after all the posts, who could forget.....

ME.. thanks for reminding me setting the PVR now.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

It's not anywhere on the net is it? I checked the NBC website briefly and didn't see it. It's being recorded at home, but I've got some serious time to kill today at work. :)

not sure, i just noticed it on nbc tv listing as i was trying to see what football/bball games were on today.

For those with Versus there's 2 race on today too....check the times....St Croix 70.3 and Escape from Bermuda

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Michael in Kansas
"Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit"
"Its not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up" Lombardi

Its on in 90 minutes.

my race coverage predictions:

-some on ST will like it
-some on ST will not like it
-threads on the above will surpass 300 posts by noon monday
-many posts in the thread will begin with "when i did Kona in 19xx ..."
-many posts will suggest more attention should have been paid to the 'real athletes'
-many posts will suggest more attention should have been paid to 'unreal athletes'
-Al Trautwig will use only the words "overcoming", "soul", "epic", "courageous", "heart", "courage", and "heartrageous" for the entire 90 minutes' commentary
-He'll win an Emmy
-posters will be surprised Al Trautwig did not comment more on bicycle fit or water bottle placement
-posters will be surprised that NBC does not televise the entire 16 hours of the race in prime time

did anyone catch that it said IM 70.3 on the screen right now?...

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goals, personal:
- under same username post st rr of Kona m80-84ag mop, tail end of the dopers finish
- shoot age from tips on par 72
- beat SuperDave in one-on-one
all within single wk- Viva Chopin, Fryderyk; Faulk, Peter; Helmsley, Sherman; Palillo, Ron; Rogers, Fred McFeely; Sanford, John Elroy; Snuka, Jimmy- and the water bottle isn't half fuller on the other side

Sorry I missed it I was filling my bowl with bon-bons

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Does anybody know if this will be replayed? I'm in the middle of a snow storm, and the satellite went out this morning. And, I can't find a live feed of NBC on the internet...

It was in the Sport's Update Minute before the start. It said Ford Ironman World Championship 70.3 on next. Glad to know it is actually Kona!

- jeff

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goals, personal:
- under same username post st rr of Kona m80-84ag mop, tail end of the dopers finish
- shoot age from tips on par 72
- beat SuperDave in one-on-one
all within single wk- Viva Chopin, Fryderyk; Faulk, Peter; Helmsley, Sherman; Palillo, Ron; Rogers, Fred McFeely; Sanford, John Elroy; Snuka, Jimmy- and the water bottle isn't half fuller on the other side

Anyone else laughing at the ford commercial with the "modern triathlete"????? The coverage keeps cutting out on me for some reason, figures its the only time this ever happens.

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G.C.

think wellington is just taking in O2 and not smiling. She is amazing.

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whow, that old guy nearly got crushed by the officials car! That would have been nasty. Did more then usual drop out of the event this year?

Ya, I saw that and was thinking if they show the 70.3 event in Clearwater I might be able to spot myself in the old farts division. However they are showing the 140.6 WC, and I want to know where to get one of those one piece white speed suits. Tim

Dont think anymore than usual

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1 hr left! =)

EDIT: 1/2 hr... :(

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goals, personal:
- under same username post st rr of Kona m80-84ag mop, tail end of the dopers finish
- shoot age from tips on par 72
- beat SuperDave in one-on-one
all within single wk- Viva Chopin, Fryderyk; Faulk, Peter; Helmsley, Sherman; Palillo, Ron; Rogers, Fred McFeely; Sanford, John Elroy; Snuka, Jimmy- and the water bottle isn't half fuller on the other side

Thought I saw in back of triathlete magazine a add for custom speedsuits. THey might have them

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starting to really wish I TiVo, way too many adds :-(

funny and really true! I am trying to figure out what to do after watching this. Should I start training for next years events or go grab a beer? The beer is sounding real good right now.

A black n tan sounds good.

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Got a nice christmas waiting.
Appreciating Norman's gusty performance.

that was a good ad for Mark Allen.At least Norman did not quit he had a better xcuse than a broken brake cable.

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I have been amazed at what a princess Macca is, remember last year, with the footage of him screaming as he was trying to get his helmet on in T2?? HTFU!

was that will ronco who got some sweet facetime at the finish?

I saw that and ole Al made quite a few mistakes.

