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Where triathlon meets real talk. Hosted by two seasoned triathletes Lockie Jones and Lleyton Wall, this podcast takes a deep dive into the controversies, challenges, and triumphs of the triathlete world.
00;00;05;27 - 00;00;09;27
Speaker 1
She goes in front would help the younger.
00;00;09;29 - 00;00;11;09
Speaker 2
Of courage.
00;00;11;11 - 00;00;20;08
Speaker 1
Unbelievable. There's nothing but. Racer man. World championship title.
00;00;20;11 - 00;00;42;01
Speaker 2
And here we are. We are back. Episode 13, season two of the Unfunded podcast. As always, I'm Lachlan Jones, co-host here with my good friend. Later, wall started funded podcast. That's it, that's it. I was trying to be a little bit more time. I feel like every time I jump into it, I'm just screaming at the mic and it's a bit obnoxious.
00;00;42;05 - 00;01;03;19
Speaker 2
It does feel very low key at the moment. Very. Yeah. Very placid from you. Yeah. I don't know why. I don't know why. We were just yawning our heads off. Yeah. Sometimes it's hard to get into the into the studio and snap into character. But we're here and we're happy to be here regardless. It's like we said, it was a big week of racing, and it took us by surprise.
00;01;03;20 - 00;01;23;17
Speaker 2
It did? It did. I was, as we were always going to start with. I was going to ask how your week was. Sorry. Yes. No, I keep forgetting it. That's so rude of me. That's. That's how we usually start. You've not had a great week, though. Have you? No I haven't. No, it's been quite shitty. Literally, no, but literally no pun intended.
00;01;23;19 - 00;01;41;24
Speaker 2
Yeah. You've had the bum wheeze. Yeah, I did, and yeah, coming out both ends. I was friends with the porcelain pony all weekend, and I like that. That's funny. And yeah, that was my weekend while trying to sit up in bed and watch Yokohama, because I think in and out of consciousness, I called you and I was like, oh, mate.
00;01;41;25 - 00;02;00;12
Speaker 2
Like, like we said, watch party at mine. Everyone was coming around and I called you, and you sounded frail. Not sound good at all. I'm a very skinny boy at the moment. Hey. Sometimes. Raceway. Raceway? Yep. Everyone said that to me. Race weight racing. You went well under. Let's maybe bump that up a little bit. Get some food.
00;02;00;12 - 00;02;18;22
Speaker 2
India? Yep. No. Anyway, that was my weekend. Yeah. Nice. Yours? More enjoyable. Yeah. Just watch the racing. Really? Yeah. Lots of racing. Was watching the footy at the same time, so just got around the. Just got a lot of sports. Yeah. Oh, you don't follow the NRL but magic Round was on. No. Yeah. Not a not a.
00;02;18;23 - 00;02;36;13
Speaker 2
Yeah. I don't know it's funny how you switch between sport. Well I mean when I was younger I was a big NRL and now I'm just couldn't give a shit. Couldn't care. Really couldn't care less. But, the big ones, the big ones that we were watching. Are we. One thing I'm really happy with. I'm back. I'm back at the top.
00;02;36;14 - 00;02;59;19
Speaker 2
Well, not at the top, but I'm sticking in our fantasy triathlon leaderboard. I've. I've completely forgot about that, and I didn't sign up. See, I have a feeling that's why I'm second. Because, one, a lot of people like yourself. Jack Woodberry, they forgot. Yeah, one, they forgot to sign up. And then this week, because we had Aaron Royal obviously competing in the para race in Yokohama, Brad course was competing and Aspen just forgot.
00;02;59;20 - 00;03;24;27
Speaker 2
So a lot of people were out. A lot of people didn't put their teams in. So that that contributes to me being up in second now. But you know what? You'll take that. I'll take it. Did you pick Corsie as fast as transition? I picked Brad. So in my my men's fantasy team, I had Maddie Hauser, Miguel Hidalgo, Tim Hellwig and Brad course, and there's five.
00;03;24;28 - 00;03;41;06
Speaker 2
Alex. Yay! Obviously, Alex, she had Maddie Houser boosted for the swim. Obviously comes out second. Alex. She boosted for the run. I think that's a no brainer. And I had big Bad Brad course boosted for the transition. And he got it. And he got it. We gave him we gave him a pep talk before I said I boosted you for the transition.
00;03;41;06 - 00;03;57;28
Speaker 2
So T1 T2 you hit that bitch. And he did good for the fantasy mate. And he did. He was tied with like two other people. But you know what? Yeah, that's still good. He still gets he still gets me ten points ten points, ten points there. But yeah I picked it really well for the fantasy. Didn't pick Tilda manson which I'm a little bit upset about.
00;03;57;28 - 00;04;20;16
Speaker 2
But that would have been good. We'll get we'll get to her. Get into that. Who had picked actually her a year ago to be good. Yeah. Oh, yes. There was a little bit of Leighton has a bit of a bone to pick with the all in trough on fucking all in small in triathlon podcast. Other podcast on the podcast just isn't as good as this one.
00;04;20;24 - 00;04;46;17
Speaker 2
Leighton has a theory that they don't actually have an opinion. I didn't say this. These are your words. Exactly. Okay. Aaron Royle doesn't actually have an opinion on short course triathlon. He just listens to the unfunded and steals our ideas. Is that what you said? Well, he's word. I was the word you said. But if Aaron wants to go for opinions, we can talk opinions.
