Do triathlon discussions belong here?

Hiya Mike!

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

I ask whether triathlon discussions belong here because, after tomorrow, it
may be relevant. Or not.

Because if Lance does reasonably well in the NYC marathon, what are the odds
that's not the opening shot in his bid for the Ironman championship? And
what are the odds that people here could actually *not* talk about whatever
Lance is up to?

So... is it relevant to discuss the cycling aspect of triathlons here?

Flame on!

--Mike Jacoubowsky
"People shouldn't be scared of the government.
The government should be scared of the people."
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

I think Lance is, in this case, just keeping his foot in (pun intended)
for health etc. reasons. The guy is, by nature, a competitor, does like
publicity, and has a tendency to flaunt it when he's got it. I would
say he's just being a bit public in his personal campaign to not end up
looking as pudgy as Greg LeMond did ten years after his retirement
(more recent pictures seem to show LeMond's thinned down a bit).

Now, if Lance starts doing open ocean swims or begins woring out in the
pool with Mark Spitz, then I'd say the 40-45 Age Group at Kona could be
in for a real hurting in a couple of years.

Robert Leone

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

I ask whether triathlon discussions belong here because, after tomorrow, it
may be relevant. Or not.

Mike, you dumbass, I have to assume you're just trying to stir up
trouble.

Quoted message said:

Because if Lance does reasonably well in the NYC marathon, what are the odds
that's not the opening shot in his bid for the Ironman championship? And
what are the odds that people here could actually *not* talk about whatever
Lance is up to?

Answers: low and low.

I'm trying to imagine a world in which a retired Armstrong would want to
re-enter a highly competitive sport which may be the only seriously
contested activity that is even close to as hard as the Tour. Certainly
the training demands are frighteningly similar.

Also, given that after being paced by basically the best retired runners
in the world, he limped (literally) to a 3-hour finish, I think we can
count out Lance's triumphant return to Triathlism.

Quoted message said:

So... is it relevant to discuss the cycling aspect of triathlons here?

The important thing is to always mock their curious equipment choices.
That said, what's the feeling: has there been any notable aerodynamic/TT
trick which was pioneered by triathletes before it moved to cycling? My
impression is that the triathletes mostly copy from the pro cyclists,
and with some lag. Apparently bent-up bars are still hot in Tri circles.

Bike brand survey at the 2006 Hawaii Ironman:

http://slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/kona2006/brands.html

They repeatedly refer to certain bikes (Equinox TTX, Cervelo P3C) as
"tri-specific," where we might refer to them as "Zabriskie's weapon of
choice."

That said, I think the tri-geeks have the high ground when it comes to
being the driving force behind the sales of "TT" bikes.

The 2006 survey says that the big drop-off is that fewer road bikes
(with or without clip-on tri-bars?) are showing up, and more
tri-specific [aka TT] bikes are being used.

This makes sense, since a great number of makers are now building
reasonably priced bikes with a tri/TT cockpit setup.

Of note to someone in this discussion might be the substantial drop in
the number of Treks in the personal-best-fest this year. That said, it
was still second most popular, and much of the problem was that nobody
could buy the Equinox TTX in time for Kona.

Quoted message said:

Flame on!

Triathlism is a disease. To the extent that talking about the cycling
aspect may be an exit strategy for the sufferers, we should try to love
and support them, and encourage them to try a velodrome. They'll never
go back to swimming.

So it's a funny thing. I think (may be wrong, Mike?)

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Ryan Cousineau said:

Also, given that after being paced by basically the best retired runners
in the world, he limped (literally) to a 3-hour finish, I think we can
count out Lance's triumphant return to Triathlism.

Think he did the NYC marathon without doping?

I remember reading about two famous cyclists agreeing to do a stage of some
race clean, they still won, or came in 1, 2, but afterwards, so the story
goes, agreed not to do that again. ;-)

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

I ask whether triathlon discussions belong here

Dumbass -

No.

rec.sports.triathlon (or something like that)

thanks,

K. Gringioni.

In article <[email hidden]>,

nobody said:

Ryan Cousineau said:

Also, given that after being paced by basically the best retired runners
in the world, he limped (literally) to a 3-hour finish, I think we can
count out Lance's triumphant return to Triathlism.

Think he did the NYC marathon without doping?

I remember reading about two famous cyclists agreeing to do a stage of some
race clean, they still won, or came in 1, 2, but afterwards, so the story
goes, agreed not to do that again. ;-)

Yeah. That happened in the pre-Merckx era. Benjo will be along to remind
me who the riders were, but I'm going to guess Antequil and someone.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos