It’s a bird. It’s a plane … Nah, it’s just athletes getting ready for Kona

The old adage is “bike for show, run for dough” As we gear up for what we should be an incredibly competitive race at the Ironman World Championship in Kona in less than two weeks, there’s been lots on show in the way of bike positions and set ups for the top pros. It all makes sense, too – while you have to follow up a stellar bike split with a solid run, if you lose too much time on the bike you’ll never catch the speedsters out in front. Hence all the effort by the sport’s elites to ensure that they are getting the most out of the bike positions and set ups heading into next weekend’s race in Kona.

Here are a few of the interesting bike set ups we’ve seen so far:

Gustav Iden’s superman pose

The 2022 Kona champ is coming back from a tough 2023 in which his mother passed away and he sustained an Achilles injury. Initially the … well, let’s call it extremely aggressive … position he appears to be set to use in Kona seemed like a joke, but it would appear that he’s set to ride the 180 km Kona course in this stretched-out position.

 

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Higher and wider for Ben Kanute

As documented by Slowtwitch’s Eric Wynn (see the video below), the American star is making a concerted effort for a top performance in Kona. Wind tunnel testing with the crew from Zipp helped him modify his position on the bike. His bars are tilted up appreciably, while he’s also a bit higher and wider than in his previous position, which you can see below when Kanute raced at T100 Miami.

Kanute will also be using a new helmet on the Big Island.

It’s an interesting video with some insights on the challenges of the Kona course.

Sanders and Laidlow continue to hone their set ups

We’ve already written about Lionel Sanders’ visit to the wind tunnel earlier this year to hone his position, and he appears to have tinkered with his water bottle placements and set ups during his final Kona prep.

 

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A post shared by Lionel Sanders (@lsanderstri)

Laidlow, the bike course record holder on the Big Island, posted a video last week highlighting his final bout of aero testing heading into Kona, teasing us with some new aero bars and a tri suit that he’ll wear in Kona.

Here’s a shot that we got of Laidlow from T100 London. Notice the double between the arms (BTA) water bottles along with the sleek behind the saddle set up.

He was super-fast then … not good news for the competition if he feels he’s faster now.

Let the fun begin – we arrive in Kona on Monday night and can’t wait to start checking out the speedy set ups along the Queen K.