Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ultra Trail Australia 2026 22km Preview
2 Playsin 1 day
The rematch is on. Last year's men's race came down to the wire, and the two athletes who made it happen are back. Leo Petterson and Ben Duffus both toe the start line, joined by Nathan Pearce and young guns Patrick Clarke and Elijah Gosby. The women's race is just as compelling, with a three-way showdown between Jess Jason, Bridget Lunn and Katinka Von Elsner-Wellsteed. Throw in Chinese runner Qiong Luo and we have a real race on our hands. James and Brodie break down who's ready, who's a risk, and who could gate-crash the podium on both sides of the race.
Who are you backing? Let us know in the comments!
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/tropicana
License code: MFJHTO0ZMVHA84WI
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and UTA Race Overview
00:00:13
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Peep Street Podcast. We are joined today by myself, James and Brodie for the UTA preview. We're going to have the 22k, the 50k, the 100k, the 100 mile. I thought last year's fields were big. This year is absolutely insane.
UTA's Growing Competitiveness
00:00:27
Speaker
It's great to see Brodie, like looking at these courses.
00:00:30
Speaker
What are you thinking? All these entries. It's actually bonkers. Like if you compare it to like last year or like actually if you compare it to two years ago, it's it's crazy looking at the change in depth of fields. um Like last year we already saw a step up and then like you compare it to other trail races in Australia and you're like, okay, well, this is actually what it looks like when it's sort of like the national championships. It's like this is what it looks like when the best across the nation as well as I guess we're getting a bunch of overseas athletes coming to this one. turn up at the same race um and like man imagine if it was only one race imagine if it was like a 50k and all the 22 and the 100k people were doing the 50k it would be
Australian Trail Running Evolution
00:01:11
Speaker
so bonkers like it would be like a regional championship like level of of of competition but yeah it's it's pretty cool to see and um yeah obviously the major status is
00:01:23
Speaker
from UTMB is bringing a lot so we can ah we can be thankful for that. And um yeah, I'm just yeah a bit like bit lost for words, really. It's one of those things where you kind of you know that the sport is growing and you know that that there's more depth from the Australian perspective and we're starting to see a few more like internationals and and not just sort of New Zealand internationals but from much far further field come in. But once you start breaking it down and just seeing the influx that we've had, now comparing this to um my notes from last year, and it's just there's there's so much more going on. The depth of talent from an Australian perspective is so much bigger. like We're going to be talking about the podium, like the genuine podium contenders.
00:02:02
Speaker
And even in that case, it's really hard to distill down because maybe there are some first and second places in these that are relatively clear because we have such a strong international field coming across. But hey did that battle for third, fourth, fifth is 10, 15, 20 people deep in some cases. is just yeah it's great it's great it's It's great to see because I feel like it is putting Australia on that map a bit more. We've kind of said that Buffalo Stampede has has been increasing in depth of competition, but this is just a next level.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like going through the list and like looking at it and and going, for me, it was like, oh, wow. Like even since I started doing trail running in and like more so, and like when I got more involved and I was more aware of the what it looked like in Australia, it was like probably 2021, maybe comparing...
UTA's Global Impact
00:02:51
Speaker
like comparing now to what it was back then is crazy so I can imagine if you were doing trail running in like 2013 2014 2015 you'd be like what the hell is going on like it's just it's so so different and like the level of the athletes is so high like I'm like oh I've got to get back from this injury but I don't even know where I'm going to be like 20th when I come back like it's just like the level is the level is really increasing so yeah it might be the end to my career but it's great to see
00:03:23
Speaker
I think it's 2014. 2013-2014 was the last year of the TNF version of of this before it became Ultra Trail Australia. And I think that's kind of back when we saw the likes of Francois and Killian were coming over and some of the other big name elites. But even then, like the the depth of competition just didn't exist elsewhere. And and now we are seeing those those level of names coming over. And then you add in everything going on. it's yeah I think it's really saying something for the state of the
International Participation and Attraction
00:03:52
Speaker
sport in Australia. and And it's becoming is's being taken a bit more seriously now by more people. And more people are really giving this up a shot, which is great for us. Yeah.
00:04:04
Speaker
Definitely. And it's exciting to see the the live stream back. um like i think from what I can tell, with focusing on the 100K again but um and and maybe not touching too much on the other races. um But yeah, it's going to be, it's really cool to see that. And I wonder if like, I feel like there's a step up of of athletes coming from overseas. And I wonder how much of that is to do with like the live stream and and the major status giving giving the event a bit more visibility. Yeah.
00:04:32
Speaker
Because, yeah, it's yeah's definitely I think there's there's definitely more international athletes on the on the start line than there was last year. That was of the questions I had when I was putting this together is what is the draw card for them?
