Ygduf

Unlikely to replace my foil. There's nothing wrong with it at all after 30k miles. I still love it. The new venges/madones/other bikes have cleaner fronts and I am a total sucker for aero. Who doesn't like benefits that increase the harder/faster a race is?

hack

Uh ... me as I'm watching you sail away in a 35+ 123 race. The new Madone looks sharp, looks like it'd be hell to work on with all the nooks and crannies for the cables (wireless resovles that though). New Venge looks sharp too.

I'm rebuilding my old Venge and bought an evade in an attempt to reap some aero gains. Just need some deeper wheels and I'll be set for 2016.

misterwaterfall

I'm hoping to pick up a used Venge frame from someone who is upgrading this year. I don't care about absolute aeroness and I'm too cheap to buy something brand new. If anyone has a 56...

hack

Wowser ... reg fees for the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon are $750. I'll never question a $40 road race fee again. Shoot ... even 4 days at Cascade was only $120.

mike868y

sure, but most triathletes only do a few events a year. I don't even want to know what i've spent on reg fees this season.

gsteinb

$750 is pretty typical for big triathlons. But those folks tend not to race 40 or 50 times a season. They're also a wee bit longer and require more infrastructure than a typical amateur bike race. It's kinda like looking at a house like this and seeing the tax bill



and then saying you won't complain about your taxes any more when you live in a place like this



it's not really apples to apples.

hack

True ... but $750? Seems absurd. Just down the road the Wildflower Triathlon (which is a really big event) maxes out at $250.

TheKillerPenguin

I'd wager a good chunk of it is making sure people don't drown in an open water swim, and also taking over a fairly busy shipping channel for a day.

gsteinb

The mount washington hill climb is 300-350. Supply and demand.

hack

edit: Okay ... just checked out the Lake Tahoe Ironman ... $700 for general entry. Cripes, guess that is the going rate for a bigger/status event. I get that more infrastructure, permits, etc are necessary, but I didn't think that'd push reg fees up to $700.

caloso

I have a cousin who's a national level age-grouper and he probably does 2 or 3 IM or 1/2 IM distance tris a year. And that's considered a heavy schedule.

globecanvas

There is a TON of support at a triathlon/ironman/whatever. I spectated a local one last week, the course had 3 separate lake swims (different lakes), I was only at one of the lakes but there were at least 20 boats in the water and freakin scuba divers too! Scuba divers.

shovelhd

The operating costs are very high. Tons of officials. Tons of first responders. Tons of support staff. That said, major triathlons are run by for profit corporations not branches of an international organization. It's a different model.

Homebrew01

And they speak European over there, instead of American like the rest of us.

FFJ

The profit margins are also very high as evidenced by the recent sale of IRONMAN's parent company for $650M: IRONMAN Sold For $650 Million To Chinese Company | ACTIVE.

gsteinb

@DieterDrake

How dare they make money! Promoters should do it for love of the game.

misterwaterfall

Must we recycle that argument every month? It's not even the official offseason and things are going downhill

Grumpy McTrumpy

the ITU , as far as I know, is not a for-profit (as much as the UCI is also not a for-profit.. that's a different argument)

They put on a lot of events too. Just not the "Ironman", which is a trademark.

DieterDrake

*make money* funny. My focus is to lose money and to avoid lawsuits. That's the new world of road race promotion. Joy.

gsteinb

I don't know who we are, what's being recycled, or that there was an official start to the off season. I do know mine started though.

rideaz

Ironman triathlons cost around $800 just to enter, and they sell out in less than a day!! The costs will keep going up as long as they keep selling out. I did an Ironman back when the entry fee was $500. Knew it would be a one time thing and luckily was local so I had no travel costs. Some of the competitors are out there for over 16 hours though, so I guess they get more of their moneys worth than the pros that finish in 8 hours :-)

shovelhd

The ITU is the governing body but Ironman is a corporation as is Rev3. Different model.

shovelhd

*like*

hubcyclist

Killing time this morning downtown Boston. Unfortunately not sticking around for the races but the setup is looking good, good luck to those competing

tetonrider

the thing is, alcatraz is NOT an ironman. it's not even a 1/2--it's an olympic distance event, i believe. that's like 2.5h for people in shape.