Triathlon Relay - what country would win?

USA :

Swimming some of the best in the world

Cycling: we have some strong cyclist

Running: GALEN MF RUPP

asdjfhapsd wrote:

If they had a triathlon relay at the Olympics, which country could field the best runner, swimmer, cyclist team and who would they be?

Olympic distance? USA

Ironman? Kenya

In an Ironman relay, Kenya would lose too much ground before the marathon.

Great Britain

Which distance of triathlon?

Sprint: 750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run

Olympic: 1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run

70.3: 1900m swim, 90k bike, half marathon run

Ironman: 3860m swim, 180k bike, marathon

I'll assume you meant the Olympic/ITU distance.

This is an interesting question. None of the east african countries have any relevant cyclists or swimmers, so they're definitely out. That leaves the US and European countries.

The main goal of the swim is to get into the front pack for the bike leg. It's manageable to stay with the peloton during the bike, but almost impossible to catch up to it.

The bike stage of an ITU triathlon is draft-legal, and over a relatively short race (40km) it's unlikely that any significant gap should form.

Obviously, triathlons are usually won in the run. Accordingly, the run is probably the most important leg of the relay.

My selection criteria will prioritize the run first, then the swim, then the bike.

First let's analyze the run. The current #1 10k in the US is Shadrack Kipchirchir, who's run 27:07.

Mo Farah of the UK has run 26:46, but he no longer races the 10,000m. I'll assume that he, with some specific training, can still run 27:00.

Richard Ringer of Germany and Morhad Amdouni of France have both run 27:36 and Soufiane Bouchikhi of Belgium has run 27:41.

Yemaneberhan Crippa of Italy has run 27:44 and Adel Mechaal of Spain has run 27:50.

These seven countries are the only ones I will consider, as no others in Europe or the US can field an adequate 10,000m runner.

Next I will analyze the swim.

Florian Wellbrock of Germany has gone 14:36 for 1500m.

Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy has gone 14:42.

Jordan Wilimovsky of the US has gone 14:36.

Daniel Jervis of the UK has gone 14:48.

Damien Joly of France has gone 14:53.

Miguel Duran Navia of Spain has gone 15:11.

Belgium does not have any 1500m swimmers in the global top 100, and is accordingly out of contention.

Between the swim and the run, total times are:

Germany: 42:12

Italy: 42:26

USA: 41:43

UK: 41:48

France: 42:30

Spain: 43:01

Thus, the podium race would be between the USA, UK and Germany.

Now let's look at the bike leg. Since there aren't standard race distances for professional long-distance cycling, I was only able to evaluate based on global rankings.

Tim Wellens of Germany is ranked 8.

Simon Yates of the UK is ranked 5.

Tejay Van Garderen of the USA is ranked 97.

Accordingly, the USA would likely get third, leaving only Germany and the UK.

The UK already has a 24-second advantage over Germany without the bike leg, and Simon Yates is ranked 3 slots above Tim Wellens.

In conclusion, the final places would be:

1. UK

2. Germany

3. USA

UK by a mile. Froome is world’s best bicyclist, Mo Farrah world’s best runner, swim is basically meaningless in triathlon .

TEAM GB would smash everyone.

asdjfhapsd wrote:

If they had a triathlon relay at the Olympics, which country could field the best runner, swimmer, cyclist team and who would they be?

It would come down to the best runner.

Swimming: everyone is going to draft off each other.

Biking: See above

Runner: comes down to this

I think Australia would be competitive in a non drafting tri considering cycling is the longest leg.

1500 m Mack Horton 14:39

40 km bike Rohan Dennis WC TT gold

10 km Pat Tiernan 27:29

In this scenario, mo would be front running, he might just stop and wait till someone else showed up and lead till the final 200.

Olympic distance and rules (drafting during bike)

Easy - Great Britian ( US might be second)

Quite a few runners would begin the 10k together (Most of Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, SA and others)

Sir Mohamed would smash them.