I am a Kona rookie. I have no sense of comparison for what we had yesterday. It felt hard to me, but I am curious if that was as bad as it gets, was that average to normal (or possibly easier than usual)?
Anyone remember harder years? Is it always like that?
My wife was told worst in 15 years by some woman. Take that for what it’s worth.
Matt Lieto and Greg Welch said the last time the winds were blowing as hard as yesterday was 2004…
Of the 5 races I have done in Kona 98 was super hard. 20 miles in on the Queen K the winds came up all the way tp Hawi. So bad I had to pedal down hill. Looking down the road everyone was canted in on the right side agaisnt the wind. I know there were 3 blowen off there bikes. Coming back we did not get the tail wind we were expecting. Train for the worse.
From a general perspective of riding the kona/hawi route, I’d call it an 8/10.
With that said, it was pretty much per the NOAA forecast on Saturday, so not too many surprises out there.
I am a Kona rookie. I have no sense of comparison for what we had yesterday. It felt hard to me, but I am curious if that was as bad as it gets, was that average to normal (or possibly easier than usual)?
I wish there was some network that could tie together information from computers in disparate locations so that a person could look it up at will. A sort of “information superhighway” where just by using some sort of “search engine” you could look up, for example, wind readings from weather stations around the country from any day in the past. It would be a beautiful thing. Maybe we will see it before we die.
Anyone remember harder years? Is it always like that?
Unless people were getting blown off their bikes and over guard rails, it was nothing compared to 2001.
Haim
Maik Twielsek rode 4:25 (4:24:XX if you want to be precise) on 280+w // 300w NP.
FVL went slower on more power than last year, but he was also riding different rings than last year, and - I THINK - a different PM. I’m also always skeptical of the accuracy of power data for elliptical rings on crank PMs. They always read high… So that’s a harder data point to connect.
Ben rode 274/288, and I figure he’s maybe a bit less aero than Maik (rode an Evade), but probably close. Figure that typically - for equivalent CdA - 2w = 1min, Ben should have ridden 16w less (8*2), and that’s actually almost exactly what he did ride - 288 (MT) vs 274 avg (BH).
Looking at 2013, Luke McKenzie rode 281w (295w Pnorm) to go 4:21. I figure he’s a bit more aero than Ben or Maik, but probably comparable. I’d say that you can say that in 2013, Maik would have probably been more like 4:21.
So, based off what I can armchair quarterback off out of the data that’s out there, I’d say that this year was 1.5-2% slower than last year, which was - by all accounts - a fast year (women’s course record fell, and many women rode quite fast).
So let’s call it 2%.
Objectively, I think 2% is probably reasonable. That’s significant. But also not.
FWIW.
Most important rule is, in the words of Paula Newby-Fraser, “EVERY year in Kona is EITHER the hottest ever OR the windiest ever OR both the hottest and windiest ever.”
The thing to remember from perspective of announcers is that the winds in Kailua are hardly representative of the winds on the course. The wind at any point is not really representative of the wind anywhere else.
Bottom line: it was hot, it was windy, and it was humid. Based off times, it was a “slow” year (compare Rinny’s winning performances from both years). Interestingly you get… 1.5-2% slower than 2013 (comparing total times).
It depends if your question is age grouper or pros. I know a bunch of guys who did it this year, and a number of them did one of 2013, 2012…all the way back to 2005. Most were around 30-45 min slower than the faster years in there, and the slower you swam, the worse if got…some guys swimming in the 1:20 range were biking 60 min slower than previous fast years. Having said that, what I would do is look at 200th place, 400th, 600th, 800th, 1000th (look at it for this year and last year) and so on to see how much slower each of those positions were. Sure it is affected by depth of field, but it gives you an idea of the increasing impact of the wind the later in the day you left the swim.
There is a hurricane due to arrive by Saturday so thankfully the race was last weekend.
Matt Lieto and Greg Welch said the last time the winds were blowing as hard as yesterday was 2004…
I think Welch and Lieto are wrong because on 2004, the best bike time was 4h37 by Stadler and only 9 guys did under 5h (more than 100 on 2004). On 2004, they rode 150kms against a strong wind, they had headwinds kona to hawi, then it turns on the come back at kawaihae with strong headwinds again to kona.
https://www.athlinks.com/Race/Event?raceID=24564&courseID=37089
Gael from France
I was told by Eneko Llanos that what he had never seen in his 7 previous konas was the crazy tailwind on Waikoloa on the way back, I hit 64.5kph on a completely flat stretch of road. absolutely ridiculous.
It was my first Kona and I was expecting something brutal. It was hard, specially compared to the previous days when it had been pretty mild (I rode to Hawi on Sunday and it was almost windless), but Lanzarote is more or less like that most years, and much worst sometimes.
the kona course must be super fast on a calm day
raced here a lot since 2003
Order of difficulty re: wind
In short 2014 probably had the highest wind speeds at times but it was not a brutally slow day out there.
**Sure it is affected by depth of field, but it gives you an idea of the increasing impact of the wind the later in the day you left the swim. **
One general thing you see in Kona is an increasing in the wind velocity as the day goes on.
With the wave starts now, the spread from the absolute front of the race ( the pro men) to the back, the slower women is much wider than it was years ago. The Pro men with a 6:30 start, now get to ride in generally speaking less windy conditions than, Pro men from years ago, and generally speaking better conditions than AG men and women.
I’m also always skeptical of the accuracy of power data for elliptical rings on crank PMs.
I’m not skeptical in the least about the data from those combos.
They always read high…
Exactly 
I was told by Eneko Llanos that what he had never seen in his 7 previous konas was the crazy tailwind on Waikoloa on the way back, I hit 64.5kph on a completely flat stretch of road. absolutely ridiculous.
It was my first Kona and I was expecting something brutal. It was hard, specially compared to the previous days when it had been pretty mild (I rode to Hawi on Sunday and it was almost windless), but Lanzarote is more or less like that most years, and much worst sometimes.
the kona course must be super fast on a calm day
Did he tell you that tailwind lasted all of 5 minutes. It was so demoralizing to have your brain switch to “awesome we can make up some time” to “crap, here we go again.”
he didn’t have to tell me that, I was there. it was actually 13’ at 50kph avg with 163w and a peak of 68.5 kph for me, but yeah, the last 40km really sucked
Unless people were getting blown off their bikes and over guard rails, it was nothing compared to 2001.
My forearms were sore for a couple days after this race because of the winds on this day…it was brutal. Next time I raced was 2004, and while they weren’t quite as bad as '01, they were still pretty damn bad.
My forearms were sore for a couple days after this race because of the winds on this day…it was brutal. Next time I raced was 2004, and while they weren’t quite as bad as '01, they were still pretty damn bad.
I think the lesson here is to stay away from Kona in the years you are racing
Haim
It’s been very safe since 2004…lol…