Good points. But, these guys like a position that feels "powerful". For a short time trial, they are all out and may be faster in these positions compared to a more "aero" position. Just my $.02

Jens could get lower by getting those pads closer to the base bar. But then again, I can imagine it was determined this position is his best power output.

You are right about the first picture...but if being lower were better he'd just have his bars lower to begin with (I see some spacers there).

I have heard that it's due to having arm leverage to allow more power to the pedals and that jives well with my experience.

Your observation about the second guy is probably right.

It's really hard to tell from just one photo--they may have been going up a hill, I don't know, but they likely tested a few different positions on the same bike with the same set up for different road conditions.

Although the thought of Jens in the wind tunnel is scary--have you seen the way he battles the bike?

you make the assumption that because they 'could' get lower that they 'should' or 'want to' get lower. maybe they worked it the other way, find the right torso position that maximizes speed and then look to the bars and see what is best. horizontal forearms and ski bends or straight bar extensions and slight down-slope to the forearms. i think they opted for straight bar extensions to get more leverage. in a shorter TT it makes sense to do that.

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"Competetive sport begins where healthy sport ends"

 
For the Ventus bar, I'm thinking it's all about the fact that it only COMES with straight extensions.

I'm not sure what the deal is with Cadel and the Oval bars...

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

both of them appear to be ridng in 54/11 in those pics. No way they are going uphill. Probably downhill.

If they are pictures from this year, then the course was flat and uphill. How you can count the front and rear teeth in those pictures is beyond me though.

Since both of the riders are not just joe schmos on their respective teams, its a very high probability that their position was setup in a wind tunnel to maximize their speed over the duration of the TT, which this year are all very short.

all you need to do is look at the position of the levers on the bar end shifters. the big ring number is easy. 95% of the field ran with 54T big rings.

tom, it take 2 minutes to take the extension off and put a s bend..... they are the normal 22.2 size that most company make. I m sure CSC can afford a few option of extension.

This question as been on my minds for awile and the only answer i can find is a request from the riders to have it like this to pull up and mobilize the upper body....???

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Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
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I know, but I guess I wasn't clear...the sponsor, 3T, only supplies them with straight extensions. It behooves them to run them the way the sponsor supplies them, right? Catch my drift? ;-)

BTW, I've always found it easier to "pull" on the aerobars with them tilted slightly up, rather than tilted down. Tilted down just makes my wrists hurt (right Tom D.?) and raises up my upper body (not good for aerodynamics).

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

All I can say is that I ride that same way. Hands below the elbows. Its about 200% more comfortable, more leverage and I never need to move around in the aero position whether I'm climbing or running flat out or downhill. I figure if I use the hands level or up, I'd be less comfortable and not be able to pull up, move around alot more and thus be slower overall.

I've tried the s-bends (hands level or above). Hated them. Went back to the up turned ends (vision clip-ons) but sloped way down. I've always wanted to try the straight extensions with the high rise pads (as in the pic above) so the hands were below the elbows, but I love my current setup, so the heck with it!

I beleive alot of this has to do with each persons physical makeup. We are not all created out of the same mold.

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Paul

Big Jens Voigt Rocked and Rolled it! A beast of a Man.

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Ruble Triathlon Coaching Average of 30 coached PR's per year
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Notice how Cadel ride on the tip of the saddle. I noticed the Cancellara and Hincapie were slide themselves back every few seconds in the TT. Is this because they are limited to UCI regulations or just improper set up? Jens looks solid on his saddle which leads me to believe the later in regards to Cancellara and Hincapie.

Aerodynamics, not power output. The S-bends test better in the wind tunnel than the upturned bars do.

Ventus only available with straight extensions, but find pictures of Mrs Schlecks boys as they appeared to have an S on their ventus.
I have the alloy extensions, so I could bend them to a 'wrist favourable' angle.

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'to give anything less than the best is to sacrifice the gift'...Pre

I'd like to see the wind tunnel data to support that statement. (and both of these guys have straight extensions.)

