Just to add to what others have said about Friday being the weekend, it’s also the quietest time of the week as most people spend time with families before going to the mosque for the mid-day prayers.
It means disruptions to roads/traffic etc is kept to a minimum. A lot of people (read: those working in the labor industry) only get 1 day off a week (Friday) so Saturdays tend to get pretty busy.
Pretty sure there’s an Arab cup football game on this weekend in Qatar also.
Thanks for posting. While the video is to the PTO’s usual high standard, I was struck by two things:
How LCB is playing mind games, saying it’s fun to race late until December and all that nonsense…
How boooooooring Qatar looks despite the videographers’ best efforts. Gentle tells van Riel “I haven’t really seen anything yet outside of the hotel” and pretty soon you find out why she didn’t bother. Like, falcons you can carry and a monument of a giant finger, seriously? Am I being too Europe-centric? Even downtown LA had more sightseeing opportunities…
You say “unlikely” but the idea that the three dominant athletes will all fail (ie the fastest will be #3) is vanishingly unlikely, given there’s $75k on the line and that their form is a step above any others. Gentle, GTB, Learmonth are clear candidates for a podium but the idea two of them will both beat mesdames Waugh, Derron or LCB is as likely as Knibb, LCB, Loevseth and Matthews all DNFing Kona.
The 3 contenders for final standings win will not dominate this race, except in the finish funnel. I expect Waugh, LCB, Learmonth and Sala (for a few laps) to “dominate” the swim bike. GTB had a poor swim at Marbella: you’d think she could also be in that FP. but like Sala she hasn’t the sustained bike power.
We saw Derron and Gentle send it in the GF Dubai last year and it took a while for Knibb to catch, and she never got away, really. If Derron is still close to the fish at T1 she’ll be in the box seat for the duration. But as LCB’s PB in Marbella showed she has an excellent <22km run in her. If she can deliver the same again (3:40mpk pace) and has a gap on Derron she’ll win. I think LCB needs 3 minutes at T2. Can Derron run sub 3:30 for 18km? That’s a sub-1:14 half - came very close to that in T100 Vancouver, chasing Knibb and 4 minutes faster than LCB.
What about Waugh, you say? I wonder whether we got seduced by her dominant run in the hot humid Singapore and then used her as a run benchmark. Beaten by Derron in SF and Dubai; beaten by LCB in London and Spain . . . .
Edit to add: It’d be great to see Simmonds up there on the swim bike just as she was in most of the T100 races last year and in the 70.3WC in Taupo.
Thank you for the identification - I was of two minds.
The men’s side to me is a wrap. Barring catastrophe Wilde should be set for his coronation.
On the women’s side I see it playing out like this:
With a cadre of strong swimmers, LCB, Learmonth, Sala, Waugh, Spivey are able to gap Derron into T1. Team Great Britain quickly dispatches Spivey and then Sala after a few laps. Team GB comes off the bike together and it quickly becomes obvious that Learmonth is in better run form than at any time this year, but still not quite up to par. We’re treated to another LCB Waugh head-to-head with Derron charging hard but running out of road. The heat and humidity will play a factor as LCB just can’t quite hit that extra gear she could in London and Marbella, possibly still having some effects from Kona. We see Waugh pull a gap about 12k into the run and cruise in for a win. LCB holding off a hard charging Derron for second. Learmonth getting passed in the final kms for the last step on the podium.
Gentle went through a miscarriage at 7 weeks pregnant last week. She’s racing. Not expecting a great result. Kudos to this brave woman. Source: Gentle’s instagram
We shall see I guess. I’m no bookie so I can’t put odds on it, but I still think GTB seems to be back in the mix and Jess used to be a dominant force in Super Tri with a good run on her, so let’s see how it goes ! Maybe it’s just the fan in me that wants it to happen though !
Agree mostly with this, maybe writing Geens off a bit too easy though.
Seeing the women’s race pretty much the same as me, I think if Knibb started they may have put enough time into Derron to keep her off the podium, GTB as always is a bit of an unknown, could see her finally dialed in and pull something unexpected off (I know ive said this everytime she’s raced and I don’t pay any attention to triathlon records but makes you wonder)
Totally agree. GTB is the biggest unknown to me. Looking at her year as a whole I just wasn’t sure what to do with her. I could see her factoring in the podium and I could see her blowing up in the heat and anywhere in between.
