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Post by andrewearlwood on Jul 11, 2022 12:42:25 GMT 8
Be interesting to know how his contract is worded. I’d be surprised If he’s not on a big fat bonus from Ineos for being there and repping the sponsors. Fair chance he may make more than the winner. You’d think so. Especially when - in between pro tour racing, INEOS have him fronting up to events like the Unbound Gravel event to show case the new Pinarello gravel bike and a corporate week of trekking, off road ultra running and mountain biking in Namibia. However, against that is the fact that the team really held him back from properly preparing for St George - a course that really suits him I reckon. Had they allowed/directed him to put down a 3 week IM training block from mid March (having done 2 stage races and 5 one day races in the month since coming back to Europe in February), even with a final two week block of races culminating in Roubaix he would have at least been in the same shape as last night, if not even stronger on the run. ‘Being there’ has more sponsor value if he was actually contesting for podiums and wins, surely? |
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Post by roxii on Jul 11, 2022 13:53:52 GMT 8
I’m sure we have all listened to enough of Cam on podcasts etc to know he is far from a dumb athlete, and we can only assume that he has gone into this deal with his eyes wide open. Maybe like the LIV golf storm at the moment, some pro’s find that $$ in the bank at the end of your career is more important than trophies and titles.
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Post by andrewearlwood on Aug 7, 2022 7:20:30 GMT 8
So Cam Wurf is on the start list for IM Sweden on 20 August. Whether he intends to actually race, or his entry is merely a legacy of him having to find a KQ race after St George and thus entering a number of races over the northern summer to keep his options open is unknown. I suspect that if he does race, he’ll treat it as a training exercise, like he did with a number of IM races he did back in 2019 (IM France, Roth and the Italy - all within a space of around 10 weeks). However, unlike 2017-19 Cam has an actual day job which gets in the way of laying down proper training blocks, and even without much of a taper one wonders whether there is any benefit to him; especially since the Tour of Britain (9 days) starts two weeks later, and i read somewhere that that is his last pro cycling commitment of the season.
There is only 4 weeks between the end of that race and Kona, so unless he’s laid down a full 5 weeks of back to back 20km swim / 100km+ run weeks (like he did before Copenhagen last year, and in the lead in to IM Italy), he is likely to struggle in Kona. Right now, he’s just finished a very solid bike racing block (Tour of Walloon, San Sebastián classic - and he nearly won a stage in the former), which came on the back of a 10 day INEOS camp in Andorra (which was start after IM Vitoria).
This week is his first actual real run week since Im Vitoria, and with IM Sweden in just two weeks time, with the Tour of Britain 2 weeks after that, I think he’d be better saying in Andorra and laying down a full 5 weeks of solid swimming and running. Anyway i suppose he could fly to Sweden on the Thursday, race and be back at the grindstone by Monday for a last solid two week block before bike racing in Britain. but it does stretch him rather thin, doesn't it? Of course, he may have finishing all his racing four INEOS already, so Im Copenhagen would make sense as a training day - as there is still 7 weeks to go before Kona & without having to race the Tour of Britain, plenty of time for came to do a specific Kona prep.
Also of note is that both Brownlee and Nielsen are on the start line. This is the ‘last chance saloon’ for European Kona qualifiers, so if they race, you’d expect that they are the ones to go all out for the win (or at least to secure a Kona slot).
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Post by Peter on Aug 7, 2022 12:57:27 GMT 8
I don’t think he sees it as a potential struggle. More he just wants to race. And travel. And do events.
He doesnt need cash.