00;04;46;18 - 00;05;08;04
Speaker 2
No, because you are right. A year ago, I did pick Tilda manson. No. Okay. You picked her as a dark horse. We do have very similar opinions on the whole triathlon scene, I feel. Who? Us and Aaron. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I think it's very soon. I feel as if we talk about first and then they say it. I mean, you get the clickbait reels.
00;05;08;05 - 00;05;21;14
Speaker 2
Yeah. You did say a year ago. Maybe I just got to get my clickbait reels up a little bit quicker, but come on. Yeah, you did say that a year ago. I did call Tilda manson a year ago that she was going to be just going to. I'll just go put up a reel anyway. Yeah, let's just do it.
00;05;21;14 - 00;05;38;08
Speaker 2
And I did say Gwen Jorgensen was going to be back. I don't know whether six places back, but no, no, I'm not going to call six place back personally, but, she, she's she was there. I was very surprised when I saw her, what, six seconds down out of the water? Yeah. 10s. Maybe when you see Gwen Jorgensen in the front.
00;05;38;10 - 00;06;01;14
Speaker 2
See, it's so funny how different. Obviously, I think they were talking about. They actually were speaking about it. Belinda and Will, they were sort of saying, oh, the guys that are, you know, killing it best in the world right now, given five years, they might not be as good, they might be floating back. Given another five years, they'll be able to support and almost be forgotten and replaced by a newer, younger, faster athlete.
00;06;01;14 - 00;06;19;06
Speaker 2
And you think about Gwen Jorgensen in 2016. She was a beast. Imagine if, like, she was in a front pack, like she was in Yokohama. Yeah, she's literally, quite literally running over a minute into you. Yeah. Where right now she's stoked with the sixth place. We're saying she's back at sixth place, like, but she is also 40. Like.
00;06;19;07 - 00;06;41;10
Speaker 2
Oh yeah. That's it's very impressive to still be out there at 40. That's actually the other thing for you. So here's a question. She was dominant Olympic champion. World champion left to marathons. Yep. Came back. Wasn't the same athlete. Oh, but I don't think she had the marathon success that Alex has had. She didn't. And I think that she went for a longer.
00;06;41;11 - 00;06;56;16
Speaker 2
She did. She was there for quite a few years. Yeah. It was a long. It was a longer standup. Like your knives. I don't think she was keeping up her swimming and riding like Alex was like he was still basically swimming and riding like a tri fleet, where I think she went full into marathon. She went all in.
00;06;56;17 - 00;07;17;29
Speaker 2
But that'll be an interesting contrast to, as we've had, you know, an Alex when an Olympics win, a world champs do it all. Going to go into marathon. Be successful at it. Yeah. Now he's back. Oh he's here. Is he. Will he fall by the wayside. Because we were very adamant. We were very adamant he was going to come back and just be the Alexey evolved, which I don't think he's far off.
00;07;18;03 - 00;07;33;01
Speaker 2
I'm very far off at all. But I think the times have changed slightly. Yeah. As you said, new people come in. Yeah, but I don't think he's far off. Yeah, I was thinking it kind of made me a bit nervous when I really thought about Gwen Jorgensen. What she did came back. Hasn't been the same since. But, yeah.
00;07;33;07 - 00;07;58;28
Speaker 2
Different scenarios. Yeah. Just got me thinking. Yeah. So the big one. Yo, karma, we we got it wrong again. We haven't been very good at all picking how these races are going. See, I think like the dynamic of races, we've not been very good at picking. But the athletes themselves, we've been okay. Yeah. Who have actually hit the podiums because not in the way that we've said we've been, we've been doing these tips for like over a year now.
00;07;59;00 - 00;08;13;08
Speaker 2
This is the second year of us doing the tips. I mean, we've got the pro tri news coming in doing their tips. Now we've got the fantasy league. I mean, I like to think we started this little bit of a revolutionary thing, putting our tips out there at the start of each week. Probably a pro trainees thing. No, it was us.
00;08;13;09 - 00;08;39;20
Speaker 2
It was. Every podcast is actually just copying us. We were doing it last year or listening. We were doing it last year. We were put down picks out. But they've obviously just gone and made it really cool. Yeah. But yeah, I think our picks have been on. Athletes are going to be on the podium. Yeah, we're pretty close relatives, and I think most people now that they are doing the picks on these, on these other apps and websites, thinking they will realize how hard it is to actually get a first, second, third in that order.
00;08;39;22 - 00;08;56;12
Speaker 2
When we don't pick an athlete, though, we get slaughtered first. If we don't pick them for first and we give them a podium, we get hammered. Yeah, we just get every Toronto. If we don't pick. I think it was I can't remember who was last time like we didn't. I don't think we didn't pick Pat Beth on the for the win.
00;08;56;13 - 00;09;15;21
Speaker 2
Actually slaughtered I picked her in second though and and we got absolutely annihilated in the comments. I think somebody also got up. There was one where it was not picking Vasco. How did you not know as Vasco was time? Because he's been on the podium and not one like nine times in a row, like, of course I didn't pick him.
