A follow up to Dan Empfield’s primer on the rubber used in triathlon wetsuits. A useful guide as we embark on tests of several of the newest wetsuits to hit the market.

Welcome to a new series: Why you’re not comfortable. If you’re not comfortable speaking in front of crowds, sorry, we’re not addressing that here. But if you’re not comfortable on your bike, read on. That’s our topic. We’re starting with “contact points.”

As the first half of this year draws to a close, is this a good or bad year for tri-specific retailers? We took the temp of some of America’s best, asking them this question, and parsing their answers for a good look inside.

Patrick Vernay has 5 Ironman titles to his name and has cracked the top 10 in Hawaii twice now. That is a pretty impressive achievement for someone who has to juggle pro racing, a family and a part time teaching job.

In 2001, German triathlete Andreas Niedrig finished second at Ironman Roth and seventh at Ironman Hawaii among many other results. Very few people though know that he was a serious heroin junkie before finding life and triathlon.

Nat King Cole didn’t sing about this kind of Summer. You know you’ve got an air quality problem in your state when you can’t find blue sky two miles above the sea.

Terenzo Bozzone beat an impressive field at Ironman 70.3 Kansas and has looked very strong so far this year. Fueled perhaps by his disappointment of not making the Kiwi Olympic Team, he now seems tough to beat.

The F.I.S.T. tri bike geometry calculator is open for beta testing. Your fitter plunks numbers into our online engine and, poof, your custom bike geometry!

In part four of our series, ITU swim-bike specialist Colin Jenkins punches his ticket to Beijing!

Rasmus Henning (DEN) repeated his victory at the Hy-Vee ITU World Cup and earned himself another big paycheck. Emma Snowsill (AUS) convincingly won the women’s race. Hunter Kemper and Sarah Haskins grabbed the final US Olympic spots with their 6th place finishes.

Luke McKenzie (AUS) was victorious at the 2008 Ironman Japan in a course record time of 8:29:11 and can now add an Ironman title to his rapidly growing resume. Naomi Imaizumi (JAP) repeated in her home country as the winner in the women’s race.

Marcel Zamora Perez (ESP) won the 2008 Ironman France thanks in part to a fantastic 2:45:21 run split. Martina Dogana (ITA) set a new course record as she took the women’s title.

Tom Evans (CAN) won the 2008 Ironman Coeur D’Alene with a solid performance throughout the day. The women’s race was easily won by Heather Wurtele (CAN) who outdistanced her closest competitor by over 10 minutes.

Fraser Cartmell has now repeated his victory at Ironman 70.3 UK and appears eager to add a few other podium finishes to his growing resume. Slowtwitch sat down with the Scottish talent to find out more about his thoughts on training, racing, nutrition and more.

ITU star Jill Savege loans her racing expertise to Slowtwitch for a review some women’s specific race swimsuits.

Contrary to speculations, the ITU Des Moines World Cup will be a swim-bike-run event and should thus remain the final qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Team, race organizers announced earlier today.

Sable offers premium quality optics at a premium price, but their goggles are worth every penny for open water racing.

We had an invite to Zoot’s apparel debut, and came away with an inadvertent sneek peak at the new ’09 footwear line.

Paul Ambrose is a rising star in triathlon and despite his swimming background has become a very strong cyclist. He recently proved at 70.3 California that he can put it all together when only Andy Potts and Craig Alexander were able to beat him.

Several German newspapers have reported that a German man, with some connection to triathlon, was arrested last week at the airport in Verona, Italy, facing charges arising from making terrorist-sounding threats in order to delay his flight.

Terenzo Bozzone topped a fantastic bike split with the fastest run of the day to win the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Kansas. Craig Alexander and Leon Griffin rounded out the podium. Sam McGlone won the women’s race after chasing Joanna Lawn for most of the run. Lawn held on to second and Linsey Corbin finished third.

Fraser Cartmell won the 2008 Ironman 70.3 UK and narrowly held off fellow Brit Steven Bayliss. Aussie Luke Bell finished third. In the women’s race, Bella Comerford added another win to her resume. Julie Dibens took the runner-up spot and age grouper Sara Sig Moeller snuck into third place.

SRAM’s entry into the tri market is no token effort. We take a look at what they debuted for tri in ’08. And surprisingly, it ain’t about the bling.

Today begins a new set of articles on Slowtwitch, a series in which we feature a bike in a fashion we call our “Preferred Build.” We’ll highlight a bike, built as we might if it were left up to the Slowtwitch editors. We start with a Cervelo P3C, built to my choosing.