Kona 2013 – Top Age Group Men Bike, Super Slo-mo

This is the last of our Kona cycling videos for 2013. That is other than some bike fit analysis coming soon. And we also have run footage. I actually have a backlog of great run footage, including the Boston Marathon and Eagleman 70.3. So lots more vids to come…

This video shows the first 14 age group men into T2 at mile 110 on the Queen K. It also shows some other top finishers that came by a bit later. The time into T2 among the riders in this video ranges from 5:38:04 to 5:46:09, for a range of only 8 minutes. Finishing times were much more widely distributed…

Many of the top age group finishers are in this video, including top overall age grouper Kyle Buckingham, and fastest biker Sam Gyde, along with 2011 overall age group winner Sami Inkinen. Many of these athletes out-rode many of the pros, and some ran sub 3 hours too. Several went well under 9 hours. It is interesting that the age group times were notably faster this year while those of the pros generally weren’t. Yes, the age groupers have a smaller draft zone than the pros, but have more heat and wind due to the later start time (although this year this was likely less of a factor than usual). All of these riders at the front here were draft legal when they passed me, even though the first four were in a loose group as were some of the riders near the end of the video. However, a bit later some huge packs came by.

The bike fits of most of these riders look quite good. There are a couple that could potentially be improved, but the positions are generally excellent. So whereas the choice of equipment varies a great deal across this bunch, the fits don’t.

Note that the first 4 riders were not filmed in super slo-mo due to a technical glitch, but I have slowed the video to approximate the effect. Also note that I do not film the top age group women, because by the time they pass by, the Queen K is packed with male age groupers and it is very tough to spot the women among them and capture them on video.