Sam Long says he was happy with his second place at IRONMAN 70.3 St. George at the weekend – but his race recap video would suggest otherwise.
‘The Big Unit’ had won the Utah race for the previous two seasons but this time had to settle for the runner-up spot, just over two minutes behind friend and rival Lionel Sanders.
“I’m happy with that, a second place is still successful,” says Long at the start of his latest YouTube video, which is embedded at the bottom of this piece. “It’s my best result in several months since winning IRONMAN Chattanooga last September.”
But he then added: “There are obviously mixed emotions. That’s the big problem with coming off of being a two-time defending champion, or even if it’s just a one-time defending champion – anything other than a win can feel like a setback.”
‘I think it was quite smart’
And as he starts to analyse the race in more detail it’s clear that there were a number of things that didn’t quite go to plan.
He starts off with the swim, where he says his yellow swim cap didn’t do him any favours (you’ll have to watch the video for more on that!) as well as the group dynamics which briefly saw him resort to backstroke – “why did I do some backstroke?” he asks.
Onto the bike and some misinformation on the time splits, especially around Sanders – who wasted little time in powering clear off the front in what proved a decisive move – only added to the frustration.
But it seems the apparent tactics of Cam Wurf, pro cyclist with Team INEOS who recently destroyed the bike split world record in an IRONMAN race at Texas with 3:53:32 for the 112 miles, were what really got under Long’s skin.
He explained: “I’m going to talk about Cam Wurf here because I think he’s a sneaky little guy and I think he was doing this on purpose. And I actually will credit him. I think it was quite smart.
“But I’m thinking, oh, Cam Wurf, he just set the IRONMAN bike course world record, he’s a World Tour rider. The guy’s really strong.
“Well, I think he was like, literally he was messing with me. I ran this big 64-size chain ring because my strategy was push the uphills but also push the downhills.
“And I think I was just about to break them on all the downhills. And Cam Wurf being a smart guy, being a sneaky guy and being a smaller guy, I think he realised if I just pass Sam at the crest of each hill, then the group will stay together because that’s what would happen.
“He would just pass me, so I’d have to slow up to let him pass. And then the other guys would pass me, Trevor [Foley], Colin [Szuch], so they would all pass. So then I literally was having to basically free wheel [and it] completely got rid of my whole strategy. I had to freewheel the downhills for like 30 seconds as I had to move back all the positions, only then to immediately re-pass them.
“And I was stupid because I didn’t realise that Cam Wurf was doing this to me for like 15 minutes.”
Chattanooga up next
But credit to Long, he worked his way back to a clear-cut second by the end of the bike and and then held strong on the run – and he was also keen to give kudos to Sanders.
He added: “I really do have to tip my hat off to Lionel. Obviously, he was phenomenal on the day. It was great racing. It really shows how real this rivalry is.
“And obviously the friendship is great as well, because in a way, I thought I had kind of gotten the upper hand a couple years ago. I beat him quite a few times in a row and now I know what that feels like. I know what that feels like to be beat by a friend.
“It’s an interesting mix of emotions because you’re very happy for them, but you want more out of yourself. And especially with me and Lionel, when you get beat, if it’s really close, then it’s one thing because, okay, you know, we’re about the same. But when it’s two, three, four, five minutes in some of these instances, then you suddenly have to look in your mirror and go, okay, I gotta get better or what happened?”
One way or the other it sounds like the fire has been lit for his next race – and he doesn’t have long to wait as he heads straight to IRONMAN 70.3 Chattanooga this Sunday!
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