turn louie they're going to make the right hand turn 100 yards across the back so as we go over to the master spas weather report bike what do we have we've got 75 degree air temperature currently water temperature just above that at 81 degrees and the wind even lower now it's down to three miles an hour now out of the northeast as you look right on that water and as we were low down on those tight shots you can see there is a lot more texture as you guys say on the water the texture means a little bit of trouble for some of the weaker swimmers if you're if you're truly flat you don't have any movement obviously there's always going to be some swell there's always going to be some up and down in this ocean however when you have a little bit of dirty choppy water on top that just gets in the face of the athletes there's a great shot of it as you look really close and that that that smack in the face is something that again other athletes cope better with than some and so when you when you get that i mean again it's a salty sea water swim very salty every ocean has salt we know this but some a little bit higher concentration this race when you take on some sea water take on some salt water it comes back to haunt you a little bit later sometimes early stages of the bike it's just something worth mentioning as these athletes greg they're coming up fairly close on the turn of the roca swim course yes so inside of the next five minutes we will be having the uh turn around buoy uh for our men's race this is our women's race right now so we're going to jump on down to the boat with matt lietto matt who are you seeing in the front of the women's race right now yeah so we've got jody swallow here at the front she was off course a little bit but they're back on now following our lead paddler meredith kessler is right on her right hip uh alicia k is in third behind her uh annabelle luxford is in fourth fifth place we have our defending champion daniella reef and she is she swims she's swimming ketchup she looks uh she looks awesome she is swimming though side to side with leanda so they're bumping a little bit sooner or later one of them is going to just kind of let the other athlete move forward so they don't get beat up quite so much carrie lester was in this group as well trying to get some of the names of the other athletes uh here but right now it's pretty smooth we have anya baranek is in that group as well um but we're going to go back and try to see what the we do have sorry we have four distinct groups right now we have these front athletes there's about nine sorry about 11 athletes in the front and then three three behind them and then another uh group of three behind them as well um so we have a few separate a few separate groups and uh and then these these lead these lead women uh are at the front here jody and meredith look nice and calm it doesn't look like they're pushing uh the pace too much but uh you know it's it's separated pretty quickly so obviously it's fast enough you just brought up the name carrie lester and it's funny that we haven't mentioned her she's from australia she's won three iron mans in the past and she has a br of 44 minutes greg 44 minutes on the swim at chattanooga last year it's a down river swim but she's a great swimmer that's not all she does well though she won those three ironmans she's done 442. she's run low three hours 303. carrie lester is an underrated under mentioned athlete that really could come into kona turn things around as far as corner history goes and just crush it and surprise a lot of athletes again um uh australia's carrie lester right up front but jody swallow greg what do you think she's not used to company like that and kessler is just right on her hip as matt said yeah it's only early i think that jody and meredith will put the hammer down here pretty soon once they approach the other turnpoint alicia k sitting in nicely there as we always mention when they're swimming in a single line there this is the fastest possible uh you know pace to be set if they're swimming as a group obviously the pace is not that high when daniela ryf is in the lead group of any race look out you know she's in great shape she's very well coached and i tell you what today she's going to be very very difficult to beat you know going into the race as the pre-race favorite carries a little bit of weight a little bit of pressure but she carries it well at the press conference during the week she was very confident so i tell you what daniela reef is looking forward to having a great race now in just under a couple of minutes time we're going to be seeing our men lead men going around that turn buoy for the very first time 100 yards across to the other side then they'll make that right hand turn again this is an elongated rectangle so we're at about 1.115 miles out and then 1.115 miles back they will get out exactly where they ended the water today then hit the t1 get off their swim and onto the bikes today but jan frodeno leads our men's race right now from marco albert no change at the front of the course there's a little gap there from andy potts in third place but i tell you what andy being as cagey as he is may be leaving a gap so when they get to that second turnaround buoy he may accelerate to get back onto the front of the the group there and leave the others in arrears paul matthews still sitting in fourth place there so a very good swim course at the moment frodeno sets the pace and uh no surprises mike no surprises paul matthews is a guy to talk about a little bit he's done a couple of sub 810 iron mans he's he's not had the most stellar iron man consistency over the course of the last three years but he is incredibly good he's got a wicked swim as you can see he's extremely fast on the bike and he also has done some incredible running so if paul matthews maintains what he's capable of he should be someone to look at but uh greg you know i i know we're looking at the men as they approach this roca swim course turn boat however one of the things that we have to touch in on and again when we get insight from matt is the way the women's race is going to absolutely explode the dynamic if mirinda carfrae is suffering at the hands of that front pack of swimmers that's kinley right there is it not sebastian kinley he is swimming in the second pack at the moment as they make their way toward the uh swim turn bui here in the roca swim course the roca swim record is held by lars jorgensen from the usa in 1998 that's a record that has stood now for quite some time at a 46 minute 41 second uh you know record there so we're just moments away from seeing our age group men getting underway here at uh 6 55 a.m local standard time here in hawaii as we see our men's professional athletes just about to hit that turn around bowie and uh jan frodeno looking very good so now we look at our age group men there we've got a total of 2 374 athletes out there 70 being our men athletes today our women athletes represent 30 percent of the field and i tell you what we have got a great race on hand today our largest category in our meds today is the 40 49 to 45 so the 45 to 49 year old males is 285 representing 12 of the field and then the second strongest today is the 40 to 44s at 266 athletes so our men's age group is just about to start as our men professional athletes around the turn bowie that's right and you've got jan ferdino you've got it marco albert you've got andy potts and then paul matthews next is brent mcmahon i believe we've seen that's the rest of the group look you are on the group if you are still there they're coming around that first turn on the roca swim course far end we're 1.2 miles away 1.2 miles to go but look they're doing great i mean honestly i think we've got 30 guys that are still in touch maybe 25 before we have that break to kiley's group and then another break to the couple other groups behind greg i just want to point something out to you mike as you can see a couple of little drafts you know across the uh the surface of the water today now we have a little bit of texture on there so there is a little bit of wind out there there's only six miles an hour of wind out there at the moment but as you can see we have a completely flat swim cause today if anything we're going to have a little bit of help coming back in the swell direction is from the south that'll push the athletes back into town sometimes we have these undercurrents and surges that come toward them so now we can see that they've made that second turn and now they're on the way back so this is going to be the faster part of the course jan frodeno just looks like he's accelerating a little bit head up out of the water navigating perfect now the hotel uh you know the courtyard by marriott hotel king kamehameha beach hotel they have two towers the west tower and the east tower now what they want to aim for is the east tower they will be navigating off that they will be looking at the stand up paddle board as well that is rock fry one of our technical directors out there giving the best best possible navigational line so they will be aiming for that easter tower at the king kingcam hotel as their landmark now on the way back here we noticed that before that andy potts was leaving that gap he's still leaving that gap and i tell you what the other athletes are going to be a little bit worried about that because now look what's happening it is really stringing out it's no longer a a covered blanket there you can see that before all the athletes were swimming very very closely jan frodeno off to the left marco albert to the right little gap back to andy potts paul matthews in there and now we can see an acceleration by a couple of the other athletes now sensing that they're going to be left behind brent mcmahon there seems to have lost a sweep cap he's sitting in fifth position at the moment so a lot of our lead athletes there are our favorite athletes mike they're off to a great start on the second leg of this swim well coming back that's that's great commentary greg and just as you turn around and come back and you see that uh that frodeno is putting the pressure on i think coming back there's an underrated difficulty when that you have that current in your favor some athletes really struggle to stay on top of the movement like that they stay they struggle to keep the turnover they struggle to keep the pace also 23 minutes of swimming tends to be a breaking point 20 to 25 minutes where athletes may be able to fake it and then you you suddenly break um worthy of noting as they come back it is also a little bit more difficult to navigate you saw the line of those droka buoys they're they're in line but they move a little bit so following the paddleboard is important but in general when you're in this situation you've got somewhere between a thousand and 1500 meters to go you'll often see another crack another break it's just hard to keep that focus and keep the athlete um mindset that you need to just be in that groove so as we look at overhead shots of the women's race that is a nice nice group of our lead pack here we are again back with the men it's worth saying that you can see that gallop that sort of gallop in the stroke not unlike a katie ledecky is it is it not where she's uh she's kind of known for that gallop in her swim and jan frodeno galloping through the water in the front yeah as you can see jan fernino's style are very beautiful to watch underwater he's got that perfect stroke and it's almost like he's actually you know it's thrusting that left arm forward and the trailing right arm comes just quickly after that and then there's a little bit of a glide under the water so his left arm is doing the gliding his right arm's doing the following and the tracking as we can see now on the way back i noticed from the overhead shot that there's been quite a bit of zigzagging happening you know so navigating might be a little bit tough there today i mean it's absolutely gorgeous downtown the sun has sort of snuck behind a couple of clouds at the moment so what they're focusing on is that landmark of the king kamehameha beach hotel and also the lead board paddler there so they're just relying on those two things to give themselves back in the fastest possible way as we see our women just heading out to the first turnaround buoy here on the rocker swim course jody swallow and meredith kessler are now accelerating and with the pace alicia k is just dropping off the feet only just a little bit and then you can see the rest daniella reef and the rest of the company there this was a 14 strong pack i only counted 13 in the pack there just a moment ago so we've lost one athlete so you know that the acceleration has been made yes and these women i think the men as well really threatening that course record we've seen lars jorgensen hold that course record since 1998 uh 18 years ago he did that in a swimsuit nothing but a brief he did not have a speed suit on and he was an olympic uh level swimmer one of the best 1500 meter swimmers in the country at the time at the university of tennessee but large jorgensen his record may be in jeopardy only because the men have been in for 27 minutes they 19 minutes to go i mean just calculating where they are based on the visuals they aren't that far away from finishing maybe 18 to 20 minutes so it is close it's gonna be i think a very fast day women coming around they're approaching the turn uh they're you know around about gonna be 24 minutes their record set by jody jackson a stanford swimmer she did that in 1999 also that was before the speed suit era so 1999 they were they were still racing in just the swimsuit it wasn't until a couple years later that they started pulling on the speed suit so uh guys we are just really close from our age group men's star the age group men all you can see in the bottom right picture they are lined up in the light blue caps that is a lot bigger group of course it is it's a lot lot bigger group that's because there's 1600 athletes in there 1600 age group men the best in the world lined up to tackle this 2.4 mile roca swim course they're going to do the exact same swim it's one of those amazing features of the sport of iron man you get to race as an amateur on the same day the same course the same conditions all of the same as your professional uh counterparts so really exciting stuff you don't get to do that with golf greg i have never teed up with tiger woods never and probably never will okay we're inside of 90 seconds away from our age group start there as we see our women here our professional women jody swallow and also meredith kessler meredith just slightly ahead there at the moment alicia cage is pulling up onto the back there's daniella riefly and the caves right in there as well so a lot of our favorites are right up there so here they are at uh just about 24 minutes on the turn so we're going to uh look at around about a 50 minute uh plus swim for those uh ladies out there today so that's a very very quick uh you know uh first leg out there you can see is our professional men are 2908 so just less than 50 seconds away from our age group start that we mentioned before that the 40 to 44s and the 45 to 49s were our top age groups and then we had the 50 to 54s at 8.8 35 to 39 at 9.9 percent of the field there so you can see that the crux of the field in between the 35 to 39 up to the 50 to 54 in the men's division out there today it's worth noting that we have five physically challenged and five hand cycles out there as well today they'll be getting underway momentarily as well so here we are just about set for one of the most beautiful shots in all of sport the age group start of the 2016 iron man world championship absolutely amazing never get sick of that side mike one of the greatest shots you'll ever see i agree with you 100 and here it is we are so close that's it greg the cannon has fired and we have 1600 plus athletes underway on this roku swim course tackling kailua bay with everything they've got a churn of white water arms flailing bodies bumping everything moving with every ounce of force forward to get across this course that is 3.8 kilometers greg and it is a long ways to go even for the most prepared athlete that's exactly right so now we're underway with our men's age group start we're gonna track on back out to the boat with matt lietto so matt will join us in just a few moments time us air force have 12 athletes in the race today u.s navy at 11 u.s army at six the u.s marine corps at three and the u.s coast guard and too as well we've got 31 fallen foreign military athletes in the race today we've got 29 firefighters and 24 police officers in the race and look at that shot mike right across the span of kailua bay here down at digni beach the start of our race today the men's age groupers are now underway now in just under 13 minutes we will see our age group women getting underway in the 2016 ironman world championship as well but now you can see that the beautiful waters have been turned into a churning washing machine out here in kailua bay the beautiful pacific ocean has turned on another great day for us here in kailua kona and now we are just about to set to go back down to matlietto in the boat you there matt yeah thanks so much greg right now we're kind of letting that lead group go by as the group went by us we did see a split was starting to occur with tim don leading or letting a gap happen behind him we had tim burkle luke mckenzie tim reed as well right now we're looking at three stragglers that have gotten dropped off that group that are trying to maintain uh contact as much as they can i'll tell you what greg and michael they are absolutely hauling right here uh uh jan frodeno is pushing the pace we went through the turn buoy on the way out of the uh of the turn at 23 minutes that is absolutely flying uh so jan fordino is not wasting his time as far as pushing the pace and as we look the group is definitely zagging side to side and there is a little bit of a gap open so that front group the last few years we've been used to this like 40 man group it's not going to be that it might be a 12 man and a 10 man but it's a little bit more hectic we were able to get some names on the women's fields a little crazy around here right now but uh the the lead group has separated and then behind that group uh we did have a gap to rini who was swimming with two other athletes and then a further gap to a group containing uh mel husselt um and uh liz lyles uh kaze was in there and heather jackson was in there as well um but right now we're gonna kind of check and see uh who's getting dropped from this men field try to check back in with the women and get back to transition before they all hit there guys okay matt that's great good insight and it is always good to know who's getting popped off i do feel like that last 1000 to 1500 meters is a tricky spot because you've been on the rivet uh jan ferdino just pushing the pace saying i want to get this gap i want to get away he he very well may take the course record today that that looks like the pace they're on however um it's the guys like tim don luke mckenzie the tim's that you mentioned those guys are great great swimmers and so it could be a positioning thing it could just be the wrong moment but here's a close-up shot of jan ferdino and the left side of your screenshot with marco albert just behind him and then jan ferdino he is you know you hear this often athletes that come over from itu and they have that experience racing extremely hard for 1500 meters they they do their first conan and they say well gosh that was really easy i feel like i'm just kind of flopping around and so over the last several years we've had more of these i2 athletes come rising to the cro to the top they're just saying hey i don't need to sit in i don't need to i can push out this uh fit you know 45 to 50 minute swim at my 97 98 i don't need to be backing off i don't need to float through i'm gonna get after it and get away and so that's what you're seeing here today greg you know what uh in the men's professional race you'll see that uh nobody's going to help you know jan frodeno today he's the defending champion so why you know why push the pace because he's going to be the guy that gets out there in the you know first part of the bike ride and sets the pace as well he's by far and away one of the best bike riders in the race as well as well as probably the best runner so uh you know we we need to see you know some of the other guys you know taking initiative if they want to you know drop other people but he's done enough to get rid of a lot of the uh you know he's made a split in that in that front group so that's one of his one of his goals has been done but the other goal is to keep that pace going but nobody else is coming around as you can see right now and helping him marco albert is just sitting on the shoulder andy potts has you know gone up onto the back of him there but he's not going to do any work at the moment you can see that paul matthews is sitting right in there brent mcmahon having a great swim today brent mcmahon is one of the pre-race favorites as well having done four ironman races only three of those times breaking the eight hour mark and last year when he did iron man brazil there in florianopolis of the iron man latin american championship he was only 12 seconds off mourinho van hoenke's then world record which was absolutely stunning you know the race that you had down there the first half of the bike ride in florianopolis was in rainy conditions very slick conditions on the road but he was right up there so now jan frodino leads marco albert here with just a few hundred meters now you know left in this uh men's swim course here coming up to about one kilometer to go you'll see that our athletes will accelerate one more time before they come on in to the finish line there you can see our lead paddle boarder he's right there giving them the straightest possible line out there and you can see now that we've got there we'll count them up for you one two three four we've got six eight ten twelve athletes now on the front group and around about 15 seconds down is the split so he's done what he set out to do is it going to be enough to you know split them up in transition because you know that to make the transition eagle here in kona they have to run all the way around the back of the you know transition area through that change tent then they'll retrieve their bikes and then head out onto the uh onto the bike and folks looking for uh brent mcmahon he's the guy in there in the blue uh swim skin that doesn't have a swim cap it is okay for that swim cap to pop off as long as it's inadvertent uh sometimes people uh prefer that feeling once it's off just because it cools you off a bit to have that head uh free in the water but uh don't be alarmed it does happen often with the chop in the water and the uh and the water just pegging you when you lift your head up like that so uh ladies and gentlemen this is a little bit unexpected to see i think these guys break away and really be kind of threatening that course record nine minutes away as i just quickly glance at that i'm gonna go ahead and say they're going to come out in 47 12 but that's just me i'm not sure if i'm accurate they have to get a minute faster than that which they're fully capable of to get to get large jefferson's record but what a day greg and we're still seeing as we just look out here we're still seeing a little bit of haze but pretty clear days we can still see hualala you can still see uh i think what's going to be a hot run course and and it's it's a little premature clearly to begin speaking about the run but we're still here in the roca swim but i but i do think greg you just have to start to look we haven't even mentioned matt hasn't even seen the course record holder 852 to her credit mirinda carfrae we haven't even talked about her but if she loses too much contact now and then she falls upon the bike leg which she has a little bit of a a weakness relative to daniela ryf you know we may lose her and we need to see her we need to see her move her way through because miranda carfrae a lot of people's favorites a lot of fans rooting for the young ozzy or the uh the aussie yeah well you know the meringue is you know never one to swim in that lead swim group so we know what her tactic is is just you know just swallow the swallow your pride limit the loss on the on the swim she always does that and then she just you know gets out on the bike and then makes it all up on the run so we just have to wait and see how that pans out for morinda today so i'm not panicking whatsoever at this point in time with mirinda carfree that's for sure daniella reeve seems to be in a really good position she's a you know such a great athlete she's got three very strong legs just like jan frodeno so we'll just have to wait and see how that all goes for those guys but right now we've got to look at our immense professional race here with jan ferdino just leading our you know pack of swimmers there through right now marco albert's still in the same place andy pods it's been the same the whole way long paul matthews still in fourth spot brenda mcmahon in fifth spot we've got a lot of our favorites in this league group today it'll be interesting to see who has missed that lead group and then also when they you know when these athletes you know get out of the water and get on the bikes mike they have to be very very um what can i say they have to control themselves they can't let their emotions get the better of them a lot of the times you'll see that these athletes over the first 45 miles might accelerate a little bit above their level so they've got to watch their power outputs watch the heart rate you know go by field know that they've got another you know 60 miles to ride after that and that's where a lot of things go wrong for a lot of our athletes going for the win here today a lot of the strong bikers you'll notice that they keep the same outputs all the way back from harvey back to kona town so that's where it's going to be won or lost today and set up because you know that sebastian kinley he's up for redemption he was you know really um not happy with his second place down there in australia at 70.3 world championships nor was he happy about you know the fact that he got eighth place in last year's ironman world championship he says he's a lot better than that so as we get just about set to see our age group women uh you know heading out onto their race that are about five minutes away we'll see our professional men coming back in on the other side of the course there as well so the women athletes will be pushed out to the eastern side of the course whereas the men will come in on the western side of the course head up onto the pier and in transition so you know we we have to we have to dive in here and getting some feedback this is what we love when you're using hashtag imc when you're using twitter hitting us up we're getting great feedback and room and you know we have heard from our crowd and it's a very very good point mike gibbons thanks for shooting that in here that very well could be greg harry wiltshire in that front group harry wiltshire is a british athlete we haven't spoken a lot about but he's got that high level swim caliber he was a guy he's a lead out guy for the british team in the i2 racing for the brownies he was a guy that went up there and went fast and furious at the front of the iq pack if you can do that you can certainly sit so i think that's great commentary from the crowd remember keep shooting us that stuff over at uh uh ironman live greg and michael lovato on twitter as well as any of our social channels through uh through facebook forward slash iron man try instagram iron man try and also twitter iron man try it's iron man try all day long we are here anxiously waiting as you are to see who comes out of the water first other questions coming from the crowd is there any chance that the course is short chances are zero to one percent that this this course is measured short they just don't make those kinds of errors here at the ironman world championship they get out there they measure the stuff they have access and time to do that all week long these courses are buttoned down and i think that a lot of times you'll see short courses some of the races around the globe where they have a little bit more margin for error but not the case here in kona what happens is you just have to remember we've got the best of the best of the best on that professional field of men's and women's and their lighting into what i feel like are pretty decent conditions um a swimmer like jan fordino and swimmers like jodie swallow meredith kessler they're just able to swim well so i would put that to rest that speculation uh thanks ed o'malley for coming to us with that question but look in here we'll see if we have every single course record fall at every age group we may have to raise an eyebrow but right now i think it's just good swimming on a good day greg yes i just got a comment on twitter why are you and michael sitting so close to each other is it a small table well actually no it's a rather large table and we like each other so there you go and that's right and for you you know you brought us right back in and so we sit close together we we like one another we're not shy and also we want to make sure that we focus on other things other than the table with which is this race um so when these athletes come out of the water just a little uh overview what are you gonna see when they hit the roca swim course exit and you talked about this greg they run up a little steps that's in the beach from digni beach right up onto the pier so just visualize this folks you're hitting solid ground uh sorry greg you're you're right to say well we're still looks like two minutes away from the start of the women's race they are uh on course queued up and not one person is creeping ahead of that buoy so age group women kudos because i think the professional men could stand to learn from you as they love to do the creeper creeper but uh so folks you hit you hit the beach you run up a short staircase about six steps you're on to the pier you're under the swim arch you hang a hard left there's fresh water showers you come under hoses hanging you'll spritz yourself down get some of that salt water off right into a changed tent i'm sorry right through the bag racks grab a bag a blue bike bag you grab that bag straight into a change tent remember every athlete be it jan frodeno or 17 hour finisher every athlete has to cover the same distance as greg said into the change tent whether or not you change clothes exit the far end you then do a large loop all the way around the back side of that transition before you head on in greg we've gotta split two athletes off to the right i see the blue outfit of what i believe is paul matthews i see what i think is probably um andy potts over there on the right side and then on the left side you've got jan frodeno with possibly harry wiltshire on his hip as well as marco albert and another blue athlete so we're gonna have to get a little closer look but guys a split this is it the pace continues to pick up as we close in on these final few minutes of the swim yeah definitely andy poggs just uh making his way across to the right hand side now the age group women are going to have to make a little bit of room there as our professional men come in across our finish line here for the roka swim here today 2.4 miles coming to a close for those professional men and if we do call the uh professional women girls we do apologize it's just uh we get caught up in the moment of course and uh we do our best to uh absolutely give our respect to our professional women by not calling them girls as well but we do apologize for that okay so here we see our lead paddler is bringing our athletes right into the pier at the moment as we can see our age group women are underway here so we can see that 30 of the field are our women athletes today 44 of those being professional and the rest of the make up our age group women so there they go they are now underway in the 2016 imad world championship for their chance to come home and call themselves an ironman world champion that's right and we've got some legends i know missy lestrange is out there she is an athlete that has raced this world championship a number of times i saw her just the other day and she's such a great person everyone loves to see her here's our pro man coming in the two lines you see in the bottom of your screen just past the gatorade endurance bottle closing out uh this 2.4 miles of roca swim course action um they're gonna you know they're gonna see a couple of those women everyone's getting pushed off to their left the pro-men staying to their left but notice even that little angle that they're taking is a little bit different on the right side there greg uh jan fernino's group is trying to tuck right on in on the pier and i think they're going to converge all once they come around the tires uh that are on the edge of that buoy sorry pier well i don't know about you mike but uh my uh experience swimming down here uh you get really sucked around that corner they just have to be very careful of the uh the rocks around there it looks like pots has drawn the best angle and it looks like frodeno has come up a little bit short there now yarn's going to go up onto the shoulder of andy potts but i tell you what there is bragging rights to get out of the water first here marco albert is on the left side jan frodeno in the middle andy potts is really stretching it out now you know that those three athletes are the three best swimmers in the field they're going for it andy potts wants it this year i wouldn't mind uh betting that he's got a little bit of a bonus on being first out of the water today as you can see here marco albert wants a little bit of the action as well so now yarn frodeno has just now settled onto the feet of andy potts there so matt liedto is going to be standing by for us to see the athletes coming out of the water there so we're going to come down to you matt and just so you know andy potts has the lead over marco albert and yanfordino tucked in right behind matt take it away i think before we get right on shore with matt there's those lane lines that al trout was talking about and andy potts just lost a key spot on that left side it's either wheelchair it's marker albert but i think if it's marco albert marco knows he's been first out before andy potts wants to be first out certainly a bonus on offer but also he knows he's an overall contender here where marco albert is not he could go in top three top four maybe win the race so potts and again we've got fradino he said i'm not done yet let me get in there too i did a lot of work i made an acceleration there greg they are smashing arms they are just running into each other it is on for young and all but going down to matt take it away man that does look like the height of malcolm marker albert i don't know if matt's still out on the water matt do you just take it from us when you see it they're under the change tent they're into that freshwater hose and we are going into the change tent so guys this is exactly to describe you're losing these guys because they're going into the change tent you're not allowed to go in there with a camera because there's sometimes nudity folks it's never too early to talk about nudity and iron man world championship they're in there they're under probably not these guys they're keeping their skinnies on but they're under the change tent you're gonna see him exit in a minute and greg there is an amazing view you have of these uh of this transition back on the water to watch a four a few more of these athletes come out and hit solid ground but again these athletes as they exit that looks like andy rayler right there at the back of that pack here we are back on top of the scene helmet on which is a brilliant brilliant move if you have the opportunity to put your helmet in your transition bag i say why not do it because you have a long long time to get that helmet clipped on and ready by the time you get to the bike you are set no dilly-dallying at the bicycle some of these athletes place them on the uh on the handlebars and i never quite understand that but here he comes the far far end of the the buoy sorry the pier i keep calling that pier of buoy but as you come around that far into the pier greg you've still got a good 40 seconds to run um and this is a good carpeted area the entire way as these athletes you've got jan ferdino's second position notice him in the white and red jan frodeno all day long white red he's pulling his arrow top on greg good eyes and as he gets that on again lots and lots of time to do that as you run to your bike he'll have that on and zipped up by the time he gets to his bike again i just don't know why he doesn't have his helmet on but he will pop that on as he's standing at the edge of the number one bike see that's why this is the problem because one of the helmets just flew off the bike there because one of the other athletes bumped into the bike and that's that's the dangerous thing that you were talking about now the other the other thing is jan frodeno had to put he put his um you know jersey on over the top there goes tim don just you know heading out so the thing is he was getting dressed whereas the other guys see marco had a a sleeve suit you know going out whereas uh yarn decided not to do that and that's why that happened there's an echo janos going out from spain right now so eneko yanos is out on but that's igor uh brazil's igor amarelli perhaps with that uh that red bull hat so here we have jan fordino already to the front he said you know what let's get this done right away that's palani hill he's popping up that little jaunt and that is torenzo buzzone uh wildly talented athletes just coming out as well there's andy uh sort of going out there look at rudy wilde just getting dressed hit right now he's looking very very good there's ben hoffman 2014 second place from the usa there's tyler butterfield and then we've also got a lot of athletes just rolling through this looks like luke mckenzie second place two years three years ago there's an echo janos and as we look to more athletes streaming out this is your pat greg yeah freddie van lieder the uh 2013 world champion just uh heading out onto the bikes as well and tim yeah timmy reed the uh 70.3 iron man world championship winner from just five weeks ago in malula bar australia so look at that we've got 51 minutes gone very very quick swimming today and i tell you what that group has a really good opportunity of really making a shake up here in the first part look at this gap here so far as we look now down at our athletes heading out onto the bike course now they're on the kuakini highway they're going to make a right-hand turn as they go up past our sporting fields and the local public pool there as we can see some more of our athletes heading out onto the uh course that was tyler butterfield just heading out right now from bermuda last year fifth place and i'm not sure if anyone else noticed it but tim uh uh tim reed our 70.3 world champion did not have his budgie smugglers on there's uh kevin collington hitting the road i don't know why he was wearing his tri shorts you made him do that i tell you what mike yeah we've been calling this all week this could be a record day the wins aren't supposed to gust up to the normal you know conditions that we normally have today was two minutes exactly two minutes and 50 seconds faster than last year's swim times already we can see that that is going to be a huge you know surprise to a lot of people harry wiltshire first out of the water he was in 48 minutes and he pots second yard for dino third paul matthews marco albert dennis chavro from france brent mcmahon in seventh david mcnamee last year's eleventh place getter in eighth place igor ahmed raleigh in ninth and andy booker in 10th timo o'donnell from the usa in 11 tim don and followed by in 13th place with lorenzo bazoni so look at this two minutes and 50 seconds ahead of where he was last year jan frodino remembering that the race record here is held by craig alexander in 2011 at 803 high and that's right and he said he wanted to go under eight and obviously under 803 you're taking home the fastest time that's ever been taken home but jan ferdino he looked really good really smooth and of course two and a half minutes ahead is a good thing to beat but notice greg if you look at those top splits 12 of them were essentially together it wasn't until you saw number athlete number 13 that you saw that gap to terenzo bizoni where there was appreciable difference there of 30 seconds 28 seconds but when you look at that that um that 11-man strong pack we're gonna probably seem to come together let's just jump out for a second onto the ventum bike course a ventum bike horse at this iron man world championship this year is as it always is it starts out with a spiker right up a little stinger right up pulana you hang a left on the kuakini you go about a quarter of a mile down you take a right turn on makala as you're going up macaula there's another little stinger before you hang a right on the on the queen k the queen k has a long gradual drag of just about 1200 meters there's sebastian keanely there's jesse thomas there's david mcnamee there's will clark these guys coming out these are that's will clark sorry with the bmc we have right here um athletes that are coming through that we talked about as favorites but this is your 2014 ironman world champion that's him from germany sebastian kiele this man is well within contact and matt you are right there how does keeley look as he's coming out of the water take it away matt give us some action yeah thanks so much michael yeah keeley looks good obviously not stoked to be where he is but uh he's got a good good group of athletes around him jesse thomas was first group out of transition uh jordan rapp was right there as well uh right now we have another athlete getting uh right behind them as well but uh sebastian keenley didn't look too too stressed he kind of shook out his arms as he jogged away and uh getting ready to get to business but nothing too crazy happened here andy boscher kind of missed his bike i had to run around the racks a couple times to find it but besides that just the normal hectic nature of this transition but right now i'm looking at the clock and 55 minutes has gone by and the group that got dropped pretty heavily just went out of transition so as you guys said they're absolutely flying today and we've got the women right now about ready to come out of the swim uh here today as well we had for we had fradino wheelchair and we had those guys at 50 at 48 minutes so that's a big big gap but matt i can tell you right now they are rounding that hard part of the uh pier and it is a women's pack like we've not seen in a while jody swallow meredith kessler and then two by two by two all the way behind k cave luxford these women are all together reef so you call us the action when you're when it's the time comes but right now matt they are too too abreast as they're coming and this women's pack will be there in a second mike i'll tell you something last year's uh swim times for daniella reef was 56-14 they are going to absolutely shatter that this year by over four minutes absolutely incredible swimming by our women today you saw that our men went two and a half minutes faster or two minutes and 50 seconds faster so matt now women today are going to shatter their time from last year especially daniela ryf by almost four minutes and matt you'll be able to take it to us when you see these women just grab the uh grab it from us because right now we're seeing this okay we do have lionel sanders into transition um we just had uh michael weiss go through uh transition as well sorry lionel sanders just got out of the water so 56 30 about time for lionel sanders chasing as well so as you said we do have our women here coming soon i'll let you guys know when they when they hit the pier but as you said michael it is a much bigger group than we're used to seeing or we've seen in the last few years uh curious as to whether that's going to transfer onto the bike ride if we're going to have a large women's league group here but i see them through the fencing here right now and we have it looks like about 10 women coming out maybe more let's see one two three we've got about 12 women coming out just about ready to hit the shore we're gonna see who gets the swim prem here today we're at 57 minutes for the men so 52 mid and we've got meredith kessler first out of the water jody swallow leanda cave annabelle oxford alicia k [Music] we do have a few more athletes there's five more i did not see our defending champion i might have missed her but i did not see daniella in that group but again i may have missed her because we had a few come by right at once i do believe i saw yesterbee as well in that group but a fast swim and jody swallow uh ended up i believe getting third out of the water there so laura wassner was also in that group so a tight tight group and again really curious to see guys you think we're going to have a lead women's bike pack as well are we going to get split up here pretty quick back i mean obviously we'll have two or three people maybe drop out of there but we counted from above matt 13 women and i do think reef was in there but you were right that it was hard to snag her 13 women hit solid ground together and uh we have some newcomers that's camilla pedersen that we're looking at that's rolling through never forget wow the blonde braid uh rolling through from denmark camilla pederson she'll be first on greg yeah i think uh you know what i kind of remember the last time that we saw 13 women coming out of the uh the lead group you know with our with our swimmers here so uh as we see another one of our professional men just are heading out onto the bikes that was our last of our professional men heading out there so now we get our professional women coming through mike as i was saying 13 women in this league group when was the last time that we saw that happen it has been donkey years since we've seen that so now we can see camilla patterson right up the front leander cave alicia k is in there annabelle luxford's right up there as well so these girls have swam a very good time today and we'll get we'll get back to the times as soon as we have them coming through but i tell you what right now check it out as we go through there's camilla peterson there's alicia kate right over there now they've got their bikes and heading out onto the course there this is uh because julia gaia they're just coming through this uh there's daniella refound defending champion just heading out grabbing their bikes there right now we can see just heading out onto the bike course so look at this fellas mary beth ellis mbe doing a last race and that was alicia k to go out last in that group of 13. i tell you what that is an exciting group of women camilla pedersen putting the shoes on we've got everyone luxford we've got her as a talented swim biker said she didn't want to come back to kona changed her mind a couple weeks later i'm back in this she's a woman that when she puts together a great day she's a solid top tenor there's daniela ryf getting after it on the road there's jody swallow i2 long distance world champ there's uh mary beth ellis well she's always got that signature short ride on up shows off those powerful quads mary beth tell us julia geyer from germany our north american ironman regional champion 2016 this year greg julegar she lit into that field this is so exciting it is amazing to see 13 women tackling this course you're right there mike and the honey badger mary beth ellis in a final race of a career as a professional woman athlete here heads out and attacks the ventum bike course 180 kilometers 112 miles in length as we now head out and now let's go and check our leaderboard for our swim times today on the rocker swim course our men's race today was led by harry wiltshire and followed by andy potts and two seconds down jan ferdino our defending champion paul matthews from australia and marco albert in fifth that's right and then we had denny chevro last year's top 10 from france brent mcmahon from canada david mcnamee an incredible swim this guy finished with the fastest run last year and 11th david mcnamee right after him brazil's igor amarelli and andy becher from germany making that group andy betcher is another one matt lieto hasn't picked at third place the guy really lit it up and pushed teeley to the limit in frankfurt at the regional championship for europe earlier this year what an incredible top ten yeah exactly looking at for dino what's he saying yeah so frodino he is having a little issue out here on the bike course at the moment but let's just run through the top 25 athletes out of the water for you let's pick it up from number 11. that was tim o'donnell third place in last year's race tim don terenzo bazzoni andy raylor is showing no signs of pain with that right hand injury that he's carrying through this race christian cramer also from germany frederick van leer there's brent mcmahon now on screen there also heading out there was ivan ranya james cunnima ben hoffman luke mckenzie patrick lang was right in there as well and there was an echo janos tim van burkel david dello rudy wild and rounding out the top 25 today was the 70.3 world champion from australia tim reid so i'll tell you what greg what i think we were seeing there was i think it was a frustrated young for dino they're on the climb up the kuakini were early on in the bike ride and he saw canada's brent mcmahon it felt like you need to back off i think sometimes regardless of what we actually see we feel like stuff is a little close so that on the other side of the road was tim o'donnell heading up and the stars and stripes are american champ that man he is close the contenders are all together but let's just lay the scene for those of you that haven't seen this course in person or written across it it's a long climb up though kookini and it does hurt because you're still early on where you're adjusting to the ride and the intensity levels that you're trying to put out you turn around and here we are with brent mcmahon coming right around john frodeno to get to the front of the race this is a very very fast downhill when you get to the bottom of this downhill that's approximately a mile a half long you're going to take a hard right and go steep steep uphill on palani that is the uh hot corner of our event here at the 2016 iron man world champs when you hit that pilani hill in that hot corner you climb steep steep steep steep lots of screams lots of cheers you hang a hard left out onto the queen k and you get away from town but right now brent mcmahon maybe said hey sorry you thought i was too close i'll get up front you won't have a worry jan frodino second wheel remember guys we had a lot of there's there's your guy right there uh from great britain tim dawn he's a dark horse how can he be a dark horse only because he hasn't done well here before but i personally feel that if tim dawn keeps himself in position on a day that doesn't have a ton of wind he is going to be an absolute threat for a top five the guy runs just about as well as anyone in this sport john frodeno incredibly talented brent mcmahon and and just about as well as anyone in this sport john frodeno incredibly uh talented brent mcmahon and and and david mcnamee but tim don watch out for that guy late in the day the ventum bike course the official bike of the 2016 ironman world championship now we're underway with this uh bike course here in kailua kona we've got around about eight miles done by the time they get back up to the top of palani road 13 percent great as they make their way up to the queen kaumano highway making a left hand too and then they've got a straight shot of 38 miles up to kauai high and then the climb begins a 19 mile up your grade all the way to harvey town where they will turn around and make their way back to hawaii kai and then sorry kawaii hi and then make their way back onto the queen kaumano highway for the last 38 miles back into kailua kona where they'll head out onto the run today the first 45 miles of this bike course is always the most difficult the most frantic and this is where the pressure's on for a lot of the athletes and that's why you'll see some of the race favorites being frustrated with the pace and also you have to be very careful about not coming inside of that 10 meter zone there mike well 12 meter zone so the athletes have around about 30 seconds to pass there 25 yeah 25 well 25 seconds and it used to be 25 seconds at the 10 meters so at the 12 meters it might be a little bit more now so as we can see our athletes coming back into town just about ready to attack palani road and get up the top there before hitting the queen k tredino mcmahon lead the race right now and we do have a large group at the front of this course so just about set to see the action here down at the hot corner kuakini highway and palani road where thousands of spectators will be lining the streets here ready to see their favorite athletes and here we go we're approaching it as they come right here under hawala where the run course will exit later they're going to cross one more traffic light as it flattens out here at henry street and then they're going to make a hard right on palani here's henry as they go under here they're going to have just a tiny bit as kalanias a tiny bit more they're going to have henry street a right turn up palani and when they hit palani greg you're going to have to make a sudden shift of gears we've seen people come in here before and say i'm in the wrong gear a big gear i'd rather be in the small gear you know big chain ring drop to the small chain ring either way you have to be prepared because you've been screaming down at 40 miles an hour uh you know that and then you have to hit that hard right and you dramatically drop in speed right away you're going 10 miles an hour at best it's always interesting to see as we approach this section how athletes manage that transition i mean it sounds like a minor thing these guys are professionals but we have seen more than one person drop a chain there's danny chevro from france here we go on the ride to palani road right now we've seen crashes here before with guys laying the bikes over just trying to get every ounce of speed out of this corner swinging out to the left-hand side of the road now dropping the gears into the lower chainring there and trying to get as fast as they can up the top of this hill there you can see some of the athletes having to jam on the brakes and just making sure that they stay that 12 meter legal length behind here you can see out of the saddle is chavro from france so matt we'll just give you a little heads up what we see is brett mcmahon has gone right to the front after getting sort of brushed off there on the kuakini climb by jan frodeno right now brent mcmahon got about a 20 meter gap on yawn yawn seated um on this climb and i think he knows that i can only hurt myself on palani matt you're down there near the fray we're having a nice close look at jan ferdino now riding third wheel you know what jan frodeno he's just letting these guys go he was just sitting there in absolutely no hurry at all look at brent mcmahon he's made a bit of a gap here to get back up to uh the front there so matt we just want to let you know that uh brent mcmahon has made a bit of a gap here going up palani road and now we can see that some more athletes are going to want a little bit of action here tim o'donnell has now moved up into second place so matt the usa very strong at the front of this race yeah no no surprise there tim o'donnell with his third place last year first american was a big big big bit of pride for him so no doubt he's going to attack it again here today we had some americans go through here just recently on the women's field in heather jackson and liz liles i didn't get an accurate split but they were a few minutes back from another group that had heather wertell and mirinda carfrae in it i'm also in that group with was mel hosholt she was with heather jackson and liz lyles we do have a few more of the female pros still coming out i i'm looking at bikes here so i see a lindsay corbin's bike is still out here we have team timex trek here we go the women right now trying to find out where their rack is there's lindsey corbin when we just spoke up um everything was pretty smooth out here on the women's field mary beth ellis lost her gps uh she was yelling for that we'll get her a new one no big deal there but besides this here we go lindsay lindsey corpen uh just through transition uh kind of a usa pride as you were saying we had with tim o'donnell uh going as well right now we have an issue here with this erdinger athlete uh she's got her brakes tight but she uh loosened it up and ready to go but as you said guys very imp that matt that was lucy gossage the eredinger she's uh lucy gossage uh from great britain and she had uh maybe a little bit slower swim because we know a couple eight weeks ago she broke a collarbone and had some bad luck so she may have a little bit slower swim than she's typically accustomed to but uh there's sarah pianpiano and again she was uh the sarah pianpiano american seventh place last year the second fastest run just behind liz blattford but you know we look at these times she's at the bike in 105 last year she was she was all the way in that through that swim uh more like a 110. so sarah pianpiano has already improved upon what she did last year but you know 110 so she shaved five minutes off that's all the way to the bike sarah piambiano definitely a contender but not someone that we look to have uh the win jumping right back on to the men's race oh and i'm hearing overhead i'm just getting worried you probably heard it too natasha batman six time iron man winner is out of the water i saw that cheetah that she uh rides uh sitting there in in transition but she is such a good uh good athlete and here we have andy so this is andy potts overtaking tim o'donnell one of the things that i looked at earlier greg which was fascinating to me was the arbitrary nature that andy potts claimed that he prepared for all these race in the past he just kind of was winging it and and you know what bike did he ride what helmet did he choose you know when did he show up he just he was winging did i shave my legs that knot it's a fascinating interview with andy potts and now he said you know what i'm a better dialed athlete i've done back to back fourth place is what does it take to get to number one right now he's in front of tim o'donnell if he stays in front of him that's a good way to get towards that top stop all right so andy potter is rocketing his way to the front of the 2016 iron man world championship right after the break we will update the top 10 women out of the swim stay with us you are watching imen live here on ironman.com welcome back to the 2016 ironman world championships we're here looking at the ventum bike course and that is none other than usa's andy potts he is rocking and rolling and this guy came in with a renewed vigor he decided you know what i've haphazardly approach this race to some extent and i'm not prepared to do so i'm coming in with the right helmet the right arrow position the right crank length the right preparation and he is doing just what he needs to do what i believe is to get out and go he's too good to sit around and wait so andy potts a guy who has won seven iron man titles he's here coming to kona he's only had two bad races here he's had two bad races of seven five of five of his good races have been inside the top ten so andy potts a reliably consistent and so unlike under others of the americans who've done very well he is consistently doing great so andy potts great shots of him at the front of this bike ride yeah well many are calling for andy potts to be the uh the best of the usa today so well we'll have to wait and see uh when they run down a leaky drive a little bit later on this afternoon i'm sure that tim o'donnell