00;09;15;22 - 00;09;34;25
Speaker 2
I'm sure we'll go to the Manson one. Yeah, we've just got it. We got a pattern for all of last year. But you've written her off this year. Yeah. We didn't pick Maddie Hauser and we're getting done for not picking Matty ours. I was like, well, we picked him for second, for God's sake. Like, hopefully people started to realize that it's not that easy to pick a one, two, three.
00;09;34;28 - 00;09;49;29
Speaker 2
I'm quite proud of our picks. When we get like a couple on the podium, I'm happy if they're just if the three of them are in the top five and that doesn't, it doesn't have to be in the right order if they're in the top five. Done well done. Well, because sometimes it can be. It's a brutal game.
00;09;49;29 - 00;10;14;18
Speaker 2
Oh, I can be God or it can be God, or we've had a couple of stinkers. Yeah, but you're right. Picking the way that the racing is going to play out, we've been very poor. We haven't read it at all. And you know what's so annoying is the first two. So the first two that we've, I guess, properly, spoken about how we think system can and Chengdu will both like breakaways while I was breakaways is going to be a breakaway.
00;10;14;19 - 00;10;31;03
Speaker 2
There'll be a this and that off the front. Both came down to a run race. This one will like. No this is going to run race. All come together amid a 40 off the front. I'm not the women. The women was a bit of a running race but the men at 40 off the front, I was like, it's like going to a, you know, roulette time and going black.
00;10;31;03 - 00;10;49;14
Speaker 2
Black? Yeah. Fuck. It's been red both times. Red? Yeah. It's black. Exactly. So we've had some stinkers. We've had some stinkers. Hopefully we'll start to get them right. Maybe we're just trying to get into the into the flow of things. But, we'll start off with the we'll start off the women's race. I'm assuming you watch both of these.
00;10;49;15 - 00;11;07;28
Speaker 2
Well, yeah, I did in and out of consciousness when I heard Will McCoy's voice get louder or, like, woke up out of my slumber. Yeah. Fair enough. Out of my pit of doom. And I, like, looked up at the TV. I was like, what's going on? The, the the women's race was a little slow for my liking.
00;11;07;28 - 00;11;29;02
Speaker 2
It just there just wasn't a, not slow. It was. There wasn't any big plays, I guess, like we saw even when I saw them swimming, I was like, this is just going to be a big pack on the bike. Like there was. You had the couple out front, but that was changing leads all the time. Shaun Rangeley was up there, but the swim just kind of looked very condensed, packed together.
00;11;29;04 - 00;11;46;04
Speaker 2
Didn't look like you can kind of tell how if the bike's going to break away or be aggressive by how the swim pack is coming into the finish. Yeah. It just looks like one big blob. Like no one really strung it out. No one really put in that big of a surge in the women's. Yeah. Again, like a Gwen Jorgensen.
00;11;46;04 - 00;12;10;02
Speaker 2
No more than 10s from the front. Doesn't mean that it's going way too quick. No, no. And then the bike there was. I can't remember the exact number, but I'm going to say around 30. Just sort of rolling around together. A few people tried to make it kind of like came together a little bit. Yeah, yeah. What wasn't too exciting, I guess when you're watching that for 40km, like an hour of just the girls just rolling around and then the run.
00;12;10;03 - 00;12;29;01
Speaker 2
I mean, that was exciting. That was exciting. And scariest part about that is how good Beth Potter is. Like, she should have won that. She should have. Yeah, she should have I I'm and this is not a this is not a I know people are going to think, oh you hate Beth Potter. I think I didn't actually really like a post-race interview.
00;12;29;04 - 00;12;47;05
Speaker 2
What did she say? I didn't listen, it seemed a bit of like she couldn't just. And you know, my biggest thing is, except when you've been beaten, if you've been beaten, you've been beaten. The person was better on the day. You just didn't seem like she could really accept that. Like it was like, oh, this happened. Something in transition.
00;12;47;07 - 00;13;04;13
Speaker 2
Excuses. I was like, you just have just given two of Manson her flowers. Give Tilda man flowers. She just won her first words here. She's a great young athlete and she just beat her on the line. She's better on the day. Best didn't look to happen when she crossed the line. No, I get it. Like she. She just had an incredible run to catch up.
00;13;04;18 - 00;13;21;09
Speaker 2
Like to catch up to those girls. They're the fastest girls in the world. So big effort to catch up. Big effort to be in the position she was in. But yeah, that was the only thing I just didn't really like. Just give me two demands in her flowers. She beat you fair and square. Who was dropping on and off the back of that run?
00;13;21;09 - 00;13;22;22
Speaker 3
Was it too demanding?
00;13;22;25 - 00;13;44;23
Speaker 2
No. ML Barty was the first to go. Lisa also went pretty quick. She's not looking like the Lisa Turk of of she. She's still running of old fourth last year she. But yeah but she's not like when you think like a Lisa Turkish being at the front I just I don't know like John has having a she's having an absolute great.
00;13;44;23 - 00;14;01;28
Speaker 2
Yeah. She's she's killing her. She's come back and she's been very good. Yeah. But yeah I don't know Emma Lombardy I picked up a second. So I thought she was going to be up there a little bit more. Obviously not in the run form that she probably was last year. Beth Potter just honestly seems to be lays and bounds in front of everyone.
00;14;01;29 - 00;14;02;23
Speaker 2
Yeah, but.
