Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show. Welcome to this new episode podcast. For today, I will try in English because it will be an extreme thing for me because we are going to talk about extreme triathlon and what better to do. to talk about extreme triathlon to talk to stuart mcInnes and clement always uh in the good stories for extreme triathlon good morning stuart and good morning clement good morning hi mika all as well here always yes we are not going to talk about weather weather is a always a shitty thing so we can that's that's very good yes because the weather is also shitty here let's

• Speaker #1

  We've done it already,

• Speaker #0

  we've fallen into the trap. Okay, so the thing is done, we can go full straight. We are here to talk about extreme triathlon, and I'm very glad to be here today with both of you. We are going to talk about one particular race, but maybe in the second time. I would like to spread the word about the extreme triathlon world and about the circuit. Everybody in the world of triathlon knows about Norseman, but Stuart, can you please explain us a bit of the DNA of the X3 World Tour?

• Speaker #1

  Absolutely. And yes, as you say, Norseman is the DNA of the X3 World Tour. They're the founders and they're the original Extreme Triathlon race, now in their 23rd or 24th year. I can't quite remember. It's been around a long time. And the rest of our races are all built on that same DNA. So they're all very, very similar products to Norseman. completely different locations with different locales, different culture. But the format of the races has always remained the same, in homage to Norseman. So that's really where the idea came from, where the concept came from. And we are now, I mean, we've been running now for over 14 years since the first or the second Extreme Triathlon race, which was the one in Scotland, following the Norseman.

• Speaker #0

  The first race after Norseman was the Scotman?

• Speaker #1

  Yes, Celtman. in Scotland in 2012.

• Speaker #0

  Okay. And what do you need for a race to be in your extreme triathlon world tour?

• Speaker #1

  It's an interesting one because a lot of it is quite intangible. So rather than handing people a great big book of rules, we have a set of values which the race has to fall into. And there are many things that are difficult to pinpoint, but a lot of it's about location, the landscape, the local people. And the format is a triathlon, of course. But using the landscape, they become extreme. As Clement will tell you, he seems to have made one that's maybe taking it to the next level. But yes, we work with the landscape. We work with the countries and the locals and the culture to create something that's the same but unique. The same but unique. Yes, yes.

• Speaker #0

  That doesn't make any sense,

• Speaker #1

  but it does really.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, It's perfect. You always want the same, but with some different locations, different feelings. We were talking just before about the feelings. It's all about the feelings.

• Speaker #1

  Because the DNA, you're correct. If you go to one of our races, the DNA is the same. So actually there's something there that feels similar, but everything else is different. They don't even look the same. We don't tend to use the same setup for transitions and the branding is different. But there's something that there's a glue that holds it together, which is the DNA.

• Speaker #0

  Okay. And what aspect of the Northman, the particular one, what aspect of the Northman do you want to put in the X3 World Tour? Is it only the hard part of the race or is it also the teamwork? Because you are only 250 at the start, you are with the crew, mandatory. So what is everything or one particular thing?

• Speaker #1

  Everything is everything. And that's the thing that when a city is intangible, it's quite difficult to write that down what that is. It's actually a feeling. You have to be able to create that feeling that you get from something like that. And there's so many pieces to the jigsaw to make that feeling come together that we have to work closely with organisers to make that work. And it takes some time, because unless they've experienced it themselves firsthand, either as a supporter or an athlete or even a family member at the race and having personally experienced it's quite difficult to convey to them what that feeling is yep um by that way how can you convert a classic extreme a classic ironman triathlete to go and to try an extreme triathlete um we show him a picture of someone with blood running down their knee this is not true of course It's quite difficult to, again, it's very difficult. They have to kind of, they have to, it's very difficult to convey this through media as well. You know, even if you see a film from Nick Simtrath and it'd be exciting, you can see these amazing mountains and these amazing landscapes. But unless you talk to someone who's been there and they give you a reason to go and they'll give you many, many reasons to go, then actually these people are our best salespeople. The other athletes who've done it already are our best sales force. So they're better than me to convince someone to come from Ironman to the dark side.

• Speaker #0

  It may be controversial, but I think the extreme races are very attractive. But in the same thing, you can say it's very favorable things. You want to go, but you don't want to go. And we don't see any success as extreme world tour. I don't think Clément will make me lie. The first races in France will be on July. We don't expect such a success. How can you explain this success?

• Speaker #1

  Is this a question for Clement or for me? No,

• Speaker #0

  for you, for you.

