Lance is Racing 70.3 Panama (Page 8)

Impressive Lance. Impressive.
Nice work Bevan in Panama IM 70.3. Only one not to get 'lanced'.     From Craig Alexander's  facebook page

I'm a Lieto fan and just wish the guy could figure out his run, he seems to run "heavy" in terms of how he lands. Would love to see him figure that out (not that a 1:2x 1/2 is bad, but when guys have 10 minutes on you..).

As to the press coverage, what did they expect? If they're smart they'll embrace it and help drive their recognition up a notch (not saying jump on coattails, but if you know how to partner/market yourself, etc)...

anyway, great race.. will be an interesting year..

wait.....WHAT??????? 

Like I said, Lance will wisely sit back and let Lieto et all burn themselves up. Everyone that panicked and tried to hang with him ran out of gas. I'm sure Lance could have trounced them all on the bike, but he's smart enough to realize that you can't do that without suffering (maybe by watching Lieto fry himself in every. single. race.) "You bike for show and run for dough"

Saw this over at ST:

I can also understand how some pros would resent him coming in with the entourage, the hype, the endless resources, etc. I don't think I would, but I'm not in their shoes, so what do I know? However, if some of the pros feel that way, then they need to beat him. It's in their own hands. If he finishes out of the top 10 race after race then he's a non-factor and non-story. But if he comes in there and does what he did today in more races this year, he'll be at the top of the sport and deservedly so. He will have earned it just like the other pros so they will either need to step up their game or accept he has a place among them.

Here's what I think will be interesting. Will other top pros fear being "Lanced" as Henning put it and therefore avoid the races he enters or will they make it point to enter those races to match up? I suspect the fear of embarrassment of losing to him will dissipate quickly if he keeps up these kind of performances.

I respect that this is your opinion, but wow those are some interesting takes on a number of topics.

Brian - I'm going to stick this one away until October and see how your prediction pans out.  I'm not saying one way or the other how he'll do, but I think we'll get a better sense over the next couple of months to see how he does in more races.

That said, I'd like to see how he matches up against Crowie in a 70.3 distance before the big show at the end of the year.  And I wonder if Macca will have enough time to get back to IM shape after ITU racing the past season.

So in a sport that has much less strict doping testing you think that athletes competing for "cash and fame" are LESS likely to dope?

You lost me there.

Well it is a lot less cash and fame.

In high school I had a cheat sheet for my spanish class tests and I didn't get much out of that

Age definitely needs to be considered.  I wonder if Lance reads these, or at least one of his peeps.  Alexander won Kona last year at the age of 38 correct?  So if Lance is say 41 when he competes is that going to be a huge difference?  I hope he stays injury free and as a minimum, toes the line this year.  Because age is a factor, and how many years after this will he be up to it.

From the linked article:

"Armstrong led Docherty after the cycling, but the New Zealander made up ground on the 16½-mile running leg and passed Armstrong about 1½ miles from the finish."

No wonder Lance got passed, he probably stopped at 13.1 looking for the finish line.

Yea, I hope you have a front seat to the action.  I was thinking the same thing about the double, and based on yesterdays performance I don't see why he wouldn't give it a try - assuming he recovers from the effort as expected.

What I really want to see is what he does on the bike next time.  He commented about how he hadn't expected the surging and mentality of draft legal pack riding.  Does he just hammer the bike one race to see what it does to both his legs + those of the other competitors?  Going to be interesting...

Personally, I think its more of a sharp decline in motivation.  The Man stayed motivated and stayed fit.  Lance is doing the same.  Oscar Galindez is also 41 years old and racing well.  I think Crowie will race well into his 40s and I think Macca has 1 more Kona win in him.  10 years ago I would have agreed with you and I think Mark Allen retired pre-40.  That said, I think the 42 is the new 37.

Look at what Leipheimer and Horner did last year.  I still think Horner could have been a factor in the TdF without the crash.  Both those guys are getting up there and they are still very competitive.  In fact, Horner is in the best shape of his career (at least was last year) - his performance in the ToC was masterful.

They were probably pissed at all of his team cars on the course.