The weather all morning was ominous, with clouds big and dark enough that it you saw them in a movie you'd balk at their obvious symbolism and heavy-handedness. It seemed unlikely that we'd get through the race without some precipitation, (even though it's sparkling Downtown as I write this) and we indeed did not. The cloud omen proved true in another way, as upon opening co-racer Nick's trunk we discovered that his bike tire had developed an incurable (for us) flat, marking the third time in six triathlons his bike has experienced a pre-race deflation. Anyway, my small band and I hopped in the lake (which was warmer than the air) later than anticipated thanks to an unusually pokey female Sprinter...

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KAPALUA, Hawaii -- Lance Armstrong crashed and hit his head with about a mile to go in the mountain-bike ride and faded from second to 23rd in the running leg of the XTERRA World Championship, with Austria's Michael Weiss finishing strong to win... Weiss passed Armstrong about 14 miles into the bike leg. "I can just say it is an honor for me to race Lance," said Weiss, a 2004 Olympian in mountain biking for Austria. 3-mile mountain-bike ride and 6. "I outrode him on the bike, from my point of view. "Everybody paid the price on the run, even Weiss, who can run," Armstrong said. South Africa's Conrad "The Caveman" Stoltz, the South African who won his fourth title in the event last year, dropped out on the third mile of the run. The seven-time Tour de France winner, fifth in the XTERRA USA Championship in Utah last month in his first triathlon in 22 years, faded badly in the run on a day where the temperature reached 90 degrees.

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