At the IRONMAN 70.3 Shanghai Chongming that concluded on May 17, Chen Rongheng from Longyan, Fujian took the professional men’s overall win and also set the fastest-ever 70.3 time by a Chinese athlete. The women’s professional title went to Switzerland’s Alanis Siffert.
Interestingly, despite having different sponsors, both the men’s and women’s winners unexpectedly chose Xtep’s 160X 3.0 Pro for the half‑marathon‑length run. There’s little need to introduce this shoe — almost every Chinese runner and many runners around the world have heard of its reputation.
We see this “magic shoe” not only at marathon events but also in triathlons, with overseas athletes even winning while wearing it. Does this further confirm the 160X 3.0 Pro’s status as an evergreen racing shoe — older, but still highly competitive?
For the bike setups, the pro winners used Shimano’s Dura‑Ace groupset. Chen chose China’s WINSPACE TT3 tri bike and rode Pertual wheels — a tri‑spoke plus a disc — and he swapped out the chainring.
As a Scott‑sponsored athlete, Switzerland’s Alanis Siffert rode Scott’s Plasma RC TT frame. Her wheel choice was the well‑regarded DT SWISS line; she opted for a deep‑section ARC 1100 rather than a full disc — perhaps for frame compatibility, or because Chongming was quite windy that day.
Throughout the race everyone wore their trisuits. As a national team member sponsored by DESCENTE, Chen’s national‑team trisuit was particularly striking. The sponsor logos on Alanis’s suit revealed it was from HUUB, a UK‑born brand famed for tri suits — Alex Yee is one of the brand’s sponsored athletes.
Did any observant readers notice that national‑team athletes and some pro triathletes don’t wear watches during the swim, use only a bike computer on the bike, and only put their watch on for the run? Even though many watches now include a “triathlon” mode, they typically don’t use that feature in races, and they often don’t wear watches during training either.
Why is that? Perhaps after day‑in, day‑out professional training, raw data becomes less important — listening to the body’s feedback is fundamental. Data is just a convenient way to record information for later analysis.
Have any readers trained for or raced triathlon? How would you choose your gear — are you dependent on data?
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