from www.procycling.com
Armstrong chooses retro path to take Algarve time trial victory
In a move that will no doubt send bike-tech enthusiasts stampeding to E-bay, Lance Armstrong rode to stage victory and the overall lead at the Tour of the Algarve last Saturday on his ‘new’ time trial bike featuring Shimano AX centre-pull brakes from 1980 (writes Kirsten Begg).
Armstrong has made no secret of the fact that his time-trialling position is a focus for this year but after a winter spent testing in the wind tunnel at Washington State University, technologically speaking, his 2004 time-trial debut was something of an anticlimax.
Performance-wise he will no doubt take pleasure from his one-second victory over team mate Floyd Landis that put the Texan into the overall lead, but more so perhaps from the opportunity to ride in support of Landis.
Armstrong rode the time trial with new aerobar extensions and a regular helmet and without shoe covers or gloves but the SRM power meter on his handlebars suggests that he used the 24km time-trial stage to form a performance baseline for the season.
Procycling’s guess is that the AX brakes came from aerodynamics maestro Steve Hed’s garage (Hed consults for Armstrong on aerodynamics and worked with him this winter) but for Armstrong to make true progress against the clock the gains will not come from the bike but from his riding position.
It’s likely that his time in the wind tunnel was spent finding the most aerodynamic position he could comfortably hold and that it will truly be in the subsequent outings against the clock that we will begin to see the five-time Tour winner evolve his on-the-bike position.
US Postal directeur Johan Bruyneel has referred to a “lower and more forward” position which adopts the basic physics principle of a smaller frontal area. Short of sponsor Nike coming up with a fabric that has a lower coefficient of friction than Lycra or skin, for Armstrong this means either lowering his head and shoulders or bringing in his elbows and knees to achieve a narrowing of the area.
With Armstrong choosing not to debut any new time trial helmet models from Giro look for this in the future along with potentially a reduction in the amount of spacers between his stem and top headset cup. A move forward on the bike will be reflected in a change in the angle of flex at his elbow. Currently his upper arm is in line with his fork blade and his forearms are level.
While Armstrong definitely needs to gain as much advantage as possible for the Tour de France in July, his true time-trialling goal this season comes in August when the 32-year old will have his last shot at an objective that has so far eluded him: Olympic gold. Realistically, Athens will be the Texan’s last Olympics and along with a stage win on Mont Ventoux he lists a gold medal as the two achievements missing from his career.