Vanessa Fernandes and Daniel Unger where crowned World Champions at the 2007 Hamburg BG Triathlon World Championships this weekend.

Fernandes, the young Portuguese superstar showed the world that her top rank in the World Cup Rankings was no fluke as she propelled herself to her first world title in the streets of Hamburg on Saturday. It wasn't an easy day for Fernandes, she struggled getting out of her wetsuit and on to her bike in T1 and was in 11th place going out on the run after T2. Laura Bennett was a distant second to Fernandes on the run, but three time world champion Emma Snowsill came from behind with her sub-33 minutes run to pass Bennett with 500 meters to go for second place. Sarah Haskins finished two seconds behind Fernandes but that was only good enough for tenth place.

On the men's side German native Daniel Unger used the energy of the local spectators cheering him on to pass top ranked and pre-race favorite Javier Gomez of Spain on the final sprint on the run to win the men's title at the triathlon world championships. Unger who has never had a podium finish in a World Cup triathlon race shocked the triathlon world with his unbelievable performance in Hamburg. Gomez could not keep pace with Unger on the sprint and finished four seconds behind to take second place. Brad Kahlefeldt, who was in the lead pack at the midway point of the run with Gomez, Unger, Simon Whitfield and Will Clarkeon emerged in third place.

2007 Hamburg BG Triathlon World Championships Results:

Last month we told you to expect some new race announcements in the Ironman 70.3 Series. As expected that time has come with today's announcement of the new Ironman 70.3 race in Boise, Idaho. This should bring the number of triathlon races in the 70.3 series, which consists of a 1.2 mile Swim, a 56 mile Bike and a 13.1 mile Run, to 28 races around the world.

Triathlon: Ironman 70.3 Boise
When: Sunday, June 1, 2008
Where: Lucky Peak Reservoir, Boise, Idaho, USA
Divisions: Professional, Age-group
Website: www.ironmanboise.com (Not live as of 9/12/07)

Race organizers will incorporate a variety of Boise’s scenic areas (Lucky Peak Reservoir, Sandy Point Beach, the Boise Greenbelt and the downtown area) into the triathlon race. Because of this, the race will have two separate transition areas setup for the athletes. T1 will be at Lucky Peak Reservoir at Barclay Bay while T2 will be located at Front Street in downtown Boise.

The event will have a professional prize purse of $25,000 and 50 qualifying slots for pro and age group athletes to the 2008 Ironman World Championship 70.3 race taking place on November 11, 2008 Clearwater, FL.

Coach Troy Jacobson has released another new 'Virtual Reality' training ride DVD. This time Coach Troy heads to the high desert of Tucson, Arizona for some incredible training climb rides.

From the Spinervals "On The Road" virtual reality series comes On the Road 3.0 - Tucson Training Rides (MSRP: $34.95). Filmed in a 'Virtual Reality' format, you'll feel like you're actually riding with Coach Troy, on his wheel, as you see the incredible desert scenery of Tucson Arizona whisk by.

DVD Description:
Workout A - will take you from the base of Mt. Lemmon to over 5000 ft above sea level as you climb towards scenic Windy Point at around mile 14. Get ready for a tough 'threshold building' workout as you ride tempo up the mountain for over one hour! Then do the bonus chapter up to Summerhaven or turn around and join Troy for a quick and breathtaking descent down the mountain as your cooldown.

Workout B - is a varied workout for aerobic development and power building and will have you ride up the front side of famous Gates Pass Road into the breathtaking beauty of the Saguaro National Forest where you'll buzz around McCain Loop Road. Then the suffering really happens as you climb up the backside of Gates Pass which kicks up to over a 14% grade!

Visit www.spinervals.com to order your copy of this new DVD from Coach Troy Jacobson.

Chicago, IL (September 21, 2007) - SRAM and Zipp announce that they have signed a Non-Binding Letter of Intent for SRAM to acquire Zipp. The acquisition is expected to be completed within 60 days.

Stan Day, CEO of SRAM says: “Zipp is a great company and respected brand, with a strong
management team, advanced technology and superb manufacturing capability. We look forward
to bringing both successful companies together and synergistically delivering a growing strategic range of products to our customers.”

Andy Ording, President of Zipp says: “Zipp has remained focused on market defining technology
development in advanced composites and aerodynamics. After nearly two decades of carbon
product manufacturing the SRAM opportunity provides additional horsepower and improved
global market leverage. SRAM has a fine reputation for acquisitions and culture integration,
affording us the opportunity to broaden our foundation on which the Zipp team can build for the
long term.”

Operational plans will be finalized and announced when the acquisition is completed. Those
plans will include:
  1. The Zipp management team will remain intact and continue to report to Andy Ording.
Andy will report to Stan Day. There will be no layoffs as a result of the transaction.
  2. The current high-tech Indianapolis location will remain the manufacturing center for Zipp
wheels and components.
  3. The Zipp product warranties will be honored and continue to be serviced in the
Indianapolis facility.
  4. The Zipp distribution network will be maintained.
  5. All Zipp contracts and business relationships will be honored.

Further information and more detailed plans will be available publicly at the beginning of
December.

www.sram.com            www.zipp.com

The Ironman 70.3 Series has been expanding at a rapid pace lately and you had to wonder if the expansion balloon would spring a leak anytime soon. Well it has and now we have the first race casualty of the Ironman 70.3 Series and it's the Ironman 70.3 Baja triathlon race. The triathlon race which normally takes place in June in Ensenada, Mexico has been pulled from the 2008 race schedule. The triathlon served as one of qualifying events for the Ford Ironman World Championship 70.3 race in Clearwater, FL.

