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Re: Ironman and ITU now partners. Legal tt bikes [alaska848] [ In reply to ]
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Sorry to hear you had issues at LC Worlds last year.

WTC has nothing to do with ITU bike approvals. Ventum went through a very lengthy process with the ITU to get the Ventum approved to race in ITU non-drafting races including LC Worlds. Many events in Canada and Europe require that an athletes bike needs to meet the ITU bike regulations even when the event is not ITU sanctioned.

The ITU focused mainly on structural testing and we met all their requirements amongst many other things we had to send a random sample of each frame size to be tested by an independent lab in Switzerland. Although this was a very tedious and lengthy process, it was very clear to us at the start of this venture that ITU approval would be crucial to our sales, specifically to sales outside of North America. We are the first non-traditional or non-triangular bike to be approved and the process started many months prior to LC Worlds or our partnership with WTC.

JImmy Seear
Co-Founder Ventum
http://www.ventumracing.com
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Re: Ironman and ITU now partners. Legal tt bikes [RLB] [ In reply to ]
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I believe the P5X is also now legal:

http://www.triathlon.org/...titions_20161215.pdf

I'm hoping that opens the doors for the other non-traditional bike frames. Now that Cervelo and Ventum are legal, hard to believe that this new 'partnership' would reverse that trend?
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Re: Ironman and ITU now partners. Legal tt bikes [JODIRT] [ In reply to ]
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I see a huge positive in this... One set of rules benefits everyone... Some Ironman races are already sanctioned through local associations (for example Muskoka 70.3 (and the full when it existed) were run under Triathlon Ontario sanction)... Having everything under ITU rules makes it easier for participants to only have to know one set of rules to follow.

ITU has never been under the UCI, however, they often reference the UCI's rules. In regards to bikes, they have never mandated the UCI stickers, just that bikes meet the UCI definition of a bicycle, and that those who don't need to seek exemptions as non-traditional frames as Ventum, and now the new Cervelo have done. With one year before a common set of LD tri rules come in, the announcement serves as notice... I suspect that most frame non-traditional frame manufacturers serious about IM racing will likely be pursuing ITU exemptions, since otherwise the writing may be on the wall for their continued presence... The first hurdle for some of these frames was removed with the removal of the disc brake ban for all draft illegal tri...

In terms of championships, seeing as the Multisport festival is essentially being organized through Challenge, I could see WTC wanting a piece of the pie. Kona will likely never be the ITU LD World championships, because it's too much of a cash cow for WTC. not to mention, IM is longer than the prescribed ITU LD distances... So Kona could keep it's Ironman WC status... WTC would likely want to maintain the distinction, since the ITU moves their championships around, and folding IM into that would mean that some years Kona would not have the WC label... What it could mean is ITU officials in Kona and other WTC races, potentially the use of IM local organizers/venues to host ITU events, etc.

There's a lot of potential benefit from this, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out, but it will make official's jobs easier when there's one set of rules for all events, since athletes will only need to know one set of guidelines, and would be less likely to commit violations at the intersection of the rule sets out of confusion...
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