will want to have something to say about that as well as ben hoffman kevin collington jesse thomas just to name a few let's go back and take a look at our swimmers out of the water today now women's standings after the first transition meredith kessler was your first out of the water today leander kane jody swallow annabelle luxford from australia and alicia k in fifth position camilla peterson daniela ryf our defending champion only at five seconds down anya berenic germany laura wassner from the usa and also michelle vesterby the second of our danish athletes coming in all within 10 seconds now just to go a little bit further than that if you're wondering about uh marinda cartfree one of our favorites today she was three minutes and 58 seconds in her ears there susie cheatham at 5 27. then we had melissa halshield at 608 down heather jackson at 6 10. so all of our favorites on our women's side are all within six minutes and 10 seconds today there mike so that's how it stands after the swim course here today in kailua kona for this year's world championship now as we get back out to the ventum bike course here we saw that andy potts was leading our men's race just a moment ago now we're starting to get some of our you know age group swimmers that are going to be coming in to the finish line here in just a few moments time but andy potts right out there leading our race in the men's on the vent and by course today brent mcmahon right up the front there jan frodeno also just sitting back at the moment just waiting and biting his time these guys have learned something and that is patience you know we've been saying about the first 45 miles of this course is typically very fast and frodeno and the other favorites of this race if they're gonna have a crack at that eight hour barrier today they're gonna have to have that perfect race and they're going to have to have the smartest race of their lives you know and one has to wonder this topic comes up here and there uh but that's brent mcmahon from the side and i remember one to question but we looked at this iron man south american championships brazil brendan mann rides a very upright position he is not in the most arrow he's in probably the most powerful position he can ride in he's in a great position to have a good hip angle for a good run but i just have to wonder if you know he couldn't possibly find a little bit more time by being slightly lower in that front end um maybe you know maybe not maybe that's the perfect spot for him but that's brent mcmahon as we look back here and just to compare andy potts a little lower a little more arrow slightly more kind of more forward and just to me he looks more comfortable what do you think yeah and also he's a little bit more upright with his chest exposed to the air as well but as we do our critique as we normally do you know ladies and gentlemen we are just trying to simply point out the fact that everybody has a different bike position and that is because they are comfortable it's exactly the way that they want to be lined up these guys work tirelessly you know with biomechanists and and and bike fit you know mechanics and and try and get the best possible position for them not for everybody else you'll see the yard fordino he's laid over his bike on his canyon he'll put his arms straight out there and you'll see that everybody's positions are a lot different than each other timothy o'donnell however you can see again he's got the arch in the back and that's no different than what he's been riding over the last decade or so so it's absolutely the most comfortable way for each and every single athlete as an individual are going to be set up on their bikes you're totally right and it does become how arrow can you get without sacrificing comfort or power i mean that's always going to be the equation you want to look to tim o'donnell rocking an incredibly fly looking usa stars and stripes rig but i do love seeing as these athletes roll past the airport tim o'donnell just really comfortable and so as we look again i feel like um i feel like the conditions that we've seen so far you know what again a viewer that's never been here might not know this but early on in this stage there's never really any wind the the days like 2004 when we have super super slow bike times and slow overall times those days it is already howling gale right here before you get to the airport this year you can look at all the flowers in the background you can look at the grass and you see no movement on this temp on this front three brent mcmahon andy potts and tim o'donnell you see no movement in the air you know what i've studied this island for 30 years i've been here 30 years in a row have not missed a year since 1987. i've studied the wind maps and the big island of hawaii is the biggest island in the island chain as a matter of fact you can put every one of the hawaiian islands into the big island and still have some leftover land and by the way the big island hasn't finished growing right okay because we have some lava flow all the time here we have an active volcano out of kilauea that still is spewing you know molten lava into the ocean making this island bigger so when you look at the maps here all the wind is hit by the easterly direction it'll hit the southern tip and the northern tip then it'll wrap around to the western side of this island here the athletes are on the west side right now they are heading out in a northerly direction right now so basically they are heading out into a headwind the windiest part of this course is when they get out to the waikaloa village area and that's at around about 30 miles under the bike course they'll get hit with some stiff winds but when they're coming back today i looked at the forecast this morning and if it comes to fruition they are going to be hit with a beautiful tailwind as we look at this venting bicycle here written uh you know out here meredith kessler on the ventum bicycle as well as leander cave here on the vent and bike course but the wind today they should get a little bit of a tailwind on the way back if it you know the forecast you know comes out the right way so today if you ask me is going to be a record setting day if the conditions hold up that the way that they're supposed to well greg great points and you know one of the game changers was when we did you know years ago and this race started everyone at 7 00 a.m regardless if you were pro or age group and bringing that that pro start all the way up to 6 25 and 6 30 for men and women respectively it changes when they hit various points so it used to be pretty reliable hey get out to this point before it warms up get out there before this wind picks up the change of direction all that stuff you just discussed now we're fully 30 35 minutes ahead of previous start times it really changes the game it makes it in a lot of ways a faster course on a typical day but now we're looking at meredith kessler you mentioned the bike it is a unique bike and we're very privileged to have vent to bring us this bike coverage and come in here and just groundbreaking technology of a bike that was designed we'll chat with them later by by uh jimmy sear and diana and jimmy sear was an athlete and he came in here and raced uh you know a lot of events at a top level really good swimmer from australia and really great overall triathlete but it's cool to see an athlete just evolve from someone who competes with someone who produces right now meredith kessler let's talk about her as an athlete she is really truly someone that can beat anyone at any given day on almost any course she's won six ironman new zealands uh if i'm not shortchanging her she's won 70.3 she's one ironman she's beaten everyone but every time she comes to kona she's someone that we say can she overcome maybe that emotional roadblock that stopped her maybe that heat humidity roadblock that stopped her she's an american athlete traded out of the bay area that just has yet to find her stride here and and look who's just come on to the scene here this is danielle reeve she is our defending champion she's also been responsible for setting the fastest bike times over the last you know a couple of years and previously we know that this is going to happen again possibly but look at this they are going to take it to it today and look at just a little bit of a look over the shoulder and says hey come on i'm going with you today and that's absolutely incredible because i tell you what michelle vest to be from denmark she last year had the race of her life in fourth place and now she is in pursuit of that first place and now she's got it she has overtaken meredith kessler so now michelle vesterby is really getting after it this year i'm really surprised to see this move anybody who goes past daniela ryf is going to have the cycle of their day and means business but this is early we're inside of the first 15 miles and you know that everybody's really frisky out there and got a lot of adrenaline running and i tell you what from michelle invested me to doing this she's either got really good legs or she wants to keep the pace up really high well i think it's a little bit of both probably you know everyone should feel pretty good early and greg the thing you said to me is she wants to keep the pace up i think last year you know mirinda carfrae did not finish the race but she lost about four minutes on the swim this year she's lost about four minutes on the swim mirinda carfrae when she last won this race in 2014 we were looking at deficits that seemed insurmountable she ran 17 minutes into daniela reed she ran 18 minutes into rachel joyce rachel joyce one of the best most consistent performing iron man athletes of the last eight years she's at home on maternity leave we don't have her here this year but she was someone that you just you don't give her a lead miranda i rolled through it and took it down with a 250 marathon she did the same to the woman that got second that year daniella reef so um i guess why i bring that up is michelle vesterby doesn't have a 250. nobody really does but she doesn't have the wheels on foot to put these girls to bed so why not get after it where your strongest swim and bike michelle vesterby jody swallow um you know annabelle luxford we look at even um meredith kessler alicia k these women alicia k another ventum rider put them all together excuse me and let them ride that is where they have to play their cards it doesn't mean they're bad runners they're great runners it just means they're not exceptional runners like carr frey so we look at michelle wesley a little bit of a surprise to see the danish athlete out front but but not so much i want to say i would do the same if i were in her shoes i got to tell you mike um today michelle vesterby is uh you know our 2015 ironman copenhagen champion winning in her home country there but through seven miles in the bike ride today we can tell you that already two of our athletes that were out of the swim in the lead group have already been dropped from the pack and that is laurel wassner and also julia gaia daniela ryf was our leader going through the first part meredith kessler camilla peterson annabelle laxford right there anya baranek and michelle vestery so they're all right up the front of this course at the moment and there goes meredith kessler again she's just uh you know she's gonna hang in there all day long we had mary beth ellis right up there in that lead group as well so very good to see that a lot of our athletes our leaders and our favorites are right up there at this stage totally and you you know you have to remember that um that mary beth ellis is a scrapper she can put all three together the only thing that mary that that mary beth ellis has as a weakness is her last maybe six miles on the run and that's only because i think she gives it so well all day long that in the end the last six or eight miles is a bit of an achilles heel for her but she's so good she's so tenacious and she will scrap with anyone she will fight tooth and nail right here we're looking at ventum bikes that is meredith kessler i happen to know that matt lietto is on the side of the road with someone from ventum right now and i would love to hear what matt has to say about that exciting brand hey thanks so much guys appreciate it you're out there covering the ventum bike course i'm here with the ventum co-founder jimmy sear how's it going so far this morning jimmy pretty good nice to be in hawaii nice and warm yeah so uh it's kind of quiet and the racks behind us now it was a little bit more hectic a few minutes ago anything you noticed uh from the men's and women's swim this morning yeah it's uh like the temperature's definitely kicking in there's a bit of swirl out on the water so it's going to probably be windy out on the course so and that wind's going to play havoc on the athletes yeah so we talk about wind we talk about aerodynamics a lot when we uh refer to iron man in general but in hawaii it seems to be talked about more about obviously you've got to pace yourself you've got to stay cool you've got to hydrate but there's all this talk of aerodynamics tell us a little bit about the effect aerodynamics can have on the pro athletes and the amateur athletes yeah absolutely like it comes into play like everybody has to carry their nutrition their food their fluids and then once you're in the wind there's it's more for the wind to see so when you're in hawaii you're a lot more exposed you're on the lava fields and you've got to hide from the wind as much as possible because you don't want to burn out too quickly so it's important that you have all your food with you and you can stay tucked and especially with that wind like today it's probably going to come in a crosswind so everyone's going to be exposed so deep dish front wheels and like front end like if you get a lot on that front of the bike you're going to get pushed and you're just going to take a lot of energy trying to fight it so aerodynamics definitely plays a big part of it um and hopefully we can see a couple of ventums up the front um we're missing those down tubes so we're trying to hide from the wind as much as possible so awesome yeah and it it seems like the you know obviously the bikes and the wheels uh there's been some more movement in aerodynamics this year you can see the bikes behind us people have different types of helmets tell us a little bit about the the differences and the benefits of an aerodynamic helmet versus maybe one that can keep you a little cooler in a race like this absolutely like aerodynamics is one thing but you you got to make sure you stay cool so if you have a full helmet with visor yeah it's quick but then you're more much more likely to get hot and build up that temperature so yeah if you if you can keep the air flowing over your head that's really really important uh smaller tails are normally good because you move around a lot in an iron man so we're seeing an interesting trend in the sport now where helmets are changing bikes are changing we've had a lot of interesting bikes come out recently which it's all about going faster you don't have to be a triangle and that's the way uh to help an athlete get to the finish line even quicker just in the same amount of training and everything yeah it seems like we always have changes in the in the the product that we have in the sport to make you more aerodynamic everybody immediately goes to that and now i think we see people coming back like the sleeve suits in kona not everybody's wearing those because it's a non-wetsuit swim it's hot same with the aerodynamic helmets which you touched on is that you don't always want aerodynamic if it's going to keep your head warm exactly and the the sleeve suits is a great example where they're very very quick in a tunnel especially if they're on right but uh you can heat up quickly in those things so if you're wearing a dark color suit that's only going to add to it so everybody's got their own strategies but yeah big thing is keeping that core temperature down and being able to be as aerodynamic and as fast as possible without getting sort of pushed around too much by that wind okay gonna put you on the spot top three men top three women you can only use three ventum picks well i was gonna feel the podium all the way through but uh i'd say for the men i'd say yarn i'm seeing a torrenzo up there and a brett mcmahon or a kevin collington i think they'll be up there and sebi's hard to go past so i was going to narrow it down i'm going to go frodo kevin collington and sebby and then for the women my dark dark horse is meredith kessler she's been working really hard in the heat nutrition racing she's on the ventum this year i think she's gonna have a good day out there um she's in great spirits leander she's not as not in top form this year but she's still quick you can never write her off i think she could definitely be in the mix um and i think you can't go past like rinnie who's going to be coming from behind she lost a bit of time in the swim but you can't you can't get rid of her like she's going to finish that run quick and then riffy uh i think roofies are going to set the benchmark there today she's going to be tough to beat yeah those are some good picks you did get all your athletes on there so no no surprise there but uh thanks jimmy co-founder of ventum bikes uh back to you guys in the studio a little bit what more of what's happening out on that ventum bike course well that's great matt thanks jimmy it is always good to hear from the sponsors and from the folks that are innovating out there like jimmy and ventum bikes the ventum bike course is underway in the upper left part of your picture we are looking at sebastian quinlay overtaking athletes he looked smooth calm and collected on the bottom right if you take a close look we just dripped there she is that's daniela ryf so we have two past champions here one the defending champ on the women's side in the bottom right and then of course sebastian keeley from germany just rolling through the field making quick work of these athletes uh to his right oh he's taking prisoners right now i tell you what you know he's making his way to the front like he normally does but you know what last year he only faced a bit over a two and a half minute deficit this year he's facing over a four and a half minute deficit coming out of c1 so that's a lot further back than what he had to face last year so maybe there's a little bit of urgency in his uh pedal stroke at the moment as opposed to daniela ryf she's already at the front of this race so early on and uh it's going to be a tough challenge you know to really push you know daniella reef today all the damage however mike i believe is always done on the way back from harvey you know when you when you hit that half v point you've only got you know just over 50 miles to ride and that last 50 miles is where the strong athletes really prevail in this race they're still able to push the same you know amount of power on the way back so if you can even split your power on the first you know first part and the last part where you're doing great but a lot of people go out there a little bit too hard too soon usually have around about 55 percent you know i'm sorry about uh you know riding it about 100 going up and on the way back that around about 90 because they're not you know thinking strategy here they're just thinking getting out there and uh making sure that they stay part of the train and making sure that nobody gets away they're racing each other and that's great but you can't race each other until the run course bottom right you've got camilla pedersen uh in the white top overlay and that's a good strategy i think more important than an arrow top i think in these conditions is sometimes for an athlete like camilla keeping that sun off the body a white garment doused with water can keep you cool so that's what you see there daniela ryf um here uh rocking the red bull uh lid she's coming through and looking smooth i think she is just a machine on the bike and i think she feels at home greg you mentioned it when you do the up at hobby you're 60 miles in or just under 100k about 98k and coming home that's only 52 miles to go you have a downhill trend but downhill with some nasty ups and and also that just the wear and tear of the day starts to set in so that that's obviously you know body body equation you know you start doing some math and running the numbers uh calories are depleted a lot of us have a window in that three and a half to four hours uh where you just start to empty the tank it's it's where a whole 70.3 race takes place in and under that window now iron man racing you're just you're just beginning yeah for sure and you know when you look at daniella over the top of the bike she's so well trained she's an absolute machine but just look how strong she looks i mean you just look at someone and they're born to be on a bike like this and daniela ryf she is a 2015 iron man world champion she comes in as the favorite you know on this race a lot of the girls are doing a great job of actually you know keeping pace and helping keep the pace as well as we look up front right now meredith kessler is really pushing the pace at the moment and daniella i believe that danielle is just biting her time you know it's only my opinion and i think that you know meredith is pushing you know really very hard like she normally does and uh you know we know what you know what's happened to meredith over the last couple of years when she pushes this hard she's um you know she's trained differently now she's uh you know we've heard that she's training herself and uh you know so you know who knows what's going to happen here but uh meredith is going to really pushing the pace daniella's just right behind just uh waiting for the opportune moment you're right and greg one of the things that's super about this bike she's a top right now the ventum has uh that that that red color um part of her bike is is a bike bottle so it's a built-in arrow water bottle you can see the straw that comes out but how great is that not only does she have the between the aero bars bottle but she has that entire reservoir or built-in water uh and that's just you know you're thinking ahead you're thinking about what do i do to execute the perfect day and it's not just about being evident having a great bike ride it's about being ready to run she did go a little sideways a little cross-eyed a year or two ago where we thought man she's having her day she's having her kona and then she just kind of went off off off course and and was just out and i think you know it's a testament to the toughness and the tenacity of this athlete she can push through just about anything but you know in the end you have to stay inside of that edge uh until the very end because if you go over the edge too soon too early it's it's lights out and we saw that with meredith but what an incredible athlete and to see her up front there in that fancy rig and the custom paint job she's got initials all over i'm assuming these are all people uh maybe referencing people that are near and dear to her supporters uh and whatnot as you see each of those sets of initials and it's kind of a treat if you're one of those people you probably see your initials on there but again greg that's just a global thing when you talk about ironman athletes from again the front of the race to the last finisher one of the most important things to remember is that we share iron man with our family and our friends our spectators you couldn't have done it when you won this race uh a short 22 years ago you could have done it without your bride you could have done it without any of the people that supported you and it really makes it special it's it's like you're out there alone but you have this massive network that starts and crosses the finish line with you and i think that you know that's probably a testimony of what she's putting out there but i think you'd agree with me greg it is just an individual sport that we we never do alone oh you're absolutely dead right and uh you know meredith right now she's uh you know going through a nutrition at the moment mike that's one of the things that she's faced you know to be a bit of a thorn in the side you know uh in previous years she's a two-time iron man you know 70.3 champion and uh you know she um you know she's won races from all around the world and you know today uh we're looking you know forward to seeing her you know have another great race and let's see if she can take this one all the way and you know right now she's showing us that she's you know pretty strong but uh meredith you know meredith uh you know over the last couple of years has won a lot of races you know you were mentioning six ironman new zealands last year in 2015 she won new zealand she won arizona she was 26th here in the world championship in 2016 she won new zealand for the sixth time and now you know as we cast our eyes back to daniella ryf right now daniella's had you know just such a great career you know she was olympic athlete when she was doing the itu the olympic distance uh you know and then in 2014 she won iron man switzerland she won iron man copenhagen in the same year i meant hawaii in 2014 she was second place then in iron man frankfurt last year in 2015 she was the european champion also won the world championships which was absolutely fantastic and this year she won iron man switzerland with a time of 8 501 so you know that daniella ryf is coming she's uh you know about to enter the history books as you know another one of our great athletes so as we watch danielle reeve she is our defending champion on the women's side we're going to run off to a break you're watching the 2016 iron man world championship don't go away we'll be right back yeah yeah welcome back to the 2016 iron man world championship be enjoying wonderful shots here of the queen karl manol highway as we see our women's race well underway at the moment michelle vesterby right up there in the lead about women's race with daniela ryf as well but right now i'd like to welcome into the studio mr matt lietto and also ryan cooper from training peaks and the chief scientist out there and from best bike split mayday we're enjoying a great day so far it's a nice day down here in town little to no wind down here there might be a little bit of wind outside today but uh we've been predicting that today quite possibly we're going to go under that eight hour barrier what do you got to say about our best bike split today um yeah i think if you look at the last two years out here the conditions have not been very favorable to the athletes on the bike you definitely have a calm wind down in town but then as you start to get up to javi you'll start to pick up a little bit of that crosswind but this year when they're coming back into town there won't be that same headwind uh that they've had in past years yeah exactly so uh today what have you got uh for us in the way of the best bike splits and the fastest guys and girls out there well i think uh you know the fastest time is probably going to be someone like king lay unless someone like michael weiss really wants to go in and just put it all out on the line um you know he's on a new bike so maybe there's some incentive to really just hammer the bike but yeah i think keenlay coming in around 420 maybe even a little below 420 brushing up on some of those uh you know that 418 kind of uh record type of time but so far we have keenlay at around a four 24 21. um this is assuming that he may even take it a little bit easy if he catches that lead pack and then just kind of sit in for a bit somebody like joe skipper who's been working on his aerodynamics quite a bit somewhere around the 423 marker same kind of thing for lionel sanders um and then jan ferdino you know he's been taking it a little bit easy you notice he's kind of sitting sitting himself in that big pack not really pushing it out to the front so somewhere around the 424 mark on the women's side daniella reef a little bit faster than last year with these better conditions 449 um and then kessler you know pushing the pace with uh households as well and at the 4 56 kind of mark and then heather whatell you know she's she's struggled a little bit in the heat and humidity out here so it's better conditions she may be able to come in a little bit faster than last year as well okay so we're looking at our bike course records you know norman stadler holds it at a 4 18 23 karen turing on the women's side 4 44 19. so daniella reeve will get very close to the other swiss girl karen zurich uh her record today now if karen uh sorry if uh daniella reeves timer 449 holds up that's going to be very hard to beat from anybody you know in the run field you know you've got you know people like mirinda carfrey and susie cheatham are very very good runners out there but they are very very fast bike times now we can see uh you know over here at the moment we've got another one of our good athletes here this is tim don from great britain matt and we can see that tim you know he's been an itu world champion before and right uh today he's right up there yeah he's right there and right behind him we saw was uh david mcnamee as well um right now this looks like uh maybe it's kyle buckingham um so we've got we've got some of the strong athletes up here pushing the pace um it's not kyle buckingham it looks like uh sorry uh it might be different uh trevor woodtell that's not trevor bertel that's uh dennis chavrot oh sorry um so uh yeah we've got uh it's hard to keep track of all these guys but again they're sitting in uh you know a legal group uh you know motivating each other to to keep the pace up ryan what kind of watts when i look at the watts you showed for uh sebastian kinley being near 280 to go 420 you know if uh i would like to think frodeno is going to go near 420. and here we go he's got a pass here from the athlete looks like tim dawn trying to get past if frodo is going to go 420 and sevi's going to catch frodo that means sebby's going to go 417. what kind of watts does it take to go 417. i mean on a day like today i really think it'll take about 300 watts around 300 watt average uh for someone as aerodynamic it's kinley to really push that um you know frodo he plays a very smart race you know unlike uh normal races you see is more of a time trial this is much more strategic so you see him kind of actually racing and playing the game yeah so you know frodo went out to the front early and then he saw this big line of people and he said okay well i'm just going to race my race let them battle it out like the man push the pace like oh donald go up and push the pace yeah last year we saw um ben hoffman go up and push the pace a little bit had a great bike time but maybe paid for it a little bit later on the run so um i think uh you'll see keenly catch that lead group and then maybe wait till that turnaround point to really kind of put the pressure on yeah it's interesting looking at kingly right now he's generally when he's on a mission he just kind of avoids avoids aid stations avoids you know resting his back and he was up there in his drops for a long period of time very important obviously to go through aid stations efficiently and make sure you get what you want but i think we talked the other day about what happens that right now we see kingly sit up a little bit what happens when an athlete sits up and gets out of their aerodynamic position as far as slowing down their pace yeah we we kind of uh at best bikes but we like to kind of say you you take this stopwatch and as soon as you set up that stopwatch starts going and you're just living you're losing time but at the same point if you start missing these age stations it starts to add up and so right now it's not very warm and not very hot but when you get to the end of the bike those aid stations that you may have missed are going to start to add up and it's really can hurt you on the run and also ryan we're just starting to see a little bit of wind out on course i was talking to michael a little bit about it before but the wind comes from the east here and wraps around the southern part of the island around the northern part of the island this part here you can see that there's a gap in between monologue and mauna kea this is what we call the vacuum when the vacuum comes through from the eastern to the western side of the island right through the waikalawa area this is where the biggest part of the wind comes the big crosswind you know cross headwind on the way up on the way back however it looks like today that we might be having an east north wind uh east northeast uh direction which is pretty much cross tailwind all the way back into kona if that happens those best bike splits might be right on target so we'll have to wait and see a little bit later on for those guys now also as we can see um you know right now the athletes were over the first 15 miles were averaging 28.8 miles an hour so there was little to no wind out there yeah i mean i we looked at the weather forecast and with best bikes play we actually uh pull weather information off of every weather station up the coast uh for the forecasted times that those athletes will be passing by and so from that you can see exactly what you're saying you have this little to no wind going out then the cross ones start to pick up you see there's nothing to block the crosswinds when they start to pick up so you're gonna feel the full full uh force of them and what that'll end up doing is breaking up some of those lead packs the strong riders will see that say okay now i can make a big move and start to gap some of the some of the other stronger runners that may be behind them yeah approaching the two-hour mark right now our pro women here daniella reef our defending champion sits right at the front of the bike there just uh you know powering this bike here she looks very clean on a bike i was making a mention to michael just before that she looks like she was born to be on a bike and the position is absolutely perfect but when you look at her she looks in a great position but strong she looks very strong her cadence may not be up around 90 might be around the 80 mark but very strong cyclist she's an amazing cyclist and and i think they're she was having some kind of issues at the 70.3 worlds we really had projected her to uh to blast that course um and then now you can see she she looks like she's feeling much much better yeah and we talk about aerodynamics what what effect does you know we talk about athlete that looks really strong she looks very smooth on a bike a lot of people underestimate the aerodynamics you might be able to lose just by not having a position where you can maintain a smooth position where you're moving around a lot and daniella doesn't move around that much how much effect does that have on an athlete aerodynamics and being able just to push power on the pedals yeah i mean it's huge so a lot of athletes now are going into the wind tunnel and it's you know we always like to say that's great and it's amazing you can get these good numbers but you tend to be ideal conditions when you're out and your bike's rocking back and forth and your body's starting to hurt after three four hours um you know your position starts to change a little bit see she's she's probably going up a little incline here so she's actually having to push a little more power um but you you see her in general our heads up so there's not a lot of gap between her or she takes the drink but for the most part she's keeping a very streamlined and she has that mix of uh position where she can hold high power but then also stay aerodynamic and not get up and out of her bars a lot so you could have a great position but every time you if you're not comfortable then you can't hold it then you're just going to give up time yeah now right now we have a split screen with sebastian on the left now ryan would you think when you see an athlete like sebastian keemley that in general we see him he looks great on his uh on his bike in his aerodynamic position generally when he's aggressive out here on the bike he's got that aerodynamic helmet that fits his position really really well would you assume a change in tactics for an athlete that's going more towards a helmet that's going to keep him cooler does that mean sebastian's banking on his run a little bit more does it mean he was hoping to be in the pack can you can you take anything from that equipment choice you think i mean i i think it's it's about you know just trying to keep a little bit cooler so you know last year maybe he thought he overheated a little bit coming back you know coming back into town and if the wind keeps up the way it is it's not going to be as big a disadvantage coming back into town if you have a crosswind then if you have a headwind yeah um and so i think it's a conscious choice he made you see frodeno did not do that so he's stuck with the complete arrow uh arrow lid and you know he may gain a little bit of time on that but you know the you know your body as a as a professional athlete so you know if you're going to get overheated that could cost you tens of minutes in the run and talk about smoothie he's not in it now and he's looking around to see who's going to come around but um jan looks so smooth when he's in that aerodynamic position he's not rocking around at all uh we we did a power download last year uh with with john frodeno's data and just when you look at it i mean completely uh you know the ideal pacing i mean it was it was almost perfect so he you saw him as he was going up melania he just you know he let other people pass him he stayed up he didn't get out of the saddle he just kind of spun it out um so you know he he knows where his limits are he knows what the plan is and he's going to stick to that plan well when you look at fradino here as opposed to kenla you know frodeno this year had another great year but at iron man germany iron man frankfurt this year we could see that uh you know uh fradino um ewing missed diamond germany this year but kinley he wrote a 412 on his way to a 244 and another great win at frankfurt which was absolutely amazing went to 70.3 worlds and also he was like you know in second place sprint finished with tim reid but comes here today with a little bit of you know pep in his step and i think that kindling really wants to win this race i think so i think uh with the the running that uh sebastian keenly has been doing this year with a 244 and at 70.3 uh worlds a 111 a 111 just to be able to move your legs that quickly is unbelievable uh you know forget about the fitness it's uh just having the biomechanics and the the ability to move your legs out quickly and run that fast john frodeno knows that sebastian kinley is a really really really good runner so i think that's what uh frodo was thinking about when he's at the front of that swim pushing that pace i mean generally we do have a large group getting to that first boot boat together and last year obviously sebastian kinley made it all the way in that front group they they never had a chance this year i mean so i think right now we're seeing ferdino maybe being able to settle in to a pace that as you said is smart pacing because he pushed early on the swim but he never broke away i think that's the difference if if he was to break away early with someone like potts then the chase group is is the pace setting is is made uh by somebody else it's in the group where if he lets the group stay with him he can slowly just you know turn up turn up the volume right yeah so ryan i've got a question for you um you know do you consider you know into your best bike split um you know this comment and and this comment is is is pretty much brought about by matt's brother actually because chris lietto was always one of the guys that i looked at that had one of the most perfect you know race strategies he waited until he got to harvey before he actually dropped the hammer or actually you know kept the same sort of wattage chris lieto would always come back you know from harvey back into conan town with a huge lead or you know he'd drag all these people back but he was one of the guys that was able to sustain the back end of the bike ride as well as he did the front end and that looks like what jan frodeno is doing right now kinley on the other hand is having to make up a lot of ground last year was only two and a half minutes down today it was four and a half minutes down so do you consider that last part of the bike course into your best bike split predictions so so it's kind of interesting we we started to look at this last year and and one thing that we didn't consider fully was the effect of heat and humidity on the physiology side so you had a lot of first-timers came that came out here lionel sanders joe skipper that they knew what kind of wattage they could hit at a normal iron man they came out here and they blew out trying to hit those same wattage numbers and by the end of the bike they were 20 lower on power than they were at the beginning of the bike and possibly the worst possible time to be that you know that low power number so what we started to do is look at somebody like ferdino and yeah start to dial that in and say you know he he probably rode quite a bit uh less or he did write a lot less power here than he probably wrote at frankfurt but he did that consciously he knew that so he knew from the very beginning i'm going to keep this steady face as opposed to this surge you know really trying to to gun it and then start to fall off on the back half and you see that in the run when you start to see some of the athletes falling apart all right thank you very much ryan cooper and uh just another two things i wanted to add to that is that uh so far we've already seen meredith kessler and also sebastian kitlay knowing that it's going to be a hot day already telling themselves of you know watering their heads and uh making sure that the core temperature is kept down the other thing i just wanted to point out is that the last couple of days in town around about 11 o'clock in the morning 11 30 when they get off the bikes it's been around about 89 degrees but it says it feels like 90 to 93 degrees so the heat and humidity gonna play a big factor well anyway on behalf of iron man we just wanted to say thank you to ryan cooper chief scientist from uh best bike split and also training peaks for popping along with us today thank you all right i appreciate it thank you very much all right matt so back to the action yeah here we go it's luke mckenzie here we're not sure exactly where his position is but uh you know he's holding a great aerodynamic position um he's an athlete that was able to use the bike ride to his advantage a few years ago when he got second place at uh the world championships here in kailua kona and uh he's gonna gonna hope to be able to use that bike ride to be able to get a similar effect uh to get back onto that podium uh you know he's had had some bad luck at uh the asia pack champs earlier this year where he got two flat tires when he was kind of off the front so we haven't seen a big result from luke mckenzie our memory in triathlon is pretty short so we say we haven't seen a big result from mackenzie and a lot of people aren't talking about him but uh he rode 408 down at western australia not not too long ago about 10 months ago and i was able to go in the low 750s so luke mckenzie here to the right of our screen riding riding quite well um on his uh bright bicycle and to our left we have uh sebastian keenley still like he's just rolling he's catching uh coming up on an athlete right now um not sure the name of the athlete that he's coming up on but sebastian doesn't look like he's all over his bike like he he has been sometimes when he's really attacking it so i think speaking to what ryan cooper was talking about is he's probably he's obviously having to ride aggressively to catch a group but not quite as aggressively as he probably will on the way down from hobby as uh michael uh lovato just back uh joining us in the studio again mike um you know as we look at uh you know luke mckenzie over the last couple of years hasn't had the results that he's you know sort of been after the world championships but his results outside of the world championships have still been very very good luke is one of those races that showed us that he can go with sebastian kinley a couple of years ago like three years ago was absolutely amazing so if he gets back up to that level as well on the way back like what tim don did last year we're gonna have a really interesting ride back this year i think because i think a lot of the guys have really been after the bar the bar that has been set by sebastian kenley or jan frodeno or something like that the cycling of these races these days has been so much better that's right greg and you know what it's it's it takes a bold move and i think that when we saw luke mckenzie he took that bold move he made that ball move when the time was right i love what you guys talked about when you were discussing the helmet because i do think that ultimately there comes a time for a guy like uh sebastian keanely to recognize that he is a great runner the same thing that daniela ryf said the press conference i learned at the world championships in malula for iron man 70.3 that i can race well don't give up don't feel like i have to win it on the bike keenley knows that too and i think that if you give up a little edge a couple seconds a minute whatever you think it is with that error helmet it makes you feel cooler it makes you feel like you're making a wise global decision it makes you feel like you're talking about your run yeah i think so and i think that it can be a it can be a mental game too you know you've got the other athletes wondering why he's not in that uh aerodynamic helmet so maybe he's got a little bit more confidence uh in his run but uh sebastian keenley looks quite smooth riding riding his bike up trying to get up towards that main uh men's pack uh that's now probably getting close to waikaloa and and i think with king so it's you know we have to remember we do talk about the mental aspect that affects others and and you know the head games that we play on others but with with iron man racing it's such a mentality it's such a mindset sport if you're able to control your own mindset and make yourself feel the best that you can feel that's huge it's massive so keeley you know i remember a number of years back they did a study and they said well does the aero helmet you know does it do you pay a cost when you take it off everyone there were a couple years ago 2008 test nine craig alexander came off with the you know left the arrow helmet when he got fourth he put it on he wanted it you know course record with a with a road helmet the point is when all that was going on they studied it and they really found that you may not actually lose more heat you may not actually pay a big physiological price by wearing a narrow helmet but what you do pay is an emotional price and if you have if you feel cooler if you feel like you can hit cold water in your head with your bottle if you feel like you can have more breeze across your scalp you feel better therefore it is better so that psychological point you can play on your own on your own self that's big for sure no absolutely it's uh you know a bunch of different things go into it it's not just showing up and uh running swimming running and riding and running as quickly as you can there's a lot of thought that goes into that as well so again our camera on sebastian keenly uh holding that position uh quite quite well and uh he's doing everything right there you go when he puts that head down he even gets in a more aerodynamic position um you can't really see what's coming ahead of you and uh if he's coming up on athletes wants to make sure he's looking to the front but sebastian keenly uh pushing that quite quite nicely you know and to me matt you've watched this guy races as much as i have and and i see a little bit different he he may come to this later but there's often a lot of movement where you see you know you see no matter how well he go he does when he won in vegas at diamond 7.3 world champs he was all over the bike all over he looks smoother he looks like he has less of that dirty action well and what i think is happening michael is that he is trying to stay smooth and holding himself back a little bit and not being that aggressive bike racer when we see uh sebastian and those 70.3 worlds you know he's not an athlete that is using power and he's just he's not pacing himself in that race he's going as hard as he can at every moment and in this race he knows with his experience that you have to pace yourself i think uh with some of his big results coming at this race when maybe he wasn't expecting it he didn't think he was that fit so he was able to pace himself a little bit better and then the result is higher so i think you know it's that first 90 minutes two hours you really have to hold yourself back and i think great point noticing that he looks very smooth compared to normal when he's usually as we would say all over his bike sure great points great points and i think that you know perceived exertion is a metric that we've thrown by the wayside with all this great data coming our way you know we've lost we've lost touch with that perceived exertion and it is something that you know we talked about dave scott he won this race six times i know that was a different era but yeah the guy developed and honed the ability to know how fast he was going to know how much speed he had to know if he was at 79 or 80 percent that is an undervalued um metric sebastian kinley uses it he has it it's great it works for him and i think that the hardest thing uh for that is uh it tends to lie to you early on so yeah early on in the race your perceived assertions you say hey this is easy or or maybe i'm pushing a tiny but maybe at 81 you're actually really 85 you're going too hard so that lying that that fibbing that goes on the early stages 40k uh to 40 miles all the way to kawhi so guys let me let me pose you this question we've talked about you know all these you know power outputs and everything we're only you know just approaching about a 30 you know 30 plus mile mark right now we're at waikaloa which is a which is one of the turning points in this race it's where the first exposure of headwind really is also want to talk about the the first part of the race aerodynamics and also set up and see you know seating angles on the on the bike as opposed to this point of the race coming back do they change do they start arching their back do they still stay you know in that flat position like sebastian kinley and jan frodeno and if so who does that affect their performance on the way back yeah i mean i think it comes down to pacing it's similar to what michael was talking about too the pacing affects all different aspects not just your heart rate or your uh you know hydration or dehydration it affects uh you physically on how you're tiring and not just your legs and your arms but your back and your torso and how you're able to hold that position and i think what ryan was speaking of earlier is that you know it's great going into the wind tunnel and finding a position that fits you well and is aerodynamic but if you cannot hold that position when you're really really tired you're it's not a benefit to you so i think if you pace yourself correctly in a position that you've trained in you should be able to hold that same position one thing i notice with sebastian keenley is seeing how far his elbows are his you know he's far forward he's bent a little bit when he when he really gets in that position um he has a ability to stay in that position and is very strong in that position where most people if they tried an aerodynamic position like that just wouldn't be able to a put out as much power and b hold that position when it mattered and i think uh you know sebastian has the ability and you know he's been with the right people to find a position that works um that allows him to run off the bike well is aerodynamic when he's racing but as you said greg important that he can stay in that aerodynamic position and and what you said earlier michael looking at you know we look at brent mcmahon next to all these other guys and say well clearly brent needs to go in the wind tunnel and have someone look and try to get him more aerodynamic but brent might not run off the bike that well if he's in that position he might not have uh the lower back strength or the trunk strength to be able to hold that when he's riding well at the end so these are all things that athlete considers all right so here we go guys we've had a little change in the action at 31 miles of waikaloa we've now got a split in the field we've all riding within about 20 seconds of each other before now we've got luke mckenzie leading and right down to 20th place we've got igor amarelli at 40 seconds now so it's just starting to stretch out a little bit i know we've got a big long line of athletes here luke mckenzie leads the way from timothy van burkel from australia 2013 champion frederick van lied is in third eddie potts and jan frodeno fifth and sixth timothy o'donnell andy butcher from germany ben hoffman brent mcmahon and marco albert in the top ten torenzo bizzoni and echo janos tim don and dennis chevro from france david mcnamee paul matthews patrick lang andreas raylor david dello and igor morelli so our top 20 there now spread out by 40 seconds i mean you do top 20 divided by 40 seconds is two seconds apart those athletes are together and that is you know a shuffling of order it is stringing out i like what you said there greg one of the things i'll just you know i don't want to harp too much on position but i think that what happens with these athletes too as they go throughout the day you're always going to go to your default you're always going to fall back on what is your comfort or your power what you do the most in training some of us have an ideal situation our head is in the turtle arrow tuck you know our our our elbows are are in the exact spot the angle we want you know we we feel pressure on the saddle a certain spot there is an ideal that we want to be in but that isn't always our our our default that isn't always the way that we we fall to and so when you're retired and as you go later on in the day you tend to go to that default um you know one of the things guys that you know as well as i do we are in that stage now where it's time to start thinking about what you're doing as far as fueling what you're thinking about as far as are you getting in your endurance your gator endurance formula gator endurance formula formula with all these electrolytes electrolytes this is the name of the game it's the name of the game right greg i mean you have to get in there and take on those fluids take on that fuel and this one we started paying attention to yeah i mean you know matt you're you're still a professional athlete you know uh running around there uh worldwide and doing those races uh just elaborate a little bit on you know gatorade endurance formula that's found on course and also all the us ironman races as well yeah i mean it's important to to train with what you're going to race in so you know it's always good to get out there and get some of that gatorade endurance formula so you're used to it and you've got it in uh uh on your bike ride when you're out for the hard rides right now we see this is actually uh mikey weiss uh passing sebastian keanely here early in the ride that might be an athlete that's not pacing himself throughout the day sebastian has to coast to make sure he gets a distance behind mikey as he passes him but as you were saying that was an important time you know an athlete like weiss is going by quite quite quickly you know we're hoping he's getting uh his hydration in but uh it's super important super super important to be able to get your hydration and your sodium and your electrolyte balance correctly gatorade endurance formula does that for us here out on the course let's check out the story about gatorade endurance the official sports drink of iron man us series the gatorade sports science institute is the research arma gatorade and our focus is helping athletes optimize their health and performance and we do that via using research education and service both in nutrition and hydration sciences in 2003 we worked with athletes iron man athletes here on the island and we understood that their sweat rate and sweat sodium losses were actually extremely variable so now we're actually here testing athletes that are competing this saturday to understand their individual losses once they have their individual losses then they can calculate their fluid and nutrition plan we're measuring the athlete's sweat rate and the way we do that is basically have the athletes warm up on a trainer and then exercise for 30 minutes their body weight change during that 30 minutes is going to be purely due to fluid so we can use that calculation to understand their sweat rate during exercise we're also applying patches to their skin to understand the sodium that they're losing in their sweat so with an easy calculation with our equipment we're able to give the athletes immediately their sweat rate and sweat sodium losses during exercise gatorade endurance formula is great for iron man athletes because they're exercising for an extended period of time and we know that during that time they have the opportunity to lose large amounts of electrolytes the endurance formula is actually different from gatorade thirst quencher because it has almost double the sodium and triple the potassium of gatorade right on target there you can see the daniella reef is getting her nutrition in right now and also pouring the water over the body keeping that core temperature down that's what it's all about here in iron man kona at the world championships just trying to keep a level playing field for a whole way through this race today daniella is very aware of the pace and also what's going into her body the outputs going out obviously always paying a lot of attention to her you know position over the bike here and you can see that daniella right now is just doing what she does best laying over the bike there and just being as strong as ever yeah attended to the p's and q's she's checking her arrow top and you know some of these tops you have more garments you have to make sure that apparel is stuck right to the body if you have you know any sort of uh water build up and it starts to flop you you know you start to lose time it's something that she's wise to check on and now we're looking right at mr yong ferdino defending iron man world champion and again continue to look extremely smooth you know he he he has gone the exact opposite way it's the same helmet as last year it it it it looked like some close-up shots that looked like a rainforest inside that visor yeah because there's moisture build up it looked hot you saw it in his face but guess what it didn't affect him he's a guy that says okay i do know what it feels like to be inside aero helmet and i'm okay with that obviously right now sitting up standing up this is a section as you know matt that has a good bit of elevation change the the course is not flat and fast by any stretch imagination there's not one level stretch of road on this entire course except for maybe kuakini than the first mile in the last mile yeah there's no level yeah there's not too much and the question you know speaking to the fact that it did look like it was humid in that helmet does it take an experience on kona where you actually overheat and crack a little bit to rethink things like that i'm not saying yan obviously he knows what he's doing he was third at this race he won this race and uh you know he's in a great position to win this race again but often like you look at sebastian he had a struggle last year and now he's wearing a helmet that allows a little more ventilation well that's great to answer that craig alexander is a great point i mean he wore you know an aero helmet a couple of times but for the most part he wore a just a regularly uh invented helmet and i believed his arrow his vented