Week of Kona: 'Team USA' vs. 'Zee Germans' with Thorsten Radde, Plus An Insider's Perspective of The Pre-Race Pro Presser and Race Week

We catch up with Thorsten Radde of trirating.com for a final chat prior to Saturday's Ironman World Championships. Thorsten picks Tawnee's brain on what it's like "behind the scenes" in Kona at the press conferences, mingling with pros, etc. Then we play a fun game....Team USA vs. Zee GermansIn this new game, we stack up USA vs. Germany*. Each person picks 10 athletes from our countries (male or female), talks about why they would have a great race, etc. The winner will be lowest sum of ranks for the athletes we picked. Rules: Points are taken from the best placed 5 of these ten (to account for DNFs, more DNFs = last place). Points per athletes = rank he/she is placed in the Kona race. Winner is the player whose athletes placed best (i.e. the fewest points). We will follow up with the "winner" of the game post race!Also, Thorsten will be doing live predictions during the race (mix of actual splits and my predictions as the race progresses). You can follow at kona.trirating.com.*Full list of athletes representing each country:Team USABib Name6 Timothy O'Donnell15 Andy Potts18 Matthew Russell29 TJ Tollakson31 Andrew Starykowicz41 Ben Hoffman44 Justin Daerr103 Meredith Kessler108 Linsey Corbin109 Caitlin Snow110 Elizabeth Lyles113 Amber Ferreira117 Mary Beth Ellis120 Beth Shutt124 Amanda Stevens129 Lisa Roberts132 Jackie Arendt133 Kim Schwabenbauer134 Bree Wee135 Jessie Donavan137 Kelly WilliamsonZee GermansBib Name3 Sebastian Kienle9 Jan Frodeno26 Maik Twelsiek28 Faris Al-Sultan35 Christian Kramer42 Christian Brader43 Nils Frommhold52 Boris Stein54 Andreas Raelert122 Kristin Moeller128 Julia Gajer138 Katja Konschak