I’ll be there for the half, and agree it should be fast. Viability will depend on how well it’s run. Not sure who the RD is, but they’ll have to do a better job than they did with their experiment in Venice a few years ago. My biggest concern is traffic around the speedway. International speedway blvd is not a low traffic road

What's interesting to see is Sommer Sports promoting the race. Is SS helping along side of Challenge for this race?

Just seems odd to me. I know SS wouldn't be promoting Ironman races

The Sommer Sports copyright is on some of the Challenge Daytona web ads. Sommer Sports Black Friday discounts did not list Challenge Daytona so I don't think they are the RD. But they may have been retained to help advertise, to provide timing, and other services.

Now it makes sense. If that is the case

I'm in for the half. SS is doing the timing. They already have date for next year.

---

http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

You going to be in Daytona?

Only as a spectathlete with a camera

Any comments about the race/event last weekend? Seems odd that there is nothing yet on the forum about it!

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Can anyone explain to me the whole speedway part of the bike course.

Did the pros race 12 laps? Earlier i was told AG'ers were only doing 1 lap around?

I've raced at the short speedway- Richmond speedway which is a short oval (I think like 1/4 mile), whereas I believe Daytona is like 2.5 mile speedway track.

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I was spectating and supporting the pros and went with my training partner. The pros were supposed to start at 7am, when the AGers actually started. There was a storm front coming thru and they decided to set a pro start time of 11am instead. The pros were huddled in a building on the track and had some healthy discord about what was going to happen with the race, when they would start, what format would take place. In the end, the pros actually started at 12:45pm at which time it was pretty much a ghost town. They did two loops of a modified swim, I think it was either 15 or 16 laps on the track (~37 miles) and then ran 8 miles. This was very much different from the AGer setup which took the racers out of the stadium and onto the roads

---

---

Save: $50 on Speed Hound Recovery Boots | $20 on Air Relax| $100 on Normatec| 15% on Most Absorbable Magnesium

Blogs: Best CHEAP Zwift / Bike Trainer Desk | Theragun G3 vs $140 Bivi Percussive Massager | Normatec Pulse 2.0 vs Normatec Pulse | Speed Hound vs Normatec | Air Relax vs Normatec | Q1 2018 Blood Test Results | | Why HED JET+ Is The BEST value wheelset

They had to blow up all of the original plans for the course with the storms. If my math shakes out, it should have been 15 laps on the speedway for the pro bike segment.

It looked like, from the photos I saw, that they were on the apron and not the banking of the oval. Granted, banking is way steeper at Daytona versus Richmond. Daytona's 2.5 miles, banking at 31 degrees versus Richmond 0.75 miles, 14 degrees.

---

----------------------------------
Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

So did the pros race entirely inside the track....like they swam in that lake that's part of the inside of the track?

Kinda cool......pro events just can't ever get people to watch pro's race. It's sad, but reality. I see it every time at DL events, the pro races are raced in front of ghost towns.

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Rudy Garcia Tolsons insta had a long video clip of the pro race. Swim and the action on the track that showed them biking and running. The wind was pretty loud into his mic at the beginning of the swim and the weather was ugly. I couldn’t find the clip again but I watched it this morning

I don't think there is anyway you could ride a bike on that banking and it for should would not be an advantage.

The weather played a huge factor into the lack of spectators. By the time they started most people were finished by well over two hours and it poured rain until about an hour before they started. Everyone was wet and cold and ready to go home. I was a spectator with a 4hr drive to get home so we were not hanging around. It's also not as spectator friendly as you would think. We were way back from the oval and there were only a couple of spots to get close to an athlete on the run. Looking at the run map i thought we could find an athlete anywhere on the run but lots of sections were fenced off. Nothing to do with the race yesterday it's always that way. All you would have seen on the bike yesterday were the pros going by the finishing stretch and they were about 100yrds away from you.

Kinda cool......pro events just can't ever get people to watch pro's race. It's sad, but reality. I see it every time at DL events, the pro races are raced in front of ghost towns.


Running and cycling have tried this as well - thinking that the actual participants, to a running race, may be more/most interested in watching say a high-end track & field meet, or those in a Gran Fondo might be most interested to watch a Pro Road Race or criterium.

In North America these attempts have had mixed success - some in the target groups, do have an interest and will make the effort to watch, but they rarely turn out to be the success that you think/hope they will be. I chalk this up to a lack of endurance sports culture in North America - strangely, even people who are participants IN endurance sports races/events! They come - they do their race and then they leave, with little interest to hang around to watch the Pros race!

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Most people go out to see and cheer the locals and friends. They don't know the pros, they are not generally from the local area, and there are usually not
many in most of these like events. Thus the reluctance of spectators to stand around wasting time and getting cold, or wet or hot.

It was actually pretty epic as far as I am concerned to be in the stadium, just standing and observing at the edge of the track as the pros flew by on their bikes.

---

---

Save: $50 on Speed Hound Recovery Boots | $20 on Air Relax| $100 on Normatec| 15% on Most Absorbable Magnesium

Blogs: Best CHEAP Zwift / Bike Trainer Desk | Theragun G3 vs $140 Bivi Percussive Massager | Normatec Pulse 2.0 vs Normatec Pulse | Speed Hound vs Normatec | Air Relax vs Normatec | Q1 2018 Blood Test Results | | Why HED JET+ Is The BEST value wheelset

Ya, I got to do a race in the 80's on the laguna seca raceway in Northern California. I think it was similar to Daytona, around 2 1/2 miles? But as I recall it had a ton of turns and even some hills, not sure if that is right, but what I remember. Pretty cool to have 6 to 8 lanes wide with no oncoming traffic. If you could not avoid drafting with those conditions, then you just didnt try...(-;

I did both the AG sprint and shortened half this weekend. For the Sprint bike we did two laps which included a loop around the track and an out and back on a road outside of the speedway but within the grounds (about 13.7-13.9 miles). For the shortened Half bike we did 1 loop of the track then 2 out and back loops on the city streets, returning into the speedway to transition (about 17.4-17.5 miles).

Shortening the swim and bike was disappointing but the right call. On the original course we would have had to go up and over an open, exposed bridge across the Halifax River 2x, that could have been dicey for some in the wind and rain that came through. As it was, many people were safely onto the run by the time it got somewhat nasty.

Gotta admit, racing inside the speedway was pretty dang cool.

You still can race on a road course. Fly-by-Night at the Watkins Glen Speedway. Awesome event. 1'st Saturday night in May.

It looked like they let spectators get closer to the pro race than they did the AG race. I had to drive home and was freezing after finishing. Had I known ahead of time, I would have planned on staying for the pro race though. Was an awesome experience. Starky gained even more points in my book. Heading out of T1 he’s sitting in a chair rooting on the AG athletes while other pros are in a staging room elsewhere. Its no wonder he’s a bit of a fan favorite. The lake was freezing for this Floridian. Was dizzy and had a headache in T1. Bike was fun, but really congested by the second out and back. Run was fast and pretty cool running down pit row. I’ll sign up for next year for sure! Hope Jake had fun TG. Had a bit of a laugh following your IG race to Daytona only to have and wait.

Pretty good way to spot people drafting if they’re limited to a 2.5mi loop!

I raced yesterday and stayed to watch the Pros. The problem was we didn't know what time the Pros would race, if even at all. When I finished I couldn't stop shivering. I had to get out of the weather. I stayed as long as I could but had to get checked out of hotel and into dry clothes. After we ate lunch we headed back to the track and the weather was just clearing up. The Pros started then around 12:45. They swam two 800 meter loops, 15 laps around the track, for around 37-38 miles, into an 8.5 mile run which looped off and on the track. We watched from the finish chute and it was awesome. Each bike lap we were timing the distance between Cam and Starky until Starky too the lead. Then we watched them come off the bike and onto the run. We walked back to the finish chute and watched them run by several times and into the finish. Very cool to chat with several Pros including, Starky, Matt and Cam. Starky kept going against the wall up the bank. We asked him and he said he could get away from the head wind. Very smart but more effort to get up there. I thought it was awesome experience. I am sure most people left thinking there would be no Pro race. Nobody knew when and the weather was cold windy as just pretty shitty.

---

http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com