The REAL thing
Whether it’s his legendary heart-on-sleeve attitude to racing, brutally candid vlogs or unbridled enthusiasm for a sport that rescued him from a wayward adolescence, 32-year-old Lionel Sanders is, in triathlon terms, box office.
There’s also no little talent. A cycling behemoth with a preposterously low heart rate, the Canadian posted an Ironman record 7:44:29 in Arizona in 2016 and thrashed himself to second place in the Ironman World Championship a year later. Even during a pandemic, where racing has been replaced by beating all-comers on Zwift, the authenticity and intensity that has captured a global following isn’t wavering, as Tim Heming found out...
220: Let’s start with the ultimate goal, the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. Your second place in 2017 was sandwiched between disappointment on the Big Island. Are you looking forward to an eventual return?
LS: I’ve been horrible the past two editions. The heat is the biggest problem for me in that race. I just went for a 65min run [in Tucson] and didn’t take any fluid. It’s 81 degrees [27°C] and I lost 6lbs [2.7kg]. Sweating is my big problem and difficult to keep up with.
220: Does this mean you can never win it?
I wouldn’t be an athlete if I thought problems were insurmountable –
