The next exciting phase of coach Olav Aleksander Bu and his star athletes Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden – aka ‘The Norwegian Method’ – is just getting under way.
We caught up with the master coach to find out more, getting the inside track on his move into pro cycling and how that could impact his work with the two men who have won every triathlon title that matters in the last few years under his tutelage.
Unfinished business for ‘Big Blu’
Bu excelled in other sports – most notably sailing – before he transformed the triathlon landscape and he’s now aiming to make his mark in pro cycling having been confirmed as head coach for Norwegian team Uno-X Mobility.
And that could easily have involved Blummenfelt too – indeed had ‘Big Blu’ retained his Olympic title and won in Kona this year it very probably would have.
Bu told us: “During the process where we were discussing cycling and whether he also wanted to go there, he obviously had a lot of passion for the sport.
“I think also that Kristian was clear that he really wanted to finish off the Olympics and win in Kona and if that had happened then he might have thought it would just be rinse and repeat [in triathlon] in the future.
“And that’s why I think he was more open to sit down and discuss a little bit with teams and see, okay, what could this be. And then set some new ambitions inside cycling to stretch towards.”
It didn’t happen in the end though. There was a financial gap between potential triathlon earnings and those in cycling which Bu has already spoken about and mentions again in our chat, but ultimately he added: “I think with the results this year, maybe he feels there’s a little bit of an unfinished business.
“He’s capable of staying at the top for many years forward together with Gustav and I think they’re not completely satisfied yet.
“Gustav has been very clear that it’s triathlon for him for, let’s say, an undefined time going forward.
“So for myself, the interesting turn was that after Kristian made the decision that he would not go to cycling, I was called up by several teams to the point where they put offers on the table.
“But in the end, obviously Uno-X is a Norwegian team. And when I asked Kristian and Gustav and told them okay, these are the ones that put an offer on the table they said it was no-brainer – you go with Uno-X!”
‘I need crazy goals’
And it’s clear that Olav is excited and inspired by the challenge ahead, saying: “Uno-X are in a position that is really good for the years to come in cycling. But most important for me was the the culture and the positive energy that was in the team.
I’m not ready to retire and just be content with a normal job. I need ambitions and I need crazy goals.
“And here we have owners and a team that are willing to take the consequences of setting those goals.
“I don’t believe that you need to have the largest budget to be the best team. This is a place where I think that there are smarter ways to do this and where I’m starting to work a little bit on strategy with the team.
“When you really start to create a sharing culture where we really invest in each other and bring in new possibilities, this is where I think it will be possible to really fight with the largest teams and even beat them.”
He also spoke passionately about the plans they have to develop athletes from within the team while creating an environment and culture that has real value and will mean that they won’t want to leave, even if big-money offers come their way.
‘Second family’
We’ll be keeping in touch with Olav as the cycling project develops but in terms of the here and now, how is it going to impact his work with Kristian and Gustav?
He explained: “Kristian and Gustav are my second family, so obviously I deeply care for them and we have different ventures together, so we are not getting rid of each other that easily!
“But it will change. They have come to a point where they do start to have a really good understanding of physiology and all these kind of things.
“I will continue to work with them, but I will not be able to do so for 200 days a year – I’ve only seen them for 14 days or so since the Olympics.”
And with Olav now spending the bulk of his time in cycling, it means that arguably the two most successful triathlon coaches over the last decade or so are now combining the pro peloton with swim, bike and run.
For Dan Lorang – who has guided Jan Frodeno, Anne Haug, Lucy Charles-Barclay, Taylor Knibb and many other big names in triathlon – has been Head Coach / Head of Performance for a number of years with what is now the RedBull-BORA-hansgrohe team which includes Primoz Roglic.
Bu and Lorang are good friends and the former told us: “We had a chat recently where I said to him, ‘okay, so you were first in triathlon before me, then moved into cycling before me. So I said, now please tell me the next place you’re going!’
“But seriously I think you can combine triathlon and cycling to a very large extent simply because cycling is such a large part of triathlon. It’s 50% or even more depending on how you measure it.
“But I think one of the differences is that a lot of triathletes are very autonomous. They manage a lot on their own because they’re not used to have a large team structure around them and I think that helps in our situation. I think it’s a strength too – as we can make swift decisions. Obviously the Olympics is a little bit different and then that becomes trickier.”
There will be more – much more – on that last point in the next part of our interview with Olav as we look at what went wrong with Kristian’s bid to retain his gold medal in Paris.
