- The Tempo
- Posts
- IRONMAN World Champion Sees Season Scare After Shock Disqualification
IRONMAN World Champion Sees Season Scare After Shock Disqualification
Laidlow DQ sends shockwaves, processed foods for you, and nail your swimming rotation!
Matthew Sharpe
July 16, 2024
Good morning everyone,
We’re just coming out of a significant heat wave where temperatures were consistently over 100F/38C. The first day was pretty rough, but by the end it seemed like my body had been able to adapt (somewhat) to the increased temps.
It felt like a good reminder of how training works. Often, it feels absolutely brutal at the beginning, but over time the body adapts and grows to meet the new stimulus.
In today’s edition:
😧 IRONMAN World Champion’s Season (almost) derailed after shock disqualification.
🍟 Are processed foods actually bad for you?
🏊♀️ And how nailing your rotation can lead to your next best swim!
Thanks for being here,
-Matt Sharpe, newsletter editor
Have a triathlete in your life who can't stop swimming, biking, or running? Fire this off to them. Forwarded from a friend? Sign-up for free.
ONE BIG THING
IRONMAN World Champion Sees Season Scare After Shock Disqualification
IRONMAN
What is it: The current men’s IRONMAN World Champion, Sam Laidlow (FRA), almost lost his opportunity to defend his title after a devastating penalty at this past weekend’s IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz.
In the late stages of the bike, Laidlow was given a drafting penalty.
He then proceeded to ride past the penalty tent, which resulted in an instant disqualification.
Soldiering on: Aware of his drafting penalty and subsequent disqualification, Laidlow decided to continue racing and appeal his penalty to the officials.
Had he not been disqualified, his second-place finish would have easily validated his spot for Kona.
Validation situation: IRONMAN World Champions (like Laidlow) receive automatic five-year exemptions to compete at the World Championships. However, according to IRONMAN’s rules, the former champions must “validate” their ability to perform by completing;
Either one full-distance IRONMAN,
OR two 70.3 distance IRONMAN events.
With Laidlow’s DSQ in Vitoria, and inability to complete either validation criteria before the deadline, it appeared as though he would be shut out of any attempt to retain his World Championship crown.
Validation elation: Now, it appears IRONMAN has thrown Laidlow an incredible lifeline. As reported in Triathlon Magazine, the corporation has released a statement saying that Laidlow’s strong on-course performance demonstrated that he, “[met] Ironman’s written 2025 policy on the Ironman World Championship validation, which stipulates that an athlete must race competitively and finish an Ironman triathlon (or two Ironman 70.3 triathlon races) within the qualifying period.”
Tempo’s take: It’s in the best interest of the sport to have a current World Champion have the opportunity to defend their title. IRONMAN made the right call.
But this wild situation highlights how the talent battle between IRONMAN and T100 is leaving both entities with serious casualties…
Laidlow’s last-second validation was a direct result of his decision to sign with the T100, take the generous contract money, and prioritize the Triathlon startup’s series of races. So instead of showcasing its newly crowned World Champion in the first year of its flagship professional series, IRONMAN has had to settle for a single non-World Championship race appearance.
On the other side, it appeared that the T100 had enjoyed an incredible coup when 2023 IRONMAN World Champion Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) said she was exclusively committed to the T100 Triathlon World Tour.
But instead of a highly anticipated head-to-head battle with Taylor Knibb (USA) at last month’s T100 San Francisco, Charles-Barclay was breaking the tape at IRONMAN France. Securing her validation for this September’s Women’s IRONMAN World Championship in Nice. Which she intends to win.
And Anne Haug (GER) hasn’t exactly given the T100 series what they were looking for when she signed her six-figure contract as she has yet to compete in a single series event.
Injury prevented her from starting in Miami and Singapore, but she appeared to be in fine form when she roasted the field in May at IRONMAN Lanzarote.
However, when June’s T100 San Francisco came around she was a DNS due to a cold-water-induced injury.
But the weekend after San Fran she was able to compete at IRONMAN 70.3 France and get race experience on the World Championships course.
At the end of the day, T100 is taking the majority of the losses as the lack of athlete exclusivity signals that IRONMAN still reigns supreme.
And for what it’s worth, T100 pays its contracted athletes to compete, while IRONMAN gets paid by T100 athletes to be on its start lines…
Is having two competing pro series good for the sport? |
FAVOURITES
🍟 Processed food positives: The label “processed foods” can carry some pretty serious baggage. But are all processed foods bad for you? Definitely not. This article explains how processed foods can keep you healthy, and have you training at your best! [Men’s Health]
🏊♀️ Swimming rotation: Rotating properly is one of the cornerstones of swimming well. But over-rotation is incredibly inefficient and slows down your swim. This video helps identify and correct over-rotation. [GTN]
🥇 Olympic odyssey: If you’ve noticed the quality of the newsletter slipping lately it’s not just you! A lot of Tempo time has been redirected into helping Kirsten Kasper (USA) win a medal at the upcoming Paris Olympics. This profile explains her incredible transition from NCAA Champion runner to Olympic medal threat in Paris! [Runner’s World]
🏋️♂️ Strength training mistakes: Although not aerobic, strength training is absolutely critical for triathlon performance as it will help you stay injury-free and give you more powerful and efficient movements. So make sure you’re not making these classic strength training mistakes! [Ashley Mateo]
REEL TIME
We love these athlete snack inspiration reels from performance dietician Megan Foley!
