KONA-CRAFTED AERODYNAMICS

FELT IA 14

THREE YEARS AGO, lots of people attributed Mirinda Carfrae’s Ironman World Championship win to her amazing 2:50 marathon split. What many people don’t realize, though, is that were it not for an impressive effort on the bike, Carfrae wouldn’t have won that race.

After losing four minutes to the women’s leaders in the swim, Carfrae found herself chasing one of the strongest lead groups we’d ever seen in the women’s race in Kona: Caroline Steffen, Meredith Kessler, Jodie Swallow, Michelle Vesterby and Rachel Joyce. Joyce would eventually pull away from the group to lead the way off the bike, but in the end Carfrae only lost four minutes to the super-bikers ahead of her. After the race Carfrae attributed much of that impressive bike performance to her new ride that year – Felt’s new IA. While the bike didn’t make all the difference (you don’t win Kona three times if you aren’t an incredible athlete), it certainly helped Carfrae that day. And it also served notice to the triathlon world that Felt was, once again, leading the way in Kona. Jim Felt started building bikes in the late ’80s. In 1991 Paula Newby-fraser won the Ironman World Championship on a Felt – she still feels that aluminum frame was one of the fastest she ever rode. Felt was revolutionary in the triathlon bike world because he focused on the rider’s position first and foremost, capitalizing on the aero advantages made possible because of aero bars.