In this episode:

Kristian Blumenfeldt is our pick to take Kona on the men’s side, with Laidlow and Gustav fighting for the rest of the podium — and yes, we spend far too much time arguing why that feels obvious while pretending it’s a balanced discussion. We also warn you that the reigning champ Kasper Stornes had the classic athlete move of riding in dangerous winds and is now out after a crash, which absolutely reshuffles the pre-race math (and the sympathy emojis). On the women’s side Taylor Knibb is the favorite — its her race to lose — but the real drama is whether she can shake last year’s Kona demons and manage the Energy Lab without melting down emotionally or thermoregulating like the rest of us. We nerd out on race mechanics too: will technical descents in Nice-type courses unfairly reward fearless cyclists, and does the new 20m drafting rule change the bike tactics enough to matter? We sketch likely podiums (Blumi, Gustav, Laidlow for the men; a cluster of Taylor, Lucy, Solveig and a deep field for the women) and flag a few wildcards to watch. Oh, and for the runners/wannabe-strength-junkies we run a medical mailbag on weighted vests — bottom line: 5% bodyweight maybe gives tiny power gains and slightly more calories burned, 10% messes with your mechanics, and none of it reliably makes you faster in real races, so use sparingly unless you like joint complaints. Segments:

[7:58]- Medical Mailbag: Weighted vests

[33:21]- Interview: Matt Sharpe

Links

@mdsharpe1 on Instagram@mdshrp on X