00:04:44
Speaker
is it Because you're right, the the live stream is only for the 100K. Yes, you've got the prize money. Prize money awesome, but you can get that at other events as well. And then from an Australian perspective and a New Zealand perspective, you've kind of got – from in the ultra trail like the UTMB world especially it's you've got UTA and Tauera the really competitive ones Cozy's kind of a bit below you've got Stampede and GPT adjacent to them but for people that are coming from Asia or from Europe or from the States there's lots of other options you can do so I am curious what the what the what the call is to hear especially when there are majors in the US and there are so many by UTMB events now that getting a podium for some of these athletes and punching their automatic ticket to the UTMB finals in France is not
00:05:30
Speaker
necessarily that hard. So yeah is it simply simply that you can come top 10 here and get a ticket? Is it price money? Is it the live stream? Is it just as it gets more competitive, that creates a snowball effect and more people want to be in that race and then it keeps building a building and building.
00:05:43
Speaker
I think it's a combination of factors. I think it also like whilst it, I guess in Australia, it's it's probably not seen as a destination race, although the the Blue Mountains is such a cool place
UTA Race Experience
00:05:54
Speaker
to go and race. So it is to some extent that for for people. But I think for like people outside of Australia, like Europeans and Americans, like people want to travel to Australia. And I think seeing this as like an opportunity to come and race in Australia, maybe win some prize money to pay for the trip or have a sponsor pay for the trip or whatever that looks like. And the the live stream last year did an amazing job of showcasing what it looks like, like showcasing how beautiful the Blue Mountains are, yeah um the drone shots over like Narrowneck in the morning. Like it was just...
00:06:29
Speaker
epic so i think um i assume there's probably multiple factors but i reckon there's some element of it being a bit of a destination race and something different to just sort of doing another race in america or another race in europe Yeah. And I think I've personally, i was probably a bit put off UTA just by the sheer numbers of of people that are there. Like it's when I went across the UTMB and I saw the whole setup, it's an incredible thing to be there as a spectator, but as a runner, as a participant, do I want to really be in a crowd of thousands of people on on an event? And I think that's, and then obviously that there's been some stuff in the UTAs past that's turned people off.
00:07:08
Speaker
But seeing seeing the live stream, seeing some of the pictures and then being there last year, i was like, okay, this place is pretty special. And um also some of these courses ah look really fun and challenging and fast and competitive. And it yeah is a pretty pretty big draw card to go and do this race up in the blues. And yes, you have other races in the blue mountains, but this one's obviously the biggest one.
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And um yeah and I feel like they've i think they've struck the balance. Like we've talked about UTMB and and how if it's good for the sport, if it's bad for the sport, is it is it good and bad for the sport?
00:07:45
Speaker
But I don't know, UTA is one of the races, I think, because I like the races that it grew from something else like the like it was the TNF and then it became UTA. Like the ones that grew from an existing race um and they've sort of tried to hold on to the to the roots um and I think UTA does that really
UTA's Role in the UTMB Series
00:08:03
Speaker
well. um The courses, yeah, by the the the terrain there has forced course changes over the years and and trying to get more people to get out there and enjoy it has changed some things and there's ongoing things they have to do to try and manage that um to improve the experience for everyone. But I feel like they're doing a lot to not just make it into a a mass participation event. They're trying to sort of balance getting more people on course with sort of
00:08:28
Speaker
keeping the experience ah unique and and and I guess what a similar to what it's always
UTA's Influence on Australian Trail Running
00:08:34
Speaker
been. So, yeah, that's just my perception for the outside. And I'm i'm not – I don't look at things super, super closely. So I might be a bit um naive to some aspects. But, yeah, to me, UTA is – even though it is part of UTMB World Series, which I'm not always a fan of, um I think it is – I think it's such a special event and and it's one of the ones in the u two b World Series that I want to go and race at.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah, I think that taking it outside of the UTMB series and just focusing on the event, that they're definitely a net positive for the sport in Australia. It brings so many people into trail running that have no idea what it is, but they've heard about this event.
00:09:15
Speaker
And so they try it for their first time and that has an awesome knock-on effect for all the smaller events across the the
Logistics and Race Organization
00:09:22
Speaker
country. And yeah, they... They clearly care a lot about what they're doing and who's there and the event experience. Like, as we'll talk about, there've been updates to this year on race start times, on how spread the waves are on the 100k and 100 mile course to try and avoid some of the bottlenecks. So like they are clearly listening to the feedback and they're clearly, they're working within massive constraints that any event is, but especially
22k Race Preview
00:09:47
Speaker
at an event. at this scale in this terrain you basically take over an entire well towns between blackheath and katoomba so there there's there's a lot of moving parts here and they're there they are clearly doing their best to to make a good experience for the front middle back spectators volunteers etc so definitely give them a lot of credit for that and it gives us a very fun race to go through a lot of people to go through so i feel like we'll jump into the twenty two k course this is
00:10:18
Speaker
from everything I can tell the standard 22k course this year so yeah depending on whose GPS file you look at it's roughly 21.5 22k about 1100 meters or so last year we had Leo Pedersen take the win in an hour 40 47 in a very very close race with Ben Duffus and then Jessie Speedy from New Zealand she took the win in an hour 57 27 so it's Even for 22k with this elevation and this course profile of kind of downhill into that just long groaning climb before you hit the Furby steps. it's ah It's a very fast course and it's just as probably more competitive than last year ended up.
