Why Lionel Sanders came in second at IRONMAN Mont-Tremblant

Triathlon Taren describes his theory on why Lionel Sanders came in second to Cody Beals at Ironman Mont-Tremblant when he was expected to win and how this could affect his performance at the Ironman World Championship in Kona. Lionel Sanders made changes to his swim, bike and run in the last couple months, but changes to nutrition could be what made the biggest impact.

[Snguyendesign]

Has a disaster of a day and still comes in second. What a boss.

[christoph_wattever]

Recognizing his mistakes in this race is gonna make him even more prepared for Kona.

[reddog]

Dude, come on! You've made a video on exactly everything that Lionel has said on his channel like no original content at all. He said that this was going to be an experimentation race to help fine tune his diet strategy prior to Kona. Expect him to be first through the tape at IM world champs!

[Tri_Ing_Guy]

Regardless of diet and fueling for the day, he flat out said at the pro press conference he was not peaked AT ALL for this race, he was basically using it as a long training day.
Watch his video talking about his race recap and one of the first thing he talks about is his overall diet.

[CJ_]

Apparently came 2nd (and in fact was catching Beals for part of the run) on fumes. Engine still stronk, just add gas.

[bobdejongh]

It’s pretty simple. There is only 1 major explanation. In his YouTube video Lionel explained how he, 2 days before the race, tried to get his weight down. And in stead of carbo loading and fueling up, he ate less.
He had a good swim and a good first half of the bike. Then the wheels came off. Because he was out of glycogen. Plain and simple.
I think he will benefit very much from his vegan diet and the weight loss. As long as he will eat properly in the final days leading up to the race!

[BenjaminBriu]

I think all this was part of plan, but like he said, he needs to eat more, remember he write everything down, he knows he didn’t eat any carb few days before, a good point taren made was that after all the training and work out just few days before weight shouldn’t matter, since all the training was going well

[kamranheydari]

Yeah good work like always Taren 👍

Come on Lionel, your great and this is good experience and lesson before Kona 👌

[jack]

Once you attempt a full Ironman yourself you will understand how hard it is to get the job done perfectly every time.

[trbeyond]

Hopefully Lionel will do another video in a few weeks. Once that weight is off, it’s pretty hard to get it back on without cutting back on training It will be interesting to see exactly what he changes or modifies; Hopefully so, but I’m not sure it’s as simple as simply eating more.

[simonsmith]

It may have been his diet change as it was only a few weeks ago and this isn't enough time for him to settle ...but it's not the full reason for his race not been 100%..Jan is a full vegetarian and an Ironman champion ...
I myself turned to vegetarian last Oct and lost 14kg ..and this summer had the best two races yet ..but there was 8-9 months between me changing diet to race time ...
Lionel just needs to relax on his diet and do a 80/20 diet
80% good and 20% bad ISH lol...

[Daveyboyroy]

Given that Lionel had such a great swim result, I'm wondering if he simply pushed too hard during that portion of the race and suffered glycogen depletion on the last bit of the bike and on the run. Not like him to bonk is it?

[iTzBTriX]

You need to interview him or have him as a guest! That would be cool!

[justinpascual]

Its crazy how he had a bad day and still get second in a Full IM Pro race. And how far off were the other competitors that he could afford to walk during the marathon 😂 even on a bad day he is still in a different level!

[hebrewsvs]

Good analysis. Lionel is still very impressive and I want to see him win in Kona. I didn't know he got a new bike position. That can take 2-3 weeks of training on to get mostly adapted to. Sounds like it was mostly a glycogen issue though. Keep turning those stones over now Lionel, so there is no surprises in Kona!

[albertorincon]

Why to make a video and make emphasis that someone didn't win, instead of the athlete who actually won? 🤔🤔🤔

[sebastianhervas]

Watching this on August 18, 2019. Results almost the same.

[tummyfullfigger]

Am I missing something? He actually eats meat covered pizza on his latest videos during his recovery from his injury. The fella who does his videos said he’s not vegan/vegetarian. Maybe he needs to touch base with Patrick Lange, who is vegetarian, on how he’s able to break course records at worlds with his nutrient deficient diet. 😆

[gtkona]

Let's ask a guy some of you may know, Mark Allen. Beef was a super recovery meal when he was all out training. Years ago he warned about athletes being too lean for IM. Odd that LS has not enlisted the advice of the likes of Allen, Scott, Alexander, etc. Also, watch "Eat, race win" for insight to fueling endurance athletes, TDF riders! Especially watch the episode of the meal the evening before the rest day and look at the riders reactions to the steak!

[SuperMrPeach]

Taren, with the mistakes/learning curve lionel has made in this race. do you reckon he will be more prepared for kona? or does this now put him on the back foot compared to Jan & patrict ?