I was nervous, not scared.

I think there were a bunch of factors, mostly, where you were when the storm hit. I was northeast of the reservoir on 7, had just finished the first lollipop when we got into it. We would hit crazy gusts on the top of each roll and then it would just feel sustained and heavy down in the swells.

Equipment and confidence made a big difference. I think how deep of a front wheel was probably the biggest equipment issue. I was on 50's with rim brakes, I would vacillate between a little bit of confidence and a "reasonably normal" approach to riding to simply sitting up and riding about 17 or 18 mph because I felt like if I fell it wouldn't hurt that bad. I watched some pretty rad athletes ride by me in 25 mph gusts just driving hard. I was impressed.

If you weren't in contention it was almost humorous. The hail and freezing rain didn't last long enough to really get cold. But, weird shit was happening. I saw traffic cones, tumbleweeds, and umbrellas nearly take out athletes. I saw athletes ditch their bikes, pull over on the side of the course, I saw an athlete slide out and crash pretty hard due to the wet pavement.

I think it's important to remember when you're reading accounts of the race that there were 4 hours of variation in start time and there were folks on course from 4 to 7 hours. Evidently the 45-49 y.o. women were sent into the eye of the storm at the swim start. Supposedly swim support was even giving bad info at times telling some racers that the swim was cancelled. I don't know the details, but I am certainly glad that I was not in the water at the worst point. I think the pros were in the run, and I don't think that part of town got hit as bad as out by the reservoir. That was another factor, the course was spread out a lot and the storm was very localized. Sorry for the novel, I'm actually working through my own feelings about it ;)

Congratulations to all who participated and finished the race; it was a very hard course worthy of a championship and the weather made it even harder. I was worried about the heat in the days leading up to the race. Being from the Midwest I noticed the strength of the sun when it was out but thought that the air temperature, although hot, felt comfortable (no humidity).

I wasn't listening to weather forecasts in the days leading up to the race because I figured it would be what it had been; sunny, hot, and with some wind. I started hearing athletes talking about rain on race day in the forecast on Friday and when I checked weather.com they had it coming in around 10am. With an early wave I knew I'd be on the bike so I wasn't too concerned. I am a survivor and finisher of IMSG 2012 so I know what a storm can do when you are in that lake.

As it was predicted the storm hit around 10am and I was on the bike around mile 30. I've never been rocked so hard by the wind on my bike before. I had a death grip on the bull horns as the cross winds pummeled me. It seem to last about 10 minutes but not sure. After the wind gusts stopped it was just a steady head wind and of course right up snow canyon. That totally SUCKED. Then another storm started moving in from the south and I swear I had a headwind descending back to T2. As someone said above it all depended on where you were on the course when the storm hit on how bad (or good) it was. My buddy and I were joking that the pros got off easy because they were on the run when it hit. We also agreed that if this was just a "normal" 70.3 there would have been carnage everywhere with all the inexperienced athletes.

There was another deluge of rain out on the run course but I enjoyed it as it kept me cool. I know I did better in the cloudy cooler conditions than I would have done if the hot sun was blazing so I'm not too disappointed with it all. YMMV.

57?!? What’s your gearing?

Coming down back to town I hit 52.5 and really wanted to hit 55 but was spinning out (and maybe a bit hesitant because of the weather). I was on the bullhorns but tucked tight to the extensions. (Head lower than normal aero position).

Which that makes me think I should have tested that position in the tunnel…

I had 55x11 but not sure of cadence at that time. Overall there were several times I wanted a bigger gear thru out the ride.

53x11.

I was in the same position as you. Bullhorns and my chin around my forearm pads. I absolutely spun out, but just tucked and went with it.

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Yes this was the first time I wished I had disc brakes on my TT bike. I saw a guy with a P5X get blown off the road around a corner. Bike skidded out from under him pretty harmlessly so I'm pretty sure he was ok. Astonished I didn't hear of anything more catastrophic.

I think the weather hit me around the same place too. I had a disc and it was pretty scary. I took it super easy on most of the descents before the climb to snow canyon. Was worried the descent of snow canyon would be wet but was glad that it was dry enough where I didn't worry about it.

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Absolutely scary. Everyone around us were hanging on for dear life on the rain slickened roads as we were sandblasted with red sand--my white top kit had to be scrubbed by hand after with soap to remove some of the stains. We were in the thick of hail, rain and side winds for nearly 25 min to half an hour. We were all sitting up coasting on the bull horns. If you started earlier in the race you likely had a huge advantage on the bike. We started about a good hour after the M40-44 so when it hit they should have been nearly done with the bike--it hit as we wound through the neighborhoods & pretty sure I spent a lot of time breaking on a downhill in addition to the sitting up and coasting. It's really not logical to compare bike splits because some were losing so much speed in one direction while others may have had it at their backs pushing them I think. But at least we were with our AG.

