At the 2008 Ironman Lake Placid, Will Ronco came through with a breakthrough performance and finished 5th overall. After trying to hug anyone in sight at the finish line, Ronco now has his sights set on Kona.

The sport of triathlon has lost eight of its competitors during races in the United States so far in 2008. The good news: so far our roads have been safe. The bad news: so far the water has been less so. What mitigates risk factors during the swim leg of a triathlon?

Today we are taking a closer look at the Felt DA of Jordan Rapp for our series “the bikes of the pros.” Jordan has posted some of the fastest bike splits in a few races he has entered and we wanted to know more about his setup.

We sat down with Scott Montgomery, the general manager of Scott USA to discuss the recent Tour de France drug scandal involving Saunier-Duval / Scott athletes Ricardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli.

Craig Alexander won the highly competitive 2008 Ironman 70.3 Newfoundland and held off Richie Cunningham and Chris Legh. Mirinda Carfrae had a dominating performance in the women’s race.

Belgian triathlete Marino Vanhoenacker has now won Ironman Austria 3 times in a row and has also been victorious at Ironman Florida in 2005. That is certainly not shabby for someone who was a duathlete not too long ago.

US Olympian Matty Reed won the 2008 Boulder Peak triathlon in record time and under extremely hot conditions. The women’s race was won by Canadian Angela Naeth who is racing her first season as a pro.

Last month we debuted a new feature, called the Preferred Build. The
idea is to gruppo-up some popular and interesting bikes the way we’d
like to see them built. July’s preferred build
subject is Kuota’s Kueen K.

Do you know how to determine your bike’s correct chain length? Do you know why it’s important? It has to do with course topography, and choosing the right freewheel for your race. You don’t have multiple freewheels? Baby, we need to talk.

Terenzo Bozzone won the 2008 Vineman 70.3 in a course record time of 3:49:40 and Craig Alexander and Steve Larsen rounded out the podium. The women’s race was won by Joanna Zeiger who held off a hard charging Tyler Stewart.

Luke Bell won the 2008 Spirit of Racine triathlon and showed that he is clearly coming back into form. Kelly Handel took the women’s title as she ran away from her competition in the final half marathon.

Greg Bennett won his fourth consecutive NYC triathlon on Sunday July 20th, while Liz Blatchford took her first. NYC was the second stop on the Lifetime Fitness series.

Francisco Pontano (ESP) won the 2008 Ironman Lake Placid despite the hard raining condition. Caitlin Shea-Kenney (USA) was the surprise winner in the women’s race thanks in part to her amazing sub 3 hour marathon.

Ivan Rana (ESP) won the final ITU World Cup prior to the Olympics and narrowly held off Kris Gemmell (NZL) and Sven Riederer (SUI). Nicola Spirig (SUI) was victorious in the women’s race and lead Carole Peon (FRA) and Samantha Warriner (NZL) across the line.

Argentinian Eduardo Sturla won Ironman Brazil earlier this year and is now completely focused on Ironman Hawaii. Sturla finished 13th in Kona when he won Ironman Brazil in 2001, and is eager to move up even higher in Hawaii later this year.

Last year I wrote a series of articles about the most underserved segment of the handlebar market. I described the state of the shorty bar, offered some opinions, and reported on the best current product. Here’s an updated version of that article.

“Why am I uncomfortable on my bike?” Do you have occasion to ask this? We endeavor to find the answer in our series on the subject. Our first installment focused on contact points. This is the second and final installment.

A sudden weather change with sub freezing temperatures caught the participants at the 8th Annual International Zugspitz Extrem-Berglauf by surprise and 2 runners ended up dead seemingly from exposure and exhaustion.

Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI) won the 2008 Ironman Switzerland thanks in part to his 4:27:43 bike split. In the women’s race it was Sybille Matter (SUI) who proved to be too strong for her competition.

Oscar Galindez (BRA) used a monster bike split to capture the 2008 Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island. Lisa Bentley (CAN) had to chase down long time leader Andrea Fisher (USA) to win the women’s race.

Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) dominated the 2008 Ironman Austria and thus grabbed his consecutive 3rd Ironman Austria title. The women’s crown was taken by Sandra Wallenhorst (GER) who briefly held the fastest time at the Iron distance with her time of 8:47:25.

Ironman Australia winner Patrick Vernay (NCL) won the 2008 Quelle Challenge Roth and held of a host of tough challengers. Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED) managed a new world best time of 8:45:48 enroute to her win in the women’s race.

Simon Whitfield broke away with 400m to go and Emma Snowsill ran away from everyone out of T2 as each claimed first place at the 2008 Lifetime Fitness Triathlon.

We recently introduced you to the life story of Andreas Niedrig, and today we bring you the interview with the enigmatic German athlete, husband, father, motivator and former junkie. Part 2 of 2.