YOU SAID
Here’s what Tempo readers thought about IRONMAN’s decision to move IRONMAN Canada away from long-time host Penticton.
Reader: Fantastic area and town that hosted one of the best Ironman’s ever. Extremely disappointed as looking forward to participating in years to come. The beauty and the challenges of the course I doubt can be matched by Ottawa.
Reader: Basing a race in Ottawa where it can draw from 10 million people in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec all within driving distance just makes good business sense. Penticton, albeit a great location is a real pain to get to. I am sure this will make a lot of Canadian and North East USA triathletes very happy. A good move by IRONMAN in my opinion.
Reader: So sorry I am unable to do the race this year. I have completed the race twice and fell in love with the Okanogan Valley. This feels like losing a good friend and missing out on telling them goodbye. Have participated in 13 IM’s including Whistler, CDA, Lake Placid, and Wales and have volunteered at Kona 4 times, but my heart was in Penticton. So sad.
Reader: Honestly don't know what to think. Working with a friend (who's done several IMCs; I was registered for '09 but didn't do it) to volunteer and/or spectate at this last event. One thing very much in favour of Ottawa over Penticton (if we have to do that!) is that Ottawa is much easier to get to. And (though I can't speak with expertise) Ottawa has a lot more hotel capacity, and is less likely to be affected by fires.
Reader: I raced Penticton way back in 2008. It was amazing. But I decided for my 50th birthday to go to Ottawa instead. Penticton accommodation was way too expensive, our camping spot we had in 2008 is gone, provincial camping is a gong show trying to reserve, and the hot weather makes another cancellation due to fire a real risk. Ottawa is beautiful and can’t wait to go. Besides, I had perfect race in Penticton and don’t want to ruin the memory!!
Reader: These few iconic triathlons need to hang around even if they need to be subsidized. the newcomers to the sport need to have a living history lesson available, sometimes spoon-fed. not just iron-distance, but the unique events that helped make the sport. wildflower, lake placid, Memphis in May, St. Anthony's, and the like need to hang around.
Reader: One thing that the community of penticton did was make accommodations very expensive. All places hiked there rates and minimum stays during Ironman week. It made athletes think about other venues to race. I live within a 5 hour drive of Penticton and it cost less for me to do IM Arizona and IM Florida. Add in the uncertainty of wild fires in recent years and unfortunately, it was costing the race athlete registrations.
Reader: Penticton was the last race on the circuit with 3 discipline single loop, it was very special. I have seen the 3300 athlete mass start I have cheered runners in the marathon and at the finish line . That was 12 years ago and I never witnessed such a great event ever since When it came back to Penticton after the era of whistler was over . It sold out fast Unfortunately, life happened and there was 3 cancellations in 4 years . It’s unfortunate, but they didn’t really give the race a chance to get back up on its feet Athletes are a little scared as the treatment they received after cancelation was not amazing that’s for sure and that is probably why it’s not selling out in 1h like it always did.
RACE WEEKEND
World Triathlon Championship Series Hamburg
Men’s race: Matt Hauser (AUS) showed why he is a serious medal threat in Paris as he broke the field one by one on the run to take a strong win.
🥇 Matt Hauser (AUS)
🥈 Vasco Vilaca (POR)
🥉 Pierre Le Corre (FRA)
Women’s race: Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) took off from the beginning of the run and didn’t look back as she took a dominant win in Hamburg. It was scary how easy she made it look!
🥇 Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA)
🥈 Lisa Tertsch (GER)
🥉 Beth Potter (GBR)
IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz
Kat Matthews (GBR) took her second full-distance IRONMAN win of the season and catapulted herself into fourth in the Pro Series rankings. Antonio Benito Lopez used a strong all-around performance to take the big victory in Vitoria!
Other pro races 👇
QUICK NEWS
Seine swimming: Paratriathlete Alexis Hanquinquant and the French sports minister took a dip in the Seine to show that it will be ready to go for the Olympics in two weeks. [WFXR]
Junior triumphs: Triple-digit weather couldn’t slow down the action at the USA Triathlon Junior National Championships in Iowa. [KCCI]
Swansea success: Thousands of athletes turned out for another successful edition of the IRONMAN triathlon in Swansea. [BBC]
New coach: Congrats to Sage Maaranen who has been named the inaugural head coach of the La Salle Women’s Triathlon program. [Go Explorers]
TEMPO EXCLUSIVE ARCHIVE
Why you need to train faster (not harder!)
Here’s how to nail your triathlon training nutrition
LATEST EDITIONS
IRONMAN says goodbye to iconic host city. And how to avoid devastating cramps!
Incredible records broken in Roth. And how you might be ruining your easy runs!
World Triathlon eyes media breakthrough with launch of original series. Plus: hot new tri tech from Eurobike!
What did you think of today's newsletter? |
Reply