marcag wrote:
Slowman wrote:
the world is moving to 28mm and this new Pro Speed
"Two months later we saw this tire on Vingegaard’s TT bike during Stage 16 of the Tour, so we knew it was coming"
Just connecting these two statements : he rode 26mm IIRC. I wonder why. Did the aero outweigh the CRR ? If so what it the tire or the tire/wheel combo ? Is this a long distance tri tire ? so many questions
i don't know but here are 2 possible options:
1. his advisors did in fact feel, as you seem to, that 26mm was faster.
2. the 28mm tire was not yet available last july.
i don't like to offer advice on someone else's business (unless that person seeks it) but you have a lot more reputational blowback riding on this than i do (as my commercial intersection with this question is in my rearview mirror). there are experts - and i mean that literally, not in quotes - who used to be here but who are not hear any longer. it's a minus to us all. but i note that those experts were often wrong in their prognostications and i can't help but think that blew back on their ability to advise people on tech and product. some of these folks were very clearly wrong on tubeless and disc brake. a different collection of these experts are - i believe - going to be found out as charlatans re their dismissal of HR in favor of the all-important worship of power (but that's another topic). in the present case, it's your job to advise teams, yes? test and advise. it's bad to be wrong on this.
as we know - as you know - 28mm rolls faster than 25mm. so the question is, are the aero disadvantages so profound as to overcome the rolling advantage, and whatever the damping advantage (which is both a mechanical and biomechanical question)? i'll certainly give you this: you can't just slap a 28mm tire where a 25mm tire used to be. it's a system.
but this is the very same discussion we had on disc brakes, esp on tri bikes. you can't just slap on a disc brake and proclaim the tech a failure because it doesn't calc out. more and more new TT/tri bikes are coming optimized for 28mm, as are certain important aero wheels coming out.
that said, i don't know the answer to your question. in fact, the wheels vingegaard did ride would've very easily accommodated 28mm tires.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman