First time I saw him in real life, IMLP 2001....I'm on lap 1 mile 9 or so, Steve, is on lap 2 passes me like I am going backwards (which I literally was) and dances up the climbs by the ski jumps like he's trying to do something like gap Pantani on the Stelvio, instead this time his baby blue Saucony's are floating along like he's in an anti gravity environment :-). Then I learn that this guy never ran more than 18 miles in his life! Thanks for that memory! Very cool.

I just did a "what Steve Larsen meant to me" exercise in my mind:

1) Steve got a raw deal where the Olympics MTB selection is concerned; politics, bah. But he got over it. That's pro.

2) Cyclists have serious reflexes and guts; Steve was a king in that respect.

3) My reaction to having Steve race as an Age Grouper was "I just raced Steve Larson; FREAKIN' AWESOME!"

4) Knowing how much he loved being a dad, and how he won't get to see what I see today, his kids as young adults, just breaks my heart.

Tim

Never new the guy but the first time I learned of him as at IMLP 2001 as well. I was in a unique position of driving for one of the tech support cars at the time. I was the last of 5 on the course and we were waiting for the first male to pass, we were going to count until the lead 3 had passed and we would start to trail after them on the way back into town. We were parked at the corner (can't remember the street names) at the bottom of White Face. All of a sudden like a bat out of hell we see some guy ABSOLUTELY FLY BY, it was a yellow blur. Les, the mechanic I was with, and I figure there's no way he's racing and was someone out riding the course. I think we picked up the 4th pro and started to trail after that later to learn when we retuned to town how ridiculously fast he was riding.

Since then I've followed him periodically as most and always thought that he was a pro that did it the way it should be done. From my perception of his race mentallity, bike fit (call me a geek, whatever) etc.

Definitely a shock to see something like this happen, but then again after watching a past Kona presentation I think it was John Blazeman that said something to the effect that 'this is not a dress rehearsal' we get one shot at it and then its done.

His first season racing tris was my senior year summer of high school, a good friend and I had both just started doing tris. We lived in NY and had some friends doing IMLP so we followed the results and were amazed at Steve's performance. I think we spent the rest of that summer trying to "ride like Steve Larsen" proceeding to drill each other into the ground early in training rides only to blow up and limp home.

That October, I was in my freshman year of college at a house party. Every one else was drinking, having a good time, I was sitting at a computer in the house hitting the reload button on the web browser to see how Steve's race was going. He's a big part of the reason I got so interested in tris.

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Portside Athletics Blog

I met Steve after his win at Auburn last year. I went up and introduced myself, and asked him about the comments on ST that his training was so low. We both laughed.
We talked for a while and he was a really great down to earth guy. I saw his entire family while they were leaving to take the drive back home. Was looking forward to him
being at Auburn next weekend to defend his title.

Dave

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

I always remember Steve with the shaved head absolutely taking the stick to the pro NORBA field to show why it was a stupid political move to leave him off the olympic MTB team. I spoke to him a couple of times at NORBA nationals and off the bike he was a friendly approachable guy. A fierce competitor, but one who could leave it behind when the racing was over.

Kevin

Here are my memories. There are a lot of them.

Steve was one of the first pros who got on the PowerCranks who seemed to take us seriously. He was told about them by Greg LeMond and he called me up and asked for a pair. I gratefully sent a pair to him right away. He later related to me that he probably called Greg three times that first week asking "are you sure about these things" and being reassured to stay with them. He also related it took him some time with them before he was able to walk down stairs going forwards. He told me that after the mountain bike season started he couldn't continue riding them everyday as "these are not recovery for me yet". He sent me one of his extra wind-breakers that spring, I still have it. Should have gotten it autographed.

When he started seeing running improvements he started thinking about doing a triathlon. He decided he would do Wildflower, since it might suit his strengths. He had no idea what to expect, having never run more than 6 miles at one time in training, so he took it easy. He came in 4th as I remember. He then tried Vineman 1/2 with a little more effort. He set a bike and course record. I remember watching him interact with his family after the race, correcting his children who were there when they were misbehaving or not being polite. I remember thinking, "what a dad, no elitism there!"

He was still racing mountain bikes pretty much every weekend but wanted to try an Ironman after these early successes. He asked me to help him. I was a sponsor that year and was able to get him in at Lake Placid despite their hesitancy. They originally wanted him to race as an age-grouper because he didn't have a triathlon pro card yet (hadn't even done 3 races) but he refused and they relented and let him race as a pro. While there he came by and worked my booth for me. I think he was still running only about 6 miles a week and he had never run longer than the 13 miles he ran at Wildflower and Vineman. He set a course record despite using a borrow bike that had the seatpost drop a couple of inches in the first mile and then he had a sub-3 hour run and qualified for Kona.

I remember the buzz before Kona and how pretty much, it seemed, every pro was afraid of what he might do. He should have won that race if he had done the run in his LP time. He would have except for the upset stomach he got from swallowing too much sea water during the swim. He got off the bike about 10 minutes ahead of everyone and was doing just fine until he started vomiting. Still finished top 10.

Anyhow, I have nothing but fond memories of Steve. He was a fierce competitor on the course and a gentleman off.

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Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks

Had the opportunity to work with Steve for years as a sponsor. The first time I ever met him was a 'cross nats in like 98? We had just signed on to sponsor him for the next MTB season and cross Nats were in Massachussetts right in our back yard. Steve told me he was coming out to race "just to check this cross thing out" so we volunteered to be his pit crew. He didnt have a spare bike, so we raised the saddle up on my 54 cm cannondale and hoped he wouldnt need it. No one knew who he was and I dont think he even got a call up at the line but he went on to finish second. I realized then that this guy was something else. To be able to jump into a new sport and compete at the highest level is rare, so a couple years later when he told me he was ditching the MTB world to tackle triathlon, we didnt hesitate and continued to support him. I ran into him in Vegas at Interbike before his first trip to Kona and asked him if he was nervous about the Germans on the bike, since they were doing some pre race trash talking. Typical Steve, he said something like "Those guys are pretty good but I have raced bikes at a pretty high level for a while, I am not too worried about getting beat on the bike" I still remember the video of Steve flying by Norman like he was standing still. Then 2 weeks ago I ran into him at Xterra Vegas. He says "oh I am just here to see what I can do with limited training" and goes on to finish 6th. We just had a phone coversation last week about getting him on an Intense MTB for his latest comeback. I still cant believe he is gone.

First time I met Steve was during a talk he gave at our tri club maybe six or seven years ago. He drove almost two hours, each way from Davis to Santa Rosa just to come talk to us. We pestered him with the usual dumb questions and he gladly answered them all. All the while two of his sons and wife were sitting at their table, probably bored out of their mind but friendly and supportive none the less. I was really blown away by what an accomplished athlete and cool, down to earth guy he was.

I have seen and chatted with him at other races over the years but recall last summer at Vineman where he was blasting through the bike field. Then after T2 I was following some of the lead runners on my mtb and yelled out to him that he was as inspiration to all working father triathletes...he gave me a little nod and kept running like the wind, with only Craig Alexander beating the guy. He beat most of a world class field. A real class act of a man. I hope his family realizes how much he is respected and admired by our community.

Other than being a fan, I did not know him personally, and that is my loss.

I admired him, he was a "bike man" in the way surfer's refer to someone with reverence as a "waterman". He was an ecclectic athlete- on the pages of the Pearl Izumi catalog doing nordic skiing, at the controls of a triathlon bike, managing affairs in his bike shop. He was a bike man.

His life was well lived. Complete and filled with experiences, adventure and daring. He lived and he left us living fully. He was not an idle man.

It speaks well of him that thousands upon thousands know him. They know him for his sportsmanship, his spirit and drive. This spirit carries forward.

May we honor his memory well by living his example: Be vigorous, be prosperous, live to fullest and do not be idle. Honor his life by extrapolating his example forward.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Too many memories. This is from August 2005. He went 9:43 that year, with a 4:41 bike split.
In the end, I am a Triathlete just like you. That pretty much says it all.
clm

Why I am racing in Kona....by Steve Larsen

When I was a kid growing up in Davis, California Dave Scott was my idol and I always dreamed of competing in the Hawaii Ironman. I could not have imagined the circuitous route I would follow to finally arrive at the start in October of 2001. Like many of the athletes that competed that day, my race did not go as it had in my dreams. After giving all that I had to fulfill my personal expectations of how “my race” should end, I found myself in a nearly apocalyptic state for the 24 hours post race. Losing blood and bodily fluids, agonizing in the fetal position on my hotel bed, while my kids were playing poolside and enjoying Hawaii, was not what I had planned for our first trip to Kona. The next year I could not start due to injury, and in 2003 I made the decision that I would give everything to be ready to race at my best and see where that left me amongst the tremendous competition at our sport’s World Championship. I did not win. I did not even finish.

