Escape Collective continuing to absolutely justify my subscription with this report.
Tour de France time trial helmets, ranked by how little I would like to be in them - Escape Collective
Honestly, we need to take note of this. As triathletes we already are the butt of jokes from road cyclists, who to be fair are the recipient of mockery from MTB riders, car drivers, bus drivers and I’d guess pilots and astronauts. So perhaps there is a point that to rescue the sport of triathlon from declining numbers we should have rules to stop us looking daft. Clearly we don’t have the self awareness to police ourselves so we do need support.
Again, can I stress that all these people are professionals paid to wear these things. We unbelievably pay a fortune to be allowed to race wearing one of these that we’ve paid a fortune to buy. We cannot be trusted to make good decisions for ourselves and there should be a collective form of conservatorship introduced.
So we should just get rid of tt helmets, since some of these are actually relatively normal looking ones? Looks way weirder to be on a tt bike with a normal road helmet IMO. Also the huge visors which mean you can actually see where you’re going look awesome, huge improvement
Also the huge visors which mean you can actually see where you’re going look awesome, huge improvement
Yeah, you get a great view of your fork.
Which, Remco despite being a physiological freak both in power output and aerodynamics has also mastered the art of having a tiny head lift to see just far enough up the road. Never significantly breaks the position pictured. By contrast from the radio, Bora was begging Roglic to keep his head down.
Though not looking where you’re going in TT isn’t new, I think Dan Bigham - for better or worse - has made it more mainstream in the pro ranks.
It was funny hearing from the Bora car “time to get your visor close to your forearms” I don’t like the new position they have set him up with at Bora, he looked a lot more dialed in at Jumbo.
On one hand, I think it’s been a great thing that triathalon has all this specific gear. It makes the “easier” (for lack of a better word) and add vibrancy and energy to the industry. There’s no denying that buying a new piece of gear is motivating to go out and use it and stay engaged.
On the other hand, I often wonder what if we all just used the same bikes as normal road racers. Would it really be that bad? Its not like we say, “look at all this great swim tech and how fins and paddles help you, so use these on the swim too!”
Can you imagine the disdain we’d get even more so from swimmers if we showed up to races with paddles and flippers?
Watching coverage of the TTs past two years and the objective results of different helmets and rider setups……the whole being able to lick your forearms position isn’t necessary.
Sure Pogi is monstrous strong but isn’t burying into the forearms and wearing a Laser helmet and his TT is just fine.
Watching coverage of the TTs past two years and the objective results of different helmets and rider setups……the whole being able to lick your forearms position isn’t necessary.
Sure Pogi is monstrous strong but isn’t burying into the forearms and wearing a Laser helmet and his TT is just fine.
Well Remco in his more extreme position did just beat him. Remco is probably lighter (just based on height) but even if they weight the same Pog has proven himself to have a higher output on the only attacking stages so far this year. And yet Remco is 13 sec faster in the TT.
I’m sure UAE/Pog did all of the testing and have balanced the position in the way that gives them the best chance to win. But that’s not to say that it’s the best absolute TT position.
As triathletes we already are the butt of jokes from road cyclists,//
And yet from the very first innovation of clipless pedals in the early 80’s, to aero disc/deep dish wheels, to forward positions, to aero bars, aero frames, and every single innovation you see them on now, they have grudgingly followed our lead, usually years later…
If there were no triathletes, we would still be watching the latest in rubber band technology, holding their pony tails tight in the TT’s, and the new fangled rubber used in the modern toe clip… (-;
As triathletes we already are the butt of jokes from road cyclists,//
And yet from the very first innovation of clipless pedals in the early 80’s, to aero disc/deep dish wheels, to forward positions, to aero bars, aero frames, and every single innovation you see them on now, they have grudgingly followed our lead, usually years later…
If there were no triathletes, we would still be watching the latest in rubber band technology, holding their pony tails tight in the TT’s, and the new fangled rubber used in the modern toe clip… (-;
Exactly - I have a couple great pics of me, in 1988 at 14 years old, with the Scott DH bars, aerodisc fabric wheel cover, and a pretty decent TT position mostly based upon my favorite DH skier at the time, Pirmin Zurbriggen hahaha. Saved up for the black Look pedals because the white ones were…not very pro. I just wanted to be Mike Pigg, or a 16yo Lance haha.
Tri innovation and adoption has been pretty incredible over the years - TT innovation seems to be from people without cycling backgrounds but aerodynamics backgrounds, which is proving to be pretty awesome and sometimes shocking to see.
In none of these should we duplicate what the pros do
Doesn’t mean we can’t study, understand and pick the elements that will truly get us to the finish line faster.
Ya my main point is theres always a dichotomy between the arms race in each of those categories you listed and fixing the parameters of the possible tech innovation and letting athleticism be the major factor. Plus the key benefit of not being so esoteric that the average person looks at us like unapproachable space aliens.
I probably more on the innovation side of the equation, but at some point we do draw lines. (paddles in swim, motors in hubs) in some places, but not in others for somewhat arbitrary reasons.
We unbelievably pay a fortune to be allowed to race wearing one of these that we’ve paid a fortune to buy. We cannot be trusted to make good decisions for ourselves and there should be a collective form of conservatorship introduced.
Your link has nothing to do with aero testing whatsoever. There was no testing at all in fact, they didn’t even try them on. It’s nothing but an fashion critique based on how they look.
Seriously, wtf is your game? Shilling for the site you linked? Are you even human? … because your writing looks like something a bot would produce…
I’ll take that as a 1 star review😠And sorry for the writing not being up to your standard. Fair call, but give me some slack as English is my second language. My native tongue is Yorkshire.
I don’t have a ‘game’.*. I was simply raising a discussion topic in a more light hearted way. There are plenty of threads like that on here, not least of which were the ones from the first race the latest generation of helmets made their debut.
I hope to get post hasn’t caused any deep psychological trauma. But please note that you can click on my poster name to hide any posts or threads so you won’t risk it in future.
Have a lovely day.
*Indeed I am legendary for my total lack of game. Even my wife mocks me for it.
I think it was more self deprecation than mocking Escape Collective, but I do think there is the need for a bit of self reflection as to whether the pursuit of perfection is at odds with to there being a sport at all in the medium term.
Should there be a Merckx category for triathlon? Concern there is it would be no aero helmets, but Borat style Speedos… Yeah. Scrap that.
My hypothesis is that a lot of people get into sorry as they are inspired by the very Pinacle of the sport. They may start karting after seeing F1. Going to the driving range after the Ryder cup. Get in a dinghy after seeing the foiling America’s cup regatta. But are people going to want to start triathlon if half the field is wearing the front protusion helmet or the specialised head sock?
A much simpler solution than new categories, banning this, banning that is for a few trusted media outlets to start publishing credible information and bullshit busting.
Should there be a Merckx category for triathlon? Concern there is it would be no aero helmets, but Borat style Speedos… Yeah. Scrap that.
I know you’re posting mostly in jest, but the problem with a Merckx category is that it quickly becomes its own subset of equipment. When they had the Merckx category for the hour record, part of the hurdle was that teams had to overcome was finding parts which met the criteria. Bike tech had moved on in the 40+ years since Merckx set his record, and it became a chore to freeze the rules in place.
We can keep the sport static, or we can allow it to evolve.
I’d think they could run it under the same merckx rules most stage race time trials do. No aerobars, no disc wheels, no tri spoke wheels, no wheels deeper than 80mm. Many do allow tt helmets, although it would be easy enough to also not allow time trial helmets, while permitting aero road helmets.
Either that or they could just run it under the same rules used to regulate draft legal races.
To be honest, I don’t really think this would address the real reason triathlon is less popular though.