00:10:57
Speaker
Yeah, I think maybe the the depth in the 22K, at least in the men's side, is probably like a little less deep, but the top end is still just as good. And I think there'll be maybe an even better battle for third, fourth, fifth this year. But maybe I feel like there was a lot of people between fifth and tenth or fifth and fifteenth last year um at quite a high level. So maybe that has something to do with some of the other distances. Yeah.
00:11:27
Speaker
But, yeah, I think it's it's it's definitely still going to be a really strong race. And, like, the 22 doesn't have the prize money, um so we're not going to probably see the internationals come across. It doesn't quite have the focus of the longer distances, um which is in some ways a shame. But, um yeah, it's it's ah it's ah definitely a very good, I guess, Australian field for ah for that sort of distance. But I wouldn't say it's anything...
00:11:53
Speaker
uh more crazy than like say a buffalo it's the 50 and the 100 that we start to be like okay well this is a different level of field Yeah. And just having, I've just brought up my notes from 25 and in the men's, which we'll jump into now, we were previewing Leo, Ben, Nathan Pierce, Ian Best, James Barnett, Pat Clark, Henry Huggman, and Scotty Hawker.
00:12:15
Speaker
And we've got a lot of those same names coming across for this for this year. And you're right, there probably are a couple that have... sort of dropped off from that. Potentially there's just, to be honest, ah the list was longer, but I've tried to be a bit more ruthless in who I actually think is going to be that top three. So again, we're not pre-reading too many people, but but as I said, we have Leo back, Nathan is back, Ian is back, Henry is back, Patrick has just jumped on as a late entrance, so he's back. um We do also have last year's 100 mile winner, Eric Concier. He's in a couple of events. It looks like he has sort of been nursing some injuries, not really sure what he's doing.
00:12:54
Speaker
um And Madge Backhausen is also in and he was ninth last year. So got basically the whole returning top five to seven is back this year. Yeah, yeah. So maybe I'm being a bit harsh. I'm not sure Ian's running. I think he might be doing the 11K.
00:13:08
Speaker
um He'll be off the plane from Transvolcania. He wasn't on the list when I looked at it, and last I spoke to him, I think he's doing the 11, but who knows with Ian. He also dabbled with the idea of doing the miler. So who knows what he's doing, to be honest.
00:13:21
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. I did. i I messaged him to ask. I didn't think to clarify that he was doing the 22 and you're right. His name has dropped off the list. So take, take him out, which that means that I can keep my one nil record against the invest, which I'm very happily going to hold onto because that would have definitely gone.
00:13:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. ah cool All right. So I think like for me, the, the main thing now is the, the Leo versus Ben. fight again. Ben was originally going to be in the 50K. He's recently dropped down. We haven't really seen too much of either of them, I would say, this year. like I can't remember and couldn't find anything from Leo since Golden Trail finals last year. I did a bit of digging on the 22 because I guess it's closest to what I've been doing recently. I was keen to see what was going on. Leo's been...
00:14:10
Speaker
um quiet since he had two absolutely crazy races last year in terms of UTA and then BTU even probably better. um I think he beat Ben by like five minutes at BTU and got like a huge UTMB score.
00:14:28
Speaker
We haven't really seen anything from him since then ah except the Golden Trail final. um And, yeah, I haven't seen much. I follow him on Strava. I had a look and I was like, I haven't seen much from him recently. he hasn't he He's gone dark on Strava since March and he hasn't posted heaps on his socials. So I don't know how he's going, but he has gone i know he has gone dark on Strava in the past. like He likes to keep his... training to himself sometimes when he's building to a big event so possibly that's nothing but um yeah we don't really know what shape he's in but compared to like if he's anything close to what he was last year around this time of year then
00:15:08
Speaker
he's going to be yeah pretty hard to beat on this course because I even reckon he may have had a little bit more if he needed to over Ben. I reckon he sort of was keeping Ben. having Chatting to him afterwards, he he was obviously pretty confident he just won, but it doesn't sound like he'd absolutely left everything out there. So, yeah, I think he even had a bit more to give. So, um yeah, if he's there and in shape, I guess it'll be interesting. Ben...
00:15:37
Speaker
Also interesting, he had surgery late last year on his ankle. Um, he's been coming back really well. I've been following him on Strava going, wow, he's looking really good. Like some of the sessions he's dropping, he's doing, doing some double threshold type stuff. He's been doing some pretty solid long runs. He's been doing some UTA specific sessions.