Shortly after that 2003 Ironman I made the decision to retire from professional sports. Fortunately I made a living in sports that I loved and was passionate about for over fifteen years. It was more important to me to retire when I still had a passion for those sports. I plan to enjoy them for a lifetime. I am still passionate about them.

When I first had the opportunity to compete in triathlon, it was the people and their generous spirit that drew me in. Everyone was so welcoming and the lifestyle so obviously healthy. I fed off of that positive energy. To me it is what the sport is all about.

This year I turned thirty-five, Dave Scott is still my idol, and I still have a dream to compete in Kona. This year however, my dream ends differently, with me arriving at the finish on Alii Drive with a smile on my face and the joy of running down the finish chute with my three children. I am not worried about my finish time, although I will certainly give all I can on the day, and will embrace the spirit of the event that I was unable to appreciate the first times around. I am not embarrassed by this dream or how I earned the opportunity to make it real.

The realities of my life are different from 2003 and I am grateful for that. I have worked hard in the last eighteen months to establish myself in a new career which I love. It has been wonderful to learn to snowboard with my kids, coach soccer, and time at swim meets, start a junior cycling team, visit the pub, mow the lawn, and generally be a normal guy. The fact that I have managed to stay reasonably fit (finally not over trained) has been a bonus. I believe it speaks volumes about the lifestyle I hope to maintain for a lifetime, and it is what keeps me sane. But there is a healthy balance now and of late I have been rewarded with some good results. My recent performance in the Vineman Half Ironman was as much a surprise to me as anyone. I had previously made the commitment to speak pre race with Greg Welch, and decided to compete in one of the events that originally got me hooked on the sport. As race day grew closer my hope was that I might go 4:15 and be fortunate enough to qualify to compete again in Kona. On the day I had good legs and thankfully knew what to do with them. It was an honor to win the Vineman again, and qualify for our sports World Championship. My hope is that I might use my participation in Kona to bring awareness and raise money for a worthy cause, the Challenged Athletes Foundation. These athletes are legendary and embody all that is good about our sport. I hope in some small way my contribution may create an opportunity for some of them to grow as athletes and people.

For those of you that question my motives, I am sorry there are none. In the end, I am a Triathlete just like you.



Ride Fast & Have Fun,



Steve Larsen





Additional notes for those that are interested:



I am happily married (12 years) and have three wonderfully healthy children.



I am a full time commercial real estate broker.



Most weeks I am fortunate to train more than six hours. I make them all count and have many years of hard work to call on.



I was paid by Scott USA to consult on the design and marketing of their new triathlon bike the Plasma. They do not pay me to race. They do not pay me bonuses. They do not pay my entries. I believe I have helped them design a better bike. There was never an expectation that I would race again. I do it because I love it. Part of Scott’s commitment to me was in the form of ten road bikes for my recently created Forza Velo Junior Cycling Team. One of our athletes won two national titles on a bike provided by Scott. I don’t make a penny from the team, but have spent many hours working to ensure its success.

I am fortunate that many of my friends in the industry continue to send me product to use or try. It does not make me a pro, but confirms the value of building personal relationships over a very long career. I rarely call and ask for it, but am always grateful when it comes. Thanks.

I will challenge any sponsor that provides me product for Kona to make a monetary contribution to CAF. I hope to raise money through pledges for any pro that I am able to catch on October 15th, 2005. I hope the legs are good!

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Every year you'll see lots of
posts from folks trying to figure out what gearing to use at Lake Placid. Someone asked Steve what he used during his epic 2001 race and he replied that he couldn't remember because he never got out of his big ring.

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you know my name, look up my number
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He used PowerCranks. I just love people who do things everyone said they shouldn't and still kick ass.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

Dan-

Having lost both my older brother and recently my Dad, there is nothing more important than family and enjoying the time that we have.

One suggestion, if not already looked at would be putting together a book (along the line of what Apple provides) and/or some type of DVD that could be a collection of memories (photos and video) and stories to pass along to the family.

Not sure how much information there is out there, but my guess is that there would be plenty to put together a great keepsake that the family could hold close to their hearts. I'm sure there are enough Slowtwitcher's to pitch in a little bit of computer time, if needed.

Hopefully as the family grows the memories, stories and information will provide them with good thoughts and remind them of what there Dad and Husband meant to everyone during his journey. Memories become more and more valuable as we all continue are journey.

