The 34-year-old has shed a huge 5kg ahead of the race as he prepares to do battle with arch nemeses Kristian Blummenfelt<\/strong><\/a> and Gustav Iden<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and says the pressure is all on the Norwegian superstars.<\/p>\n \u201cFor them it\u2019s win or bust,\u201d Skipper explained. \u201cThey\u2019ve come here to win and then they\u2019re going back to short course. If they don\u2019t win it\u2019s a failure.\u201d<\/p>\n The GB ace is referencing the Bergen athletes\u2019 intentions to re-focus on Olympic distance for Paris 2024 after Saturday\u2019s race in Hawaii as Blummenfelt looks to defend the title he won in Tokyo<\/strong><\/a> last year.<\/p>\n Blummenfelt and Iden start the race as favourites, but Skipper argues that this puts the onus on them to make the bike leg tough enough to stop gun runners such as Germany\u2019s Patrick Lange<\/strong><\/a> staying within striking distance.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to see Patrick in the lead group on the swim,\u201d Skipper explained. \u201cThat would put pressure on the Norwegians.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019d be screaming at me to pull a turn [on the bike] but I\u2019d say: \u2018It\u2019s your race to lose boys.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully they\u2019ll tire themselves out and then I can capitalise and potentially put a dig in at the end of the bike. Or if they\u2019re fatigued, I\u2019ll run better.<\/p>\n \u201cMy best result is sixth, so if I finish third it\u2019s still better than I\u2019ve ever done. I\u2019m going to turn the psychology against them.\u201d<\/p>\n If Skipper is going to place better than he\u2019s ever done, he may also need to race faster than anyone has ever done on the Big Island, and believes records are set tumble.<\/p>\n \u201cThe men\u2019s marathon record [Lange\u2019s 2:39:45] will definitely go,\u201d he added. \u201cI rode 165km ride on the course and then ran 8km at 3min 30sec per km pace in training.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt comfortable in the heat of the day on the Queen K. I won\u2019t run that in the race, but I think I can run 2:39.\u201d<\/p>\n He believes the overall finish time will be around 7:45. It would be the fourth successive time the course record has been lowered and would take a chunk out of Jan Frodeno<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s 7:52:13 course record from 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say a 50min swim, 4hr 10min on the bike and then a 2hr 40min run with 5min for transitions \u2013 or faster \u2013 is what it will take to win the race.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s assuming we have the same conditions as 2018 and 2019. If it\u2019s a terrible day it\u2019ll be slower, but I\u2019ve been 8:03 on this course. With my current fitness, I\u2019d say I can go sub 7:50.\u201d<\/p>\n Skipper is certainly coming in hot. After an extended training camp at altitude in Font-Romeu he returned to the UK to put in an eye-opening performance<\/strong><\/a> at the notoriously tough Ironman Wales, smashing the course record and running a 2:37 marathon despite spending 15mins at the side of the road with a mechanical.<\/p>\n He was also looking leaner than at any time in his professional career. \u201cI normally weigh around 80kg so I\u2019m always going to get hotter than other people. It\u2019s just the science,\u201d Skipper explained.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019ve lost a lot of weight \u2013 around 5kg \u2013 for this race, concentrating on my diet and eating well.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s why I ran well in Wales, I\u2019ve been doing sessions out here in the heat that I couldn\u2019t do before, so it points to a good position.\u201d<\/p>\n Having missed the year\u2019s first Ironman World Championship in St George after contracting Covid, the race in Kona has long been Skipper\u2019s No 1 objective for the season.<\/p>\n \u201cI was married on July 2nd and we wanted to go on a mini-moon, so I decided to build up for October and extend the season.<\/p>\n \u201cThe season is so long now, you don\u2019t really need to race in June and July. It gave me time to get a decent training block in, instead of racing for the sake of racing. I\u2019m all in for Kona and if I feel good I\u2019ll do another one afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n Skipper also has somewhere to stay, having raised the alarm<\/strong><\/a> that he might not be travelling at all due to the soaring prices of accommodation.<\/p>\n \u201cI never said I definitely wasn\u2019t coming to Kona. I just posed the question: Are other pro athletes contemplating it? to get some discussion going.<\/p>\n \u201cThe prices were absolutely ridiculous. Up to $1,100 a night. People were renting out 20-year-old estate cars with a bed in the back for $200 a night.<\/p>\n \u201cThe car would probably sell for about \u00a31,500 in the UK, but it cost more to sleep in it for 10 days here!\u201d<\/p>\n Having raced here four times previously, he also has one final shot across the bows for the Norwegians who are making their debuts\u2026 and believe they have the upper hand<\/strong><\/a> because of it.<\/p>\n \u201cExperience is a big thing. I remember when Javier Gomez<\/strong><\/a> was here for the first time and was going to win it easily. He was walking on the Queen K.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2019, Ali Brownlee<\/strong> <\/a>was in great form and was a favourite to win. It was supposed to be another Iron War between Jan [Frodeno]<\/a><\/strong> and Alistair, but Ali walked the Queen K.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to respect this race. I know in other years I thought I\u2019d run well but it \u00a0hasn\u2019t turned out that way. This race can bite you.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Top image credit:<\/strong> Nigel Roddis\/Getty Images for Ironman<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Tim Heming Published: Wednesday, 05 October 2022 at 12:00 am Norfolk\u2019s Joe Skipper is looking lean and talking mean as he attempts to become the first British male triathlete to win the Ironman World Championship. The 34-year-old has shed a huge 5kg ahead of the race as he prepares to do battle with arch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":18139,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/joe-skipper-if-the-norwegians-dont-win-its-a-failure-scaled.jpg",2560,1706,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/joe-skipper-if-the-norwegians-dont-win-its-a-failure-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/joe-skipper-if-the-norwegians-dont-win-its-a-failure-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/joe-skipper-if-the-norwegians-dont-win-its-a-failure-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/joe-skipper-if-the-norwegians-dont-win-its-a-failure-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/joe-skipper-if-the-norwegians-dont-win-its-a-failure-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/joe-skipper-if-the-norwegians-dont-win-its-a-failure-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Tim Heming Published: Wednesday, 05 October 2022 at 12:00 am Norfolk\u2019s Joe Skipper is looking lean and talking mean as he attempts to become the first British male triathlete to win the Ironman World Championship. The 34-year-old has shed a huge 5kg ahead of the race as he prepares to do battle with arch…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/18138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} I\u2019d like to see Patrick in the lead swim group. That would put pressure on the Norwegians. They\u2019d be screaming at me to pull a turn but I\u2019d say: \u2018It\u2019s your race to lose boys\u2019 <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
The men\u2019s marathon record will definitely go <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
Will we see records fall\u00a0in Kona?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Is Skipper the one to watch?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/34\/2022\/10\/joe-skipper-swim-exit-ironman-wales-2022-182c516.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Rising costs of Kona<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u201cExperience is key\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"