In Search of Sharks & Jellyfish | Behind the Scenes at Ibiza T100

So a beach swim, Mathias? Yeah, big swim today. 30 minutes. How come you're swimming in the sea and not at the pool like everyone else? I like to swim in the sea because every day we are swimming in the pool. And I have to see if there are some sharks or some jellyfish. Are you excited to race the best in the world again? Yeah, always. Especially because I was not in London. And I saw that Sam was really, really strong in London. And maybe in London the guys were a little bit sleepy on the bike. And Sam can go away alone. I hope it will not be the same tomorrow, on Saturday. I hope to be on the podium. In San Francisco, I thought I was finishing on the podium. And I was sixth, so we'll see on Saturday. I hope I will be on the podium, yeah. Back to Ibiza, Alain. Are you excited? Yeah, I am. It's good to be here. The last race a year ago feels longer than a year ago. Yeah, it's good to be here. How are you feeling in the lead-up to this race? I'm feeling pretty good. I've had six weeks of training in my legs, pretty much. Or more, after a little rest after the last one in London. Spent a bit of time at home, a bit of time in France, training at Altitude, and a bit of time in Spain as well. Hopefully I'm prepared for the conditions. What's the temperature like, Alain? 22°C How are you doing? I thought we would be the first. No, only B2. How long from race are we? 48 hours. Less than 48 hours. Is the pressure starting to amount? Not yet. No pressure. No pressure for that race, right? My goal is top 20. My only goal for the weekend is to make it into the rough. It's that cold. OK, got to dive in now. What's going on? We're doing 50s. So we're doing a little prepset, two 50s, two 2s, twice 3s. What would be a really good split for the 50? Like 30, 31. This feels quite smelly. 32, that's a good split. So how are we, Anne? Yeah, so far so good. How was the travelling? It was a bit rough. The flight got cancelled. The last weekend was a bit rough, I would say. Back in Ibiza for you. How does it feel to be back as the reigning champion? Every year is completely different. You can't compare last year to this year. I have good memories. For me personally, it was one of my biggest wins. It was a stark break I felt last year. To win that was pretty special for me. But this year is different. But I will do my best and try as hard as I can. It's the fittest I've been for one of these races, which is really good. Do you have a good crack? We'll see, yeah. It will be a nice, different course. The long 10-12km of uninterrupted straight roads. I think in terms of group dynamics, it will be harder for the group to stay together. I think that's what's been working against me in the previous races. The group doesn't really splinter. I'm not able to catch guys that I potentially would. I'm hoping this time I can get off the bike not in that position. I wouldn't be surprised if they made the corner. Yeah, that's 25m. Actually, it's 27.2m. A lot of pools in Spain are 24.5m, so they don't need a lifeguard. Is that true? In Mallorca, yes. A lot of the pools are shorter, so they don't need a lifeguard. Is it because from 25m on you need a lifeguard? Yes. I'm going to give him a bit of a head start. I don't want to embarrass him or knock his confidence before race day. Break my dive. I think 62m is a bit exaggerated. 62? No, 62. 62 ring? Yeah, man. All these size queens, it's crazy. They say size doesn't matter, but then they all prefer 62. You two ready for your head-to-head? Head-to-head, are you ready for it? Hopefully. It's exciting. Yeah, he's a bit scared because I brought all the equipment out for the head-to-head. Maybe we do a head-to-head badly. Without him, it's not good. I reckon we'll see a sprint finish again at San Francisco from both of you. We'll see, we'll see. Like and subscribe to T100 Triathlon. I was on the trainer doing a pretty hard session and had the text from Dylan saying you're good to go. Then I went in and booked flights for Thursday morning. Is that quick to be able to... It's a bit quick for a big race, yeah. Are you feeling prepped after London? You did London, didn't you? I did London, yeah. Is it continuing in the same trajectory as London? Exactly, it was a pretty solid race. I had a couple of more races under the belt now. But training has been like, you know, scaring you after a race in four weeks, not in three days. But maybe that's a good thing, you know. You're surprised to feel it. And also you have two days to be nervous, not like two weeks. That's kind of nice too, actually. Go on. And this will improve your back quality. You're stretching, you're mobilising thoracic mobility, so your back. You're also getting a stretch through the opposing hip. And you're also stretching this hip complex, but like posteriorly. And then, I guess you could argue a few other elements of it as well. And the easier version is, keep that knee on the floor. And it's like so much easier. It's a good progression one. Good for the legs for the running. And the back. And then you can transition it with a little bit of general yoga poses, so you get hamstrings. Yeah, of course, you have to keep your car to your chest. But no, I'm feeling good, I'm feeling confident. Yeah, I'm feeling focused and full with peace and rest again. And I didn't really have that after other races. So I'm happy that, you know as well, the Tour had a bit of a winter break or a summer break. With like two months of no racing. And I think nearly everyone needed that, including the crew and everything. So, yeah, it feels good to be back again and having a decent block of training under my belt. So, yeah, let's see what happens. I think with everyone having a training period, the level of the racing will rise again. So, yeah, even if some guys pulled out, I think I just have to prepare to go full gas. Yes, of course, I'm excited to race Martin. But I think there are five, six, seven other guys that could potentially win it. As we know from the history so far in the Tour, like four races, four different race winners. So I really aim to be and hope to be the first one who wins two in a year. Thank you very much. Wait, you've got to tell me the taste, hasn't it? Happy days. Last minute equipment changes. Very smart, right? What are you changing? Well, I have two setups for UCI and for triathlon. Because I just raced the UCI World Championships last weekend. And switching to my triathlon setup feels very awkward and weird to me. So I'm just going to go back to UCI setup that I've been training on. And, yeah, I've raced on the triathlon setup before, but I've just been training for months on the UCI setup. So I'm just getting in my head a little bit. So we're just going to stick with what I like. Does it give you more confidence coming off a win? I don't know. I never have a lot of confidence coming into Team 100 racing. It's very, very competitive in deep fields. But, yeah, personally, just fitness-wise, I've raced well in Beijing. I raced well last weekend in the bike race. And I know I'm fit, but everything has to go really right in these races to have a good day. So I haven't had a disastrous bad race in a long time. So I'm pretty confident in my ability to deliver a consistent, good performance. But I hope I can have a special day where I have a really good race. Thank you.