I rode 5:27 and finished 36th overall there in '99. I rode my Litespeed blade (78 degree) with the saddle pushed back on the rails. After pre riding the course I switched the Cinelli angel bars I had been using, for short course racing, for drops and clip ons just to have some additional hand positions for the climbs. I will qualify this by saying that I do a fair bit of road racing as well and like the hands on the hoods elbows bent at 90 degrees position for powerful sustained climbing.

Paul, the big question is... did you have tubulars??? :-)

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I was, now I will tri again!
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Any time is a good time.
God Bless you my friend.

He did say he was racing didn't he? Sheesh!

Post: "Should I use my Road Bike at Lake Placid? "

Yes the tricycle would be redicules. Only if the tricycle was running clinchers. Sew ups..then he'd be good to go.

FWIW, my choice would be a road set-up, moderate geometry and clip-on bars. My climbing power is far better on this set-up that with my Trek TTT.

If you work on your flexibility then you should be able to get quite aero with this set-up.

I haven't raced IMLP but I have TT'd the bike course.

gordo

I would bet money that you would have been much faster on a tri bike that's fitted properly for your style.

I did LP the last two years (around 5:20 bike) and the wind was the real killer not the hills. I was in my aerobars for about 90 percent of the time. I only sat up for the hill out of town with the wind in the back and to clear some small hills out of the saddle. I don't think we have to talk about the advantage of the aerobars, Lemond made his point quit a while ago on that.

You did a 6 hour bike, quit respectable for LP, that means you are a good cyclist, you have the strength to clear small hills instead of sitting back and shift down. So take a tri bike to LP and do it, you'll be much faster this time.

"FWIW, my choice would be a road set-up, moderate geometry and clip-on bars."

Would this be the same setup for World's Toughest Half? My instincts are telling me a road bike would be the right call, with the technical descent on Mosquito ridge and the steady climb back up.

Hi John,

Yes, that's the set-up that I used at WT. I'll use the same again in 2004. Some folks climb great on their TT bikes. My TT bike is my choice for a course like IMC but for something like LP or WT, I'd go with what I noted.

See you there,

g

Thanks, I appreciate the advice.

John

What is all this, you cant run after riding a road bike? I run after long rides on my road bike all the time, and if im not mistaken, a lot of people at tris ride road bikes with clip ons, myself included. Are you saying you should be in the aero position, in which i would agree, or are you saying that a tri-specific bike is an absolute necessity, in which case i would say that youre being a tri-diva. Remember the early guys in Kona?

This may be waaaay off the subject BUT I have a friend who started tri's. He is a good road/crit racer. He bought a tri bike and started a tri series with us. All the races are on the same course. There are 5 races. The bike is a hilly 10 mile loop. After the first two races he said he didn't like his tri bike becouse he felt slow on it. The third race he brought his road bike and he was very psyched. He had a good race and after it I asked him how his two bike compared. He said he didn't use a computer on his road bike but he was sure he had been MUCH faster. When the results came out he had been SLOWER on his road bike. He couldn't believe it. Can't remember how much slower but it seemed like alot.

"You can't get much lower nor aerodynamic than Joe Bonness. "

Read somewhere that his seat to handlebar drop is something like 27 cm. But realize that he is riding that unique custom Elite "funny bike" with 650 front wheel and 700 rear. The riding biomechanics would be completely different from a conventional 650 or 700 bike, so it's not really fair to make a comparison.