Are Podium Racing The Team To Beat? We Break Down The Stats

So Podium will take a narrow advantage into Chicago, beating out the Boston pre-race favourites Crown Racing by a single point. How did they do this? Is it the magic of Tim Don? Has Macca lost his touch? Can we expect Brownlee and the Stars and Stripes to compete? Graeme Acheson from Sports4Cast takes a look at the numbers.

The Top Two

Firstly, it’s obviously very close. Trying to draw any meaningful conclusions from a 1 point difference is difficult. Both teams had 2 main male and female athletes who contributed the majority of the points, with the Crown women (as per previous years) pulling in the majority of the points. Unusually however, it wasn’t the GTB / Beaugrand axis, with Kate Waugh instead transplanting the French Olympic Champion as a high points scorer. 

Generally however, it was much of a muchness between the top two teams, picking up very similar points across the board. Given the athletes availability and injuries it will be interesting to see who blinks first. A small error (think Hayden Wilde last year miscounting laps in Toulouse) could be the difference between winning and losing the team's title if things continue like Boston.

Brownlee Racing

Brownlee Racing had a similar points profile as the others, but just dialled down slightly. Beth Potter was probably the missing link - she would usually be good for 10-15 points in a Supertri race - which almost perfectly accounts for the difference between Brownlee Racing and the top 2. Perhaps she is suffering from an Olympics ‘hangover’ (which would be perfectly understandable) and may come back stronger in the remainder of the series. The return of the team’s namesake Jonny Brownlee from his wedding (congratulations Jonny!) will also bolster the teams points scoring ability.

Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes were expected to struggle against the other teams, and did so a little. Arguably they were missing a second male to pick up points like the other sides, and perhaps with Vasco returning from injury he can take up this role with Tim Hellwig and make the Stars & Stripes more competitive.

Super Managers & Team Tactics

One of the major differences between the sides could be the team dynamics and tactics. Teams can pick up points for fastest swim, bike and run as well as race points, and there is a clear forerunner in picking up these points.

Podium - 19

Crown - 11

S&S - 9

Brownlee - 4

Nearly 25% of Podium’s points came from the discipline points, compared to 13% for Crown and 5% for Brownlee. Stars and Stripes sit at 17% but with a slightly smaller total their % is bigger.

This targeting of these smaller races-within-the-race over the traditional triathlon mindset of ‘race as hard as you can’ is taking advantage of the innovative Supertri format, and is paying dividends for Podium. Is this the influence of Tim Don? As one of the most experienced and successful Supertri Team Managers, the former Ironman world record holder is well placed to give advice on the best way of picking up points. Certainly in previous years his Eagles teams have been remarkably efficient in picking up points, and usually punch way above their weight.

The allocation of the short chute is the other major influence a team manager can have, and giving it to the correct athlete to maximise their chances and points is perhaps more art than science, but Tim seems to get it right more often than not. 

Team tactics are also an opportunity available to managers and athletes that is unique to Supertri. Under normal WTS rules athletes are racing from themselves, but here they can work together for the betterment of the team, an unusual opportunity and one I think we have yet to see full utilisation of.

Luis and Wilde had an opportunity on the second bike stage to potentially break away from Yee and maybe put themselves out of the distance of his killer run. In fairness, it did look like they gave it a good shot, but these sorts of opportunities are few and far between and we haven’t seen too many examples of athletes really working together to put other teams to the sword. 

Every Point Counts

It’s tough to know the inner workings of the teams and they are unlikely to divulge what their plans are ahead of time for fear of losing their competitive advantage, but given the prize money available to the teams over individuals this year, athletes would be wise to focus on all their opportunities to collect points, and support each other in their respective chances.  

In 2022 the Scorpions took the title by just 2 points from the Sharks - overtaking their rivals at the very last moment in NEOM. Supertri’s tagline in recent years has been ‘Every Second Counts’. I would argue that in the current format it should read ‘Every Points Counts’.