Weekend Preview 12/04/09

Flat, dragstrip courses are notorious for drafting, and when it’s in the US or Europe people tend to notice. Tucked away in the most isolated Ironman location in the world though is one of the flattest fastest courses there is, Ironman Western Australia, Busselton, the next race coming up this weekend.

We don’t think it needs added to the black list but we’re hoping the pro men can keep it a bit cleaner than last year. Let’s look at last years top pro results:

Looking at the top finishers swim times:
Time:           Rank:

00:50:25    7
00:50:43    13
00:48:05    1
00:50:40    10
00:50:48    17
00:50:22    5
00:50:40    11
00:53:18    31
00:50:26    8
00:50:18    3
00:50:25    6

In 30 secs 14 athletes exited the water in around 50min.  Two guys were 2 mins up on these, one fell back on the run but not until after an outstanding 4:25 bike however he was not alone looking at top finishers bike times:
Time:           Rank:

04:25:27    5    00:50:25
04:25:13    4    00:50:43
04:27:36    11    00:48:05
04:24:52    2    00:50:40
04:25:33    9    00:50:48
04:25:28    6    00:50:22
04:24:52    3    00:50:40
04:40:03    15    00:53:18
04:27:13    10    00:50:26
04:25:15    8    00:50:18
04:25:30    7    00:50:25

So apart from the guy who swam 3 mins slower and missed the bunch and the two guys who were caught by the chase pack, everyone rode the same time (within 39 secs).  Not only that but all these guys rode 4:25 and then apart from a couple of 4:30 splits from 1 hr swimmers next closest bike times were 14 mins slower.  Why this tight knitted bunch of about 10 guys then a gulf of difference?

Finally, lets look at the top combined swim bike times which include all of the top finishers from the pro peloton:

Swim             Cycle              CyclePos       OverallPos
00:48:05         04:27:36     05:15:41………….3
00:48:11          04:27:49         05:16:00…………39
00:50:18         04:25:15          05:15:33………….10
00:50:22         04:25:28        05:15:50………….6
00:50:25         04:25:27         05:15:52………….1
00:50:25         04:25:30         05:15:55………….11
00:50:26         04:27:13          05:17:39………….9
00:50:40         04:24:52         05:15:32………….4
00:50:40         04:24:52         05:15:32………….7
00:50:43         04:25:13         05:15:56………….2
00:50:48         04:25:33         05:16:21………….5
00:53:18          04:40:03        05:33:21………….8

Within 24 secs 8 of top 12 all climbed off bike together. Perfectly matched abilities?  Tactics? Fear? Comfort?  Or something else????

JD
Thanks to John Dargie for that analysis of IM WA race splits.

Categories: Ironman Western Australia, Preview, Race splits, analysis, drafting photos


This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 2:26 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.