There is a great saying, which we used for both my brother and Dad,

"He did not leave us, he just beat us to the finish line"

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"There is no charge for awesomeness or attractiveness." Po "The Dragon Warrior", Kung-Fu Panda

I completed Ironman Lake Placid in 2001 with 2 of my best friends. I remember talking with Steve at the PowerCrank booth in the Ironman Village. My 1st impression of Steve was that he was simply a genuinely nice guy. I became a big fan that day when Steve won IMLP. I really wanted him to win Hawaii that year. All the build up to Hawaii that year and everything Steve brought to Hawaii in 2001 was such a great thing for our sport.

Like Dan and Paul and those who have been lucky enough to work with Steve, he gave anyone who crossed his path a broader look at how to live a life.

Upon his return to the pro racing ranks last year at Oceanside, I fairly gushed about how glad I was to see him back on the scene—for me, my greatest joy was sitting on the moto, watching the race unfold, seeing just how Steve would decimate the field on the bike and alter people's race plans on the fly. You have bike guys like Normann and Torbjorn and Lieto, but as any of them can attest, Steve was within absolutely another realm of capability that they couldn't grasp. He singlehandedly ended the "uberbiker" era. Hawaii 2001 and '03 were special for me, for that reason. And Oceanside was that way, too. He made watching the race a lot more fun—it's cool watching one man ride through pro men like they're kids dawdling on trikes. He found that one thing in his life he was meant to do, and seized it with authority. Lucky for him (and us as fans and friends), he found that acumen at a young age and he was able to build the race resume of five men, while balancing a big family and his businesses.

Back to the point: I would feel self conscious about telling any other pro about being so jazzed about their return, but with Steve, he was so down-to-earth, you knew he would simply take it as a compliment and thank you. So yes, I gushed about how happy I was that he was back. And he issued a simple "thanks—it's good to be back."

Not to steer anyone away (sorry Dan, I hope you will make an exception today only), but I chased down folks — fellow competitors like Cam Brown and Conrad Stoltz — as well as sponsors and other folks in the industry, for their anecdotes and experiences. Conrad fairly choked up as we talked... he and Steve were pretty tight. I have some of my own experiences as well... Steve has always been one of the fairest athletes I've ever run across, and thus he has been one of my favorite athletes to have the pleasure to work with. You can read it here. I think they'll speak on other levels to what kind of man Steve was. I'm grateful to have had a personal relationship with the guy... not because of what kind of athlete he was, but what kind of guy he was. Humble, honest, fair, and for me, disarming.

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Jay Prasuhn
Marketing Specialist, American Bicycle Group (Quintana Roo//Litespeed//Obed)
twitter.com/jayprasuhn

For me, my first introduction to Steve Larson was through the coverage of the 2001 Ironman - I was just getting into Triathlon back then. He had the perfect position for the Lotus - and had a great bike leg in Kona on route to 9th place. In terms of 'best cyclist' of all time in the sport of triathlon, he is certainly on that list.

So sad, he will me missed.

Dave in VA

I met Steve at IMLP in 2001, although it was a very brief encounter.

This was my 1st IM and as I finished a very long, slow bike leg, I heard over the loudspeaker that the top male pros were finishing the race. I stumbled into the transition tent and sat down.

The guy sitting next to me in the tent struck up a conversation, saying something like "You ready to go out and finished this thing?" I replied wearily that I was, then asked him if he knew who had won the men's race. He replied, "I did." I didn't even realize I was sitting next to Steve Larsen, who was changing following his victory. Steve was very gracious and encouraging as we talked for the next couple of minutes.

Eventually I made my way out of the tent and finished the marathon. I was on the course for 15+ hours that day, but asking Steve Larsen if he knew who won the race while sitting in the bike-to-run transition tent was the most memorable part of my first Ironman.

Never met him but always blown away by his prowess in triathlon and of course on the bike. My frame of reference is doing IMLP in 2007 with six friends from Louisiana. It was a great experience, but the bike course was brutal to us flatlanders. One of our guys smoked a 5:30 with a sub 1:00 swim and a good run, and qualified; the rest of us were over 6 hours on the bike, well over 6 hours. I considered Ken's 5:30 stunning, unimaginably strong. Steve Larsen's course record of 4:33 in 2001 looks positively superhuman by comparison. I doubt it will ever be surpassed.