00;14;02;25 - 00;14;16;07
Speaker 3
With two demands from being that, I mean, the only thing with two Manson, she wasn't that far off on this one. I know you said that swim wasn't very crazy quick. But she could be a contender for the rest of the year. Now, I think.
00;14;16;12 - 00;14;17;13
Speaker 2
She's definitely put.
00;14;17;15 - 00;14;24;09
Speaker 3
The fact that she ran a 32, 47, two seconds slower than Beth, but still ran.
00;14;24;09 - 00;14;42;18
Speaker 2
To win. Yeah, I think that was, I saw her and I was like, looking at it. When I was watching the sprint, I was like, shit, is Beth just going? Because Beth got away for a little bit, and then Tilda came past and just surged past and kind of Beth just like, looked down and went, oh yeah, shit doesn't really matter.
00;14;42;24 - 00;15;00;15
Speaker 2
It was good to see Tilda Manson actually go for the win, rather than relegate and be happy for a second against Beth, you know, in a first podium. Yeah, I think that was good to see. I liked that because sometimes you do sort of see the because, Tilda Manson's young, I think she's 22, 23. She's zero four.
00;15;00;15 - 00;15;20;22
Speaker 2
So she's 22, 22 like young going up against like not a, not well, maybe a veteran like a veteran from 1991, a Beth Potter that's in her prime right now. Like Beth Potter is killing it. To not shy away from that battle I think was very impressive. And she just stuck it to her. And I think that's going to give her the confidence.
00;15;20;22 - 00;15;41;29
Speaker 2
Now going into I'm pretty sure she's racing again in the Italian World Series in a couple of weeks. So Beth Beth's raising that as well. Beth might be trying to come out and just try and get three races, 3.3 max points under a belt and go, oh, I can just train now. I can just go train. They had something very similar last year and it didn't really work out.
00;15;42;02 - 00;15;58;25
Speaker 2
I mean, I think the big player as well that's been missing is Cassandra. We haven't seen Cassandra yet, so I think she's racing. O'Gara I would, I haven't just I haven't seen her on the best. I've just checked the star list and I haven't seen her. I haven't seen her. She's not still not there. So that's interesting. Yeah.
00;15;58;28 - 00;16;21;00
Speaker 2
So I lie. No lie I do like and Lenny Perry out I saw period. But I've obviously missed Cassandra there. But yeah Cassandra will be there. I think they'll throw another spanner in the works. And because as we said last week, is it when Beth and, Cassandra that they're just racing each other? It feels like the best out of each other.
00;16;21;01 - 00;16;40;06
Speaker 2
It feels like they're on another level. So will the Tilda manson John the Hair still be there when Cassandra is there? And Beth is that. I mean, it could almost be a good distracting factor where, like, we probably saw it on the weekend. Like Bethan, Cassandra might get too caught up in racing themselves. And then we saw it.
00;16;40;09 - 00;17;09;19
Speaker 2
It won't gong. They probably get too caught up racing each other. And then. And then a Lisa slips through, Tilda Manson slips through like somebody slips through. The cracks of Beth and Cassandra are just so focused on beating each other, we might see it again. I mean, I don't think how I don't think Alex and Hayden Wilder is dominant as sort of what Cassandra and Beth are at the moment, but like, it could have been like a them to in a Maddie Hauser slips through or, you know, Miguel Hidalgo Vasco philosopher like yeah, somebody like that.
00;17;09;19 - 00;17;39;07
Speaker 2
So a couple years ago I think that was the case. Yeah, maybe. But yeah, I mean, great for Tilda Manson. She's going to get a lot of confidence from that. And she had I think the coolest thing is, I wrote down in the notes, obviously. Yes, I claim that I picked her as a breakout last year. But if you look at her results from a very young athlete, she's done the right things throughout the progression of what, I guess, the how the World Triathlon season and series is built.
00;17;39;08 - 00;18;01;12
Speaker 2
Yeah, she's raced her Conti's. She's medaled at her Conti. She's won her Conti. She's stepped up to World Cups. Slow progression through that. She's then medaled in one World Cups. That was probably the first sign at a very young age. And then she's gone and cracked. You know, the World Series now I think that's where, and it may work for some people.
00;18;01;13 - 00;18;27;14
Speaker 2
I don't actually know how many. I don't even think Hayden Wilde might have had, like a World Cup podium before he was racing World Series. So, like, it works for some people and some people can make that big jump, but a lot of people potentially get caught up in just having them, I guess more excited to be picked for the race, the big race, than to actually get a result at a lower level race.
00;18;27;15 - 00;18;54;07
Speaker 2
Go get your content. I think they should quite well. Yeah, yeah. And I mean she's now got enough. She knows how to win a race. I think that's right. I think that's what we were. I had this conversation with my old coach. Learn to win races first. Don't don't just go to a World Series just because you can go and get a World Series race, a World Cup, learn how to win a World Cup and then take that experience into racing a World Series, which is clearly what she's done here.
00;18;54;08 - 00;19;12;15
Speaker 2
And now. She's third in the overall rankings for the moon. Yeah. So you've got Beth Potter, obviously a first and a second. She's clearly, on top. And then you've got Jean Le here. She's got two podiums now. So clearly in second and in two dimensions. Just a lot of comfortably in third. Yeah. Exactly. And she's not going anywhere like oh four.