00:15:58
Speaker
Um, I was really excited. He was in the 50 K and I, I thought this was a year where we're going to see something special from him in the 50 K. um But unfortunately, he's dropped down to the 22. But I think, yeah, that's probably just in the context of where he is coming back, I assume. And um yeah, I think he looks like he's probably going to be in as good a shape, if not better than last year. um'm Yeah, hard to know for sure, but like definitely in good shape. yeah It is interesting with but with Ben and and i actually, i I really respect this decision because like he's clearly competitive. He wants to win and he's had really good training, but you're right. Like it hasn't been for that long. And so he's, I mean, my guess is, and I'm not having spoken to him, he's identified that he's in good shape, but 50k is probably a bit out of where he would want to be at this point and maybe give him another month or two. He'd be ready for it.
00:16:44
Speaker
But rather than just throw himself into it and have an okay day and potentially lose a bit of confidence and motivation, he's gone, no, let's let's drop down and let's really rip this 20K, which yeah is awesome because, like as you said, the the battle, assuming Leo is in good shape, Ben clearly is. We know he didn't have the best day at Buffalo, but we know Nath is. After the the run at Donner, he just had a really good back-to-back up in China for the World Mountain running.
00:17:12
Speaker
Yeah. car Pat Clark, great runs at both Buffalo and at Donna double earlier in the year. Yeah. I think there is, and and not discounting the other guys in there, but to me that really sort of stands out as maybe we, maybe this is the year where we see Nath close that gap a bit because he was a few minutes back last time and same for Patrick. He's clearly got a lot better at his downhills. He would have become a lot more durable, a lot stronger than what he was last year.
00:17:39
Speaker
So now he probably can run those two fifties or what it's going to take to go down Kodamba before going into the climbing, which is his strength as is with some of these other guys. like Okay. So really interesting dynamic. And I'm not sure even if Leo is from full fitness, like, is he going to be able to control it as much as maybe he did last year?
Men's 22k Race Contenders
00:17:57
Speaker
yeah yeah i'd be interested to know if i was if i was ben and knowing ben's very good on the downhill i'd take it out really hard and see see what happens if he's feeling confident because if he takes it out hard and the other guys have to chase they'll be a little bit more out of their comfort zone than ben i think he's probably the strongest descender and then it'll be really interesting to see what happens on the climb but um yeah we'll see see how how that pans out um Ben might not want to be that risky. um But yes, like you said, Patrick, he's had another year. Last year, he probably wasn't as good at UTA as he was at Buffalo, maybe because of the downhill at the start. um But yeah, he's definitely a lot more durable this year. Yeah.
00:18:40
Speaker
Nath, yeah, look, his Buffalo wasn't amazing, but like his Donner was amazing. He ran looks to have run pretty well in China. He's a bit more up and down like in his form. yeah um if it's an If it's an on day, I think we'd be expecting him to compete for the podium. If it's an off day, maybe he's fourth. Yeah.
00:19:02
Speaker
and If he's an on day, is competing for the win. um yeah So, yeah, it's it'll be interesting to know. and i don't know I don't know Nathan knows what leads to his on days and his off days even. So, um yeah, I'm not sure what we're we're going to see there. But, yeah, definitely going to be a super exciting race between those four.
00:19:19
Speaker
It's a good question about, okay, if you're Ben downhill, you probably know you're the strongest downhill are out of all of those guys. Like not saying that any of them are bad, but Ben is known for that, that ability for him. I just got this, the segment up from the start to the bottom of the descent. And last year they ran at three or four pace. So it took 24 minutes.
00:19:37
Speaker
Ben had the same time as Leo. James Barnett was 15 seconds back. ah Ian Best in that year was was a minute back. Can't actually, Patrick's not on here. I'm sure if that's because he's, I don't know, sorry, there he is, 26.48. So he was two minutes back. You kind of look at that and then you think, okay, well, if Ben's going to go is this a case of you have to go with him? Otherwise, once you're disconnected, like that's the race over because Ben is still a very good climber? Or do you if you If you were the likes of, let's say, Pat Clark and you're like, okay well, I've got better at climbing, but I've got better at descending, but I still can't go down at that pace and and and climb out strong. Do you sit back and do your own thing or do you say, no, I've got to stay connected otherwise this race is gone? Like I think Ben runs well off a hard downhill. So if you let him go, he's gone. But then I think on the flip side, really depends. Do those guys want to – do they want to win? If they want to win yeah and risk it, then they probably need to keep him in sight.
00:20:29
Speaker
if they want to just have the best possible day they can have with the risk being a bit lower, ah maybe they just hope that they catch him on the climb. Yeah, i don't I don't know what I would do. But if I was Ben, I'd still be pushing hard because that gives the others, forces the others to make the choice. And like last year, it looks like Leo was able to match it with him. We don't really know what and Leo's been up to.
