- What's up, Trainiacs?
Welcome to this week's Triathlon Newsday Tuesday
where in this week's edition of Tri Newsday,
one of our favorite bike companies
does some big money hustlin'.
Another company in the endurance world
is like the opposite of big money hustlin'.
There are no money lazying.
And,
we gotta get those views up
so we are talkin' about Lance Armstrong
making millions again off of cycling.
Comments section is gonna be wild today.
(upbeat techno music)
What's up, Triathletes?
Welcome to Triathlon Newsday Tuesday
where every single Tuesday, as long as
I'm not traveling and there is news to talk about,
we talk about what's going on
all around the triathlon world.
Full links to everything we talk about
are in the description below.
And as always, make sure you stick around to the end.
Everyone's favorite part of Triathlon Newsday happens.
That is a story from the Trainiac community.
It's actually from a Trainiac here in Winnipeg.
Let's get into it with Ventum,
our favorite bike spon...
Actually I'm gonna go with this angle here
and allow you to feast your eyes
on a couple of the Ventums.
Our favorite bike sponsor, Ventum,
announcing that they have gone
through a successful round of series A funding.
Now this is typically the first round of financing
that companies will raise a bunch of money
from investors so they can proceed with growth
and that is just what Ventum is doing.
They haven't announced how large the series A financing was
but what they did announce is that
they're going to be consolidating
a lot of their operations in Utah
where they will be hiring 32 new
employees over the next year.
They are targeting producing 40,000 bikes
and upwards of $50 million in revenue.
Now, they will also be assembling all of their bikes in Utah
and they will be bringing in manufacturing
that's currently outsourced all around the world into Utah.
So,
good things.
We really like Ventum.
In addition to them making a pretty damn
fast tri bike, a damn sexy road bike,
they're just nice people.
That's the biggest thing that I like about them.
Red Frog, the company that owns and operates,
owned and operated
Warrior Dash races all around North America
has announced that all of their upcoming races,
canceled, gone, kaput.
That the company is going out of business.
Now this comes after rumors that Red Frog
has been trying to find a buyer
for the Warrior Dash series of races
unsuccessfully over the past year
and fortunately, the good thing is
that people who are entered into
Warrior Dash races right now will be able to
use that entry to a Spartan Race in the future.
Now, this is just more indication that
the endurance community even though
we feel like it's growing when we're in it,
it's not all sunshine and rainbows out there.
It's a hard business to be in
and frankly, there's a lot of competition
around the endurance sports world, so.
Spartan's killing it.
Ironman
growing, kind of killing it.
But it's very challenging to make
a living in the endurance industry.
Somebody who is making a very good living
from what we can tell in the endurance
industry is Lance Armstrong.
This is really interesting.
We all know Lance's story.
Multiple time winner of the Tour de France.
Having to then come out on Oprah.
Having doped and kind of being,
you know, known as one of the biggest
jerks in cycling, if not sport,
has essentially been bounced out of cycling
for a number of years but he is back
with his company, Wedu.
And why Wedu?
Well, who does that?
Who gets up in the morning and goes
for a six hour bike ride?
Well, Wedu.
One of the things that Wedu does
is every singles year for the past
couple of years of Tour de France,
they do a daily podcast summarizing
the race that happened that day.
The stage of that day.
And this podcast is growing.
It's exploded.
During the Tour de France,
it was regularly ranked as one of the highest
ranked shows in Apple Podcast and reportedly,
Lance Armstrong is making millions off of this now.
So it's kinda interesting being somebody
who has had to try to make a living
coming in the side door of an industry
seeing Lance Armstrong himself
be successful at coming in the side door
of an industry that kicked him out the back door.
Now let's get into some race results.
It was more or less pretty quiet
last week as far as racing went.
In Super League Canada in Ottawa,
Ryan Bailie won both days on the men's side
while on the women's side, Charlotte McShane
and Nicole Van Der Kaay split the two separate days
on the women's side of that pro race.
Corrinne Abraham won the women's only field
at Ironman Tallinn in Estonia in a time of 8:55:22.
