From this CyclingTips article, we can see that using a skinsuit instead of a regular cycling jersey and shorts saves 134 seconds over just 40 km. I would expect this time savings to be even greater over using a tri suit since there is a lot more exposed skin in tri suits than in regular cycling jerseys and shorts. Bare skin is known to be slower than Lycra.
https://cyclingtips.com/...ime-trial-equipment/
So let's estimate that the time savings of a good skinsuit over a tri suit to be 145 seconds over 40 km. This is a huge amount of time savings that I don't think triathletes are taking advantage of. Even if you account for the time needed to change into and out of the skinsuit in T1 and T2, you still come out way ahead.
For example, let's estimate that it would take you 30 seconds to change into and out of the skinsuit at each of the T1 and T2.
Then the net time savings for each of the distances would be:
Standard distance triathlon: 40km, 85 seconds
Middle distance triathlon: 80km, 230 seconds
Long distance triathlon: 120km, 375 seconds
Ironman distance triathlon: 180km, 593 seconds
As you can see, the net time savings are huge, almost a 10 minute time savings for the Ironman distance after accounting for the time needed to change into and out of the skinsuit.
I don't see any draw back to this and probably triathletes are just behind the times in terms of aerodynamics. Most pro cyclists have switched to skinsuit like designs even for road racing since they recognize the inexpensive and big time savings instead of being silly and spending $10,000 on an "aero" bike with a box shaped downtube and disc brakes.
https://cyclingtips.com/...ime-trial-equipment/
So let's estimate that the time savings of a good skinsuit over a tri suit to be 145 seconds over 40 km. This is a huge amount of time savings that I don't think triathletes are taking advantage of. Even if you account for the time needed to change into and out of the skinsuit in T1 and T2, you still come out way ahead.
For example, let's estimate that it would take you 30 seconds to change into and out of the skinsuit at each of the T1 and T2.
Then the net time savings for each of the distances would be:
Standard distance triathlon: 40km, 85 seconds
Middle distance triathlon: 80km, 230 seconds
Long distance triathlon: 120km, 375 seconds
Ironman distance triathlon: 180km, 593 seconds
As you can see, the net time savings are huge, almost a 10 minute time savings for the Ironman distance after accounting for the time needed to change into and out of the skinsuit.
I don't see any draw back to this and probably triathletes are just behind the times in terms of aerodynamics. Most pro cyclists have switched to skinsuit like designs even for road racing since they recognize the inexpensive and big time savings instead of being silly and spending $10,000 on an "aero" bike with a box shaped downtube and disc brakes.
Last edited by:
Hybridlete: Sep 9, 17 10:30