The sprint bike leg is only 10 miles long. Why would someone want their aero helmet, disc, and TT bike for a 10 mile bike race? Does that set-up save even 10 seconds?
Why not? Isn’t it a race?
What would you suggest would be better?
I think a tri bike, helmet, and wheels could save as much as 2 minutes, if I recall my math correctly.
Why bother racing if it is only that short then?
tfun~
2 minutes in a 10 mile bike race???
That is like going from an avg. of 20 MPH to an avg. of 22 MPH over a 10 mile race. Are you sure about those numbers?
I guess the advantage would be completing the course in the fastest time possible.
You ever been on a tri bike?
It is pretty profound how much faster you can go. Mostly due to the position of course.
I got those numbers based on experiments at the 40k TT and scaled down to 10 miles. I did this a while back so I’m just going by memory. Feel free to do the math yourself and see what you come up with.
In my own sprint racing, I went from averaging 22mph to 24mph when I went from a Trek 500 to a Cervelo P2SL. I don’t have a helmet and aero wheels yet, but some of that speed gain was just from my legs.
Rediculous. And imagine how silly all the TdF cyclists feel getting all aero’d up for a short prologue!
Feel free to do the math yourself and see what you come up with
You’re the one who made the incredibly amazing claim of extra speed. Do you have numbers?
That is like going from an avg. of 20 MPH to an avg. of 22 MPH over a 10 mile race. Are you sure about those numbers?
There are a lot of factors to consider but if you’re comparing a standard road bike with spoked wheels, standard helmet, etc to a fully decked out TT bike, aero helmet, disc, deep front wheel than I don’t think a 2mph gain is unreasonable.
Ok Yahey, I’ll go dig them up again.
Here is one source:
http://home.hia.no/~stephens/aero.htm
There are others out there but they show similar results
You can take those time savings and scale them down from 40k to 10 miles. The time savings are pretty surprising
The aeroness has a bigger impact than it does for you on an Ironman.
Why? Because your excerting more power per time unit on a sprint (I hope) and the aero benefits go up as your speed goes up - in a non-linear manner.
Just because we CALL it a ‘sprint’ doesn’t mean it resembles sprinting in any way whatsoever. What we CALL a ‘sprint’ takes only a little less time to complete than a half-marathon. My deep-in-the-midpack experience is that a tri bike will still save your quads a bit for the run; and being able to get a good aero position will really help on downhills, or if you’re going into the wind. If you’re already good without the right equipment, I can only assume you’ll be even better with it.
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So even if it were only 30 seconds, in a sprint of 500 people that could be 10 places. If you already own a tri bike it’s pretty much a no brainer to me unless the bike course had A LOT of twists and turns in it. I would be all in for aeroness.
tri bikes are a blast, I can’t imagine riding anything else anymore! haha
I feel like a jet pilot or something
/nerd
So I add up to about 5 minutes from position (going from good to excellent), wheels, and frame. Helmet would be a little more time.
5minutes in a 40k TT translates to just a little under 2 minutes in 10 miles
Nope. No benefit at all. Ride the roadie. Especially if you’re in the Pac NW and in the M40-44 division.
In the perfect world 2 minutes might be possible. But there is no way that someone who can pedal MAX 20 MPH can suddenly pedal 22 MPH on a tri bike for 10 miles. That is a huge leap. Maybe from 20.0 to 20.2 due to aero position I think is what might be realistic.
In the perfect world 2 minutes might be possible. But there is no way that someone who can pedal MAX 20 MPH can suddenly pedal 22 MPH on a tri bike for 10 miles. That is a huge leap. Maybe from 20.0 to 20.2 due to aero position I think is what might be realistic.
You’ve been registered on this forum for 4 years and you have never ridden with aero bars? You can pick a pair up for $50. Try it, you’ll like it.