• Speaker #1

  For me. And by success, do you mean you wouldn't expect it to have so many athletes sign up in the final? Yeah. I can explain that easily because the French are completely mad for Extreme Triathlon. And also completely mad, not full stop, but completely mad for Extreme Triathlon. It could be argued otherwise. But they have always been, there's something about this type of sport that attracts the French athlete. And I don't know what that is, but they're crazy for Norsemen. In fact, the Norsemen many years ago introduced a quota for French athletes to prevent them taking over the entire race. This is true. So there's now, but then they've introduced it for other countries since then because there's so much demand. But the French were the first.

• Speaker #0

  Okay.

• Speaker #1

  Because there were so many applying. So we know that the French have always loved extreme triathlon. They love the mountains. They love the craziness. There's something about it that appeals to your psyche.

• Speaker #0

  I may have maybe an answer about this. In 2016, I believe, we've got a media in France who made a beautiful, beautiful video, Intérieur Sport in French, you can call it. And it was about the Northmen. You've got four guys, four athletes, the guys and a girl. And it was the most inside. video you can think you can find on the youtube at that moment and i think it makes french crazy about this race and it was only the beginning the the seed was in the in the brain and that yeah because actually it's not the thing is though maybe

• Speaker #1

  that's probably true but they're also crazy for our other races so it's not just northman the french like they actually find that they're the highest applicants uh usually second only to the local applicants in in most of our They really love the sport. Okay.

• Speaker #0

  France will be a very, very good race for French and for everybody in the world.

• Speaker #1

  Everybody else, yeah. But I think, I mean, it's been very popular internationally, hasn't it? Your applicants, your athletes are not just French. We've got, you know, the appeal of the Pyrenees is huge. It's also very accessible, which we'll come to later, I'm sure.

• Speaker #0

  Pyrenees is a worldwide famous location. So, yeah, but everybody knows it. You can find it on the map. But no, not everyone knows how hard it is for them. No. It would be crazy. What do you think about, we are slowly gliding to ascent, but what do you think about this race? You told me something I was totally agreeable.

• Speaker #1

  It's too hard. But I also say that that's definitely an attraction for people. So at the moment, all they have to look at are the numbers. That's all we have. But until you do a race in reality, we really don't know how they come out in the flesh. Sometimes the numbers are deceiving in both directions, based on terrain and conditions and athletes who turn up and et cetera. So we don't actually know how hard the race will be until we see it running. And then sometimes we have to make adjustments in year two if something is just way beyond possibility. Because we don't want people, we don't want to have a 50% DNF rate. Because part of X-Tri is that we want to get people to the finish line. No matter that it's such a hard race, it's still possible, even if it takes you 20 hours. We want to get you to the finish line.

• Speaker #0

  That was the main thing I was looking for when I was looking for the races in France. I want to be an X3. I want to be a part of something not normal. But when I look at the roadbook, the guys are crazy. So, and it's not like other races. On the bike and on the run, you can cut it in two parts in France for the ascent. And I think... Maybe when you look at the numbers, of course it's very hard, it's 8000, so you can find it nowhere else. But on the ascent, you can cut the race in both halfs. First half is always easy, second half, the cherry on the cake, but now the cherry is very very acid. So what do you think when Clément comes to you and presents you the project?

• Speaker #1

  I probably said exactly the same thing to him, but he just smiles and says, oh, it's fine. It'll be okay. And actually, the thing is that the athletes know what the numbers are. The numbers were not hidden from them, and they still signed up, and they still filled up the race very quickly. So this is not unexpected. There's no surprise. The courses were presented to them before the race was opened, so they know what the course is. They know what's awaiting for them. We just don't know how it will pan out over time and over the day. but it's uh there'll be there'll be a lot of walking not so much running i think let's be honest yeah yeah it's obvious how can you um how can you compare these first races in france this first race in france with other first race you can find somewhere else well some of our races are successful out of the box and a lot of it's to do with location Swissman is another example and Icon as well. Even in the early days of Icon, they got really good numbers. There's a lot of this is to do with location. So when we have smaller races, it tends to be because either they're perceived to be inaccessible. We always use Montenegro as an example. The Montenegrin race is just as hard and just as exciting and incredibly beautiful. It's also a cheap place to go and the people are friendly and all of that stuff. But no one's ever heard of Montenegro. And if they have, they think it's like still at war. You know, there's all this kind of strange perceptions that people just because they don't pay any attention to it, sort of in the back of their mind that something happened once there 25 years ago and they haven't it hasn't come into the frame yet. So for us, it's it's it's one of the main reasons why our races remain smaller and they don't sell 250 slots immediately. But it's not it's nothing to do with quality and it's nothing to do with the people or the organizers or anything. It's just public perception. And France is clearly, everybody knows where France is and everybody knows how to get to France. And the Pyrenees is famous. And we all know the names of the climbs from the Tour de France. So that immediately gives them a marketing advantage.