00:20:52
Speaker
traditionally probably does a bit more sort of like just flatter, hard road running training. um Yeah. if If you're going to catch anyone out who hasn't been training trails, it's going to be downhill into an uphill is one of the main ones that you can like up if it was just uphill like it's just a that's just a that's just a efficiency running economy battle and vo2 max battle um but the downhill cut brings in that like you have to have done the specific training and like leo may have done it last year off not much specific training but if you're going to get him anywhere that would be the place i would think that you could get him on a course like that
00:21:29
Speaker
The other thing to remember as well is that last year we were trying to work out who actually had the course record on this course. And afterwards, I think, I'm pretty sure it was Ben messaged and said that it was Benny Saint that has it 135. So if it's, and I'm just so just just just looking at them now as well, but assuming that it is that, the guys ran 140 last year. So there probably is time. I would say that...
00:21:54
Speaker
Leo and Ben St. Lawrence, it's going to be it's closer than five minutes at least. So I think should they have to go and should they have equal fitness, the guys could definitely run into those high 130s for this course.
00:22:06
Speaker
um yeah But it's also not... said it's it's not just straight down into a straight up like it's once you're at the bottom you've got ah a k of climbing then you're downhill for another 700 meters then you're uphill for a k and you're down for a k and then you're kind of up until you hit the the single tracks so it it is a really punchy climb and if you've if you have used up like if you have emptied the legs essentially on that downhill sometimes i find steep down into a long consistent climb as you said that you can just find a rhythm it's using the muscles in a different way but when you do have to do all those transitions like every time you go from that up to flat to down like those transitions you can just lose lose touch if someone has a bit more in their legs so like i wish we had cameras down there
00:22:54
Speaker
because there'll be so many little moves being made at this point it would be so good sims talking about getting a camera down there so i guess we'll see yeah um we just need a camera that can keep up i just looked at but yeah benson lawrence's yeah we need a mountain bike probably but this would be a perfect race to get a you could have a mountain bike from um From the start line to Lura and then you only have to have a running camera for ah short distance. um But yeah, it's just the focus of the UTA and UTMB races, not on these 20Ks. But this one would be easy to do.
Surprise Elements in the 22k Race
00:23:29
Speaker
I'm not sure about service, but from a pure filming point of view, would be easy to do.
00:23:34
Speaker
Yeah, and like you look at where they're using Starlink now to get out of the canyons for Western States and for canyons. like They can get signal out here, up the stairs, going up further steps. I'm sure that you can use a drone for that. like it would be It would be incredible. Be right. It's not it's not the focus point for UTMB. The 100 is a different day. So like theoretically, UTMB could be the leader in this and we could see...
00:23:58
Speaker
Like why are we only watching? I know the 100K races are like cool and like I guess they get more ad time and more like yeah and people sit down and watch the whole thing. But like where's UTMB like competing with Golden Trail for some coverage of these shorter races? They've got these short races at their competitions who are having some incredible races at some of the other ones as well. um just feels like ah It just feels like a um a wasted chance. Anyway, that's ah that's for them to decide. Yeah.
00:24:25
Speaker
I did look at Ben's and Lawrence. It was 135. So there is time for those guys to run. yeah Like Ben's an amazing athlete. We'll get to him because he's racing. um But I think they could probably push closer to him.
00:24:37
Speaker
So it'll be cool to see. I think there is. one One last guy before we go to the women. Sorry, I'm just super excited about it. Oh, you've a few. got two. Yeah, see you go. Okay, cool. I'm going to throw out Elijah there just because he beat me last year in the 11. And so I'm going to say that he was racing very good competition. But yes, and in seriously, he did – it surprised me how good he was last year because I had a pretty good run and and it was all on the sort of technical clifftop trails and that sort of stuff, which is the stuff that I'm pretty good at. So, yeah, he was definitely –
00:25:12
Speaker
had a strong race and then yeah we've seen him on a maybe more runnable course earlier this year at the mountain running champs win the under 20. um pretty quick time for the 9k he ran 38 for nine k with i'm not exactly sure how much verb but it must have been about 500. um so yeah he's um he's' He's a good runner um and he's he's good on the technical stuff. There's not as much technical stuff in the 22 compared to the 11. The 11 is maybe more technical overall. um But, yeah, I think he he might take one or two of the others if if if they if something doesn't go go well for them.
00:25:51
Speaker
But I don't think he'll be as competitive, but I think he'll be he's pushing along. He's a bit younger, so he'll be um it'll be good for him to race against the the big boys, I guess. And there's two other names to me that kind of fit that same bracket in the sense of they're not going to win this race, but especially there's a little bit of carnage up front. They could see themselves on a third or at least getting very close to that. I mentioned them earlier on. First one's Henry Hugman.
