Americans Andy Potts and Linsey Corbin won today’s Ironman Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. Potts led nearly from start to finish to earn a dominating victory, while Corbin battled with American Meredith Kessler all day and came out on top thanks to a strong run. The day started off with American John Flanagan, perhaps the only man
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Americans On Top In Coeur…
After seven years of working together, 2010 Ironman world champion Mirinda Carfrae and coach Siri Lindley will go separate ways. Each announced the split on their respective Facebook pages and sent out the following news release Saturday (Feb. 11) morning. See the official press release below: Ironman world champion Mirinda Carfrae and her long-time coach Siri Lindley have ended their professional partnership. After seven successful years, the pair agreed they have outgrown their coach/athlete relationship. Their lives, commitments and goals have evolved to where they each need to move in different directions in 2012. They will both need to move in different directions to fulfill differing professional goals and commitments in 2012 and beyond. During the span of their relationship, Carfrae and Lindley earned numerous world titles together, including the Ironman 70.3 World Championships (2009) and the coveted Ironman World Championship title in Kona (2010), with a record setting run split. Carfrae went on to place second in Kona in 2011, breaking her own run course record in a time of 2:52:09. Under Lindley’s guidance, Carfrae earned three of the fastest top-10 times ever recorded in Kona. At age 30, and with over 15 Ironman 70.3 wins and three podium finishes at the Ironman World Championships to date, Carfrae intends to continue her domination of the sport well into the next decade. Lindley, a two-time ITU world champion, recognized Carfrae’s raw talent as an emerging Under-23 athlete at ITU World Championships. Following Carfrae’s win at Nice in 2004 and on the heels of her second place finish at ITU Long Distance World Championships in 2005, the two set out on the road to Kona together, a distance that was new to both of them but in which they were confident Carfrae would excel. During this journey Carfrae emerged not only as the fastest runner in the sport, but also as the most consistent competitor at every distance. Lindley’s fun-loving and passionate approach to coaching combined with Carfrae’s self- discipline, desire and commitment to the sport she loves has indeed proved a winning combination. “Siri Lindley is an incredible coach. She has been my trusted mentor and at my side through seven years of truly tough work and amazing accomplishments. She always had a plan in place and made working together both strategic and fun. We’ve finally outgrown our professional relationship, but our friendship and mutual respect will last forever,” said Carfrae. Lindley will continue to coach her Sirius team of athletes and is thrilled to have had the opportunity to learn and grow through her successful collaboration with Carfrae. “Mirinda is the prime example of an athlete having a huge dream, and being willing to do all the work necessary, to make that dream come true. With hard work and determination and incredible commitment, she has achieved these dreams, and will continue to do so in the future. She has become one of the greatest athletes in our sport and I am so very proud of her. I thank Mirinda for her incredible commitment, her passion and the inspiration she has provided me as a coach. It’s been the most incredible, and satisfying journey,” said a thankful Siri. Carfrae is currently in Noosa, Australia preparing for the inaugural Ironman Melbourne on March 25. Other highlights of her 2012 schedule will include the Hy-Vee 5150 U.S. Championship in Des Moines, Iowa, Ironman 70.3 New Orleans, Ironman 70.3 Eagleman, Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens, Rev3 Quassy and the Ironman World Championships in Kona. PHOTOS: How Mirinda Carfrae Became an Ironman World Champion RELATED – From the Inside Triathlon Archives: The Story Of Mirinda Carfrae & Siri Lindley
Armstrong’s technical advisor Matt Shriver gives the intimate details of his Trek Speed Concept. Lance Armstrong will be racing a Trek, of course, in his first road triathlon since 1990, and his Speed Concept 9-series frame has a few unique adaptions to meet the needs of the former cycling champion. Armstrong’s technical advisor and Trek team liaison Matt Shriver is in Panama to make sure everything runs smoothly this weekend, and he gave Triathlete.com an inside look at Armstrong’s bike. Armstrong completely overhauled his road time trial position for triathlon. The UCI, cycling’s governing body, restricts fore-aft saddle position, which is one of the biggest differences between many road TT positions and triathlon positions. Despite spending decades in a UCI-legal setup, Armstrong decided to move has saddle forward—“much more forward,” says Shriver—now that he is free of those regulations. Since Armstrong now has to run after getting off the bike, he wants a position that is “still a little bit aero but more comfortable” than his time trial position, recounts Shriver. Armstrong and his longtime consultant Steve Hed of Hed Cycling worked closely to find that balance. The pair made the dramatic adjustments to his fit on the road before going to the wind tunnel. “We had him on a medium Speed Concept on the road and that was the correct size to get him within the UCI guidelines, but being able to have a fit outside the UCI rules, it made sense to go with a bike that’s a little larger. We bumped him up to a [size] large for stability and for fit [reasons],” Shriver says. “He wanted to have his hands a little higher” so they used one of the more conservative proprietary Speed Concept stem pieces. He is riding the 45mm x 100mm option, which brought his aerobars up and substantially reduced the drop from his saddle to aerobars compared to his road setup. Armstrong’s aerobar extensions are tilted upward as