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TECH NEWS
Felt IA complete bikeMirinda Carfrae pilots Felt IA to Ironman victory
Australia’s Mirinda Carfrae won the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii at the weekend, riding the new Felt IA on her way to victory and a new course record.
The reason we mention triathlon on a cycling website is that Carfrae was riding the new Felt IA non-UCI legal time trial/triathlon bike.
When we covered the bike last month we told you, “Felt say that wind tunnel testing shows that their sponsored triathlete Mirinda Carfrae will save more than 12:30mins over the Ironman Hawaii course in typical conditions by switching from her old Felt DA to the new IA. An Ironman bike leg is 112 miles, so she’ll be making an average saving of over a minute for every 10 miles, in theory.”
Carfrae actually covered the bike course 13:58mins quicker than she did last year. She then got off the bike and ran a 2:50:38hrs marathon, beating the run times of all the other women and all but two of the men. Her 8:52:14 total time is a new course record.
What does this prove? Well, it doesn’t prove anything at all. Carfrae was quicker in all three disciplines than she was last year so her training has clearly been going very well, the conditions were different from last year, and there are plenty of other variables to take into account.
The athletic performance is clearly the most important factor in Carfrae’s win, but what’s also certain is that the scale of her improvement on the bike leg will have other manufacturers looking closely at the IA.
[We’re trying to source a pic of Mirinda Carfrae on the Felt IA]
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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17 comments
Compare her times to when she won it a few years back and when she was second when Chrissie W got the course record.
More interestingly compare the athletes around her and their times last year to this and the most obvious jump is her bike split...the others were pretty much static. To suggest that the conditions helped would suggest all should have had a decent jump in bike splits...they didnt, look at pete jacobs on his oh so heavily marketed new Boardman. Shocking bike split, shocking run split. He may have had a bad day, much like Crowie on his shiv.
Nah, it's just a quick look at the new Felt because Miranda Carfrae used it in her record-breaking victory at its debut Ironman World Champs this weekend, with a link to more info on the bike for people who didn't see our earlier coverage.
Are disc wheels not allowed in triathlon? If so it's strange that they have an anything goes approach to frames but not to rear wheels.
Discs are allowed under WTC rules, however due to the nature of the Hawaii course - which is usually characterised by strong gusting crosswinds - they are banned for this race.
DrJDog
2013 (Felt IA) 4:58:20
2012 (Felt DA) 5:12:18
2011 (Felt DA) 5:04:17
Caveat should also be given that 2013 was a significantly faster year than 2011 or 2012, with faster finish times across the board. If you're interested, I'd suggest keeping an eye on Coach Cox and Thorsten Radde at trirating.com in the next few days. Care must be taken to ensure the figures we pull up have value. Without suitable context, it's data. When we look at the bigger picture, it's useable information.
I, for one, thought Mercxissimo's comments (and supplying of times - though splits would have been even more helpful - for the past few years) was useful, and did not at all indicate that he hadn't read the article.
Running faster than all but two men? My word....
"Aussie triathlete sets Ironman Hawaii record on Felt's new bike"
I feel I should append - I generally enjoy reading both your articles and road.cc in general (obviously or I wouldn't be here). I am a triathlete myself and wasn't actually expecting any significant mention of Kona here. Maybe it's an all-or-nothing thing. And if the Skype thing is true, I think you must have had an inkling that the story was misdirected - a title of "Felt IA makes Kona debut" [Ironman debut also??] would have implied less correlation - but then it would also have got a fair few less clicks, I'd guess.
What makes you think we were trying to prove anything? Any quotes? Examples? Any information at all to support the idea we were trying to prove anything?
Skype conversation this morning...
Mat: Bet you a tenner someone doesn't read it properly and says we're saying it's all down to the bike!
David: You're on.
So cheers for that.
That's exactly my point... what is there to this article other than a rehash of a bike we've already seen? If it's about non-UCI compliance being the way forward, then why not discuss the P5-Six you reviewed? If it's a move towards more tri coverage, then where's the article of Frederick van Lierde or the phenomenal improvement of Luke McKenzie. You're basically saying yourself that the article doesn't have any content. Which is a shame, because *you* could have made it so much more insightful and worth reading.
I'm not saying that you think it's all about the bike. You're a better triathlete than that for a start. Just disappointed that the article is so... weak.
Which makes your "Skype Bet" both misplaced and fuelled by hubris. Points scoring on the internet... really??
There is a picture here http://firstoffthebike.com/gallery/kona-2013-womens-bike-gallery/
Check out Natascha Badmann bike
Yeah it's badass. I bet bike manufacturers will be paying attention after her bike splits... it's not UCI compliant, did you know?!
TJ Tollakson's Dimond is a nice ride too... As are all the P5-Six pro rides... 
Interesting to note Badmann goes for the H3 over some of the other HED offerings - Jets seem to be more popular for stability in crosswinds. Notice also Meredith Kessler going for a low profile front after a few crashes...
Bet that's not UCI legal !
Um, no, because that's not the point of the article. The point is that Felt said the IA would result in time savings of 12:30mins for the same power output in typical conditions, and Mirinda Carfrae set a bike time that was actually a little quicker than that compared to last year.
Given the result, other manufacturers are bound to take a look at the new tech that Felt have included in the IA.
That's it. It's all included in the article above.
Did you actually read the article? The last couple of paragraphs, for example?
Of course. My point is that you've posted an article that "doesn't prove anything at all". Writing "this doesn't prove anything at all" doesn't make it any better.
Next time, try "Mirinda Carfrae rode the Felt IA last weekend. We like it, so here's some pictures."
It might also be worth pointing out that despite a purported saving of 12:30 over the DA, she rode just 6 minutes faster than 2011 - despite 2013 being a much calmer day.
Given that she came off the bike several minutes down, attributing her win to anything but her stellar run would be purely conjecture.
Perhaps she came off the bike fresher. Perhaps her training has improved. Most notably her return to workng with Siri Lindley has seen her return to form.
With Siri:
2009: 9:13
2010: 8:58
2011: 8:57
Without Siri:
2012: 9:21
With Siri:
2013: 8:52
I know it's a pretty bike and we don't really need an excuse to look at it... but it's what she's paid to ride, just like in the pro peleton.