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CycleOps Powered Athlete Jordan Rapp recently won the 2009 edition of Ironman Arizona, but he was competing for more than just personal glory. Jordan was on a mission to raise money for World Bicycle Relief, an organization that provides bicycles to students in Africa. According to Rapp's blog, students in rural areas of Zambia walk up to 4 hours to school. World Bicycle Relief aims to help these kids by providing bicycles to ride to get to school more quickly. CycleOps took some time to talk with Jordan about his fundraising efforts and what motivated him to embark on this mission.

Jordan Rapp has been racing triathlon for six years, three as a professional. He consistently posts top bike splits and top finishes. He recently raced the 2009 Avia Wildflower long course triathlon (1.2 mi-swim, 56 mi-bike, 13.1 mi-run) placing fourth overall & posting the fastest bike split. Rapp measures his power with a Zipp 900 Clincher Disc with integrated PowerTap. He uses the CycleOps PowerTap 2.4 CPU, measuring his speed and cadence within the hub; no additional sensors. Rapp has shared his race data and report...

This was my first year at Wildflower, so I relied on the advice of several Wildflower veterans in figuring out a strategy for attacking the bike course. A large part of race strategy is always dictated by the swim, and I knew if I swam as well as I could, I would come out roughly one minute back of the leaders. If I had a poor swim, I would come out two minutes back. Fortunately, all of my swim training is starting to pay off, and I came out right where I needed to be in the second pack of swimmers. I used the rolling terrain right out of transition to get settled and put myself in a good position going into Beach Hill.