Carry your own bottle...

The Ironman World Championship in Hawaii 2024 is history and there are a few things that we saw and would like to address:

1. Patrick Lange showed us all that patience leads to the goal. His marathon was a demonstration of strength but also a result of the fact that he didn't try everything on the bike. He made up about 9 minutes' deficit at the end of the bike course in the first half of the marathon. Very impressive.
2. Carry your own bottle: Either every professional triathlete has a secret recipe for their cycling food or they don't trust the food that is available on the bike course. Some of the pros were carrying 3 to 4 large bike bottles. It is clear that the bike bottles on the handlebars create an aerodynamic advantage by further closing off the front area between the upper body, arms and trailer.
3. Up to three bottles behind the saddle: Bottles behind the saddle are aerodynamically well placed, but have the disadvantage that in order to use the bottles, the aerodynamically favourable aero position has to be abandoned for a certain period of time in order to reach the bottles. However, 3 bike bottles behind the saddle already seem to be almost the new standard.
4. The Norwegian method is not a secret training regime after all. The favorites from Norway were not able to perform properly this time.
5. Kristian Blummenfelt couldn't keep anything down on the bike. In my opinion, that was a sign of "overeating." If you're over-motivated to consume as many carbohydrates as possible, it can unfortunately lead to everyone wanting to get out again. It's happened to me too. That's not nice and ruins your whole race.

Overall, a great race with some really exciting situations. The swimming was surprising, as almost all of the favorites were able to stay in the first group. This made the cycling really an elimination race.

Ingolf