In this week’s installment of our weekly Q&A column focusing on personal sports electronics, Ray gives his own thoughts on what to look forward to from this year’s Interbike show in Las Vegas.

The 2011 Marines Ironman 70.3 World Championships are taking place in Las Vegas this year and the race promises to be very exciting. Images by Herbert Krabel.

I write an Interbike preview every year for members of the bike industry, and this is it.  It’s geared to retailers, and it’s read by many exhibitors as well. But everybody gets to read it, because, well, this is Slowtwitch.

Mathew Sharp from Great Britain won gold at the ITU U23 World Championships In Beijing, China and fellow Brits David McNamee and Tom Bishop earned silver and bronze. American Greg Billington finished fourth.

Alistair Brownlee put on a dominating performance in Beijing and grabbed the 2011 ITU World Championship title. Sven Riederer finished second on the day but third placed Jonathan Brownlee grabbed the runner-up spot in the series.

Timothy Carlson picks an Aussie newcomer who can run like the wind to outpace Dibens, Ellis, Morrison and Swallow. With Michael Raelert out, the men’s race is wide open.

Kiwi Pro Gina Crawford had quite a bit going recently but not much evolved around triathlon. Crawford gave birth to a baby boy a couple months ago and her world was shaken by the Christchurch earthquakes.

Ronnie Schildknecht beat Timo Bracht by 2:30 and Yvonne Van Vlerken edged Eva Dollinger by 1:20 at Challenge Walchsee-Kaiserwinkl in Austria

Lisa Norden of Sweden passed Sarah Haskins with a kilometer to go on the run and held off IM world champ Mirinda Carfrae to win the women’s title at the Hy-Vee 5150

Veteran Greg Bennett ran a canny, well balanced race to outpace Hunter Kemper by 29 seconds and joined his wife Laura, the 2007 winner, as Hy-Vee champions in Des Moines.

Joerie Vansteelant of Belgium dominated the men’s field and Melanie Burke of New Zealand topped Eva Nystrom of Sweden by 3:47 at the ITU LD Duathlon Worlds at Zofingen

Jordan Rapp does not have the gift of literary timdity. Thank goodness. If one can be both teachable while fearlessly opinionated, that’s Rappstar. Here he opines on the Hawaiian Ironman.

The official last day for Eurobike is on Saturday but we are concluding our coverage of this 2011 trade show today with another gallery of products and people we came across.

In its 5th year, Hy-Vee’s commitment to the sport of triathlon, the respect it shows its elite athletes with its Million Dollar purse, make it as important as a world championship

We spent another day cruising through the numerous Eurobike halls and found more interesting gear to share. It is actually quite overwhelming here.

Over the last few years the German bike brand Canyon has stepped into the limelight and at Eurobike they introduced the Concept Speedmax TT bike.

The 2011 Eurobike show opened its doors inside the convention center in Friedrichshafen today and the halls were packed with visitors and interesting products.

Andreas and Michael Raelert are now both aboard a BMC Timemachine TM01 and we had the opportunity to look at one of these new rides a bit closer at the Eurobike show.

Cursed with a mysterious, painful cramp in two races after a deeply disappointing 2010 Kona, Rasmus Henning has a new coach, a new attitude and comes to Ironman Hawaii under the radar.

When does the digital airbrushing of a pro athlete image go too far? Is it okay to delete the logo off an athlete’s race uniform, and to remove down tube decals, and the stickers from helmets and wheels with a few keystrokes?

It seems like a simple question. Yet, I am surprised by how many people don’t quite know what to do with their hands either underwater on the pull or above water on the recovery. For both parts of the stroke cycle, it is important that you know.

The 2011 Eurobike trade show started today with the Demo Day in Ratzenried and warm temperatures and beautiful skies were present all day in this quaint setting.

In case you weren’t in Penticton over the weekend, a race took place, two winners prevailed, and one of them provided us the text of the speech he gave at the award ceremony

Matt Chrabot and Sarah Haskins were the winners of the 2011 Life Time Chicago Triathlon. Eric Wynn was there to bring us some impressions from the event.