Alan Webb First Triathlon Results

He has the potential to be an excellent female triathlete

That is what I am saying. He lost to a chick on the swim. Also she worked him on the transitions.

This is a good first result. What were you all expecting?

2:00 back in a 20 minute race is not impressive. He's going to need a lot of work. A LOT of work. Good luck..

He road a piece of shit Cervelo S2.

he needs to just get a desk job and retire because he is a washed up old hack.

his bike spilt was shit. i know a second tier pro who spilt 1:30 faster than webb.

ALAN WEBB F#$KING SUCKS.

Anybody else catch the distances for the relay? It was supposed to be a 350m swim, 6.4km bike and 2.5km run...the Canadian Yorke split 5:36 on his run leg...correct me if I'm wrong but - wouldn't that mean he broke the world record on the track for 2000m enroute? Alan at 550, that would mean a sub 5min 2km...pretty swift...

Fastest split in the elite men's race for the run portion was 14:36 for 2 loops, supposedly 5km, for the record...there was one other guy sub15...but how long was that "5km"?

2k run

2k run

ITU hack Wrote: and don't even try to rebut me with Brownlee, he's the only guy in the world who can go sub29, albeit barely. nobody else is within 30-60sec of him in an open 10K, and therefore nobody is within 30-45s of him in a tri, #fact.

UM EVER HEARD OF JAVIER GOMEZ????

As a runner turned triathlete this thread is funny to read.

For Webb to be on the same planet as LV FIRST TIME OUT is a great showing. His run will come with swim / bike fitness. You cannot run well off the bike unless you are SUPER fit on the bike! This may not take months, but rather a couple years.

How anyone can argue the talent is crazy. Webb may have one of the biggest engines of all time.... maybe biggest ever by an American? Give him some time on the swim and bike and he'll be fine.

werwer wrote:

Love the quote from Webb describing the race as a shit show. Anybody know what bike he used - road, tri or road with aero bars?

Standard road bike in draft leagal races (His bike was a cervelo S2 or S3 I think...with some upgraded wheels). He may have had some stumpy aero bars (though I doubt it).

The bike wreck looks like it was fairly bad. Easily cost him 15-20 seconds + that additional energy accelerating after the wreck.

I was actually surprised how good his transitions were, and for a race that was intended to 'get his feet wet' I think it was pretty damn positive. Without the wreck, he would have turned quite a few heads, and as is, he definitely raised some eyebrows.

Thank you, finally an intelligent post, I have so much BS, on this thread, including people who claim to know something about triathlon

Very impressive result for Webb for his first triathlon ever, and in particular while crashing his bike.

Few comments: Does anyone know about how the race were started? Was this a mass start or did they go off in small packs of 4 (one relay team) with a minute or so in between? The reason I ask is because the ITU relay world championships are held in this style, and you gotta swim/bike/run as slow as the slowest person (usually the woman).

I see that in the US relay 1 a woman was as fast as Jarrod Shoemaker, who is usually a middle in the pack swimmer at ITU races. So, no worries for Webb. I d say to swimm about 20 secs behind the "decent to good" swimmers in his FIRST race is very good.

And yes, these results show what I have been preaching all over in the past: a run after swim/bike has very little to do with a 5k 10k race on the track. Webbs running background will only have a limited advantage for his tri performance. He neeeds those 2 years on the bike to develop his legs before he can touch on his running potential again (in tri's).

Nevertheless, these results actually are very promising for Webb.

Never thought I would be posting on one of these inane Alan Webb threads, but this is not a bad result. The switch from running to cycling isn't as seamless as you guys think - they are different sports. It takes time to develop power on a bike - it takes time to realize you don't import your running mentality to bike workouts to get better. It is all about improving power and a great deal of that is spending time on the bike and doing bike-specific interval workouts that play by different rules than they kind of workout you do as a runner (and getting used to running as well off those workouts - bike workouts are neuromuscularly taxing). You lose power over absurd little details that have nothing to do with your fitness. And the workouts you do to get power at all distances are not like what you do running. A great runner like Webb it is going to take a long time before they have enough power and technique to exploit their cardio fitness on a bike.

Also, I hope people realize that the legs of multisport events aren't certified to the exacting standards of USATF certifications, right, hence the sometimes absurd times you see on the run? They have to design courses around the transition area and have a common start finish and it isn't always easy to get the distances exact and design the course for utility.

hasben wrote:

How anyone can argue the talent is crazy. Webb may have one of the biggest engines of all time.... maybe biggest ever by an American? Give him some time on the swim and bike and he'll be fine.

As a runner turned triathlete I disagree slightly with you. There are scores of people in triathlon who absolutely excel at one sport and NEVER reach a high level in the others. Just because someone has a "big engine" in one discipline doesn't mean they're ever going to rise to the top in the other two, particularly when they start later in life.

I've met tons of triathletes who were stars in a single sport event and thought triathlon would be easy for them based on that. They were often wrong. With swimming being the hardest, of course. So, Webb's past swimming history is a plus, but I think it will take years for him to come around on the bike, if ever.

Rummie wrote:

I've met tons of triathletes who were stars in a single sport event and thought triathlon would be easy for them based on that. They were often wrong. With swimming being the hardest, of course. So, Webb's past swimming history is a plus, but I think it will take years for him to come around on the bike, if ever.

His bike was not bad (if you take into account the wreck).

I think the biggest issue for him for this tri is nearly all of his biking miles were on rollers. I heard an interview where he stated he was frustrated because he went out 2-3 times on a bike and each time got a flat, so he started biking solely on rollers...and it showed when he wrecked. He's got the power, but needs work on handling the bike.

I switched from running to riding partially 8 months ago and full-on 4 months ago and the shit that works running just isn't what works riding. First, if he is just riding rollers for his indoor stuff (and not a trainer) he isn't going to be doing a ton of power. If you just try duplicating your running workouts in time/volume, your power won't improve that fast. The workout that has helped my FTP most is a workout of :30 hard/2:00 easy (and in cycling, easy isn't like a recovery jog - it doesn't need to be - you just need to ease off on the muscle tension) for an hour (a configuration one would never do running). I could never do that workout on rollers. Cardio fitness just isn't the issue for a runner turned cyclist, it is basic power output.

I wonder what his training kit is - does he have a cyclist advising him about gear selection? Get a power meter and do your training on durable tires like Conti Gatorskins and ignore the speed loss. Plus with riding, putting out power on the hoods and putting out power in an aero position are just plain different. On rollers is he getting any practice with intuitive and anticipatory shifting for turns and terrain changes? You lose power fishing around for gears when terrain and wind direction change. This all just takes practice. Right now, I can put out over 300 watts for an hour on a trainer on my road bike, but couldn't do that on my TT bike outdoors.

He is training with a power meter. If you watch the USATF Tribute video, you can see that (SRM crank-based), or you can listen to a competitor radio interview with him, and he says the same (that's also where he disclosed that he trains on rollers). He's not in aero position. He's on the hoods. This is ITU, Draft-Legal stuff. He is also getting coached by a USAT elite development coach. If he's coached by an elite coach with a power meter, that's not the issue. He wrecked, lost a bunch of time. Take out the wreck, and his bike would have been right where it needed to be.