I guess my version of hilly is different than others. Most triathlon courses are pretty tame these days.

No arguments here on courses ;)

But I guess if she does Alp D'huez or one of those types of races, she'd use a double with a compact or the like! But even a pro I work with (Allan Hovda) used SRAM AXS for a race like Norseman and had no issues with gearing.

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Carson Christen
Sport Scientist , Coach
Torden Multisport

thats a smart move to get her if she stays healthy she obviously has the talen to win big races and her market value right now is lower than lucy.

at the same time to me it makes not much sense that there is 2 bike brands in their videos. i did expect her to be on argon.


The win on Sunday sell on Monday model of sponsorship and marketing is starting to fade away. How much of that declining model was at play here is hard to know. Paula did win the biggest, and most widely viewed triathlon race of a highly unusual triathlon racing year last year - so some of that WAS at work, I would suspect on this deal. Had she finished 10th . . . would it have happened?

In my view the more sustainable value, is the "Triathlon Life" videos shot and produced by Eric Lagerstrom, Paula's partner. Indeed - it will be interesting if Eric's Argon-18 bike continues to make cameo appearances? Content Marketing like this is absolutely King right now and has REALLY risen in value with almost a whole year of no racing! It's a much more subtle sell, and Eric has a good eye for this kind of thing and it all looks great!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Why wouldn’t Argon-18 continue to feature in those videos? They’re Eric’s sponsor. Same as Tim and Rinny have different sponsors (trek and felt).

It doesn’t really make sense for spesh to sponsor both Paula and Eric, since they’d have to pay more for essentially the same exposure. The only real reason would be to block a competitor from getting the exposure.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

GO CANADA!!

It also provides some income stream diversification value to Eric+Paula. If a given brand decides to deemphasize tri sponsorships they both don't lose a sponsor. They may also have different contract timings so that they don't have both bike sponsorships at risk at the same time.

Now Flynn is another story. If he loses that collar sponsor he may have to go back to eating ramen noodles.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Steve, it's his youtube channel, not hers. They'd have to pay HIM to stop doing that, not only PAY him to exit a contract with Argon-18, but also sponsor him.

Also, Eric signed a two year extension with Argon-18 shortly after Daytona.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Rinny has left Felt

just for bikes would say argon will be doing better than spec with that since argon has a full tri bike offering not just a top bike so i would think if people check out both websites the likelhood is higher they end up with an argon bike.
just my 2 cents

For now. I have no inside knowledge, but I'd guess that they'll be coming out with a midrange offering in the not-too-distant future.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

my math sucks. what does a 50x10 compare too?

when i did IMAZ i was spinning out at 52x11.

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@rhyspencer

55/11

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

55-11. A 52-11 at 120 rpm is 44.5 mph though, so if you're spun out doing that, you're probably better off just soft pedaling and recovering, no real advantage to trying to push power.

In 2016 I asked James Cunnama what his gearing was when he won AdH. His granny gear was a 39-25.
So if my calculator is correct Paula's granny gear works out to something like 39-26? I guess that's reasonable for a pro.
Could easily swap an 10-36 on there for something crazy like AdH, but she'd probably just ride the SL7!

Wow. Cool to know. So then I go to the size of jump between the 15-18 range. Inquire as new bike spring I am curious of a 1x setup

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@rhyspencer

For most courses, as a pro and for sure as an amateur, a 1 x setup can be all you need. And since we are on Slowtwitch after all, the weight and aero gains you make from losing the front derailleur, mount, and generally able to ride more in the middle of the cassette during more of the ride, it far outweighs the efficiency loss that everyone worries about ;)

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Carson Christen
Sport Scientist , Coach
Torden Multisport

I gave up triathlon if this year so really exploring 1X for road. I don’t see it worthwhile. Would rather the tighter gear cluster.

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@rhyspencer

I spent hours trying to figure out which gear combos I wanted for 1x. Then I just bought 2x.

Agree. My sweet spot of 53/15-16-17 and then going 52/15-17-19 literally was driving me nuts. Now these might be same gears i cannot quantify ... but the jumps felt very real.

Reflecting of course doing IMC back in day on 53-11/23. Much younger then!

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@rhyspencer

My question as a non-pro athlete is...what happens to all the gear that she can't wear/use now due to changing sponsors? When triathletes change bike sponsors can they still keep the bikes from former sponsors/bikes bought on their own and just store them somewhere, or does signing with a new sponsor include in the terms and conditions that you have to straight up get rid of non-sponsor bikes/gear?

It goes to a storage unit only to be seen when they retire.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

HeartRN wrote:

My question as a non-pro athlete is...what happens to all the gear that she can't wear/use now due to changing sponsors? When triathletes change bike sponsors can they still keep the bikes from former sponsors/bikes bought on their own and just store them somewhere, or does signing with a new sponsor include in the terms and conditions that you have to straight up get rid of non-sponsor bikes/gear?

For pro cyclists, most of the gear is technically owned by the team (though it is rarely recollected). The pros are given the option to buy their bikes at a discounted rate (they can keep them as momentos, resell them, whatever).

Sites like TheProsCloset and CyclistsGarage provide a venue for pros to sell off last year's gear. A few years ago on eBay I got some unused Colavita team kit (bibs + jersey) for $45.

Here's some of TO's gear as an example:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Castelli-Cycling-Road-Bike-Kit-Mens-Medium-Bibs-Large-Jersey-Tim-ODonnell/264961949465?hash=item3db0f67f19:g:zkcAAOSw9-JfyDcJ

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

It depends on the athlete's contract.

Some athletes will keep the bike, for sentimental reasons (like, Kona winning bike).
Variations on contract include: brand owns the bike so it must be returned, brand takes a percentage of whatever the athlete sells it for, athlete owns the bike. Some contracts are really great: I knew an Olympic triathlete who received two road and two tri bikes per year, but never ever used the tri bikes and instead sold them each year.

As for gear like clothing, I'm sure some athletes still train in the old gear they really like, you just won't ever see it in a photo. Gets binned otherwise or sold if there's something special about it (like, Kona winning race suit).

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Group Eleven – Websites for Athletes / mikael.racing / @mstaer

I love the video and the production....the bike no so much lol!! (I do love Specialized bike shoes though).

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"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"