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The best pace is a suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.-Pre

$5 Macca packed a pair of cable snips with him- No, nevermind he would have clipped his RD cable if that was so...

(read tongue in cheek)

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goals, personal:
- under same username post st rr of Kona m80-84ag mop, tail end of the dopers finish
- shoot age from tips on par 72
- beat SuperDave in one-on-one
all within single wk- Viva Chopin, Fryderyk; Faulk, Peter; Helmsley, Sherman; Palillo, Ron; Rogers, Fred McFeely; Sanford, John Elroy; Snuka, Jimmy- and the water bottle isn't half fuller on the other side

IDK i focused on the ad. Maybe macca went with all velcro straps this year.

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Did they ever mention Potts?

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Not that I heard... and after they highlighted the "kona rookies" in the women's field, I would have thought pott's finish would be at least worth mentioning!

Not that I heard... and after they highlighted the "kona rookies" in the women's field, I would have thought pott's finish would be at least worth mentioning!

There's a lot of things that they miss. That's not what it's all about.

Not a bad show. In keeping with the usual themes that I have seen from the past few years. They are clearly sticking with a format that works.

Nice production and editing. A little bit too much slo-mo and cutting for my liking, but that's just a personal observation.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

- why include a clip of Michellie Jones, she didn't even race, they even used last year clips of macca
- a lot of coverage of the Navy guys but NO mention at all of Dave Orlowski
- a brief mention of the 30 year anniversay, come on they had 5 original racers there, why couldn't they do 2 minutes with them, ricky james got more coverage
- lot of mens race coverage, maybe the blow out on the women's side was too boring

- amazing to see all the people around chrissie with her flat, can people help like that?

They did have more race coverage this year and less human interest stories then before. The music sucked this year though.

All white bike suits do not look good in high def after you peed in them.


Total time was barely 66 minutes.

Macca is soft. I guess he's above just finishing. Stadler kept it movin' and I admire him for pusing through it and finishing.

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Roar Lion Roar

A serious question. It appeared from the length of broken cable flopping about, that he snapped his rear brake cable.

Why would he stop because of that? Of course there is a rule, but how would an official know if someone's cable snapped, short of the rider showing him outright? Did he stop and an official was right there to see it?

I would ride with one brake, preferably the front, on a long course with no technical descents. Wouldn't think twice.
Paul

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ErgVideo.com

Wait, you mean to tell me you have won IM Hawaii, as well as other IM events, ITU races? Shit, how do I not know your name? Its easy to sit back and judge someone from your lazy boy. I hate people like you. Yes he could have possibly finished. But did anyone else talk about the other pros that did not finish?> no.

Get a life.

I was wondering the same thing. I would carry on with just a front brake, its not like a TDF stage with some nasty descents. Did he get gigged by the officials for that?

Overall I thought the coverage was pretty good, the special interest stuff story on the injured moto rider was inspiring. I could do without Al Trautwig, let Phil and Paul do the voice over.............Stadler is looking into his suitcase of courage.

speaking of tdf... this just in from LA's twitter: "Watching the Ironman on TV. Hmm..."

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Iron-ic (sic) that athletes who did place high or didn't finish at all but wore K-Swiss were featured or were seen easily

I thought the music sucked too... I was so pumped after watching the trailer on youtube!

Unfortunately no, not even once. They showed him coming out of the water too, but never even mentioned him.
Kinda odd, but they barely even mentioned Crowie until about halfway through the run.

All-in-all, I really liked the coverage, though. I can't wait until I have the opportunity to race in Kona someday (hopefully)! :-)

NBC's high def signal sucks!

I agree that overall the show was pretty damn good. Really looked great in HD.

Would have been nice to see more coverage of Crowie.

I believe you need two functioning breaks, otherwise it's a disqualification.

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KyleKranz.com
Win a pair of SKORA Running Shoes!

I know everyone was bitching that if he had a derailer cable go bad he could still go. Are you guys sure it wasn't a brake cable?

With the specialized rear brake underneath the frame maybe it can take 20 mins to change. I don't know cause i've never messed with one before.

Grant

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I shed a few tears.

Having grown up racing motocross (from age 9 to 18), the ricky james bit really hit home. His mentor David Bailey was a pro I looked up to in my early racing career, and having had some (too many) of my fellow racing friends and competitors become paralyzed or lose their lives, makes things like that really hit home.

