Over Promised & Under Delivered.
Some my hold their tongues, but I won’t. I am disappointed about how the PX wheel deal played out at the Rockman Tri. Race weekend communication from the race director led some, including me, to believe that the PX wheel deal for the first male and female out of the water was dead. Then, low and behold, a few days after the race suddenly the awards are legitimate and race director is giving out wheels.
Sentania got short changed. Coming off a top-notch performance at IM Arizona where he qualified for IM Hawaii and beat Timex Pro Blake Becker, in addition to posting the top swim time at Lake Mills Triathlon, he signed on the dotted line to compete at the Rockman Tri to a) have a good time at a slowtwitch organized race and b) win some race wheels. Although he achieved “a” he was robbed of the wheels.
Normally, I wouldn’t give a second thought to “trinket awards” that are given out at races. But when the stakes are race wheels and a bike frame, attention to detail is needed. People are coming to win stuff. I hope the race director learned from this terrible mess. Next time forgo the bait and switch tactics of giving away stuff and simply put on a good race. If you do a good job, people will come back for more.
MATT AMMAN/CHIRO18
I agree 100% and was not sure what the status of the PlanetX deal as there was a communication issue with PlantetX. I tried on my part to touch base and did not get a response from PX. I was thinking that as PlanetX had seen some huge folks win some big races on their products and that I was an afterthought - and that was the reason for the communication issues. I was also at a loss to the status of to a frame for me that was supposed to be shipped (that I was paying for) and never arrived. I did not at all bring up the PlanetX sponsorship on race day as I was thinking it was a dead deal. I was not happy about it, but it was what it was. And I knew no better. There were other sponsors that fell through at the last minute as well.
After the race I made a comment to someone about the PX deal and that I did not know what the deal was. He made a call the PX and Peter at Zedsport pulled the deal back together and sent wheels to the first man and woman out of the water (not the original deal as we were going to give a wheel to only the first person out of the water - male or female). There at this point is NO frame deal at all for anyone. There will be something in 08 at RockMan however.
In a review of the swim and the swim start. Was it a mess - yes. The lifeguard company was not where they needed to be when they needed to be there. I was very clear on the mic that “there is never a reason to have a buoy on your right”. There was one and only one swimmer who did go around that buoy…he was also second out of the water. In the interim PlanetX has offered that swimmer a great deal on wheels, Rockman Sports Mgt (me) has offered to pay for half of that cost.
The video told the tale…are the wheels going to the fastest swimmer? Maybe not, but they are going to the swimmer who did the course the fastest. Again, only one swimmer went around an orage buoy, had he not - he would have with out a doubt been the first out of the water. The buoy directions were pretty clear as only one person of over 300 felt the need to go around that orange buoy.
Let there be no question - something like this will not happen in 08. However, if one and only one person is to go off course…what is reasonable?