Contrary to speculations, the ITU Des Moines World Cup will be a swim-bike-run event and should thus remain the final qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Team, race organizers announced earlier today.

Sable offers premium quality optics at a premium price, but their goggles are worth every penny for open water racing.

We had an invite to Zoot’s apparel debut, and came away with an inadvertent sneek peak at the new ’09 footwear line.

Paul Ambrose is a rising star in triathlon and despite his swimming background has become a very strong cyclist. He recently proved at 70.3 California that he can put it all together when only Andy Potts and Craig Alexander were able to beat him.

Several German newspapers have reported that a German man, with some connection to triathlon, was arrested last week at the airport in Verona, Italy, facing charges arising from making terrorist-sounding threats in order to delay his flight.

Terenzo Bozzone topped a fantastic bike split with the fastest run of the day to win the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Kansas. Craig Alexander and Leon Griffin rounded out the podium. Sam McGlone won the women’s race after chasing Joanna Lawn for most of the run. Lawn held on to second and Linsey Corbin finished third.

Fraser Cartmell won the 2008 Ironman 70.3 UK and narrowly held off fellow Brit Steven Bayliss. Aussie Luke Bell finished third. In the women’s race, Bella Comerford added another win to her resume. Julie Dibens took the runner-up spot and age grouper Sara Sig Moeller snuck into third place.

SRAM’s entry into the tri market is no token effort. We take a look at what they debuted for tri in ’08. And surprisingly, it ain’t about the bling.

Today begins a new set of articles on Slowtwitch, a series in which we feature a bike in a fashion we call our “Preferred Build.” We’ll highlight a bike, built as we might if it were left up to the Slowtwitch editors. We start with a Cervelo P3C, built to my choosing.

Exit Cycling finished work on an angular head pin for its X/Y adjustable fit bike. This makes Exit Cycling, the fit bike maker owned by popular custom bike builder Ves Mandaric, a one-of-a-kind machine.

Jan Frodeno is the current German triathlon champion but he did not start at the recent 2008 ITU World Championships to concentrate fully on his Olympic quest. He has been on the podium in World Cups before, but doing that in Beijing would be sweeter.

Javier Gomez (ESP) won the 2008 ITU Elite Triathlon World Championships and confirmed that he will be the man to beat in Beijing this summer. The Elite women’s race was surprisingly won by Helen Tucker (GBR) who out-sprinted Sarah Haskins (USA) just before the finish line.

Alistair Brownlee (GBR) held of defending champion Gregor Buchholz (GER) at the 2008 ITU Triathlon World Championships in Vancouver, BC and took the U23 title. Wearing bib #1 just like Alistair Brownlee did in the men’s race, Daniela Ryf (SWI) snagged the U23 women’s title.

After taking the crown at Florida 70.3 just a few weeks ago, Paul Amey now also ran away with the title at the 2008 Eagleman Ironman 70.3 triathlon. The women’s race was won by Joanna Zeiger who led the event from start to finish.

Reigning Ironman 70.3 World Champ Andy Potts and Great Britain’s Leanda Cave beat back solid fields to win the Accenture Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, each defending their victories from a year ago.

Vincent Luis (FRA) took the 2008 Junior Men World Championship crown in Vancouver, Canada with a dominating performance. Denis Vasiliev (RUS) was the runner-up and Jonathon Brownlee (GBR) finished third.

Kirsty McWilliam (GBR) won the 2008 Junior Women World Championships in rainy and cold conditions. Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) finished second and Zsofia Toth (HUN) rounded out the podium.

Not too many folks would have predicted that Jarrod Shoemaker would earn himself a ticket to the 2008 Olympic games and/or appear on a Wheaties cereal box. But Jarrod made both those scenarios come true and he chatted with Slowtwitch before the ITU Worlds in Vancouver.

Laura Bennett was the first American to capture a spot on the Olympic triathlon team with her 3rd place at the 2007 ITU World Cup in Beijing. We got to see her golden smile a few times more often as she had indeed a great racing year. Meet Laura Bennett.

Swiss triathlete Ronnie Schildknecht won the 2008 Ironman 70.3 Switzerland after battling Germany’s Konstantin Bacher throughout. In the women’s race Britain’s Julie Dibens had her hands full with Swiss Nicola Spirig but ended up winning it on the run.

Terenzo Bozzone had to reel in Chris Lieto with a fantastic 1:14:18 run split to win the 2008 Ironman 70.3 Boise, after Lieto had posted the fastest bike split of the day. Kate Major looked solid all day as she captured the women’s title.

Chris McCormack used a super fast bike split to win the 2008 Hawaii 70.3 triathlon. Sam McGlone won the women’s event over Tyler Stewart.

At the 2008 Ironman 70.3 Florida Lindsey Jerdonek seemingly came out of nowhere to finish as the top age grouper and in 8th place overall. The 23 year old actually just recently stumbled upon triathlon and it appears that we will see her name in the results more often.

Alistair Brownlee is part of a new generation of triathletes coming through and he is truly someone to keep an eye on. The 20 year old is in his rookie ITU Elite season and just took another podium spot at the World Cup race in Madrid. He talked to Slowtwitch.