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Image 1 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 2 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 3 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 4 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 5 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 6 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 7 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 8 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 9 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 10 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 11 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 12 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 13 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 14 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
Image 15 — I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down
▲ 128 r/triathlon+1 crossposts

I measured 14 pro bike positions from Kona race photos. The trend is hands up, not backs down

I'm a triathlete and I build a technique-analysis app (disclosure below). The day after Kona I ran fourteen pro bike positions from race photos through a pose model and measured four upper-body angles. The median:


| Angle | Median | Middle half | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Torso, from horizontal | 20° | 17–24° | 12–32° |
| Shoulder (torso to upper arm) | 85° | 77–88° | 71–97° |
| Elbow | 80° | 76–89° | 62–107° |
| Forearm tilt above horizontal | 25° | 21–26° | 10–31° |


What stood out:


- **Hands up.** 7/14 tilted forearms more than 25°, 2/14 under 15°. UCI raised the armrest tilt limit from 15° to 30° in 2023. Maddocks & Walker (2025, Sports Engineering — CFD validated in a tunnel, one pro): high hands alone ~3% less drag area, with narrow elbows 7.7–11.2%.
- **The elbow pays for it.** Elbow and forearm tilt moved together more than any other pair (r = −0.76). Four riders were under a 75° elbow floor that was written for flat forearms.
- **The torso isn't that low.** Median 20°. Fintelman (2015, n=19): 24°→16° saves ~5% frontal area but max power drops as the torso goes down; a flat back was significantly worse than every other position. Six of fourteen were under 20° — pros, 4+ hours, years of conditioning.
- **Closed shoulders are fine.** 5/14 under 80°. Fitters aim for 90° but don't call less than 90° a fault.


Caveats, because they matter:
- One race, one day, one roadside viewpoint, 2D angles, roughly ±2–3°.
- Some athletes may be in more than one photo; each photo counts as one position. No names — I can't verify who's in every frame.
- **No knee/saddle numbers.** A race photo freezes the crank anywhere, and every photo was drive side. On my own bikes I measured that the chainring behind the ankle makes the knee at the bottom of the stroke read 8–10° low. So I left legs out.
- One shoulder point was misplaced by the model (on the top of the back) and I moved it by hand; it's marked on that figure.
u/AnnualBase8581 — 4 days ago
▲ 22 r/triathlon+1 crossposts

Kona Top 25 M & F Shoe Choice

Hi guys, I made this spreedsheet that has marathon times, finishing times, weight, height, and a ton of other statistics relating to what shoes the top 25 pro finishers had from each race this past weekend. I would love you feedback on the data, help filling in missing entries or any other general anecdotes about the information. Thanks.

Sheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cBO0PwjrQmhp_v8Zw8MpxEYTfGvOwnjK8C-w3o6KCyY/edit?usp=sharing

Some general trends:

Hoka was the most worn shoe at 11 pro's with ON right behind with 10.

The fastest average marathon with both females and males wearing the shoe was from Asics, and the slowest was Hoka.

The fastest male shoe on average was the Asics Metaspeed Tokyo Sky and the slowest was the Hoka Rocket.

The fastest female shoe on average was interestingly the Hoka Rocket and the slowest was the ON Cloudboom Lightspray by almost 15 minutes.

A lot of the data is skewed with times only coming from either male of female so created average differential to fastest time and to average time to show which shoe performed above the mean, or closests to the fastest racer on course. That is the last two categories.

Also, I added height and weight to help reveal how that can effect shoe choice for athletes in a sport with suck diverse body shapes like triathlon. Let me know again any interesting trends that arise. Thanks so much.

u/Working_Ad1215 — 3 days ago
▲ 3 r/triathlon+1 crossposts

Tomorrow i'll be doing my first duathlon as a cyclist and occasional runner.

Hello Reddit,

Im a 17 yo cyclist fron the Netherlands and will be competing in the session 1( higher) stayer duathlon race( 5-20-2.5) session 2 fits my fitness beter but it was full and Session 1 suited me better time wise. I've done a few runs last weeks and did two half marathons in the past my best time was 1 44 but i had a very ba day. I also did a 10k on a difficult parcours with a bridge and a trail part in 44 mins. The striving fitness they gave is 40 mins for 10k, so thats a bit of an gap.

Cycling is way more to my abilties, and my FTP at 75kg is around 310 Watts.

My plan rn is to give my absolute everything on the first 5k( would be 21~ mins) to try and even get to a group where I can stayer. Then just dont go to crazy on the bike and let the others do the work, then the 2nd run just do the first 500m ez and after just throw out everything I have left.

Are there any aspects to this plan that are unrealistic or would need more nuance. F.E i could imagine that people running 21 mins for a 5k usually wont be 300w+ cyclists either, and there isn't much to hang on to for me.

Do you guys have any other tips for a guy doing his first duathlon as a racing cyclist.

For now im gonna do a small brick training to get loose( which is my first, very stupid)

reddit.com
u/Financial-Coast9152 — 5 days ago
▲ 71 r/triathlon

New IRONMAN 70.3 Utah confirmed!

Breaking: IRONMAN Utah 70.3 2027

We have confirmed that IRONMAN will produce a 70.3 race in Utah in 2027 and possible through 2029. The race will take place in Orem, UT and surrounding cities and counties. Orem is about 40 min south of Salt Lake City. Public records requests obtained over the last few months between IRONMAN, Utah county and various city employees have unearthed lots of new data. Here is what we have so far.

Race date will be August 21st 2027

Swim and T1 location will be Deer Creek State Park.

Provo Canyon (US189) will be a part of the bike course.

Scera Park in Orem, Ut will be the main venue for athlete village, T2 and finish line.

We have a full written article on our website now that has more in depth explanations, screen shots and some speculations from a local that lives in Orem. Article can be found here …

https://triathletesofutah.com/news

The bike course and run course are still being finalized.

Emails say IRONMAN is making an official announcement in a few weeks on October 20th. We

hope to have more info at that point to release.

u/outdoormaniacs — 7 days ago
▲ 14 r/triathlon+1 crossposts

Cervelo P3 cockpit question

Hi all !!!!

I recently got this P3 2014 and I’ve been training for my first 70.3, I wanted to reward myself with a more updated cockpit when I completed one. I was looking at others setups and wanted see if anyone had any budget ideas for something similar. I added some stuff from my other road bike & made a homemade disc cover but wanted it to look more updated. Definitely don’t need to do any of it and it would be purely for some cosmetic and extra aerodynamic gains but I just can’t stop thinking about doing stuff to the bike, I love the frame and don’t really want to get a different one.

(The first picture is mine and the rest are some I’ve
seen & thought were awesome)

I will gladly take any advice!!! Thank you!

u/Jquenga55 — 6 days ago
▲ 2 r/triathlon

Di2 or mechanical, and disc or rim-brakes, when buying a second-hand TT bike?

I have a nice road bike with hydraulic disc brakes and Di2 and obviously love it!

I'm in the market for a second-hand TT/tri bike (I usually do 2x 70.3 per year and doing a 140.6 in 2027).

Mechanical shifting and rim brake bikes are significantly cheaper on the second-hand market, and I wanted to get your perspectives on whether Di2 and disc brakes are worth the upgrade for a TT bike? The full distance course I'm doing is Western Australia, so I don't think I'll be climbing much or facing wet conditions.

reddit.com
u/SugarPrestigious5723 — 6 days ago
▲ 16 r/triathlon

It's the Kona Race Day thread! Who to watch, how to watch, and all the race day chatter will be here throughout day!

It's almost time! First things first- your options to watch, here they are from Ironman.com.

  • Globally: YouTube (free worldwide — coverage starts 4:30 AM HST, pro men 6:20, pro women 6:30), ironman.com/proseries, DAZN

  • France: L'Équipe

  • Germany: HR

  • Spain: RTVE Play

  • Latin America & Caribbean: ESPN via Disney+

  • China: iQIYI

  • South Africa: SuperSport

And as always, the IRONMAN Tracker app on your phone / mobile device will be your best bet for live info.

I'm really looking forward to hearing from a great commentary team tomorrow: Carfrae, Ryf, Frodeno, McCloy, Siddall, and Appleton.

Some great race previews below!

From TRI 247:

> A formidable field preparing to chase triathlon's most coveted full-distance title though the defending champion Casper Stornes will be missing following his training crash.

And Triathlete.com's pro preview:

> Løvseth "came to Kona last year as a World Championship rookie and left with the title" — while Laidlow "owns the Kona bike course record and the fastest time ever over the full distance."

And from Ironman.com:

> "with Kona exclusively hosting a reimagined event format with men and women racing together on the same day" — "nearly 3,000 of the most competitive and committed triathletes in the world," because athletes want "to race together, and do that at the beating heart of our sport in Kona, Hawai`i."

> "Norway dominated last year's IRONMAN World Championship in 2025, sweeping the podium with Casper Stornes, Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt" — the hype train is back minus one. Official men's start list (55 pros): M2 Iden, M3 Blummenfelt, M4 Van Riel, M5 Laidlow, M6 Lange ("final appearance racing in Hawai'i"), M7 Schomburg, M8 Thompson, M9 Marquardt, M14 Foley, M20 Hanson, M22 Von Berg, M26 Long, M36 Wurf, M40 Ditlev, M53 Furuya.

Some other great sources for previews race day news:

Who are your favorites? What will you be watching for? The field is stacked and I think this might be one of the most exciting World Championship since the last one, at least.

And of course if you're there, how are you feeling? Ready to race? We'd love to hear about it! And I'm incredibly jealous.

u/MrRabbit — 6 days ago
▲ 4 r/triathlon

Your most effective quality cycling sessions?

What are your favorite / most effective cycling workouts to increase VO2 Max and or FTP?? I appreciate any advice :)

reddit.com
u/D1gex — 6 days ago
▲ 15 r/triathlon

Dear lord

Facebook Marketplace find. I wonder how many teeth this person has knocked out riding this monstrosity.

u/CinnamonCrunchLunch — 5 days ago
▲ 2 r/triathlon

vo2 lab testing

If you had to choose between a lab test for vo2 max on the bike or on the treadmill which would you choose and why?

I'm getting my RMR tested so figured I'd spend a little extra to get a bundle deal and do a vo2 test. My running could use the most improvement so I'm leaning towards that, but biking is the longest leg of a race so I also thought maybe a bike vo2 test would be better.

reddit.com
u/uncle_grumper — 6 days ago
▲ 3 r/triathlon

Tri-bike saddle suggestions?

I’ve tried out different saddles for my p5, I adjusted to the decent height but all of them seemed to either hurt my genitalia or the edges on the sides prevented me from stepping my legs down smoothly.

The saddles I tried:
Specialized sitero 155,
selleitalia watts,
ism ps1.0.

The first two were not for me, however the ism I only used it for a day, I think I haven’t built up the tolerance yet. And the current choice for me is SQlab 613, but still uncomfortable after 40min.

I’m 190cm, 90kg, inner thighs thick. Any advices or saddle choices?

u/Saladass_xx — 5 days ago
▲ 4 r/triathlon

Advice on The ROC races in UK

Anyone done THE ROC Wales or THE ROC England?

And for anyone wondering what this is about - https://www.theroc.com/

What do you wish you'd known beforehand?

I’m booked to do THE ROC Wales and ROC England (not sure on ROC Scotland as it will probably be miserable weather).

I would really like to hear from people who have actually raced one — especially anyone who has done both.

I’ve read through the ROC course information and race tips, but I’m interested in the stuff you only really discover on race day.

How did you find:

  • how did you train for the bike after the mountain run?
  • How did you find the mountain run — particularly the technical sections and the descent?
  • Bike gearing - Did you wish you'd gone easier/lower?
  • Pacing the first bike knowing you’ve got Snowdon/Scafell Pike and another bike leg afterwards?
  • Trail shoes vs something more lightweight, and what did you leave in T2 for the final run?
  • Nutrition — particularly eating enough before and during the mountain section?
  • Bike 2 after the mountain. Were your legs completely different from what you expected?
  • Weather/kit choices and anything you carried that turned out to be essential or completely unnecessary?
  • Would you recommend doing a recce of the mountain route beforehand?
  • Anything about the transitions or race logistics that caught you out?

For anyone who has done both Wales and England, which did you find harder and why? The England mountain section is longer, while Wales looks like a steeper, more concentrated climb with the technical section near the Snowdon summit, so I’m interested in how different they actually feel on race day.

Finally, what would you change in your training if you were doing it again? More climbing, technical descending, long bricks, hill work on the bike, or just more time on your feet?

Any advice appreciated — especially the little things you don't find in the race manual!

Thank you 😄

reddit.com
u/puketaha — 6 days ago
▲ 3 r/triathlon

Waco 70.3 down with an Asterisks - Tips on 2nd 70.3

Hey guys, just finished my first 70.3! Really proud of even finishing, as this was my catalyst for the past year to get back into shape and dropped 25 lbs. With the rains in Texas though, the swim was cancelled, so it doesn’t feel like I got the full experience so I’m already prepping the wife for the next 70.3; aw shucks lol.

That said, I’m really glad I did this 69.1 first, as I had to walk the last 2 miles of the run anyways. I felt amazing during the bike, besides my lower back which forced me out of aero for the last 28 miles, and felt good on the run up until mile 11 when it felt like I was going to pull (not cramping) all of my lower body muscles (quads and hammies, with some tension in calves) and had to walk the last 2 miles. I am a 32 year old male, 5’ 11”, 225 lbs for context.

I’m saying all this, to give the background for asking what you would recommend focusing on training for the next 70.3?

The plan currently is to spend 2027 losing 40 lbs, and then spend 2028 training again for a 70.3 (there are life factors influencing the elongated timeline).

I know a few of the obvious things (lose weight, stronger hamstrings, and get fully used to 3+ hours in aero) but is there anything else anybody would recommend? Or ways to help with those obvious changes? Asking because I’d love to break the 5 hour threshold, and know that is going to be a journey that might take every bit of the next 2 years so starting to forecast now.

Thank you!

u/Bearcerra32 — 6 days ago
▲ 1 r/triathlon

70.3 Bike Training and Pacing

I am starting training for a 70.3 I plan to do next summer. I plan to mostly do zone 2 (or the power equivalent) with a weekly tempo workout. My question is when you do the bike leg of the race, how do you pace it? Do, you mostly do it in zone 2? Is there a certain percentage of FTP?

I have tons of experience with swimming and running, but its cycling I know nothing about.

I plan to get a kikr core and do the rouvy app. I'd like to practice the elevation changes of the course I will be doing since it is a rolling hill course.

reddit.com
u/Spiritual_Size_9997 — 5 days ago
▲ 4 r/triathlon+1 crossposts

Garmin Edge Explore 2 or Edge 850/550

Hi - I signed up for my first 70.3 and am starting to upgrade my bike.

I have a garmin watch and HRM, so wanted to stay in that brand for compatibility. I am upgrading my pedals to power meters, but am wondering which bike computer to get (Garmin Edge Explore 2 or Edge 850/550). Any thoughts on the differences or which will better fit my needs? Even if I don't do triathlons after this one, I will still continue to cycle.

reddit.com
u/Elegant-Advice-697 — 9 days ago
▲ 4 r/triathlon+2 crossposts

Sunglasses Recommendations

Like the title says…

Could you share your thoughts, opinions, recommendations and/or suggestions on sunglasses brand and/or models that come to your mind when talking about sunglasses to use when you run.

There are so many variables to consider.

They need to be ventilated? Do you wear a hat or not when running and how to these fit with a hat on? Do you need them to have holes so they ventilate as you run?

Share with me your favorite ones.

reddit.com
u/TSmakis — 12 days ago
▲ 7 r/triathlon

Do you have a personal coach, or do you self-coach? Is a 1-on-1 coach actually worth it?

I’m part of a local triathlon group, and I’ve noticed that almost everyone who actively competes has a personal coach who writes out their custom weekly training plan. To me it doesn't look worth it, as there are many standardised plans to follow. Am I missing something?

reddit.com
u/Interesting-Jello956 — 14 days ago
▲ 2 r/triathlon

Is the suit ALARMINGLY too big?

So as you can see, around stomach and lower back the suit is a bit too big, but around shoulder, chest and upper back and legs and groin the suit is great. What do you guys think. Should I try medium, im just scared to return it and wait with shipping back and forth too long since i have race in 20days.
So is the suit alarmingly too big or will it be at least okay and i just bulk few kgs until next season

(Santini viper trisuit)

u/420mrbombastic69 — 14 days ago
▲ 3 r/triathlon+1 crossposts

Switching from oil lube to wax help

Heya everyone!

I recently learned about chain waxing instead of using oil based lubricants and I think I wanna switch to that. Were I ride almost never rains or is wet, so the wax is much more appealing from a maintenance and cleanliness standpoint. I've done some reading here but still had some questions.

  1. How necessary are the "chain waxing systems" like this one? Is more more of a nicety or do you really need one?

  2. My friend really likes the idea of the CycloWax Performance waxing kit. Seems like it's too new to have any reviews or thorough testing. Anyone know if this is worth the money?

  3. Should I use the chain I already have on my bike, or should I start fresh?

  4. Is there a certain brand or type of wax people recommend for road/triathalon racing? Most threads I saw recommended just straight parafin.

  5. Do people also wax their drivetrains/gears?

  6. If I do wax and end up on a bad say weather wise, should I also use an oil base lube as well?

Thank you in advance!

u/Hirsch0311 — 14 days ago