When you compare the top half-dozen brands from 2003 to those of six Konas ago, there's been quite a bit of change.
A lot more, in fact, than occurred in the several years prior to that. Between 1994 and 1998 the top seven companies remained the top seven each year, though there was some jockeying for position among them. Since then Softride has fallen back a bit, and Cervelo has taken its place. The two ABG brands, Quintana Roo and Litespeed, have swapped places. Only Kestrel and Trek seem to have remained in roughly the same spots, with Trek having scored the highest since a decade ago, when it had 175 in the race.
Litespeed's jump-up was remarkable, second only to Cervelo. Litespeed had 87 bikes in the race last year, a decrease from 95 bikes the year before. How did it jump to 119? One part of that story might be in how we counted this year. We thought we'd tabulate what was really ridden in the race, not what the downtubes read. As was the case in Lance's early Tour wins, sometimes Litespeeds are ridden even if they don't say Litespeed (though, as noted, it could be worse: a pair of Walsers were prominent in this year's race, though Walser had zero bikes in the race is you just looked at downtubes). But that doesn't entirely explain Litespeed's increase.
Cervelo had another banner year. Two years ago there were only 57 in the race, then 89 last year and a whopping 132 this year. I suspect they might've been #2 had it not been for production delays early in the year. If their rate of growth continues, they may give Trek a run for its money next year.
Trek is an interesting study when you consider its performance against Specialized. Each has its sponsored athletes who win, neither has a compelling tri bike, but Specialized doesn't have the all-carbon bikes Ironman-distance athletes want, if it's a road bike they're after. Specialized had only 37 bikes in the race, it clearly hasn't gained traction yet among serious triathletes. Maybe, now that Peter Reid won the race on a sharp-looking Specialized, things might change. But will they build Peter's bike for production?
I was surprised there weren't more Felts in the race. Only 23 showed up, and Felt has had such a strong year in tri bike sales I suspected more. Felt had almost twice that many bikes in its "old" days, when the Felt brand was made by Answer Products and ridden by Newby when she was at the top of her game. I suspect that next year or the next, Felt's numbers in Kona will at least double.
Six years ago Giant had only 17 bikes in Kona. Three years ago it had 41. But since then it's only clawed up to 51. It's going to have to make more compelling tri bikes in order to continue its growth.
There were six Cheetahs, two of which were ridden by the top two women in the race. This bike ought to have better representation in the race, but I think the space-aged-looking bike scares people off, they think it's going to be too difficult to assemble, maintain, adjust.
Trek is not the only company making carbon bikes to register a healthy increase. Just two years ago Calfee had 19 bikes in Kona. This year it had 34.
Why was there no movement in bike brands from '94 through the balance of the decade, and so much movement since then? I think it mirrors the health and growth of the sport. The 90s were not a good decade for triathlon. This decade is. In the 90s the same people were going to Kona every year, on the same bikes. Now it's turned over, there are new competitors racing, and invigorated bike companies have taken advantage of the triathlon's growth.