came the year after he got fourth i think you're exactly right and that's ben hoffman ben hoffman you know he's he's doing what needs to be he's present he's in the spot and he's taking here's the thing that is very dangerous at this part of the race a lot of people sit in that penalty tent at mile 40 and this is why you don't need to draft you're not trying to drop but if you're 8th wheel 9th wheel 10th wheel you're in a dangerous spot he saw frodeno sit up and make a gap ben said i have to be in there i can't be in this danger zone where there's an accordion action and i get sucked into an accidental penalty i gotta say something about that too that's tactics because if he's getting in front of frodeno that means frodeno now he's if he's sitting tenth wheel that's going to take a good 10 minutes to get through that pack absolutely to get right to the front of the race absolutely and ben ben is looking at being as far forward in that group as he can without having to be a pacesetter and any time you see an athlete in front of you open up a gap you want to get in there so that you can be there in case a gap opens that third and fourth wheel and what you were pointing to michael is that you know these athletes are sitting legal distance and if jan fordino stays at that legal distance ben hoffman is not allowed to go up to jan fordino and go in front of him uh because then he would be with inside the drafting distance uh he has to wait till jan opens that gap another couple meters so there's room for him to get in and if and if yon doesn't open that gap for ben to move up in the field he's going to have to go all the way up maybe to the front of the field or to maybe another athlete that's let a few other meters go so ben is taking any opportunity he can and we'll see this a lot and a great point greg is that it is tactical because if you end up getting to the part of the course that's difficult and when things break up and your 25th wheel like right now igor amarelli is in 20th if something happens and luke mckenzie is at the front decides to really put his put his effort down or tim van burkel in second place igor is going to have a lot of work to get past 18 guys so you got to be one of those one of those people yeah very well said they're matt and uh let's just not forget about our age group is right now the 2016 iron man world championship here the age group is in some of our hand cycle is just coming out of the water at the moment we're around about uh 30 minutes from seeing the cut-off for our male age groupers just to get out of the water there and then around about 45 minutes from our age group women getting out of the water that will be their cut off at 9 30 local time this morning remembering that our age group males took off at 6 55 today and then also our age group women took off at 7 10 so they have two hours and 20 minutes to complete the swim course down here in kailua kona today so here we've got our first penalty box this is right out front of the mona lani bay hotel and it's around about you know 35 miles into the course at the moment so we'll have to wait and see if anybody's been assessed a penalty and then we'll be able to let you know exactly who that is right now but we do have a large group of male athletes riding together remembering that our distance between bike lengths have to be 12 meters and then also they have you know around about that 30 seconds to overtake and uh get out of the blocking situation the blocking lane there so we have a large group of male athletes up in the lead of our race today on our women's side of things daniela ryf is uh right at the lead of the women's race at the moment meredith is sitting right in there and alicia k still sitting in third position you know what and just coming back a little bit to some stuff that we were talking about with regard to that men's pack and the way that was playing out i think it's important to note that um that each of these guys we've referenced from luke mckenzie to ben hoffman and then tim o'donnell they each had their top three based on being in the right place at the right time and making a move at the exact moment and capitalizing on it so each one of those guys might have been a different plan than they set out to they got into that meat of the race where they maybe thought hey i'm not going to i'm not going to go there they weren't thinking that but then they found themselves in the spot they looked around they said you know what i'm here i'm away i'm gone each one of those three athletes manage the podium so i think now there's there's an acknowledgement of that these athletes are not stupid they study the race they know what's gone down in the past and so they may say tim van burkel may say hey i went from seventh two years ago to nothing last year really speak of i want to get back in there so i'm gonna find myself in that spot so that when my opportunity knocks i answer the door i'm ready well and that's the exact example i was looking for was tim van burkel he's up at the front uh he's an athlete uh all his competitors respect for sure i mean he won uh a championship race earlier this year was second in the championship race behind hoffman so they're not going to give him a long leash but they haven't seen him do uh you know an effort like that he hasn't proven that he can go off the front and still do well right now we're looking at alicia k but not in this race he hasn't been able to do that so you know someone like van burkel is definitely able to be able to get out and uh and get off the front and be given that leash and there's not a lot of athletes that are given that absolutely and you know alicia key i'm sorry alicia k you have to remember she's a rookie she is a 100 rookie here she did iron man lake placid otherwise she hasn't done any iron man racing she's new to long course she's a big wild card we just don't know she's got the tools swim bike and run but we know that she is an absolute rookie and we just don't know what to expect from this young lady all right so let's wrap it up through 32 miles here at waikaloa for the men our top 10 luke mckenzie in a two second deficit tim van burkel freddie van leer andy potts and jan frodeno in fifth position tim o'donnell is in sixth position right now andy betcher at ben hoffman brent mcmander marco alberta top ten now top eight women past 32 miles daniela ryf continues to leave by six seconds so now she is just starting to stretch it out alicia kane second spot from germany anya baranak in third place meredith kessler and mary beth ellis both from the usa in fourth and fifth annabelle oxford from australia and the two danes seven and eight positions at 34 and 36 consecutively is michelle vesterby and camilla peterson so our top eight women are really having a great race daniella ryf just starting to slip off the front yeah and again she looks smooth when she was up at the front so if she slips off the front she's going to be hurting the the women at the back of that group of 11 that we had so this is different tactics than we're used to seeing at the front of the women's field having a group this big and you think you know you're in a group you're in a group and it's uh you know that's the place to be it's easier there but if the person at the front of the group is really pushing it you might get taken outside of your strengths and you're pacing big news greg and michael has got the word on one of the one of the two athletes that were in that penalty tent is number three brent mcmahon is serving a five-minute penalty early on this bike ride so brent mcmahon is going to have a lot of work left to do he caught himself in a situation where he's now serving a five-minute penalty uh with the blue card out on the ventum uh iron man world championships bike course so uh when we get the other uh number uh we'll let you know but it was definitely in that front group of athletes so probably another big gas will go out uh when we're able to share the number of that athlete that's serving a five-minute penalty and greg a five-minute penalty isn't the end of your race and often we've seen if it's at the end of the race and you serve the penalty in the tent in transition it can lend itself to running really quickly tim to boom one off of a penalty i believe luke van leard one off of a penalty i think natasha babanosh actually won off a penalty as well but penalty early is bad news because you're now separate from that group and your race tactics might have changed so matt what is the rule about uh serving that penalty do you have to spend it at any one of those tents or can you spend it in transition good question greg you are required to stop at the very next tent on course if you do not stop at the next 10 even if it's just a stand down penalty you're disqualified you have to go to the very next tent you're not able to choose that so that's why they offer that as a disqualification because it's a great advantage to be able to stay on the back of that group until transition so right now we've got video of uh right now as far as we know our our lead athlete uh luke mckenzie at the front of this group and switched to a camera angle on the back of this men's group where right now we're looking at ben hoffman with tim o'donnell uh in front of him and pops in front of uh so that's our american trio right there we've talked so much about hoffman o'donnell potts in reverse order you know one of the things that we wanted to mention and just to recap go ahead greg just just let me put in here just one second because i want to ask both of you this question when we looked at that shot that we just saw a moment ago when you've got a clump of athletes you know riding up the road together and then you've got about a 20 meter gap from frodeno frodeno has probably seen what brent mcmahon's just gone through he's playing the safety card right now that's a great idea right it's a great idea but it's dangerous too like so here's he's the guy to do it though because if it's john frodeno everyone behind him is respecting what he did last year they're respecting this man's pedigree and they're saying if he's sitting at 20 meters i'm going to stay behind him and i'm not going to slot in because this guy is the man to beat he's where i need to be well and it helps when you're the strongest guy out on the course right i'll give him 20 meters i can pull it back if i want to right so and then right here is uh janos right behind him and that's an athlete that's moving past now for the past seeing that gap opening and uh neko yanos wants to get by and get up there and i believe uh can't get a name on this athlete but uh great point michael you know it's uh it's important to move through the field when you have the opportunity and i think that's marco albert that we're looking at now a great swimmer great cyclist won iron man new zealand a few years ago if my memory serves me and he's one that's uh gonna do well near the end of this uh bike ride and uh to our right uh is a picture of andreas raylord uh greg you pointed out earlier um with a little bit of excitement in your voice that we haven't seen andreas this far up this early or in this good of a position uh this early in a while it seems like every race where andrelis has shocked us or really been a part of the race he is uh hauling on the first part of that bike or first part of the run because he's got a large large gap if if andreas doesn't have to push the pace early on the run and can just run a marathon how he wants to it's dangerous and man he could run away with it i think both of you will agree with me that we've seen andreas race from every possible position on this course if he's been right up there with the leaders in the swim a couple of times before and he's been all the way back as far as five minutes before and we've seen him like in an in a you know in in a race with maca before we've seen him like come from behind before now we can see him right up there now he only all he has to do is play the smart game now i wanted to bring to the uh you guys uh to the attention of mirinda carfree versus daniella reef right now at five miles into the bike ride it was a 408 deficit yeah now it's at 4 56 so it's only 48 seconds over 25 miles so when you look at that deficit and say well if that's only six minutes or so at the end of the end of the bike course well that's going to be absolutely fantastic news for miranda carfrae not so much daniella reef but it normally doesn't happen like that it usually goes out a little bit more than that so yeah but right now mirinda carfree is right in a very good position but the one that we haven't seen that i'm really keen on seeing is melhau shult and i haven't seen her come through you know in the first part as a matter of fact i'm just seeing her coming through right now she's five minutes and 49 seconds down on the lead of daniella reef right now so she right now is you know another one minute back from mirinda carfree so the three favorites coming into this race melhouse danielle reef and miranda carfrey are all spaced out around about six minutes apart that being five minutes back to miranda carfrey and a further minute back to milhouse sure how do you think that stands right now oh i mean it's it's 30 miles so i'm just going to say you know what the the damage is done in the latter 30 not the first 30 and i think that mirinda carfrae's goal will be to stay within 10 minutes because i also think that daniela ryf has proven that she is not going to relent she's not going to give up 17 minutes on the run so so that that means you know to to miranda's 249 she's ready to run a 259 um let's just say there's so many things to discuss and while we have andy rayler on camera i want to i want to answer a twitter comment that said why are you guys showing quinoa why you showing so and so here's the deal we want to show you as many of these athletes as we possibly can and not get locked in only the lead we'll do our best to bring those cameras four and a half so that you can see everyone andy raylor just to answer the one thing is you guys physically this guy has had the game from day one but what greg just said is can he be smart unfortunately the the guy is an emotional racer a little bit i mean as far as motion goes determined yeah you've said he's run the first 10 miles in 57 minutes before and it exploded so i think that the the biggest challenge really for andy and fans of the man is he doesn't typically race the smartest race he races the gutsy heart and that and that generally doesn't suit well for iron man well but it doesn't kona i think i think kona is the one iron man in the circuit where you're not starting the clock and doing the best that you can for the whole the entire day you're racing and that emotional side of andreas rayler that's the racer that is just getting after it and seeing positions change and knowing where he has to be at what time and getting off the bike eight minutes down and saying i gotta catch the guy that's eight minutes in front of me that's what's put him in this race in the podium so many times and that guy uh he will if he finds himself near the front of the bike ride he will be able to run at a more reserved base until he has to run at a different pace and then maybe he closes it but he's a gamer and he's going to be the one to his goal is to get the first cross finish well we just got word that was in the uh the uh penalty box so he served five minutes van lierta fredrick van leer and patrick lang as well as brent mcmahon those four guys coming off the live blog greg in the sin bin which is also known as the penalty tent those guys five minutes down the road but greg what do you see in the bottom picture of the camera here of your of your tv screen i'm sorry that bottom shot that is inspiration happening right there at the exit of the swim yes exactly and uh they've got a few more minutes to uh you know up their sleeve to get out of the water here so fantastic efforts are all around today as we get uh one of our athletes here just coming out this is absolutely fantastic to see you know it's a reminiscent of uh dick and ricky hoyt you know once upon a time here in kona uh those guys being retired now and hailing from massachusetts but today this is great stuff the the athlete here will be carried up into the transition area and then they'll get onto their bike ride today and head out onto the bike course now i just wanted to update you right now on the wind conditions right now in kona we have four miles an hour five miles an hour at waikalua which is really really low at kauai high we have eight miles an hour as we get up onto the kahala coast which is halfway up from kauai high up to harvey we have 15 miles an hour and then 17 miles an hour and half the gusting winds at about 20. so we've got a little bit of action happening up in harvey yeah that's good and that you know that sounds to people that haven't been out on the island before that sounds uh pretty brutal and like heavy winds and it's not light winds but it's not the crazy um historic javi wins that we have seen but it's good i know those athletes that are looking forward to doing something on a bike like maybe a van burkal or luke mckenzie they're going to want those wins out there on javi all right ladies and gentlemen have the wind starts to get up on the kahala coast the heat is starting to get into town here it's around about 80 degrees at the moment it is hotting up here in kailua county you're watching the 2016 ironman world championship more bike action after the break welcome back to the 2016 iron man world championship right here in kailua kona hawaii and we are getting very close to the end of our men's age group swim cut off here so uh mike you know at 906 or 907 local time right now we're only about eight minutes away from seeing all of our age group uh men being out of the water and then a further you know 20 minutes from right now we'll see all of our age group women's cut off come to the end here so a beautiful day we're just getting word out on course that it is starting to get a little bit windy out toward harvey our athletes have now gone through you know the kauai high parts so let's go and look at our swim course this morning it all started out at 6 25 a.m this morning mike and what a beautiful sunrise it was it was in the roca swim course really turned it on with decent conditions not the best but pretty fast swims the men got underway sharp at 6 25 a.m they tackled the course with gusto immediately getting out in front was andy potts was also harry wiltshire from great britain and also our defending iron man world champ jan ferdino really putting the gas pedal down yeah marco albert was there as well so those were the top four you know these guys were really attacking the uh race as they went out to the first term buoy after they made that hundred meters across the back it was jan frodeno that tried to open up a grab his pace was fast enough to string him out in single file as they made their way back in there was a little bit of a break in the action as well andy potts deciding to go one way off to the right side jan frodeno on the left hand side and they all merged together as they came out of the water they did and there was just that sprint for the finish to really get those honors harry wiltshire putting the hard pressure on to get that first out of the water honors taking home a paycheck i'm sure from his sponsors with the bonus fradino potts right behind matthews was there we also had a quick transition to bike and once they were on the bike tim o'donnell tim don both right on after it so it was very fast and then of course our women's race was equally exciting there on the roca swim course the women lined up perfectly spread out across the course yes getting underway just five minutes after our men's today for their chance of becoming the world champion daniella ryf was stuck in the middle of the lead pack most of the way but it was jody swallow and meredith kessler that did the pace setting all the way through the early part of the swim that's right and then we saw a nice again a bigger group than we've really ever seen 13 women up front meredith kessler jody swallow side by side shoulder shoulder we also had kaye cave and others as far as annabelle luxford is concerned she was right there in the mix the second time kona winner these women came all the way around that turn buoy on the far into the roca swim course together tightly packed we only lost you know really uh two of those women as they exited the water a little bit later on but this was a fast fast pace set out and after it they were two two and a half minutes faster across the course of all-time checks so as they made their way in toward the pier it was meredith kessler leading out of the water today and it was leander cave hot on the heels jodie swallow was right there annabelle luxford was fourth out of the water and then we had alicia k camilla peterson daniela wreath the defending champion was in seventh place at 52.50 anya berenick from germany laura wassner from the usa and michelle vesterby from denmark our 10th place finisher so a 48-minute swim by harry wilshere and a 52-46 by meredith kessler slashing minutes off last year's swim course times and you know i think you guys can have a close look um at the uh at the blog and the info that's coming up off that that data that we have over there but interestingly enough is we've had a lot of changes of the top uh top 10 uh men uh splits and we we we're showing 25 guys all tightly wrapped together so 25 guys all within about 32 seconds and that's all the way from uh weiss michael vice and potts all the way back to christian kramer well that's the big news mike because we haven't spoken about michael vice being in that league group here and now he is leading just making that turn going up toward harvey town now so michael vice is leading andy potts andy boucherer and also jan frodeno tim o'donnell is there luke mckenzie timothy van burke of ben hoffman and echo yanos and marco albert we can see right in there but we did get the unfortunate news of brent mcmahon freddie van lieder and company was stopped just a few moments ago for a five minute penalty that's right that hurts the chances uh but does not kill them because as we have seen luke van leard van lierta at 1996 had won the race off a penalty paul newby fraser won that year as well off a penalty and then we saw tim to boom do it in 2001 uh it has been done you can still win the race and still perform extremely well it really just becomes how you handle that disappointment and how you handle the dynamics of being out of the group you wanted to be in but certainly we did see also a contender pre-race favorite that we talked about jesse thomas pip his way almost to the top 20 21st be exactly 26 seconds off the lead but really as i look at this one through 25 all the guys are there within 32 seconds which means they're all together so as we move our way to ward rv this is going to be the business end of the bike ride also where the wind starts kicking up we've been getting reports that it was gusts of 20 miles an hour sustained winds out of the east northeast at around about 17 miles per hour at the moment so now we know that uh the race is really going to heat up there michael vice is leading by andy potts and andy burcherer john frodeno tim o'donnell luke mckenzie a lot of the bikers have really come to the forefront now sebastian kinley tyler butterfield and jesse thomas you made mention of him just a moment ago he was the guy that took down jan frodeno at iron man lanzarote arguably the hardest iron man on the world circuit right now so if jesse thomas is right in there with sebastian kinley jaunt fradino look at it look at it being this way mike on the way back we've talked about it all morning that's where you're going to have to sustain the same amount of wattage output on the way back to you know have a great bike time today and unfortunately some of our you know race um favorites all already you know freddie van leeuwe and brent mcmahon have already been caught up in a little bit of trouble so unfortunately the five-minute deficit that they have right now you know they're gonna have to just you know cool their jets and also andre israelite i just kind of have to cool their jets and wait and just have a very smooth ride time today and make sure they don't overextend themselves don't try and make up too much time and just have to rely on their run today that's right and as we look here uh at trenzo bozone here uh rolling through uh obviously in that top 25 position we also know that some of the women that are a little bit i'm sorry that's number 34 i was completely off course on that that's david ples and so we have him a nice shot of him wearing similar colors to uh to uh translate but that is david please we referencing some of these further backs i'm thinking about some of these women that i've seen back the road and one of those women that's cranking it is heather jackson we've heard from that but really i'd love to hear what last year's third place finisher liz blachford had to say to malieto they're down there together discussing what has happened so far guys take it away for us yeah thanks so much michael i'm down here with liz blashford third place here in kona last year unfortunately not able to compete this year what's it like being on the sidelines liz yeah it's frustrating not being out there but i'm really enjoying the other side of the fence absorbing all the atmosphere and the good vibes so i'm excited to be here anything you noticed uh during the swim and the transition being have being eyes on that maybe you didn't notice as a racer last year well obviously when i raced i was usually out front near the um out of the water near the front so i never knew the gaps behind but seeing the women come out of the water specifically we had rooney at around four minutes which is pretty standard for her and then mel and heather jackson another couple of minutes back but um yeah it sounds like that front group of ten that was out of the water they're starting to break up out there it's pretty windy out near waikala and um yeah hearing that things are splitting up out there yeah so last we heard we had three athletes off the front uh reef was it baroneck and alicia k and then a chase group of about seven and then we do have similar to races we've seen in the past on the men's field kind of chasing groups um do you think the right athletes have found the right athlete allies in the back with like heather jackson and mel hassle uh what do you think about those chase groups yeah absolutely what we are seeing in this race which potentially we haven't seen in the past is some really groups of strong writers coming from behind where in the past you saw rini riding on our own or maybe with one other they do have a bit of a group formed um and especially if this front group's going to break up that's going to bode well for rooney and and mel and heather jackson yeah absolutely and right now we're standing at the swim finish uh the men's the amateur men's cutoff is is coming here actually i believe it it's gone so we're waiting to see if we have any athletes that have missed the cut the women's cut is coming in just a few minutes but anything you've noticed in the conditions for the unfortunately the weaker swimmers seem to be hitting a little bit different swim conditions than the pros did yeah absolutely uh right behind us here we've got real chop happening there's waves breaking at dygmy beach um this is pretty unusual so yeah it's just showing that it is a windy day out there yeah it's it's pretty nuts and just guys since i left the desk and got here in transition we can feel wind at the pier which we don't often feel so we've been looking at predictions and forecasts i know it's going to be a fast year but here we go we have win in downtown kailua we don't often see that so it could be a very very hard bike ride back liz what do you see happening in the women's race on the way up and down from javi what do you see happening in those league groups well as i said we've already seen some of those splits i see daniella potentially trying to keep a few girls with her as long as she can at some point on the way back maybe at the turnaround making her move and going for it it's interesting rini and the girls that she's riding with they haven't lost much time to the front you know they've lost one minute since getting out of the water so that's not big time and we know what rooney's capable on that run so if daniella wants to go for the win again she's going to have to really put some time in and i'd say that'll be some point from the turnaround yeah and what are we thinking uh nine minutes she needs or she need 12 minutes i think last year was 12. yeah look um last year when he dnf'd but um winnie's best here is 250 daniela looks she's capable of under three hours but whether she'll do it here we know that rini has consistently run low 250s so i think she needs 10 minutes yeah yeah i think that's about right i think rini's on a mission and daniella also is as well for that back-to-back win but thanks liz for coming back we're going to have liz a couple more times during our broadcast here today in t2 to help me through the women's transition a little bit and then a little bit later in the run as well so thanks liz get back out there and let us know what you can find thanks guys yeah that's great and liz thanks so much we love hearing from you matt thanks very much it is uh great to have your perspective and obviously two times on the podium you have exactly seen and know what it takes to be there in 10 minutes so you know coming to you just before we drift away liz uh maybe matt you could pose for this question um we feel like daniela reeve got a little bit of a beating and i think it humbled her and taught her a new set of cards that she could play with that's just something what would liz say that that uh that danielle reef is capable of running 259 302 what will it be she ran 307 306 last year michael you kind of touched on it a little bit but what is the best run you think daniela is capable of or specifically here today she's really here today uh i reckon daniella is going to go 301 and what is rooney gonna go oh 2 51. so there you go back to the 10 minutes but i'd say that's a pretty good guess yeah it's gonna be an exciting race no doubt and i don't think they're the only two in the race obviously we've got mel household who's unbeaten over iron man from a running background and heather jackson focused on this race there's going to be a bunch of girls going up yeah i mean mirinda isn't the only one capable of a low 250 or possibly under 250 here today right that's right mel definitely has the running pedigree whether she's got it over iron man is a whole another matter but she definitely has it in there somewhere so we'll see what she's got today thanks so much liz and guys i'll get back down here in a few minutes for uh the last swim cut off i'll get a little bit more details on what amateur athletes we still have out here on the swim course perfect yeah thanks a lot matt you're uh you're 10 minutes away from seeing our age group women uh cut off on the swim there today and uh very well said liz i think you uh kept it right off uh beautifully there and if there's anybody that knows these athletes right now it's liz blatchford third place in the 2015 ironman world championship and giving us an idea on just exactly what she thinks about that if uh you know daniela runs a 301 and miranda runs at 251 well do the math you know 10 minutes off the bike and we've got a race so right now we can tell you that our men's race is getting very exciting and uh as daniela ryf has now just made her way around the turn at kawaii high on the way to harvey so 19 miles away from her coming back toward kauai high so if you want to look at lionel sanders he's moved up into 411 down and then also jordan represents three minutes down there but the big move is in the field today jesse thomas is in the lead group and so is sebastian kinley let's talk about daniela ryf the defending world champion on how she feels about riding over this course take a listen to this [Music] i feel less pressured than last year to be honest because last year was yeah i really wanted to show it that i can do it and then i did so that was yeah it was amazing and and this year i i feel like i'm more i started to enjoy it more again um or for myself of course i want to show a great performance and that will make me nervous or excited but that's all part of the game because if you don't care you're not gonna reach your best either because you're just gonna yeah run around and yeah watch watch the birds or whatever so now i i am i i feel excited to be here and i'm yeah i'm just looking forward to get out there and see what i can do this year hey daniela and that's our 2015 ironman world champion she's won the 70.3 twice by daniela ryf just having a look at how great she is overall she was undefeated all the way until she dnf'd at the ironman european championships in frankfurt this year and then she also got fourth place iron man 70.3 world champs in maluba australia about five weeks ago but daniela ryf she's in the position needs to be and i think that when we really look at those numbers and we we examine what liz said she said 301 and and one 251 i think 259 and uh 140 249 but either way it's the same numbers and it doesn't really matter 10 minutes is the spread i think that daniella is going to put the pedal to the metal once she hits javi you you said it greg she's she's got a 19-mile progressive uphill climb uh final six miles or 10k straight into the wind uh with a uh not a break in the action just straight gradual uphill that's hard that's when the break begins to happen that's where folks start to feel a in the armor they realize ouch this is a hard hard long day um but it's it's on the way down that the separation starts to happen mike there is absolutely no question about it you're dead right let's have a look at this though on our women's age group swim right now we're closing in toward the cut-off and it looks like all of our women are going to absolutely crush it today it's been a fantastic swim course out here we have much faster swim times of last year you know men's they went over two and a half minutes faster now women's they went almost four minutes faster than last year and look at this our final women's swimmer is just about to get out of water with around about six minutes to spare so this is fantastic matt down there on the pier what is the atmosphere like down there because up here we can hear it and it sounds great yeah greg i'm sure you guys are hearing a bunch right now the energy is high we got a lot of stoke people down here we have miriam o'donnell our last finisher of the swim course here at the iron man world championships and she is on terra firma there she is miriam o'donnell she has made the cutoff she's the last swimmer she is so grateful for all the love and support so much good energy out here the last thing anybody wants to see is someone not make the cut off and miriam o'donnell has done it with style look at that absolutely epic way to finish the swim course and guys often i'm down here i'm down here with the uh the swim course director and the timing coordinator andy he has to tell the athletes that they weren't able to make it and you know we have volunteers in tears and right now we've been seeing high fives get thrown all over the place because all of our swimmers have made it miriam o'donnell has made it through really tough conditions at the end of this swim course and she is now grabbing her transition bag and on to the bike course awesome stuff down here well we could hear the emotion in your voice and that's beautiful i got the chills thinking about it five minutes to spare and she blew kisses to the crowd wonderful stuff wonderful stuff yeah time to celebrate down she had time to kill down to the finish line there that's great and she crushed it by over five minutes to spare so the roku swim course right now has come to a close so we can shut that timing clock off but i noticed on the flags down there mike it looks like we've got a south wind picking up which is a headwind coming back into town for the athletes so the forecast this morning was for calm winds at around about 11 miles an hour out of the east northeast now that's right up here at this point of the course at the moment we just got a report um you know from our weather center up there kahala which is the mid north coast halfway between kauai high and harvey that the winds are calm and that is because you see what they're riding across here we've got our cutouts here in the lava fields and when they go past these little cutouts the calm winds you know are right there but once they get exposed again the wind is going to come out so the athletes now are facing that uphill battle all the way to harvey town before turning around once they hit the waikaloa area around about 85 miles on the bike today i think they're going to be met with some headwinds so the forecast this morning has been completely switched around to the other way now we're looking at a windy day that's right and here we've got a great look of anya better nick she has won two ironman titles in the past she was third place at the ironman 70.3 last year she's second place behind daniella reef she's in great company we also have confirmed and look at that beautiful turnover mike you can see her on a bike right now laying right over the bike here with a beautiful flat back aerodynamic look at this helmet it's just sitting right between the shoulder blades of anya berenic right now look at this for a beautiful setup and look at this she's not too high on a seat and the turnover is around about 90 to 95 cadence look how fast she's going she can hardly pick up some water she missed the gatorade endurance just a moment ago but she did get the bottle of water will that play into her you know endurance and you know later on and her nutritional formula as we get up toward harvey i mean that was a big mess absolutely and as we look at this uh young lady and she's right behind defending champ daniela ryf daniela ryf obviously one of the legendary coaches in charge of her mission and that's brett sutton from australia but anya berenick has the coach of a guy who's won this race before himself thomas hellriegel from germany a 1997 champion at the ironmair world championship so we've got these two women it's great company anya baranek unproven in hawaii with a dnf in 2013 at dnf in 2012 and then not even being here in 14 or 15. so anya barenick really really a lot of ability her best run ever though is 314 at the ironman distance so 314 is just not going to cut it today unless she really drills that bike down into the low 250s but right now it's a great ally for reef to be uh in company of so they are turning up we also know a minute back is last year's fourth place finisher from denmark michelle vesterby so with michelle vesterby she's another swim bike powerhouse so obviously what's going on here now is an ideal situation for the swiss uh defending champ she's got two allies more or less within a minute of her they're rocking and rolling along up towards that meaty and tough part of the course they haven't gotten to the 60-mile turnaround at javi town but they are rolling as greg said over those little rollers channels of wind will come shooting down off the right side every now and then you can see oh sorry greg you're right those flags indicate we've had a shift in normal winds so they're getting pushed up the hill um on this section of road and this section of road is about a 12 mile a 12 mile or 20k rollers but but getting pushed along with a tailwind is a nice thing you know what mike it looks like today is a traditional um you know trade wind day and uh they're just switching around all over the place we started out by east northeast winds this morning looks like it's uh switched around to the west northwest um sorry the west southwest which is going to be a crosswind headwind coming on the way back into town but by the look of it michael vice has got himself to the front of this race now opening up a little bit of a gap and now you see that there's a little bit of urgency in the pack here sebastian kinley trying to make his way to the front here because michael vice is picking up the pace air temperature right now on the master spas weather report 84 degrees out on course seven miles an hour that's right down here in town humidity is 65 and just gonna hover around about that percentage until around about two o'clock this afternoon when the humidity starts kicking in again so when we now look at like this race being opened up by michael vice the gap in between fifth and sixth is now really opening up that's right and you just saw shots there of keeley rolling past tim o'donnell so this is something that we saw tim o'donnell and keenlay riding together also with jon fordino late way later last year 86 88 miles when they were grouped together we're seeing that early on they're not even to 60 miles yet they're approaching it quickly but as you see uh keeley rolled through i think the urgency becomes with austin you've got someone who was a sort of non-focal point michael vice he's won a few iron mans he's gone pretty fast but people don't talk about him that much and so he's up the road he's someone that excuse me could drag away his competitors you know what not going to be too controversial but he did face a drug man he did no he served he served the penalty two years out on the side of the road he served his two years he admitted to taking you know uh performance enhancing drugs and uh you know he said i'm gonna take my two years and i'm just to come back and then i'm going to be back at it so michael vice now is at the front of the pack here and really pushing the pace and i'm seeing sebastian kinley just notice that that's happening i'm not going to let that happen this could be the you know the spot where sebastian who is actually pushing a really big gear here mike i can see the sebastian's working very hard as he gets toward harvey town you know he's not going to let that happen and on the way back you know that the ride down from harvey to kauai high today it's going to be nothing short of exciting oh yeah you you would guarantee that these men have equipped their bikes with 55.2 chainring uh standard would be a 53 2 chainring 54 will get the job done 55 will get it done in style that allows you to keep up with that pace and keep pedaling and pushing the pace a lot of times athletes on a 53 or a lower geared rig will spin out and they can't keep up the cadence too high to maintain pressure on the pedals and it really is part of the separation that takes place there peter reed to 1998 and 2000 and 2003 champion was one of the first athletes to go excuse me yes sir yes so there michael we can see that uh now you know on the right side we've got daniela ryf leading our women's race and uh right behind is anya veronique from germany we've got a wonderful picture in uh sorry a split screen right here bringing you both men's and women's races as we see him out on course at the moment we've got a very tough group of athletes trying to hang in there at the moment we've got in there andy potts was right there andy bertrand john uh sorry jan fradino tim o'donnell luke mckenzie timothy van burkel from australia and ben hoffman and neko janos all these guys have podium before besides andy potts and bertrand so tim o'donnell he's been third on the podium luke mckenzie's second tim van burkel is looking to get on the podium ben hoffman and aneko yanos have both played second in this race before and then we've got marco albert and tim don david mcnamee was 10th place last year and boris stein 11th place torenzo bazzoni is still sitting right up there in the lead group here and he's looking really good today torenzo really wants to have that breakthrough racing kona that he needs to have he's performed very well at the ironman new zealand and he he needs to come here he's without his family this week he's left uh you know his lovely wife and uh uh son at home there so while we do wish him well uh back there in new zealand and um yeah terenzo and and kelly's wonderful she travels a lot of the races with him in the past but but torenzo has never won an iron man and it's something when you say those words you say with disbelief how is terenzo never won iron man he was a you know iron man he was a world champion at the at the junior distance and you know 70.3 in clearwater he won the world title he he's such a promised athlete he's so good and he's he's gone toe-to-toe with cameron brown in new zealand and never come up on top it's just he's running up against the wrong circumstances but he is so good and so to see him do well here at kona would be phenomenal right now greg you're looking at just a beautiful picture look at the bike look how smooth that riding style is just elaborate a little bit on this look at that back it's absolutely dead flat the hero helmet like i said just a moment ago is tucking right in between those shoulder blades arms out in front nice and relaxed she's got around about a 90 degree angle on the elbow there she's sitting pretty low on a seat but again we'll talk about that comfort you can see that she can probably get a little bit more height out of the seat but this is comfort for her beautiful turnover this is really really nice we're not used to seeing anya baranek at the front of the ironman world championship but today she's taking a danielle reef and keeping the pressure on well yeah and that's because bernick has not she didn't race her last year she didn't raise her in 14. she dnf'd in 13. she dnf'd in 12. i'm not trying to harp on her she's phenomenal she's really good she's won two ironmans she did great at 70.3 worlds up against daniela ryf in austria over there in 2015. she is accomplished she as we said earlier has a great coach that knows this race indoors and outdoors but right now anya is in the sweet spot if you can ride along seemingly yeah we're not going to say comfortable but seemingly in control behind the uh the defending world champ it's like hey why do anything else you're in perfect position mind your p's and q's drink your water um drink you know your gatorade endurance formula it says it says uh you know yes exactly trails uh switzerland's daniela reef by just a little bit and then uh almost a minute back is michelle vesterby from denmark and i know athletes are chiming in on twitter saying you know who's here who's there what's behind the scene we haven't seen a lot of changes but let's let's rest assured that when these guys cross the next timing mat up at javi at just under 60 miles we will see a whole lot of shakeout jody swallow was in fourth position meredith kessler right there alicia k and annabelle luxford that top seven is all within about a minute as you go past that top seven the eight through eighteen that's where the gaps start to form mirinda carfrae someone to look at she's 6 30 down from the lead uh mel house shield from australia 640 down from the lead you know others that are incredible have done well julia guyer from germany she's six and a half down from the lead heather werchell six and a half down from the lead i tell you what if i'm seeing mirinda carfrae riding along with heather rotell i'm saying this is a good day for miranda on the bike and again not to knock her cycling at billy she's gone faster across this course than anyone has ever done but historically the bike she loses a bit of time yeah okay so i did a little bit of quick math and uh you know over the first uh you know 32 miles we were only losing one minute over the last 10 miles mirinda carfrey lost one minute and 33 seconds so now she's you know her deficit is out of six minutes and 33 seconds so you know over that last 10 miles danielle reef and also anja baranek has really really accelerated away from the rest of this field as you just went through the rest of the girls there michael with michelle vesta be at 47 and jody swallow at 49 meredith kessler and uh alicia k and annabelle luxford there's only seven girls now that are within one minute of the lead but that group of uh yvonne van vlierkin heather wurtzel mirinda carfrey julia gaia casey leighton and also kyrie lester heather jackson and melissa holschel a lot of the favorites are in that group but just to get you caught up in 10 miles marinda carfrae has just lost one minute and 30 seconds on daniela ryf there as well as as well as melissa halshaw so that's how it stands just uh making that turn at harvey as they approach you know the next 19 mile time up into harvey town that's right and as we had some tweets in steve fleck coming to us saying where's our canadian hope hopeful our second canadian hopeful lionel sanders we know brent mcmahon served a bit of a penalty but lionel sanders when he's only four minutes 11 seconds down wow let me just say that is really making quick work because if we get on the second half of this bike in those closing miles if we're only a couple of minutes uh down he's really got the ability to push on through it's exciting stuff and as we approach that javi zone we're gonna step away for a quick play join us again soon for the 2016 ironman world championship welcome back to the 2016 ironman world championships we're here in kailua kona all the way in hawaii thank you very much the 50th state matt you knew that so did i we are excited to bring you an update just here fresh off of spotters network we've got sebastian kinley in first place on the road right behind him andy becher from germany and then it's tim i'm sorry it's actually michael vice also from austria european and then our top america in eighth place tim o'donnell is in fourth and then we've got athlete luke mckenzie from australia riding fifth wheel and then andy potts another american those are our top six that's fresh off the spotter network matt exciting racing up there but right now on camera we are looking at anya baranek she is sitting just behind daniela reef our women's leader board top five danielle ryf our defending champ anja baronic from germany michelle vesterby from denmark jody swallow and then we've got meredith kessler closing out that top five they're all pretty close yeah they're all about a yeah i would say about 35 40 seconds apart um but we do know that daniela reef is in the driver's seat yeah absolutely and i think we've got the the best women in the sport here today racing and we're seeing the best cyclists uh get to the front early uh after a hard swim we do have that chase group as we spoke about earlier with uh liz blatchford of mel hosholt and heather jackson obviously mirinda carfrae coming up as well but right now at the front of this race daniella ryf anja baranek michelle yesterby very very strong cyclists and they're pushing the pace here early in the bike ride thanks very much to envy for bringing that that's that live leaderboard action so it has been an exciting day as we know it's all about the ventum bike course it is if you're good on the bike if you're biting you're biting your time i should say waiting for the the hoka one run there's still time to kill right now we've got jan fordino last year's champ sitting up going arrow sitting up going arrow and matt you recognize that scene as well as anyone the green you know change of scenery as you enter javi town yeah you're getting close and we know from looking at forecasts and hearing from people out on course there's a little bit of wind but it's pretty hot out there especially for age groupers later javi is going to be a hot zone which we normally don't feel that much heat up there but we we do have it looks like our leader uh at the moment was sebastian keanley and the lead lead of our men's field has made the turn from javi and is on the way back michael those athletes that you spoke of that are at the front of the group are the type of athletes that have the ability to break this field apart and most of those athletes are athletes that are strong enough to ride well down from javi and javi is a little bit different it takes a good cycling technique having the ability to have either a large gear or the ability to spin high rpms but often we talk about putting power down at the right time and usually it counts more when you're going up a hill and going fast down a hill isn't a good idea it's waste of power but if you're not ready to go really really hard down from javi at the front of this men's race you're just going to get dropped that's right you have to be ready and often mad it's that combo of the ability to spin a big gear so you know keeping that going but right here it's live action three hours 24 minutes into this race and we are locked right in the middle of the ventum bike course that's andy potts getting overtaken by jan fodino the defending world champion andy potts doing what he needs to do which is maintain presence he has actually run 248 here he has a faster pr than any of the other americans at the marathon andy potts if anyone can be a sleeper with back-to-back fourths it's andy potts just keep an eye on him and and there again that's um that's better on the left side of your screen you know matt you picked him as a podium you picked ken lay frodeno betcher and that's good cause because betcher was the guy that pushed quinole at the ironman european championships in frankfurt to the break he ran with him for 10 miles yeah absolutely and i think he's the type of athlete that maybe hasn't had the break through or what you were talking with with ben hoffman and tim o'donnell someone that's made a break and recognize that they need to go after it all these athletes know who bosher is but in this race they haven't seen him really rise to the top so he's an athlete that has the ability to ride away i mean he can close he ran a 246 i believe in frankfurt as well and if anybody's raced him or watched him race 70.3 he's super dynamic on a bike over 56 miles so he has the ability to ride that high high power which in an iron man at the world championships here in kona you have to be able to ride that high high power to be able to stay in that group and and also we will say that andy betcher took top 10 here i believe it was in 2010 he came in and ran maintained that came off the bike well as a young athlete uh was able to push that that was you know six years ago but he did that and he had some ups and downs has had some bad luck across the course of the last six years but also some high successes andy betcher uh very nice good athlete to watch and he's doing quite well for germany today yeah absolutely and and this race it's about experience and andy has run the the gamut of experience uh someone else who has a lot of experiences sebastian keenly and he knows that you can't uh really learn everything in one day here in kona that's right i think you could never have enough experience when you when you race kona and um even if you raced here for like 10 times i think there's still something something new to learn because the the course and the conditions are they are varying so much that you could still learn something new it's not something i think back and say like ah i take it easy this time because i already won it before no it's actually it's the other other way around i it's constantly you have to prove yourself that you're still capable of do that and that's that's the reason why i love this board and i think that's the biggest fear every pro athlete has is that they reached a point in their career where they stop progressing and the constant progress it's what what you are what you are hunting for that's sebastian kinley he's our defending champion here's a look at all the things he's done across the globe last year he was eighth here 2014 he won the race and then he also did back to back iron man 70.3 world championships this bib number two representing journey sebastian quinlay also known as sebby he's a guy a lot of folks love to root for a sense of humor too matt he really does and one thing michael looking at those results he's been on the podium at this race he's won a world championships at 70.3 and then last year we're like oh sebby had a bad race he was still eighth you know a lot of the athletes that are out here today are ones that are shooting for that eighth place that's a great result here in kona and he did that off of i think what he would admit was a bad day uh on the run and he's ready to run a lot better here uh today but right now at the front of our race we do have that that tough spot of the course where we're riding downhill from javi um most of these athletes that are going to be aggressive on this downhill are going to be riding a 55 or a 56 tooth chainring especially michael what you're pointing to doesn't necessarily have to be high rpms a lot of athletes are going to be riding at 85 maybe 80 rpms but they need to make sure they have the gearing so that they can continue to pedal so they know if there's an undulation on that course they could put the power down you think you might be going fast enough to coast and you might be for those 20 meters of course but right away you might get a little bit of undulation where you should have been pushing power down that's a great point a lot of power being thrown down on the road by michael vice from austria we talk a lot about the professional athletes but you have to remember there's an entire 1600 age group men 700 age group women and divide that even further down into the age group category we have the ironman executive challenge the imeron xc brings together executives at select events around the world for a one-of-a-kind ironman race experience this turnkey program streamlines all logistics surrounding an ironman event allowing the athlete time to focus on the ironman journey additionally family and guests experience vip treatment throughout the weekend with a front row seat to all the action ironman xc not only provides executives the opportunity to compete for slots the ironman world championships or the ant-man 70.3 world championship it offers athletes numerous benefits such as guaranteed entry into ironman events convenient first-class accommodations multiple functions activities during the race week on-site staff to assist those athletes private registration and bike check-in also are available to these athletes there are 26 of those iron man xc competitors at the 2016 ironman world championships it's a great program i actually had the chance to speak to these executives just thursday morning what a great group of motivated guys i mean everyone's motivated when you're doing iron man but the xc ticket to it's not just type a it's type a plus it's type double a so really a great group of guys but we're back on action here with michael vice austria he's won three ironmans he won st george in 2010 he won cozumel after his uh suspension he came back one cozmo 13-14 he's an athlete that is just really comfortable on the bike last year he faded a bit here on the run yeah which he can do in the heat sometimes he fades a bit but he's a beast of an athlete he's looking pretty good right now yeah and if he doesn't fade he's pretty strong on that run course as well so definitely an athlete that the others behind are going to have to pay attention to and michael looking at the splits at the javi turn we did have that group of kingly boscher weiss o'donnell mackenzie potts frodeno and hoffman all together but it really started to gap a little bit back to terenzo bazone jesse thomas marco albert tim dawn just 20 seconds but that's at the top of javi and we know that generally on the way up to javi it's a gradual or a steady push of power and it gets harder slowly maybe maybe it's not as aggressively but on the way down from javi i expect the gaps from uh that turnover to the turn of kawhi high to maybe be you know if we've got 50 seconds on an athlete like uh jesse thomas tranzo buzzone it might be two and a half or three minutes two and a half three i was thinking the same thing great point matt because you know let's just reference as we look through those guys through javi here is an interesting stat canadian fans put your hands together lionel sanders has drawn brought that gap down to 301. lionel sanders is not i wouldn't say destroying this bike he's doing a strong progressive bike bringing back that gap he lost eight minutes to frodeno out of the water at 60 miles he took five so that's a pretty good progression i think my only worry with the sanders was he was going to try and ride that eight minutes into him in the first half saw sanders catch the group already we knew it was a matter of time until he blew to smithereens because the course out here is just that tough i think that's one thing that lionel learned last year is that it is really hard conditions and there's only so much you can do on your own so him being steady what's going to happen now is you know he's three minutes behind the group as they turn a javi but there's those athletes that are getting dropped so at the bottom of javi if he's able to hold a steady pace he might be that next athlete besides that front group he might be the one going through kawai high in 11th place maybe two and a half minutes down not losing time so lionel sanders is one we've talked about a lot and he's proving right now with the way he's pacing this effort that he's an athlete worth talking about yeah for sure and so as we look at tim o'donnell this is about the spot where we saw him put his head down look back a couple times but really get away tim o'donnell he's he wants to improve on third we caught up with tim o'donnell and he had some great words to say about who he's racing today i really feel this is the deepest field i've i've ever seen at the ironman world championships and so good you know to sit here and list all the contenders it would take me an hour obviously guys like yon and sebastian have been at the top before and and they'll most likely be threats to be at the top again but once you start underestimating some of those other guys and there are a lot of them um they're going to sneak up on you so my eyes are going to be wide open to every every man out on that race course on on race day oh donal he's been successful since he started long course racing last year he won the ironman 70.3 in puerto rico third at the ironman world championships last year second at last year's ironman brazil this year you know what was kind of cool was he bombed it at ironman european championships in frankfurt and i say he bombed it because in truth he did he went there a little bit overtrained he said and it gave him that fuel in the belly it gave him that humility that he needed he went away from kona last year saying i've got it a little bit figured out and then he went and got trounced i think that's the best thing for him because it creates that hunger you know it creates that desire to better yourself tim o'donnell for as an observer the last couple years i've been saying tim get out of brazil go over there and flog yourself or get flogged by these giants over in europe he did just that now i think the guy comes in with a new trick in his trade yeah well good advice from you michael but yeah i think you're right and what's different about t.o is that he was the first one to admit that he bombed that race in frankfurt there was no oh i had this right i was overtrained going in there's no excuses coming from him because he's a class athlete he just took it on the chin took his lumps and uh went back to the drawing board and put his effort in to race the world championships uh here in kona and here out on the ventum bike course we still see miki weiss uh in the lead of the race but right behind is t.o and tio's still looking back a little bit like he did last year trying to see what's developing from what i heard last year from tim is that you know he was making sure he was in the right position at the front of the race going down javi because he didn't want to get dropped because that's where as we were speaking earlier a lot of the action can happen right now he's just trying to see who's still with him if he's maybe pushing too hard up front with uh weiss but t.o is in a great position right now it does look like miki has gotten a little bit of a gap on the athlete behind him so um he's uh he's pushing that effort quite well but michael as i said it does seem like just being out from behind the the king cam out at the pier a few minutes ago there's a lot of a fair amount of wind down here and i think these athletes might see once they get back on that queen k sometimes you turn right and it's a tailwind and i think this year it's going to be a strong headwind i think you're right so let's just discuss and share with some of the folks back home what it looks like when you um when you come off of javi so you've turned it javi the women are about to do this when you turn in javi you have a six mile or ten kilometer downhill grade it's a three to six percent downhill grade for a while which means fast to pretty darn fast as you're coming down that after that 10k the road bends to the left when you bend to the left what you feel like is going to happen is you're going to roll downhill you feel like on the way up man i had all these climbs so you kind of feel like at this point 65 miles in i should have a little reprieve you don't those hills really kick back up in your face on the way down so in that next 10 miles as you approach kawhi high you are actually getting kind of beat up with some uphill so that's where as you describe matt that gap can go from a from a a 50 seconds to two and a half to three minutes then the ultimate insult you bottom out at the bottom of kawhi high and you have a you have almost a two mile climb up to the queen k and that is in my personal opinion the hardest part of this course because you also have zero wind in your favor if there's any wind it's behind you you feel like it's about 4000 degrees and you're coming up there you're in the wrong gear you're in the right key you're standing you're sitting there's sweat pouring down your face if you're matt lietto and you're out there you're losing 10 pounds an hour this is your sweat you're thinking it's the hottest day ever but it really is tough and then that just prefaces the right turn where you've got 32 miles coming home no i think you're right michael and i i feel like you might have been stealing the notes i wrote for my athletes racing out here today because that is the toughest part of the course certainly on perceived toughness because you have that tailwind it's so hot going up quite high but you're right michael there you know the the way down air quotes down javi has a lot of bumps to it and i think why the pure cyclist does well on this section is that they have the ability to put power on the pedals on that whole downhill with the maybe high rpms with the bigger gear but they're not over pushing watts so when they hit those little climbs they can do two to three minutes up these rollers at 380 400 watts gip up over that roller with the momentum they've gained from that downhill and then hold it into the next little roller on the downside here's a little shout out too because we are looking at the ventum bike course here and one of the cool things about this bike that came on the scene very recently is it was designed for iron man and iron man 70.3 racing and even more specifically what they did was they added that 1.4 liter bottle built into the frame so when is that even you know more better used utilize it right here when you're coming down you've got crosswinds hitting you from the side you're in an aerodynamic frame but you're not coming out of arrow because you've got that hose that straw coming right out and you're drinking the whole way down so it's a brilliant piece of machinery that you can use coming down those ventum athletes on this course today are going to be really loving that that reservoir they have built in no that's a great point michael and i think that's part of what makes the way down from javi so difficult and what we were talking about that climb up to kawhi high is that if it's windy and you're trying to ride hard down that hill if you're a lot of athletes aren't taking their hands off their bars to to get that bottle and to get that nutrition so on windy years i think i did this one year in a windy windy conditions i didn't drink for like 45 minutes because i just couldn't take my hand off the bull horns at that point but these athletes that are trying to stay aerodynamic are having a hard time being able to drink if they don't have an aerodynamic drink system and right now we have another athlete again that's to making a legal pass matt this is reminiscent isn't it we saw this last year tim o'donnell coming to the front it's a it's a similar zone but this is a man on a mission he wants to do better than third to do better than third that gives two slots you can only land two slots he's going for now the guy has historically been a guy who has a great swim and a great run putting together a great bike like he did last year is essential for improvement or even maintenance of position but tim o'donnell showing that he's not feeling any signs of weakness yes he won the ironman 70.3 puerto rico last year in hot hot conditions he's done that twice but on top of that tim o'donnell has gone extremely fast across the iron man distance at iron man brazil you know he's gone out there he did well in texas in his debut iron man second place to neko janos new texas the guy has a depth of experience uh he's been doing long course since 2009 or 2000 late 2008 off his short course background so you could say a lot of great things about tim o'donnell what i'd say now is he's a well-rounded machine he's coming in here under the guidance of iron man u master coach and six time winner mark allen a few times a couple of accolades you can throw at mark allen's name and that's backing this young man from boulder colorado and i think one thing we can notice is a little bit different i think you might agree michael is that tio made his move quote last year a little bit early on the way down from javi and it didn't look like he necessarily tried to break away on purpose and then after he got his gap he realized you know he was committed and he was going to take the opportunity because he's a racer and he went after it this year it looks like and i believe he's just going to be more content to be able to stay at the front of this group he's not trying to break away right now at all he looks a lot smoother in his upper body than he did last year when he was trying to break away he's just going to make sure he's with this group uh through kwahi down through waikaloa and then if the group breaks up he's going to go with them there i think for him he realized that to win this race he's got to have those good run legs that he's used to i think you know he's one that's capable of a sub 250 run out here for sure but he's not going to be able to do that if he burns uh matches um quote unquote that he's maybe not capable of burning early in the bike ride so i think he's going to be a little bit more patient this year not try to go at his own and wait for someone else to push the pace but he's uh right up here setting the pace as he looks back to see who's coming along and it still seems like we've got six or seven athletes here uh still right there with um tim o'donnell and mikey weiss at the front but we do from what we know still have a break we're gonna get another split here uh pretty soon but i i believe we're gonna have a uh you know seven or eight athletes possibly up to ten athletes with a little bit larger gap on that chasing group with torenzo buzzoni jesse thomas um and then maybe we might have an athlete like uh lionel sanders coming through at the tournament sure and it said it's that group of eight let's let's talk about some of these other guys that are pretty well-rounded what about tim van burkel we're sort of not even talking about him he's he's one of our four top tim's uh today tim tim it's attempt him a little historical a little canadian reference there tim tim tim tams you know over at tim hortons but okay tim van burkel let's just cut right to the chase this guy won um he got second place in a close battle to ben hoffman at the iron iron man african championships this year and then he went on to win the ironman um asia pacific championship in cairns in i'm sorry let's call it cans that's what it is yeah but he's got the tools and then he kind of crashed out and missed a lot of racing all summer which gives him freshness fitness and freshness so he's coming in here and tim van burkel right now is in the spot he needs to be which is just right in that top eight top ten so he's coming down he got seventh a couple years ago yeah and i think i i think you make a great point and he's definitely an athlete we're we're looking at and one capable of that breakthrough and i think that year he was seventh michael obviously there were six athletes that finished ahead of him but i said and i think a few agreed that the race of the day was tim burkle he kind of raced above what he had shown us he was capable of in kona and he has to run really fast off of hard bike rides and he showed that on two tough courses and running shoulder to shoulder with ben hoffman until very late in the race at the ironman uh south uh the ironman championships in south africa and he uh you know he's an athlete that has shown and had a teddy steady progression over the last eight or ten years as a professional athlete in general and he he was one that had a run strength didn't have great swim strength his his bike wasn't that great and now he's one that clearly he's able to ride with the best in the sport and with that run pedigree that he's always had you know he could close on the right day that's right and van burkel he raced a lot in europe and stayed out of the american eyeball uh for a long time but he's well on our our radar map now looking at we did see and this is just kind of some of that that back and forth that yo-yo action we heard that ben hoffman uh bib number 21. he dropped back a little bit after the turn-in hobby he lost some ground he's clawed his way back up so as they went through mile 70 ben hoffman back in action um also we are understanding from our spotters that the women's lead group is just about to make that turn at javi the 60 mile point or just attack under 60 miles they're almost through as soon as they do our timing mats will update and we'll share with you our live data and let you know who's going through there at what gap also some disappointing news we understand that tim reid our iron man 70.3 world champion has withdrawn from the race he was he was complaining of of none less than feeling terrible out there so he was feeling terrible you feel terrible it's hard to rally and keep in it he was feeling kind of terrible we heard that split from a few athletes or that commentary rather one of the others was camilla pedersen i feel like i have lead in my legs but she's still swinging the bat so still on course yeah and if you're tim reed it might be a little bit harder to motivate through one of the most painful days on recent memory uh through another ironman world championships course when you've just won a world championships a few weeks back but tim reed will be back out another time and he is one michael that i think when he starts to focus on this race specifically which he hasn't really to this point i think he's going to be an athlete that we're all going to have to watch out for and we're going to be talking about a lot out on this course but again we have uh our women are just coming up to javi they're still on the way up getting ready to turn just here in a moment and see that sorry matt but in case you recognize that is anya berenick she's right behind daniela ryf same story we'll watch these two go through that's uh that's bare nick hot on the on the heels hot on the wheels right there of our defending champ daniella reeve this is a wonderful thing guys pay attention that's your aid station you've slowed way down down to 180. you grab the aid that they're offering on course gatorade endurance cliff bar cliff shot cliff blocks uh yes uh that is incredibly important that gatorade uh endurance formula uh but also guys right after that if you look to the right you'll see more volunteers here on the side of the road that's your special needs so as you approach 60 miles into the ventum bike course you need sometimes your own stuff and so often this is an extra you know an extra can of salt tabs an extra uh type of energy gel that you prefer your own blocks something like that encore stuff is the proven best we've got gatorade sports endurance formula we've got cliff blocks shots and bars however athletes like to use what they've trained with that opportunity they just rolled through his special needs matt for sure yeah i just called you special point no you didn't and i think it's important that uh you know we all know your special needs out here as well i think the green m ms are sitting over on the table over there for you michael ready to go but special needs is a very important part of the race again as you said there's plenty of good nutrition out there for the athletes to take advantage of but we all have that that special thing that kind of pulls it out of pulls us out of a bad spot in training i tell my athletes when you go into the gas station 105 miles into your bike ride and you're cracked where are you looking what are you looking for put that in your special needs just in case um if you're looking for uh you know a stuffed animal like i think you carry on your bike michael you might not find it there but you can put it in special needs but right now our two leaders daniella reeve and anja baranek are cruising down from javi they're still on an uphill section they haven't really hit that fast portion yet but the men are on the fast portion we're getting a clock or a clocking from our leaders out there that they are riding over 40 miles an hour still so that would tell us that they're still on the downward section uh coming down from javi and haven't really turned up uh to the uphill of kauai high or that flat section on the way back to queen k so miki weiss at the front of the race uh pushing over 40 miles an hour yeah that's it matt thanks very much and as everyone knows it's hot in hawaii it's hot it's humid it's tough out here these athletes are pushing themselves to the very limit but gatorade endurance formula is formulated with nearly two times the sodium three times the potassium of traditional gatorade to help keep endurance athletes fueled and hydrated during racing when racing in the heat like we are here it's even more critical to put the fluids and electrolytes back in your body you've got to replace that sweat you're never going to replace all of it but you've got to try gatorade endurance formula one of the best and most heavily researched products on the market we actually just to harp a bit more they have the gatorade sports science institute they have athletes in there testing them athletes like luke mckenzie in there in the lab testing finding those exact sweat rapes incredible company putting together some great research and great product but back on the road we're looking at daniela ryf in your bottom right we're looking at mikey weiss in the top left austria switzerland at the front of our race men's and women's respectively i mean how good is that position that uh mikey weiss is in on the left it's okay it's okay yeah i mean i don't know that uh that i've seen you in quite such an aerodynamic position but uh you know he's got his head down in between his shoulders i think you guys were speaking about and uh you know he is hiding from the wind as much as possible and he also has quite an engine but right now he's hitting one of those little uphills and probably putting down uh 380 400 watts as he climbs out of the saddle to get up over one of these risers but she brought up a good point up out of the saddle and this again he is still on the quote downhill and if he's on the downhill why is he standing it's because this is a brutal little segment of road you go up and down and you roll across this descent so while it may be 11 miles of net loss it is not 11 miles of easy train personally i feel like michael vice is doing a nice thing i think he's getting out of the saddle break that air position in favor of stretching out the back getting a little more power from gravity in your favor all that stuff helps you know we do focus so much on on best bike split and ryan cooper's amazing data coming out training piece those predictive softwares are incredible yeah i started using it as a coach it's amazing how accurate it is however every now and then you have to just use what's right and that's stand up push go for it sacrifice some aerodynamics and do what my body needs to do well that's one thing that another one of the athletes that has won this race before uh tends to do and he doesn't even use powers sebastian keenly and you know we've seen him in this section of road just absolutely getting after it being all over his bike keeping that aerodynamic position but really uh you know getting a lot of effort giving a lot of effort on the bike ride and right now michael he's in the group and i'm imagining he's not he's not panicked he's not pressure his heart rate might be 15 20 beats below what he's capable of uh but right now he's you know he's comfortable in the group letting someone else hang themselves out there and i imagine he's going to put an effort in maybe 15 or 20 miles along with maybe some of these other athletes and as they they let weiss kind of take take his turn at the front and are going to put some put a harder effort in later in the bike ride well again and and the the professional men's pack knows one another very well they they do their research they race each other these these kits are new but the athletes are the same and i think one thing that happens around about now even more so in about 10 or 15 miles but the athletes start to look around they say who am i afraid of who am i worried about who can i be who do i feel like i own a weapon over and you have to be you have to be looking up um at you have to you honestly you have to be looking up at michael vice and saying i can outrun this guy if you're tim o'donnell i can outrun this guy if you're a tim burkley even vice has never historically run that great he ran 248 i think in austria but that's austria it's cool it's fat it's fast it's flat um so let's touch in with the women i i enjoy watching this women's race so much because i feel like short of liz blatchford rachel joyce and caroline steffen angela nate those four women we have everybody else that we want to see win this race four women are sure of course they're not there but otherwise right now you're looking at some heated action daniela ryf leading anja berenick from germany and right now michael we haven't gotten a split back to the athletes chasing so missing so what that means is the gap is pretty decent for these two athletes here as soon as we get that split to the women behind we'll get it out to you guys but no doubt both of these athletes are are riding hard but it does seem like uh anya baranek is comfortable where she's at she's she's uh happy to let daniella push the pace but it doesn't look like she's as we would say on the rivet or anything like that she stays she's staying really smooth in her position it doesn't look like she's pushing more than what she's capable of you know that expression came from there actually being a rivet do you know where there's an actual ribbon and so sitting on the edge and you know what we do creep forward and that again comes back to the point that that i think greggy mentioned earlier you know we move around on the bike as athletes or the athletes i shouldn't even include myself in that the athletes move around on the bike and when they do often they they slide forward a more powerful downhill or faster position you tend to push back and get a little bit more torque as you need to going uphill right now she doesn't look on the figurative rivet where she's hurting but she looks like she's on the front of the saddle and rolling down this hill very well um i'll let you take a click over there matt and let me know if they've gone through only two women threw the 60 mile point that means we've dispatched on you i'm sorry we've dispatched michelle vesterby we've dispatched meredith kessler off that chase group we said it before and i believe it now this is when daniela ryf puts time into her her other computer absolutely yeah absolutely and i think this is also the time where that chase group is probably going to have the opportunity to maybe bridge up to that group that originally came out of the water together um as you said waiting on some splits from the athletes behind but right now these women are in the driver's seat and daniela ryf is the one with her foot on the pedal so to speak and she's putting in the effort where it counts most as we said on the way down from javi might be a little counter-intuitive as you're technically on a downhill but this is where the race separates um as far as cycling ability goes uh but then you're not just going down a hill and coasting into transition michael you're going down the hill going up a tough climb and then going into really generally a pretty head windy section uh for the last uh 35-40 miles back into town and it's it's it's relenting and there's some you know people think this course is flat to a certain extent when you're not on the way up javi but when you've ridden uh 75 80 miles in the heat in a race after swimming for two and a half miles there's some rollers and some climbs that you might not notice any other day that are pretty brutal at the end of this race so even that uh climb back up to the donkey crossing you might see daniella put another 30 30 seconds into her competitors um you know easily so there's a lot of different sections of this course where an athlete can put in time late in the race just for viewers at home we've mentioned the word donkey twice once from greg once from matt i'll see if i can work it into natural conversation later but there is in in this is a historical reference guys there used to be some some uh some donkeys across the road there there there's a spot there's goats out there while ghosts used to be a spot where they actually have a size says donkey crossing and it indicates where you have to watch out not to hit a donkey on the road we're not just making up thin air stuff up here but i will say we talked about this matt that part early on when you come back up out of kava high and you have to turn right and get on the queen k hardest part of the course for sure how it feels but that's that point that point where you hit mile 90 92 and the scenic overlook you climb up you got a long grade we'll get there and when you do you always see someone soften up it's a breaking it's a great spot for some athletes it's a surge it's a break frodeno went last year there it's a point where you can excel or it's a point where you can crumble and i think that it comes just after so much of this am i going uphill am i going downhill is it headwind is it tailwind why am i so fast why am i so slow it really can't be just a mind bender out there guys where all the stuff is being thrown at you but right here these these women are getting a look across the road at the chase pack coming up on the other side of the road and i'll tell you what that chase chase pack has gone through the turn at javi and the gap is pretty large michael it's three minutes to marry beth ellis who's in third place with her is meredith kessler right behind her is jody swallow michelle yesterby annabelle luxford is in there and then alicia k another 45 seconds back so that group of five athletes has lost three minutes on the way up to javi and as we said similar into the men's race you can see these two ladies on the screen pushing well uh quote-unquote down the hill uh they are going to continue to extend that lead so if it's three minutes now you know it's gonna be five minutes by the time they get to kawhi high and the big question mark is is mirinda carfrae moving up to that chase group or is she going backwards at a similar rate to that chase group because if she's just lost another three minutes to daniella and her and obviously worth mentioning uh melissa hushold heather jackson those athletes that are chasing if they've lost that kind of time too daniella is really really putting herself in a position to run away with this race that's right i mean it is all on today at this point and you know what is interesting is you know we were doing all these little time crunches and all these you know notes of of where everyone is and how much time they've lost in this five miles that 10 miles but really we can look back to all of the people that have dominated a bike ride from you know from jurgen zack all the way up through norman stadler to chris lieto up here into you know current times to symbolic anyone you want to look at on the women's side reef they all really really dramatically separate themselves in the final 40 miles and so we're seeing that you know 40 to 52 miles but sure but for 40 miles it's like you can just suddenly start bleeding time gaps when you're when you're when you're behind so so here we got some more movement michael uh we have some more of the athletes that have gone through on the women's side at 60 miles of javi huge gap coming back from that second group another three and a half millions to camilla three and a half minutes excuse me to camilla peterson uh it's 8 18 back to heather jackson yvonne van lurkin 822 melissa hoshold 831 uh casa letinan 903 with kerry lester lianda cave mirinda carfrae 9 30 back so right now 60 miles into this race mirinda carfrae is already down the gap that i felt and like looking at liz blatchford felt that she would need to be within at the start of the run to have a chance of winning so mirinda carfrae is not in a great position right now against those top women daniela ryf and anja baranek and i'll tell you what i think it's to the credit of those two women they're absolutely pushing that pace i mean if you've got a group of six athletes riding together that's been dispatched to three minutes just in a 15-20 mile period or 25-mile period they're absolutely pushing that pace it's unbelievable for sure it's a good ally we talked about that she's got a good ally but guess what there is a whole lot of racing going on from top pros top amateurs all the way down through a really unique um element of racing where we've taken an individual sport and we've allowed camaraderie and teamwork to play into the effect just looking at john fradino passing tim o'donnell here's that hard part you're talking about this is climbing right up out of kawhi hi uh to the queen k so a moment to take note of fradino is up out of the aero bar certainly out of the saddle this is that hot that segment you have no breeze cooling you from yourself or the environment and this is a spot michael where you know it's hard it's dependent on technical ability to a certain extent at high rpms and being able to ride your bike fast to push the power down on that way down this is the spot where if you're just strong and fit you can go to the front and ride hard it's gonna feel really difficult because of that heat and that tail end but this is where the athlete that still has power in their legs can really go to the front and push push the effort of the athletes behind and we always talked about this i mean it's been since the dawn of time people say oh iron man racing begins at mile 80. so guess what mile 80 is almost here so if the race begins now as we see as we see uh fradino go in front of michael vice we will see the race begin so as the dynamic stretches out we do talk about this whole race and we talk about the age group athletes and i started to mention the camaraderie that triathlon and ironman racing can now bring to you right now there's a tri-club program that i'm not sure aware of and by joining the free ironman tri-club program clubs receive a range of great benefits and prizes and we'll have the chance to race against each other in a bid to be ranked as the world's number one try club clubs are divided into five divisions based on their size active member roster ranging from less than 25 to all the way up more than 300 athletes 826 competitors in today's race representing 390 different tri clubs from around the world are racing today in the ironman world championship a total of 34.8 percent of the field here's just a few highlights from around the world the lakers triathlon club holds regular get-togethers for women in the ladies lakers they discuss fears and concerns around both half and full distance iron man races january is set aside for those ladies only events to allow those new to the sport to try out different distances there is strong support across the entire club with structured weekly rides and runs conducted for all levels throughout the year hashtag lakers triathlon club hashtag lakers together with a danish triathlon federation tri club denmark offers free learning and training events these events teach safety in open water swimming they give tips and tricks review the basics of triathlon they also host a string of info meetings where people can come totally free of charge to learn what it takes to join the world triathlon team red white and blues mission is to enrich the lives of america's veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity to understand a little more about the impact tri-clubs can make here's more from team red white and blue hi i'm blaine smith executive director of team red white and blue and we are so thrilled to have been named the winner of iron man's first time athlete contest team rwb is a national non-profit organization that enriches the lives of veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity and one of the ways we do that best is through the sport of triathlon over the last five years we've built a really incredible triathlon club that spans all corners of the country it's both inclusive and inspirational and it has gotten so many veterans their families and members of their community together through the great sport of triathlon we have a triathlon and leadership camp we do every year down in austin texas that gets first-timers out introduced to the sport understanding the principles and confident to go out on the course for their first race it's been coached by absolutely amazing ambassadors like tim o'donnell jessica jones myers brad williams all veterans by the way jess jacobs and so many others so again thank you from us thanks for including us in the triathlon community and when you see a veteran out there on the course be sure to shake their hand and encourage them along the way i know you will well like that's right and you've got the tri-club who is actually represented by one of our top competitors tim o'donnell american hopeful is part of that team red white and blue but we are here at the 2016 ironman world championship i am joined by of course my man greg welch and also one of the super duper top people over trading peaks i call him the power pro i call him the analyst extraordinaire i call him aj johnson he's here and he's got a lot of great data to share thanks to you both for coming back you know just to recap and bring you guys up to speed we've just turned on to the queen k for the men the women are rolling down we've got splits a lot of what matt and i talked about and predicted is playing out jesse thomas went from 30 seconds or 40 seconds down to all the way three minutes lionel sanders has held coming down but what's really interesting is we have this downhill rolling trend and power it what does it do where do you hold where do you go right and so let's talk about that aj how do you if you get an average and you're going to downhill uphill trend all this stuff what goes on in that point uh you know we've seen with the with the pro men that that's obviously a really key uh part of the race and you know that's where a lot of separation happens uh so you know whereas an age grouper may think on the downhill i'm gonna relax a little bit not the case with the pro men they they hammer that section uh 2013 luke mckenzie uh he averaged about 280 watts uh on that section yeah which is uh which is obviously a lot of watts uh and he's he's putting that yeah there he is right there and 97 rpms right and that's what you're talking about why they have the the bigger chain rings the 54s maybe the 55 because they need to put out that kind of power 2014 ben hoffman 288 watts on the descent from javi so there's no relaxing on that section if you are in the front and you want to stay at the front and uh you've got to be you know stay on the gas um because that's where the race can can really change if you if you miss that front pack that's right aj and so great analysis there and uh talking about those chain rings and knowing that people do go you know high or low or they stay with kind of a traditional because ultimately if you have a 55 and you get down from ha v well but then you come back on the queen k and you get faced with the headwinds over the closing 30 32 miles sometimes that feels really uncomfortable you're riding too big of a gear right yeah you can definitely over gear it right like you were talking the uh that uh climb at about 90 92 miles uh into the course if you've if you've had to be on the gas on the on the descent from javi and now you know guys like uh uh you know mishi vice and those guys you know they're not waiting for anybody and so you may have to grind up at a really low cadence and that could take a lot out of you for the run so uh you know gearing what you choose here is is very very critical we've seen guys that you know have run a 53 um and they're undergeared on the descent so you see look yeah look at luke right there look at his that's a very fluid pedal stroke and he is just turning him over and going fast so yeah and we you know we could speculate so talk a little bit about this aj because you know you know the the the difference in thresholds and all this stuff and we're looking at you know about what 45 miles an hour right there uh maybe even a bit more but what is the typical crossover point where an athlete needs to do you have 47 miles an hour what's a typical crossover point where an athlete needs to do what luke mckenzie did which is pedal pedal pedal pedal coast and get arrow pedal pedal because the coasting and aero obviously he's realized that there's a point of diminishing returns if i pedal i'm not going to go any faster right right i mean you can only uh get so much if you're you're pedaling at 110 rpms and also again you know they're they're pretty far into the bike right now so you know a couple seconds of coasting feels pretty nice for for a guy like luke or sebastian um and obviously you know you've got to sit up and and take your nutrition and that could be a good time to coast as well um but uh you know for for someone who really if you really want to try to uh make a breakaway you're really going all out they're gonna they're gonna keep pedaling and you see these guys that can't i mean they can't hold 110 120 rpms um you know 2011 pete jacobs you know ran a 53 um and he was averaging about 110 rpms on the descent and he nearly lost that group um because of that and obviously it still worked out for him but um you know these guys uh they know you know they've trained for this they've been on this descent from javi they know that they've got to be able to pedal that kind of rpm to stay with it and also also it comes into uh you know the cadence comes into what uh type of gears that you're choosing you know mirinda carfree this year has got a uh 55-42 and on the back she's got a 26-11 so uh you know that's what she's been you know she'll be pushing this year it sounds like a lot but the uh the gearing ratio you've got to look at the gearing ratio it's not it's not as if you know 55 is too big but what it is it's on the back there is she going to use a 55 22 uh down to the 20 or 17 or somewhere there as opposed to somebody else choosing a 54 you know 22 or whatever it is so everybody has a different uh you know set up right right yeah you're exactly you know these days you know back when i was racing the 25 was about as big as you could get but now you can't get up to a 26 even a 28 some of the age groupers might so if you if you're right if you want to run that bigger chain ring you and up front you do have some options in the cassette that's right and we had a question just come in it was saying well please comment on athletes target power and when they choose to exceed it so john thompson just freshly tweeting that in directing that at aj from training peaks you know when would you choose to exceed your power targets well you know that's obviously very terrain based as well you're going to have to go over your your power target uh climbing to javi or some of those short rollers you know you you just have to just to keep moving forward now for the men it's a little bit more tactical uh for the pro men and pro women where um you know we've seen again at kawahi uh that climb you know you may choose if you're sebastian kinley you may choose to to punch it there and cause someone like a frodeno or uh ben hoffman to do the same thing if they want to stay in contact with you so um it's very much uh you have to kind of plan those based on on the terrain but also how you feel on the day uh if you're feeling really strong and you decide you want to take a gamble and um you know push it on on the rollers then um you know you need to do so but for an age grouper really as steady as you can be is absolutely the best way to go about racing a full 112 miles and keep the matches burned to to a minimum you know when you have packs and you have um you know large groups of riders sometimes you do have to put in an effort the key there is to keep those efforts minimal uh keep them as as minimal a lot over threshold as as you can and keep on your nutrition because if you you know the harder and harder you go the more your body's burning calories the more you need to be watching out as to you know what kind of calories you're taking in and your nutrition so it's very different you know of course here like hawaii is very different than what you might have to do somewhere like florida or arizona for sure for sure all right okay well that's a great answer though all right thank you uh very much to aj from trainingpigs for coming and uh joining us today down here at ironman.com you are watching i'm a live and as we look at shots right now of daniela ryf our defending champion from 2015 just absolutely smoke in the field coming down here from harvey at the moment you can see her cadence is still pretty high so daniela ryf is uh leading out right now but we're going to go down and cross over to mata lierdo what do you got for us matt yeah thanks so much michael uh or sorry greg i'm down here with uh sean erin uh sean tell us a little about about who you're here representing and what it is that you do so i'm a professor at rutgers university and i'm the director of the center for health and human performance and i'm here representing blueprint for athletes i'm on their medical and scientific advisory board with quest diagnostics awesome what are some common mistakes you see athletes making while getting ready for an endurance event like this you know i think one of the biggest things is not valuing recovery enough i think it really challenges them i've seen it in the days leading up to this where they're still out there pushing it and they're not recognizing the taper and i think that makes it really hard i think there's things related to diet that can help them with recovery a lot of endurance athletes don't eat enough protein to maximize their overall performance so i think those are some of the things that i tend to see that and ignoring some of the signs and symptoms that they're not at their optimum yeah i mean i think we often talk about resting and recovering and and getting tapered and it's more like a perceived effort and when we feel like we're recovered how can athletes monitor their training a little bit better to be prepared for this you know i think the nice thing is some of the athletes are already doing some of the basics with gps heart rate training load and a lot of what they do with monitoring power but the problem is it goes beyond that with the athletes we work with at rutgers we really pay attention to systematic testing throughout the year and i think one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle that we've hit on is the use of biomarkers because of what it can tell us is going on internally a lot of what goes on with the monitoring that the athletes are currently doing is they're gauging what they're doing in that session what they're ignoring is what's happening the other 20 hours a day outside of that and that's where the cumulative stress really comes in and what is a biomarker and how does it factor in optimizing performance it's really any internal marker we've really talked about it mostly related to disease when it comes to medicine but you're talking about nutritional markers hormones testosterone estrogen cortisol those are big ones some of your metabolites that come along with it some of the markers of breakdown like creatine kinase you've got lactate you know so i think there's these overall indicators of what your status is internally as much as anything else sweet if you had one piece of advice to give to iron man athletes what would it be assess don't guess i think that we put too much at stake just thinking you feel okay or you just push through certain things if you take the time and the effort to reach for those things that are really telling you what your status is there's such a fine line between optimal and over training and i think we have the techniques now this is why we use blueprint for athletes with the athletes i work with because it gives us a much bigger picture of what's going on internally and you know with our women's soccer team last year it helped us reach the final four for the first time ever and so we're seeing a huge impact on recovery and performance awesome thanks so much and sean we'll see you out here later in the day but enjoy your first ironman world championships experience and appreciate you sharing uh your your knowledge with us here today thanks i appreciate it and uh tons of respect for these athletes out here unbelievable awesome thanks so much back to you guys in the studio all right thank you very much there matt as we get uh beautiful shots of our athletes out on course right now let's go back and wrap up our age groupers getting out of the swim today in first place was rhys barclay 25 to 29 age grouper from great britain with a time of 50 14. in second place it was jose bilamino from brazil 35 to 39 year old age grouper with a 50 15 and a 50 17 in third place was pierre mark doyen from canada on the women's side of things in first place today was jacqueline foley from the usa in a time of 53-13 and 53-51 was second with claire davis from australia and rounding out the top three was tonya slater from great britain with a 54-28 as soon as we get some splits out of course for our age groupers on the bike we will get back to you with all of those that's great greg and that reese barkley we happen to know too his fiance lucy charles was the woman you mentioned earlier who won outright the practice swim last week so that's a fast swimming family all already on course but this is a question that we'll just bring up as we're looking at andy becher on the right side of your screen there andy betcher uh you know he's he was second place at the iron man european championships in frankfurt and he is a solid athlete we've talked a lot about him he's right there on the right side daniela ryf on the left and while we look at these two athletes churning it out down their respective portions of the course i'd like to look at a question that came in off of twitter from steve steve mott and it's it's good to bring it up now he says how many of the pros are running 25 c tires um and and that's a that's a great question 25c tire to those who don't know what that means is a wider tire so they go as narrow as 19 21 23. those are traditional competition width tires 25 is a wider tire it's probably gonna be a little bit more flat resistant and it is a little bit more a little bit higher rolling resistance so let's just examine an article that training peaks did with andy potts andy potts was fourth place last year they calculated some stats he raced a continental grand prix gator skin that was 25c with beautiful tires sorry twos butyl tubes are a thicker tube he raced with that setup and they calculated the number crunchers at training peaks that he would have lost seven minutes just to rolling resistance to a faster tire that could be you know a stretch but if you took away that seven minutes off his time you'd see that he would have been in front of jan ferdino with his overall time we can't speculate that would have happened but we can say that not many of the pros would be or should be racing on a wide tire like that great question steve mott you know you have to value and andy potts did this the the exchange of not wanting to change a flat but in the pro race neutral support is often there and you can change very quickly if you're an age group athlete you may say hey i'm going to lose seven minutes or more if i have to change my flat so i'll ride the flatter tires great question back to the action here greg we've got on your left side daniela ryf lighting a fire in the women's field yeah she sure is and uh you know that's uh predictable we always talk about the the second half of the business half of the bike ride always being where you know the champions really come into fruition and uh this is where they really put the hammer down let's just uh give you an update uh 75 and a half miles there was michael vice tim o'donnell sebastian kinley jan fradino luke mckenzie andy potts ben hoffman boris stein igor amarelli and neko yanos and andy butcherer they're the top 11. then there was a break around about one minute and eight seconds down behind was terenzo bazoni so a lot of the good bikers are now coming to the front there jesse thomas at 257 he's lost a little bit of time but lionel sanders who come from a ways down is now sitting in 17th position but only three minutes down on the lead there so that is incredible you know riding by lionel sanders putting him right into the mix of things now on the women's side of things daniela ryf is leading anya baranek mary beth ellis the honey badger she is racing her very last ironman race in history for her so she's retiring after this race today she is in third place at three minutes four seconds down is meredith kessler and right behind is jody swallow and also michelle vesterby and annabelle luxford now the top seven girls are all separated now by no more than three minutes and 30 seconds and then the gap starts to go out to alicia k camilla peterson and heather jackson heather jackson is now making her way through the field as well she's 8 18 down yvonne van blerken melissa halsholt is at 12th position at 831 and then you've got leander cave and miranda carfrey at nine minutes and 35 seconds down so mirinda carfree having lost a little bit more ground over our leader daniella ryf on screen riding along right now but this is uh no guess to us this is uh absolutely predictable as we can see daniela reef really powering down from harvey toward kauai this is one of the hardest sections to ride mike and this is where you want to put the hammer down because you always make up a lot of time in this section that's right you know there's there's oh wow i love that shot it's just a contrast there the the tall and lanky athlete john frodeno at a low cadence they're rolling past a bit higher cadence of of andy becher these two athletes know each other well uh coming from the same home country of germany and remember we've talked about this it's funny you do say i'd rather be top german than anything else but in today's case if you're chopped german you run an extremely good chance of winning the race overall which is what all of these athletes at the front end really want to do um realistically you know i feel like andy betcher who who has gone inside that top 10 he needs to get himself into that top five before he's a legitimate threat of that podium in the top step but jan ferdino came in here his first year he got third off of a flat tire he got he got first the very next year historically athletes have to stop they have to take a break somewhere on the fourth third or second step before they win nobody just really jumps from nowhere to first unless your name is chrissy wellington or luke van lierta so if you're not those two which which nobody is you really do have to find your way to the win you have to kind of progress uh we saw that with rachel joyce she made her way down she never made the final jump ah you know this would have been her year but who knows i mean she came in and she progressed like that all these athletes have to do that miranda carfrae did that you know she went from second eventually to first and then you know she's been in the podium ever since but historically it's one of the one it's one of the few stats that ever holds any water with me yeah exactly and jan frodeno was like that sebastian kinley you know mirinda carfrey as you just mentioned craig alexander the list goes on and on and on but as we look at daniela ryf right now she's looking very very powerful making her way back to kauai high now if you can look down to the right hand side of the you know the shot here you can see that in close there's a very very uh you know smooth set of waters here but if you look out a little bit further a little bit of chop is starting to develop out there so the athletes are going to have a little bit of a headwind coming back past the monolani bay hotel exactly where the men are right now the women are just still on the kahala coast before they get back to uh toward kauai high and then when they get back up into the queen ka omano highway a little bit of wind in their face is going to be what they're going to uh have to deal with all the way back into town here but daniella reef is doing exactly what she's done over the last few years and that's make a break on the way back down from harvey and this is where the business end of the bike ride takes place and it's also where you can set your race up for the afternoon's uh standings that's right greg and you know what we do uh highlight these pros all day long as we should and we'll continue to highlight them from top to bottom of this day but also we have to remember that of these 2 300 athletes today a lot of those are age group athletes most of them are uh 97 i know most of them are qualified here uh but on top of that we have the best of the best the ironman all athlete all world athlete program is our way of rewarding age group athletes hard work dedication and performances acro and iron man 70.3 racing using the age group ranking system athletes can achieve all world athlete status in one or all of the following categories iron man iron man 70.3 overall which combines everything iron man iron man 70.3 and these are what you were what your results were last year there are 1532 iron man all-world athletes racing in the 2006 program lots of perks too on-site as far as shorter registration lines you know special cap color good recognition the all-world athlete program since its inception has been a highlight and it really it really honors these athletes greg for the accomplishments in the preceding year as they approach the current year yeah you know i was down at the awa breakfast the other day and uh you know having over you know 1532 athletes in the awa is simply amazing it's a it's just growing every year and uh congratulations to all of our awa athletes you know more for that day just go on to ironman.com forward slash all world athlete we're going to run off to a break daniella ryf seems to have found the groove that she got in 2015 you are watching the 2016 ironman world championship they're in kauai high just about set to head for kona don't go away we'll be right back congratulations to all of our awa athletes you know more for that day just go on to ironman.com forward slash all world athlete we're going to run off to a break daniella ryf seems to have found the groove that she got in 2015. you are watching the 2016 iron man world championship they're in kauai high just about set to head for kona don't go away we'll be right back welcome back to the 2016 ironman world championship well the action is heating up just like the temperature here in downtown kailua kona we are now at around about 86 degrees we're still heating up the hottest part of the day around about two o'clock this afternoon and we are seeing shots right now of our women's leader here daniella reef and she is absolutely having another stellar day out here she's just gone through 75 miles with a lead of 14 seconds over anya baranek five minutes and 33 seconds is meredith kessler in third place michelle vista be riding alongside of her with annabelle luxford and then we have it seven minutes and 41 seconds down is alicia kay of the united states in the men's race just going through 90 miles luke mckenzie has opened up an 11-second lead on sebastian kinley jared frodino's in third place andy butcherer from germany in fourth mickey vice from austria in fifth place tim o'donnell boris stein ben hoffman and neko janos and andy potts round out the top 10 all riding within 31 seconds of each other mike an incredible race thus far yeah that's right and as we talk about those splits that you just gave with the women's race we have to remember excuse me that's before they've made that tough climb up to the queen k and so those gaps can spread out even further but right now still just absolutely pleased for daniella ryf that she has the company of a very strong anya berenick those two together are just putting time in more and more and more to her rivals to their rivals alicia k also just slipping back a bit she's still the rookie here first time kona and also very new to the iron man distance but the the annabelle lux who fits in that same category still a rookie here second time in kona and just not a lot of ironing experience she's hanging tough with some veterans and meredith kessler wow hanging strong but right now as we look at this camera shot up close we've got a really nice look at two top germans sebastian kielen on the left side of your screen and andy betcher on the right these two athletes know each other very well they went one and two at the iron man european championship earlier this year in frankfurt and so this is good stuff i i mean i think they like to see each other obviously they like to see each other up the road of where they are but good action right here from the two germans all right so uh as we can tell you that uh our leader daniela ryf in our women's race has uh certainly streeted ahead in the lead here the splits have not really changed as far as the other girls go between each other it just so happens that danielle reef is riding a heck of a lot faster than the rest of the women in our field at the moment so what we can say is that uh anya baranek has now been dropped and she's sitting around about 20 seconds down and then the gaps are really going out to over five minutes now mike so our two leading women at the moment are doing a very good job at the front of the race so daniella reef is really working hard to separate herself from the rest of the field as she does on the inward leg on the bike course today the ventum bike course 112 miles 180 kilometers we're only about 20 plus miles away from seeing our lead athletes on our men's course coming in off the bikes here we would imagine that around about half an hour's time we're going to see how all the action heat up in kailua kona and then soon after that our women will be jumping off the bikes and heading out onto the run course as well so the athletes are just over 90 miles on the bike at the moment for our men's and our women's are just about to hit that 80 mile mark as we see now that luke mckenzie has now gone into the lead and now extending it this is the luke mckenzie that we know and we saw back in 2013 when he rolled through and got that second place finish luke mckenzie all the tools he used to train and race with the great craig alexander the course record holder at least for now but he was uh he was a guy that you know gained confidence from training he said hey i trained with crowy and that gave me a lot of confidence i saw what the best was doing and i was able to duplicate it and it gave him that a know-how to get to second place that year now we're seeing luke mckenzie back in that driver's position of this race he races well from the front aggressively now people know hey watch him because he can run so the iron man foundation works with community leaders to help fund local initiatives as well as give back to philanthropic organizations that have a volunteerism component a number of athletes are racing here today on behalf of the foundation including macy's komorowski from poland macy is the co-owner of the uco ueu ceo which is listed on the warsaw stock exchange he has raced in triathlon for over four years and he's the only one that participates in sports in his family so weld under macy from poland the owner the co-owner of yuko which is listed on the warsaw stock exchange so congratulations and uh have a great race from all of us at iron man all right so within about half an hour we'll see our leaders coming in off the bikes here mike in downtown kailua kona it's going to be electrifying to see that because today we know that the pace has been on the heat is right up they've had challenging conditions so far you know up on the kahala coast and all the way back along the queen kaumanor highway but once they hit town it's going to be the marathon that is the deciding factor and and can you just take a look at jan ferdino and he as he's pedaling back on the queen k and you know he wants to go sub eight he looks he looks like he's racing very fast in a very comfortable state of mind he doesn't look like he's labored he's as smooth as he looked early on the guy is just rocking and rolling he again he hasn't shown any weakness he hasn't shown any any sign of trouble and so as this part particularly starts to throw new challenges the terrain again is rolling lightly there's times in this segment of road as you approach that 90 mile mark where you can't actually perceive if you're going uphill or downhill the mi the road starts to pray play tricks on you your vision maybe obviously you're a little bit of a state where you're losing calories you're getting a little bit bunky but this is a tricky little segment where on you know between waikoloa and the scenic point where you just really don't know what you're dealing with and michael this is also the part of the course where the athletes bodies start to break down and where call work and keeping your body you know right in track is uh very important on race day iron man and art have partnered together to provide athletes with the treatment for soft tissue disorders his art story all right so back to the action here sebastian kinley from germany the 2014 iron man world champion he's also an iron man 70.3 champion two times and uh today comes back to kona looking for redemption looking to get on the top spot of that podium and he's sitting in a very good position right now sebastian kinley a very good biker but a great run over as well he's sitting in the lead group there with luke mckenzie john fradino butcherer vaiso donald stein hoffman and janos potts is right there as well all of these guys can run but when it comes down to it kinley's proven himself to be the iron man champion jan fradino they can all run well tim o'donnell last year and ben hoffman and echo yanos they've all been on the podium there before it's coming down to it matt we're seeing a fantastic race so far what's going to happen over the next 20 miles a lot's going to happen greg i can't necessarily guess as to what what it is that's going to happen but there's going to be some tired legs and some disappointed athletes that are going to maybe be a little bit further from the front than they were hoping but right now looking at sebastian keenly and michael we referred to earlier as he was seemingly having a steady pace to catch the group now he is moving around on the bicycle a little bit more a little bit more similar to what he looks like when he's really pushing the pace so right now luke mckenzie is pushing the effort enough uh to where sebastian keenly is uh is really uh you know having to put a lot of effort into to stay with him and to push the pace at the front of the race and i think greg to answer your question i think what's going to happen is i think this is going to be one of those days where it's a hard bikers race and you know it might not be separated by 10 minutes as we've had in the past when you have good cyclists i think you might have a group this group of 10 athletes and then five minutes to people that have gotten dropped off the back right now lionel sanders actually lost a little bit he's three and a half minutes back now that luke mckenzie's up with the front down from three minutes so it's going to be spread apart but it's not going to be huge huge gaps but i think it's going to lend itself to where maybe if one person can run a 246 247 they're going to win it but there's going to be a lot of 250 252s yeah you're right and when you look at the lead group with 10 athletes in it then you've got a 121 deficit for amarelli from brazil marco albert one of the good runners is terenzo bazonia lionel sanders 2 15 and 331 down jesse thomas is a great runner at 4 43 down then you've got to look at bart arnotts and rudy wilde fantastic runners there at 5 minutes and 15 down freddie van lied the 2013 champion at 5 30 down matt russell at six minutes down tim van burkel at six and a half james cunha and david mcnamee now david had one of the fastest runs last year finding himself at seven minutes down and then you've got brent mcmahon at 7 30. these guys you cannot count out even at that deficit oh it comes to their mindset what do you come off with the will to do if you come off with a 7 eight ten minute gap that's nothing these you know the thing is when you're riding well up front you feel good you just lose focus for a second you don't have the fuel of the legs left when it comes down to run that final eight or ten miles these guys that want it those guys you just mentioned that have history of running matt russell he's one of the fastest runners around he just has a lot of iron man's in his legs but if he uses that positive experience and he knows what he's capable of to run through he's a guy watch out all day long watch out for him no absolutely and we're looking at it is obviously a hard bike ride with we see these top athletes like marco albert teresa personae uh david pless jesse thomas getting dropped from the front they're riding hard but michael first place to 35th place 90 miles in is only nine minutes so it's pretty close i mean we've seen that from first to third first to fifth many many many years so having nine minutes i mean this is for iron man world championships here in hawaii if if that's the same gap as they come off the bike that's as equivalent to an itu race as we can get at this course i mean i think it's i think it's a testament that's happened over the last two or three years where what's happened is they've just crunched that that depth right into a smaller uh time frame we we used to have those there's never i don't think going to be in the men's race a gap like we used to see we're never going to have those double digits or high you know gaps from from one person to anyone it's going to be a tight group bunch together the the guys are just too good and and the women as well the women you're seeing daniella reef still have you know the ability to ride away but in general packs of women are staying together and doing very well um let's just make mention as we as we kind of look at the women's feel and some women that we haven't seen on camera and we haven't talked a lot about but i would like to say heather jackson steadily creeping through the field she's in seventh now guess what that you know she finished fifth last year she's seventh now with her run i would expect her to get up on that podium the way she's progressing one more person matt that we just we forget about her yvonne fenflerkin she was third in this race a while back it was a while back but she has that history and she's had such a great career you know she was a do athlete when she first came to kona she couldn't even swim and she progressed her way all the way up to where she got a podium she's someone that if she plays her cards right counter in the top seven for sure you know i think you're right michael and if we're looking at those athletes you know we look at okay heather is in seventh place uh yvonne's in 11th but heather's only four minutes back from third place and last year the way she raced this race you know she cleaned up on the run and she was nowhere near that close uh to third place coming off the bike so you're right it's much closer and we've got some athletes that are super super dangerous within striking distance yeah and then you've got uh sitting in 15th place you know what uh 13 minutes down that's mirinda comfrey so when you look at it she's not too far out of that uh you know podium position as well daniela ryf is seeming to uh you know run away in the front of the race right now but anya baranek is hanging tough with meredith kessler michelle vesterby luxford and kaye they're all in there right now but the runners like you know mirinda carfrae is right up there heather wertel's right up there you know you've got uh case of lenten and we haven't spoken a lot about from finland she won the ironman you know african championship uh earlier in the year down there at port elizabeth which is going now to be the site of the iron man 70.3 world championship coming up in 2018 we're very excited about that and as we see now sebastian kinley is at the front of the race now he's really trying to accelerate from the field here probably sensing that he needs to build a little bit of time on the rest of the pack or put the sting into the runners legs right now so kin lay very smart racer gone to the front working very hard just about to um come up on the rise and once he gets on top of the rise he will see the airport and then when he sees that he's only 10 miles away from coming in here to kailua kona for the second time today then he will head out onto the run course so kinley edging himself toward town looking very good mike right and this is reminiscent of a year ago we had fradino quinley and o'donnell now we've got kile frodeno and mckenzie with of course you know betcher vice and also o'donnell pretty close pots i mean the race is so close right there but what's reminiscent is we we aren't seeing when when when bet when sorry when keeley won this race in 14 he was away and he left us this time he hasn't left us he's with a group i think that speaks to his confidence sure he had to dig pretty deep to get second place at the ironman 70.3 world champs he did that with an amazing run and we didn't know all along you know on paper tim reed was the faster runner but we didn't know until the finish tape who was going to be the fastest runner point being killed is not someone that has any doubt in his own running ability across the course of this run absolutely not and we're just getting word that uh andy butcherer right now from germany is just slipping off the back of that lead group just struggling a little bit at the moment he was a very good swimming uh you know uh today in that lead group also andy was their first male across the line at the holla training swim early in the week just last sunday so andy butcher are just uh falling off the back of that pace a little bit they're inside the last 20 kilometers to go now on the bike course as we can see so you know there we go jan frodeno he's looking very good daniela ryf on the right side of screen there looking ever so strong she has not looked any other way all day long you can see the power of this young lady from switzerland our defending champion right here on screen at the moment very focused got those arms in a great position got the head down just looking at that ghost line that is the white line on the right hand side of the lane there so the tall swiss miss here she is doing a very good job she's already represented the country at the olympic games she's the iron man 70.3 world champion and the current iron man world champion looking very strong yeah absolutely greg and as you said she's looked that way all day and you know we look at some of the the men's body position has changed a little bit moving around you know you see uh jan ferdino is moving a little bit more he's still pretty still sebby moving a lot more than he was before daniella she looks uh she looks really smooth you could you could put a a cup of water on her back and it's not gonna spill spill over at all so she's able to push that power down while maintaining um a smooth um position and you know she's not moving a lot of air around her so she doesn't look like she's faltering any not that we would have expected that at all she's continuing to put time in on the rest of the field so beautiful riding from danielle and it's not again it's no surprise that we see her do that um but right now it's the time of the race you know when we can we get those closer looks of the the face of the athlete i think that's that's where we can really see where this the suffering the suffering may or may not be so when we get a close-up of daniella's face kind of seeing what if she's got a a grimace or if she looks really calm in her face sebastian keenly had you could see his lower lip was hanging sometime that's a a good way to try to force yourself to to calm a little bit and stay smooth and right now at our envy board is showing daniela ryf as we see in picture in the lead anja baranek in second place meredith ketzler a lot of people didn't necessarily rate her because we haven't seen her do a great race on this course but she's hanging tough and having a great race here in third place uh michelle yesterby and fourth place right behind and annabelle luxford with a great performance uh so far today in fifth place all right so renekko yanos just dropping off our lead group at the moment and uh so is andy burcherer and tim o'donnell we're just getting word that he's struggling a little bit but let's get caught up on our age group race today through 31 miles on our men's side pierre mark doyan from canada was the leader james burkins second michael finney in third from the usa richard thompson australia and jackson dovey in the men's 30-34 from the usa in the women's through 31 miles it was stephanie kunit from germany claire davis jacqueline foley india crime from new zealand emily lonegan from australia that was at 31 miles let's skip forward just a little bit in the action there we'll go all the way forward to the 59-mile mark at the harvey turnaround now we have a different leader now it is brian mcchrystal from ireland that has gone into the lead mario think from austria then it was dirk nederl james burke and lucas kramer at the 60 mile mark on the women's side of things it's still stephanie kuhnert from germany leading martina coons from switzerland claire davis from australia india craft from new zealand and jacqueline foley from the usa slipping into fifth place right there now if we can skip forward just a little bit more we're going to go all the way to the 87 mile mark brian mcchrystal from ireland still leading phillip mark from germany in second daniel stubbleski from the usa james burke and xavier fernard from france and then we don't have our first girls in our age group our first women in our age group has gone through the 87 mile mark just yet but at the 75 it was stephanie coonert martina coons india crown moving up into thirds fenya tours from germany and claire davis from australia still in the top five so that's how our age group is ranked right now over the course of the day on the bike ride and brian mcchrystal the man you just mentioned from ireland up front right now he is the ironman record holder for ireland he did that at arizona last year and this year earlier he actually out bike or out split anyway time wise on the bike and run mr ben collins who is the winner professional winner still you know different race but to have splits that that uh compared to the winner of the race this guy is super fast he he had a crash earlier this year uh and and i know folks back in ireland and in the uk overall are cheering for their boy he's up front and we are rooting for him too a lot of great age group racing to be done and certainly the run in front of us is what will define the final moments of this race matt what do you think yeah no that's great uh great racing uh from a crystal up front and as you said you know there's a bunch of uh age group uh men and women out here fighting and it's not you know some of our iron mans are just about participation we've got athletes on most courses that are just out there to finish and we have those here today but it's definitely a very very competitive field out here the world championships uh no doubt more competitive than any other field so as you said some of those athletes that will be leading up front are going to be athletes that could you know possibly contend amongst the pros uh if they entered one of their races and you know maybe after this season we might see you know the leaders of this race in the amateurs field uh joining uh the pro ranks and uh you know mixing it up with the big boys so to speak but um some great racing uh from our age group field and you know they have it just as hard as the pros do tough conditions out there and uh you know they're gonna struggle to to keep their their goals in check and uh maintain good forward progress throughout the day that's right and matt you know check out this new info we just had so tim o'donnell is in seventh and he's that breaking point you know he's the he's the guy that's that's hanging on so you know first through seventh together andy potts has finally slipped off the back he's at 255 back also michael vice has slipped off from probably some of those earlier efforts igor amarelli really still contending in 11th spot some of the other names we saw lionel sanders get all the way to three minutes down he's now 427 down but this is at 100 miles or 160 k it is this order quinole fradino mckenzie stein hoffman betcher o'donnell janos vice potts amarelli albert bazone and of course sanders in 14th that's an elite crew of 14 guys all within four minutes 27 seconds and there's there's a lot of racing left to go michael but in that top seven i might point out just for fun that my top five that i pick for the overall at the end of the day are all in that top seven uh so a lot left and that four minutes is not as big a gap as i thought maybe but uh it is that elite elite of strong strong cyclists that are right now in that group of seven and as you said it does look like maybe there's a little bit of breaking point certainly after tim o'donnell but tim o'donnell is now 15 seconds and he's kind of slipping out of that front group of six so what matt's saying is matt lieto is brilliant so far we already knew that all right so sebastian kinley leads with just about 15 minutes to ride on the bikes today jan frodeno luke mckenzie boristein and ben hoffman they're all within 11 seconds of each other andy burscherer and tim o'donnell just struggling a little bit off the back on the closing parts of the bike ride right now mickey weiss falling back to 220 255 is andy potts three minutes is ah igor amarelli from brazil so we know that these are the runners sebastian kinley jan fradino ben hoffman it was only a couple of years ago that ben hoffman was second in this race and just a few years back from that was luke mckenzie boris stein has never seen himself in the lead of this race so close and last year had one of the fastest runs as well as these fast bike splits so boris stein from germany is right up there in fourth place at the moment now our women's race has been blown apart daniela ryf now leads anya baranek from germany by one minute and 50 seconds and the other girls are clearly struggling yeah no doubt daniella is staying smooth as she has all day but it turns out her smooth is very very hard to keep up with so angie baranek did a great job throughout the majority of this bike ride but now that the elastic has snapped so to speak uh daniela ryf is uh is riding away and if she's two minutes up from anya unless anya completely came apart we're likely to see the gap to the chasers uh improved by probably 90 seconds to two minutes as well so she may have seven minutes on the main group of ladies chasing behind and it's uh you know it's up to anja bernack to make sure she maintains good forward momentum sometimes when you get dropped and you're in no woman's zone so to speak in the middle of the leader and the chase pack you can kind of become complacent and allow that group just to catch you but anja baranak is in a really really good position michael to be able to stay steady stay strong and put herself in a great spot for a good run and a podium finish i mean i think the the the history shows she's run 314 which we talked about that not being able to really cut it but a 314 off of a great bike would cut a top 10 top top seven finish for sure anya barenake she can run make no mistake about it and she has run well in the heat remember last year in austria in salem c she was able to hold third place she did a great job running in the heat then so yes it was a 70.3 bottom line is she's in a good spot she went for it she also helped daniella reef up the road because company is always helpful even if it's company from behind yeah for sure all right so um that's going to take a little break we've got a special guest coming in to join us in just a few moments time sebastian kinley being the smart racer that he is has really forced the pace at the front of the race here at the 2016 iron man world championship often the transition off the bike into the run takes adjustment for your legs iron man certified coach sherry gruenfeld shares why brick training is very critical in an iron man it's all about the run we swim and we bike to get position and to prepare ourselves but to have a great race you have to have a good run so if you have to know how to lay down a good run at the end of a bike you need to train for that it's not enough to prepare your body you have to prepare your mind as well because the mind is is a great part of this race so the brick runs are a great way to do that the brick run is a little bit different than the transition run in that it is a longer run and the purpose of the brick run is a run off of the bike and it's to train your body to work through the fatigue that you're going to be feeling as you go on so the purpose and the objective of the run is to get into the running rhythm quickly but to then be able to hold your running technique as your body fatigues your body will break down and won't want to work the way that it used to you need to be able to keep that form which is going to allow you to keep your pace but the same thing during same thing during a brick run is you want to work on your nutrition because you have to make sure that that nutrition plan is going to support the effort that you need and you're working on your mind by keeping it positive as the time goes on and on and you get more and more fatigued in my opinion the best brick workout that you can possibly do is a well-timed 70.3 that puts you into race conditions which we all know is different than any even the toughest training training that you do but you just need to make sure that they're well timed you want to make sure it's you've got plenty of time to be able to give a good all-out effort in that 70.3 still recover before you go into your final peak for your ironman race all right thank you very much to cherie gruenfeld i'm new master coach and uh before we get to our special guest let's recap at 90 miles on the women's race daniela ryf with a two minute break on anya berenick at 7 34 35 and 37 is annabelle oxford from australia mary beth ellis from the usa as well as meredith kessler all facing a seven and a half minute deficit on our leader now it gives us great pleasure to welcome to ironman.com and i'm in live the chief executive officer of iron man mr andrew messick good afternoon oh sorry actually good morning andrew morning gentlemen it's great to be here how you been oh fantastic it was just out at javi and uh and it's shaped up to be a great race so what did you see out at harvey andrew was it windy was it uh you know action-packed out there we know we've got a lot of great athletes right at the front there our women and men got all of our favorites right up there uh you must be very very happy with the state of uh iron man today yeah so swat javi it was blowing hard not i don't think unusually hard but it was it was pretty gusty and pretty windy um you know there were 25 guys in the lead pack going out to javi and it's i know it's broken up and it's down to six or seven now um and on the women's side it was baranek and reef were in front and then a couple minutes later was uh you know the you know the chase pack fester b peterson you know kessler all those guys all right andrew let's just run a different course right now let's talk about the state of iron man with over 40 ironman races around the world with over 90 ironman 70.3 races around the world the state of ironman is awesome if you ask me and then the announcement just recently of our new ironman 70.3 race in port elizabeth in 2018. exciting times well it is exciting times we had the 70.3 world championship in in australia in september it was the first time we'd been to the southern hemisphere and it was the biggest field we'd ever had was the most international field we'd ever had it's the first time we've ever had a world championship race with a delegation larger than the american delegation we had 860 odd australians well i'm not surprised yeah i think the exciting thing too is i think you'll see that next year andrew i mean i think looking or two years from now i should say you know back to usa and chattanooga but then in in south south africa you're going to see an entire european channel come down there they'll probably surpass for the highest number you know of regionally attended athletes am i right yeah i think so and in in part of what we learned in malula was how appealing a great destination was to athletes all around the world you know 25 percent of our athletes came from europe and maluba 25 of our athletes came from north america and it was clear to us and what we really learned was that if you have a great destination a place people really want to go and you combine that with a fantastic race it's a very attractive proposition for our athletes and so we think that going to nelson mandela bay is is uh is going to fit that bill it's a beautiful venue it's a beautiful part of south africa and i think for all of our athletes around the world south africa you know is is a place that really captures their imagination oh absolutely and uh you know proofs in the pudding this year at the ironman african championship ben hoffman and uh casey letton and from finland picking up the ironman african uh regional championships and just the popularity of nelson mandela mandela bay down there in south africa it's absolutely wonderful and now we're hitting honestly we're hitting all four corners of the globe it is a global sport the brand of iron man right now is just absolutely blossoming worldwide and also in china where it's just elevated to another new level yeah well we'll have five races in china next year now the fir the first of our races in 2016 is next weekend in heaven and uh yeah and so a bunch of us will be over in hafee and and are looking forward to that race and then again in xiamen in november matt's going over there matt here uh our coast host he's uh running off the commentary booth and going to go to xiamen and do the race himself so is he is he trying to qualify for kona that's not allowed we thank you very much for dropping by uh it's always great to host you here at uh iron man thank you for all your efforts and your leadership over the years and uh the direction of iron man going forward good luck with that all right thanks fellas i appreciate it all right that's andrew messick the ceo chief executive officer of iron man with that we're going to run off to a break andrew is going to go get warmed up for the run not really we're going to come back right after this welcome back to the 2016 iron man world championship you are watching the ventum bike course 112 miles 180 kilometers coming to a close for the professional men athletes here and our leaders momentarily they are just a couple of minutes away from coming into the transition area here we can see the sebastian kinley working very hard to keep the pace high mike as he makes his way into town and we've also got boris stein from germany up there and jan frodeno so the german machine is at the front driving this world championship all the way home oh driving the train like they know how to do and they've done for many years the germans known for being very strong at iron man hawaii here's what i'll tell you right now boris stein coming around and taking the lead for a while is only going to light the fire even more for sebastian kinley it doesn't mean he wants to be first off the bike it just means he wants to have the best absolute day he can and a little bit of help will help him very much so i'm looking at sebastian quinlay and you know that movement and that that noise that we saw earlier in his in his position side to side is gone he's smooth he's still riding hard but almost here guys and we're getting some tweets hey the helicopters are showing some shots of them around about the corner they are almost here guys and we'll see them soon come see yeah we know exactly where they are we're going to be going down to madeleine who will capture all the action as they make their way through t2 today but sebastian kindly was lucky to get back there when boris stein overtook and took the lead for a little bit he just got all of his nutrition in setup and just make sure that he started thinking about his race plan for the run so now as we come back up for the queen kaumano highway for the very last time on the bikes we're just about to hit mccarla road they'll make a right-hand turn on the carla road and that signals just two miles to go and here it goes here he he's just coming past hanukkah abba that is five kilometers to go onto the bike course at the moment also the run course so we're getting very very close and inside of the next five and a half minutes we'll see our leading men's athletes getting off the bike and hitting that run course and folks who are watching here in on site or back home let me just read to you how tight these top seven are fans unite we've got three germans we've got an aussie and two americans it's boris stein sebastian quinley andy becher jan frodeno four germans inside the the top five and all five seconds apart two seconds back luke mckenzie from australia and then the rivals ben hoffman tim o'donnell from usa at nine and ten seconds back we'd love to have uh we'd love to have this action actually one of the most exciting things is when they do come off the bikes and we've got matt lietto down in transition calling name after name telling us who looks good who looks bad who's cramping left who's cramping right or who looks smooth as butter butter we can't wait to hear from you yeah thanks so much michael appreciate it we are down here uh in transition but a lot of the athletes favorite part of this ventum bike course is that line right there the dismount line uh they're gonna be pretty stoked to get off that bike and and start running but right now i'm gonna take you on a quick walk through a transition and we're gonna do it pretty quickly because these guys are coming uh here in just a few minutes so here's the arch coming into t2 um the legs here are usually uh a little sore just it feels weird uh running after you've been riding for so long so often we can tell a little bit about how hard these athletes have ridden by what they look like and how stiff they might look as they get off the bike here underneath the arch and then we're going to have them run without their bike they've dropped their bike they're going to be running around the transition to the right here and it's a long run just similar run to what we had coming uh onto the bike out of the swim so a pretty uh good chance for us to look at how well these guys are running or what they look like how tight the back are how tight the shoulders are and then through there we have changed tents and they're going to come through here these are the bags they had from earlier in the day they have bags before the change tent that they're going to grab with all their gear and right here is where they're going to run out get the first aid station not technically on the run course it's before the run course they're going to grab this age station with all these lovely volunteers head out underneath the iron iron man world championship arch and get ready for 26.2 miles of the hoka oneone marathon run course here at the ironman world championships in just a few minutes now until these guys come off the bike and it's going to be fast and furious as you said michael and be sure to get down before these guys get down here and i'm going to i'm going to be calling these guys pretty quick and trying to describe what i see as someone who's been in that position and seeing these athletes run fresh and tired before we're gonna be able to see a lot even in this transition but pretty exciting time here once we get rolling it's gonna be 10 minutes of athletes in and out of this transition but one of the more exciting parts of the day but right now we're looking for those top top athletes to get off the bike there mata we're gonna throw it down to you as soon as they come off our palani road there so just stand by there maybe because they're just moments away we can see them just about to attack that makala road just to give you an idea boris stein and uh sebastian kinley right at the front andy butcherer jan fradino luke mckenzie ben hoffman and tim o'donnell they are going to be the lead seven athletes that do get off the bike and start running first their mic and we can tell you that sebastian kinley right now has put in a surge and he's dropped the rest of the guys by how far we don't know we've panned back we might be able to see that but sebastian kinley he wants to get out onto the run course first and set the pace and hopefully he will not go out too fast today as downtown kailua kona starts to pump the music he is going to pump those legs makala road he's only got two more turns makala road to kuakini highway kuakini highway to palani road and that's it mike mile and a half to go that's it and you know what a lot of athletes have a different vibe they want to start shoulder shoulder they don't want a sharp solar show they don't want to share the energy they do want to share their energy keeley has what they are saying on the spotter network is a big gap he's opened it up he's going down a fast hill on perfect pavement right now he's going to make a hard left those who didn't know the old airport he'll blow by that he'll go by the community pool roads get a little bit rough in there a little bit bumpy and then he's going to make that right turn swooping down the last bit on palani we are stationed right there we'll see him zip down and we will get an actual visual split on him from our booth and then he will transition as quickly as he can because again don't earn the gap on the bike and then give it up with a slow transition i don't feel like transitions will make you but they can break you if your mo is stolen i'll tell you what his mojo's at full speed right now 100 all out you can see that kinley is trying to make up the gap here he's trying to get a gap you know whatever he can get like going into transition area you will see that he was not going to bend over and have a really ugly looking run into that transition you know that he's going to hand that bike off as now he is on kuakini highway just for that very last time we're at about about one kilometer to go as he goes past our sport fields and the local public swimming pool down here in kailua kona hawaii on the big island for the 2016 ironman world championship coming to a close on the ventum cycling route today 112 miles have been absolutely hard fought for kinley making up four and a half minutes at a time before he even got to kauai high then he took the initiative on the way down luke mckenzie was in there for a while bershire was in there not able to sustain the pace jan frodino now taking a backseat the defending champion and boris stein came to the very front for the very first time in his young career here at iron man world championships showing his face in the front of the pack for the very first time and sebastian quinlay right where he was last year right where he was two years ago at the front of this race coming into transition with the best of the best in front of the best of the best exactly and the questions from twitter the questions on your mind everyone's question is who is the best runner arguably they're all incredible we just don't know of course frodeno has shown that he has the foot speed to rival just about anyone tim o'donnell ben hoffman what a treat to see these two americans side by side a lot of american pride out there today people are still pushing for jesse thomas who i think needs to make his way into those top seven but greggy here he comes on to palani all right sebastian kinley about to hit the transition area now we're going to go on down to matlietto who's standing by in transition matt he's undoing the shoes he's got that one little left-hand turn a right-hand turn to the dismount line and now matt we're going down to you he's all yours thank you so much greg and here he comes around the corner to a crowd of uh a pretty anxious fans ready to watch this race unfold on the run sebastian keenly and gets on that run course uh he looks awesome this is a guy who's obviously confident in his run uh he has not overdone it here right behind him andy boscher an athlete that these guys battled and frankfort uh 244 i believe in 246 run to finish just 50 seconds apart from each other right behind them we have frodo here running he's got his helmet he's running he looks great we've got luke mckenzie looks good on his feet ben hoffman also looking good on his feet nobody looks overly stiff right behind boris sign i believe and he's the one athlete that looks a little bit stiff his bike is a little wrecked tim o'donnell is back excuse me tim o'donnell coming off he looks nice and smooth he's looking down transition making sure his gap isn't too big as he gets into transition he can see that the leader of this race right now sebastian keenly is just around the far side of the pier this is unbelievable guys we've got seven athletes i believe if i counted correctly that have absolutely crushed this bike course and they're all within 25 meters of each other as they go through the turnaround here at the transition area so i don't remember a time where we've seen this caliber of cyclists all be this close together off of the bike so right now we have these athletes grabbing their bags right now they are all in the change tent or grabbing their bags borstein has lost a little bit of time as he goes around the corner tim o'donnell closing that gap but right now we can't go into the change tent but what i can tell you whatever is happening in there uh it's happening quite quick and uh you know these guys have purpose to what they're doing uh you know some will run with hats most will run with socks uh some won't that's a little risky here in these conditions but they are choosing what they need to do what's important to them they might have some nutrition in their bags as well but they're kidding up getting ready for a gnarly gnarly run out here on the hoka oneeone marathon run course um they're going to have an absolute battle so there's a this is an opportunity where you can take your time a little bit it's okay if you take another 20 seconds in transition this isn't an itu race even though it looked like one coming off the bike these guys need to get what they need right now jan ferdino is able to get out on that bike run course first sebastian keenley directly behind him and his eyes are like laser beams he is right on the back of jan for dino making sure he does not let that gap open sebastian keenley opens up his arms opens his elbows and gets in and tries to get back on that shoulder right behind john frudino and sebastian keaney luke mckenzie looking really smooth coming under the arch ben hoffman has a handkerchief a cold handkerchief around his shoulders comes off in fourth fourth place tim o'donnell right behind him andy beaucher uh that's unbelievable field of athletes all within 30 seconds um and the americans here are going to be proud to see ben hoffman and tim o'donnell here right at the front of this race literally within 30 seconds of the lead here as we start the run these guys are leaving the course but right now we're gonna start to see our chasers coming in from the bike ride the guys that maybe cracked a little bit at the end or just couldn't quite can uh hold with that pace one of those is a legend in our sport and echo janos he's been on the podium here before one of the best athletes we've ever seen race on this course and uh you know it's maybe maybe these athletes cracked a little bit maybe they know they're not able to run a strong marathon if they push the bike pace too much so whatever that reason is the gap is there and now they need to chase and we have another one of our athletes that led early in the race coming into transition looking a little bit stiff a little worse for the wear coming off of a hard bike ride is mishi weisse he's going to run around transition find his gear and try to refine his legs a little bit for that marathon run course that's coming up here in just a moment but uh uh mikey white's struggling around the back of transition but and we have not seen that type of pedigree of cyclists come off the bike ride together uh in kona in years i want to say five six years ago any one of those guys would have had a seven minute lead off the bike and uh you know sebastian keenly crushes the bike ride looks back and within 30 seconds he's got seven guys behind him so that shows you what has changed on the bike ride here in kona and what type of athletes we have out here racing and you know that gap obviously that group sorry has obviously separated itself from the rest of the field and they've shown that they're kind of the the best seven athletes today on the bike ride and the gaps are a little bit bigger here as we watch our athletes coming through and we're gonna get another athlete coming off the bike here this is one of our favorites here terrence bozzone of second at the the woodlands uh ironman texas a few uh months ago he he looks like he's having a tough gay almost looks like his face is swollen like he either got stung or he's holding on some water um we had marco albert as well come off the bike very strong athlete uh won iron man new zeal new zealand a few years ago both of those athletes look okay coming off the bike i wouldn't say either of them look great their gap coming into transition was just under five minutes behind this group so that top seven is going to be pretty dependent on whether or not those guys can hang tough and haven't over biked because seven or five minutes on that larger group it's gonna be pretty hard to make up so i'm not i don't think we're gonna see four or five or six athletes make their way possibly into the top eight from this chase group it's gonna be pretty hard to close down those kind of gaps but right now we've got i think you know our top five athletes on the day are most likely out on the course especially now that aneko yanos has run out of transition is out there you know he's won you know he's maybe three and a half minutes back off the bike but experience is something we talk about pretty frequently here at the iron man world championships and that guy has more experience than almost any of the other athletes out here off the top of my head i can't actually think of anyone who's probably raced this race more than him that's currently racing so good on him and i would expect him to give a good shot at top five now we got some more athletes uh coming through we have an athlete here running through with his red bull helmet i don't have a name as of yet i apologize that's igor amarelli coming through and lionel sanders coming off the bike and it looks like lionel sanders looks pretty good coming off the bike ride and coming off six and a half minutes off the lead now lionel is someone we've talked about as being very very dangerous athlete it would be hard to say he's not one of the best bike runners our sports ever seen so you know he's got six minutes that he needs to make up to get to the front one of the fan favorites who looks like maybe he's having a bit of a tougher day after early effort is andy potts we don't often see andy potts with a grimace on his face he's holding his right leg maybe something's wrong though he just fell down oh sorry andy fell off the bike as he was getting in the transition so holding that right leg i'm gonna watch him run around doesn't look like he's got too much of a hitch in his step so once andy kind of shakes that off i think we're going to see andy potts have a good run out here today and man they're coming fast and furious guys but once we get near eight minutes i think it's going to be challenging for these athletes to get up there the one athlete that might be able to do that you know andy potts and lionel sanders you know he's capable of a sub 250 run here no problem um it's gonna it's hard obviously with the heat here in this race and he's struggled before one of our past champions here frederick van leard uh just coming through off the bike in a transition he served a penalty out on course um so he's uh he's lost a bit of time here close to probably eight minutes as he gets off of the bike so right now guys i i think we probably have the top end of the field out on the run course and you guys have a better view of what's happening out there but if anything else happens down here in transition i'll be sure to let you know all right matt just jump in on us but me and greg are just dying here right in front of lava java just passed a mile into this race matt john frodeno and sebastian kinley shoulder to shoulder keenland just ran right back up to him they are going so fast but they are sighed by side yeah that's a big effort from sebastian kinley but lots to get uh caught you up on and uh let's do it by the uh transition area here today with sebastian kinley to come in first from andy booker fradino mckenzie hoffman stein o'donnell but it was jan frodeno who had a 20-second deficit to go out first sebastian kinley in second luke mckenzie went out in third ben hoffman in fourth but the big winner was tim o'donnell who came in 40 seconds down and only went out 25 seconds so he made up 15 seconds in transition so tim o'donnell looking very good then it was andy bushra and boris stein but the big effort was here as they run up the first hill you know under the run course today up past the royal county resort and this is sebastian kinley coming up onto the shoulder of jan frodeno that's a big effort by kinley to get back up onto the shoulder on the hawker hornay on a runcourse officially underway right now jan frodeno germany leads kinley from germany the last two world champions here in kailua kona there's cereal vino from france he's been top 10 a number of times at least the last two years but let's just talk about king lay he wanted to he stated when he won the iron man 70.3 world championships in las vegas he he revealed that he wanted to be a pro triathlete from kindergarten so that means that this guy has been a fan of the sport a student of the sport for a long long time guess what else that means he knows that the best ever iron man race we had here as far as shoulder shoulder competition went was in 1989 when mark and dave ran side by side and i think he realizes you know what there's value in that this is something that i can latch on to together the two of us can do some damage if i can latch back on to jan ferdino i think i can push away obviously that's not an easy task to do and right now he's running just behind him but i think it's a brilliant tactic any time we've seen this we saw it with petery tim daboom and cam brown as those three tackled the first 10 miles of this course together they just got away and established that podium there's always been strength in numbers and even if it's the number two these guys side by side pushing away from the rest of the field and there you go greg i gotta tell you mate this is a great effort by uh kinley so far he's already outlaid a huge effort so far now having a chat with each other a bit of a smile on the faces breaking the ice they are they're good friends off the course and look at them just having a smile here sebby's uh running up onto the shoulder of frodeno into the lead of the run course for the first time today you'll see these two running together for quite some time but uh don't expect them to be friends by the time they get to palani hill on the way back into town if they are still together because that is where some of the breaks have been made some of the winning breaks have been made on that hill before i know it's only uh you know 12 miles into the course but it's also a very hard climb to get up and you know when you get up to the top of there and then you're out on the highway and there's not many uh spectators allowed out there so uh this is where they're going to enjoy all the spectators along ali drive they're not going to get too much of uh you know cloud cover at the moment along a leaky drive if they run under the uh the very south side of the uh you know southbound lane they are going to get a little bit of you know respite from the overhead you know with the the trees and everything but right now running along together all smiles at this point they ain't going to be all smiles once they hit the queen karumano highway but right now running in unison these two running as one look at these two guys both from germany the last two world champions friends off the course but now very fierce competitors that's right there's another rivalry going on in the back but the rivalry is quickly seeing someone rise the crop have we forgotten about the women's race absolutely not and guess what 160 k into this race and daniela ryf is now five full minutes ahead of second place on yabernick five minutes folks she has done what she needed to do she played along nicely with friends she shared her toys at the beginning and now she said these are mine i'm going on my own i'll see you later so when she said auf wiedersehen everybody else said wait up but now daniela reeve five minutes with still 20k to go i'm predicting seven minutes plus over second place let alone what she may have on renny it could be 17 it could be 20 minutes we know mirinda can do miraculous things on the run but what we have to see is who in the between them all has the goods to get on that podium greg yeah you know what with uh only 12 miles to ride and that was a few moments ago actually about 13 minutes ago so we're going to get our first uh woman coming in off the bike here pretty soon and that's going to be daniela ryf she is absolutely on fire today anya beranek from germany in second she's at five minutes down then a further six minutes and 12 seconds down is meredith kessler mary beth ellison annabelle luxman all riding along together they are 11 minutes and 18 seconds down behind our leader at the moment and a further two minutes back is heather jackson at 13 minutes and 10 seconds rounding out our top six mirinda carfree hasn't gone through the 100 mile point at this stage so you can see that the three-time iron man world champion is a little bit further down jody swallow is at 14 minutes down and at 14 12 down is last year's fourth place get up michelle vesterby that's right and here it is we're getting just blown up across twitter and i know the entire triathlon world iron man fans unite this is one of the most exciting things we've seen inside of three miles inside of 5k we have two amazing champions both former winners of this incredible event running side by side the comments are are they going so fast they're going to blow up or have they settled and this is just training run pace you know what sometimes that's one in the same training run pace is pretty exceptional and it's all you need on a great day here in kona so these guys have settled they are comfortable but what happens is when they get to mile 11 when they get to mile 12 13 that wear and tear will start to show we may still see them together but will someone else have run another's pace that's the question yep so let's go down to matt lieto who's standing by with liz blatchford hey thanks so much guys uh pretty hectic moments down here for sure was just uh down in the men's change tent watching kind of the the masses come through and it's a bit hectic we got uh athletes yelling for ice athletes uh yelling for water we had an athlete looking for hot shots because he was cramping a little bit um so we've got a lot of things going on in there but uh those athletes trying to get out of that sketchy zone in their head and get out on the run and it's hard in this race when it's hot and it's windy and you'd rather just maybe go for a swim and you gotta realize you got to go run a marathon as hard as you can someone that's run a marathon here as hard as they can as liz blatchford she's back out here with me liz anything you notice besides it being hectic being in transition watching from the other side yeah look i would say those top seven men that got off the bike they actually looked the coolest and the calmest the guys getting up behind some of them were struggling um we heard that andy potts had a little crash coming in transition he was holding his leg uh the big group of men that was eight or so minutes down they were a lot more flustered and we saw jesse thomas walking so yeah the front guys actually look the best out there yeah we don't often see that we expect the guys maybe that are at the front to have over extended themselves but it seems like that being such an elite elite group of cyclists that even though they went so fast and dropped all those other athletes they were still riding to a certain extent at a world championships inside themselves yeah absolutely i believe that and i think potentially jan frodeno especially has played this really smart he had that gap out of the swim sebastian's written up to him so you know he took that first half of the bike a lot easier than some of the other guys out there we know sebby's one of the greatest riders out there and andy luke ben hoffman all those usual suspects uh tio so yeah all the best bike riders off the um off the bike in front and looking pretty good yeah i mean that group of seven are people you probably would have picked for your your top ten for sure right yep that's right and just like your predictions that i read a few days ago matt um yeah those strong bike riders they've made that move it's interesting though there's you know 35 or so men probably within 12 minutes off the bike so it's not entirely spread out and we did see some great runners not that far down you know there's bar newts ivan rana some of those guys that are really capable of running up through the field and i think it's a little different than what maybe we were used to seeing i think you were touching on is the fact that those athletes from behind at this race were usually used to seeing someone who's not played their car and is waiting for the run and they look like they're a bullet shot out of a gun when they get out of transition but as you said that second group looked like they were struggling yeah and look that's maybe why they're only eight minutes down they've overridden those front guys may be ridden within themselves it'll all play out in the marathon we'll have to see okay and obviously we want to touch a little bit on the women's race it's starting to open up a little bit is this kind of what you expected to see or some of the gaps back a little bigger than you thought maybe well i think after 70.3 worlds everyone sort of saw a in daniella's armor but it was only one race wasn't it so i think we shouldn't have looked too much into that and danielle is just true to form ridden away from everyone and just put the hammer down the gaps i was hearing she was just opening up huge amounts of time and the baronec still in second and big gaps i heard sort of upwards of 14 15 minutes to marinda in between there we've got heather jackson mel howe child so some really great runners it's going to be an interesting marathon yeah as you said we've got some great runners uh you know a little bit back but can't uh you know discount anja she's in a good spot as michael said she she might run near a 314 but she might be able to run a little bit better than that if she's uh you know dose her energy properly one of our pre-race favorites someone who ran into second place and is run into the top a bunch before at this race andreas raylor but it looks like that five minute penalty and uh maybe the hard conditions have put him pretty well far behind i'm not going to count on andreas getting back up on that podium he might be able to get in the mix uh but that's an athlete we're used to seeing that's pretty far back uh thanks so much liz for coming out and we'll get you back out here for when the women come off the bike it's getting exciting can't wait thanks guys back up to you absolutely matt and we love checking in with you and please feel free to reach out when you see something exciting what we're seeing up here for your knowledge is ali'i drive and it is jan frodeno absolutely bounding down the road with ease the long stride and just adjacent just next to him you can't even see him in this particular camera shot is sebastian keane they're side by side just off kilter and excitingly enough you know you've seen it earlier you see it on twitter there's photos popping up on iron man live but guess what the trio that's really exciting is the aussie and the two americans ben hoffman tim o'donnell and luke mckenzie those three each know the success of second and third step on this race and they're in cont they're in a spot to pick up the pieces of any of this damage that's done up front they could take the win second third and they're happy to do it exactly and you know you're looking at um andy bushiro right now from germany now he's no stranger to running in tandem with somebody else at the the front of races as well as he did in iron man frankfurt of the iron man european championship this year and uh but he just doesn't uh so happen to be running along with uh jan frodeno or sebastian kinley right now as they are running alongside of each other now this pace that they're running right now uh mike is a very very high pace you know it's it's well under six minute miles and we can tell you that that equates to you know breaking the record the current standing record of eight uh hours and three minutes high like craig alexander you know that was set you know back in 2011 803 56. now for them to break that today they're going to have to run sub you know 243 and if they break the eight hour mark well they're gonna have to break mark allen's run record at the same time so as they make their way out towards saint peter's church which is a five mile turn around on a leaky drive that's where they'll turn around and head back into our town and get a good look at their competition you know on the run today on the hawker on a on a run core so right now they're heading through you know that's three and a half to four mile mark at the moment once they get about