00:26:16
Speaker
He's a local. Last year he was, think, eighth. Yeah, he came eighth in the 22. He was fourth the year before that. We said this about him last year, the same for this year. He probably has the most amount of time out of anybody on this section of the course. So like he knows exactly what's coming up, which I do think there is a lot when you are holding as close as you can to your red line for this amount of time, because you have to, because this course is so fast, knowing where every little bump is, where you can push, where you need to pull back for your specific physiology. I think that is invaluable.
00:26:49
Speaker
as long as he hasn't left it out there on the course, which is easy when you're in training on the course that you're going to race on, even if you're just doing a bit of ah subconscious self-proving. So i think he's going to be really interesting. The other one that I'm not sure, and I don't have context to this, maybe you do Brody, Zach Newsham, going through his Strava, like dude is really quick, trains really well.
00:27:13
Speaker
But this year he's had a 12th at Tauera, 15, and a 12th at Buffalo, 42. And that to me doesn't sit with where I would expect him to go. So my my question to myself and in general was just what hasn't clicked this year?
00:27:28
Speaker
Because again, he he isn't in the place to be fighting for the win of this, but he very well could be right on the back of Nathan, Pat Clark, ahead of Henry. like He could be in that battle for third place, but You look at his his recent results and and nothing would really suggest that.
Women's 22k Race Contenders
00:27:46
Speaker
oh Yeah, like to be honest, I i um don't know like exactly what you're referring to in training just because I haven't looked at it. um But like he or is he easy like quick for a ah like quick sessions or like what sort of stuff is jumping out? Yeah, just yeah like again, and when you're breaking down people's sessions, you never know if they're truly running them.
00:28:07
Speaker
like correctly or if they're yeah kind of showing off a little bit but he when he's doing stuff that looks like threshold work doing stuff that kind of looks more like 5k to 3k style stuff he's in the ballpark of someone that's probably running a high to mid like 14 for five which isn't quite on the pace of some someone like leo but it's not far off yeah and startedating the speed Yeah. So the speed is there. He also trains on the trails. Like you could argue maybe it needs more elevation this week, but then you've got to always a cost benefit of what you take out to make that thing work. So, and, and the consistency also looks there. So I was kind of looking at this and going, well, yeah, what's going wrong.
00:28:48
Speaker
The other thing that would sort of highlight to me is Zach is still quite young and he's done a 50 K in a marathon already this year. Well, that's probably what I'd point out. Yeah. Like, and I think he's probably pushed himself to that because he hasn't, like, he's been around for a few years now. He's been running probably in these competitive races since, I'm not sure exactly what age, but, like, 2023 he's been yeah amongst at at these races. Yeah.
00:29:13
Speaker
And he's never, he's sort of, he's not, he's been there or thereabouts all the time, but he hasn't had any podium. So I wonder if he got the feeling like, okay, I need to step up and and go to the next stage. And maybe that wasn't the right call. And maybe this distance is actually more,
00:29:30
Speaker
like it and maybe we're about to see a breakout run because i don't think we've seen a breakout run from him yet so that would be very cool to see um like last year he ran a decent time he ran 150 um so it's it's not a bad time for the 22 and like yeah i was just grab one of his sessions and two by one k six by three hundred two by one k and he's he's running three minute k's for the k's or a bit slower and then ah sub threes for the 300 so like he's definitely got wheels um and yeah maybe it's that those other races were a bit too long for him um but yeah i don't know that's just guessing sorry Yeah, there's there's a couple of question marks in this field. There's some, what you'd probably say, a certainties in the sense that we know who's going to be at the front battling as long as everyone's coming in healthy and and ready for this.
00:30:18
Speaker
Moving on to the women's field. And think the first name to me, having seen, i kind of discounted Bridget Lund going into Buffalo. I think I might've put her in for third and smashed it. Wins the race. Like, and, and I think both of us were kind going say, well, she'd just come back from overseas at the uni cross country. Like how quickly is she have been able to come across? How, but like how good is her training going to translate to a Buffalo course that was 20 K and what, 13, 1400 meters, seeing how well she did there and knowing what shape she's in over a cross country style terrain.
00:30:56
Speaker
I'm super excited to see you on this course. just flat stuff, like if you talk about someone who's running really good really good times at the moment, like she ran 1646 5K this year. And like if you have a look at her training, again, she she trains fast. I tell you what, like she trains numbers that I'd be happy with in my sessions.
00:31:14
Speaker
So, yeah, she's definitely got wheels. And if if she did well at Buffalo, UTA is probably – a bit easier than buffalo in terms of like trail specificity um yeah so i think yeah she she's definitely she's definitely got the right uh tools um and she did handle like a downhill and then climbing again because that would be the only thing i'd be a bit worried about with her at uta is like a big downhill at the start um downhill at the end is different to downhill at the start but there is She did manage the... That was the thing I was worried about at Buffalo more so. um But she did manage that pretty well at Buffalo. So with the with the downhill and then having to climb clear spots. So yeah, I think she's going to be hard to beat, I think.
