Ben Kanute's Kona Equipment
Posted by Joe Laverick, Ken Ballhause on 29th Oct 2024
Ben Kanute: The Equipment
For American pro-triathlete Ben Kanute, the Big Island of Kona is a place that lies in his family history. His Dad raced Kona in 2001, Tim DeBoom won the Elite race that year, the last American to take out the World Champs.
In Part One of our chat with Ben (read here), we took a look at Ben, the human. What does triathlon mean to him? Why is Kona so special?
In this article, we’re going deeper into the tech side of things. There are four parts: bike, position, equipment and nutrition.
The Bike
Ben has ridden Trek as long as he has been pro, for over a decade now.
For Kona, he has a stunningly custom-painted Speed Concept (size medium) in American colours. Kanute will ride a SRAM Red eTap AXS 12-speed drivetrain with a 58T 1x chainring on a 165mm Quarq equipped crankset and Shimano Dura-Ace pedals.
Zipp are also a main sponsor and the partner that took him to the ARC Windtunnel in Indianapolis, to carry out some final refinements before Kona. The theme? Ben is all in for Kona and his team have given due consideration to every piece of the performance package.
He’ll be riding Zipp 858 NSW wheels mounted with Goodyear Vector RZ30 NSW tyres. This combination was designed to work together, and he’ll be riding at around 57psi.
In case you missed it, the Slow Twitch article and video are a great insight into the pre-Kona work with Ben.
Optimisation
On the position optimisation side of performance, Ben works with Paraic McGlynn of Cyclologic. Paraic has his own history with the Trek brand, consulting with the American powerhouse, on all facets of their bike fitting technology and bike fitting processes.
Given that the cyclist accounts for upwards of 70% of the total drag force, it is not a surprise that Ben and Paraic have placed so much emphasis on the importance of his position.
“I think I have probably spent more hours in the fit studio than any triathlete ….”
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Finer Details
Coping with a tortuous environment like Kona places extra emphasis on the race suit. Not only does it have to be aero, but it has to allow thermoregulation, and on either side of the bike leg you have a swim and a run, both of which have to be completed in the suit. Ben has worked with Santini for 4 years now.
“Fast, comfortable and really good quality gear overall. You can really see the work they have done on the technical front, as part of the clothing supplier for the TDF leader's jerseys (skinsuits) has paid off.”
On this occasion, Ben has been testing up to fourteen different suits for Kona. Not only in the wind tunnel but in a pre-Kona camp, in Kona, putting the equipment to the test in the actual race environment.
Race speeds are increasing, no doubt a product of position optimisation, advancements in garment technology and improvements in helmet design, promoting improved airflow over the athlete.
On the helmet front, Rudy Project is Ben’s partner and the new Wingdream has been the latest helmet to deliver a gain for Ben.
Nutrition research is becoming more prevalent, and for endurance sport that’s specifically focussed on high carb.
We seem to be in this phase where the “low-carb” craziness has died the death it should have before it even had legs, and “high-carb” is grabbing the headlines. Ben falls into the category of fueling appropriately for the demands of his sessions. He is sponsored by The Feed, which gives him many options to choose from when it comes to perfecting his intake.
Race day?
“Before the swim, 30g of carbs, via the Enervit liquid gel. On the bike, I’ll be hitting 110g of CHOper hour, Enervit Isotonic and Maurten Drink Mix, Maurten Caf gels, SiS Beta Fuel and the NeverSecond gels.
On the run I’ll back it off to 70g carbs per hour, Enervit is my favourite for coming p off the bike and I’ll definitely have some of my rocket fuel (Maurten Caffeine Gels) to keep me going till the end.”
On race day, the importance of nutrition came out to play once again. Kona is unforgiving, the hot and humid environment can kill an athlete's day. For Ben, it was a case of ‘butterfingers’ at a couple of the aid stations which meant he struggled to get on extra water.
Elite sport is always about the full package, nothing can be left on the table if you want to record an exceptional result.
For Ben, this Kona prepping phase has been exactly that: all in, nothing left on the table. As always, it is multi-faceted. It involves performance as the athlete, putting in countless hours of training when nobody’s watching. But, it also requires a commitment to equipment.
In the modern day, if you’re not moving forward with equipment development and research, then you’re moving backwards.
Ben Kanute finished in 31st place in the Ironman World Championships, in a time of 08:19:08