00;19;12;17 - 00;19;35;18
Speaker 2
She's young. She's a baby. Realistically she's here. She's here for Brisbane 32. Yeah. That'd be the one after that. Yeah. Exactly. I, I think she's, she's already gone to one Olympics. She went to Paris, she'd go to LA Brisbane, Brisbane and probably one other, wherever that is I don't know. That'd be cool. Yeah. She's got a huge career ahead of her and I mean, and we've got a long bodies.
00;19;35;18 - 00;19;57;18
Speaker 2
No different either. Like, she, she's a young, young athlete. That's going to be, I think, just as good. I mean she obviously didn't have the run that we know that she can have, but it's it's May. Yeah. Exactly. Still early doors. I think they they race well quite well the Europeans in Europe. It's just going to get more exciting from now as well.
00;19;57;21 - 00;20;19;27
Speaker 2
I will go into the men's like both. I don't think both fields with that. They weren't that big. No, no they weren't they weren't the crazy depth that we saw at the back end of last year. We had good depth like all around. Besides, probably the two Hated and Alex were missing. Yeah. The women I mean, most of the girls race the whole year.
00;20;19;28 - 00;20;42;26
Speaker 2
Like they weren't there, that weren't missing. I mean, maybe, Georgia, Taylor Brown, Taylor Knibb, Sophie Evans, I think. Yeah. Taylor Bach. And she's injured. Has she put out anything? No. Because she was meant to race Yoko. She was. She was also meant to race next weekend in Spain. T100. She's pulled out of that. Yeah. So I think she's allegations.
00;20;42;27 - 00;21;06;14
Speaker 2
Allegations Taylor Knibb people allegations. But yeah I think we're going to see now. And we I think we touched on it a little while ago. The Olympic cycle, the Olympic process has started. So it's the first, what would you call it. First wave, first round, first opening, first year? Yeah. First year of Olympic points up for grabs. Starts now.
00;21;06;15 - 00;21;22;29
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, we're in it now. It started just after Yoko, so. Which is weird. I don't get why they just after Yoko Ono. Yeah. Why would you not include. Because you could include that. I mean, maybe it's to do with the actual points. Yeah. How it actually works. The calendar. I'm not sure it's beyond us, but we're going to start.
00;21;23;00 - 00;21;45;14
Speaker 2
And like we said, our Giro. Even looking at the Italian World Series next, just having a glimpse of who's there stucked. Everyone's back. Everyone's back. I mean, unfortunately we're still not seeing the Alex and Hayden and Hauser battle that we want to see. I think like that duos now become a trio. I think with houses dominance and it's going to be all right instead of instead of really Hauser thinking, how can I beat them?
00;21;45;15 - 00;22;03;11
Speaker 2
They're looking at how how can we beat? How can we get to that front pack with Hauser? Yeah. And okay, the men's we said that the men's race would go completely different. We didn't think it was a breakaway field. That's the one we got wrong. We got completely wrong. But sorry. We. Yes. We're sorry. Okay. Don't shoot us down.
00;22;03;11 - 00;22;29;12
Speaker 2
We love him. Okay? We've we've literally picked out to be the back to back world champion. I think you will be. He's one Yoko. Good signs. That is great sign. Like World Triathlon history says, if you win Yoko, you win the series before. I'm pretty, I'm pretty confident now in our world champion picks. Yep. But the breakaway, it might be just a houses story of if houses in the breakaway, which most likely than not he is.
00;22;29;13 - 00;22;50;22
Speaker 2
Yeah. Because he's a fish. He's coming out first or second every time. Does he need any more allies? Does he need it showed on the weekend that he doesn't need a ridiculously strong Henry graph there? Yeah, because that's that would they were the pieces that were missing. That kind of made me think he thought he's not going to be able to hold that breakaway but a horse or a Willian Vettel thorn.
00;22;50;22 - 00;23;12;21
Speaker 2
Great cyclist Braden Mercer always a good ally. He's going to be working for a break. So he was Max staple. It was just like these sort of. And Miguel or Miguel was obviously a great guy to I think Miguel's cycling has gone to a probably level. Yes. Here as well. Yeah. But it was still not a group that I thought realistically were going to get away.
00;23;12;23 - 00;23;39;10
Speaker 2
Like, I like they're strong, but they're not Henry Graf crotches like that kind of is the strength lessened in the pack behind. And would that maybe maybe that's the the question Winstead without I guess like, you know, shooting down the lead pack. I think that is where it is. You don't have those, you know, kind els you don't have those kind of middle people that are bridging.
00;23;39;12 - 00;23;59;08
Speaker 2
There wasn't a very bridge, like there was only about 40 to 50. I mean, they usually have that in a World Series anyway, but I don't think the depth was that strong. We had like 12 Japanese athletes. Yeah. Just gap fillers. Yeah. Respectfully. Yeah. But like people that weren't really, I guess pushing, pushing the needle for an Alex pack to get to really get up there.
00;23;59;09 - 00;24;22;24
Speaker 2
We were thinking the desperation to get up there. If you are in a pack with Alex yet though, say you're a Vasco villosa, say you're Akindele. So you're missing Ollie Conway like some really good guys. Are you going? No, I'm not working for you. Because if I'm working for you. I'm still not helping myself. Like, do you? If you're a Vasco Villosa, you're in that chase pack.