Ben

 
When I first started triathlon several years ago, a friend who introduced me to the sport bought some Pearl Izumi clothing from Steve who included a couple of autographed pics, one for me. And of course I had little idea who he was at the time.

It remains the only autograph from any athlete I own and sits proudly on my shelf with race hardware.




My favorite Steve memory from Slowtwitch was when he logged in as SLarsen in the thread titled "What I really did (Larsen Training) by Steve" in response to a thread called Larsen Training (which called him out for suggesting he only trained 4 hours a week - the nerve!). In this thread, Steve took the time to put his entire day-by-day training log for several months leading up to IM California 70.3 2008, in which he had the fastest bike split, bonked on the run, but still had a high placing. I have referred back to this thread on several occasions, as his log is a great example on what one can achieve on limited time due to family and work obligations - something most of us can relate to.

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Coach at KonaCoach Multisport

I knew a little about Steve before 2001; a lot of my friends were MTB'ers, and I followed those races enough that I recognised his name when he entered Wildflower. After that race, one of the better cyclists at the time - Zack, maybe? said that he'd seen Steve go by him on the course but hadn't actually realised that he was in the race - he didn't think anyone racing a tri would be going that fast on the bike. Obviously he torched Placid, and it was on to Kona.

For a guy doing, what, his fourth tri? Fifth, maybe? he generated a ton of buzz in Hawaii. He was the subject of half the pro press conference; people in the street were wondering how much he could break the bike record by... he apparently rode the bike course, at race pace, on the Thursday before the race, and his pre-race profile was very high. Without being ostentatious or appearing to look for attention, Steve got a lot of it. On race day, it seemed like he got in everyone's heads. That year saw brutal conditions - killer winds, terrific heat, and a ton of guys who don't make a habit of quitting races dropped out. Dave Scott, Peter Reid.... some tremendously talented, fit guys didn't make it to the end of the day. Obviously everyone had a different reason that their day didn't go as planned, but it really seemed like a lot of guys tried to go with Steve as he went by and blew themselves to pieces in doing so.

My clearest memory of Steve - and one of the clearest I retain from a very hard day - was when he passed me on the Queen K. I wasn't riding badly at all; in fact, I was having a pretty good day in the saddle. He went by me so quickly that he might as well have had a motor on his bike. He was such a smooth rider that whatever effort it took for him to ride that fast was completely hidden: it just seemed like he couldn't possibly be pedalling hard enough with so little visible effort to move the bike that fast. I just couldn't believe that anyone could ride that fast in conditions that had a lot of people focused more on staying upright than moving forward. It was literally incredible.

What he accomplished after that has been well documented; I think the best way to describe the impact he had as a triathlete was that he showed up at the world championships and threw a lot of the best practitioners of the sport completely off their games. He forced people to take account of him, to chase him down, and he changed the dynamic of the race in a way that hardly anyone else has managed since.

I met Steve in Kona at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. He was giving a talk with Luc Van Lierde and Lisa Bentley - all great ambassadors for our sport. He was in the center and definitely "took the lead" when asked some pretty crazy questions by some main stream media. Hard to top Lisa Bentley's constant smile, but he was great. I talked with him after, asking if he thought he could make up time on the bike after his swim. He laughed and went into a pretty detailed analysis of how Ironman, esp Kona, is very different from road cycling and that athletes like Peter Reid (who won that year) are no slouch on the bike, etc. I was impressed how analytical he was, yet so forthcoming and friendly to me (a complete stranger). I was a fan of his (and Lisa Bentley) ever since.

I am a good judge of character. Steve Larsen was a class act all the way. For his children - you have a great pedigree and very large shoes to fill. I'm so sorry for your loss.

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

Maybe one of his last interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xON2dzFSYBA

As along time follower/and competitior of triathlon/cycling I not only admire the talent of Steve L.arsen because we all strive for that type of success but only the truly gifted get to win a major ironman race/ and compete in world championships in cycling in every available displinces (road,mtb,track,and cyclocross) and while the physical talents clearly separated Steve from us his post professional careers and his family commitment inspire us on this forum because it is clear that he truly loved the sporting life. I have been lucky to be involved in endurance sports for close to 40 years and like Steve Larsen know that my fastest days are behind me. This does not stop me or most of us on Slowtwitch from taking a part of each day to go within ourselves to find out what we are made of and chase the very best we have of ourselves. While this is a very sad movement as we all have lost a brother in arms we must celebrate the fact that he lived the life that he loved to the very end and we should all be so lucky to know that.