We have never, to our recollection, considered just the women's field at the Hawaiian Ironman. Frankly, women were of small relevance to the triathlon industry during the 1990s, since so few women were part of the sport. This was true both on a percentage basis and as a hard number.

That's all in the past. Not only is the sport of triathlon a lot bigger now than it was a decade ago, women make up 35% of the sport here in the U.S., not 15% as was the case in the early to mid '90s. Further, the rate of new entries into multisport is evenly split among the sexes.

This means what, exactly? It means that if you're industry, and you're watching this trend, you'd better pay a lot of attention (both at the manufacturer and retail level) at what sort of bikes you currently make or stock to service triathlon's entry- and mid-priced levels. It also means you must face this fact: you're going to be selling just about as many mid- to high-priced 47cm, 49cm and 51cm tri bikes as you do 57cm, 59cm, and 61cm units, in the last half of this decade.

Certain companies appear better placed to leverage this reality than do others, and there is no real argument why that is. Consider the following. Quintana Roo is the fourth most prolific bike in the Kona field overall. Cervelo and Trek, on average, have twice as many bikes in the field as does QR. Yet QR is a slim third among women, ahead of Kestrel and only slightly behind Cervelo and Trek. This is the case even though Trek makes not only tri bikes for both sexes, and OCLV models for both sexes, it also makes an entire women's specific bike line. Plus, it arguably enjoys better worldwide distribution than either QR or Cervelo.

This makes it that much more curious that Quintana Roo is tops among American women in Kona. Certainly any company on the top half of this list enjoys better U.S. distribution than does QR. When QR has more bikes in the Kona field (among American women) then Specialized, Giant and Cannondale combined, one must ask what is peculiar about this brand?

For starters, only 12 of QR's bikes in the American women's field were ridden atop 700c wheels. The other 19 bikes were made with 650c wheels. Perhaps you think this an aberration, since QR is known for its 650c bikes. Factor in this: Cervelo's numbers in this category were even more lopsided toward 650c. Of its 28 bikes in the American women's Kona field, it had one more 650c bike as did QR, 20, and the remaining 8 were of 700c.

As a ratio Quintana Roo and Cervelo, the top two brands among American women in Kona, were represented by their 650c models 66% of the time, and the remaining third were on 700c wheels. How does this compare with the rest? If you subtract the bikes of these two brands, 40% of the U.S. women's field rode 650c wheeled-bikes.

The moral of the story appears to be that 650c is not dead. On the other hand, tri bike companies offering only 700c bikes in the smaller sizes seem, if not dead, to be breathing with difficulty. Need more supporting data? Let's consider some of the other brands on the top-10 list of American women in Kona. Sixteen of Litespeed's 28 were of 650c. So were 8 of Felt's 10 bikes in this category, 7 of Aegis' 11, 7 of Griffen's 10, and 9 of Calfee's 15.

Right at 70% of American women rode their bikes with seat angles at 76° or steeper. This compares with about 60% of the balance of the women's field. Pro women in the field, from all countries, rode steep at a rate of 72%.

How about a big misconception dispelled? Women don't buy expensive bikes, right? Depends where you live. When one considers the entire field of Kona women, and deletes from that field all the Americans (60% of the entire women's field), how many titanium bikes were ridden by these women? The answer is, there were 7 titanium bikes underneath the almost 200 non-American females. But, among the 268 American women whose frame materials we could identify, an astonishing 51 of them rode titanium! That's 19% of the field, remarkable when one considers that only 8% of the entire Kona field was riding bikes of this material!

Which brands comprised these 51 bikes? Litespeeds were underneath 21 of the American women, and Quintana Roo models (made in the same factory) were under 12 of them. There were 4 Merlins, 3 bikes each made by Seven, Airborne and Serotta, one Dean, one Spectrum, and a few other makers with a single bike in this field.

The reader with an eye for detail might ask, "If there were 23 Litespeeds ridden by American women, how come only 21 were titanium?" Good question. Our data indicates that a pair of the rare carbon/aluminum Litespeeds were in the race.

One should not assume by this that the rest of the world's women are riding entry level bikes. Of the 458 women in Kona whose frame materials we could identify, 170 were riding carbon bikes entirely, and another 46 were riding carbonized aluminum (carbon rear stays, for example). Of the remainder, 178 were on bikes entirely of aluminum. These percentages mirror the entire Kona field.

Finally, here's how it looked among the field of professional women. Seventy-two percent of them rode at 76° or steeper, as previously mentioned. Right about the same percentage chose 700c wheels over 650c, surprising when one considers how many women (American women in particular) chose 650c wheels. Who were riding the smaller-wheeled bikes in the race? Notables include Natascha Badmann, Kate Allen, Katja Schumacher, Lisa Bentley, Joanna Zeiger, Tina Walter, Heather Gollnick, Rebecca Preston and Kim Loeffler. The women's winner and 4 of the top 10 were on 650c bikes. Conversely, Michellie Jones, Kate Major, Joanna Lawn, Belinda Granger and Karen Thuerig all ride 700c bikes.

Lest anyone assume the proclivity toward American women and titanium is a function of sponsorship, only 4 women in the Kona's pro field rode a bike with any sort of titanium in it (two of which were QRs, none of which were Litespeeds).

What to take from this? To the degree that America is a harbinger of trends to come, and that Kona is a bellwether of trends currently in play, one might surmise that smaller wheels are desirous over larger and that titanium, not diamonds, are a girl's best friend.

KONA SURVEY CENTRAL