Kona 2013 – Pro Men Bike Super Slo-Mo Part 2

Part 2 of our video study of the male pros passing thru mile 110 on the Queen K. As always, slo-mo shot at 300 fps. Some of the big names are here in this group of the 13-26th pros into T2. These include Tim O’Donnell, Crowie, and Pete Jacobs. Whereas the faster bikers were pretty well strung out, here we see a group of several athletes (trailing TJ Tollakson at this mile marker) who all rode around 4:40. Although riding in a group, they certainly look legal as they pass. We also see the two fastest runners of the day, Ivan Rana (2:47) and Bart Aernouts (2:44) who both ran into the top ten while many others in this video went backwards.

I continue to hear that the draft zone was in fact extended this year (again) for the pros. But I am not still not sure if this is the case, even though it might explain some of the race outcome. What’s confusing matters is that the draft zone has already been larger than regulation in Kona for the last several years, but this has effectively been a “secret” (see this article by Aaron Hersh). The lane reflectors on the Queen K are about 12 meters apart. For the last 3-4 years at least, the “secret” pro draft zone in Kona has been set by the reflectors, effectively extending the standard pro draft zone (10m front wheel to front wheel) by 3.5m (assuming back wheel to front wheel spacing set by reflectors = 12m + 1.5m for bike length). Or has it actually been front wheel to front wheel on the reflectors = 12m draft zone? Not according to that article… So was it really extended further this year? Anyone know for certain?

This video also shows some questionable bike positions – more on this in a later video. Until then, have fun: