Triathletes are gear heads.

So the Ironman World Championships are coming up in less than two weeks, so I've been all over the web checking out the media and race material on my favorite tri websites. One of my favorite things to do is take a look at the old results. One thing that always fascinates me is how more than 20 years ago, the winning times for Ironman are as fast as they have been in recent years.

Bike manufacturers would say "oh the conditions weren't as harsh on the big island back then". I say this is hogwash. Could it be that the athletes from the 80's and early 90's were just forced to be stronger due to equipment that was not as technologically advanced as what we have today - so therefor the current crop of athletes aren't as strong? With more technological advances in equipment, do we now have less physical resistance to overcome?

If you go to any triathlon, particularly of the half-iron distance or greater, you'll see thousands of bikes worth well in excess of $5,000. Not to mention all the fancy wetsuits ($600), aero helmets ($200), pricey tri clothes, shoes, etc. Below is a picture of Dave Scott from the 1989 "Budlite" Ironman World Championships. He's riding a basic tri bike. Note the lack of $2,500 set of Zipp wheels, $3000 SRM power meter, HRM (does he even have a computer on that thing?) and aero helmet. I'm not even sure if there's any carbon fiber in this picture anywhere? Do you see any compression socks on him? He took 2nd to Mark Allen who was riding an almost identical set up. Notice the downtube shifters as well. They went 8:09 and 8:10 respectively. Fast forward to 2009 and Craig Alexander won with an 8:20.


My guess is that we've all been duped. Tricked by the industry into thinking that you need all the aero carbon 11 speed $9,000 self floating wetsuit compression gear we can get. Notice that I say we - I'm guilty as charged! Do I think that all the new stuff is actually helpful - yes, I do. With that being said I do think the advantages in speed are marginal. If Scott and Allen can rip off times like that with the most basic equipment - maybe we just need to train harder!