00;24;22;27 - 00;24;47;23
Speaker 2
Are you hoping that. No, you're going to have to do it yourself, Alex. You bridge it up with a handful of other people that are willing to work, and then hopefully a Vasco has a fresh enough leg to run with him, I think. I think that in Vasco sense there he would be going, I'm not going to do it because you, as Alex, notoriously have a pack of henchmen that go after it on the bike for you.
00;24;47;26 - 00;25;08;13
Speaker 2
That's going to drop off. Yeah, like there are like the British Federation is so big and they have all their tactics in play where, you know, Vasco would go, you've got like four other British dudes here. Yeah, we've got to go a Willis. You can, you can round up your little troops. Yeah. Get us back to the front and then we'll run race.
00;25;08;15 - 00;25;28;05
Speaker 2
Yeah. And I mean, although Vasco is probably knows in his mind it's going to get beat. Yeah. He's not going to say that to himself. He's going to. I'll take Alex on on a run race. Yeah he's gutsy Vasco gutsy. So I think there's definitely a lot of there's definitely a lot of questions being asked at the moment of one, how do you beat, how do you how do you beat Matt Hauser.
00;25;28;06 - 00;25;48;12
Speaker 2
Because the Olympic distance was meant to be his weaker distance. Yeah, it's just the way with it. Historically, Matty Hauser wasn't the Olympic distance athlete that we all knew. He was a gun SuperSprint athlete who could kill a sprint distance race. You couldn't get away from him in five K, but you could usually hurt him in that sort of 5 to 7 K mark.
00;25;48;13 - 00;26;05;17
Speaker 2
I think it's just because he's gone a bit older, cured, confident now though. Yeah, he'd just be running off confidence. Yeah. He just looked like he was cruising in that run. He just looked like he was so, so smart. Miguel didn't look as if he was threatening Hauser at all. No, there wasn't really a point where I thought Miguel was going to run away.
00;26;05;19 - 00;26;31;18
Speaker 2
Yeah, like the whole houses transition he made even from that, like Hauser was so quick through transition. Had the fastest transitions of the day, had Miguel chasing him. So Miguel had to put the foot down to catch up to Hauser. Hauser just let him run past. SAT on Saturday on Miguel's back for five K and then at what was like an gong where he knew there was, you know Alex a minute 40 back.
00;26;31;24 - 00;26;55;12
Speaker 2
He just had to run. What he had to run and beat the guy in front. It's like, cool. Alex can run a minute into me. It doesn't matter because you still win. Yeah, exactly. Like he he's cool, calm and collected. Old Matt Houser at the moment. Yeah. There's there's going to be some there's going to be some serious questions being asked of the likes of a of a Vasco, of Alex Hayden for those guys to come back because at this point he is just the best in the world.
00;26;55;13 - 00;27;15;29
Speaker 2
Yeah, he's just the best. Ollie Conway coming up, Hugo Milner like the Brits, they're going to have to answer some questions. We're looking at the algebra stylus. And obviously we'll prep that next week because that's the way it got. But there's some threats back the the French user back. So that's just adding to that firepower. We've got Leo Dorian Königs Pierre le Corps.
00;27;15;29 - 00;27;35;14
Speaker 2
But that's probably adding to that front pack fire. How exactly? So yeah, honestly, there's going to be some Alex and Hayden again, like we said in that one. But even more impressive, I don't know how I don't know how they're going to beat Hauser. No, I know where you're leading. Sorry. More impressive. Three Aussies in that front park.
00;27;35;15 - 00;27;56;06
Speaker 2
The Dom in the top six. The dominance is back in Australia. It very much is Luke Wilson in third. Yeah. And Brayden Mercer in six. Yeah. And and those two played a big role in that pack getting away like although you might not think of them as, you know massive gun cyclists you know that'll get a pack away.
00;27;56;08 - 00;28;16;13
Speaker 2
They'll still work. Oh yeah. A number as somebody sitting I mean, we also saw Blake Ballard, the American who, to his credit, great, great race from him just to be there because he's a first. Jonah 23. He was a junior last year. Was that his first Olympic distance? First Olympic distance. First World Series? Yeah. And he was in a breakaway with some of the best guys in the world.
00;28;16;14 - 00;28;34;11
Speaker 2
Yeah. So and he'll come to a form and he'll be he'll be at that front pack. I think he's the back end of this year if he keeps getting a few starts. Yeah he's in the position that like and Braden Mercer has nailed it. So like Braden Mercer was in in like a sixth place I think a lot of people knew that this was coming.
00;28;34;12 - 00;29;04;22
Speaker 2
Like, yeah, if you're in Australia, we knew that this form was was where Braden it oh, shocking. Just nearly broke that, we knew Braden Mercer was in this, like, really good form. He had all last year where I think he raced. I'm going to say three World Series. I know he did Hamburg in French Riviera. Maybe it was just those two, but he did a couple World Series last year, swam close to front, park front, but then got dropped on the bike a couple of times, like struggled with that kind of high intensity like it's the World Series.
00;29;04;22 - 00;29;23;11
Speaker 2
It's the best guys in the world. Struggle with that a little bit, but he's had a couple of practice runs at it. Like I'm a little bit like kind of annoyed that I didn't think he was going to have that swim. He's obviously struggled with leading that World Series swim, but it's so long to the first can.
00;29;23;13 - 00;29;38;06
Speaker 2
Braden Mercer is not really known as the guy that's going to get out if the cans 200m, yeah, he's not going to get there first, but he'll swim through the field where the first cane is so long in Yokohama that he just had time to get to the front, to the front. And also because it was a pretty round.