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And so much time was spent on a Navy guy who represented a main sponsor, but didn't have any special story. Unfortunately, it was mostly, merely a sales infomercial piece. At least there were some shots long enough to dissect an athlete's position or cadence on the bike.

Any idea if it is being rebroadcast ?? missed it.. :(

I love how you guys are calling him shit names like "soft" while you're watching it at home. STFU and either get your game on or stop talking shit about people you'll never even come close to being. I mean really man, you don't list you real name, and you're calling a world champion out for being a pussy. WTF guy. You really think you could do better!?!

You would admire someone for "pusing through it"...

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"Triathlon is for people who can't handle drugs and alcohol." -IMFL t-shirt

The Dude Abides...

And so much time was spent on a Navy guy who represented a main sponsor, but didn't have any special story. Unfortunately, it was mostly, merely a sales infomercial piece. At least there were some shots long enough to dissect an athlete's position or cadence on the bike.

Well, we have broken down the coverage a bit more here at Casa Fleck. As I said, earlier not bad - over all pretty good, but honestly, way to much coverage and focus on people in really bad shape or bad things happening to them. The shots of people being carted away from the finish line on stretchers, people passing out, people puking, people cramping, people crashing on the bike and wobbling over the finish-line and then collapsing became a bit much. Not sure if MissP and I are weird, but between us we have done 18 IM races with 18 finishes, ( including 3 IMH's) and none of this has happened to us. In fact, in all of those finishes, it was only MissP's second place finish at IMC in 2005 that warranted a trip to the medical tent - and then it was just for observation (She was feeling a bit light headed)

The facts and the numbers are, that hundreds hundreds of people finish the race strong and in great shape. Why so much focus on the carnage?

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Because NBC still considers Ironman a fringe spectacle sport and want to hype the,"Crazy" aspect.

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Las Vegas NV | IM KY 07

Why did the Romans watch the gladiators fight to the death?
I think it is just NBC trying to add drama to a sport that seems dull and boring to much of the population.

It's funny. I did this race. My first trip to Kona. I didn't have a good race for lots and lots of reasons, and I told myself that I would not be back anytime soon. But, perhaps it was the NBC coverage or just the passing of time (two months), but I feel soft. Like I should have been tougher. How many times did I walk? Did I really need to? HTFU... I should be better. I always wondered why people choose to go back year after year and get pummelled by the wind and heat. Short memories? Anyway, now I feel like I have to get back there again... and soon.

Why so much focus on the carnage?

Becuase the rest of fat-ass-donut-dunking-mayonaise-drinking-liquid-sugar-sipping-acceptance-of-being-a-fat-fuck america needs to be left reASSured that thier choice of inactivity and excessive consumerism is the right one.

about to head out to a party in excess of 50 people... all of whom are trim, fit and hold the pursuit of sweat and athletic vigor close to the heart. gawd damn i love living in the boulder bubble.

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
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I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but I believe that Macca snapped his front derailleur cable. He was stuck in the small chainring. Before all you MOP and BOP'ers go slamming him for not finishing please remember that he is a professional. Triathlon is how he feeds his kids. He has to consider the bigger picture when things don't go his way. Maybe dropping out of a tough race will open up the possibility of racing in the future. I have a ton of respect for the guy

Besides, in that heat, he would have had a tough time out-running the little guys like Crowie and Llanos.

Ugghhh, reading that just made me gag a little bit
:-)

Doesn't WTC pay most of the production costs for the IM broadcast? If so, it seems that this year the goal of their 90-minute commercial was to show that IM is really difficult and painful. A different strategy than the past couple of years when it appeared that they were trying to advertise that IM is something that can be finished by the average Joe.

Belinda Granger sure got a lot of air time. I would have liked to have seen interviews with the winners after the race.


Maybe I've just watched too many of these shows, but this one didn't seem to have as much flow or as strong a narrative as some I've seen in the past. It definitely looked great in HD and the shots of the emotions at the finish line are always good TV.

I hope so, cuz you can go pretty far and quick without a brake cable.

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Yep, not enough mellow in their melodrama.

Nothing to do with triathlon. Just watch the 6 o'clock news. If it ain't blowed up or bleeding, it ain't newsworthy.

>> the boulder bubble. <<

Ah, that what i don't like about Boulder. All that holier than thou attitude. Because you people are not all that.

The broadcast? Liked it. Quite a few slowtwitchers made the coverage. I can think of 4 or 5 that I recognized.

Ricky James and the guy who had to keep dealing with his prothesic (sp?) were good stories.

Beke's 3rd place was very nice to see.
Harriet Anderson as the oldest was great. She's from NorCal and is just a really, really nice lady. She'll take the sister's record.
Love the Navy Seals.
Felt really bad for the guy who missed the swim cutoff. And the guy who was blown all over on this bike and almost run over by the official's car. Damn! Not a good way to end the day.

Like David in NY said....I want to race there again.

clm

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

So one of the pros had a quote that was "job description: suffer" --- what was the rest of it and who said it? I can't remember!!!!

I watched it with another ST'er, had a great afternoon :-)

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Quoting Macca from his blog: "the basic fact is that I snapped the front derailure cable just before the turn around at Havi on the bike. Unfortunately for me the Tech guys that came to my aid, did not have the gear cable to replace it and after trying to adjust the front derailure with the lining screws to keep me in the big chainring, they stripped the front bolt and I was unable to continue."

Looks like the FD cable to me. Here is a picture, you decide. Funny thing about this picture is that my wife took it and had no idea who he was. I had to tell her after the race. :> Of course, this is the same woman that asked Faris how he did at the after race party a couple of years ago, the year he was 3rd.

You hate me? you don't even know me, you ignorant ass. No, I never won Kona but I'll tell you one thing I'd finish it even if I had to crawl it. I don't care if your a pro or an age grouper, if your not injured, finish it. Macca looked fine to me, driving away on a moped with a girl hanging on the back, while Stadler limped in.

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Roar Lion Roar

I enjoyed the coverage, but they had Torbjorn's name wrong every time they put it up during his interview. That's pretty crappy.

What did they show the first 15 minutes? I missed it and when I turned it on it was as if the telecast had just started. I jumped in when the announcers began talking about starting with a 2.4 mile swim. I said to my son "great we did not miss anything". Did we?

Just like stadler limped in a few years ago when he had a flat on the bike and threw a hissy fit on the side of the road? In 2003 macca limped in over an hour back and in 2006 he came from way back and finished 6th. Both of these guys have put in enough "pay your dues" races to have earned the right to know when to call it quits when you get a mechanical issue. If macca rode the whole way back on his small ring he would have lost at least 30 minutes to crowie and the bunch.

What was with Normann's quads?! He bulked up like he's been doing 500 lb squats.

Can't believe they didn't say jack about Alexander until halfway through the run leg.

But overall I thought the show was well done as usual. Anyone that can make IM racing interesting to watch on TV has accomplished something.

I have a standing bet with a friend that NBC will show Normann crying at some point. Easiest money I make all year.

Saw the show today on the big screen in HD. God, in HD the Big Island looks like the Big Island. Beautiful. The show is hokie, but it is by far the biggest and best pub the sport of triathlon gets every year and for that we should be happy.

Only gripe this year; the music was simply awful. Awful. Only track I could pick up was the very last one they played (Explosions in the Sky "The Only Moment We Were Alone" get the album: it crushes) the rest sounded like royalty-free ad agency dribble. Part of the fun of the show used to be the Name That Tune game with movie scores and other tunes (the other year they they had Talking Heads and James Brown for crying out loud). Please someone in the know tell me they can go back to getting rights to decent film scores and other popular songs so we need not endure this.

I'm glad I'm not the only person who thought the music was lame this year. The cinematography was every bit as good as normal, but the soundtrack was terrible!

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-Mark Rebuck, http://www.markrebuck.com/

Yep everyone jumped on the the brake thing because trautwig said he broke a brake cable but trautwig also said when the lead runners were at the turn around on alii they had 16 miles to go which was wrong as well as a couple of other similar gafs. I like the guys voice but wish theyd at least fact check everything hes saying before the broadcast.

I liked the part where I guess granger and the other woman pro were talking to the camera man about wellington and how they both said she
will be coming back soon and still win and she will be smiling as she passes them then later they show a shot of wellington passing one of them pretty much like they were standing still... Nice setup there...


didn't like the attempt at commercial suspense you get in tv shows like showing chrissie standing there trying to get some help with the tire then going to a commercial and you had to wait until after the commercial to see the result. Understand the attempt at suspense but the cut to commercial was pretty abrupt as if someone just threw a switch and cut it off. There were a couple other spots just like that where they snapped to a commercial then brought you back to as if to say "stay tuned"... Even worse since most of us knew what the result was anyway.

