Wellington dominating the field in 2008's Ironman Frankfurt.
Copyright Mariano Kamp
Chrissie Wellington, the golden child of long-distance triathlon has parted ways with her coach... again. Wellington, who took the Ironman world by storm at the 2007 Ironman World Championships has remained undefeated at iron distance events ever since. She left Brett Sutton and his highly successful teamTBB after defending her title in Kona last October, announcing that she would be working with Cliff English. English is the coach and partner of 2008 70.3 world champion (and Wellington's runner-up in Kona in 2007), Sam McGlone. Wellington ditched English shortly thereafter, announcing in December that, "After much consideration and discussion with Cliff, we have decided not to pursue a professional coaching relationship for 2009." Subsequently, Simon Lessing and the Boulder Coaching Organization coached Wellington to crush Yvonne Van Vlerken's one-year young iron distance world record by nearly 14 minutes In Quelle Challenge Roth on July 12 of this year. Now it appears that Wellington has had another change of heart and will be self-coached for the foreseeable future.
Both Lessing and Wellington are staying tight-lipped about the split, although Ben Mansford, Wellington's Publicist told the press that the separation was friendly. "You’ll need to ask her,” was Lessing's terse reply to Slowtwitch.com. Wellington herself has made no statements save for some bland PR-speak from her publicist. "Chrissie buckles down more than most and she is really in Kona mode and looking forward to it very much,” stated Mansford.
Is this a bad thing?
It seems that Wellington is indestructable, and you certainly shouldn't bet against her. However, considering that she lost 10 minutes on the bike in Kona last year from... let's call it "user error" of her CO2 pump, one questions if she has gained the experience in her three years of professional racing to keep up the momentum that Sutton and Lessing have built for her. Will her talent alone be enough to carry her through? Chris McCormack, 2008 Kona Champion told IM Talk in July 2008, "When she checked the bike in [at Ironman Frankfurt, 2008], she's pumping up her tires and she's putting 90 PSI in her tires!" According to McCormack, her reasoning for using only three-quarters pressure was, "Well I don't want them to pop!" As ground-breaking as Wellington's results have been (despite her clip-on aero bars, vented helmet, and regular-spoked wheels), she still approaches the sport like a newbie; a very, very, very fast newbie with a whole lot of talent, but a newbie all the same. When Wellington accidentally drained her two CO2 canisters in the lava fields last October, she would have been in hot water if her teammate, Rebecca Keat hadn't thrown her another one. Wellington is no dope, and no doubt will continue to do great things in long course triathlon. However, is her decision to continue on alone really the best one, considering how much others have contributed to her victories in the past?
By the way, Wellington will be returning to the Timberman 70.3 this weekend. If you happen to catch up to her and get the scoop on her new coaching situation, be sure to come back and tell us all about it.
Comments