Coverage of this year's race was sparse to say the least, it took a while to find out that Chris McCormack and Linsey Corbin had won the race in Baja on the Pro side. After reading some blog and forum posts you can possibly see why. According to the web posts it seems that this year's race was plagued with some major issues; the bike course being short possibly only 52 to 55 miles long instead of the true race distance of 56 miles and a poorly marked run course that caused people to not complete the full run distance.

According to one of the posts it seems that the issues on the run course caused the race organizers to actually throw out the run results entirely and award the 70.3 World Championship slots based solely on the time after the athletes swim and bike splits. It's not clear if the Pro's encountered the same run issues or not. In this week's race cancellation announcement, the World Triathlon Corporation announced that the cancellation was a result of venue challenges and an inability to secure the necessary event permits. We can see what they mean by venue challenges.

Based on the choice of words in the announcement “Baja, Mexico will not play host to an Ironman 70.3 event in 2008” it’s not clear if the race will be back in 2009 or not.

Again we have one new Ironman race on the schedule for next year. In July the World Triathlon Corporation added a new race to the Ironman triathlon calendar, Ironman China which is set to take place on Sunday, April 20, 2008. This brings the number of qualifying races for the Ford Ironman World Championship to 22 if you do not include the qualifying slots available from some of the Ironman 70.3 races. For additional details go to the Ironman website: www.ironman.com

I've been mentioning that another race would be added to the Ironman 70.3 Series, but this is not the race I was aware of. It seems that China is not only hosting the 2008 Olympic Game and a new Ironman race, Ironman China in 2008 but they might also have an Ironman 70.3 in the works as well, Ironman 70.3 China. Just last week we had the cancellation of the Ironman 70.3 Baja triathlon in Mexico, but the expansion continues. This would be the second Ironman 70.3 triathlon set to take place in Asia. Just a few weeks ago Singapore hosted its first Ironman 70.3 triathlon and the first race in Asia.

Dear Friends,

We are sad to report that on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 22) the offices of the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) were hit by a catastrophic fire. Fortunately, no one was injured. However the blaze, which apparently was electrical in nature, was centered directly above our storeroom, which was packed floor-to-ceiling with donated items for the upcoming San Diego Triathlon Challenge (our biggest fundraising event is a little more than month away). Most of that material – with a retail value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars – was destroyed in the fire. The offices themselves will require extensive repairs and the staff will be forced to find a new home for at least the next six weeks.

A couple of notes in the wake of this ill-timed disaster:

1) The office phone and Internet service are currently not operational. Please allow us a couple of days to get these back on line and bear with us as we scramble to resume normal operations. Please check our web site for updates about the status of our phone service.

2) The San Diego Triathlon Challenge will go on as planned. We look forward to seeing all of our friends and supporters at La Jolla Cove on Oct. 28 for this annual festival of abilities.

3) Obviously, we are facing a lot of work to re-stock and replace the items destroyed in the fire. If you would like to help, please consider making a donation on our web site: www.challengedathletes.org.

With the support of our fundraisers, donors and sponsors, we know we will be able to overcome this set-back and continue uninterrupted in our quest to help physically challenged athletes enjoy the freedom, self-worth and confidence that can only be acquired in the athletic arena. Thank you for your continued backing of CAF.

Yours in Sport,

The CAF Team

The International Triathlon Union announced the BG Triathlon World Cup calendar for 2008. The world cup is a series of Olympic distance (1.5km Swim, 40km Bike, 10km Run) triathlon races organized and sanctioned each year by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) and is the standard distance used at the Olympic Games.

This year the series will visit 16 countries across the globe for the world cup races and the world championships. This year’s schedule will be interrupted by the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Because of this the series will hold its World Championship race in June in Vancouver, Canada. The women’s and men’s triathlon events in Beijing are scheduled to take place on August 18th and 19th, respectively. The total prize money for all the 2008 world cups and the world championships will total over $2,500,000.00 USD making the series very lucrative for those racing. For up-to-date and additional details on world cup races go to the ITU website: www.triathlon.org

2008 BG Triathlon World Cup Series
• Mooloolaba BG Triathlon World Cup * (Provisional)
   Sunday, March 30, 2008 - Mooloolaba, Australia
• 2008 New Plymouth BG Triathlon World Cup
   Sunday, April 6, 2008 - New Plymouth, New Zealand
• Ishigaki BG Triathlon World Cup
   Sunday, April 13, 2008 - Ishigaki, Japan
• Tongyeong BG Triathlon World Cup
   Sunday, April 27, 2008 - Tongyeong, South Korea
• Richards Bay BG Triathlon World Cup
   Sunday, May 4, 2008 - Richards Bay, South Africa
• Madrid BG Triathlon World Cup
   Sunday, May 25, 2008 - Madrid, Spain
• Vancouver BG Triathlon World Championships
   Saturday-Sunday, June 7-8, 2008 - Vancouver, Canada
• Des Moines BG Triathlon World Cup * (Provisional)
   Sunday, June 22, 2008 - Des Moines, Iowa, United States
• Hamburg BG Triathlon World Cup
   Sunday, July 6, 2008 - Hamburg, Germany
• Tiszaujvaros BG Triathlon World Cup
   Sunday, July 13, 2008 - Tiszaujvaros, Hungary
• Kitzbuhel BG Triathlon World Cup
   Sunday, July 20, 2008 - Kitzbuhel, Austria
• Lorient BG Triathlon World Cup
   Sunday, September 28, 2008 - Lorient, France
• Rhodes BG Triathlon World Cup * (Provisional)
   Sunday, October 5, 2008 - Rhodes, Greece
• Chiapas BG Triathlon World Cup (Added to schedule on 1/07/2008)
   Sunday, October 12, 2008 - Chiapas, Mexico
• Huatulco BG Triathlon World Cup * (Provisional)
   Sunday, November 2, 2008 - Huatulco, Mexico