• Speaker #0

  Yep. And it's easy to find some condo to rent, some house.

• Speaker #1

  Very easy. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Okay. Okay. And when the connection made between two of us, what do you think about the story? Do you think it will be a success story for the first time as it is today? Or do you think it will take some two or three years to scratch things?

• Speaker #1

  I believe it will be a success immediately. And I actually think that in year two, we will have to move to a ballot. And our four main races are balloted because they're oversubscribed. And I know you want to approach the X-Point system, but that's one of the reasons why we invented that, to help with the demand. But I do believe that this will be a success immediately. And next year, there will be a fight for slots.

• Speaker #0

  Okay. That was a point that I want to touch with you. The X point is a system you find to counter the thing that there is too many registrations for too many slots?

• Speaker #1

  Yes, yes, for so few slots, yeah. And you don't understand it, and Clement doesn't understand it. But actually, it is quite simple, if you understand it.

• Speaker #0

  as a um Regular and perfect Frenchman. I don't read the rules book. So can you please explain? No, I understand that.

• Speaker #1

  Actually, it's really, it's not a ranking. It's nothing to do with ability or speed. It's almost like a loyalty system. So when you do our races, everybody who finishes the race receives the same number of points. And those go into their points balance. And then they can use those points to apply for a balloted race. And each of the balloted races has 100 slots available for people who have points. And basically what happens is when the race comes around to open, you enter the race and you click a little box that says, I want to use my X points. And we take all of those people who apply with points and we look at them and we pick the top 100 who have the highest number of points and they're offered a slot. And then the second part is the number of points that we deduct from them is the same as the person in number, place 100. So everybody loses the same number of points as that person. And that means that they've not had to use the ballot so that they have a much better chance. And so far, this is year three or year four, we're going into for X points. The balance required for Norseman goes up quicker because there's many more applicants, but it's still not massive. The balance this year was 570 points. So that's effectively three races. And those three races could have been done any time in the last three years. So we're not asking people to do multiple races over and over and over again. And the smaller races have smaller points, obviously.

• Speaker #0

  X3 points doesn't get older. You don't cancel your X3 points for four years ago, three, five years ago.

• Speaker #1

  You can keep them. We have a little membership system. So as long as you remain a member, it has a very, very small charge. I mean, really, it's tiny. and as long as you remain a member then you can keep your points, you can build up the balance so you can do it over years if you want ok,

• Speaker #0

  so I was lying about the X3Point system, I was looking for the rules, but when you explain it to me make it clear that this system is for to make as a as a member of a crew,

• Speaker #1

  of a family we call it the tribe, because really that's what it is, it's like everybody is in the same place and and I have heard people argue against it and say it's not fair because if you can afford to travel around the world and do more races, you can get more points. Well, that's true, but that would assume that other people don't do any other races. Of course they do races. They just do them in Challenge or Ironman or Xterra or whatever. And all we're saying is come and do our races and you can have the benefit of earning some points, which can get you into one of the oversubscribed races.

• Speaker #0

  It was one of the main points for me. when you talk about x3 races when you talk about with with athletes the first thing that pop up pop out is the mindset and the family spirit that you can have with this athlete they always are kind to to speak about their experience to share some some tips and that's

• Speaker #1

  incredible you can't find it every anywhere else i think no i think perhaps that's due to the fact that we're still quite small you know our races are deliberately misused kept a maximum of 250 and that's for a number of reasons but one of the main reasons is that usually they're in such small places that you can't necessarily have any more people there there's no space to put them it's nowhere to live and so that helps to keep it low but then we run community forums and that kind of stuff and they and over time they build up their own personality their own kind of um automation so that and everybody's willing to help if you go to any extra race and it will happen in france i'm absolutely sure of it somebody will come to ascend and their bike will have got lost on the way. But somebody else will find a bike. Somebody else will find a wetsuit for them. Their car will break down during the race and another support crew will come on board and help. And that's all allowed under the rules of X-Tri because it just makes it a much better, nicer, friendlier experience.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, perfect, perfect. So I'm seeing that Clement is falling asleep,

• Speaker #1

  so we are going to wake him up. I know, very boring, Clement, sorry.

• Speaker #0

  Sorry, Clement.

• Speaker #1

  Okay, it's okay.

• Speaker #0

  Can you please tell us a bit more about the Ascent? How is the project in your mind? How it grows? Can you tell us everything about it?

• Speaker #2

  So, it's not so simple to speak that because Ascent is not for me and for Céline. We're organized with Céline and for her, the project is not just a race. It's a moment to share with the family and to go to this experience. And the project starts with the most highest top of point of the Pyrenees when we would like to finish on this. And I plan to... And I plan the race around this peak. And the most exp... the most important experience for the athletes is for the family because you speak with Stuart just before for this and it's really important in X3 to have your crew during the race and I planned Hassan with Céline for that and maybe for the difficulty maybe a little bit no no so So... It's, yeah, for me, it's just that it's just maybe you have the race for the athlete, for the difficulty, for the bike, because you are. You have the, I think it's 5,000 meters and for the race it's maybe 3,000. So it's not so easy, but you have the most important for you, it's your family. And during the race, you have a lot of possibility to see your crew. And the project starts like that, to plan the race around the athlete and the crew.

• Speaker #0

  When you planned to make this race, was it at the beginning, very beginning to go and see Stuart and to make it an X3 race? Or do you think about this race on your side and maybe after you can join a circuit or everything else?

• Speaker #2

  Okay, the start is start with the triathlon of the Pyrenees. we organize in Salah restaurant in Payol. I planned for the five years of the race, for the anniversary race, we planned to make an XXL. And I sent a message to Stuart. Okay, Stuart, we have this race and we would like to plan for an XXL on this race. And I think it's important or interesting to speak with you for X3. And Stuart said, okay, Clement, it's a good race, but for X3, it's just one race. just the X3. And I speak with Céline and say, okay, it's not possible for the triathlon of the Pyrenees. And now there are two options. I leave the project with X3 or I plan a new races. And I plan this.

• Speaker #0

  Okay. So when you made it, when you think about it, it was during the Triathlon de Pyrenees. because of the location, because of the mountain, because of everything. We know each other a bit, just a little bit. But to organize a new race is not something so hard for you. But what was the challenge for you to join and to click, to tick the box for the X3?

• Speaker #2

  The challenge for me for the race, it's... I think it's... To share the race with not just the athletes, with the crew and the family because doing the other triathlon we organized is just for the athletes. You have the swim part, the bike part and the run part. It's easy, it's a loop. It's a loop for the swim, it's a loop for the bike, it's a loop for the run. And for X3, it's one way. So you start in one leg, you go for 180k. for the bike and you could you don't come back in the same lake and you finish uh in the top uh of the pyrenees um and this one it's for it's not a complicated but it's important to to manage for the whole athlete and the whole family uh for it's a good experience for that and for me that's important and that's the the most point to to work on that okay

• Speaker #0

  I don't know how it works everywhere else in the world, but in France, I know it's very, very hard to organize a race. One race, it's very hard. You are a crazy organizer, so we don't speak to you at this moment, Clement. But what is the hard part of the X3 World Tour? Is it hard to find some hard races, some crazy races, or is it hard to find some crazy organizers?

• Speaker #1

  Actually, the answer is probably the organisers, because we don't actually organise the race as Extra World Tour. We have partners who do that for us. And usually they approach us, like Clement did, with an idea. Now, these emails come in every day, I can assure you. But most of them are, hello, my friends Bill and my friend Ben and I have an idea because our country is amazing. Well, every country is amazing, really. I was going to say except for Denmark, but they come and get me. The Danes will come and catch us. Only because of the mountains, my Danish friends. But usually these ideas are just somebody who's been to one of our races and thinks I could do this where I come from. But we know it's so much more complex than that. So what we look for now is we need to have really an existing organiser who has the idea because they need to have the knowledge and the infrastructure, the equipment and the money to create these products from scratch. It's very difficult to do it as just an idea. But that kind of approach needs to be right then. That needs to be an existing organizer or an existing event that we could make fit into our format in a place that's interesting to us. So you'll notice we don't expand very quickly because these races are few and far between. And these ideas, the really good quality ones, are also quite rare.