00:31:58
Speaker
She is going really hard to beat. I think the only thing that she doesn't have is she hasn't done this event before. So I don't know if she's been up here in training, but she's never done this at race pace and had to work out is she at the right effort downhill because you are totally fresh. You're getting sucked by all the guys as well. And especially...
00:32:14
Speaker
My guess would be some of the guys at the same level as the point of the girls will be going a bit too quick for where they really should be. And so it's really hard to pace yourself and judge where you need to be in that field. And there are like other women in this that might feel more confident, like Katinka, Von Von Elsner, Wielstead got there eventually. Wow. Yeah. know Yeah, yeah, sorry. sorry think The two other women who I think will be her biggest contenders probably have that on her in terms of their experience on the course.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yes, exactly. And so, yeah, so we're like with Katinka who's moved up to there recently. She knows that this course very well. We saw her have an excellent performance up in China as well. And then we have Jess Jason, who in the 50K last year, Jess has got very good familiarity with this course, knows exactly what it feels like, also knows what it feels like to climb out of the bottom of the valley with the fatigue in your legs and still grind it out, which I think like there is a difference between starting fresh in the 20 and going down versus hitting this at the 35k mark of the the 50k and still having to get out of there so it's yeah i'm sure jess would be feeling a bit a bit better on the climb than she she did last year and it'll probably be really like quite liberating and quite confident building to be like i'm climbing so well today so it's probably a big positive i'd say
00:33:32
Speaker
And the last main show that I did with Jess last week was a recording, I think. Like there was a confidence in there. There was a little bit of a swag when she was talking about this event. And it's exciting because I don't think we've seen that from her in in like the most recent races. And she knows that this course is falling into her wheelhouse. She's found that groove with training again. She's feeling stronger.
00:33:53
Speaker
Like i would, yeah, I would definitely be very concerned about her coming or either just disappearing front of me if i was the girls in this field or coming up very strong because the thing that jess does have is she's been she spent the a whole of last year training for 50ks so she is very strong and now she's been layering in the training that actually works like probably more specifically for her so she's going to have that strong base and now she's fast like that's a scary proposition yeah i think uh that's yeah another strength that jess has on the other two is she has that more like endurance background i guess of like a couple of years
00:34:30
Speaker
of going longer um and now she's sort of bringing that to the to the to the shorter races um so i think she will these three i really don't know who's i think they'll be the top three but i don't know who's gonna win out of them katinka i think is really interesting in this mix like if you if you looked at katinka at the if you looked at this list at the start the year i probably would have said yeah katinka will be third behind the other two yes but like She's had a fantastic start to the season, third at Tower, where are the China race, like, again, hard to contextualize fully, but looks like a great performance. um
00:35:08
Speaker
She's had the coach change. She's been coached by David Roach, who loves these downhills. Like, she's going to be prepared for the course. She's going to be prepared for the downhill. um She's moved to the Blue Mountains, like,
00:35:20
Speaker
She's nearly jumped to favorite for me, but like I don't know
International Impact on the 22k Race
00:35:23
Speaker
how... like i really I really couldn't pick it of those three who's going to who's going to win. I think they're going to be so evenly matched um and I think it's it's going to be an amazing race between them.
00:35:34
Speaker
And I think... mentioning David being Katinka's coach is interesting because ah he has a lot of women in the States that have kind of come out that post-collegiate scene and are smashing these kind of 30k distances. I think Taylor Tussle was off the top my memory. I think it was think it was a big altar in the 30k. The entire women's podium was coached by him all out of Boulder. And so And whatever his his style is, very powerful power focused with big aerobic backgrounds, like it clearly works for this sort of event.
00:36:03
Speaker
Yes. yeah Yeah. Katinka has really, really stepped up and we we saw that ah in China. And it's it's going to be really hard to pick between these three. The other name that it's kind of hard to get any context for me, she's coming out of Asia is Luok.
00:36:18
Speaker
Quiong. ah She had seventh at the Hong Kong 150K, second last year at the Chiang Mai 20K, which is the major over in Asia.
00:36:29
Speaker
This is the first result sorry the first race she's done outside of Asia on her UTMB at least. So that really is a consideration when you start adding in travel even if it's pretty close from a time zone perspective it's still an eight hour flight plus getting it around racing in the room you don't know so but i just find that sometimes you you take especially we see the asian athletes coming over and they just sort of spoil the party a little bit and so and surprise us based on the level of racing they've done over there overseas and i think that's one thing with the um with the UTMB scores can be a bit hard to like compare because when you're racing always in maybe deeper fields, I think the scores the scores are a little bit affected by that. um Whereas our scores sometimes can be pushed up a bit by just racing in Australian fields. um
00:37:15
Speaker
So, yeah, interesting. And and that 20K you said she came second in, she ran the 50K, which is the major for Asia, the next weekend and she came Yeah. say yeah And and in in that race, like on the men's side, um Toby Sparks came 12th. So it sort of shows the potential level of athlete she's at just by just by saying how deep that race is, I guess, is is what I'm referring to. so That's a good point, actually because if we were talking about Toby in the men's 20 field, we would be talking about him as a...
