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Totally Cool Stuff...

Tuesday, 11 February 2014 05:10

Here's some cool news:

- 2013 USAT HONOREES - The US Tri, Du and Off Road AOYs and HMs have been determined and will be announced very soon on usatriathlon.org. We know who the honorees are but have been asked to keep quiet until the news posts on the federation website. Of course, this makes us crazy. We will say that we're happy about MOST of the final selections. Stayed tuned.

- MEXICAN VACATION - Several Minnesotans will be racing Ironman Los Cabos on March 30. The town is at the tip of the Baja Peninsula and the area is known for sport fishing, whale watching--whales can't be trusted..

and need to be watched all the time--and the awesome El Arco, which is a totally cool rock formation (see photo).

Among the Loon Staters who will be racing are MMA winners, Suzie Fox and Marta Lewinski, as well as Suzie's boyfriend, Brendon O'Flanagan, who was nominated for Most Improved last year and has a fine son named Cal (photo). Suzann and Mo Mouw will also be there, but will not be racing, instead concentrating on tanning, shrimp eating and drinking obscene amounts of Tecate. The group will renting a mansionesque place on the beach near the race venue. They got a really good deal from the owner, who according to O'Flanagan, is a "really great guy."

The Minnesotans plan to stay for eight days, or until forced to leave for legal or medical reasons.

- Congrats to GEAR WEST BIKE & TRIATHLON (from Slowtwitch.com)

The Slowtwitch/TBI 10 and 50, for 2013, were announced this week. This is a list of 50 retailers, and the top 10 among them, who best service triathletes in the United States per a score generated by vendor and consumer voting and rating.

The list is geared toward specialty brick & mortar stores, and is primarily chosen via voting by the vendors who sell to them. These vendors – bike and bike accessory manufacturers, footwear brands, swim and apparel brands, parts distributors – vote for between 40 and 50 stores arrayed on a ballot presenting 375 retailers in 9 geographic regions.

Vendor voting represents 80 percent of the weight if each store’s score, and the remaining 20 percent is generated by consumer ratings, and achievements or investments contributing to a store’s professionalism.

The retail store with the highest score was All3Sports (Atlanta, GA). The top-10 stores are listed below, in order, according to their scores.

1. All3Sports (Atlanta, GA)
2. Nytro Multisport (Encinitas, CA)
3. Speedy Reedy (Seattle, WA)
4. Gear West Bike and Triathlon (Long Lake, MN)
5. Trisports.com (Tucson, AZ)
6. Athletes Lounge (Portland, OR)
7. Austin Tri Cyclist (Austin, TX)
8. R&A Cycles (Brooklyn, NY)
9. Colorado Multisport (Boulder, CO)
10. Running Away Multisport (Deerfield, IL)

FYI - GWB&T is perennially in the Top 5 of the Slowtwitch/TBI List of premier tri retailers.

- JOE'S FACE - Joe Kandiko, aka "The Triathlonator," sent us a picture of himself. As you can see, his face is a bit messed up. We don't know how it happened. We like the pic a lot, so we decided to post it.