a mile a mile and a bit up the road they're going to make that u-turn but look at this kinley just sucking down that gatorade endurance as he makes his way through this part of the courts very hot along ali drive right here there really isn't much wind to speak of a little bit in town here but these guys are covered by the you know by the buildings and by the trees and right here as you as you look at it is very hot running along and i believe hokey one means to fly swiftly across the surface of the earth it's a maori word or set of words and that's exactly what kinley and fradino are doing right now swiftly flying across the surface of this ali'i drive and we are watching what could be a historic day you said what would have to be done in order to break a record and guess what records don't fall easily that's why they're the record you have to put the work in you have to go and if you want to go sub a temp 240 let's do it uh fradino's run sub 240 uh in europe and he's done so um in a race that that is a little bit cooler weather otherwise if you look at some of these times ben hoffman has run 243 he did that iron man coeur d'alene uh tim o'donnell has run under 250 uh before at 248. the prs that we have for these guys um are very fast key light low 250s 252 so we're gonna have to come up what come up with the best you've ever done if you're gonna win this race today yeah exactly and uh you know if you go back about five weeks and uh you remember what sebastian kinley did the rest of the field over there including tim reid was a bunch of surging you know going on you know over the course of 13.1 miles this is 26.2 miles and there's already been a little bit of surging happening you can see that jan frodeno got out in first place you know and got a got out to about a 20 yard 20 meter uh you know lead and then it was sebastian kinley they got right back up to him in the early going so just after one kilometer they were both together now you can see them you know just running side by side going through these eight stations you can see the kinley there was stuck on the inside so we had to make a very sharp turn to come back out on course again so i tell you what right now that could have been a little bit of a costly move as uh fredino gets his gatorade endurance and his water you can see kinley picking up some ice throwing it down into the front of his chest there but jan frodeno our defending champion always has a lot to say about this race here in kona let's take a listen to this i think the biggest thread that all long distance and and short distance guys actually share is a certain type of egoism we got to get out there and hammer ourselves each and every single day but really the program is a lot about us it's a lot about self-centered athletes and that sounds sounds negative but it's not really you have to be a killer within and you have to want to do the best for yourself every single day to get the best out of yourself i think it plays to to a streak within me but the attraction for me is the challenge the the challenge every single day to go to bed better than when i woke up at at something and yeah trying to master new tasks trying to master new sessions and and get better at being efficient for long distance fantastic and this is what it looked like out of transition and on to that hoka ho hoka onone run course it's jan frodino four seconds ahead of sebastian quinlay 13 to luke mckenzie 19 to ben hoffman 23 back to t.o in try andy betcher boris stein and nicoliano's all within the hunt and then marco albert and michael vice from austria rounding out that top ten an incredible incredible lot of characters out here and matt keeps saying that these guys coming out are all strong bikers but the funny thing is all i see is incredibly great runners you know they're known for for the powerhouse on the on the on the bike but no really these guys are some of the best runners we've ever we've ever seen so uh when it comes down to it their ironman athletes through and through they swim well they bike well and they run well gosh it's fun to watch and this is footage of daniela ryf closing out these final five kilometers or about three miles of this race greg yeah she's in about five and a half kilometers to go mikey about 3.3 miles to go approaching the hanukkah harbour entrance there you can see that one of our eight stations set up to go well into the night going through the gatorade endurance aid station there daniela rhee five and a half kilometers to go looking pretty good again on that bike she's just starting to uh show signs of a little bit of fatigue just you know bobbling the head it's like it's not even worth critiquing because this girl's got a you know this woman has such a great lead out there and uh i do apologize again for saying girl i don't mean to say that i do say boys so you know please don't uh you know hound me on that too much uh as i'm getting pounded a little bit on social media about that but anyway um daniella right now is just uh you know she's so far in front you know of all the contenders here she's just got to you know hold this thing together like she did last year mirinda carphy one of the contenders is a little bit further back than 14 minutes at the moment mel halshield the same heather jackson is around about 13 minutes so this is one athlete that you can talk about all day long and what a great athlete she is so let's talk about the three mile mark though on the run course and this is how fast they've gone out mike john frodeno and sebastian kinley lead timothy o'donnell was only 10 seconds behind him leaving transition he's now 36 seconds ben hoffman was right there he's now at 50. andy bushra from germany he's now at one minute luke mckenzie ran out with them together one minute 29 boris stein was right there two minutes 30. so boris stein is losing almost 45 seconds a mile on our two leaders at this point in time that's right and we're getting some splits just looking through that first 2.93 miles and keenley running 556 frodeno 557 o'donnell 601 hoffman 608 betcher 609 mackenzie 6 23 minutes per mile incredibly quick and as greg said if you extrapolate a six minute mile lands you right at 237.37 for a marathon but if we look at this obviously these guys are going to slow down it's how much you put out there now smoke them all you got them a tactic often used in kona knowing the flatter segment of 10 miles that you approach first on elite drive can be a little bit of time in the bank now granted you have to respect the overall energy equation that you're facing today you have to understand that once you as greg mentioned once you climb palani which has a lot of crowd action you crest the hill come down mile 10 and you're about mile 11 into it you really get desolate you really start to run out of crowd feedback crowd interaction and it is a solitary event uh greg yeah let's go down to matt lieder who's standing by with dave duchess from the iron man foundation hey guys thanks so much yeah we're down here in transition uh with dave dushane uh he's in charge of the iron man foundation tell us what you're uh tell us what you're doing out here today and uh what athletes we have racing hey matt thanks good to be back to kona uh this year the ironman foundation is here in kona providing uh charitable support to local nonprofits in the community we'll be donating over 130 000 to deserving organizations here organizations such as path hospice of kona amongst many others there so we try to leave a little bit of our legacy behind after the race comes and goes from the community yeah that's awesome how many athletes i've seen a few out here getting ready for the race this week how many athletes do you have racing for the foundation yeah we have a total of 15 athletes that are racing under the auspices of the iron man foundation each of those athletes commit to fundraising a certain amount of dollars each year this year those athletes have raised a total of 700 000 to support the programs of the ironman foundation and they're the ones that allow us to do the give back and do the work that we do in these communities any specific causes that one of those athletes is uh working towards that you want to share yeah with those earlier in the year we supported the path organization people's advocacy for trails in hawaii with a 35 000 donation that's going to allow them to build the queen's lay it's a multi-use 16 mile trail that will run from downtown kailua out to the university on the other side oh no way too cool awesome now you know people see the iron man foundation around we see that logo we hear about other athletes racing for a different purpose how can uh the normal ironman athlete or the aspirational ironman athlete get involved with the iron man foundation yeah super easy it's ironmanfoundation.org all the information on a variety of programs whether it's supporting our community fund being part of team imf our fundraising team or several other programs that we have including local service projects in the community can be found on our website ironmanfoundation.org awesome so so far today whether it's with your team or what you've seen from the pros or the amateurs what's the coolest thing you've seen so far out on course today it's the swim start there's nothing like it it's going to be one of the best moments in sport when that cannon goes off the sun is rising behind the volcano there's nothing like it anywhere else awesome cool moment happening out on course as well we've got the male pros out on the run course females are just ready to come in uh you guys have a good eye on that thanks dave duchesne for coming and sharing what we can do through ironman foundation thanks matt that's great stuff matt down on the beat and we look forward to actually let me update you uh just real quick matt so you know exactly where uh daniela ryf is she's on mccalla boulevard she's about to pass target and she's going to make a left turn there on the kuakini uh next to the old airport and the swimming pool so she is just approaching that left turn so that'll give you a heads up she's probably three and a half minutes away at the very most as we look at that women's race she is absolutely she gives you a a false hope all the way through that you can keep up with her be it an anya baronic or anyone for that matter that is hanging in on the way out and then she just lets it rip in true ironman fashion she just brings the heat on gradually gradually gradually remember too this is a daniela ryf that told us at the press conference she had learned a lesson in 70.3 world championships the lesson that she cannot panic and that she should trust her run if this woman is riding away with the belief she can run well it's lights out for the others in the race it's um well she's got a great lead right now and uh she looks great coming back in you know it's very hard to sustain that effort or you know for the whole 112 miles without saying that you know she may be falling apart a little bit but you know toward the end of the bike right i don't think that's happening it happens to a lot of people but for the most part look at daniela ryf coming in still pushing that very very strong gear looking great as she comes in toward that transition she's only less than a kilometer to go now she's getting a couple of splits from the side of the road there as you do out here on the kona course and we're less than one kilometer to go daniela ryf is going to come in with over a six minute lead and that's going to be on anya berenic who's really hasn't proved herself here in kona before so she's going to come in you know heading out onto that run course with a huge lead you know going onto this so you know everybody talks about well if morinda runs her best and daniella runs her best it can only be 10 minutes well today got news for you it's going to be around about 15 16 minutes at least on mirinda carfree but will it be that on heather jackson no will it be that on mel hull shield no will it be that on vest to be you know the people that have proven himself so i think that you know looking at the the way that we stand now with our women's race you know daniela ryf it's all in her hands at the moment and she's just going to get out there and run that steady marathon that she knows she can do here a little bit and just to throw some historical data out there and trust me when i tell you historical data has a way of getting chewed up and spit out when you come to kona kona doesn't care what you did in the past but for those of us that are trying to speculate on who can run well let's just rank these athletes that are up the road we've we've sort of dispatched morris stein so let's talk about the other top six uh the the prs the personal best we've seen on those men's marathons frodo 239 hoffman 243 tim o'donnell 245 andy betcher 245. sebastian keane 244 and luke mckenzie 251 so that lot of athletes has all run under 251. daniela ryf coming down onto palani right now we got to get to matt lieto to see what he sees on the ground as she comes off the bike well this year's daniela reef right now just getting off the bike and running in transition area doesn't even look like she's been on a bike ride today looks like she's just got out of the swimmer she unattaches the helmet there goes the helmet off she's probably happy about that get a little bit of a winder in her hair at the moment just to cool down a little bit but daniella reef is um really really streeting the field right now so we're going to bring matt liedow in that how did danny look uh thanks greg yeah she looks great she's running around the backside of transition right now helmet in hand wiping a little bit of sweat off her brow but uh she looks smooth you know small steps but efficient steps it doesn't look like she's someone that's uh quote unquote laid it all out there on the bike ride she looks strong you know watching her turn the corner around the back side of the pier right now and she looks like you know she would six or seven miles into the marathon meeting settled in and looking strong already only having run 200 meters so daniella looks like obviously she's the one to beat out here today and in no way did it look like at this point that she's overextended herself at all but the helicopter is following her around she's going into the change tent at the moment and she'll be she'll be out within 30 45 seconds and out onto that run course speaking of the wrong course how does it look out there guys is it going to be hot on ali for her oh you know matt it's it's going to be warm but honestly let's talk about this because we did a lot of talk on course records uh for the men she's off the bike in 5 47 it'll take her two two and a half minutes maybe three to get out of transition that puts her say she leaves at 550. the course record is 8 52 or so she's got to go sub 302 to break that record that rennie set um and and owns to this day so if she can go under the 2013 time of 8 52 she's gonna have to do so by way of a 302 marathon the hard thing is matt if she doesn't have pressure if you shouldn't have pressure how do you run your best if you don't pressure you don't have to run your best course matters don't matter as much as the victory does yeah i think you're right michael but i think daniela has come here ready to have to run a 302 or better because you know rini's capable of a 250. so right now you know she's running like someone that can run a sub 302 out of this transition honestly guys we can usually tell a lot from an athlete as how to look how they look leaving transition and she looks absolutely awesome and there's nothing but daylight between her and the athletes behind her and an intimidating sight is going to be the athletes coming off the bike and not seeing daniella anywhere she's going to be well on to that run course and michael i think a sub 302 looks like it's within those legs yeah you know what a 302 is a great run in itself anyway you know daniella looks great you know just running out of the moment and uh let's get back to the men's ranks as well when we look at jan frodeno he's got a three second lead on kinley now ben hoffman's moved into third place tim o'donnell has gone from third to fifth just like that andy bushiro 144 and tim o'donnell now finds himself at two minutes so he's lost himself some you know quick seconds but if you win the clock back to last year mike and uh you know tim o'donnell did the same thing he lost a bit of time straight away but then when he got out onto the queen couple model highway at around about 14 miles he started making it back up again so if tim's just running that smart race as he normally does he's just fine right now and you know yarn and sebastian have gone out really really quick today yeah and i think you know uh tim o'donnell is a student of his mistakes he has come in here and had a great race a bad race a great race a bad race and back to a great race he has really gone back and forth a bit and so he's not going to keep making the same mistakes twice he'll he'll either make new ones he'll learn from his past ones but tim o'donnell i think you're right he understands that you could really pay the piper if you bury yourself in that first 10 miles the most humid part of the race and therefore the most uh sort of demanding as far as uh heat management goes is this opening five out five back it just absolutely is once you're out of elite drive you have a breeze that helps cool you off your sweat starts to work a little bit more as far as cooling effect goes in elite drive it's stagnant humid still air that does nothing for you so tim could be making a very brilliant move here on the left side your screen though daniella reeve you know what we'll we'll pick her for him apart because it's really all we're going to be able to do and we'll talk about all day right now it looks great and we'll check in later but daniella reeve it's hers to lose she is so far out front and she is so good and again confident to run well good racing on the left side of the screen yeah and uh kinley and frodeno doing a great job you look at kinley he's just loading his suit up with ice every time he gets that opportunity when you run from the front here you take everything that you can because the person behind you they might not be able to get anything so that's what sebastian kinley did just a moment ago they're just going uh back past uh you know magic sands beach there right now as they get a look at the athletes front of the opposite direction so kim lay and frodeno are leading the rest of the pack at the moment ben hoffman is in third place fourth place is andy bushra from germany so germany is in first second and fourth place at the moment at usa in third and fifth place respectively that is ben hoffman and timothy o'donnell so the hoka one on a run course the official shoe of the 2016 iron man world championship daniella ryf the red bull athlete right now just approaching that mile mark at the first part of the race here she'll make the right hand turn down onto hualalai then down under the run hot corner which is going to be hualalai and alii drive before she heads out on the out and back which is a really nice section of the run man daniela ryf she just looks phenomenal so strong she is a confident and controlled athlete and really she does some damage to these other women the psyche has got to be bad when all of a sudden you get a split and this woman that is lead all day really is just pulling away pulling away pulling away we haven't even seen another woman come off the bike yet and and that you know that that tells me what we're up into seven minutes we're we're already just you know well over a mile you have a mile lead you've got to feel pretty comfortable uh you can do anything but she's charging down huawei as you said greg right past the library she's going to hang that left turn on ali and guess what that's when the crowd starts to get after it and tell her what she's doing a really good hot zone in there from alii'i drive in huawei all the way past lava java past that sea front and then you get that first little bitty climb in that section you're gonna get so much energy and let me tell you all those cameras all those people cheering clapping screaming reef reef there she is daniela all day long i can see the box in kangaroo i can see the the roku tents out there you can see that she's about to make that left hand turn onto a leaky drive then when she hits that elite leaky drive that next mile on a leaky drive she'll probably be welcomed by about 5 000 spectators along there past the coffee shops and the restaurants down there and look how thick the crowd is right there just going past the expo at harley holly vibe right now so daniela ryf is just uh striding out along a leaky drive now as we see frodeno and the kimlay just coming back on a leaky drive and you know what daniella to be quite honest he's not that far out of the men's race here she really isn't i mean if she's at mile one and they're at mile eight uh you know what seven miles not that much you know it's not even that it's probably six miles to be honest but here's one of the things um and i correct myself there at mile six i correct myself a little bit as well when i say that this is a flat segment this is the flatter segment it is flatter elite drive is deceptively challenging there's two hills on the way out that uh that don't feel much in training they don't feel like much but on on race day when you're running a marathon after after doing a solid bit of cycling it feels quite tough these hills you go two out two back it is four solid hills and then some little bitty rollers but uh greg as we listen overhead i hear mike riley just announcing the second place female anya boronic into transition and oh my goodness she is far back yes a little bit back right now you can uh you know you just have to talk about you know how gutsy it was for her to hang on to our leader danny uh at the moment uh daniela ryf you know always going to be known as one of the top cyclists in the sport it's almost like looking back at you know someone like natasha bartman who was that good and dominated the bike section for you know a lot of the time through the 90s i mean natasha barton won six of these iron man crowns and uh you know went on to win the race from that dominant bike ride and that's exactly what another swiss girl is doing what is it with our swiss girls on the bikes and winning these iron man titles karen turing who used to be a professional road cyclist winning world championships and also olympic medals does have the uh record here at a 4 4 19. natasha bardman went on to win this race you know natasha wasn't no slouch on the bike herself you know a couple of years she went 452 she also went you know a 4 a 5 31 the next year in a really hard year a 4 52 again a 5 16 a 506 and a 5 10. so you know all these uh you know times have been dominated by wind conditions or you know non-wind conditions so when you look back at it daniela ryf is uh you know going to go down as one of the best uh you know cyclists to ever do iron man here at the world championships then we get a long lens we look at the uh the crowd down there all the way down a leaky drive right down to the bottom where the coffee shops are located and uh also the edge of the ocean so daniella just running up the first hill at the moment just past the uh hotel there that sits at the at the top there she'll get a little bit of respite going down the other side of the hill and then it is dead flat all the way out to saint peter's church you got to forget it you got it and palani but we you know pilani is just the starting hill this is a little bit of a sustained hill and then she's got a little bit you know on the downside there is one more that goes past the sea village right up to the royal sea cliff and uh that's going to be the next one that she gets but then after that plane sailing for around about four or five miles before heading right back into town so daniella reef right now just taken on board all of that gatorade endurance as we get a good look for the first time at anya baranek from germany just getting off the bike ride and heading out onto the run this is pilani road she's going to head up to kuakini highway and then she'll get into the run right now so anya baranek from germany in second splits on the road greg show eight minutes deficit anyabronic holy smokes what an incredible final 60 kilometers of bike riding for daniela ryf she put eight minutes into anya veronica anya still has her lead over the rest of the field so daniella made quick work and as we said that's well over a mile lead and that's not even counting transition so uh you know we've still got to do that and it's going to be mile and a half you know 2k uh plus by the time we get uh we get our second place female onto the road right now and frodeno looks back says a few words these guys are not poker facing it a lot of times you'll get the professional men's field just hush-hush silent they don't say a thing they don't even acknowledge they're there that these two guys they've been well within each other's space and business all marathon long so far you can see that uh yarn now has just gone in front of sebastian a little bit and uh you know for the most part of this run so far sebastian's been right on the shoulder of yarn and that's what i think he's trying to do again you know when you run on the shoulder someone that is putting pressure on someone when you're running behind them also if they know that you're there that is pressure as well but i think that yarn likes to run from the front and you know he's a he's a bit of a front runner when he gets to the front or he gets a sniff of it you know he really like goes up to another level and i think that that's what frano's trying to do right now now let's go back to the women's race we see daniella ryf on the left screen right now you can see that she's running a very nicely you know even pace to start off this race anya berenick made up six seconds in transition i know it's not a lot but she came in 803 and left at 7 57. you know what six seconds hey let's take it it's good and as we look at these two guys you just ran fast past and these are historical points on the course or at least reference points it was the pokemon they were getting their uh their pokey towers over there but that's a place a lot of people stop for fresh local hawaiian fare you know there's a lot of signature sites on course and and folks will reference that it's right by the kona balikai about three miles from the pier down so again just recognizing spots and giving point of reference to anyone who knows this course inside and out but right now shoulder to shoulder and these athletes about eight miles into the race as they get ready to crest that other hill they'll come in and they'll run right up over another hill yeah i can't wait to see uh when they get into pilani road because that's uh where the hill is and uh you know you've got to drop your stride rate when you go up there you got to drop that chin down a little bit and uh pump those arms by you know getting up to the top of palani road it's it's around about uh you know a kilometer in length or around about uh you know 900 to 1 000 yards in length there so actually about a thousand one hundred yards so anyway we'll go back down to madeleine who's standing by with liz blatchford for an update on our women's race yeah thanks so much guys yeah i'm down here with liz blatchford liz what uh what can you tell us from what you saw from the first two athletes i know it's it's pretty spread out right now the women's race uh we'll probably have a few more athletes come by when i'm talking to you but uh what have you noticed so far yeah look daniella looked fantastic we're counting 13 minutes 45 and we've only had one other athlete anya baranak off the bike she was eight minutes down so yeah we're still waiting on third place which we believe is heather jackson here she comes looking good but yeah that's 14 minutes heather jackson in third place really spread out here today and here we come annabelle luxford off in fourth place yeah those are two athletes that have kind of made their way through the field uh didn't necessarily expect to see heather jackson get all the way up to third she rode through that kind of large group she was eight minutes down at one point but so heather jackson now uh maybe five minutes six minutes back from second place uh in a good position as from what you saw from these four athletes um has anything changed as to what you think might happen in that first position yeah look i'm thinking rini is going to be getting off this bike probably over 15 minutes down that's a huge ask when she ran to the wind two years ago she was 14 and a half minutes down and she managed it that day but yeah if we're going to see her getting off more than sort of 15 to 17 minutes down i think it's potentially too much of a big ask what we're looking at now is where the likes of mel household are and how heather jackson's going to run yeah yeah matt just to jump in on you there we can tell you that mirinda carfrae is probably going to come in at about 22 minutes down evan von flurkin is going to be at about 22 minutes down mary beth ellis just getting off the bike right now with me here with meredith kessler you know then we're going to have jody swallow and uh also melissa hal shelded around about 16 17 minutes so it is quite a considerable uh you know deficit that these girls are racing can you please ask liz if uh you know she thinks that this is daniela ryf's race to lose yeah absolutely guys we did see just mary beth ellis and meredith uh kessler come through um anything you notice from those last few athletes that came through maybe uh for a podium position yeah look those two look like they were having a chat um they have been ridden away from though by like heather jackson and annabelle oxford so i think those are the type of girls that wouldn't have wanted to let them go so they're potentially hurting a little bit and yeah it's going to be interesting to see how they fare out in the marathon yeah and greg's curious as to what you think daniella's chances are i'd say maybe pretty good what do you think yeah i'm taking back those early predictions and i'm putting my money on daniella right now she looked fantastic she flew through transition she was in and out faster than a lot of the men and what do we think i know we were we're focused on mirinda carfrae as someone who's proven that she's run that 250. do we think that athlete like heather jackson who's down 12 minutes has a chance at a victory we know she runs well do you think there's a chance that she might be able to chip away a little bit at uh the lead there's always a chance i think danielle looked so good so unless something really changes in daniella's form i think we're looking at daniella to run away with this but i just saw heather jackson run out and she also looked fantastic we've seen heather run really well in marathons this year so yeah here we're coming off the bike michelle westby and jody swallow they are close to 17 minutes down yeah so these athletes from third to eighth place are pretty close you know there was a large gap so that top five position is pretty well open now we know you finished in third position last year is there anything you think might change from tactics from these athletes that we see off the bike last year we know mary beth ellis struggled and wasn't able to finish jodi swallow maybe went out a little bit too hard do you think maybe some tactics have changed or the finish might change for them well i think these women like you said that have come up the bike close together they need to be smart here not try and get carried away racing each other for that podium they need to run their own races but that's difficult when there's people right there right in front of you i think probably most of them are going to be forgetting about daniela at this point but they still need to look after themselves and just run the best marathon they can hey matt do me a favor as liz this because last year liz got third with the fastest marathon split of the day so uh talk about can can heather jackson who has proven herself at 307 uh in the past how shield has done three flat can these women take over anya veronica's only down 314. just throw some numbers around and see what she thinks she's done the fastest run is that what it's going to take to get on the podium yeah michael thanks so much uh liz uh michael has thrown a bunch of numbers at me i'm going to forget them all but i'm going to ask you the basis of his question was you were the fastest runner out here last year in the women's field heather jackson has run 307 mel has run near three who do you think is going to have the fastest run on the day here i know heather was ran in really hot heat and coeur d'alene last year to a pretty good run split who do you pick to take over as that kind of fastest run split as you know we do still have rinnie out on course yeah look i can't look past rinnie she if she gets off anytime in the next five minutes she's still running for the podium so i can't look past ready i don't know if there's any other women in the field racing today that have run sub three at kona so running sub three in other races versus kona is a whole different ball game but yeah i'm picking rooney for the fastest round split today and quick another question from me liz we know it's mary beth ellis's last race here in kona and as a professional athlete how different do you think this experience is going to be for her than normal i just saw her chit chatting in transition which isn't normally mary beth style so what do you think about that yeah i'd love to know what was going on between those two women as they were getting off the bike there but yeah there's definitely going to be a bunch of emotions here's mill household sorry to interrupt how shocked getting off she's smiling mel looks good but she is 19 minutes down on daniella so potentially that win is out of the way but the podium is not yeah for sure that might have been a grimace but it could have been a smile she looks like she's hobbling just a little bit she does have a little bit of a lopey stride and this firm ground here is a little bit tough to run on but guys most of the women's field that is going to be our competitors in our top five are probably out here today i know last year we saw a lot of attrition but great to get some more insight from liz liz any parting words and what you might think we might see uh the rest of the run course i'm thinking we're gonna see mel make a move pretty early uh i think mel's gonna be really aiming for that podium mel could run herself into second place here the girls in front of us she i know mel will believe she's a better runner than them and um yeah i think she'll be looking to run straight up early into that podium spot yeah so do you think she'll do something similar to what we've seen rini do in the past andreas raylor doing the passwords just i need to get back in the race so just throw it all out there in the beginning yeah look potentially i have seen mel race like that before it may serve her better if she is just slightly more conservative in the beginning running along the leahey can be one of the hotter parts of the race there's less breeze so if she can just hold back that little bit she may serve her well later in the marathon yeah guys and just parting words we've got camilla peterson off the bike here as well alicia k one of our early leaders um in a podium position early on the bike ride coming in for her first kona coming around the edge of the pier so most of the field is out here we're still waiting for rinnie and we've got a clock on her to see is if she's still within reach but right now it's 20 minutes oh wow thanks matt and that is a big gap i think uh liz is right i think you are right i think that we will see a house shield and a jackson uh find their way to second third spot i think that's very reasonable i think it's also great because you have to progress i mean i don't want to harp on the things we've said before but to get to first place you really have to find your way to second or third first so how schilt should be pretty pleased i think if she's able to pull off a great run and find her way into contention there bodes well for 2017. in the meantime we're watching daniela reeve roll through the pro 8 station that's the opportunity that pros have to pick up their own goods only the pros have this they have five eight stations she grabbed you know a bottle number 101 which she placed out their place this morning and the iron man staff delivered to her so folks back home looking at that that's unique to iron man hawaii environment world championship we do not do that other races but it is quite a special thing for you to be able to grab your own liquids and fluids and then as we look at these fabulous pictures of daniela reef just churning it out down olivi drive we scroll over to the splits of the men's race and what i can tell you right now is that aside from our german duo up front a little bit of shuffling has gone on at the front of the race ben hoffman running comfortably i won't say comfortably but running strong in second andy betcher has taken that fourth spot tim o'donnell slipped possibly on purpose luke mckenzie slipping i don't think on purpose he's 334 down we've got stein janos albert sanders and potts the good thing is potts is still fighting it out even though he fell off his bike at the end of transition at the transition two yes it just looks like uh marinda carfrae just getting off the bike as well so that's good news for the australian so uh heather wordle just coming in from canada just uh looking a little ginger on those feet at the moment but that's what happens when you ride 112 miles very very hard so hoka one on a is the official shoe of the iron man us series here's more about hawker on aono welcome back to the 2016 i'm a world championship and we've got a break yes it's usually palani hill that will do that to you so palani road has taken another victim this time at sebastian kinley from germany so now yarn for dino has about a 20 to 30 meter gap over the 2014 champion michael and as we saw along ali drive it was sebastian kinley trying to keep the pace with jan frodeno they've been running some six minute miles for a long time now and now the pressure of the queen ka umano highway is going to mount on both of these athletes mike i want to ask you this over the last couple of years we've seen jan frodeno stop at a lot of the aid stations out on the queen k highway today will it be any different with the pressure from um from sebastian keenlay that's a great question and he did that in frankfurt as well in 2015 he likes to walk and manage his his his uh temperature gauge you know he pours a little water on the radiator and tries to make sure that the engine doesn't overheat it's a brilliant tactic because his average pace still is quite good but i think we won't see him do any walking until he has at least 60 seconds to 90 seconds because even if it's a calculated walk he knows the psychology involved is going to be a boost to quinlay no matter who you are if you see an athlete walking you find a little fuel okay so i think that what will happen is once that gap if that gap extends out to 60 to 90 seconds that would be a safe zone but i really think that frodeno is going to have to run all the way probably to mile to the energy lab before he attempts to walk an aid station so he's got to hone and refine his tactic of fuel on board he's got to still pour water in the mouth and pour it over the top he's looked at his watch more than i've ever seen just twice in the last about it well again there he's really on that that watch it could be uh checking just pace um but he he certainly has that gap i don't think he's in a comfortable spot but i don't think he's going to worry about at this very second greg yeah i think it's uh more looking at his heart rate and uh you know just his uh pacing at the moment you know kinley now that he's at the top of palani road doesn't seem to be dropping off water at the moment so uh maybe the little hillbilly you know one palani was the the fact that you know for beyond for dino he's like oh well maybe i'm going to have to make a little bit of a break here so fredino's just staying on pace he's looked pretty comfortable you know throughout so far but we have seen yarn you know calculated uh you know moves when he does go through those aid stations and you know grabs a whole bunch of ice and and water you know to keep that body uh temperature the core temperature right down so we'll see if that happens here coming up very soon so we've got our very first uh aid station on queen karumanu highway coming up momentarily so jan frodeno our defending champion from 2014 champion leads the race right now and uh daylight between the next uh couple there but ben hoffman from the usa is in third place yeah then followed by bushra and tim o'donnell in fifth that's right and uh we're just getting uh buzzes off the crowd and i love it i'm getting messages from julie dibben's rachel choice asking questions sending tips and it's always helpful and useful to get these words from a couple of champions world champions in fact and athletes who have a very keen understanding of how this race plays out a reminder from rachel we've got to look out for casey latonin from finland she won in south africa at the regional championship she's solid and she came in here just grinning ear to ear at the press conference because she was kind of like a kid in a candy store i dreamed about this since i was seven years old and i'm at the big show a really good attitude so a good tip from rachel and then julie just noticing hey you know what i feel like the athletes on the women's side went a little bit slower than anticipated and the question that the answer that i give to that question is i think the women got super bunched together and they rode other people's paces other efforts so early on i feel i i i feel like those those women just went after it and maybe they didn't follow what they thought would have been a better plan that doesn't answer the question of of where the the wertel's and the rinis and you know uh the the pion pianos all those women what happened to them they've lost a lot of time but the great thing about iron man and the world championship greg it all comes down to the final discipline hoka one run course here live action and that's john frodeno yes exactly we'd also like to mention zoot the official technical and performance apparel of the iron man north american series and also the official technical and performance apparel of the im world championship and you know uh michael just over the last couple of minutes or so uh we now have usa sitting in fourth and fifth so now it is germany one two and three they've never swept the podium here in kona before but bertrand now has moved into third place at two minutes and 50 seconds down so we've got a real race on from the germans you know that uh looking back at the ironman european championship in frankfurt just recently it was uh bushra and sebastian kinley that were in an all-out war you know in frankfurt and now it's coming down to the queen kahuna highway which is producing the next war between our three german athletes so there we've got jan frodeno on the left sebastian kinley on the right still looking pretty good jan frodino is just guzzling every piece of nutrition that he can get down right now gatorade endurance formula found out on course here the official endurance formula of the ironman world championship and also of the us series as well so there goes uh frodeno and now kinley about to attack that aid station and and that pro that was the pro aid station and you know it's special but we have to i don't like giving credit to matt lito i don't like saying he's right it's something that goes against my every fiber of being but right now maglietto is on top with his predictions on point he's got german one two three so it is fradino betcher right here 10 11 miles actually into uh this marathon so good work matt i got to give you credit right now guys remembering the way that plays out you get to have that aid station and i think it gave yon an extra pep in his step because where he usually stops and walks those a stations it's to douse himself in liquid he got to pour from that big leader bottle but there's daniella reef greg yep daniela ryf leading our women's race let's recap our women's race uh thus far the envy leaderboard the women's standings after transition area number two so the first off the bike today danielle reef from switzerland anya baranek from germany 757 interviews heather jackson annabelle luxford mary beth ellis 1349 right through to 15 15 then we had meredith kessler jody swallow there's to be peterson from denmark and alicia k from the united states at 21 minutes down there that's your top ten and mirinda carfrae just over 22 minutes as well so mirinda carfrey can she run onto the podium my guess is absolutely yes i i just think it's foolish to bet against those odds she just has to keep the mindset intact and she came here she said i came here to win she didn't come here to do anything else then contend you know what the the win may be out of range uh but the rest isn't and we do know and we're anxious to hear from our course record holder on the men's side three-time iron man world champion craig alexander is with our guy matt liedto and they're gonna talk to us about the race from their lens and their perspective matt give it to us yeah thanks so much michael and someone that we had i think he was running drinks for you a couple minutes ago uh one of the most humble guys in the sport but uh one of the best guys ever on this course craig alexander thanks for coming out uh how's the day so far hey matt yeah it's been it's always amazing out here right the whole week but uh the race today has been so far it's been great to watch on the on the men's and ladies side i think we're seeing two guys two great competitors really push each other in i mean it's always tough conditions but on the milder side certainly from a temperature perspective it doesn't feel anywhere near as hot as last year and those boys seem to be pushing each other with a few other guys in the mix as well yeah i mean i what i kind of noted was it seemed like it was the really strong cyclist that went to the front and there were seven guys that really blitzed the bike but we're still within 30 seconds can you remember a race in near history where we had that many great cyclists that were that far off the front no absolutely not not not at the conclusion of the bike and i think you know full credit to seb he gave up a little real estate early four to five minutes but he was able to to ride up i just wonder if he'll pay for that later because from what the way i've seen the race yarn seems to be at the front and in control or has been for most of the day but seb's a great competitor you know him and even just standing up there watching all the guys come in the first 15 guys were within you know a few minutes of each other so you know if someone can run a sub 245 run coming from behind they're not out of it either yeah and that's one thing i think liz pointed out which i noticed after she did was that it seemed like those guys that were the first seven actually looked better than the guys that came out six to eight and often we see those athletes that are six to eight minutes back like you were a couple i think you caught my brother 10 or 12 minutes back when you're like a shot out of a gun right but did you see that athlete really come out to the bike to be honest i think the win is going to come from that front group that's my opinion anything can happen and obviously we don't know with the athletes what they've been dealing with the last month injury illness whatever but the way it looks to me at the moment i i think the winner is going to come from either yarn or seven and on the ladies side daniella just looks so strong at the moment although anya and heather are still there so um you know there's a lot of this marathon yet to unfold but at the moment i think we've seen this pattern and this play out before yeah i mean heather jackson we haven't seen her proven on a sub three hour marathon in this course but i mean she seems like an athlete that has the biomechanics and the build to be able to run that fast yeah yeah well we've only seen her here once last year and she finished fifth and you know you're always a little conservative even subconsciously when it's your first time and i think that's understandable given the conditions and the history of this race and uh but i think you know she would have learned a lot from last year and she seemed to come off the bike smiling and happy and she looked full of running at the start of the marathon she looked great so you know as i said there's a long a lot left in this marathon but i think she's going to be pushing for a podium place really really deep into this race and we're not going to make it a two men's race yet but it seems like sebby and frodo are kind of the guys battling it out and one thing you mentioned kind of off camera was that sebastian had to make up over four minutes on fredino and he put an effort in and he looked contained when he did it but he rode five minutes into those guys do you think we've seen any real hard effort from frodo yet or does he have a little bit left in the tank to me he looks completely in control he swam towards the front of the group and you know i think tactically he pushed the back end of that swim to try and get some separation uh we saw it come together there's so much depth okay there's a lot of great guys it was always going to come together but i think when yarn's expended energy in this race he's done it in a way to make the other guys have to work and expend energy as well and no doubt the pace in that front group was high so they made sebby work everybody knows seb strengths and they're not going to let him just roll up to that group but you know full credit to seb he is one of the greatest we've seen he's so tough and he looks full of running at the moment but as i said there's a lot of this marathon still to go and it'll be interesting to see who's got the matches still to burn in the last five or six miles here yeah and i think you used a boxing analogy a moment ago that was absolutely perfect with frodo versus uh sebastian can you just sum that up for us again you know i think that little surge yarn threw in it wasn't his knockout blow i think he's just testing seb a little bit and i think i said he's just working the body hasn't gone for the big right cross yet but you know seb's tough and jan knows that no one knows that better than him so you know i think having watched seb race five weeks ago in malola bar and maybe not have the race he wanted tactically with all that surging maybe he's just gonna sit in and sit off yarn shoulder so yeah let's see how this plays out yeah i mean sebby is one guy we haven't seen in the sport someone that has such a great sense of humor but is so serious and confident uh when he has to be i mean they're you know those two are probably the most confident athletes we have on this field do you think well confidence comes from past performance preparation and having a great team around you and just believing in yourself and i think both those guys have the runs on the board and but there's a lot of i mean t.o hof there's a lot of guys who have had podiums here and i'm sure they're not lacking self-belief either that they can get it done out here so it's not a two-horse race just yet at the moment clearly the two germans look the best but benny hoffman looks great t.o looks good you know he's boris stein and other germans still up there andy bushra you had lionel sanders who made up a mountain of time i mean i think he faded a little late so we'll see with some of his run splits whether he's still got plenty in the tank to run a good marathon and close it out but yeah it just seems to me yan's holding all the cards because he's been calling the shots from right from the swim yeah i think you're right and i think you know we've got a bunch of athletes out there with a lot of talent and you know normally we we might expect a sub 250 or 240 and i think we might see a 240 something from frodo and sebby but i think that 251 252 could be where the podium ends up right yeah well you never know here i think the winner and if there's guys going for the win they can push each other to 240 particularly those two guys they have the ability to do that um and i think i'm correct in saying they're on pace at the moment for 240 or better so it's still early days that's what you would expect to see the the leader do out here but um yeah i mean if someone else you know there's so much quality on the men's and women's society there's so much depth that you know we can't neglect some of the athletes who maybe are playing a different car tactically and saving a bit more in the tank maybe the strategy is just to back off five percent on the bike and hopefully reap the rewards late in the run and as i said we have to watch how that plays out but i think in both the men's and ladies races there's going to be athletes coming through who have the potential to get on the podium who didn't get off the bike in the top five yeah i think you're right and obviously that shows that you're a student from experience and you know you've uh studied this race a lot but one last question you're the last person to break the overall course record here still stands um it might be up for today but talking about the women daniella just needs to run a 302 to break that course record she was running 625 at one point do you think the conditions today are suitable for a course record well the conditions are never easy out here but certainly having watched last year it was you were you almost roasted standing out in the sun there's cloud cover and light breeze today so i think it is good conditions to run a marathon and i mean danielle is amazing she she raced roth and and zurich back to back and probably didn't have the race well no doubt didn't have the race in 70.3 worlds that she would have liked to have had but that's what a champion does she's rebounded here and looks great early days still but the way she just monsters the field on the bike it's amazing she looks so composed doing it and she looked great at the start of the run so you know at this stage i would say she would not be thinking course record she would be thinking consolidate my position feel myself keep my core body temperature down try and run a steady pace she'd be breaking the marathon course down into segments and trying to check off those segments one at a time and no doubt if she's still in if that record's still in play late she might may adjust the pace but um at the moment i think predominantly she'd just be really concentrating on herself and her performance and really trying to maintain that huge leeches built up well there you go some great advice for daniela from the fastest male that's ever been on this course craig alexander thanks for coming out craig appreciate it thanks matt thanks for having me on no worries thanks guys uh let us know what uh what's happening out on course all right thank you very much matt and uh with that we're going to run off to a break yes craig alexander the course record holder 803 56 will it be broken today we'll have to stay here with uh daniela ryf the current leader in the 2015 iron man world champion so right now joining us aj from training peaks aj we've got some great numbers today from our male cyclists um what do we have yeah we've got uh some of the biggest numbers that that i've ever seen we've been doing this about four or five years uh lionel sanders averaged 299 watts uh his normalized power was 306. those are really really really big numbers like i said biggest i've ever seen um but what was really smart though is he did it in a very controlled and very stable way his variability index was only 1.02 so that's why you're seeing him run so well because even though those are really big numbers uh for him it's still you know attainable his his intensity factor um i think was like you know point seven uh eight or 0.79 somewhere in there which is you know on average what we see from from a strong cyclist well it sounds like he's giving himself the opportunity to go out there and have a great run i actually spoke to him during the week about his tactics and you know what he learned from last year's race and he said he i just learned to ha i have to be patient i have to just trust myself and trust you know my ability so it sounds like he's gone out and done just that yeah he definitely did and you know lionel's a smart racer so uh like you said he had a plan and he stuck with it which is sometimes hard to do in a world championship if you see the race going up the road on you um but uh you know lionel like i said he's i think he learned a lot from last year but those really yeah that 306 normalized power it's the biggest number i've ever seen um from you know and that's even including you know like mike tulsik who set the uh you know had the fastest bike time um last year um and the fact that he's running so well off it shows how talented he is i mean it's great you see that he's now in eighth place on the road ten minutes back of those leaders and the the worry with lionel sanders was that he wasn't going to be the smart athlete he has a number of iterations of himself you know and and to see him doing that in conan i think it bodes well for future successes he lost eight minutes out of the swim and if he's only 10 minutes down now that means he's only lost two minutes over the course of 112 miles and and 10 miles of running so pretty good business for the canadian great uh but right now also one of the things that's worth mentioning and h.a maybe you can speak to the power of this young man patrick lang who won our iron man north american championships in texas has managed to with the penalty find his way into ninth spot on the road you know he ran 240 over in texas yeah i mean obviously a very strong athlete and i think it's where you see these guys um they play to their strengths right and like you said he's a very very strong runner and uh again you know they're gonna patrick pace himself well on on the bike in order to get off and um you know potentially be in the hunt for you know running guys down and and you know who knows where he's going to end up but that's a great um great way of having a goal and a plan and he's executing it well today yeah that's right and uh always good to share this data uh just correct me if i'm wrong but when you guys are explaining to athletes back home you say vi variability index that comes when you divide the average power into uh the normalized power is that right yeah yeah hey you got it um and really what we're looking for pros or age groupers 1.05 or less and that's on any course no matter how hilly or how flat it is basically what it does is it keeps you from burning matches going too hard which is especially difficult here early on uh and again you know a successful file no matter how big your actual power numbers are it matters how you put those out so 1.05 or less is what any athlete is looking for that's great and uh just you know commentary from a man on a mission here what do you see out of jan frodeno any any uh weaknesses to speak of from the uh the tall german defending champ you know i think if i took some time i could maybe nitpick a little bit but you know he he looks you know his stride kind of you know loopy which reminds me of uh you know fairies also tan but um yeah he's just he's smooth and and i think his his uh stride length and his um form belies how fast he's actually running he doesn't look that fast and that's just because he is so smooth and you know all those years of itu racing the man's got so much foot speed it's amazing yeah he's also six foot four so um you know he's got a great stride length on him just want to uh give you guys a little bit of an update patrick lang has already made up 11 places on the run since uh transition area number two i love that's my kind of racing right there i love it and also he's um he's equal splitting yarn for dino right now why wouldn't he be you know i mean this guy that's that's that's a great runner with a good mindset a good attitude a good you know ability to just sort of put behind he comes out transition someone yells hey you're in 25th spot and you've got a you know a deficit of x number of minutes who cares you've got to put that out you know all the great come from behind stories end with just ignoring that and going for patrick lane great to see the young german coach by the man you just mentioned ferris all sultan yeah all right well thanks to aj from uh training peaks for joining us well it's all firing the germans way right now with patrick lang well he's made up 11 places on the run so is butcherer he's up to third in second place is sebastian kinley and yolida the 2015 defending imf world champion the olympic champion the iron man 70.3 champion what else can you say about him well we'll say a little bit more right after the break don't go away you're watching the 2016 iron man world championship welcome back to the 2016 i'm a world championship yarn frodeno leads our men's race at the moment daniela ryf willing control of our women's race so coming up to the seventh hour in just over one hour and ten minutes or so from now we're going to have a winner here at the world championship jan frodeno now is one minute and 30 seconds ahead of second place as uh sebastian kinley and also in third place 440 down is andy bushra in fourth place is ben hoffman just a further 30 seconds and timothy o'donnell a further minute back in sixth place right now so guys jan frodeno can he be stopped and uh i don't think so because here's some we're here's some splits just running a few numbers uh over the last timing mat changed so from 7.6 to 13.8 miles in that six mile span frodeno's pace was 614 whereas quinoa slowed to 638 per mile with that 24 seconds per mile difference if that maintains that puts that puts keen light completely out of touch over the closing half marathon of this race right now frodeno cannot be touched for someone that is accelerating away from his uh biggest competitor and probably the person he was looking uh to beat and looking for the most today was uh sebastian kealing i mean i think uh ferdinand was thinking about kingly 800 meters into the swim when he started ratcheting up the pace right so now he's put in uh some body blows as craig was saying and he's going for the knockout punch putting in nearly 30 seconds a mile on one of the best best athletes over the ironman distance on this course sebastian keenly so frodo uh running away with it at the moment a lot left on the course and a lot can happen in that time but when as you guys spoke to earlier one of the biggest movers on the course is someone we saw that came out of nowhere in the woodlands at memorial hermann north american championships was patrick lang and he's you said he moved up 11 spots last i looked he was all the way up in ninth place we're gonna get a split soon i wouldn't be surprised he's was coming up to the shoulder of lionel sanders if you get a dynamic runner athlete like that moving past lionel i don't think lionel expected anybody to catch him on the run here today i think he might get some momentum with those two guys running out uh on the way down to the energy lab so you might patrick lane is putting in a move to finish on the podium here today yes and i just want to take a moment to acknowledge our age group race as well off the bike in first place today was brian mccrystal from ireland with a total time of uh five hours and 32 minutes and 46 seconds that is including his swim he was 12 minutes ahead of philip mock from germany then it was dirk neder ralph and germany alexander reinhard from hong kong christian holgenholg from denmark nathan shearer from australia zavia fenova from france bevan mckinnon and eighth james burke and also alex higgins from great britain in 10th place now as far as our women go they haven't quite made the finish line yet of the bike ride but the ventum bike splits for our girls and our women age groupers and martina kunz from switzerland had a three minute lead over stephanie coonhead from germany svenja tiles from germany in third india craft from new zealand in fourth and then it was mina constantine from finland morgan chapman from the usa rosie mcgeok australia rachel hallam from great britain natalie gaskin and katrine amkettier representing denmark and nielsen representing denmark our top 10 age group women approaching the end of the bike ride so that was it for our age group is going out and we can tell you at around about uh 2.9 miles on the run it was still brian mcchrystal with a 948 so his lead is coming down nathan shearer phillip mark and daniel stubelski alexander reinhard from hong kong in fifth place so that's how our age group race stands that's right around about three miles in the run three miles in greg thanks for that update we are right smack in the middle actually the starting in the second half of this hoka one on a run course that is 2014 ironman world champion sebastian kinley and he is doing an incredible job rolling across the lava fields right now matt i know you want to talk about these updates we've got top nine and someone's suspiciously missing yeah i mean uh you know we'll have to double check but it looks like we had at eighth place through the last uh split with lionel sanders and now we're all the way through ninth place frederick being leered and no lionel sanders yet so lionel has uh moved back uh patrick lang ran up to him and passed him and uh maybe lionel's lost a little bit of motivation or he's struggling out there but we'll see he might just have lost the one or two spots but michael looking at the screen now sebastian keenley does not look like a broken man at all he looks like he's having a great day out there if he was two minutes up the road from second place we'd think he was great and on for the win right he looks good he he hasn't been broken um but you know maybe as crowy said everybody has different tactics we can't assume that uh you know someone's cracked and you know they might be waiting for that last 10k to make their move obviously this is a race the best athlete wins and right now uh john frodeno is putting in an effort that someone as good as sebastian kainley running this great just can't keep up with right and you know this is the other thing that's always worth mentioning is that you know everyone's going to have an up and down at a different time so these guys were evenly matched and they were running shoulder shoulder that drew them through that first 10 miles but once you're out into the next 10 miles and of course the closing six you have to look at who feels good when if you have an energy upswing like pedino's on right now it may coincide with a dip in energy a low calorie a bong a cramp anything that causes you to back off the smart thing is respecting what your body's telling you push through when you're able to so it certainly could be where those time splits that we announced 24 seconds per mile difference they could close right up and and and uh we could see kinley running a lot closer to those paces of for dino later but right now mr yang fernando he is into the energy lab and this is an important part as we roll down into the energy lab it is a place where you either lose or gain energy also the athletes picking up their cliff bars they uh head down to cliff corner coming up in about a half a miles time guys um what do you think about this but arnis has now ran himself into 10th place but let's talk about this one patrick lange he started outside of the top 20 in the run now he's in seventh place we know what he can run he did it down in texas when he ran a 240 for the win down there earlier this year absolutely stellar performance by the german and now patrick lang is storming right up to the uh the back of boris stein and then he's going to have his side set on tim o'donnell and maybe a spot in the top five who knows how far he can take this but right now he's even splitting along with jan fradino so patrick lang and jan frodeno are the two fastest runners on course yeah greg i think that's a great point and i don't think we've seen someone move across the first half of the course that quickly since we saw andreas raylord on a good day right i mean he's he's crushing the front obviously we're seeing it as well at the front of the race with john for nino he's even splitting but it's a more dramatic when you've run past now 13-14 competitors to get in the place you're in and michael tell us about obviously patrick lang knows he can run well he won a a championship earlier this year in the woodlands by running well how much more does it affect you you could see your splits you know how fast you're running but when you're just rolling your competitors how much more advantage and like momentum does that give an athlete well it's a huge huge psychological boost for someone like patrick lang to continue passing people it stings every time someone passes you there's an equal sort of and and uh equal boost that you'll get when you pass someone you get a hit to the confidence but let's remember this patrick lane william went to the woodlands in texas this year and that was his first iron man also he did the 240 but remember that the iron man uh was shortened due to horrible weather so it was actually only 150 kilometers of cycling so that 30k shy enable and have fresher legs so he's truly in uncharted territory he's never done a full 180 uh i'm sorry 140.6 or 180k bike he's never done the full distance yet he still hasn't his first time so it's a blessing though in a lot of ways because he doesn't know exactly what's in store for him when he rolls down into the energy lab he's heard from his coach he's heard from his friends his training partners perhaps but in the end he's in completely uncharted territory at this point i'm still seeing that as an advantage for him left side let's look at daniela ryf she is cresting palani and this we talked about the bike segment there in kauai this is the equivalent of that segment this is the hottest segment in some ways of the whole course because you go from a somewhat you know energized elite drive to a very stagnant still hot slow steep for schilani so that's where daniela ryf is and you know what she's just rolling yeah i'll tell you what she is rolling and now she's about to you know crest the top of pawani road now let's talk about her splits guys 6 24 6 51 6 31 she's been holding that very consistent pace you know right throughout the first part of this that's a huge improvement on what she's been doing over the last couple of years absolutely amazing now we may be watching you know daniella on the left and sebastian on the right but i want to just go back and comment on patrick lang's mile times as well six minutes 604 six minutes 604 608 604 this guy is running a little bit quicker than jan frodeno now on the on the back side so we're now we're over that halfway point on the marathon run and patrick lang is now hitting his stride yeah he's doing it at clockwork i mean that's not erratic that wasn't 550 or 545 falling that's consistent that is consistent and you look at him guys and he watching him after the race in the woodlands you know he's as ripped as you can get and he's a small little frame that small little frame as you know from experience greg can serve you really well on this course and uh you know he can uh cool a little bit better a little bit easier maybe he has a little bit more room to go as far as overheating certainly compared to an athlete like sebastian keanely on camera but he's absolutely rolling through the field as is daniela ryf i mean guys right now we're looking at uh a world possible world record breaking performance and it's hard for me to believe that she's not going to be able to do it she's she's running well under 302 pace at the moment under three hour pace at the moment and in no way does she look like she's faltering so she's got a 302 she needs to do to break the course record out here and it's uh again it's hard for me to think she's not going to have the opportunity that's daniella reef on the left sebastian keenley on the right in second place he is now guys at mile 16. he is two and a half minutes behind jan fordino so he's continuing to lose time to john frodeno but you just gave out those splits greg of patrick lange and how fast he's running the closest competitor running as fast as him is jan fordino and so we're talking about six minutes flat sebastia kingly is having a great race he's lost two and a half minutes with somebody who's averaging six minute pace in some of the harshest conditions you can imagine so uh sebastian kienle he's got looks like he's got more leftover take i mean he looks better now running form wise than the year he won the race he was a little bit more stressed he looked like he was struggling a bit but he looks great right now i think that uh you know sebastian struggled to get to the top of pilani road he gave it a good effort along the lee drive to put as much pressure as you you possibly can on the defending champion and uh you know sebby wants to win this race but right now you know the pace of y'all frodeno is just too much but patrick lange he's matching that i think the patrick's gonna run up into the top five today let's pause for a moment women in try women for try was introduced as an initiative focused to grow female participation in triathlon by iron man and lifetime fitness on december 17 in 2014 launched initially as a pilot in the us and currently operates as a global program through this e-commerce and recent global rollout of grant funding and its ambassador program iron man's women's participation is continuing to grow from just a single athlete in 1979 to more than 48 000 female athletes who raced in iron man or iron man 70.3 events this year four women for try fundraisers are racing today collectively they will have raised over 130 000 this year which will go towards funding our grants and scholarships every woman has a reason why she competes and we want to know yours post a picture quote or both on facebook twitter or instagram about why you try using the hashtag why we try also if you're following along today on social media if you're on instagram at ironman try facebook dot com forward slash i'm mad try and twitter at ironman tribe so just getting back to the action right now sebastian kinley he is uh trailing jan frodeno right now by a little over two minutes and uh jan frodino in the lead of our race he is in the energy lab guys and this is where it really gets hot very stagnant the heat down there is oppressive what do they have to do to hang on oh they got to do a lot greg they've got a you know they got to get all the energy within themselves and the energy lab is a place where people gain energy and can lose energy and i think a lot of people have been told it's so intimidating especially the first year you're just going to expect to lose energy but i feel like the energy lab is a great opportunity to feel good you've got to know what's coming you're generally going to have a bit of a headwind going down the hill you're going to turn right go to that hot uh turn around at the back but you have your special needs back as uh sebastian keenly looks to his right looking ahead we've got the clif bar zone down here as well but you've got special needs you know you can put a water bottle in there to fill with ice and cool yourself off so that when you're running up that uh that run back up towards the queen k you don't overheat so i think the energy lab is a place where you need to spend some time uh in your head and make sure you get strong but you know it's been tough for a lot of athletes i know where my brother was racing you know he went in there a lot in the lead and we always just crossed our fingers to see what would happen when he came out and usually he lost a fair amount of spaces but it could be really tough in there because that heat and that tailwind on the way up or that last little climb can really break you if you're not prepared for it but if you know that that's coming and you hold yourself back a little bit when you get up to the highway you almost feel a little breeze to your right so if you haven't totally overheated it's a place where you can you know feel a little bit cooler on the way out and uh michael uh let's comment on what we're seeing right now we saw along a leaky drive it was germany one two and three in the men's race andy bushra now has just gone backwards a little bit ben hoffman from the usa has retaken that third place butcher goes back into fourth and then tim o'donnell in fifth place they're all within about 45 seconds from now but it's another german that is closing in on the top five patrick lang continues his way into that top five here he got off the bike and just over top 20 position he's moved himself into a seventh position right now mike he is absolutely storming toward the front of this race does he have enough real estate well he's got enough real estate for sure there's so much racing to be done and often people talk about how hard it is to save up because the energy lab is tough but when you come out of the energy lab you still have 10 and a half kilometers of running to go so yes patrick lang still has enough time but looking through yes there's a bit of up and down back and forth i think tim o'donnell of the next split will be in front of betcher but that doesn't mean he'll stay there uh this is a fighter this is these are all guys that have run under 250 they all know what it feels like to hurt they all revel in this part of the race one of the things worthy of mentioning i think one of the things that i would just for not forget about matt as you come into the energy lab you actually are running towards the sea and there's a breeze in your face so despite what it feels like coming out you actually feel cooler running an energy lab when you're on the on the queen k sometimes you're not getting that breeze it's not doing anything for you so you can turn where keeley is right now and actually have a cooling effect with that breeze hitch on the face and makes that sweat evaporate yeah and right now it looks like we might be seeing the pass out and back we're going to have jan frodino on our left looking over to sebastian keenly running on the right and he's got to run all the way to the turn so this is where he's going to know exactly how far back he is he's been getting splits but to get a visual split run into the turnaround and know that jan's already been here he's turned around and running back towards town this is kind of where you have to lay it all out there guys and i mean i think it's maybe more i think a lot of athletes make make the point of that that once you get out of the energy lab it's kind of a it's got to be a sprint finish to the end if you're trying to catch somebody but this point in and as we look we have that flag here that irish flag is going uh straight off of yon's right shoulder so no doubt that that climb out as he turns left is going to be very very hot that's what a lot of people underestimate about the island and wind in general and you don't maybe really notice it until you get to this island and race here you you start to notice which way the wind's coming from if the wind is at your back it feels terrible it feels super hot and you might just feel like you're hurting for no reason and all of a sudden you've started having a bad day and then you'll notice hey it feels kind of still and you might have a 5 10 mile an hour tailwind at your back that feels terrible out here so as you guys said you might michael as you said on the way down you feel it at your chest and that cools you down a little bit even though it's a hot breeze so i think there's a lot that can happen with the breeze and what direction it's at and there's no doubt it's gonna feel very very hot for for people on the way out especially people on their first time uh running in the energy lab on race day i don't think we've seen this before greg or matt but we have germany usa and belgium that's all we have in our top ten right now three countries right now i mean that isn't often that we just have three countries of course uh that'll mix up as we get into some of the tougher parts of this race but uh those are good comments and i think that segment of road where i mentioned that the the winds was coming were coming from uh in the face he had already rounded that bend so to draw it out as he enters that cliff bar zone and he comes in to get his cliff bars cliff shots cliff block all that stuff i mean they they offer it all from a chew to a gel to a um to a bar or clif bar in the house that segment right there it energizes you physically for sure and literally i mean sorry literally and figuratively because you need to come in and you've got all of a sudden you're alone and then there's this group of people cheering at you offering you stuff it's an energizing part a little bit of live music down there too fellas it was a great uh very special all right yep special needs right down there so while we can see the frodenos made the left elbow to come back up toward the queen kaumano highway he's got just less than a mile to go before he hits that 10 and a half k to go on this race and that will signal less than 35 minutes to run so around about 40 minutes away from seeing our athletes getting across the finish line here as we pan back to our women's leader right now daniela ry from switzerland is going to take it out again by the look of it she's got this race well in her grasp and we can tell you that our 2015 iron man world champion is showing no signs of weakness now beautiful turnover at the moment matt and uh she's just been like this rock solid all day long you know she didn't have the races she wanted earlier on in the year at iron man frankfurt at the european championship she didn't want the race didn't have the race that she wanted in the iron man 70.3 world championships five weeks ago but since then head down and her and a coach worked specifically on this target and now it's all coming into fruition and look at what she's doing just looking absolutely rock solid all day long oh she looks great no doubt and you know there's no sign of faltering from her whatsoever and we're not even going to try to pick a partner for him because she looks pretty perfect right now especially considering where she is in this race but uh you know through seven and a half miles she still had 12 and a half minutes on a bareneck who is holding strong in front of heather jackson who is now just 16 minutes down but those gaps you know second through fifth athlete are somewhat close but uh second place being twelve and a half minutes behind daniela ryf as fast as she running i mean she just needs to keep moving those feet and she's gonna win this race but jody swallow seems to be kind of the big mover at the the beginning of this uh run michael and good for her i remember interviewing her last year and she said guess what i identify as a runner now and i think that was you know maybe a nice shift in her brain where obviously having one of the best swims in the sport and being known for a swim bike combo she started to identify as a runner with just means her confidence was up and to see her come in here and run past mary beth ellis and to run through and get herself into fourth place we haven't seen anyone other than daniela ryf come through the 10 mile split but at the last time check prior to that we have reef baronic jackson swallow mary beth ellis vesterby carfrae so guys yes carfrae is in seventh place already so she is not gonna stop i would expect to see her in third place no worse by the time i get to the end because mirinda carfrae she means business when it comes down to this hoka oneone run course okay so my question is michael in third place right now we've got a great runner heather jackson is mirinda carfree going to pass heather or is anja gonna go back to fourth i think it's i think we're gonna see anya slip a bit only because jackson is gonna find a little bit of late momentum um so if i had to predict right now i'd say reef jackson and carfrae with uh bareneck holding on for fourth jodi swallow may be popping in there it's going to be exciting though i think jody's got a top five in her too all right what about the momentum of melissa hulshalt and also casey linton and what about uh you know jody swallow but look at miranda carfrey she's sitting right in there you've got six girls from third place right through to ninth place there that have a shot to get on the podium here mirinda carfree really hasn't made a dent on the field yet to you know to get on toward that podium but i tell you what that's going to be a late shot you know getting out onto the queen kaumano highway that's where they're going to do the damage so right now we see that jan frodeno leading our men's race daniela ryf leading our women's race let's take a little bit of time to pause out for the iron man foundation's purpose is to leave a positive lasting impact in each of the race communities where iron man events are held john mcgraw is racing today for the foundation john is the paradise valley arizona and its president and chief executive officer of mcgraw investments llc this is john's 13th iron man he races in memory of his father and to set a good example for his children he's a favorite moment in the sport was watching his kids compete at their first triathlon so all the kids can get out there and compete in iron kids so to john mcgrath congratulations today on behalf of the iron man foundation president and chief executive officer at mcgraw investments llc back to the action uh guys here we've got jan frodeno just coming out of the uh energy lab here you can see michael just when he hits the queen ka omano highway for the last time here 10 and a half kilometers to run to the finish line yeah when he hits it for the last time for that last 40 minutes of uh excruciating pain but also glory jan fordino so if you're looking at him saying why does he suddenly look shorter of stride a little bit choppy a little bit rough that's because this is the long gradual climb out of the energy lab it's the part matt described as windless you feel very very hot when there's no breeze in your face so right now jan frodeno als although still in charge of his own destiny he is hurting it's a natural spot no one feels great right there in other words it's the first time on the run where it looks like he's working hard to certain extent right actually you could tell he's he's working to get that energy up the hill and it's it feels pretty hot there another point guys uh greg you were looking at the the splits from the women in the race fourth place through ninth place within two and a half minutes of each other so that is a very very tight women's field we haven't seen that close of a run race uh halfway through the marathon here at the world championships in a while so i think we're gonna see a lot of moving as you pointed out from fourth to ninth place in that women's race that's right and as he rolls through this aid station taking a bit of a break taking a bit of respite we too will take a break we're stepping away from the hoka hoka oneone run course we'll be right back with the 2016 ironman world championship coverage all right welcome back to the 2016 ironman world championship yes let's go over and have a look at the master spas weather update right now downtown here in kona we are looking at 89 degrees feels like 90. wind is south at 12 miles an hour so a little bit of refreshing air down here in kailua kona 61 humidity that will be rising in the next couple of hours and we can tell you it's really heating up patrick lang is now in sixth position he's only nine minutes and 48 seconds down he's running along guys at six minute 11 second miles right now jan frodeno is running 618s and sebastian kinley running 640 fines at the moment so patrick lang getting after that run course record yeah that's right and we're we're talking about it i mean just ranking over that last split so if you go from uh from mile basically 13 to 16 patrick lang averaging 6 11 john frodeno averaging 618. wow look at this is the fastest they've done sebastian kinley 645 and it tapers off from there but the exciting news is we have two germans up front two americans behind that still more germans behind it is an amazing race of germany versus usa of course a lot of other countries can still come through but let's have a look at the women's leaders a lot of athletes tweeting and or fans tweeting in where's heather jackson she's sitting third place behind anya berenick who is still second place to daniela ryf and the interesting thing on the day is that jody swallow she's just scrapping it out from any angle she's now in fourth place with mary beth ellis in her swan song running fifth place on the road but watch out for rinnie she's in seventh she's lurking ready to pounce everybody's ready to pounce on that honey badger for sure no doubt though do point out though guys she i've never seen her necessarily have fun out on the race course mary beth ellis she was joking around smiling coming in transition it's great to see her having a good time on the way out just saw a picture of sebastian keenly now we're on daniella reef yep worth pointing out michael looking at how fast patrick lang is running besides for dino he's running over 30 seconds faster than anybody near him that's absolutely flying and your point of the top ten we had germany belgium us is there one country that's missing out that we normally see australia oh where are they at you had to point that out didn't you yeah so as we stare at jan frodeno we did have an update tim o'donnell's average pace over that last float was 6 24 but let's look at the women from 7.6 to 10.2 so in that middle segment as that includes climbing up palani reef was still knocking off those three uh sorry 638's jackson 6 58 baronic she's doing 727s to that spot i do think we're saying her second place position is in jeopardy and as we look at the long lens of this race we do feel that historically someone like miranda carfrae is gonna just continue to roll and gain steam where another unproven athlete more like anya baronic she's gonna lose ground you pointed it out matt talk to us about the scrapper that is heather jackson yeah i mean she's a scrapper she uh played hockey in college you know she's definitely one that's pretty tough there's nothing that you're not just going to walk up and run up and take second or third place away from her that's an athlete and she's she's in the driver's seat to a certain extent obviously she still needs to pull up on anja baranek but she's going to get there most likely by the pace she's setting still running some seven minute pace but i think your question at the time was whether or not we think mirinda carfrae can get up to second it looks like maybe by some projections that she's running fast enough to be able to get all the way up past heather jackson but to do that michael she'd have to look into heather jackson's eyes as a turnaround on the energy lab and uh heather would have to lay down to a certain extent i don't think that's going to happen guys i just want to point out something i don't know what you feel about this but uh you know you do a little bit of quick math and uh have a look at our first race right now the way that uh mr patrick lang is running he's only uh you we have certain players that we expect to see that from we almost expect to see that from andreas raylor and you know pete jacobs we would expect to see that when he's on a good day you know he's run really really fast but patrick lane newcomer as you said michael he's never actually run uh or completed an entire iron man he's run a marathon had a great marathon run in the woodlands to take it but and this is the first time in kona to be able to run into the podium and we're talking what he was 20 something from the guys yeah off the bike he was uh you know well over uh you know 20th out outside of you know coming out of the t2 there he didn't even register in the top 20. so uh it was amazing so uh you know we can tell you that you know at around about five miles into it he was in 14th position um you know when you look at 2.93 miles you know the guy wasn't he was right at the 16th position and then coming out of the uh you know t2 he wasn't even ranked in the top 20. so well that's to give you an idea it's absolutely amazing i'm with you greg and because here's the thing patrick lang we said it before there's got to be a surprise podium who has it been in the past rook for bethkay chris lieto luke mckenzie ben hoffman tim o'donnell we've had those surprisers that come in and they jump onto the podium and they say they tell us hey i'm here to play patrick length he could be that guy that wasn't here and then we thought podium there [Music] you know the next year but patrick lang is doing it after a drafting penalty or after you serve the penalty and he's doing it on the run he could reproduce that and like his competitors don't have anything to say when he runs past you at 45 seconds faster per mile on the marathon on the bike ride if a hoffman goes away or o'donnell goes away you're like no we'll try to close that down patrick lang is is throwing his punches when it really matters michael he was 23rd off the bike today so 23rd off the bike he's running himself up into the sixth position right now and we're all eager to see what his run splits going to be at the end of the day having running you know having been running 35 seconds per mile than yarn for dino i mean how is that possible yeah and yawn's running away with this race right that's how you guys you know partially it is too looking at the big picture and yawns up front putting a lot of hard work in patrick lang obviously got a drafting penalty so let's not uh forget the fact that that means he was drafting yeah and so maybe his legs were a little fresher from that moment you know when he was drafting but also it's exceedingly difficult to go overcome the psychological uh blow that comes from standing down for five minutes you have to channel that in the right direction yeah and you know what you really do have to have the perfect race to win here i think that patrick lang is having about as close to perfect race as you possibly can but jan fradino he knows all about that take a listen to this to be honest i'm searching for that day because i know if i have that day it includes a championship there is not much i can really influence from my competitors you know whether they have a great day or not or whether somebody comes out with a new piece of equipment that happens to be a lot faster than anyone else on the bike or all these sorts of things i have absolutely no influence on it's my swim my bike my run and the transitions in between that i have an influence on and i know if i nail those there'll be a championship at the end of the race great words from our defending champion john frodeno from germany this guy has done it all looking at some of his best 08 olympic gold medalist in beijing 2015 iron man world champion and a two times iron man 70.3 champion this is jan frodeno he comes from germany wears bib number one and he is out front as he's been for much of the day the last race split that he notched had him running 648 mile pace that's running up out of the energy lab keeley was to 708 hoffman 702 per mile o'donnell 658 per mile betcher 703 per mile laying way down there at 7 6 27 per mile and boerstein 702 per mile those are the splits on really one of the more difficult segments of road once you come up out of energy lab you turn right there actually is a bit of a cross breeze that comes from the right side and it cools you and you can quicken the pace and suddenly have a downhill trend but that's where they were a while back running fast you know what we talked about the men's race with patrick lang setting it on fire well you look over the women's race right now we know that daniela ryf is pretty much running away with this race right now but mirinda carfrey has now moved into fifth place and her mile times are much quicker than everybody else now she's only seven minutes behind second place so we've got an exciting race you know for the podium coming in here to the finish line heather jackson is looking to uh you know get onto the podium for the first time last year she was fifth place at iron man this year having a brilliant race but mirinda carfrey is far from out of it seven minutes out of second place is nothing for the pint-sized pocket rocket from australia the three-time iron man world champion and she's still got 15 miles to run yeah that's a lot of real estate left for her to work with we know that she's one that likes to go out strong if she needs to she's a racer she's going to go out she's going to try to get as as quickly as she can get as far up as she can so yeah she's going to try to get up to third second place here pretty quick and see if anything magical can happen we've seen her in the years past when leanda cave won she got all the way up to the shoulder of the woman who was able to end up with the championship cracked herself a little bit learn from that mistake so you know she's gonna run steady but she wants to do as best as she can with the remainder of the day and she's got 15 miles left to run exactly uh there matt and let's have a look at the marinda carfree's run splits on the hulka on a on a run course right now she's been running out around about 6 32's over the first couple of miles then she settled into a 6 34 pace then sped up to a 6 33 pace getting up over palani hill at 6 42 pace and now back out onto the queen kaumana highway and settling back into a 6 30 pace again so mirinda carfrey on the hulk honey on a run course is really setting it on fire but daniela ryf she is way out in front well you know there's certain areas of the race where you have to find your comfort you have to feel in your element and no matter how well-rounded the athletes are there's always a space that becomes the home zone and for mirinda carfrae that's always going to be segment number three the run course so uh honestly she you know some athletes that say okay when i'm on the when i'm on the um when i'm on the bike i mean my best and certainly danielle reef is the best cyclist in the sport but uh renee she does it on the run that'd be mirinda carfrae daniela ryf also on that hoka one a course greg 624 651 631 637 644 those are her per mile splits those are incredible she's amazing great i think it really puts a little bit of you know a little bit of action where those words were at the press conference she said i believe in my run i don't have to win on the bike and right now it's true the proof's in the pudding it's just it's not just talk it's a great run no and we keep we keep talking about second place and it's hard not to talk about second place when you look at someone like daniela ryf running as amazingly and as uh in control as she is but nothing is guaranteed this course is brutal it's hot she's been racing hard all day the win is still always up for grabs in kona until that first person crosses the finish line so mirinda carfrae she knows better than anyone she's seen explosions she's exploded herself before so she's going to get as far up as she can because she knows she still has a chance to win this race because her competitors might put themselves in a position that they can't control and daniela ryf looks like she's in control no one would bet against her but the win is still up for grabs well look at the knee drive i mean the knee drives absolutely perfect right now by um you know by danielle lariche she's sitting here sitting the hips there she's got the knees and the ankles just in the correct place she's got a hip square to the target her shoulders are right above the hips there with maybe a little bit of a forward lean her arms are in perfect symmetry i think she's just running the perfect race i don't think you can fault one single bit of daniella reef's race today no she looks perfect and she's she's looked perfect all day i mean she was never out of touch from the very beginning you know to see her 200 meters in i think the furthest i saw her back in the swim was fifth place and for a lot of it i saw her in fourth place i missed exactly what position she came out of the water because it was tight but i mean she was in control all day and it's very similar to what we saw from yaw for ryan fordino sorry to look over at the men's race again but he was able to not push himself till he needed to and i think daniella hasn't really even needed to yet she obviously she's moving and she is you know she's on course records so she's going fast but she hasn't been pressured from anybody and with a 13-minute gap you're given a sense of security in a security blanket to if she wants to hurt herself to prove something in the last 10k to try to get a record she has enough time to come apart a little bit and come back from it but you're right greg she's looked perfect all day long michael i don't think that i've seen a dominating performance since chrissy wellington's early years i mean the first year in the second year that chrissy came here absolutely dominated and decimated the field today it looks like daniela ryf is doing exactly the same thing and that is executing the perfect race yes absolutely and you just you don't get a lot of domination in this sport and you see it how tightly those those incredibly good men came in to transition together seven of them very good still very close but the women's race she's doing exactly what chrissy did where it's it's come and catch me she's elevating the game i think that part of her has to say why not you know i wasn't pressed last year and i ran 307 this year i'm not pressed but if i run 302 or better course record is mine then i can say i've gone faster than anyone else including chrissy including renny including paul and nibby fraser and clint including any previous queen of kona natasha badman all of these women went extremely well and of course of course we never compare year to year and say who would it be who could have done who should have done sure but the point is daniela ryf could etch her name on that record book and say i have the course record but point being i don't think she's here for two years and gone if she wins this race by 8 12 15 minutes her competitors have to show up next year and think she beat us this badly and she was never put under pressure what can she do if she's put under pressure that's true and and it is it's an exciting time because the women i think will all tell you that when chrissy wellington stepped on the scene you know a young canadian athlete at the time sam maglone came in here fresh off the 70.3 world championship title she came in here her first ironman she designed a program that enabled herself to run 259 and just crush a great race and she would have won that race had it not been for chrissy well all of a sudden shockwaves went out and the women said wow we've got to step up the game here we've got to raise the ante and they did and so they missed that and that's when we saw mirinda carfrae be able to come away with an 852-14 well and since then michael i think we've seen in the women's field the men's field to a certain extent but definitely more so in the women's field the running game has really come up i mean i think before that you know we had a win i believe uh mckeely jones won with like a 312 or 314 and she had great performances and we saw these 308s the 310s win this race sure and now you know laurie bowden had done it 1999 with the 259 if remember correctly but you didn't see sub threes and now sub three is is is common type right that's right that's right guys i mean very well said i mean we're talking you know all day about uh you know daniella ryfa you know having a three-hour marathon now guys if she runs three hours today she's going to go just about 8 43 to eight forty four that's going to break the record by about eight minutes okay so that's what pace she's on let's go ahead and listen to danielle reef because she did talk about her run here in kona i don't think i had my best possible ironman yet um i think i i do think i can still run and improve my run what i'm working on or working for is to to push that bike for 180k and then run the whole marathon in a pace where you're like yes this this rocks and yes i don't know if it's possible i mean it's such a long race i don't know if if that's actually possible to to have that feeling but that's my that's what motivates me that's what i'm still working every day for that i can get there and um yeah i don't know uh i mean on a great day maybe i can have that on saturday i don't know well there you go daniela ryf she is the defending champion 2016 iron man switzerland champion the 2015 ironman world champion and also in 2015 the ironman 70.3 world champion she hails from switzerland and she enjoys over a 15-minute lead right now out on course daniela ryf leads our women's race mirinda carfrey is charging arnie berenick from germany is still holding down second place but look at this guys comment on what you're seeing right now this is a fast flying swiss miss all the way toward the energy lab right now yeah absolutely and you know she's still doing the little things she's putting ice in her hat uh she's maintaining her her temperature as low as she can or at least the perception um that she's getting cool a little bit but man she looks perfect i remember a few years ago two years ago we had a camera on her on ali drive and all we could do was pick her apart because we had three hours or so to or two and a half hours to look at her running on that screen and i don't we found little little things that maybe were happening but there's no way to find anything uh that's not perfect at this moment uh occurring in daniela reese race and obviously she's i'm sure she's fighting through some battles but she looks great and right now we do have a move on screen michael tell us what's happening well it's it's it's jan verno up front keeley in second but ben hoffman he's still holding third only 20 seconds up on this man andy betcher from germany patrick lang has overtaken tim o'donnell by five seconds our top six though so close really the closest action is between hoffman betcher lang and o'donnell that is 746 to 843 time gap we're looking at 50 seconds less than 47 seconds these guys and they look so good wow the heat of the action look who's banging on the door we were talking about a clean sweep from germany early on in the run it was andy bushra sebastian kinley and then also jan frodeno but now it is patrick lang he is taking major time out of him and here comes patrick lange just flying past his counterpart here from germany patrick lang now moves into fourth position overtaking andy burscher and now he has his science set on ben hoffman from the usa canopy germany one two and three today ben hoffman's gonna have to look over his shoulder because patrick lang is absolutely chewing up the tarmac i didn't even think that molten lava could get this hot patrick lang has found his sweet spot on the queen k and he is tearing them down oh unbelievable greg unbelievable watching him run past bosher beaucher did the quadruple take over his left shoulder as he went by and there was absolutely no response and as you said greg now he's looking up at the american who's holding podium position ben hoffman is uh only probably 30 or 40 meters in front of him and patrick lane looks like he's sprinting and this is this is a performance to me reminiscent of his coach ferris also town someone that we didn't really expect to win that year that he won and obviously they did it in different ways and i don't think patrick lang's gonna win this race but he is surprising a ton of people and we shouldn't be surprised because at the woodlands the conditions are hot it is a little bit different sometimes that first time you go you have a great race and you don't know what the real pain feels like but patrick lang who is not from usa right now he's in fourth place and he is running up to the podium and i'd hate to say it but i think penn hoffman's gonna have his hands full but he will fight for this third place oh and ben hoffman also knows that if lang does come under his shoulder he won't give up the third place position easily to the german man here he will say okay when do i need to make my move i have to hang on keep a little contact hoffman knows this course this will be a time where he can say i have experience over you young man i've raced here enough times i've dropped out i've raced great i've had it all and i know so ben hoffman usa he still has a chance but right now it looks incredible uh for this man he is also going to maybe do sort of like we did in 2014 where we saw john frodeno get third place with a flat tire and then everybody says i coulda shoulda woulda if he hadn't had that flat but now he had a penalty we could say well what would have happened if he had been a little bit up the road four minutes uh sorry five minutes perhaps yeah he's just dropped a couple of sub six minute miles over the last couple of miles here patrick lang is now coming up onto the back of ben hoffman what he'll do here he'll slow down a little bit he'll get his energy and he'll get his nutrition in he'll get his gatorade endurance in and then he is going to make an all-out assault and a big surge like you would not believe he will blow by ben hoffman then he will get after sebastian kinley and just like that look at the surge hoffman puts the hat on with absolutely no comeback to that patrick lang gets up on top of his toes there and look at this the effort of this young german he is the iron man texas champion from this year the iron man north american champion and now has his sights set on the 2014 world champion patrick lang from germany is going on to have one of the greatest races of his young career at iron man and now he is in pursuit of the podium oh and no doubt you know this is one of his best performances this is the second iron man he's done he's in third place at the world championships and we would say you know with this much time left to run you know maybe it's not enough room for him to get back on sebastian kingly almost four minutes up but he's almost sprinting right now greg so you know sebastian kinley is running well and it looks like he ran within himself but patrick lange is on an absolute mission anything from here on out is going to be a bonus because this is an amazing performance but he's sprinting and one thing i noticed earlier today before the race started as far as the most calm athletes i've seen patrick lang was one he tried to strike up a conversation with me about five minutes before he was heading down to the swim i said patrick you got you got something to do you need to go warm up that's a guy that was pretty laid back about the whole situation and the day ahead of him so he clearly has nothing to lose he was an automatic qualifier here he's going to qualify again pretty easily for the world championships but right now he's on absolute sprint and as you said greg it looks like is he still in contention for that run course record yeah absolutely he certainly is i just want to point something out guys and i want you to uh both comment on this you know when a marathon runner goes in to do their first marathon or so it's usually when they have their best marathons their first one two or three marathons they get their best times however in iron man racing it takes a little bit of experience but not for this young guy patrick lange did his first time and down in texas you know in may earlier this year and took out the win and now he comes to the world championship and look at this new upstart he's showing a clean set of heels to the rest of the field he's only behind two of his probably his idols and that is the afrodeno and sebastian kiddley it's not ironic the guy is just that good well and i think here's the deal you do get actually a little bit of ignorance's bliss to know that's what it feels like you know is there's advantages to knowing what's coming but there's also eventually a disadvantage you know what it takes you talk to these champions as they've raced through the course of their career you start to push up to that edge and be like oh man i remember what that feels like out so either you dive in or you don't and so patrick lange has no idea what the edge feels like he went one time across this distance in texas a bit shy as we said but yeah he's done one marathon this is number two the the the idea is that can really be a benefit he doesn't know what the dave and mark hill feels like he doesn't know what the quad crushing pilani downhill feels like he'll find out but he doesn't have any anticipation of that all he can think is execute execute execute put some salt on the lips you saw that straight away from his container he's got the grimace of salt straight on the tongue that is going to help him prevent cramps but he's just he's doing everything right managing his p's and q's oh what about this i have a wattle bottle tucked in there where'd that come from who does this that was just in my armpit no big deal pulling holsters and i'll save it for later by the way patrick good on you man that was a nice move well you know what you you need a sustainable uh you know set of energy and uh in between the uh you know the the uh eight stations here you've got around about a mile between you know he wants to keep a sustained amount of energy going in and this is very smart and intelligent for such a young you know experienced mind and uh you know when you see uh patrick doing all the things that you need to do i mean he's either very well taught or he's a very smart individual and i think that we did learn something in uh texas that he's a smart guy and uh so anyway we're learning to know that uh patrick lang yes he's in a he's in third place right now but i just want to uh quickly uh switch subjects guys mirinda carfrey on the women's side is now catching anja berenick and also heather jackson she's only two and uh two minutes and 30 seconds down from heather jackson and a further another minute away from anya baranek with quite a few miles to run so the women's race is getting interested uh interesting in between second third and fourth and fifth places right now out on the uh you know energy lab uh as danielle reef is just about to attack that section of the course so mirinda carfree is just about to attack on heather jackson and also anya berenick daniela ryf continues to leave jan frodeno with just a couple of miles to run guys he's coming up the hill the big hill he's just gone through about 24 miles and he's got those two miles to go so this is an uphill grade we saw in 1989 this is when dave scott lost a step and mark allen took him home but this is it the final hill and again you'll see that labored stride of jan ferdino and it is because running up hill at a grade like this at the end of a long eight hour day is difficult give it to him he's franken and this is him on the verge of a two being a two-time ironman world champion yeah the timex leaderboard car is approaching the corner of palani road and the queen kaumano highway once they hit the palani road they have a half mile downhill quad cracker before hitting kiwikini highway huala light road and then making that right onto the world famous alii drive jan frodeno with a mile and a half to run in the 2016 imed world championship has the world at his feet there's nothing he hasn't done in the sport of triathlon and today he's almost set to take his second consecutive ironman world title patrick lang on the other hand he is an upstart he's a kona rookie and he's come in here he's in third place right now and only thing that stands in between him and jan frodeno is another german sebastian kinley the 2014 world champion that's right and there is a very good chance that he might catch second place only because he's a light on his feet runner he again doesn't know what it feels like to run down that hill again by the way when you finish turning left off of palani you still have a mile to go you have to do a long stretch along the kuakini before that hualalai it's not like palani and you're done although you do hear the finish line you're not done and as you said michael i think experience is an important thing on this race but that hill that uh frodeno is about to go up and then go down uh palani if you've never done this race before like patrick lange you're like oh man here's a little hill i'll try to use this to get some time back not knowing that there's so much pain left in front of you that run down pilani is brutal and when you're in a tight race as patrick lay and sebastian keenly are you still got a lee drive it's not a free ride you don't jump on an escalator when you get on elite you drive you still got to run hard all the way in you are dead right there man let's give you an update on our top 11 runners as they are just about to head off to the finish line jan fradino leads with a mile and a half to run sebastian kinley in second place patrick lang that makes a german clean sweep in one two and three ben hoffman in fourth andy bushra in fifth timo o'donnell in six we've got boris stein another german in seventh fendering found leader from belgium followed by another belgian athlete but arnold's in ninth and then we've got ivan rania from spain in 10th and usa andy potts is in 11th place so we got three from the usa and we have a ton of germans in the top ten right now so we've got stein lang and kilai fradino four germans three from the usa and two from belgium so that is absolutely amazing racing right now absolutely in that fourth through sixth position that's going to be some pretty tight racing too you've got beaucher hoffman and uh tim o'donnell all within about 45 seconds of each other that top five is a pretty elite finish here in the world championships is a place where uh those athletes have finished tim o'donnell has been third and fifth i believe hoffman a second place but right now we're looking at the two leaders jan ferdino obviously up front with a fair gap on sebastian keenly but sebastian keenly you know looks like he's tiring obviously he's very far into a marathon but he's doing all the little things uh he has to do he will be getting word most likely that patrick laying is coming uh he probably you know he's got to take people's word for it if they tell you he's coming he's really coming but man sebastian looks really good he looks really good he's he's talking he's taken his ice in and his water he's shaking it out he knows what you need to do you need to stay loose his form looks perfect don't forget guys you know we wouldn't normally say sebastian kinley is someone who can necessarily close all that quickly if you weren't watching the last two years but a 111 he ran with a sprint finish with tim reid just a few weeks ago at the 70.3 world championships if patrick lane gets up to him he's going to do what he needs to do you know at the press conference somebody asked him a question and sebastian was referring to twitter and how sometimes he gets likes from his other pros on twitter and he said tim reed whenever he likes my photos or my comments i see his profile picture and tim reed's profile picture has him finishing in front of sebastian keenley at 70.3 worlds and sebastian said if that happens again it won't happen like that again and i think if it comes down to a shoulder to shoulder race sebastian just had that experience he knows what it feels like to be on the wrong side of it and he's going to put up a really really hard fight guys well the foot speed of yarn frodeno is still quite high as he now runs down palani road for the very last time today the hulka on a on a run course is coming to a close for fredino he's just one mile away from the finish line right now and as you were saying before matt you've got to close this race out it's not going to run it for you when you get to the bottom of pilani road your quads are just absolutely on fire you've ridden 112 miles 180 k you've run 42 kilometers you've you know 26 miles it's absolutely insane you know the enormity of the the challenge that we