well. “He’s adapted to a triathlete fit, for sure,” says Shriver. “He still has really good power and is still pretty aero but a lot more comfortable.” After initially setting up his position with Hed, Armstrong went to the wind tunnel and Shiver says they “did tweak a few things to make him a little more aero but still keep that comfort.” Although Armstrong often time trialed on Hed3 wheels while racing on the road, he is now using a Bontrager Aeolus D3 7 front wheel, the second deepest iteration of Bontrager’s new wheel line. Armstrong opted for this wheel rather than the 9, which has an additional 2cm of rim depth, because “even though the 9 is slightly faster, it’s difficult to handle a wheel of that depth in winds that exceed 9mph, so if you have high winds you’re fighting it,” explains Shriver. The Texan is fully committed to Trek and its family of brands, but its wheel label Bontrager doesn’t make a disc, so Armstrong rides the Lightweight Disc painted to match his Speed Concept. Shriver says they selected this specific wheel because “it’s stiffer, it’s as aero as [the other discs] and it’s the lightest.” Both wheels are wrapped with Bontrager’s Race XXX Lite Tubular tires. Armstrong is riding a prototype Bontrager triathlon saddle called the Hilo. Shriver says it has a “nice wide channel running down the center and a soft wide nose. It’s not quite as extreme as the Adamo. This is in between a road saddle and the Adamo.” The Hilo has a carbon shell, titanium rails and a synthetic cover. Armstrong has Speedplay pedals, presumably Zeros, mounted to his Speed Concept. He has a standard SRM power meter with SRAM aero chainrings, but Dave Bolch, one of Armstrong’s mechanics, TIG welded the SRM Power Control mount to one of the aerobar pad brackets. It positions the computer “right between his extensions just above his stem,” says Shriver. Despite using a triathlon bike in a distinctly triathlon-specific position, Armstrong elects to go with an “old school” hydration setup instead of using a bottle between the arms or behind the saddle. “He’s running a regular round bottle on the seat tube and one on the downtube. He wants to be able to drink as much as he can. We have a lot of bottles and different setups we run with our athletes, but you get a bottle on your handlebars with that extra weight up high on a technical course and the bike doesn’t handle as well. We’re going to lose a little bit of aerodynamics by playing it safe to keep him fueled and have a bike that just handles awesome,” says Shriver. The original SRAM Red drivetrain is on Armstrong’s Speed Concept instead of the new group that was unveiled last week . Shiver says they are waiting for new chainrings before swapping Armstrong over to the new components. He is also using unlabeled Zipp VukaR2C shift levers, which are built upon internals created by SRAM, and Bontrager RXXXL Aero brake levers. RELATED: A Conversation With Lance Armstrong
New Australian triathlon star Melissa Rollison will expand her racing experience this year as she further explores her vast potential in the sport. Rollison wants to gauge her abilities over longer and shorter distances as she looks at racing the Hawaiian Ironman and possibly trying to make the triathlon team for the 2016 Olympics. The 28-year-old from Brisbane has been a triathlon revelation over the past two years since a succession of injuries forced her to give away international track running. She has focused on long-course triathlons, winning last year’s world 70.3 title. Rollison is the favourite for Saturday’s women’s race at the Australian Long Course Championships (2/80/20) at Falls Creek in alpine Victoria, Australia, her first race of the season. She has been training at the ski resort to prepare for the March 3 Abu Dhabi triathlon, which she is using as a potential stepping stone to the Hawaiian Ironman. Abu Dhabi features a 3km swim, a 200km cycle and 20km run – on the way to the brutal Ironman distance. At the other end of the racing spectrum, Rollison will also contest two big Olympic-distance events in the United States this year to see if it might be feasible to target the 2016 Olympics. Read more: Ninemsn.com.au
It usually takes a new triathlete at least four years to reach world elite status, but Gwen Jorgensen did it in less than a year and a half. Gwen Jorgensen was enjoying the best race of her life. Her swim and bike legs finished, she was running light and fast and strong. She trailed only one competitor, Great Britain’s Helen Jenkins. With the fourth and final lap to go, it never crossed her mind that she was about to make history. Seventeen months ago, she was a full-time accountant. Now this. Minutes after crossing the finish line in second place, Jorgensen remembered all the details, except the most important one: She had just won a spot on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. “I remember turning around and watching the other girls, I remember [U.S. teammate] Sarah Groff coming in and I remember her crossing the finish line and going up to her and saying, ‘Congratulations, you’re on our Olympic team!’” Jorgensen said. “Going into the race, I knew the qualifications. I knew if I was top-nine or the first or second American, I would qualify, but during the race it never actually crossed my mind. I think I got into such a good zone, I was just racing.” That race in London was six months ago. A bigger race in London looms just five months away. When the women’s Olympic triathlon is held on the same course on Aug. 4, Jorgensen, 25, can only hope for a repeat performance. “Honestly, it’s still kind of a shock for me when I wake up in the morning,” she said. “It feels surreal for me. It’s something that keeps me motivated, though, and focused, which is amazing. It’s just a really good blessing to have this upcoming year.” Read more: Espn.com More about Gwen Jorgensen.
We can’t all travel to Panama for this weekend’s 70.3 event, but this clip from Triathlete.com’s senior video producer Steve Godwin will help you get into the racing spirit. More videos from Triathlete.com.