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Post by andrewearlwood on Aug 7, 2022 13:51:47 GMT 8
I don’t think he sees it as a potential struggle. More he just wants to race. And travel. And do events. He doesnt need cash. At 39, he’s got to be looking towards his athletic legacy a bit, doesn’t he? so far: *he left rowing before fulfilling his potential,then *turned to cycling and specialised as a domestique, not winning single reasonably sized pro tour race of any description, *took a long sabbatical, during which he fell into pro triathlon, helped revolutionise the imporatnce of the cycling leg in Ironmans, won a few races, but has never really peaked for the big ones, *drifted back into pro cycling as a much respected domestique - still not actually winning anything and juggling that day job with what appears to be a mediocre set of IM performances. That’s actually a pretty piss poor return for a guy who is reputed to be one of the most talented endurance athletes on the planet. No Olympic gold medals, no senior world titles, no wins in stage races or monuments, not even a regional ironman championship to his name. A Jack of all trades, never sticking around long enough to master even a single one. Pissing all that talent up against the wall. Time is running out. He’s not likely to be remembered for carrying Gerriant’s water bottles at the tour of Britain, is he? In 10 years time he won’t even remember that. However, with a proper 10 week program leading into Kona, he could be remembered as the guy who got out of the water in under 50 minutes, biked a sub 4hr split and then ran sub 2:50 marathon. And even if the Norwegians ran him down, he’d still likely podium. Now THAT is something that he’d certainly remember in years to come. The stuff of legends. |
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Post by Peter on Aug 7, 2022 15:29:58 GMT 8
I don’t think he’s wired that way.
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bosco
New Member
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Post by bosco on Aug 7, 2022 15:45:25 GMT 8
I think Wurf peaked pretty well for 5th at Kona 2019. An awesome result and pretty close to his absolute potential. He knows like all of us there is no top step for him now with the 2 years back focused more so on cycling.
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Post by Peter on Aug 7, 2022 19:04:48 GMT 8
I think Wurf peaked pretty well for 5th at Kona 2019. An awesome result and pretty close to his absolute potential. He knows like all of us there is no top step for him now with the 2 years back focused more so on cycling. Something has to go wrong for 2 awesome athletes for anyone to win kona. Id hate to be a male professional with the desire to win the world championships. blu had massive cramps and still almost won last weekend. Meanwhile most of the men were dnf or cramped also. But iden just kept trotting to the finish. |
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Post by andrewearlwood on Aug 7, 2022 19:06:20 GMT 8
I don’t think he’s wired that way. I think you’re probably right. Going right back to his decision to walk away from rowing in 2006. |
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Post by andrewearlwood on Aug 7, 2022 19:13:11 GMT 8
I think Wurf peaked pretty well for 5th at Kona 2019. An awesome result and pretty close to his absolute potential. He knows like all of us there is no top step for him now with the 2 years back focused more so on cycling. Something has to go wrong for 2 awesome athletes for anyone to win kona. Id hate to be a male professional with the desire to win the world championships. blu had massive cramps and still almost won last weekend. Meanwhile most of the men were dnf or cramped also. But iden just kept trotting to the finish. I still think it is a race between 3 equal favourites. Even at 41, Frodo is the champ. As for Wurf, Bosco might be right, but I actually think Wurf left between 6 and 10 minutes of form back in Italy 3 weeks before Kona in 2019. He complained of being tired and lacking that extra spark from the gun - which he attributes more to the travel than the fact he had his best ever ironman 3 weeks prior. However, I think his performance at Majorca last year is quite instructive. Again he was tired, and that was likley to be on account of him only finishing his last racing block for INEOS 8 days beforehand (and not doing any substantial running/swimming training block since Copenhagen 8 weeks prior). I really want to see what Wurf is capable of with a full Kona preparation under his belt. Even if he can’t beat the Norwegians and Frodo if they are on their game. To that end, I think he can still race IM Sweden, or be a domestic at the Tour of Britain, but not both. |
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Post by prince on Aug 8, 2022 7:26:16 GMT 8
I think Wurf peaked pretty well for 5th at Kona 2019. An awesome result and pretty close to his absolute potential. He knows like all of us there is no top step for him now with the 2 years back focused more so on cycling. Something has to go wrong for 2 awesome athletes for anyone to win kona. Id hate to be a male professional with the desire to win the world championships. blu had massive cramps and still almost won last weekend. Meanwhile most of the men were dnf or cramped also. But iden just kept trotting to the finish. plus Ditlev. I rate him up there and he has only completed two ironmans. |
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Post by Peter on Aug 8, 2022 12:16:36 GMT 8
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Post by andrewearlwood on Aug 8, 2022 16:36:11 GMT 8
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Post by andrewearlwood on Aug 8, 2022 18:29:57 GMT 8
It’s a long interview, but very informative (also a few porkies were told by Cam, because he did more than ‘no running’ between St George and Vitoria: according to strava he ran 46km the week after (including a 30km of mountain running in Namibia), followed by 107km, 57km, 53km (including travelling to and from Kansas for Unbound), 20km (pro tour stage race week), then 90km, 100km, 90km, taper week into Vitoria IM).
[However, that is still a far cry to the 4 week build block into Andorra 70.3, followed immediately by the 6 week peak block he did into Copenhagen last year. I’d actually say - looking at where he was at in Andorra last year versus Vitoria last month, he’s at a much higher level now with 10 weeks to Kona than he was with 6 weeks to Copenhagen last year].
IFrom his comments, it seems though he has a clear 10 week run into Kona without any pro tour distractions. No mention though if he is going to do any racing - bike or triathlon - before Kona though. He seems keen to make this year THE YEAR, and reports that he is at a higher level of fitness than ever because of the high intensity of the pro tour racing these days (no easy 200 watt days anymore apparently). He’s working closely with both Kerrison and Nike. Hopefully, he’ll be on. It seems that he doesn't think the standard has actually increased because of the Norwegians, but the depth has: ie. before Covid there may have been 6 guys genuinely in the mix, now there could be up to 30. He also rates Ditlev, even those he hasnt met him, let alone raced against him.
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Post by andrewearlwood on Aug 24, 2022 12:49:26 GMT 8
Cam’s Strava feed is interesting at the moment.
He took 3 weeks after his last block of bike racing to get his run back to 100km a week. Last weekend he flew to England Barcelona for some Ineous corporate charity ride doo before flying home on Sunday. Along the way he swam for an hour in Barcelona harbour, ran 30km on Saturday morning, did the 80km charity ride, flew home to swim 4km in the poll, bike 100km with his boyz through the mountains and then finished off with a 13km+ treadmill run at 3:20 min/km pace. On Tuesday morning he ran 20km on the track with the main set being 12 x 1200M at 3:20 pace with 200m jog in between. He backed that up with a 1hr pool workout and a 10km treadmill jog in the evening.
Maybe he’s taking this Kona prep seriously.
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Post by Peter on Aug 24, 2022 14:01:42 GMT 8
Insane amount of volume
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Post by andrewearlwood on Aug 24, 2022 16:09:16 GMT 8
The two weeks that he was still building up to 100km per week (85 & 77km respectively) still had some quality run work. Plus he also appeared to be involved in the day to day training for the INEOS Tour of Spain and Poland squads in Andorra, given he also racked up 600 and over 700km of bike training (mainly climbing) in those two weeks. |
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Post by Peter on Sept 14, 2022 4:47:37 GMT 8
Cams racing superleague this weekend. Nfi why.
he will be destroyed.
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Post by andrewearlwood on Sept 14, 2022 6:04:51 GMT 8
Cams racing superleague this weekend. Nfi why. he will be destroyed. Lols. I thought he might want a late entry into PTO Dallas as a Kona minus three weeks hit out, but superleague? I guess he likes pain. At least it’s a local race. I notice from strava he’s already done his key speed session and long run for the week, so I guess that gives him 5 days to freshen up … |
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Post by andrewearlwood on Sept 14, 2022 10:06:06 GMT 8
Cam ran a split marathon today (Tuesday, LA time) - 34.5km at lunchtime and 7.5km in the evening. He held 3.55 min/km for the long run. Yesterday he did 1km and 2km efforts (at 3.20km pace) as part of a 18km run.
Not sure how that will work for him at Superleague Malibu though, lol.
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Post by andrewearlwood on Sept 16, 2022 20:07:19 GMT 8
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Post by andrewearlwood on Sept 18, 2022 6:33:14 GMT 8
Cams racing superleague this weekend. Nfi why. he will be destroyed. Destroyed! |
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Post by andrewearlwood on Sept 26, 2022 8:49:36 GMT 8
So Wurf’s Kona build seems ok, despite his superleague flame out last weekend: back to back 100km run weeks, plenty of bike weeks between 400 and 700km of course, but his swimming hasn’t exactly been volume intensive - 10 to 14km swim weeks while still based in andorra and 12 to 18km swim weeks in LA. This seems odd, because he often complains of feeling tired out of the water when he hasnt done the prep/or is coming off as block of bike racing: his strava feed would indicate those performances correlate pretty accurately with a low swim volume in the lead in to his races, whereas when he is ‘good’ out of the water he regularly putting in 15-20km+ swim weeks in the month to six weeks prior (ie. Kona 2018, Italy 2019 and Copenhagen 2021. Even before Vitoria be was doing 15-18 km for the 4 weeks prior). In note that his current routine sees him swim open water with the Tower 26 crew for about 4-5km twice a week and then do 2-3 shorter (2-3km) pool sessions. In view view he is getting out of the water with about 20 minutes of work in his main set not done for those pool swims. I reckon AP is right: regular 4km pool sets are the key to not feeling prematurely fatigued onto the bike in an ironman. Hmmm.
Anyhoo, this last week he ran 38km at 2.55 min/km pace on Thursday and on Saturday after a pretty hard 4hr bike session in the morning he then ran 3 x 10km efforts at bang on 3.48 min/km pace in the heat of the day until late afternoon. His pacing was immaculate, such that I sent him a message on strava querying whether he actually did that set 3 times or whether his strava had a glitch. He replied that he was shoe testing, but the results were inconclusive, lol. However, 3 x 10km at bang on what I presume is a target race pace like that, with two weeks to go to Kona is … impressive. I reckon he should go ok …
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Post by andrewearlwood on Sept 26, 2022 8:57:23 GMT 8
So Wurf’s Kona build seems ok, despite his superleague flame out last weekend: back to back 100km run weeks, plenty of bike weeks between 400 and 700km of course, but his swimming hasn’t exactly been volume intensive - 10 to 14km swim weeks while still based in andorra and 12 to 18km swim weeks in LA. This seems odd, because he often complains of feeling tired out of the water when he hasnt done the prep/or is coming off as block of bike racing: his strava feed would indicate those performances correlate pretty accurately with a low swim volume in the lead in to his races, whereas when he is ‘good’ out of the water he regularly putting in 15-20km+ swim weeks in the month to six weeks prior (ie. Kona 2018, Italy 2019 and Copenhagen 2021. Even before Vitoria be was doing 15-18 km for the 4 weeks prior). In note that his current routine sees him swim open water with the Tower 26 crew for about 4-5km twice a week and then do 2-3 shorter (2-3km) pool sessions. In view view he is getting out of the water with about 20 minutes of work in his main set not done for those pool swims. I reckon AP is right: regular 4km pool sets are the key to not feeling prematurely fatigued onto the bike in an ironman. Hmmm. Anyhoo, this last week he ran 38km at 2.55 min/km pace on Thursday and on Saturday after a pretty hard 4hr bike session in the morning he then ran 3 x 10km efforts at bang on 3.48 min/km pace in the heat of the day until late afternoon. His pacing was immaculate, such that I sent him a message on strava querying whether he actually did that set 3 times or whether his strava had a glitch. He replied that he was shoe testing, but the results were inconclusive, lol. However, 3 x 10km at bang on what I presume is a target race pace like that, with two weeks to go to Kona is … impressive. I reckon he should go ok, low swim volume not withstanding. |
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Post by prince on Sept 26, 2022 9:22:25 GMT 8
2.55 pace? are you sure? i am no expert, but that seems faster than Kipchoges pace....
