I heard Felix mentioned this on the live broadcast. I see DeRue here with Felix and his wifey, and on the right Jesse Du Bey (Orkila, part owner of Ironman/WTC).
Felix mentioned that “they are here to learn” and apparently he has promised to return the favour and come back to Kona.
Anybody else not buying that? 
Maybe he’s trying to learn how to fit 3500 to bikes into transition 
In the broadcast Belinda did fawn over how Challenge manage to fit 3500 bikes into a pretty limited space, resulting in short transition times.
I guess they came to see how to make split screens for their broadcast.
But more seriously it’s good they engage and focus on the cake rather than the slices of the cake.
IM have actually been doing split screens in the last couple of races. (I’m defending IM’s broadcast, probably a first. To throw in some balance: the broadcast is still pretty shit!)
We do not need 3500 bikes in Kona. The bike course is congested enough.
great while you are at it, being exceedingly nice , give some love to the ST owner, he needs it as well.
Let me try to adjust the fire a bit here:
Is Ironman/WTC buying Challenge Family? 
Why would Jesse Du Bey be in Roth … ?
Hint: Jesse has nothing to do with bikes on a peer or split screen coverage … he is the man with the big wallet …
I believe at one stage of the broadcast, Roth had 4 split screens…
Think IM and T100 usually have 2 at the most
Quantum leaps🤣
I hope not!
Challenge Roth is special and I hope it remains independent of IM for as long as I am around!
yet the tracker is absolutely nowhere…
I initially look at the challenge app but Roth wasn’t on it which was weird! Not sure why it’s so special
Probably because Challenge Roth is run as a separate entity to all the other Challenge Family events. It is a “Walchshöfer Family” race and not a Challenge Family race.
The “About Us” section of the Challenge Family website has no mention of Felix at all.
We Are Challenge Family - Challenge Family
Maybe the Walchshöfer Family is looking for an early retirement
Yes did the same. Its a shame since the new Challenge app seems to be based on the same backend as the Ironman tracker app and works well.
I would be very surprised as Felix is so bloody passionate about his race with all that family history behind it. Helps that he makes an amazing living from that one race alone.The only way I see him selling and walking away is if there is something personal going on and if he did walk away Roth would never be the same
I like the idea of both of them collaborating to make the sport better and bigger. I wonder if there may be some cross promotion where some IM races offer a road to Roth and some Challenge races offer a road to 70.3 worlds?
Would make sense for Challenge Roth to become Ironman Roth again. Challenge is done imho.
Never raced Roth - but that is the same feeling I get. Felix is such a strong ambassador for the sport! He could even be a future Ironman CEO 
I just can’t see that happening. I am sure a passionate set of Germans would buy it before they let Ironman buy it. Perhaps there are some Challenge races around the world that Ironman wants to take over?