It seems to me that a lower torso would more than offset any change in wrist position. Or in Cadel's case, having his foreamrs at least horizontal has got to be better than where he is at now.

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Suffer Well.

these boys are already at thier optimal hip angle, so they do not want a lower torso. And making their arms horizontal would require them to raise their handlebars as well to maintain optimal hip angle.

In Cadel's case, you will find that all the oval extensions (with the exception of the double bend ones WHICH I BELIEVE ARE UCI-ILLEGAL) put your hands lower than your elbows, even the s-bends.

As to why the pros like straight extensions i suspect it is a case of fashion and also a feeling of greater leverage. the power that they are putting out requires a significant amount of upper body input (pulling and pushing on the bars with each pedal stroke) just to stabilize the torso, much more than what we experience. Plus many pros don't have a mind of their own and just ride what they are told is good. Just look how so many still stubbornly believe tubulars are faster, and how many don't tape the vents on their helmets, and how many have downtube bottles.

Interestingly, in Lance Armstrong's last TdF, he was still using s-bends in all his ITT and TTTs, while many others in his team had caught on to the fashion of straight bends.

Lemond in 1989 said "Leverage" was a big benefit of his Scott clip-ons, so maybe that is it.

Lemond's use of the bars in that historic TT at the '89 Tour de France was rather un-refined. My understanding is that he had only gone on a couple of test rides with the bars in the week prior to the final TT on the Champs Elysee. Whether it was extra leverage or aerodyanmics, or a bit of both, it certainly was enough to beat Fignon and win the Tour de France and change the world of TT'ing forever!

Back then I can tell you that what we were trying to emulate with the aero-bars, was that down-hill ski racer postion or tuck with the hands up high - in line with the bottom of the chin. If you look at pics from that era( see pic of me, below from '92), we are all set up like that. Visually, that "looks" like the most aerodynamic set up. Of course there was no wind-tunnel testing back then to test any of this. I recall getting my first set of aero-bars in early '89 and slapping them on my road bike. All I did was shorten the stem a bit and off I went.



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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Umm...why would that be?

BTW, all this talk about hands being lower than the elbows...don't they know that the UCI declared that the arms need to be horizontal? If you can't have them tilted up, then you can't have them tilted down too, right? ;-)

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

Yeah, there was.

UCI regs state the saddle needs to be 5cm behind the bottom bracket at minimum. Some riders will be sitting on the nose because they cannot get the saddle where they want it to be able to sit "on" the saddle due to these regs.

Having said that, these pro riders spend> 90% of their time on a road bike, and don't always like having a TT position with a drastically different saddle placement to their road rig.

Getting back to the bar issue, most sponsored riders are given a bike and just ride it. There may be personal quirks, like double taped bars for example, but mostly they'll be on stock team equipment. This is especially true for the time trial bike, so if that's riding straight extensions, so be it. Contractual obligations and such like.

A couple of examples of riders with specific TT bike requirements:
Jan Ullrich - Giant/Bianchi branded Walser, depending on which year you go with.
Cadel Evans - his T-mobile bike had Pro bars with Zipp extensions and Vision brake levers.
Chris Boardman - His entire pro career was based on winning time trials, and so was allowed to use non team issue gear, like a Hotta or Lotus.
David Millar - Had a custom Scott plasma made for the tour last year.

The kind of rider, like the above, who is going to get special dispensation for use of non team equipment in a TT is either a GC challenger, or a TT specialist, who is getting paid to win time trials and not much else.

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"Here's how you run a marathon. Step 1: You start running. Step 2: There is no step 2." - Barney (How I Met Your Mother)

Yeah, there was.

Dr A,

Perhaps I should have stated this slightly differently.

Indeed there was, but whatever info that came out of that was not widely available as it is today. I certainly did not read or see anything and local triathletes and TT guys where left up to their own imagination and devices as to how to set up the bars, which as I said, was trying to emulate that downhill skier tuck position.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

i may well be wrong. The rules are confusing.
This is an interesting article to read:
http://velonews.com/article/12597