• Speaker #0

  and we don't go hunting i don't go banging on doors generally okay we can see um for the for the people who are looking for the x3 world tour we can see it's not growing very fast you are not looking for some crazy location it's a very quality standard and everything is perfect do you think there will be a limit of races in your extreme world tour or do you think there is a one or two race that we'll be adding every day every race every day

• Speaker #1

  If we, if with our existing structure, it's okay, I know what you mean. We don't add one every day. With our existing structure, they're qualifiers for the World Championship, which is Norseman. So Norseman is the Extreme Triathlon World Championship. And we're actually very limited with those slots. So actually, we don't, we couldn't add many more full distance races unless we adjust that model, which at the moment we don't plan to do. But our Solo.5 races were invented for that very reason. The X-Tri Solo.5 is a I mean, it's a half distance on paper, but usually they're much harder than that. They're designed to be extreme. So we sometimes describe them as three quarters races because the distances are about half. But the ascent included and the difficulty, the terrain is always very difficult. But they have no limit. We have no limit to the number of solo point fives that we can add. We're not bound by any qualification system there. So that, we think, is where the growth is going to come for us, is in these half distance extremes.

• Speaker #0

  to to go in the same direction you you mentioned solo 0.5 um everybody are looking for some other things every day every day and you can we can speak about gravel we can speak about um what do you think about this kind of races some gravel you we can see in the history world too some gravel races appearing one gravel yes one gravel case yeah do you think it will be part of of the... of the project for triathletes?

• Speaker #1

  Yes, that is the plan. At the moment, we are experimenting with that one because gravel is... I mean, we know there's a huge demand for gravel everywhere. And actually, every country has amazing gravel roads. I could do one outside my house here in Sweden and I would make an amazing race. There's so much available for it. We just need to make sure that people are tuned into that. There's also a funny thing in gravel at the moment because... We created our race in Scotland, which is very hard. It's effectively what would have been a mountain bike course back in the 90s when we had gravel bikes with flat bars, remember? But now the gravel evolution is changing so much. One of the things we did for that race was we banned mountain bikes. We said you must have a gravel bike in order to do this race, which makes it much harder because it was very steep, 2,000 metres of ascent in 50 kilometres. So really, really tough, right? But now, of course, the manufacturers are pushing out mountain bikes with drop bars. So we need to be careful how we define what a gravel bike is so we don't just turn it into a mountain bike race. And that's sort of why we're kind of just experimenting with the project at the moment. So we still just have one race for 2026, the same year.

• Speaker #0

  And the last question in this mind, how do you think about X3 World Tour in five years?

• Speaker #1

  We think of it as being this really desirable quality product. And that's really why we don't expand very quickly. We want to make sure that all of our races are an amazing experience in their own right. So every single one you go to, you'll feel this is the best thing you've ever done. Until you do the next one.

• Speaker #0

  Until the next one.

• Speaker #1

  But as I said, we will expand our solo point five races. And we will expand our full distance races, but not very quickly and not in a huge number. And we'll just continue to improve the quality and safety. reputation. I mean, ideally we'd like all our races to be balloted. We'd like them all to be oversubscribed. So that's really what we're aiming for. Do you think there will be a ballot for the Ascent, for the next year? I think there will be next year, yeah. I think we... He's not like he said. Because then the other thing is that we can use the X points. There's 4,000 people are actively collecting X points. It's quite a good number of athletes. Now, there are not 4,000 slots in our races. There's not even... There's about 2,500. So that means that the people with X points would be able to use them to get into Ascend for 2027. And that's great because that expands the X point system even more.

• Speaker #0

  Okay. Okay. Clément, same question for you. How do you see the Ascend in five years? In five years. I think it's just the same race because I would like to keep the same for the whole time because for me, I need to plan a reference in France for the Extreme Triathlon and in Europe with the Norseman. I think it's important for Hassan to grow in this way. And maybe... I think it's not important to speak now, but I plan to make another race for you to speak with Stuart just before for Solo.5 and I work on that. I work on it.

• Speaker #1

  Oh.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  We never tell anyone anything publicly until it's announced. Okay.

• Speaker #1

  Okay. Thanks for the secret. Maybe something.

• Speaker #0

  That's possible.

• Speaker #2

  Because also it's an important question because we can't, you know, where do you see a race in five years? Our races can't be expanded. They can only be improved. You know, we have a finite number of athletes and that's deliberate, as I said earlier. So we can't expect, you can't have the ambition that Ascend would have 500 or 700 or 1,000 athletes because the race doesn't work with that number of athletes. So it's all about maintaining the quality and making it more and more desirable.

