Setting triathlon championship odds is a thankless task which invariably holds the prognosticator’s shortcomings up for ridicule. But Slowtwitch senior correspondent Timothy Carlson is once again up for his stint in the post race hall of shame.

Who could bet against young Alistair Brownlee, who has a shockingly perfect World Championship Series record? Well, some daring punters (bettors) might look at the crack in his invulnerability revealed with a loss to Javier Gomez at Europeans.

WTC has taken a bold and affirmative step, and has set several industry standards with its new anti-doping program. But AGers as well as pros? That’ll require uncommon smarts and agility.

Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run takes a great shot at the title, with his amazing, weird, wonderful, learned, hilarious tale of a secret race and culture clash between soulful U.S. ultrarunners and the legendary Tarahumaras of Mexico.

…they just can’t sprint the last lap anymore (well, not in under 65). Here’s a tale of special folks who mean a lot to this publisher.

You can’t buy love. But can you buy a maillot jaune? Last year Bjarne Riis squeezed the industry, appealing to companies poised to pay for victory. Specialized anted up. How is that turning out?

Steve Larsen is gone too young. Yes, he will be mourned, and remembered. But if you knew him, you knew there was more to him than stellar race results.

Riders in the Giro d’Italia staged a protest. It’s a rarity to see athlete solidarity in professional cycling; even less common in any other segment of professional endurance sports; and non-existent among professional triathletes.

Andy Potts and Virginia Berasategui smashed deep, quality fields at the
27th annual Wildflower long course triathlon. So how did those performances stack up against history?

Although defending champs Chris McCormack and Samantha McGlone are out, they’re calling this the deepest quality field in Wildflower history. That’s saying a lot. Timothy Carlson sorts it out for all you tri-punters

West Point’s Ashley Morgan leads the women’s favorites and the
Naval Academy’s Derek Oskutis has the best men’s career record coming into the 2009 USA Triathlon Collegiate Nationals in West Texas

Business is tough. The expression of that was felt last week by Zoot employees, about half of whom have lost or will lose their jobs. Sales management, customer service, finance, warehousing, will move to K2’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington.