That's all fine when your 20 years old.

But you miss that the average triathlete is what, 41?

With a career, maybe family, and generally time poor.

Money doesn't buy you time like you allude.
Money does buy you gear and a bit of speed here and there.
Money can also buy you more enjoyment, gadgets, interest, etc.

So for those that chose to buy the Ferrari of the bike world, fair play to them.
And for many, this may be their opportunity to own the Ferrari of the bike world, they may be on it 5-10hours every week, out with friends etc.

We all chose to spend on luxuries if we can afford it.
We all know training is what makes you fitter. Many cannot increase their hours for their hobby. That doesn't stop them spending on it.

By your token, stick to local cheap races as a race is a race. Don't travel to the expensive brand races etc.

Women buy shoes, bags, etc.
Men spend on their hobbies be it cars, sports, triathlon, golf, etc.


Also, if you think a Venge with disc brakes is a regular road bike then you've proved my point... it's about as top of the range as it gets... and more expensive than many tri bikes.
We all know the bike is about 5% of the aero drag. Its position, power, and if descending then disc brakes or technical skills/road bike for many.

I get the point you are making and pretty much agree with it. But there is nothing wrong with being middle aged, having 1/2 the watts Iden has spending money on a bike you like. For example, I ride a fireblade to work every day. I don't need to, I could ride a 125cc bike, but I love my fireblade to bits. Same with triathlon bikes, I might be half the man that Iden is, but if I want to spend a lot on a great bike why not?

I do agree that you don't need to spend a lot to get a lot, and training is absolutely the key to being fast. Its a great thing that Iden has come along and reminded us of that!

---

He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

I am sure I would be faster if I spent 30-35 hours a week training and yes my Ceramic Speed bottom bracket and jockey wheel will make negligibly faster (just like Nike 4% shoes) but its fun for me (no my bike isn't 12k) and see lots of people slower than me on bikes faster than mine, but if it makes them look forward to training and motivates them and they an afford it who cares? I look at the big picture; they are getting healthier and faster and enjoying themselves. In the end thats what matters most.

---

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

I both agree and disagree with you.
I agree that equipment is not a substitute for athletic ability.
I disagree with your assumption that those buying more elaborate equipment are under the illusion it makes them a great athlete.

You seem to be saying that those talking about equipment are dismissing the importance of training, and that equipment is actually irrelevant. If that's your view, you are making the exact same error you're accuse them of making by dismissing the importance of training. For optimum performance you need to optimise both. Consideration of training and equipment are not mutually exclusive. It's foolish to talk as though they are. It's like the guys who jump into every discussion about equipment weight savings to say there's no point until you're at your optimum racing weight. Rubbish. Body weight probably offers more potential weight savings, but there's no reason you can't do both and no reason you can't make the easier equipment savings regardless of body weight. No one with half a brain thinks one replaces the other.

Also, no-one is obliged to be as fit or as fast as they are capable of becoming. Most of us do this because we enjoy it, as a hobby with health benefits. We have jobs, families, and other obligations. Time is often the most valuable commodity. Younger folks or those without a family or with a less demanding job may not appreciate the reality of this. I've been both and I never realised just how quickly and completely your free time evaporates when you have a family and full time job until that was my life. I can still train, a bit. I still thoroughly enjoy riding my bike. But I can't commit the time I'd like without making unacceptable sacrifices elsewhere in my life. So I'm respectably fast on the bike at a club level but I will never be really fast. Does that mean, in your view, that it's unjustified for me to buy a decent bike and an aero helmet, power meter, etc? Is sport without value unless it's a career? If that were the case it could neveer be a career in the first place. You realise that, yes?

at the same time 2012 or so kienle showed everybody how important aero is he almost single handedly changed the pro fields approach that aero espcially position matters.

while your post is of course in many ways correct dont forget this is still a top bike he is using on a course where he had next to 0 penalty for this. and his sponsored bike is still like 10 000usd bike...
also while weight was not the biggest matter 68 kg still helps on a course like this.

besides there is a video of iden doing a bike tests in the lab
only the scale he is uisnig there is more than 12000 ..... so no its not exactly on the cheap...
and you could make a point that they doing the same thing you complain about bikes with excessie sport science....
joel filliol is showing in itally that you can do it with a lot less science...

there is nothing to see here . its still the good old consitent work with a good team talent etc etc.

rather than whats different look more whats similar . altidutde camps , loads of training.( maybe the itu guys that do the most miles on the bike ) many many years to get there etc etc . i think the only thing to see here is that there is a good culture in norawy where kids overall do more sport when they are young and a culture where many adults work as voluntary coaches.

Jeopardy Question: Things poor triathlete's say for $1,000:

People who post things like this make me think they don't understand how difficult it is to tease out power/speed/split times on training alone if you're on a fixed time budget.

It is NOT some kind of cakewalk to say you're going to make up for all the fancy equipment with just harder work and a coach.

It's pretty disingenuous.

The best way I can put it is to use the example of somebody with a pretty ho-hum bike FTP (hour) of let's say 230w. The difference between some non-optimized tires/tubes/tubeless/tubulars and old-school aero wheels and the modern best equivalents can be 20w plus. You're already near a 10% improvement in net power right there. We're not even talking suits/helmets and such.

It's not some kind of simple task to "just" boost your ftp by 20w given same time input. Or cut your run splits by 30 seconds a mile overnight.

You can literally buy that 20 watts. And more.

I don't find it any more admirable somebody chooses to use inferior equipment, they're just doing what they can afford to do. The same that I won't lambaste somebody slow for buying the most expensive equipment. They're both optimizing what they can do.

If you can afford things, it's really really disrespectful to yourself to waste your training and coaching to throw watts/time in the toilet because you think fancy equipment is a fraud.

OK, you're laying it on a bit thick there. "Yes, honey I need this new P5X so I can respect myself.". (single tear slowly tracing its way down cheek)

I think you are missing why the average age group athlete on here participates, races, and trains - to enjoy ourselves (its our hobby)! And, although it is fun riding any functioning bike outside, its hard to argue that it isn't more fun riding the $12000 bike with electronic shifting, carbon wheels, etc. So if you can afford it, why not spend the money on a fancy bike?

It is a similar argument for someone buying a $300 000 Ferrari to drive around in when a $10000 Ford can get you from A to B as well.

Exactly!

Same as the Honda guys bashing old guys for with Vipers and Lamborghinis.

I get your point about the individual, not the equipment, driving performance. But I don't get what this has to do with Iden. It looks like he was racing on an S-Works Venge Disc. That's a $12,000+ bike, right?

yep.

---

2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.

Maybe the moral is not that you should use that money on a coach, but that for those that cant afford it you can put in a decent effort without a tri bike.
But I'm getting really tired of this "money barrier to enter" debate, i think a lot of people are just using it as an excuse to not get started/explain their poor results in a recent race. Oh and i ride a B12 entry level bike!

In the hundreds of holier-than-thou posts I've read all over about "it's the engine not the equipment" I've yet to find one good argument against doing both.

---

Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
http://instagram.com/tgarvey4

I think that there's two separate arguments here:

1 - As a beginner or intermediate triathlete, you don't need a hyper-bike or Nike 4% shoes to get into the sport and enjoy it. I think some people here and elsewhere are worried that the perceived barrier to entry in our sport is expensive gear. You can go off the deep end and buy whatever you like, and there's totally nothing wrong with that. You can also do a good triathlon on a used road bike. Fair play. I think once you have a taste for the sport and are starting to chase goals, nice gear makes the experience more enjoyable for some.

2- I think only those already very invested in the sport are those buying those higher end items - this isn't a barrier to entry because they're already in and hooked. This is what drives the sport innovation forward, allows pros to get sponsorship, and lets people experience some of the pro-touches that are normally out of reach for mere mortals.

Personally, I only started to invest in equipment after I felt that my gear was holding me back - not everyone has to follow that path, and honestly, the more people interested in our sport, spending money on gear, and actively participating in races, the better for all of us!

I'm retired on a fixed income, and race on a dinosaur aluminum P1, and might just ride that thing to my grave. I LOVE all the folks on their expensive bikes. It works out perfect. If I pass them, its because I have a stronger engine. If they pass me, its because they have a better bike. It's a win-win in the mental game.

