what's surprising to me is the number of locals who are still unaware of the Thursday race.


The level of knowledge of something in a community is sometimes surprising.

Completely unrelated to Kona and the IRONMAN World Championships (other than it's a contributing reason as to why I am not there this year), but giving some sense of this. I am running for Town Council in the Town that I live in just north of Toronto - Aurora, ON pop. 65,000). Election day is Oct 24. I have knocked on over 2000 front doors and talked to over 500 people. We have municipal Elections every 4 years - just like most elections. The Town of Aurora has signs up all over Town, big digital adds in the Town web site and in the two local papers print adds, telling people about the election. Despite all of that - almost half the people I engage with - have no idea there is an election coming up and a campaign underway!!

I have come to the conclusion that in any community there is a sizeable group of people that seem to be completely unplugged from ANY kind of local news and events - or even things going on further afield!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Excellent info and looking forward to the 2023 edition. 😉
Does anyone know if Cervelo offer a bike/check service similar to what Felt have recently offered?

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Dont complain about the results you did n't get from the training you did n't do.

Had that today on Ali'i Drive, which is way too narrow for that (including the parked cars). Impossible for those two to stop chatting.

The speed limit change came about due to a high number of significant injury collisions at the unsignalized resort access road intersections. The timing of the change definitely works well for IMWC race week.

Good to know, thank you. Still seems like quite the coincidence to happen days before everyone starts showing up, but either way it’s safer if not annoying being constantly tailgated now by people who don’t realize it’s not 55 anymore or just don’t care.

Is can see it looking that way. But this is a Hawaii DOT facility not a county road. So these decisions have to go thru that much more red tape. The area residents and road users have been asking for this change for a long time. Nothing happens quickly with DOT’s.

I’m not sure the tailgating will end. That kind of behavior requires police enforcement and those resources are always limited. Since things ramped up here after the pandemic it does seem like the county has dedicated more officers to the resort road stretch. Downside to this presence for cyclists is having them stop you and tell you to ride single file on the shoulder that is as wide as the driving lanes…

Downside to this presence for cyclists is having them stop you and tell you to ride single file on the shoulder that is as wide as the driving lanes…


I somehow wish Commonsense would prevail at some point.

The paved Shoulder on the Queen K all the way to the Waimea Road is HUGE. There is ample room for a two up pace line. I can think of only a few sections where it's not at least the width of a standard vehicle lane!

Did I see somewhere that IM had published something advising athletes to NOT ride OFF the Queen K? And here I'm usually going on and on about how the best riding in the area IS off the Queen K *facepalm*

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

They said do not ride south of town.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

It depends. If there are two cyclists chatting next to each other forget it. You either have to pass on the car lane, or you shout "on your left" whereby this is hardly possible when downhill with a tailwind (which blew often direction north).

Which is not so important, because it's only training and that's practically over at this point anyway.


For the race (M60) on thursday I expect to be slower as I would be alone on the section Palani-Kawaihae because I expect I will have to pass a lot of women. At least when the wind blows north again I guess I'll loose 5 or 10 minutes. I know we cycle on the road then, not on the shoulder.

This is also not really a problem, because my agegroup contenders will experience the same. I just hope everyone sees safety first.

I do not think those swim waves were very well planned, only considering this elder women to not finish too late but not considering the massive amount of passing which will take place, also in the swim. With a huge relative speed difference. I mean even I got over 60 km/h on some sections direction north in the last couple of weeks.

You do not think you will be a bit faster with 1000+ women all going in the same direction?
Sling shotting around them?

That’s 100% my plan.

Weather this week looks to be fairly kind. With the front having basically stalled out there should be higher than normal chances for showers all week. Slightly milder temperatures with more cloud cover but elevated humidity levels and low trades. Predicting fast times with this forecast.

No because I expect the road to be blocked upto the middleline, which you're not allowed to cross. At least that's my experience from other races. There are also a lot of people on fast downhill passages who ride left against the middleline although being solo. No use shouting from 50m distance when you want to pass with 55 km/h where someone goes 40. No one hears anything at those speeds. Keep calm and brake, that's the way. Safety first.

So I arrived in Kona yesterday, put my bike together this morning and rode the queen K from about 8-9 am. Was a shame what I saw in that short time.

First, let me say that I loved the ride and just being here for the first time. Gonna do everything I can to respect the locals, treat the island well, and enjoy the experience. And I am going to call d-bags out when I see them...

Riding south on the Queen K I hit a red light at Waikoloa Rd. I watch one d-bag riding north on the opposite side come up as the light turned red light. Rather than stop, he slows down a bit and crosses the road even though cars were beginning to come from my side and cross the Queen K, and then hooks a left to cross the Queen K and come to my side since the light was green to do that... I am sure the cars driving through the green light from my side and seeing the cyclist cross directly in front of them were not thrilled. Could not tell if the cars had to slow down (or actually, not accelerate as normal when the light turned green), but that's not the point. Still a jerk move by one of our own.

I rode a bit further south and then eventually crossed and started riding North. By that point it was getting busy with us triathletes. I came up on two dudes riding side-by-side, upright / cruising / chatting, in the shoulder. I was not going super fast but still way faster then them. I slowed behind them and yelled multiple times "on your left" and "passing", expecting them to drop to single file. No, they just decide to squeeze in a little closer to each other and expect me to pass in the narrow space left between the rumble strip and them. I stayed right behind them for a bit and finally after saying like "single file guys" multiple times, they kinda moved to something more staggered (still not pure single file though).

About a mile later I had the EXACT same thing happen with two other riders I came up upon. I am pretty sure the first pair and this pair of riders were not American based on hearing them very briefly chat. Nothing against foreigners, and they may be from a country with drivers that are way more understanding, but I want all my foreign friends to know that American drivers are the worst and they need to ride with the mentality that every ride is a huge risk.

I guess this is rant, but I just wanted to share my experience for awareness. Do not be those guys!