The colder temps certainly were awesome, the heat broke in St. George at just the right time...no real overheating issues as expected. The staff and volunteers were absolutely AMAZING. The bus system they had going--never seen anything like that before...it was so organized I stood in line maybe a couple minutes and we were loaded and shipped right off. Certainly St. George should be proud of what they showed the world last weekend.

The only real goof ups were not from the race, but my own doing (going back for a bag in transition after leaving it on the ground in T1...about 20 sec loss there, maybe longer waiting in line to hand it off) -- realizing others were handing it off upon leaving the change area--maybe they would have picked it up but I didn't want an "abandoning equipment penalty"...then dropping a BASE SALT tube on the run, having to turn around and go back to grab it on a downhill...or the classic screw up...having 3 bottles of Infinit, 2 for the bike, but drank 1/2 of one before I left the condo....then filled the rest with water and essentially 1/2 the calories. Guess who put the watered down bottle on his bike by accident? Thus, cutting myself short big time on calories on the bike which came back to haunt me on the run...just newb stuff nobody with experience should have done. Note to self: Have 2 same colored bottles for the bike next time and a different color for pre-race drinking....

The main goal was met though...I did not CRASH. Thought I was for a good half an hour (including THINKING ABOUT diving under a tree throwing my bike over my head for hail protection)...but managed to just coast down hills and get through the storm without pulling over. Yep, I had a disc wheel too, making it worse. Oh well, it was a good reason to give the bike a thorough bath/shower out front today. It's ready to roll again!

Yeah it was pretty scary. Had a good chunk of time where it affected me from the 20-35 mile range or so. I'm definitely not as experienced in conditions like that. This was my 2nd 70.3. I didn't know if races get called off. My wheels were moving all over the place. The wind was outta control. It started to lightning & hail & rain. I put my bike in one of its hardest gears and rode slow until I felt like I could roll again. Things had been going great up to that point. I'm definitely on the overly-cautious end of the spectrum. Got passed a ton during that stretch & lost a bunch of time as a lot of folks pushed on more aggressively. Kind of disappointing for my age group & overall results but I have my health & it was still a really good/fun race. The weather got better for me up Snow Canyon & for the descent (thankfully). Was able to get back on it during that stretch. Did a lot of passing up the KOM. Even though my bike split was super slow it didn't feel like I conserved anything for the run, especially after working the last 20ish miles. What a brutal course all the way around! Almost 5k of vert between the bike + run. Plus you're at 3k feet for most of the race & climb to 4k. The weather was still up & down for the two loops of the run. Big congrats to everyone who got through those conditions. Think folks starting later had just as rough as a time. The elites certainly lucked out tho. Their bike was clear and the weather hit them on the run. They were able to throw down some fast times. Really weird World Champs where we're all racing each other but might have had vastly different experiences due to where the weather hit you & comfort level. Guess this was a good learning experience. Nothing but good things to say about the race and the crowd support.

As a veteran of the 2012 IMSG shit show, I thought it was great fun! Howling headwinds around mile 25 for me, driving rain. It didn't last long although it remained gusty with some more sprinkles. It was NOTHING compared to the gale force winds of 2012 as those started in the swim and lasted most of the bike. It was dry for my decent from Snow Canyon and I managed to hit 51.5 mph

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I was first AG wave, M40-44, so a little further up the road, approaching the canyon. That was one time I didn’t mind being slower, as my Uber-biker friend Jeff was descending from Snow when the crap hit.

Honestly I knew it was bad, but I didn’t realize how bad as I was just trying to focus. My rear disc caught a few sketchy gusts, and I’m sure I was slowed by the rain/ hail. Mostly I was worried about the distant thunder/ lightning and hoping we didn’t get pulled!

Also mildly annoyed I couldn’t peek at the pros running to that turnaround before the downhill section. Too busy staying upright!

The descent from Snow wasn’t too wet by the time I got there. I hit 54, which was too fast, but so much better than doing it in a storm.