sorry, just a tad under...thats a 2.03 marathon...wow... Hell no need to worry about the swim. At that pace he can do backstroke and still come home with the win.
i have cancelled my bets on Blu, Iden, Ditlev, Skipper, and its all on Wurf.
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Post by andrewearlwood on Sept 26, 2022 10:24:57 GMT 8
2.55 pace? are you sure? i am no expert, but that seems faster than Kipchoges pace.... sorry, just a tad under...thats a 2.03 marathon...wow... Hell no need to worry about the swim. At that pace he can do backstroke and still come home with the win. i have cancelled my bets on Blu, Iden, Ditlev, Skipper, and its all on Wurf. Lols. 3:55 pace |
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Post by prince on Sept 26, 2022 12:04:18 GMT 8
2.55 pace? are you sure? i am no expert, but that seems faster than Kipchoges pace.... sorry, just a tad under...thats a 2.03 marathon...wow... Hell no need to worry about the swim. At that pace he can do backstroke and still come home with the win. i have cancelled my bets on Blu, Iden, Ditlev, Skipper, and its all on Wurf. Lols. 3:55 pace dam...i thought you might have had your finger on the pulse. |
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Post by andrewearlwood on Oct 8, 2022 6:31:09 GMT 8
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Post by andrewearlwood on Oct 10, 2022 12:40:22 GMT 8
Latest interview with Babbit: My takeouts: 1. No IM St George WC next May (probably); 2. Still on the Ineous roster. Expects to be very busy road racing until May and wont jump back into an IM WC without doing the work first; 3. Will try to qualify for Kona in the northern summer somewhere. Still keen to do well there; 4. Running a straight marathon next weekend in Sacramento - wants to beat his IM marathon PB (2:45 in Italy); 5. Heading back to Majorca straight away for the first team training camp after that marathon; 6. 2.35 IM marathons doesn’t surprise him, only that it has taken so long for the standard to get to that level; 7. Respects Lionel, but doesn’t think that he’s necessarily the man. Frankly I’m stunned that he's signed up for another season of being an Ineous domestique bitch: the pay may be ok, but the money in triathlon is growing and it seems he has Ineous as a personal sponsor for triathlon now. He turns 39 next year (August) and he’s got two perfect opportunities to challenge a podium - or better - in an Ironman WC before he’s 40. He’s wasting his talent doing a job that a hundred guys in the pro peloton can do (and its not even likely that he’ll get a start in a grand tour next year anyway). What I said last December. It might have been a heck of an adventure this year, but frankly, also a year of wasted opportunities. Aged 39 he doesn’t have the luxury of this sh!t if he wants to each his true potential in at least one of the three sports he’s ‘dabbled’ in over the past 22 years … This is what he said after the race on Saturday: www.220triathlon.com/news/cameron-wurf-shocked-at-how-triathlon-has-moved-on/Frankly he blew his best chance at podiuming at a WC by bike racing in the European spring. A 3 month specific prep for St George after his LA training camp with G would have made all the difference … |
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Post by andrewearlwood on Dec 16, 2022 18:46:08 GMT 8
Wurf has extended with INEOS for another year and is currently doing their big winter camp in Majorca.
It seems that he had covid after Kona, s he missed one of the earlier team camps because he was positive. That might explain why he didn't give a late season ironman - and earlier qualifying race - a crack in November or early December.
With Gerraint Thomas confirming for the Tour Down Under and planning a big training block in Australia beforehand I wonder if Wurf will race there as well?
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