Lance does well at St. Croix

Do any of the tri guys on here, if you aren't afraid to show your faces (so to speak), know what he has to do to qualify for Kona? Does he have to win a half, finish a half with a certain time, win an ironman somewhere else or just meet a full ironman qualifying time?

Last week I went for an hour run with a tri guy.

He tried to explain how Lance could qualify for

Hawaii. It is very complicated with many variations

and permutations, pro, age group etc.. I used to think the worst part

of triathlons were the outfits and the fact time spent changing

counted! It is the qualifying process!

Bottom line, if there is an endurance event with no Kenyans, Ethiopians

Or morrocans, it is a joke.

Kona Ironman is a joke? Dude, in what world are you living in?

Please, are you kidding me? If Lance wants to race Kona, his agent needs to place a phone call. That's it. Get serious on the qualifications. They would love to have Lance compete there.

Its a points system. Pros earn points at ironmans and half ironmans for wins and high places. Top 50 on points (plus rolldowns) at the end of the qualifying period go to Kona. I think he was like 58th before this race. Obviously a bit higher now

I am sure that Ironman has something like sponsorship exemptions as well.

Does Kona do the charity runner thing? If so, I think he might have that one covered.

What is a rolldown?

rolldown means that the top 50 guys get offered the 50 slots. if one or more don't take the slot (which will happen), then WTC "rolls down" the slots by offering them to the 51st ranked guy, then the 52nd guy . . . until all of the slots are taken.

yes, kona has celebrity, vip and slots for purchase (michael dell's wife comes to mind) but LA won't need any of them. he's racing as a pro and beating nearly every pro. he is going to qualify on his own and, barring something unforeseen, will be in the lead coming off the bike in kona. nbc and nike are salivating.

Kona bound wrote:

Its a points system. Pros earn points at ironmans and half ironmans for wins and high places. Top 50 on points (plus rolldowns) at the end of the qualifying period go to Kona. I think he was like 58th before this race. Obviously a bit higher now

Okay thanks. For some reason I was reading about the qualification rules and it said that about 28 spots were being given in St. Croix. I figured from what I was reading he would have qualified from that, plus he would have been first in his age group, though not thinking in the open division or for pros that this may not be the case. So is it right then that pros have different qualification standards than age groupers?

There are charity spots, lottery spots, and auction spots available as well from what I read. I also saw something to the effect that they weren't going to break the rules to get him qualified.

Yep....28 slots for age groupers. Various amounts of those at all the ironmans and some of the half irons. Totally seperate process for the pros.

The process is complicated, but Lance will qualify as he's put himself in the races with the greatest amount of points to be had.

My opinion is he wants to qualify legit. If not then I'm sure you'll still see him in Kona due to all those reasons listed above.

He/Livestrong also entered into a partnership with WTC the "owner" of Kona to cross promote each other. Accordingly, even if he missed the point cut off some how, he will be there.

Whether you like LA or not, have to respect what he's doing. The pro points system for Kona, like the others have said, is based on your finishing place at qualifying events. That's why he's racing a bunch, because he's got to build them up. He finished 2nd at Puerto Rico, 7th at TX, 3rd at St. Croix, all 70.3 races. He's got a few more this spring, and then he's doing IM France, where you'd have to expect on his bike split alone he could win the thing. He recently rode the course with Andy Schleck, and the course in Nice is HARD.

Yesterday in St. Croix he had the lead off the bike (rain + tough course) before getting run down. Still, he's running 1:18 half marathons off the bike, which is better than a lot of the pros will run, and the guy is 40 years old.

So it's cool that he wants to do it the "right" way - although his presence in the pro field has had a mixed reception. Media coverage is huge at any race he's at, some of the pros like the challenge, some hate that he's there. I'm sure he'll qualify legitimately for Kona, I don't think he would accept a handout to get there.

Kona lottery system, FYI, is limited to 200 people. The rest of the field qualifies. More events now means fewer slots at each event, so it's very tough. Not all half iron races have qualifying slots, St. Croix is one (for age groupers).

This year's Hawaii could be really sick. Craig Alexander, 3-time and defending champ + potentially Chris McCormack + Lance Armstrong? Talk about legitimate media hype, could be one of the most exciting races to watch ever.

the "rest" of the kona field does NOT qualify as there are a ton of freebies given out to celebrities, charities, sponsors, etc. it's not as bad as boston but a much larger chunk than 200 of the ~2000 starters did not qualify.

also, more events doesn't make it any tougher than before because (1) the fields in each race are weaker and (2) more people qualify sooner so the roll downs are fairly generous for summer races.

asdfsdafsd wrote:

He/Livestrong also entered into a partnership with WTC the "owner" of Kona to cross promote each other. Accordingly, even if he missed the point cut off some how, he will be there.

Recently caught interview with Craig Alexander (defending champion at Kona) and Chris McCormack (2010 champion), talking about the challenges they faced in qualifying for Kona. McCormack in particular has been racing ITU events in the hope of making an Olympic team and ITU races don't count toward WTC points. If WTC isn't giving the defending champion a pass on qualifying, I've got to wonder if they'd give one to Lance, not that he needs it. The WTC system is set up to make the stars of the sport race more to the benefit of WTC.

if LA wants to do kona without having done a single race, WTC would give him a slot and whatever else he wants. he's that valuable to WTC if he does kona. however, LA is so good that he never will be in a position to ask for a handout.

i don't know of a single pro who likes the new system of having to earn points to race kona. it really screws the top guys who focus their entire year around trying to win kona. it's also not like there is a lot of money in HM and IM races. you are talking 10-15K for the winner who then has to take weeks to recover.

What I want to know is what drug testing is going on with Lance?

I can't imagine that a jagoff like that guy from the Bachelorette can get into Kona and Lance Freakin Armstrong can't.