Alan Webb First ITU triathlon results.

I know nothing about triathlon. How is Webb doing overall so far in his triathlon career? Can he qualify for the US Olympic team?

TLW wrote:

I know nothing about triathlon. How is Webb doing overall so far in his triathlon career? Can he qualify for the US Olympic team?

Also wondering the same. Very interested in Webb and his triathlon career, but I'm not knowledgeable at all about triathlons..

26th. Not 27th.

Interestingly, his bike is "less worse" than his run against the top few guys. I'd expect his run to be amongst the top 4 but that isn't the case. Now, he might working harder on the bike and then fresh for the run. But I'd expect his run to be better relative to the other competitors than his bike.

Interesting that compared to the winner he lost the most time on the run.

Paperback wrote:

27th Alan Webb USA

Total01:47:47 Swim00:19:41 T100:00:54 Bike00:56:04 T200:00:35 Run 00:30:35

1st place Olympic medalist Sven Riederer

Total01:45:57 Swim00:19:16 T100:00:50 Bike00:55:36 T200:00:38 Run00:29:39

Full results

http://www.triathlon.org/results/result/2014_alanya_itu_triathlon_world_cup/265203

*stipe wrote:

Interestingly, his bike is "less worse" than his run against the top few guys... Now, he might working harder on the bike...

I've heard triathletes say cycling's the most important leg. If true, maybe that's where Webb's approach is. Plus, he may've been attacking his weakness in training.

Running fresh is very different than running after the swim and bike....

He will get better. My guess is he will be a competitive national class but not world class tri guy.

Sammy Seems.... wrote:

Running fresh is very different than running after the swim and bike....

He will get better. My guess is he will be a competitive national class but not world class tri guy.

This is true. It's a different sport. Being a good runner does not mean that you'll have a good running leg in a triathlon.

From what I've been hearing he's barely running right now in training, focusing on the swim and the bike...he's making progress, hopefully he has enough time to put all the pieces together before Rio...

solid transitions and not that far off on the swim or bike, but I take it that he's got to be right there when the bike starts to have much of a chance. The run was the major weakness here, but I would assume that is correctible. He must not be doing much running. This is a guy who ran a 27:34 10k in 2006. Really a very solid performance in the run and swim in comparison to a medalist after just a season of non-running training.

When he gets stronger on the bike, he should be able to run really close to what he would a 10k in when he is fresh.

You have to come out of the water with the leaders, otherwise you miss the front pack of the bike. You can try to bridge up to the lead group, but you have to expend much more energy. If you know how to ride in the pack, you can save a lot of energy and be much fresher for the run.

The key right now for Alan is dropping another 30 seconds off his swim..

It was ok for Webb. The top triathletes were not in this race and he still had his hands more than full. He might have a chance for an Olympic team however, as the American guys are very weak. Even at this stage, I thought he'd be a better runner.

He was the 16th fastest in the run. I agree that I'd expect better from him on that front.

I don't know a lot about tris and i'm guessing he is indeed focusing on the bike and probably will improve on all fronts over time.

dude made his mark in races lasting 1:43/3:47 in duration...i know he does have a fast 10K to his name, but expecting him to drop a blazing run time after over an hour of hard swimming & biking is ridiculous (training or not training much for the run). lots of 800/1500 guys are horrid at HM/M (events lasting 1-2 hours in duration).

someone in the world wrote:

He was the 16th fastest in the run. I agree that I'd expect better from him on that front.

I don't know a lot about tris and i'm guessing he is indeed focusing on the bike and probably will improve on all fronts over time.

no, this race was stacked with multiple WTS regulars (google what that means and who they are, because you haven't a clue). this was a solid field, not top to bottom but roughly a 1/3 of this field race WTS regularly

What's webb's potential... don't compare it a 1 hour 45 minute steady state effort.

its 3 - 4 minutes at VO2, back down to just below LT for 13 minutes, exit swim, stay at LT for T1, get on the bike, sit in and back down to 60-70% mhr (unless hills or working on the front, then throw in spikes at LT or higher), then run 30-32 minutes at just below LT....

its lots of fartlek. cumulative effect is not like Webb racing a 30k time trial on the track.. its easier or more difficult. really depends on the race course and day.. and the person. some people can race well with lots of change in effort/pace... some not so much..

The difficulty Webb faces is that although he is a 27.30 10K runner while Alistair Brownlee is potentially, at best, a 28.00 guy (and Gomez likewise), AB has spent the last decade training for low 17 minutes swims with minimal expenditure of energy and has been doing one, sometimes two, century rides (100 mile) a week. Webb has only started cycling seriously at the age of 31 and however good his aerobic engine, it is not realistic that he could ever hope to ride at that pace without his running being strongly effected. It is inconceivable that he couldn't beat a cart horse like Alessandro Fabian when fresh. But AF beat him by nearly a minute on the run on Sunday which shows what a mountain Webb has to climb.

ON a positive, he seems to swim quite well. He is a lot better than Verzbicas ever was, which I didn't expect, so he is clearly not going to embarrass himself at ITU level. But little hope that he will be anything more than a spear carrier.

Webb isn't close to a 27:30 guy anymore. 28:30 might be a stretch. This was a decent race. The real question is what does he do over the next couple of races. Does he stagnat or show steady improvement.

Webb is doing about as well as expected as a triathlete. Yes his run engine should be huge. As former pure runner turned triathlete I can say his run does not surprise me while he trains hard for the swim and bike.

As many know Webb has a great swim background. Maybe not quite good enough to be FOP with the ITU guys, but good. His biking is where he needs to get much stronger. Not necessarily to hang in the group, but more to arrive more fresh for the run. Once he is super bike fit (this should come as just about anyone with a big engine can be strong on the bike) he should be able to unleash that big run.

I believe it's only a matter of a year or 2. Will he ever compete with the Brownlees and Gomez? Unlikely, but he could be very very good. For him it's going to be all about the bike. As it is for most other triathletes. Especially runners turned to triathletes.