Richard Ussher used his adventure racing fitness to win the 2009 XTERRA New Zealand, and narrowly held off Scott Thorne despite never having done any other XTERRA race before. Mountain biker Nicola Leary captured the women’s title.

The distance between the average and the good, and the good and the great, is often measured by the adherence to routine. Consistency makes the champion; nothing bedevils the the AGer more than consistency killers

Today we look at compression socks from Beaker Concepts, a new line of shoes from Crocs, recover shorts from Fizio and a different way to hang your bike.

Rasmus Henning, a two-time $200,000 winner at short course, sweated through a 113-degree day to take 95 percent less prize purse by winning Ironman China. Australian Charlotte Paul was simply glad to finish – the win was icing.

McCormack’s 4:04:44 in heat that makes Hawaii seem cool, may be his best performance. Balding’s 5:28 winning time was a victory over hellish heat.

The first of a series of finish line photos by Timothy Carlson captures the apparent agony of extreme triathletic effort.

Sam Gardner used his bike prowess to win the 2009 XTERRA Saipan. Renata Bucher now has won the event 5 times straight and soundly defeated 2-time XTERRA World Champion Julie Dibens.

UC Berkeley’s John Dahlz won the men’s individual title, Jessica Broderick of CU Boulder won the women’s individual crown, Navy won the combined team title, UC Berkeley won the men’s team race and UC San Diego won the women’s team top prize.

West Point’s Ashley Morgan leads the women’s favorites and the
Naval Academy’s Derek Oskutis has the best men’s career record coming into the 2009 USA Triathlon Collegiate Nationals in West Texas

We talked to Aussie Luke McKenzie last year in January and lots has changed for him since then. He moved from the Gold Coast to Noosa, attracted a few new sponsors and earned a couple Ironman titles.

2008 was a very good year for Eneko Llanos, but if he has his way in 2009 he’ll be a spot higher at a couple of events, including the Ironman World Championships. Eneko talked to slowtwitch.

If the 1981 Ironman results are correct, it’s not Dave Scott. It’s a 19-year-old community college cross country runner from Bloomington, Minnesota who never did another triathlon before or after his 2:59:48 run at Kona.

Lothar Leder virtually disappeared from the triathlon scene after being involved in a blood value controversy prior to Ironman Germany in June of 2007. He spoke to slowtwitch about the incident and his plan to return to racing.

This week we look at running socks from Balega, trainers from Newton, compression socks from SLS3, a teaser from Scott USA and flip flops from Havaianas. If it were not for Scott USA, we could have called this one “the foot issue.”

Business is tough. The expression of that was felt last week by Zoot employees, about half of whom have lost or will lose their jobs. Sales management, customer service, finance, warehousing, will move to K2’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

Sandra Wallenhorst was a relative unknown in triathlon until she stormed to a record breaking win at Ironman Austria and a 3rd place in Kona in 2008. And this all happened after she had a baby.

Not very many tri bikes exist in that $1900 to $2400 price range, even though many dealers will tell you this is the “new” entry level tri bike price category. Here’s a pair of such bikes, from Fuji and Giant.

It’s been almost 2 years since we polled Slowtwitchers on what bikes they admire, and to which they aspire. Here are the results of a recent set of polls, compared to what you all said in July of 2007

Chrissie Wellington’s 8:57:10 tops Rebecca Keat by 24 minutes and places her 13th overall; Patrick Vernay takes third straight Ironman Oz crown

Canadian ITU and XTERRA racer Brent McMahon ran down the 2007 Ironman World Champion Chris McCormack to win the inaugural 70.3 New Orleans. In the women’s race Swiss Miss Natascha Badmann showed that she is finally back after endless battles with injuries stemming from the 2007 Ironman World Championships.

Marino Vanhoenacker put on a very strong performance at the 2009 Spec-Savers Ironman South Africa and won in course record time. Lucie Zelenkova also broke the course record as she cruised to victory.

Bevan Docherty takes second straight Oceania Cup win, while Kirsten Sweetland, back in top form after 2008 injury, follows Mooloolaba World Cup triumph with another win at New Plymouth

Matty Reed used a monster 1:11 run to take the 2009 70.3 California event ahead of Andy Potts. Mirinda Carfrae had to come from behind to catch late leader Sarah Groff less than a mile before the finish.

2008 has been a magical year for Ronnie Schildknecht with his wins at Ironman Switzerland, 70.3 Switzerland and the European Duathlon Championships, and a 4th place in Hawaii. He starts his 09 season in Oceanside at 70.3 California.