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Lansing Triathlon Team

I was in M45-49 and we started the swim around 8:45 MDT. The storm hit me around mile 15 of the bike coming down hwy 9. It was mostly headwind but definitely some crosswind. I ride a Zipp Super 9 full carbon disc and FC404 up front. It was definitely unnerving but since that part of the course didn't have many hard turns that helped. Plus I am a bigger rider at 180lbs which helps too. I didn't see any wrecks but all the folks around me did what I did: slow down and hang on and stay tucked as much as possible. I did see at least one guy pull over and just wait it out.

I will say that it affected the rest of my ride in that it shook my confidence a bit. Wind gusts and periodic wet roads was enough for me to back way off and I missed my power target by 20 watts. It just wasn't worth the risk for me. That plus 2 dropped chains made me just say to heck with it and cruise it in.

As a few others noted, the logistics (bus system, etc) and volunteers were excellent. Great venue, tough course, and lots of fun!

I agree with the comments above, depending on where you were on the course (and bike skills), made the difference between scary and uncomfortable. I was the later, mostly because it hit me on the climb up 9 out of Hurricane and I'm a pretty decent cyclist, I was running a full disc and thankfully only a 50 up front, being a lighter guy (145lb) it took a lot of energy to stay in a straight line. I joked with a number of fellow athletes that I figured it was going to be the heat that was going to "kill us" not a freak storm.

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I preface this with the fact that I'm a strong cyclist, decently heavy (160lbs), good bike handler, and confident in the wind. I've ridden in the bars through 15mph crosswinds with a 404 front and disc rear no problem before. I have never experienced anything like that storm while on the bike- there were several instances where I was convinced that I was going to crash and accepted that I was hitting the deck.

Also note that I feel way worse for the women in the water than myself- heard they had several foot waves and fences blowing over in transition to navigate.

For me, it was like someone flipped a switch on the climb up Telegraph right before the descent to the right hand turn onto Washington Parkway. Going up that short climb, I noted that we definitely had a headwind (though not too bad, maybe 10mph) and that the sky was darker. I crested the hill thinking I would super tuck the descent at 40mph+ before the turn. For those that don't know the course, the Washington area is super exposed and basically in the middle of the desert without a ton of development, so there's not much to shield you from the wind.

Thankfully, I never made it to the super tuck or into the bars. As soon as I hit 20mph, I was blown clear into the left lane and experienced speed wobble like I've never felt before. My front wheel was shaking so badly it felt like I had broken several spokes, or the wheel had come loose. To this second I have no idea how I kept it upright- I hugged the down tube with my knees, shifted weight back, and managed to brake and scrub off enough speed to somehow not go over. Even on the ensuring climb, going 10mph, the gusts were strong enough to blow me from the left all the way to the right and almost into the ditch. On the out and back in Washington, I had to shift weight back and ride the brakes all the way downhill on what should've been a 40mph section, keeping speed at about 20 tops (the road was very wet at this point too and had NO grip). Through all of this, I was still going faster than most around me! I couldn't touch the bars until it died down to 10-15mph and we got into the development before Red Hills parkway.

I briefly considered pulling over when I was getting put into the gutter on the uphill- but thankfully I reminded myself that the conditions were hurting everyone else worse since I'm strong on the bike and can ride wind. That said, for almost 30 mins exactly, I didn't touch my aerobars, hydration or nutrition, didn't look at my power meter, and just focused on not crashing.

Once I hit Red Hills, the wind was much more manageable- though still prob 10mph headwind going out to Snow Canyon. I was able to use the aerobars and super tuck the descent from Snow with a couple wobbles but nothing too alarming. I went flying by a lot of folks on the descent who were still cautions or struggling, but not as bad as when the worst hit.

In retrospect, the wind cost me a TON of time vs others in my AG (25-29). I'm a horrifically slow swimmer and started at the back of the AG wave, so I was prob 10-15min behind the top guys in my AG when the wind hit. In normal times, the bike is my weapon to make up for my poor swim (fastest bike split at every local race this year, and 4th fastest on the tough Virgina's Blue Ridge in June). I lost out on 2 fast downhill sections while those who were better swimmers were less exposed and on less downhill sections of the course. Overall I had just under a 2:30 bike split, 30th in my AG, when I was estimating 2:15 pre-race (and I averaged 25mph at 270NP for the first 20 miles with some decent hills). I did have my best 70.3 run off at 1:32 with a slight negative split despite not eating 30-40% of my calories on the bike- the wind and rain felt much better on foot!


TLDR: Exposed downhills were purely about survival- conditions were way worse early in the course near Washington and Hurricane where the roads are fully exposed. I only had to really deal with wind and wet roads- those near Stg had hail, heavy rain, and lightning in exchange for less wind.