And the big race, the more notable one
that was happening over the weekend was Half Ironman Boulder
where there was a really strong pro men's field
that was won by Chris Lieferman
and the women's race was won by Skye Moench
who ended up just besting out
couple of our Ventum pals.
Leslie Smith and Meredith Kessler.
So, good day for Ventum.
Good day for everyone in Boulder.
It is hard racing out there at the altitude.
Now, in the Triathlon Taren podcast.
Just last week, we ended up publishing a round two.
A second podcast interview
where Dan Plews and I went over
the training and the nutrition
that I did leading into Challenge Roth.
It's actually one of the first times
that Dan and I have really sat down
and talked about why he did the training
the way that he did because we talked a little bit
throughout leading up to Challenge Roth.
But I didn't pepper him with questions
about why do the leg strength bike day is on a Monday.
Why do such long endurance hill running?
All of these thing that went to it.
Why was I able to have a breakout performance on the run?
Was that because of the run training
or the bike training or the nutrition training?
I didn't actually know the answers to things but
we now know them because they are all in that podcast.
Go check it out.
And this coming week,
we will be publishing a very requested topic.
Rudy von Berg, very successful pro
triathlete was on the podcast.
He grew up 45 minutes from the Half Ironman Nice
World Championships race course.
And he goes through his story and progression
to becoming one of the best triathletes in the world
but he also goes step by step
through the swim, the bike, the run
for Half Ironman World this year in 2019.
Course strategy.
Bike strategy.
Do you use a tri bike or road bike?
All these things.
It's a good one.
Now let's get into the Trainiac story of the day
which is from a local Winnipeger whose name I recognize
but I don't know if I've actually ever met him in person.
It goes like so:
Hi Taren, my name is Jeff Galloway.
I'm from your hometown in Winnepeg.
Winterpeg.
I love hearing those stories
of how triathlon has turned lives around.
My story isn't like that.
Mine is very simple but maybe,
others can relate to it or benefit from hearing it.
When I was 16, I joined the high school track team in Polvo.
And before long, the coach threw me in
when our team was short milers
to do the four by one mile relay.
To my surprise, I ran a 532 and it was at this
point that the running bug had hit.
I started running and I loved
how training hard made me feel
and I loved the challenge it gave me.
I was not a naturally gifted runner but I still loved it.
And before I graduated high school,
I notched just over three hours in my first marathon
and two years later, I entered a triathlon relay
then buying my first $220 bike
to compete in my first triathlon.
This was 1986.
To my surprise, I happened to do very well
and before long, I was immersed in the triathlon lifestyle.
I love the fit lifestyle.
Love the training.
I love the racing.
And best of all, I love the internal reward
that I got from being a triathlete and endurance athlete.
33 years later and I have never stopped.
I still continued to train and race.
Included are pictures from the 1990
Ironman World Championship in Kona as a 26-year-old.
And more recently, the 2015 ITU Age Group
World Championships in Chicago as a 52-year-old.
Over the decades, triathlon racing has faded in and out
but fitness has never left my side
as being a part of me since 1980.
So as I enter my 34th year of being a triathlete,
I'm so grateful that I can still
swim, bike, run, and compete.
The years and decades past very quickly
but it all feels just the same.
Diving into the pool.
Getting up early in the morning to ride.
Training during lunch breaks.
Or squeezing in a work out around family schedules.
This sport has something for everyone
even as we age well beyond our physical prime years.
I've always been so amazed at the seniors
in our sport who continue to train, race, and crush it.
Someday, I hope that I can be in the ranks
toeing the swim start still with nervous energy
and trepidation before the gun goes off.
That is something that never changes for me.
Thank you for reading my story, Jeff.
Thanks for sending that in, Jeff.
This is what I've been saying for ages that
triathlon is a sport that you can do for your entire life
and regardless of how intensely you're training
or how fit you are or how old you are,
it can still be a very rewarding
part of your life like it has been for Jeff.
Thanks for sending that in, Jeff.
And if any of you wanna get your story shared
here on Triathlon Newsday Tuesday,
please email me at taren@triathlontaren.com.
Include some race photos and we love 'em.
It helps inspire people all around the world
so please share those stories.
And if you aren't already subscribed
and you like these Triathlon Newsday Tuesdays,
hit the subscribe button below.