00;29;38;06 - 00;29;53;14
Speaker 2
Yeah, pretty small field. He was able to just get there. Yeah. Yeah. He's a fish. He's going to keep he's going to take confidence. He'll be like two minutes in. Yeah. Braden Mercer will take confidence from that. He knows he can swim a front pack in a World Series. He knows he can ride the guys in the break as well.
00;29;53;14 - 00;30;17;09
Speaker 2
It's going to be it's going to be different when we see, like we said, the the likes of a Henry Graf and Henry Graf. There are a few other French's. Oh yeah. Konex. Leo. Yeah, yeah. So but I think if you can even sit in a bit more exactly like you probably don't have to put in as much work per se, like on the front.
00;30;17;11 - 00;30;32;08
Speaker 2
Still going to be bloody hard to just sit in regardless. It was a good, great performance. Not a training day, but a great training day for Merce to be able to go, okay, this is where I'm at now. Yeah. He's not going to be world champion by the end of the year. He's still another 23, would go under 23 world champion by the end of the year.
00;30;32;08 - 00;30;49;12
Speaker 2
Still got two years in under 23. Yeah. So, we do see a lot of the guys sort of miss under 23 and just bypass it, go straight to the next thing. I don't again I think till like we touched on Tilda Manson did really good not getting too ahead of herself too early. But yeah, Braden has just taken taking steps.
00;30;49;14 - 00;31;09;16
Speaker 2
And Luke, I think Luke's, He's not going anywhere. Well, I'll be honest. Luke surprised me. Luke had that really impressive break. Not breakout, but, like, well, I'll say breakout over 20, 24 year. Yeah. And I think a few people expected to maybe dwindle a little bit since then. But we're two years on. He's still kicking leaps and bounds.
00;31;09;16 - 00;31;27;19
Speaker 2
Two years later. You still still podium in a World Series? Exactly. That was his first one two years ago. Was it? Yeah. Yeah, it was him two years ago. Yoko in third as well. Yeah. Qualified him. He loves it. Qualified him to the Olympics. So he's a Yoko fan. So, man, it's cool seeing three Aussies. Like 50% of 50% of the top.
00;31;27;21 - 00;31;46;18
Speaker 2
I know he was seventh grader. Mercer. No. Six six. Yep. 50% of the top six Aussies. That's pretty good. I haven't seen that in a while. Pretty good going and we had a strong it's going strong even. I think we're doing the even when I was doing like the recap, it was like we had an Aussie first and third and then we had the fastest swimmer and bike was an Aussie.
00;31;46;22 - 00;32;03;19
Speaker 2
So I think that shows to, how this trail is race though the Australian is to race and like your race here. It's it's a hard swim. Yeah, it's a hard ride. I think we've got some of the best swim bikers in the world. So you include the Kiwis in that as well. You got to Dylan McCulloch, Hayden Wild.
00;32;03;19 - 00;32;30;07
Speaker 2
We all know how hard Hayden runs like Taylor Reed. Another great example. Ainslie Thorpe hits from the front like yeah don't want to just wait around and wait for others and run. No it's not really in the spirit is it. No. No way you'll cough it otherwise. But it's looking good. It's looking promising, especially for us Aussies. We had Rochelle Hill and Brad course Brad course again like we said made their debuts.
00;32;30;10 - 00;32;51;01
Speaker 2
Obviously like it's the World Series. Like I said before, I think Rocco was in 20th around there. Yeah. And Brad was 28th 29th. Yep yep yep. So again no I don't think anybody's really expecting a podium from from those guys. The first one. Exactly. Like would you say Braden Mercer last year had a couple of practice runs and now he knows how to do it.
00;32;51;03 - 00;33;10;27
Speaker 2
And these guys, these guys will get a couple practice runs. And I think those two are going to be future champions for sure. So good job to them. We move on outside. What is going on in the world of sport. Not a huge fan of this one. However I know you want to talk about it. I think somebody actually said yesterday.
00;33;11;05 - 00;33;32;03
Speaker 2
This is exactly what they want. Like even if it's like negative, you're still talking about it. Any publicity is good publicity, especially for these guys we talked about last year. The enhanced games it's on this week. Don't know if anyone knew about it because I don't think there's been that much. There's been hardly any hype, which is crazy for exactly like what they're wanting or what they're wanting to get out of.
00;33;32;04 - 00;33;51;11
Speaker 2
This is like just ram hype down your throat, like, like make this a big spectacle. I don't think they've done that. Well, even like James Magnussen when he first, you know, went on the Hello Sport podcast and was talking about waffle. Yeah, it was bigger than than what it has been now. Like I haven't heard a peep off James Madison.
00;33;51;11 - 00;34;14;12
Speaker 2
He's a he's a port boy from Port Piranhas, mate. So I followed that quite closely, but, yeah, there's been nothing on it, but hey, the enhanced games is on. We'll definitely will. Definitely. I'll tune in, but I don't know how or where to be honest. I think it's been more of a and I saw this somewhere.
00;34;14;13 - 00;34;39;17
Speaker 2
Is it more of a ploy instead of trying to revolutionize sport? Is it more of a ploy for these big pharmaceutical companies to just off sell their drugs to the, you know, normal consumer and be like, hey, like, you know, this testosterone was used in James Magnussen? This could be good for you, too. Lucky, you know, like or whatever.