you know give to ourselves as triathletes and ironman triathletes but jan fradino now look at this just striding out just not wanting to lose anything no more seconds to anybody else in the field the only person that's making up time on jan frodeno is patrick lang from john frodeno here with just over one mile to run is now heading toward the finish line well we didn't have patrick lang at the pre-race press conference but you know what the goal is to be at the post race press conference as every athlete knows and patrick lang you'll be there today you'll be there next year at the pre-race as well so an incredible show from a guy that has very little experience but well guided by ferris all sultan the 2005 iron man world champion is his coach so jan frodeno making it look easy he had those couple of uphills where he showed us his mortality he showed us that he is in fact human but right now it's back to super yawn as he rounds that left turn onto the kuakini highway and just about a mile to go from this intersection it is almost time to celebrate this world championship and as he was saying michael uh jan for dino earlier he said if if i have a good race i will have a world championships and uh he's had a good race he knows that he's better than the rest of them if he's got a good day no matter what special things they have up their sleeves special equipment if he has a good day and he puts his swim bike and run and transitions together he's gonna win a world championships and uh we haven't often seen an athlete with a pedigree to win big championship races as for dino and here he comes uh just adding uh another treat to his uh his fireplace a little treat to his fireplace a little trophy for his mantle nicely there it is trying uh a palmare as you will to his uh accolades but jan fedino so and and we talked about this you know he wanted to go sub eight it's it's eight hour one minute right now yeah he didn't do that he also is not going to take down craig alexander's record that's 803 56. he's not going to round this uh three quarters mile or 200 meters in that time but he's gonna be one of the top times ever and guess what i always feel like the most important thing for a true athlete an athlete a competitor is winning the race if he had won this race in eight hours 30 he still won the race the time is a little bit less relevant so right now jan frodeno if we if we want to just say he's getting the job done in style overtaking age groupers that are only half a mile into their race on this hoka one run course yeah as we said he's still got a little bit more to go but uh jan frodeno he's he's the one person on this course currently that can uh rest up a little bit shake the arms out he's got a gap um you know he might have had that carrot as we were talking about a going sub eight or breaking the course record now that he knows that that's out of reach um there's not you know he's always going to go as well as he can but he can make sure he can serve so he can get to that finish line um and celebrate and in a different manner than he did before he had a child on the way last year this year he's got a child to celebrate with i think it's going to be a little bit more special of a victory uh with three people on the finish line versus the the two last year well we did hear that uh his son luca who's about eight months old is here with his wife emma and we've heard that he hasn't done a single night feed uh since since that guy's been born but we also heard as soon as this race is over he is on night he's tapping in and new fathers around uh the world can appreciate that he's getting his hall pass revoked and he's going to be up at the middle of the night probably starting tonight if not tomorrow uh knowing the powerful woman that he's married to emma emma emma snowsell also olympic uh gold medalist but all choking aside this or seriousness aside this man is on whoa about to be on hualalai and it is getting done greg what do you think yeah he's getting it done and uh he's doing it in uh classy fashion as normal uh jan just has uh just two streets to go he's going to make that right on huala lie right now this is it got a downhill section for about 300 yards then he'll make that right turn on a leaky drive with about 700 yards to go to the finish line um you know this road has been made famous by paul and yubi fraser in the past with karen smyers where you know paula fell apart and smiles went by but i don't think anything's going to happen like that today jan frodeno seems to be just setting his pace and ready to go sebastian kimley on the other hand he's on palani road right now just ascending his race as well so he's almost at a mile to go so jan frodeno he's around about a half a mile a little bit more than half a mile ahead of second place right now and then you've got patrick lang who's closing fast right now so jan frodeno about to make that right-hand turn onto a leaky drive yeah you're exactly right though uh matt there is no way that sebastian quinlay is going to sacrifice second no less to anyone but a a fellow german if stakes are too high so patrick lang i think is going to run short of his his uh his charge there of getting on second but third place phenomenal uh phenomenal phenomenal so here he is and overhead shots of ali'i drive the world famous the triathlon famous banyan tree is coming up on uh camera left here for dino's right arm and when he runs past that impressive uh historical monument the banyan tree he will be only a couple hundred meters away the at this point there's really nothing going on other than a massive energy that's just drawing him in that energy from his own family the crowd that loves him plus everyone back home you're watching this online on this tv screen at your favorite bike shop maybe you're in boulder colorado maybe you're in bend oregon but you're watching and you're giving energy he's feeling it all i'm not trying to be silly here this guy is getting every bit of energy because we're all excited to see jan frodeno get it done as a defending ironman world champion and there's a few moments in this race where the pain goes away and uh if the pain's ever going away on the day for john frodeno it's right about now as he goes under the bonnie and tree uh you know he's getting everything ready for his finish line he's gonna zip up that jersey make sure the sponsors uh you know get their call out uh but jan for dino uh coming now just within about 200 meters still smiling still grimacing maybe that pain hasn't left him yet but man this guy is pumped and uh just a few hundred meters from being two-time back-to-back iron man world champion and jan ferdino has to has to really just uh be given a lot of credit for getting it done in a little bit different fashion than last year he left and had to run so much time with sebastian quinley he's now got a four-minute cushion he'll really be able to celebrate but it's to his credit this guy he planned to season well he attacked the iron man here well he did everything he needed to do first was actually first threw the water much of the day but he let another athlete come out of the water first he got on the bike and just bited his time did what he needed to do came off out of transition in first place and here he is coming down a little drive gonna win this race for the second time in consecutive style here he won the olympics in 2008 he's an iron man 70.3 world champion he's won iron man frankfurt in the past also second place in iron man lanzarote for 2016 but now to be crowned for the second time in a row the 2016 iron man world champion from germany jan prodino [Music] and there you go ladies and gentlemen he is on the ground happy as can be a two-time as you said back-to-back iron man world champion this doesn't happen often but jan ferdino from germany he did it today and he did it an incredible time eight hours six minutes what a day yeah and no doubt you know he was never you know he wasn't pushed the last 10 miles but looking at him there uh how out of energy he is he pushed and paced himself as well as he could in between two absolute legends there you go three of the best that have ever been in this sport dave scott john for dino mark allen uh getting emotional for jan for dino no better way to get welcomed across the line at the world championships than with the two best athletes that have ever been out here and then legendary mike riley bringing him across the line and embraced but that's six times iron man champion dave scott mark allen and then jan frodeno with two titles hugging his wife emma fradino he did eight hours six minutes and 30 seconds an incredible day today and we have fellow germans coming in second and third looks like at the last check just under a mile patrick lang was not closing he still had just under two minutes back of sebastian kiely but folks here it is overhead shots of our finishers as they're coming home but as you said it's still pretty tight here uh you know sebastian keemley's got a mile and a minute 40 to give but uh you know i don't think patrick lang's going to take it but we do have racing still to go as we said that fourth through sixth place is still really tight waiting on splits there but sebastian keenley still has to move those legs over and get to the finish line in quick fashion as patrick lane is going to be absolutely sprinting to the finish line as uh just one athlete here today that's crossed the finish line is able to completely relax and chill out but guys look at that podium when was the last time we had three germans on the podium michael it was 1997 and it was germany's thomas hill regal jurgen zak and let's tell you later rating your best and your worst day in one oh my god this is i can't remember when i last suffered so much and uh right now i'm just so happy to be here thank you so much for all your support you guys are amazing you guys make this race happen thank you to all the locals for giving us your space sharing your roads mahalo much appreciate it it is the spirit of the island is within yon fraudino yan you are an iron man world champion [Music] that's right he sure is and he is that two times over jan frodeno incredible to repeat as a champion well and one thing we're we're used to here in triathlon for the most part is uh great champions uh he's a gracious champion uh banking the crowd and knowing that you know he needed the support of the volunteers in the crowd to get through it uh still looking great again this isn't a man that necessarily got beat down he just got he just had someone cross the finish line apart and had a better day sebastian keemley one of the best we've seen in the last five years here we go sebastian keemley's second place at 2016 ironman world championship and again talking about gracious amazing awesome champions sebastian keanley a class class act he wanted to finish one spot higher he'll take the second place this will keep him up at night a little bit that second place hurts that's two second places at world championships within just a few weeks time he doesn't look happy he's a good dude though he knows that one of his best competitors john frodeno is an athlete that pushes uh sebastian keenly to be his best and they both got the best out of each other today well you know what and there's such a thing as being happy and disappointed at the same time and he's got to be happy anytime he can get across the line with a great race you know he was he was uh he was able to do an improvement upon last year's uh seventh place or eighth place finish but you know you can still be disappointed champions don't always win and this guy knows that certainly a happy performance but not not the best not what he looked for so it's going to be a little disappointing but here's patrick lang out of germany this young man is absolutely ecstatic and you can tell right now he surprised a lot of folks obviously his true believers and fans knew he could be done putting the german lay around his neck grabbing the german flag and running in with a smile because this could very well be the future of our sport he's here now in third place ecstatic can't believe it he can't believe it michael this is similar to what we saw uh texas at the woodlands uh this kid is amazing it just is such a genuine guy he can't believe it he can't believe it i don't speak german but i'll tell you what he's saying i can't believe it i did it third place um he's gonna be in a lot of pain here in the next couple minutes michael uh he just went to the absolute well but i mean this is this is not one i had a couple buddies that called him in the top five but this is not one that a lot called on the podium but to have uh a legendary athlete like john frodeno and uh sebastian kinley and now patrick lang three germans across the finish line all in under eight and eleven you know we might see a new era of german racing there is going to be no happier man here than sebastian than patrick lang sorry even jan for dino i don't think is going to be buzzing as much tonight as patrick lang will be once he finally sits down and uh and that pain settles in but michael we're looking at uh patrick lang right now at the finish we still have racing out on course right now or at 25.2 ben hoffman was in fourth place 7-12 back andy boscher 722 back from our leader 10 seconds with one mile to go and ben hoffman looks like he's still in the front but andy boscher was within 10 seconds with one mile to go ben hoffman's not the type of athlete to let that gap go but i wouldn't want to see boscher up on my shoulder uh as ben hoffman's got right now but boscher is giving it his all trying to close that gap uh he just settled in for fifth place ain't so bad once you realize you can't get fourth no reason to kill yourself right michael well four to five out of germany ben collapsing across the line that is giving it everything you had congratulations to ben hoffman from usa he was running on fumes to get across that line in front of andy basher andy basher getting there with a smile walking across the line and medical attention being delivered right up to mr van hoffman eight hours 13 and he took everything he had and threw it on the line congratulations to the top american sandwich between four germans in that top five germany is celebrating a shout out to our friends 12 hours later across the sea it's uh 2 30 in the morning and they're up watching uh uh this race unfolds germany on top we might want to tell you why would tell to get across the finish line just to make sure he gets his best time he was walking uh pretty slow there for a little bit over the finish line but this is a guy who he knew he could do it but you always have self-doubt and uh this is a guy who now knows and he's gotten back up there in fifth place as you said four out of five germans but andy boscher had great performance today you know was up there in the swim pushed that bike ride and pushed it as hard as he could at the end just with 60 meters to go finally giving it so to speak to ben hoffman that you would had to drag him away on a cart to take it away from him and you might have had to do that anyways ben's uh being being wheeled out but ben looks okay but andy boscher fifth place uh this top five unbelievable result from these guys great great performance and according to our swiss borshein tim o'donnell are the next two guys which should see down the chute both of those guys representing germany and usa so let's see who comes next i'll have to echo the words of uh of sebastian quinley he said them at the press conference down in maluma australia he said i think it's time for a german domination and the german domination may not have taken place at 70.3 worlds but we definitely have it here at the ironman world championship incredible and the day is not over but five guys across the line four germans and a u.s contender let's see who comes next these guys really got it done in style uh patrick laying off the bike at 25th place he ran through 22 guys have we ever i don't know when we've ever seen that i mean andreas raylor has had similar but i don't think to that extent coming that far back i mean unreal performance from him and michael dave scott did it uh 1999. he went from 25th place to fifth but there you go he didn't get to third he got to fifth but he did that as and crowned that as one of his best achievements but imagine now patrick lang coming into the world championships with confidence next year knowing he was third with the hiccup getting a penalty you know this is a guy that um you know he's going to be riding high he's got absolutely amazing future ahead of him two ironmans one championship win and one world championships podium finish unbelievable results from uh you know a newbie to the sport a newbie to this distance and here we go that's right and you know the honest truth is there's tim o'donnell coming home in sixth place he's he's rolling through the line this guy obviously content but disappointed as well he came here trying to better his third place finish from last year he didn't slip too much i mean sixth place and a time under h16 is going to be an incredible step forward still it's not a step back it's a step further lateral move because the guy has a cool bag now of back-to-back great bases absolutely a sixth place after a third is a great performance often we see we've been talking about it all day and all week you see a big drop when you get to that podium kind of not out of nowhere but when you get led away and you have a breakthrough performance it's usually a big drop back for a year two years two athletes that came back from that tim o'donnell the year after ben hoffman two years removed gets his fourth place finish back up for stein here coming across in seventh place but look at that time 239 45 for patrick lang 239 45 that's a course record look at that time 239 45 no one's done it better on the run here before our best time that we had was mark allen he ran 2404 we have seen that long standing record broken by patrick lange what year was that how long that was a long time ago that was in 1989 when uh when he did that when he was in the iron war against dave scott that is a long-standing record to october 11 2019 30 years ago now mark's gonna be the first one to tell you that he uh had two transitions in that time or if that's what they claim who knows they got to get real word on that but patrick lang fastest anybody's run in a a super super long time and right now we've got uh the uh the podium getting up there for their uh champagne ceremony and uh we're gonna get audio from down there and watch this uh little award serum with these three guys down at the finish line mark allen dave scott giving you mary whoa he's gonna open it up right away [Applause] there we go i think patrick lange might lose this competition do more experience at this doing pretty good with himself one more time patrick lane sebastian team lead and your champion john frodeno let's get a picture right out here upfront michael i think you know when we see an athlete that has uh run away with it so to speak uh from the rest of his field today we think maybe it's easy to a certain extent looking at john fedino's face and how he's holding himself doesn't look that easy does it there's that easy part of that uh he's hurting and he earned it so to recap right now the winning marathon time for this course was at 2 45 for yas bernino second place 249 and the fastest run ever to take third place was for patrick lange had two americans and two more germans so our top seven has only represented [Music] i'll tell you what i want to get word to greg i want to see the face on patrick lane when he's told that he broke the wrong course record at the ironman world championship his first time out i mean that kid is uh pumped on life to know now that he's the best that ever was coming across the finish line on the run and looking at sebastian in certain little moments you can see he is not not pleased with his day he's such a competitor he's such a great guy such a nice guy such a funny guy but he wants to win he is so competitive and you know people think that these athletes that win these big races are just that talented they are that gritty and are just are pushing themselves that deep because of competitive nature that drives them and bart honors coming across the finish line no doubt he's going to have a fast run generally we think he might have the fastest turn of the day but no chance he outruns patrick lane today no that's belgium on the boards and then next we expect to see frederick van lierta our 2013 ironman world champ coming across also from belgium and then we may break and finally get a fourth country because the last split we saw was yvonne ronya one of the uh one of the former world champs uh 2002 itu champion at cancun uh ivan ranya from spain if he comes through with that ten spot we're predicting it but what an incredibly fast so it was a fast day it was a world record setting but what is really impressive i think the most impressive is that we already have eight guys under 8 21. i mean that is so good there have been plenty of years where 8 20 was the winning time for sure and they're good times i mean obviously conditions play into that somewhat we didn't have a howler of a win day but it's really moral credit to the caliber of athletes the depth of that top 20 really really uh just stepping up the game across the board so i mean yeah they really stacked the deck at the end of that bike ride and and not really anybody in that top seven really cracked i think we had maybe one athlete that moved out of the top ten but besides that we had into the top six with seven out of six athletes in the top seven they finished uh one through sixth place besides obviously uh patrick lang and then we got ivan ranya and as you said you called it perfectly ninth place frederick van leard was it was that what you got to cross in ninth and van leer to intense okay yeah uh just an incredible show there uh rania taking ninth spot one of the best spots you can ever find inside the top 10. why is that michael but looking at it uh ronya really just turned on the juice he was a great runner um always has been in the heat in particular but a former pro bike rider as well he came in with a great game got himself back in the mix van lyrda hanging on for an incredible 10th a return because we didn't talk about him as much and he's a champion through the belgian so there it is four countries inside the top ten most of them germany yeah unreal i mean i think michael you said i don't think it was an overly fast day i think it was a fast day but i think we had the competitive field that forced people to step up their game and can you you know imagine being one of those athletes on a good day you're looking at your watch you've looked at all the results the last 10 years and you're thinking man i'm on i'm on track for 8 30 8 35 top 10 finished 15 minutes ago 10 minutes ago unreal we have not seen it that tight i've never seen it that tight actually at the finish line here no you're exactly right and and then even just to take it a step further i would be willing to bet that you know probably eight of these guys in the top ten are sitting uh on their way to the medical tent right now to get a little assistance obviously we have drug testing and w probably have to run in there yeah but i think that what happens is they really drain the tank you saw the effects of ben hoffman a lot of those athletes will be buoyed by the excitement and motion of finishing well but i'm thinking we have a high majority of people that'll come off that and they'll be inside the medical tent trying to get id assistance and get yourself back to um uh to par but we know that we have our top finishers down at the finish line with our very own greg well as welch and we cannot wait to hear what they have to say greg take it from here please all right thank you very much guys sebastian kinley in second place today mate i know it's not exactly what you wanted today you always want to push it to the finish line there but second place good day well i feel like i'm the first um jace of yarn another another time um but i mean i i laid it all all out there i felt i felt good pretty long probably a little bit too good because i know that you have to feel if you want to want to won the race at some point um but yeah it is it is what it is currently the the strongest and that's just another big motivation for me to to push harder in in the training and uh for the next year i hope he's not not ending his career after after this one and um yeah at the end i mean i'm i'm pretty close not exactly where i want to be but yeah i have to be happy with it all right ladies and gentlemen that's sebastian kelley mate well done today second place well done mate we're so proud of you mate so proud all right now we've got uh jan frodeno standing by for us right now the champion two years in a row not only did he win the olympic games the 70.3 world championship we know about his resume thank you very much for bending down i know you're tired too but how does it feel and how does it sound to be a two-time iron man world champion ah it's uh i didn't think so but at the moment it feels that much sweeter you know there's a there's something said about that club and the guys who've won this race a couple of times um it was also a good time which obviously as an athlete is always important you know you always try and compare yourself to the greats out there and um you know it's just it's been a long year lots of sacrifices by my family and i'm just so grateful to be here again and to have luca and emma here by your side absolutely amazing now yan let me know this on the run today you had pressure from sebastian kinley as you both ran out there along elite drive you guys are running sub six minute miles early on there was that the goal and was it your decision to push up palani road to get rid of sebastian to be honest i mean what a dream constellation you know we got talked up so much before the race the two of us especially in germany you know they always talk about the two of us battling it out and i think for the triathlon fans out there for us to go at the half marathon side by side was was pretty epic i have to say sebastian was pushing all the time and um at palani i was just trying to go my own pace and i didn't really realize he was stronger on the hills before so i was surprised he dropped back and i obviously tried not to get too excited which is a bit hard when you're you know leading a world championship all right mate well congratulations and uh we'll let you uh get on with the rest of your day we know you've got a busy day congratulations on being a repeat champion something that doesn't happen a lot in the men's race well done well she thanks so much for your support thanks guys all right a very humble uh jan frodeno absolutely amazing and then in third place today patrick lang had to run a marathon record to get himself into third place 239 and change taking down mark allen's record that has stood since 1989 a 26 year record we're going to send it back to you guys in the studio yeah thanks very much greg that is great to hear straight from the source now we're looking at a great shot here of daniela ryf she's on the hoka onone course she's got a lead of 21 minutes in 26 seconds over second place heather jackson we do understand that mirinda carfrae is closing on jackson we don't know how close she's gotten but she's closing we'll know soon as soon as they cross that 19.2 mile uh transition mat but we're gonna zip away to a break when we come back we will have a lot more action of the 2016 ironman world champion ship here in kona stay with us welcome back to the 2016 ironman world championship right here kailua kona matt lieto michael lovato we're bringing you some live action of our race leader daniela ryf out of switzerland she won this race last year and she's running for the win again just to give you a few splits off of the women that are chasing her we know on the road that reef has a giant lead over second place 21 minutes 26 seconds at the last time check she's got 20 that's heather jackson in second she's got 22.42 over mirinda carfrae and a full 22-43 over anya barenick so what we know by those breakdowns is pace-wise reef is running seven tens to rinny's seven six teams to jackson's 734s and to barenyx 807 so it's a fast pace still late in the day we've run some numbers i personally believe that the split i wrote down the guess that uh we're going to see reef come through at 8 50 52 is possible yeah if they're gonna keep running seven minute miles uh they're gonna get it done but right now it does not look likely that reef will sacrifice the lead almost very unlikely however matt we're not sure if we're gonna see a change in order second to third there's a very good chance that heather jackson will find herself shoulder shoulder mirinda carfrae those two athletes they've fought each other out at ironman 70.3 oceanside before in california they've done a lot of battle before we'll see who has the upper hand but we're gonna have to take a little step back and say there's still five four or five miles to race until they get to the finish line yeah and i mean i think that race from second to fourth place obviously is so tight right now with heather jackson only having uh a minute and uh with 30 seconds on andre barronock with mirinda carfrae in between and probably since that gap mirinda carfrae has pulled back a little bit so it's going to be a battle those last six miles last thing you really want to do the last six miles of this race is have to raise somebody shoulder to shoulder and if one of those people is miranda carfrae that's definitely not somebody you'd pick to have to race against so it's going to be a really tough run for heather jackson the last 10k in but it's gonna be a fight and michael i think both surprised anya baranek is hanging tough i mean she is not letting those those ladies go past her or drop her uh straight away right now you know at 19 miles she's just one second behind miranda carfrey exactly and as we sit here and watch this women's race unfold we are fortunate enough to be joined by sam renew he's the general manager of the active network and i'm going to make sure sam thanks for joining us and please let me know also if i pronounce your name correctly no that's right very good awesome thanks for being here and we're happy to have you on here active has long since been a partner of iron man and you've long since been involved in the endurance world triathlon it's great to have you here how's your experience here today with the world championships here in kona well it's great to be here i mean this is the pinnacle of endurance sport of course we've been involved with iron man for 18 years now this is my third time i've got to come to kona to see it in person and what an amazing day's racing yeah absolutely did you think when it came when when you showed up did you think it was going to be four to five athletes on the top five from germany did you know that's what happened i did i was out there watching in fact i got my bike and rode out in the queen k and watched it out there so uh yeah amazing performance phenomenal to see um as you can probably tell for the accent i'm british so a little disappointed to not see some of the brits higher up the field this time um in fact will william clark a good friend of mine i know he's struggled a bit he's still out on the course but um it's his first time in kona so please get getting one uh one of the legs for next time for sure and the brits have a rich rich history of doing well here on the women's side very recent results on the british side uh women's field but some of the guys as well i mean if you look back the men have done well from great britain uh right now we're looking at the women's race this is switzerland up front and that is anja berenick from germany uh behind in second place uh sorry third place because we do know in fact she's actually bounced to fourth according to our last time split uh but either way you said 18 years of history with iron man that takes us back to about 1999 when i active got involved that's correct yeah i mean iron man has pretty much been the pioneer in terms of technology in races uh in the endurance space and so one of the first events to really adopt online registration with us many years ago um fast forward to now you know you guys doing uh an amazing job here with the webcast and showing spectator engagement all day long it really is the the pinnacle for the sport yeah thanks so much yeah obviously you know you've got an experience to watch these amazing athletes out here on course can you tell us a little bit about your history as an athlete yeah sure i was a member of the british team for uh for a few years five or six years hence knowing a lot of the athletes wasn't very good so at the age of uh 21 realized i should get a real job and i went and joined active um and we've grown that around the world uh we now do uh we now support races in 55 countries around the world so that's been my job the last few years so sam can you talk to us about some of the changes in the athlete experience over the years uh with regard to active's involvement in iron man sure yeah i mean the best way to describe it is iron man like i said it's the pinnacle it's led the market and what you guys have been doing for the last eight and a half hours for the last 10 or 12 years is now becoming a bit more scalable so other races can do spectator engagement so having things like an event day app when spectators that are out there watching all day long can find out when their friends and family are doing or how they're doing um we're used to seeing it at i'm in hawaii we're not generally used to seeing that at all the other races and that's really how technology's changed last few years that's wonderful awesome great stuff and and we're gonna see that that continue through the spectator experience throughout more events as we go that's right so it's now becoming relatively commonplace that even a small marathon or a small 5k or 10k can have an event app and you can see where how participants are doing um it certainly makes the experience a lot better for the spectators because if you're out there watching for 15 hours and you see your loved one twice or you missed them on the bike because you didn't know where they were it's not a great experience so so we're working hard um with iron man and other organizers around the world to sort of get that information in the hands of the spectators oh that's great i mean it's a hard sport to spectate in general we do our best and active is certainly bringing that info to the age group athletes and the fans back home so a huge thanks to sam renew for being here and a great great thanks to active for the partnership that they've maintained with iron man over the last 18 years super and we appreciate you being here um as we look at this women's race it is still cracking out just like we thought daniela ryf is leading going towards her second back-to-back ironman world championship title we also know behind her mirinda carfrae our course record holder heather jackson a relative newbie on the scene and anja barenick someone who's only finished in ironman hawaii uh twice before only started twice before with dnf's we have these women in our top four matt yeah michael and we have kind of a the mover at the moment in uh fifth place uh moving up not too far behind fourth on jabarina because casa letinan she won our race down south championships uh in south africa and uh you know she had a great race down there it was kind of a surprise to some um but you know she's not surprised now that she's uh up in fifth place jody swallow's still hanging tough uh maybe lost a little bit of her momentum but she's in seventh place at the moment uh but yeah that women's that women's race is uh super tight but right now heather jackson and mirinda carfrae and heather looks over and there is no response people no response on the way back into town uh the last person you want to see past you to try to stay with is mirinda carfrae in this women's race but heather jackson uh she gets uh what she needs to out of that transition and buckles down and tries to stay close but that's that is going to be a big big ass guys she's doing it again mirinda carfrae just rolling through this women's field she sure is but i would say there was a response her feet quickened the turnover came heather jackson did not roll over often when mirinda carpray goes by it is a knife in the back it is a kick to the shins it is a punch to the groin but that didn't happen today heather jackson she hasn't just deflated she quickened the turnover and she's hanging on she's trying to throw that elastic lasso around to get pulled through it's a great move it may not get her back into second but it certainly should keep her on the podium run with carfrae that's what i say well that's the thing michaels i think she knows how close andra baranek is and she needs to use now she needs to use mirinda carfury's momentum do your best to stay as close to mirinda carfrae if you're heather jackson because anya baranek is not giving up you know we we didn't necessarily expect a super fast run out of her necessarily here but she looks lean she looks ready to fight and she is really close to heather jackson and mirinda carfrae at this moment so heather jackson does not have the luxury to be able to you know wallow in the sadness of getting past for second place she needs to get back on form get in the game and uh and maintain as close a gap as she can to mourinho carpe if she wants to be on the podium because she was fifth place last year fourth would be an improvement but third place would be great for her but right now it's all mirinda carfrae behind daniela reeve who's running away with it brenda carfrae absolutely smoking this running course right now and we've got greg welch back in studio and i'll just say greg what do you have to say about your fellow aussie the one you called the pocket rocket pint-sized not unlike yourself in your day yeah well there you go the pint-sized pocket rocket there michael but uh let me just uh say one thing first 239 45. i've heard that number before it sounds like the new course record greg and you got to see the man up close and see what kind of wear and tear he was smiling i mean he might have been crying a bit but 2 39 45 we knew there were going to be records uh you know in in jeopardy today we didn't know it was going to be mark allen's record of uh 30 uh you know 30 38 years uh right so sorry i think it's quite that long yeah but either way we didn't expect that record to fall but 24 39 45 incredible he ran from 25th place all the way to third but right now it's all about the women i mean i i want to talk about the men later look at this this is mirinda carpray again we had wringer off we had said goodbye good night we didn't but everyone would have because she was so far back and now she's in second place yeah um on the road so second place on the road miranda carfrae right behind daniela ryf daniela ryf at the top um of palani road running downhill right now but yeah you know what um i i would have to go out and say this uh i don't even know if miranda on a best day could have beaten daniella reef today i just have to look at that bike split uh that you know daniella reef laid down and the only person that was able to get anywhere close was anya baranek and you know mirinda on her best day i think a few years ago was about six to eight minutes down on on our leaders you know getting off the bike and now you know today what she has done is just uh it's just incredible uh daniella's had the you know i think she's had the best uh best ironman of her life right here today and she hasn't shown any weakness not one weakness matt absolutely greg thanks and i think what we can notice and i think mirinda is kind of helping show how great of a race daniella is having because guys mirinda's not closing in on daniella at all if she's if she's run any faster than her from the beginning of this race it's been seconds over 20 miles she came off the bike about 22 minutes down and at the moment she's around 21 mid 21 22 minutes down so with the effect of mirinda running absolutely running through this entire field but the reality is she's not closing on daniella so daniella is absolutely having a cracker of a day and you know it's not showing any weakness sorry to take you're not allowed to say crackers i still love your commentary that was a good point the the thing for us and viewers back home everyone knew mirinda carfrae was unbelievable we talked about 10 minutes she could give up we talked about 12 minutes you know liz blatchford had a great line in and said you know what if if randy runs 250 run reef will run 2 301 and you know what all that stuff was great speculation but right now all we know is mirinda carfrae and her beautiful run form has rolled right into second place she was absolutely determined and at the press conference you knew she was hungry to find her way back in the podium of all her runs here eight times all her attempts i should say at this race eight of them she's always been on the podium except last year when she failed to make the finish line so rini back where she belongs mirinda carpray yeah exactly and uh you know brief right now we just uh a mile to go she's just gone by the hot corner on the bike there pilani road and kukini highway flat section it's all downhill to the finish line right now down hawala light road and then you know just make that last right-hand turn on a liter drive and it's got plenty of time to enjoy it this year fellas yeah yeah she does it she wants that that course record because greg check this out she's gonna get it i think uh she's inside a mile she's 8 41 52 she has until eight hours 50 minutes and 14 i'm sorry 852 14. so she's got right now greg she has 10 minutes to get to the finish line she's taken home that ironman hawaii world championship course record that's coming right now yeah you know what that's going to happen is actually no question about that 8 52 you know and uh i think it's 14 seconds right up here so uh 8 52 14. mirinda carfrae in 2013 she swam a 5850 wrote a 458 20 in a 250 38 you know what daniella today she absolutely smashed it on the swim it was just about 52 minutes on the uh on the swim there and an incredible sub five hour bike ride and and today let's uh let's see what she runs because you know they've been saying it all along her and sutto have been saying they want to break that three hours let's see if it's possible today and uh if it isn't what a great way you know to take the record down i mean 259 is what you know when we were looking at that so i thought she's gonna go 259 because it's a reasonable jump from uh from last year it's a reasonable progression and i think one of the beautiful things that happened with uh with uh daniela ryf's season is that you know she started out on that undefeated continuation from last year and the year before but then she hit a she hit a her she hit a speed bump when she went to the rpn iron man european championships in frankfurt when she got there she didn't finish that's a blow i mean it interrupts the the um the undefeated streak because she didn't get the finish line but then she rallied she did two great iron mans back to back and then she had to say all right step back and recover i think that recovery period cost her 70.3 world championships but what a great cost to pay because now she's back on 100 form and she is going for a course record today incredible job well well navigated through this season yeah exactly at the hawker on a run course here 26 miles in length she's at about 25 and almost half miles into this course and looking every bit of uh when she ran down this strip for the very first time uh you know just a couple of hours ago she looks awesome out there you know she got up on the toes you know straight away uh on the run course today and uh went out on a little drive with uh you know showing a little bit of uh you know an express feel to it and now you can see that she's just about to hit a little drive for the very last time yeah absolutely and as we said she finally looks up and shows maybe a little bit of emotion uh there's a smile on her face absolutely and uh you know that's a woman that like honestly guys this whole day she hasn't shown that she's tired or that she's gone through a struggle or she's had a moment where she hasn't felt 100 um and that goes into you know speaking to her uh preparation and the way that she kind of turned her head around after having an off race and you know it's not someone who has an off race very often uh at the world championships uh just a few weeks ago you know she was still uh you know in the top five of that race but you know today she has shown uh you know she you know people thought that maybe she wasn't gonna bring her full game or maybe uh she'd lost it a little bit but i mean i yeah i don't know there were people i heard but she now has seven minutes to run down ali drive uh to break a bike uh to break the course record here at the world championships guys i think she's gonna get it by four minutes oh yeah it's broken i mean she's only 8 45 she has seven minutes she's half a mile to go there and there's and there's incredible movement of those legs the same perfect form she's actually etc accelerating down elite drive guys this is uh looking like an itu race it's looking like she just competed in rio at the olympics mike she's up on her toes she really wants to get after and smash it she wants to take it down why as far as she can then she can challenge it next time today it's going to go down by a long way that's history that's history that's making her run that fast and push that pace you know this is the moment where you want to hold back a little bit and absorb it and and and be happy with the day's performance one man she is absolutely sprinting to the finish line guys and uh yeah she's going to go 8 47 maybe 8 48 probably more in 847 an absolute smashing of a record uh that mirinda carfrae when she said it was a huge performance so i mean this woman is going to be around for a long time she's still young she's showing she's 22 minutes in front of second place right now i think she's going to go under that 847 mark right there matt she's just going by the banyan tree right now with 100 yards to run in the 2016 iron man world championship there she's going by the wall of champions there as she makes her way into the finish line up on the toes she wants this record in big fashion today she's gone out there and absolutely smashed it daniela ryf the 2016 iron man world champion taking it out in great fashion today a back-to-back champion from switzerland the first time since natasha bardman and there she goes and the record falls 8 46 and change what a great day again daniella and she didn't stop running down the slope on the other side this was not a i gave everything this was i had some incredible show i have no doubt that that is one of the best iron man performances we have ever seen um incredible second straight iron man world championship to her credit amazing and still enough energy to be jumping around down there at the finish line there the red bull athlete has done it the second year in a row daniela ryf takes it out again what an incredible day there she gets an embrace from the crowd oh man what a great day for reef she swam 52 she rode a 452 and what is she gonna run let's look at the splits as soon as they come through we'll give you a good idea on just exactly what it's going to be if that is not a woman that put put it all out there she still had more to go and she's over over 20 minutes in front of her next competitor again this is someone who's going to be at the front of this race and this sport for a long time the energy that she had left michael i think you made a great point that she she certainly didn't go all the way to the well she had more to give and uh you know that's a scary thing to think when you've broken a course record by nearly six minutes at a world championship again in good conditions but not easy conditions by any means so unbelievable raised by daniella yeah she just went away i mean we talked about it last year she wasn't pressed and she ran 307 this year she was impressed and she probably broke three hours incredible course record we'll hear from what mike riley has to say i'm assuming you'll walk out there in just a second the defender title is so difficult you put it together on the swim bike and the run you've got to be so proud oh my god that was my best race ever i thank you so much to my team to my supporters i couldn't have asked for a better support before the race you could not imagine that you can actually doubt i doubted the whole week if i'm strong enough on the bike after maluluba and now i'm crashing the world record i'm not the world record but the record in kona so i'm just yeah i'm just overwhelmed well that thanks so much to the crowd you're incredible i didn't even feel any pain and just behind you fellow swiss man this is mauro berch way to go merrill come here let's say hi to the crowd she wants to say hello and thank you to you all kona danny reef your women's champion [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] so that's right we just heard uh exactly from the winning the women's winner not only did she break the course record by going eight hours 46 minutes but she also did so by running 256 incredible and so this woman has got approximately two and a half three miles uh to wait for uh her second place finisher to come across we're joined in studio now uh lucky for us by liz blatchford from australia last year she was there finishing in third place this year we're lucky enough to have her in studio and we can use her commentary as we look at live shots of mirinda carfrae as i said liz thank you for being here and what do you think about this incredible show rini just fighting her way to second place as we know she can do every time yeah well we know really quite awaited first usually but danielle has just topped that today and trump to everyone that was such an incredible performance i had goose bumps seeing daniel finish today that was out of this world well 256 i mean i think you know a lot of times we were thinking 259 301 somewhere in that range she shattered that and she didn't have pressure so the hard thing for me is to imagine what it takes to be able to to break those barriers without any pressure a lot of times the best you know we saw yon go because he had company for 10 miles he was pushed a lot of times we see that or rinnie's record because she was chasing chasing chasing in this situation daniela reef was away all day and she still kept pushing yeah like what's the motivation right yeah one thing i've noticed with um a bit through social media i've seen her coach brett sutton and i saw him tweet today that her goal today was to run sub three and i know that sometimes you see these two you know brett will set these goals and daniella she'll just go out and she'll just execute it and she's done that today to go out there and show she's not just a swim biker she's absolutely one of the best runners out there too and what does it tell you uh when you see that athlete running down alii drive she's met that goal to win the race she's met the goal to run sub three hours but she's sprinting down ali drive what does that tell you about the personality of that athlete yeah looks i think and daniella just wants to show everyone she's that much she's that level above we actually saw it with rini a few years ago when she was going for that course record you don't let up you're obviously feeling good so i think you just want to go out there and show exactly what you can do what do you think about this young lady here this is anya berenick and she's holding strong last check she was in fourth place heather jackson uh just ahead of her but she's a surprise not having finished kona and only won two iron mans in her past uh what's your take here yeah look anya is a fantastic cyclist we all know that all of us girls that race her know that she's a weapon on the bike and she's one of the women that can change a race and she went out there and she hung with daniella longer than i think nearly anyone has in this race when daniel has been on form so she went out there and did that she's hanging tough like obviously she's hurting everyone's hurting at this point but she's doing fantastic hanging on for fourth everyone except daniela reeve because we still even when we saw yon do an incredible show to win his second title he only he still looked a little labored going uphill when we saw daniella it was just a tiny bit shorter stride she didn't ever look labored but also as we look across uh this in this women's field we see casey latonin from finland our african champion from from this year she's rolled into the top five um any other surprises that you're not seeing some women you hope to see are expected to see oh this race always has so many casualties and every year you think it's going to be the strongest ever field and as the race goes on you just see women and men some of the best in the world drop like flies and yeah today we've seen um some of the some of our best women fall um yeah victim to the conditions here and one of those that i'm noticing not on that last split through 21 and a half is uh jody swallow she's out of the top eight uh sarah piampiano has moved into the top eight right behind assa lundstrom uh in seventh place so that's one of your big movers right now is uh sarah pompiano i believe she was 10th or 11th before that so she's an eighth and running strong just about 45 seconds behind assa and then michelle yesterday another five minutes up but having jodie swallow was a mover early and was holding quite strong but she seems to now be fading back to back this race yeah look jody's had some issues here in this race in the past had two dnfs and maybe the heat and this race is a bit of her achilles heel so i'm sure that stuff's not lost on her it's in her mind but it's good to see her hanging tough and getting through the race one woman who we did expect big things from here was mel household and i saw her coming off the bike in t2 she did not look in good condition and yeah i think she suffered early on the marathon we did hear that she stepped off and was walking not not entirely sure if she's dropped out but knowing that she sort of pulled the pin on high level competitive racing uh looking at marina carpray uh who is leading this group she's she was you know at last check 22 minutes behind and then let's just factor out daniella reed because she's won it she set the record she's on another planet right now but if we look at mirinda carpray in second all the way back to sarah pion piano in aid 22 to 35 that's a 13 minute spread that's a couple miles that's pretty tight that's a close boundary um we've got carfrae jackson barenick lietonin that's a tight race still yeah absolutely it is and this is the point in the race where people are moving at the most differential like their speeds are sorry at most differentials so yeah if someone like sarah's got momentum and she's making those passes she's going to have that sort of motivation to keep pushing and other women who are getting past jodie or whoever else it might be they'll be suffering more and every person that passes them is like a knife in the back that's a great great point and when we saw carfrae go past heather jackson we saw a little bit of life breathed into jackson for a minute where she quickened the pace tried to get the feet going tried to latch on knowing i think that that was a good chance to make sure she stayed on that podium um so we haven't seen her she's not the camera shot now but we expect that she still is in front of a fourth place uh bernick yeah and uh just a quick question as a competitor someone who's third here last year fastest run here last year what what do you do looking at an athlete like daniella do you just you back to the drawing board do what you do best is there is there any way to uh to go to to fight an athlete like danielle or do you just try to put her result out and say i've still got to do the best i can on the day yeah personally i've always just put it down to having to do the best that i could um i've gotten off the bike with splits i put a 15 minutes to daniella and i know what sort of pedigree of runner daniela is so even though i ran the fastest last year daniella was only 30 seconds slower than me so for me to go out and try and make up a 15-minute deficit probably would have meant i dnf'd yeah and that's what happened to some of the girls last year some of the women that we saw jody swallow mary beth some of those girls have to step off the course because they went for that win um i've taken the more conservative approach and you know i really value a podium here and that's the way i raced but um also on the podium and valuing it i think you know you have to progress and and when we look at uh historical data and people come in and this is why it's an exciting spot for you liz you've done two third places um and we expect when you come back next year healthier and motivated than ever you're going to probably find your way i think at that podium but right now we've got heather jackson so now you have to factor into the mix because third place means she could bump to second or even threaten for the win because i mean as good as as good as reef is it's a whole year away she's got to come back and do this again yeah absolutely and as we can see anything can happen we all expected daniella to go to 70.3 worlds brain it like she has nearly every other race for the last year and a half and she had an off day so anything can happen uh daniella did those two ironmans back to back in july and potentially paid for that at 17.3 worlds but she's come out here and just shown yeah showing everyone who's boss for sure and then as we look at second place mirinda carfrae she is just climbing up the dave scott mark allen hill it'll be named that forever but it's also just as you approach mile 24 you hit mile 24 you sum it turn right down pilani so she's inside still about i'd say about 12 and a half 13 minutes of running uh depending on her effort but that's marina carfrae second place and not too far behind you can see heather jackson just by the way the road yeah look heather looks fantastic she's one that i actually picked for the podium here today and she's held really strong obviously we've seen daniella and rinnie both running sub threes and i would say heather's run pace is probably not gonna be much over three hours so that's a fantastic run around here this point that they're at the course you think it's going to be one of the better points you're at the peak but running down pilani when you your quads are gone sometimes it's a real risk point of the course where you feel like you may collapse your legs might give out on you and it's definitely where i think i've lost most of my toenails yeah i mean that's a great that's a great point i think you know we think that it's a downhill and it's close to the end so it's easy no big deal but i mean crowy uh had hamstring cramps there when he was uh running for the course record in the men's race a few years back and running downhill fast at the end of a long day like this is pretty challenging and and as you said it's maybe the most painful part of the day especially on your quads and on your toenails but right now taking little steps heather jackson and mirinda carfrae just trying to plug it out and get to that finish line but there's still still some pain left to be had they got that uphill and another downhill left to go um but it seems like those two are pretty locked in for the podium but i'll tell you what heather's not giving up for that second place it seems to me that when you're rolling down palani all you want to do is take a little break i don't want to run anymore what i want to do now is take a break we'll be back with more action from the 2016 ironman world championship after this message

Channel: Ashish Lathar

Views: 9,452

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: X20fPDtMq4k

Length: 498min 12sec (29892 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 07 2021