00:37:44
Speaker
As a contender. So I wouldn't be surprised if she's in amongst it, but like you said, it's hard to contextualize her in this field because we haven't seen if we haven't seen those Australian girls run in in those Asian races. So we don't don't really know.
00:37:58
Speaker
all right. Anyone else in the women's field you want to mention? ah There's just one other, um ah sorry, Emma Gray, just another Australian runner. um She, is interestingly, this is usually the opposite we see. She doesn't have ah a ranking at the 20K, but she has a ranking at the 100K. So she's dropping down in her usual distance. She's done 100K races in the past. But, yeah, last year she was seventh in the UTA 100, so the 100K. So, like, yeah that was a that was a good race.
00:38:35
Speaker
Like, yeah that would be, or I guess I think that would probably be ahead of Lucy would be my guess yeah because that was not a great day for Lucy. So, nice scalp. And, like, we talk about some of the others coming up, but, like, I'm pretty sure, like, Meg Sinclair was fifth.
00:38:50
Speaker
So like two places behind Meg Sinclair, one place behind Nicole Patton in front of alan pillin Anna Pillinger and Amy Lamprec. So like she definitely had some, she has some caliber over the hundred k but it'll be interesting to see yeah how that how that translates into the 20K. I didn't do much other digging, but I just saw that result and thought that's definitely worth a mention.
Final Predictions and Outcomes
00:39:14
Speaker
Yeah, no, for sure. Cool. All right, Brodie, I'm going to let you take the ah the men's first picks with this. So top three, who who have you got? o Yeah, okay. um I'm going to back Ben.
00:39:29
Speaker
I think I just don't know about Leo and this is probably a mistake, but I'm going to go Ben and then I'm going to go Leo and then I'm going to go Patrick Clark.
00:39:41
Speaker
Sorry, Nath. Ouch. just feel like Nathan for a bad one. He did Donner well, Buffalo not so good, China well. Yeah, that's my rationale.
00:39:54
Speaker
i had so i'm goingnna I'm going to give him a close Sorry, ah ah This is really tricky. I don't like it when people go off Strava. like I understand not having it.
00:40:05
Speaker
and then But when you go dark and you be in public, it just makes me think that you've got something wrong with you. um Yeah. so Whereas i think Leo might be the opposite. I think it's when he's dialed in. So I wouldn't disagree. Yeah.
00:40:17
Speaker
um i hadn't looked too close into ben's training and i just did whilst you were talking there and it looks really good like it looks like he's ready for 50k and as i said probably just needed and another month and he's run 135 in this course before so that's the other wrong then oh but think ben duffice has run one so yeah i think yeah think last year think he's the biggest for sure Yeah, last year I think we said he had the course record in around 135, 136 from around this morning. So um I'm going to go, I'm going to go with Ben. I'm, ah let's get backfire. I'm going to put Nathan second and then I'm going to put Leo in third.
00:40:55
Speaker
Nathan knows I do this just to help him get a good race because he'll run mad.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yeah, and he doesn't care what I think, so it works well.
00:41:06
Speaker
that's that That's my guy. Okay, cool. Like I said, i am i' am I think Patrick is going to be right there. And if Zach is actually in the shape of his workouts, I think we could be really surprised by him. Women's field, despite what we just said about Luo, I'm not going to count on that. i don't think I think I'm going to go with i just phrase Bridget, Jess, Katinka.
00:41:31
Speaker
Yeah, OK, I'm going to go Katinka, Bridget, Jess. OK. Katinka, David Roach is going to bring it home for us. Come on. Come on, David. Come on, Katinka. I just feel like her training is really like stepped up and she's there. It really has. And I think like some of the things that she was probably missing more so because of coming back from injuries and having to rebuild smartly, but she's now been able to layer on the the volume side of things and plug a few of those gaps that I think are going to really –
00:42:04
Speaker
really suit her um and brady we like it's all it's all the coach when an athlete performs well it has nothing to do with the athlete come on exactly exactly all right we are gonna move on to the fifty k feel we're breaking up at this point so hopefully yeah let us know your picks if you listen to the 22 if we think we've missed any anyone that you've got bit inside knowledge on otherwise we'll uh we'll catch you in the 50k preview and if you want to crowdsource simone brick to get to the bottom to uh film the latest then you can uh yeah you can donate i don't know where but we'll make it work all right see you guys