00;34;39;18 - 00;35;00;19
Speaker 2
Whoever. Oh, I don't know. I think like, yeah, don't bring my name into it. You know what I mean? Do not take that stuff. What are you doing? Just average Joe Blow that isn't actually doing sport. I mean, yeah, this is good for your health, blah blah blah. What have you seen? Have you seen how well James Magnussen is looking right now?
00;35;00;25 - 00;35;26;25
Speaker 2
He's actually looking better than what he did before. He looked like one of those steroid balls. You know, he was. No. You know why I think they've had to go down this route. And I said this to you before, almost like they've realized that you can't just juice an athlete to the gills and expect them to be quicker, because James has done some things like during the, during this time or during the process of him, you know, being on the juice, he hasn't actually gone near his PBMs.
00;35;26;26 - 00;35;54;01
Speaker 2
No. He's been a second off. Yeah. He's been like a whole second and a second in that. You made a massive. Yeah. Like that's a that's a big margin to be off. So I think they've almost gone okay. Yeah. Actually like the physics side of this. Now you're actually not far more the technology side. Yeah. Like the skin suits you know like maybe they would probably change like the pool water composition, which is not if they have to go to that level.
00;35;54;04 - 00;36;13;21
Speaker 2
It just kind of shows that like okay, just juice into the gills. Isn't that beneficial? Yeah. And it's like, it will be, but not to the extent that everyone thinks it is. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean that's the enhanced games. Take it or leave it. I guess it's it hasn't really been the hype that it was at the start I think.
00;36;13;23 - 00;36;36;19
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's a bit of a mess to be honest. I watch it. There's quite a few events. I was really keen for it, to be honest. I wasn't. I was keen to see like some absolute massive units, just like rocking up, you know, doing a couple minutes into someone said the other day we should get like, we should get the best, we should get the best clean athletes we have at the moment.
00;36;36;19 - 00;36;56;09
Speaker 2
Like we get a care McAvoy, who's just like blitzing the 50 meter right now against these James Magnussen like enhanced games athletes. And it's almost like a it's a modern day Olympic Space Jam when you get like the monsters versus like Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes like it almost is like, yeah, yeah, you're clean athletes versus your monsters.
00;36;56;10 - 00;37;16;15
Speaker 2
Like it would be a cool, let's see the comparison between the two. Because honestly, at the moment I'd pick K Markovic. Oh yeah, I don't care. McAvoy beat him and he's shown that the physics side is more and he's not like completely ripped. No massive unit. No. But so what actual sports are in this enhanced game? There's no triathlon, so that doesn't matter.
00;37;16;16 - 00;37;30;24
Speaker 2
Well, I don't know. I think that's where I think there was what in the enhanced games. Yeah. The AI and athletes are racing on the weekend on yoga. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry.
00;37;30;26 - 00;37;54;27
Speaker 2
Enhanced track. Enhanced field swimming. Yeah. Strength. So I think weightlifting and combat. How can I see the combat? Yeah. Just two steroids. Blokes just rip in each other's head off. There's, like, some underground Russian shit that already has that, you know, like half the year, offseason juice. Anyway, so, I mean, tuning if you want. I don't think any world records.
00;37;54;27 - 00;38;13;19
Speaker 2
I don't think there's going to be serious world records that go. And again, if they do, it's going to be spoken about for only seconds, and then it's going to be like, well, it's not actually a world record, so who really cares? Yeah, I think it's all just a big publicity stunt to sell their own stuff, because they actually went on to the New York Stock Exchange.
00;38;13;21 - 00;38;35;05
Speaker 2
Yeah. So it's just like a massive it's a, it's a, it's a business thing. Yeah. Business thing. And we're not we're not business heads. We're just two blokes with the podcast. So two buffets with a podcast. Yeah. Exactly. Backwards. Yeah. Come on man why are you hating on it I don't know, I just you're there with a Dickies t shirt and your New South Wales school shorts.
00;38;35;06 - 00;38;57;25
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah they're good mate. My footy shorts. Yeah. Right. Go back to Port Macquarie. Back in my clothes. Anyway, we'll have, we'll have a bit of a recap of the enhanced games next week. Don't really care too much about it but it's like we said it's jam packed. We've basically got a full week. We've got nothing this weekend.
00;38;57;26 - 00;39;15;21
Speaker 2
Then we've got our Giro with a mixed team. Oh no mixed team relays. Not anymore. I take that back. Giro. Olympic distance three Olympics in a row. Yep. And then we've got a week off again. Then we'll have a World Cup in Mexico. I'll go play. Going to the same. Going to a soccer on that weekend. Lucky. Oh yes.
00;39;15;21 - 00;39;36;01
Speaker 2
We're going to a soccer on the 30th. Allegedly. We are well I am, I'll see you there. Sounds good. Few things in the works. So we're going to get that. We've got to sort out but bypassed. We're got to get bypass and then by the chief and then we'll be there. We'll see. Keep going. I'm getting nervous. I'm getting the sweats.
00;39;36;04 - 00;39;45;19
Speaker 2
Alrighty guys. Thank you very much for tuning in. Once again, this is the unfunded podcast. We will be back in your ears next week. Thank you. Your.