• Speaker #1

  I can tell. without without a doubt that the ascent is a race that is is waiting for by by by a lot of athletes and we will see this year if uh if the quality is there and i don't absolutely have no doubt about that but uh it's it's all about the spirit and the experience that we will share and i think it will be a very good thing will you be there as you are absolutely yes i'll be there yes yes because we We actually,

• Speaker #2

  what we do in year one, we always call it a prospect race. and that's just so that we can evaluate it properly, give lots of feedback, adjustment, without kind of saying, this was shit, fix it. Perfect. It's done in a much more diplomatic way than that. Okay,

• Speaker #1

  perfect. So we can share a beer at the end. Yeah.

• Speaker #2

  Yeah,

• Speaker #1

  okay. Maybe not just after the finish line, but... Are you racing?

• Speaker #2

  Yeah. Are you racing? Ah, okay, excellent. Yeah,

• Speaker #1

  yeah, yeah. I will try. We'll try to be on the good side of the fence. okay no no no mika you have the plan to go at the at the top yeah in the pgvd of course of course everybody at the start of this plan so okay do you do you have any plan to to make some media uh on the ascents to make some uh

• Speaker #0

  some sharing some videos some yeah we have a lot of people for that for for me for for my crew I planned that and I planned to speak a lot of media, for the French media, so like La Chaîne du Triathlon, TriMax or like that and I planned to come for follow the race and I work with La Chaîne du Triathlon for live but it's not a real live for the whole races. I planned to have different moments during the race at T1, at T2, during the bike. in the top of the call of of peruswood of col d'aspin and i planned different moments for the life uh and doing the run in col de la courade and col du sanco and pd midi in the finish line and i planned this for for

• Speaker #1

  the the media for the race yeah and stuart i'm i think i know some athletes and some good media to uh to invite and i think it's some people that you you know actually uh maybe it's a very small media about swissland i think we can call it gtn maybe yes yes you know them yeah they're quite a very small they are always looking for some extra extra bonus races to make so i think it's a very good thing yeah absolutely they'd be very welcome we can make an invitation for for james kunama is just a little guy in interest and so maybe it will be a good a good guest

• Speaker #2

  for the for the gives you the material for the following year as well because actually it's a very difficult sport to do any live broadcasting on these little if you do it in in places like clement says that's okay but it's such a it's such a long day and it's such a massive course um that we we can never convey even how how exciting and how um magical it is unless

• Speaker #1

  you're on the ground but we we do our best and um i i was i was laughing i was kidding about about that but And... The crew of G10 made a very, very good work to make us inside the Northman, the racing. And so it's a very good thing about the races. I think it can show that it's nothing about long distance, as we know in Ironman or Challenge. It's a very own thing. It's an experience you have to live once in your life of track.

• Speaker #2

  You have to experience it. Yes, yes, true.

• Speaker #1

  yeah okay i think we have a we have a meeting so we can we can take the box of july 25th and we can meet there and we can book a very good place on the peak indeed okay we can um we can close the show to for for the things can can we make another another one maybe with some inside inside tips we can share with some story about Stuart. You certainly have some story and some finish line you can share with us and some story about the water, about the cold water, about the... Of course, yeah. So maybe we can make it another time or another day. What do you think about this, Clément?

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, with pleasure.

• Speaker #1

  Okay, see if you have time.

• Speaker #2

  There are many ridiculous stories, I can assure you.

• Speaker #1

  Before ending, do you have any finish line or story? One, if you just one

• Speaker #2

  Probably Nicola Cordova in 2025 in Nepal because she smashed all the men, she won the race outright I was going to say probably our hardest race, but we keep Ascend out of this conversation for the moment She was the first to get to 4,000 meters, which is the highest point in world triathlon, which is in the Himalayan course. And that's really the aim of that race. It's a slightly different format. You don't finish at altitude. You go as high as you can, and 4,000 is the highest point. And then she won the race outright, beating the men by almost an hour. So that's a first. It's significant and quite exciting for us, and, of course, for the world of women in triathlon. inspiring yeah yeah inspiring in Slovakian yeah she didn't have much to say at the end to me that's the wrong language okay thanks thanks for your time thanks for sharing and uh see you next time for some inside tips excellent

• Speaker #1

  excellent thank you thank you nice to see you and hope to looking forward to see you soon thank you