When you think about “shit happens” during a race, this was not something that ever entered into my consciousness… Kona definitely has some Bermuda-Triangle-esque qualities when it comes to bikes.
Too bad about the saddle, thats gotta be a crazy way to go.
About the weird Kona failures, I wonder if part of it is all the abuse the racers’ bikes get via the airlines (for those that send bikes that way) in transit and in ground handling. I imagine that some of the abuse the bikes get even clever engineers can’t think up (and design for). Trust me, I have seen it all.
I do think this is a factor as to why you hear more stories about crazy stuff on race day for sure. But Kona seems to have more of its fair share, though I bet that’s mostly just because the race is so big. I doubt it’d be much of a story if I had broken the saddle during the big leg of, say, Monterrey 70.3.