Alright, it’s time to stir the pot a little. I was wondering what the Cervelo mafia thought about 9 different bike makers for the top 10 men, none of which were Cervelo. I think there were 2 pro women on Cervelo in the top 10? Yea, yea, lots of Ag’s.
Pro Men
Here we go again. What it shows is that there isn’t a tremendous difference between the top bikes - otherwise lists like this wouldn’t be possible and the pros wouldn’t switch bikes so often. Once you get one of the better bikes you can make any of them as fast as another, or so close that other factors are far more important. As Andrew C pointed out a while back, about the only use of the aero data is to tell us which bikes are in the top quadrant. After that, the difference between bikes is within the margin of error of the tests.
Of course, that won’t stop dozens of aero data/Cervelp vs TTX threads from proliferating here.
This pretty much just tells me that Cervelo doesn’t really sponsor these top 10 IMH men. It also tells me that paying a premium for a Cervelo is foolish - it’s not and never has been entirely about the bike.
But 3 of the top 10 women rode “Chello’s” so 3/20, that’s 15%. Not bad. (Argon 18, 2 & Look 2 came next)
We all know that the pro’s can make just about anything go fast. We also know they race for the most sponsorship money, not necessarily what is 8 seconds faster over 180km. They “key” off each other so it’s more of a bike race these days. So many of the bikes are Cervelo copies anyway (and most of them are P2C copies! ie Plasma and Kuota etc with the seat tube cutout and flat top tube and so on, plus everyone is finally producing steep angled bikes like Cervelo) that Cervelo’s advantage has been reduced in the last year or two.
Might be time for Gerard et al at Cervelo to get the P4 prototypes going! Mind you, they might want to wait a while for P3C sales to slow down a bit so they don’t shoot themselves in their financial foot! hehehe
It also tells me that paying a premium for a Cervelo is foolish
Don't let the fact get in the way. A Cervelo is no more expensive then bikes or similar quality and spec.
But here are the actual top 10 bike splits (for what it’s worth)
01 4:25:26 Sindballe, Torbjorn… 08:21:30 …3
02 4:28:18 Lieto, Chris… 08:25:49 …6
03 4:32:41 Hundertmarck, Kai… 08:53:03 …3
04 4:33:06 Vanhoenacker, Marino… 08:23:31 …5
05 4:35:01 Riesen, Stefan… 08:38:35 ..16
06 4:36:29 Beke, Rutger… 11:13:58 .898
07 4:37:21 Juhanson, Ain-Alar… 08:53:49 ..24
08 4:37:31 Vytrisal, Frank… 08:37:44 ..14
09 4:37:32 McCormack, Chris… 08:15:34 …1
10 4:38:11 Alexander, Craig… 08:19:04 …2
Column A = Bike Rank
Column B = Bike Split
Column C = Name
Column D = Final Time
Column E = Final Rank
..and for the record… at least 2 of the top 10 were on a Cervélo.