Spotting Jordan Rapp in Las Vegas

Matt and I got to hang out with Jordan and his very cool girlfriend Jill Savege in Las Vegas. Jill is also fast; she has finished as high as 11th in the Hawaii Ironman Championships. An ITU Olympic representative for Canada at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, Jill may become more active on the coaching end of things. Matt Baldwin, Jordan, Jill and I sat down for a lunch at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the Venetian Resort.

We discussed a wide array of topics, including nutrition during a race. I introduced Jordan to two items: First Endurance's Optygen and Vespa (wasp extract). Jordan talked about how he likes simple carbohydrate drinks (Gatorade) because it digests well. Jill mentioned how maltodextrin doesn't absorb quickly enough and causes her gastrointestinal distress.

We then switched over to equipment. Jordan, who writes for Slowtwitch, mentioned that he felt Cervelo continues to innovate ahead of the industry. He truly likes Felt, who we don't sell, but who does sponsor Jordan. We understand that Jim Felt has been a good friend to the bicycle industry; Tom Schuler always had wonderful things to say about Felt. Jordan also observed that the Cannondale Slice product is an excellent compliment to Cervelo's P2, P3, P4 because it fits athletes differently (which is very helpful since we try to fit the bike to the person, of course).

We discussed and debated the merits of various wheels, from Mavic to Zipp to Reynolds. Jordan loves Zipp, and while we like Zipp for triathlon, we favor Mavic and Reynolds for road racing/riding. Of course, Zipp has made the 404 and 808 even more aerodynamic this year. And Cervelo's TestTeam is going to race on Zipp wheels. Well, these are three excellent set of wheels -- not a lot goes wrong with Mavic Cosmic/Ultimates, the Reynolds Superlites and Attack wheels and Zipp's series of 4's, 8's and 10's.

And Jordan showed me how excited he was with Zipp's new 100 gram stem. We'll show some pictures another time, but it is a beauty. Can't wait to get one in March when they become available. It is all carbon with some titanium on the outside. Sweet.

Jordan is preparing for his second Ironman Arizona this year; he got 3rd the first time around. When Jordan and Jill come visit us next, we'll hold a special event. He was bummed he couldn't be at ITP to race with Dom, Eneas, Mitch, Yock, Greg and Dave this weekend, but there will be other opportunities. Jill promised she would help us organize a women's focused triathlon seminar/clinic. That should be pretty cool. Stay tuned for more.