---

Athlinks / Strava

Just wanted to say I approve of your choice of daily transport - loved my fireblade until a car took me and it out on the way to work one day.

Lol! The OP did say something like a $1500 bike. Not a $10k bike.

Then maybe you can't afford it if you have to cry to a spouse to buy equipment. And that's OK.

My point is, don't buy inferior equipment because you think you're badass in doing so. Buy inferior equipment because your budget, family constraints, or some limiting factor keeps you from doing so. Or you're a retro enthusiast. That's cool too. But don't trash on people who DO buy fancy stuff by insinuating they're not optimizing their training.

It's almost like the triple ring steel framed bike crowd in cycling forums. Thinking you're a bad-a because you own something not as nice. Sure, some of those folks could smoke me on a bike. But they'd smoke me even worse up a climb if their bike were 5 pounds lighter and they trimmed their neckbeard down for some more aero.

this.

(I'm not retired though, and "could" afford a fancier bike. I simply don't want to, I'd rather put my cash elsewhere.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

Remember, for armatures, this is a hobby. Many people buy sports cars and will never take it to a track. People will spend their money

---

USAT Level II- Ironman U Certified Coach

Your premise is somewhat on track, but the way you articulate it is off. The bike is there for one thing, to move you through the race. If it puts you in the proper aero position, then it has done its job. Iden's bike did that, just like everyone else's bikes. If he didnt have aero bars on the bike, he would have been left in the dust, so really it is the aero bars he used that were the important thing..

And he did serve a penalty on certain parts of the course, did not everyone see the guy with the disc wheel just ride away from him and Ali? He may well have climbed just a bit better because of equipment, but he gave up on the descent. He and Ali were lucky in that when they had a gap to the leader, the motos slotted in, and they were able to ride the Moto draft back up to him, otherwise they would have certainly lost time there, and then to the finish, against that particular equipment. They had to really charge hard too at those points to regain contact, burning matches in the process..

So you are right in that it is not really much about the bike, but the position that bike puts you in. The bike does matter, but probably less than wheels do, especially on particular courses with a lot of ups and downs...

i feel like you're speaking directly to me. i'm a rotating coil, ready to motor.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I remember when I used to think that I was the only smart dude in the room. Everyone else was dumber than I was and the only way to do something was my way. Everyone else had no clue WTF they were doing. I would call them stupid or laugh at them because they didn't do anything the way I was doing it. I loved to stick my nose in what they were doing, and I even learned to ask questions just so I could set them up and cut them down with my "better" way of doing stuff. Being from the US, this was the environment that I grew up in and learned, so I didn't realize just how arrogant and ignorant I was being.

Then, I moved to a country that is quite opposite of that. I experienced culture shock because almost everyone was so frigging nice and polite. I got even worse because I was trying to balance out the niceness with sarcasm, bullying, goading, trolling, complaining, whining, bitching and moaning, and found that I never made any friends that stuck around.

Slowly I started to realize just how much of an ass I was being to everyone, and really had to step outside of how I was raised to make friends. Luckily I hooked up with a few international guys and gals who were patient enough and lead by example of how to not be a dick. Every once in a while I slip, and I gotta admit that it feels fun to put the screws to some "idiots" from time to time. I guess it gives that stupid-assed ego I still have buried inside a boost.

But now, mostly, when I see, read or hear people being a dick, trying to tell others that they are stupid for doing things the "wrong" way, shit like that, I just shake my head. Since my transition I've never considered myself a smart man. Actually, when I am in a room full of people I always consider myself to be the dumbest one in the room.

I don't give AF how fast you are, how expensive your bike is, what you do for a living or how many races you've won, if you are spouting off at the mouth how someone else is "doing it wrong", sticking your nose in their business or just being a dick in general, and you see me, the dumbest dude in the room shaking my head at you...

---

The more people I encounter the more I love my cats.

From my POV there is a much bigger issue: someone wins a world championship in a distance he’s not trained for, one week after his A race. Another is fourth, a. couple more in the top 10.

I think this is a bad reflection on the standard at long distance.

Not one of the long distance established athletes could rock up at the Olympic distance grand final and place anywhere.

It’s a pretty poor situation.

Ryf is arguably showing on the women’s side where the standard should be.