The expo at Ironman Hawaii had its first full day today and it is quite a big larger than ever before. There are actually quite a few companies present who had never been in the official Ironman expo in Hawaii before. Plus it is a great place to run into various pros and industry folks.
by Herbert Krabel, October 8, 2008There are still 4 days to go until the 2008 Ironman Hawaii, but the venues are already busy as if the race where tomorrow. We went down to the swim start this morning and checked out the action there.
Some people think Potts can, like Luc van Lierde in 1996, win in his debut at Kona. Other people wonder if the tall, talented former University of Michigan NCAA swimmer is serious – or if this is just a scouting expedition.
Greg Bennett held off Kona bound Andy Potts and a slew of ITU studs to capture the 2008 Toyota US Open Triathlon in Dallas, Texas. In the women’s race, Under 23 World Champion Lisa Norden of Sweden outran 2007 US Open Champion Sarah Haskins of the U.S. for the win.
Richie Cunningham beat a stellar field at the 2008 Ironman Longhorn 70.3 in Austin, Texas and Lisa Bentley nabbed the women’s title. Five-time World Champion Simon Lessing finished 4th in his final pro race.
Time off leaves America’s latest two-time Hawaii winner recharged, relaxed and reinvigorated. But the Kona dream will have to wait another year.
The 5-time World Champion who bestrode the world of triathlon in the 1990s like a Colossus, will race his last race as a pro at Austin 70.3
2008 has been a very magical year for Stephen Bayliss with Ironman wins in South Africa and UK, and a bunch of other very fine results. He is currently getting ready for Kona and has even bigger plans for late November.
After his win at the Bordeaux Grand Prix, Brad Kahlefeldt got his hip operated on and he checked in with Slowtwitch.com to give an update on his health and his coaching situation.
Banks and thrifts are failing, insurance companies and august houses of investment are crumbling with regularity. What about the bike biz?
Alex Wassmann is a good man to know, as he manages the technical relationships with SRAM sponsored teams and athletes in the triathlon, road & cyclo cross disciplines. Slowtwitch.com had a few words with him.
Nine-hundred registered Slowtwitch Forum members rated companies in six categories. Cervelo was the big winner in the first annual Slowtwitch Bike Industry Awards, winning in two categories.
Every year for 27 years the bicycle industry gathers somewhere in the American southwest to schmooze, sell, tout, brag, spy, gossip and swap lies at Interbike. Since the mid-1990s, the Mecca for North American capitalist, cycle-worshipping pilgrims has been Vegas. And what better nexus for this harmonic convergence, er, perfect storm of hope for a big score by entrepreneurs of two-wheel human-powered innovation and their target audience, bicycle nuts?
Interbike is 313,000 square feet of exhibit space and 660,000 square feet of floor space in the Sands Convention Center, 1,835 unique businesses, 22,974 expo attendees, 977 retailers, 486 media.
This edition of Interbike occurred in the very same week that some of Wall Street’s most formidable investment institutions collapsed like a house of cards and elite economists and Main Street were both in a tizzy. Still, and in part thanks to the 5-star demographics of multiport, Interbike remained in its bubble of well-being and enthusiasm for the elegant tools of their sport.
Here are a few of Interbike’s faces.
