The last few days we noticed the AVIA AVI-Quest Lite training shoe, a Chris Macca McCormack comic strip, the new aerodynamic Scott F1 road bike and SPF 50+ sun block from Scape Labs.

Alistair Brownlee is back to his dominating 2009 form as he crushes the men’s field at Athlone; Nicola Spirig wins her second ETU European Championship in a row and second major event in a month.

Innovation is the fun part of producing triathlon. In the beginning, a race director learns the basics: what equipment is needed, how to recruit volunteers, how early to stop publishing your phone number before race weekend.

Marino Vanhoenacker’s 7:52:05 is 4th fastest all-time at the distance as the Belgian captures his 5th straight Ironman Austria; Eva Dollinger takes women’s crown.

Andreas Raelert stormed to the win at the 2010 Ironman European Championships in Frankfurt, Germany with a superb bike split and held off a stellar field. Sandra Wallenhorst ran down Caroline Steffen to take the women’s title.

The Professional Triathlon Association (PROTA), conceived to represent the interests of American pros, expands to non-U.S. pros, confronts its first challenge in responding to WTC’s proposals.

Bont’s moldable, monocoque cycling shoes bring something new to the tri shoe category: a shoe so form fitting the single-strap closure method isn’t the liability it once was.

The inaugural Abu Dhabi International Triathlon was announced in November of 2009 and made quite an impression a few months later. The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority now announced that the registration for the 2011 event is open.

The Tribute is an update on the Tribal: a tri-specific cycling shoe with an extremely soft Lorica upper. Don’t expect the same fit, feel and features: the shoe is an improvement, or not, depending on you.

Reigning Kona three-peater Chrissie Wellington weighs in with a thoughtful, thorough response on Ironman’s proposal to overhaul its prize money and World Championship qualification system.

Ben Hoffman is having a great season so far with a runner-up spot at 70.3 Boise behind Craig Alexander and several other nice podium finishes including a 3rd place at Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 a couple days ago.

Ironman has clearly been frustrated by the lack of quality athletes toeing the starting lines of many of its events.  The new proposed framework attempts to address this.

So many products, so little time. Today we look at the Giro Prolight helmet, Tritan Positive Drive fins, Powerbar Gel Blasts energy food, Haribo Happy Cola snacks, a new Rotor 3D length and the QLOCKTWO clock.

Andy Potts dominates Coeur d’Alene by 13:37 to take his first Ironman victory; Linsey Corbin breaks the course record, run record in her first IM win.

Chris Lieto used a monster 2:08:04 bike performance and a solid run to take the 2010 Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake race in Lubbock, Texas. Magali Tisseyre ran down fellow Canadian Angela Naeth to take the women’s title.

Kiwis Bevan Docherty and Nicky Samuels won the 2010 Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon that was changed to a 5k run, 40k bike and 10K run duathlon after an apparent tragic incident yesterday.

Marcel Zamora Perez won his 5th straight Ironman France with race-best bike and run; Tine Deckers sets course record, wins by 2.5 miles over Erika Csomor, repeats at Nice

Felt’s Devox aerobar is an ambitious effort, especially for a company that specialized in making bikes, not parts. How does it stand up as an aftermarket bar?

Spain’s Eneko Llanos outran Martin Jensen of Denmark by 1:26; Virginia Berasategui completed an all-Basque home region sweep with a 4:16 margin over Great Britain’s Jodie Swallow at European long distance champs in Spain.

The World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) is currently circulating a document to all its Pro members with proposed policy and rule changes focus mostly on Kona qualifying. The document though is not final yet.

Specialized really went after the tri-specific crowd with its TriVent BG shoe. Notwithstanding a couple of minor peeves, this shoe is the cash register leader and deserves to be.

A few more photo caption competitions are now in the books featuring images from Muddy Buddy, Ironman Hawaii and a random vacation picture. Meet the winners of photo caption competition 4-6.

Fraser Cartmell runs down Philip Graves by 1:50; Bella Bayliss outruns Tamsin Lewis by 3:24 to take Ironman 70.3 UK crowns

Conrad Stoltz of South Africa topped Dan Hugo and Renata Bucher of Switzerland edged Shonny Vanlandingham to win the XTERRA East Championship off-road triathlon in Richmond, Virginia Sunday