caverunner17 wrote:
Back in IL, quite a few triathletes I know only had a Tri bike. Or a Tri bike and a beater road bike. So it's no wonder they're going to spend the most time training on a Tri bike, because it's their best/only bike. At the same time, I look back to some of my rides in IL and I'm only at 100-200' of elevation gain over 20-30 miles.Yup, it's Flat AF around here. 20 miles, less than 200' of climbing: https://www.strava.com/activities/976024829
But the road quality is going from bad to worse as the state struggles fiscally. There's no repairing old tertiary roads, just throwing another layer of course chip-seal on every summer until its so bad they just tear up the pavement and make it a gravel stretch. The most dedicated local triathlete I know (top 10 in AG at 2017 IM 70.3 Worlds) just bought a Cervelo C5 to cope with the deteriorating riding conditions in the area.
"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"