The courses offered are impressive. The Kona bike course is right on the money. The turns and hills are all where they should be and the scenery is accurate as well (you can pan your view and check out the mountains and the ocean on each side of you). I can actually see the hotel I stayed in when was there when I’m riding the course. Same goes for some of the other courses. They have an Alp’d Huez course complete with cheering fans that I’m actually a little scared to ride.

One thing that I have found particulary interesting is that you can connect to the internet and race/train with others. Want to ride the Kona course with your buddy who lives 2000 miles away? Hook up the headset (if you want to talk) and meet him online for a ride up the Queen K. This feature seems to be quite a hit as there are groups online that have regularly scheduled rides in which dozens of people meet up to churn it out. I’ve even seen links to racing leagues.

Having said all that, Netathlon 2.0 is not without it’s flaws. First of all, installing it was more of a challenge than I bargained for. It was a bit buggy, and I needed the folks at NA to reset me and help me a couple of times to get me up and running. It also (initially anyway) was buggy with the upgrades. Running Vista, I downloaded the latest patch and lost the graphics to the courses. After many attempts they got me fixed and it seems they have stablized their product.

The other issue I have with Netathlon 2.0 are the number of courses that are offered. I love the ones that they currently offer, but I haven’t seen a new course in at least 2 years. If the folks at NA were wise, they would create and sell an application that allows us the user to create courses and share them. If they did that you would see virtually every bike event in the world become available overnight. This thing could become a massive hit if they would just let it.

At the end of the day, I would recommend Netathlon 2.0 to anyone who has a trainer and can’t stand riding indoors. I would rather do anything than ride indoors and with NA I’ve had an hour ride just fly by. And who knows, maybe I’ll see you out on a cyber ride one day. I’ll be the guy sitting on your wheel.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, for you loyal Computrainer users, it’s fully compatible.

One of the big topics of discussion around our house is whether or not to enter the 2010 Ironman Cozumel. My wife and I both know that I am due for another challenge, but with the recent purchase of Swim Shops, I want to make sure I have enough time in my day to train for it. And then there’s the bike. In 2006 I rode a 2003 aluminum Specialized in Ironman Hawaii. It was in need of a few upgrades then, so tack 4 years onto it and we both know a new bike is needed.

Of course Cozumel itself is an easy sell to my wife. Go to a resort destination that is a non stop, 2 hour flight away? No problem. If this was a discussion about Ironman Wisconsin then it would have been decided long ago.

I will be keeping an eye on the race today and see how it goes, but have about 24 hours left to make a decision. Just a week ago, Ironman Arizona sold out in 25 minutes, so waffling on my decision will leave me on the outside looking in.

What to do..what to do….

The fitness center also had a couple of stationary bikes that had a 3d graphic of the course you were riding complete with other riders and your previous best effort. Great application but the bike is very upright and not anything close to my riding position. With these two thoughts in my head I started looking for some kind of spin bike that had the ability to control the resistance and have a graphical interface. Well, long story short, the search took forever, but I found the Kettler Ergo Racer and pulled the trigger.

The bike itself is very sturdy, just like the spin bikes and it has a 40 pound flywheel, so the ride feels very realistic.

Although it looks a little strange in the picture, the Kettler design allows you to set it up just like your actual bike, aerobars and all. This was a concern of mine before I bought it as I wanted to be positioned just like I am on my triathlon bike. The only difference I noticed is that the aerobars are wider that what I have on my bike. Very minor and to me a non issue. The saddle is a standard saddle which I found comfortable, but if you prefer something else like Adamo, it’s an easy switch. It comes with pedals, but I never took them out of the package, opting instead for my Look Keo’s. The Handlebars are made of a heavy duty metal (same size as your bike handlebars, just much sturdier) and can be changed from a road setup to triathlon bull-horn, or upside-down for a cruiser position. I found the bull-horn setup to be too deep, but am very happy in the road set up.

The resistance is controlled magnetically and unlike a spin bike has a freewheel, so you can coast. It’s also whisper quiet. No need to apologize to the neighbors about the noise or even turn up the TV, the only noise you will hear is a quiet hum. Very nice for someone who has two small children that I don’t want to wake.

The Kettler Ergo Racer comes with a computer console in which you can ride some preprogrammed workouts or do your own thing in the manual setting. For a quick workout, I think they work just fine. The console also shows your heart rate (it will pick up your Polar signal) speed, cadence, time, watts, distance, and calories burned. I will say that the speed/distance isn’t all that accurate, but that wasn’t a big issue for me as I had a fix for it.

The only piece of this puzzle that was missing was the 3d simulation of the course you are riding. I really wanted this as it held my attention better than anything else I have tried. In my research I found that there is a product made by Fitcentric called Netathlon2. It allows you to ride courses (some famous) against yourself or others online and will work with dozens of bikes/trainers (I will review this soon). Underneath the console of the Kettler is a port that will allow you to hook into a computer. I got Netathlon2, plugged it into my Kettler and I am riding the Ironman Hawaii Course in 3D. Perfect!

Overall I am very pleased with my purchase. If I were going to complain about anything it would be the console and native technology that seems to be a bit outdated. If Kettler wanted to hit a home run they would stick a better chip, screen and software in the console to give more options out of the box. As I mentioned though, I rarely use the console as I bypass it by plugging it into my computer so as to get all the bells and whistles.

Lance as a Teen

Growing up in Texas, I had the privilege of racing Lance in his early years as a triathlete. Well, I was racing and he was racing, but he wasn’t exactly looking over his shoulder for me (only once did I make it close). As a teen he was absolutely amazing. At 15 this guy was a professional triathlete and was leading top pros like Mark Allen and Mike Pigg into the run. It was just unheard of to do what he did at that age. So when I read that Lance was scrapping the swim and run and joining the world of cycling, do you know what the first words out of my mouth were?

“He’s gonna win the Tour de France.”

There was no doubt in my mind that was going to become an all time cycling great. It was as obvious to me as the sun in the sky. Now I had to wait nearly a decade to be proven right, but man was I right.

The Teenage Pro

Lance has been followed around since his first win under a cloud of suspicion on whether or not he uses performance enhancing drugs to be that good. 7 tour wins and not a single positive test from the most tested man in all of sports and he’s still not in the clear. But the fact that he’s willing to go back into the lion’s den of the french media and race again tells me that he’s not all that concerned with the accusations. Nowadays, if you do great things people are just going to wonder. I’m no different. I saw this guy do amazing things from the start and I still wonder if the rumors are true.

So will Lance win number 8? Well, he’s got a few things on his side. First of course are his genetics.  That might help him overcome some of his age, because he be racing people 10 years younger than him. He also has, at least as I type this, a strong team. Hopefully they’ll get their sponsor problems cleared up in time. Above all else though, he has a crazy work ethic and knows how to win this race.

Will it happen? Not as sure as I used to be about that question. If I had to bet on it, I would put him somewhere on the podium. Can’t wait to see where on that podium he ends up.