Profile Design again leads the field, as it once did many years ago. How many years ago is that? We don't know, but Syntace was on top 629 aerobars to Profile's 475 as far back as 1997. Syntace's lead over Profile had increased to 750 to 340 by 1999. By 2001 Profile had stopped the bleeding and, though Syntace still led the gap was narrowed, with Profile training Syntace 707 to 549.

By 2003 one thing had changed. First, Profile Design's market share in Kona had stayed roughly the same, from 38.5% of the field to 39%. But Syntace's had dropped from 49.5% to 44%. Other companies were emerging. Hed and Visiontech were starting to sell bars, and Oval Design debuted with 15 aerobars in the race. In two years the Syntace/Profile market share in Kona has dropped from 83% to 68%.

As a result, Profile has moved to the front, with 36.4% of the market to Syntace's 32%. But throughout the decade its market share hasn't gone up, it's just that the other aerobar companies have eaten into Syntace (each of the companies at right had at least 60 aerobars iin the race).

One other element of note to consider when counting here in years to come. Of the bars in the race, 62% were still made of aluminum, and 38% were of carbon.

The most striking elements to this are Profile Design's reemergence as the preeminent brand, the result of a lot of innovation and hard work. Also, of course, noteworth are all the aerobar options. There were 13 companies in the race represented with at least a dozen aerobars.

Finally, there is the case of Oval Concepts, which gets the prize as the most efficient manufacturer in the race, when it comes to getting more out of less. Oval has a brand new one-piece design for 2006, and it had one of these bars in the race. Who rode it? New bike course record holder Torbjorn Sinballe. Oval had a very few additional pros on its bars, one of which was second placer Michellie Jones, another of which was the men's winner, Faris Al-Sultan. Somebody at Oval is good at picking winners, and I'm going to stick like glue to him at Vegas next year.

KONA SURVEY CENTRAL