Anyone seen a torrent anywhere yet for those ST'ers outside the US?

This was an awesome way for people to come together and enjoy the sport - hat's off to whoever the people are that made this happen. This is our Super Bowl Party.............Just a great day hangin with fellow people with good grub..............about 25 in all.

Thanks.

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john g

Yea that was a great story. I remember hearing about Ricky getting hurt at Whitney when it happened. He is definitly making the best of the situation. Did you ever see the video of him and DB at Lake Elsinore riding Ricky's tricked out 250f's? It's pretty amazing seeing DB on 2 wheels again.

Beyond that, I was a little disappointed about them not showing Chrissie Wellingtons John Blaise roll at the end. I love how quickly they forgot that.

so the "brake cable" info read or assumed was incorrect.
Solution to this problem is to remove the front derailleur altogether, leave it on the big ring. It works "most" of the time, just ask david millar. Perhaps "stripped front bolt" referred to above (assuming is the attachment bolt, not just the limit screws) was somehow so damaged by their messing about they couldn't even remove the FD.

Smelly

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ErgVideo.com

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe they picked those clips to convey the message to arm chair athletes that this is a really physically hard event to do. If they only showed Pros with smiles on their faces as they biked at an average of 25 mph and ran effortlessly at 6.5 minutes a mile, the arm chair athletes might think this sort of thing was easy to do. Last month 17,000 runners in Philadelphia ran a 8K, half Mary or full Mary and I watched from the finish line and only saw one person need a stretcher (leg cramps). Tim

Last month 17,000 runners in Philadelphia ran a 8K, half Mary or full Mary and I watched from the finish line and only saw one person need a stretcher (leg cramps).

But if NBC/WTC was covering that race, the guy being carted off in the stretcher would have been the central feature!

Let's be clear, an IM triathlon is a very hard and challenging event. At one time it was generally recognized that Ironman Hawaii was the most challenging single day endurance event in the world. Only a select group of some of the very best endurance athletes had ever done one. It's a bit different now as thousands of great athletes finish an IM race every year. It's moved from an extreme and overwhelming challenge to something that is more achieveable.

So I am not sure the position that NBC/WTC takes on this. It seems it varies from year to year - some years more focus on the extreme challenge of the event other years, it's framed as an event that is more achieveable and accessable to the every-day athlete. FYI - at a Christmas party last night talking to a non-triathlete who had seen the NBC/WTC show yesterday afternoon, her comment was: "That looked insane. Why would anyone want to do such a crazy event? That was a total turn-off for me!"

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

[Beyond that, I was a little disappointed about them not showing Chrissie Wellingtons John Blaise roll at the end. I love how quickly they forgot that.[/reply]
I was actually surprised at the guy whose father died of ALS. I thought he'd do the roll. Note: I am not criticizing, I was just surprised.

-Smarty

I watched the previous three years before I watched yesterday's broadcast. They do seem to vary the focus each year. Most years they finish the pro coverage within the first hour, this year they extended it.

Two years ago, they had extensive coverage of the swim, this year they barely covered it and they did not even point out about the pros starting first.

Their coverage is only 66 minutes long and they need to vary the content each year so that it does not go stale.

Hello,

Any idea if NBC or youtube will have the Ironman coverage/re-run streaming online? Thanks!

QFE

There's one on Mininova. Not many seeds though.

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i thought the coverage was totally lame. just a pr stint so more people get into the sport. they didnt even show the damn race. what a joke.


i really wish they spend the whole time on the pro race, instead of chubby age groupers at the finish.

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LTO'C

"Someone in the world is training when your are not, when you race him, he will win."

I was bored and watched it again last night. I had to laugh when the guy was zig-zagging all over the bike course and eventually fell (not laughing at that part) and the the white SUV he fell in front of almost ran him over

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I ate a whole box of oreos while watching the race on saturday. my justification was that you are allowed to eat as many calories watching an event that it took you while doing the event. LJ

The guy who crashed in front of the car (Roger Little) is from my home town, has done Kona several times over the years and usually podiums or places well in his AG. Strong cyclist too so he must have been in some serious trouble to be swerving and eventually go over the way he did.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler