Does anyone have any insight on what was illegal on Ditlev’s bike that I guess was caught at check in? He was asked the question in the post race IM interview but declined to answer.
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Something behind the saddle, according to Pat Lemieux (who wouldn’t go into the details, and is also a fine individual with an imagination).
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It was fake bottle that wasnt going to be filled with anything…
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There’re many illegal parts of pro bikes these days.
Everyone knows that athletes mount those sail-type bottle holders, right? So far so good. But in the past Jan or Sam had them as structurally one piece. Nowadays it’s only a metal rail structure on the edges with a clear plastic fairing covering the middle part.
Same for the reach extension. Online you can buy an angled reach extension, one piece. Again, Sam and Daniel have it only skeleton-based for weight saving, with the plastic/carbon cover around it.
Although Sam’s cockpit is one piece, Daniel has an aero fairing cover below the arm pads. It’s separately mounted on the bottom, you can even see it on YT in a video where a mechanic builds the Daniel’s bike from scratch.
(I mentioned Canyon riders only, because I have the Speedmax myself and have been watching carefully - I’m sure the non-Canyon cases are equally prevalent)
With that bottle setup that he actually ran (3 bottles), I have trouble thinking about what crazy setup he was going to run had he not been stopped
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Who’s to say what’s structural and what’s not? Surely that fairing adds a nonzero (but basically zero) amount of stiffness. What about dust covers on bearings? That’s non-structural too. I just hate ambiguity, especially when you show up and legality is determined by the mood of an official.
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Of course he wouldn’t answer. What was he going to do? Be honest and say ‘I was planning on cheating but…’?
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Nah man it’s not cheating if the rules are ambiguous and you bring a piece of equipment that could pass one persons interpretation.
There currently is no measurable rule. So you’ll have people bringing things that come down to how IM defines “fuselage” or something dumb like that. I make fun of UCI as much as anyone, but their box system (reminiscent of F1) allows an absolute yes/no on 100% of equipment.
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Exactly, it’s not like he showed up with a hidden motor.
One reason why he might not want to give it away is that there is likely a version of whatever it is that can be made legal with a few modifications (Just fill with water??).
He might not want to reveal whatever aero trick this might be to his competition.
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It’s just kind of silly that a sport such as triathlon that USED TO BE geared towards regular people, now resembles a top F1 team trying to squeak out the tiniest of marginal gains with cost being no object. Eventually this sport will be bloated with more confusing rules than the government. Put an end to it now or it will drive itself off a cliff and we’ll only see doctors and lawyers out here finishing at 14 hours on $20k custom bikes. 
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If there’s one place where its out of hand is the custom front-end setups - these are truly out of reach of the average consumer. The trouble is that they’re hard to legislate out of the sport.
I don’t have a problem with pros jamming bottles in strategic places, however, since the marginal cost to the average triathlete is usually very cheap, at least compared to everything else in the tri world. A bracket here, an extra bottle there, and if you know where to put them then you can hopefully save a few watts. This type of stuff rewards knowledge, not money.
I mean, the KT tape that Laidlow used is likely, $10? Kinda goes against the spirit of the sport in one sense, but at least its approachable to your average age-grouper.
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As someone currently looking for some bars to go on a frame I am absolutely gobsmacked at the prices. 2k for tri bars that need bull bars underneath is breathtaking.
The tape Sam used is free in some IM bags, I saw some at a French race while volunteering in the last 2 seasons.
I remember 2021 Tokyo TP. Australia had moved to the new Argon bike. Denmark stayed on the 2016 Rio version of the bike.
Jokingly one of their engineers said “we saved a that money and re-allocated it to 2000 rolls of Kino tape”.
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Yeah, but F1 teams have budgets and FIA has budget cap rules and also rules about spending throughout the season. Tri doesn’t…
One of the side effects of the UCI box system is that aero bike design is basically solved. Using a 4 year old bike isn’t a huge disadvantage in a UCI TT.
IDK how you legislate aero skis. They’re in contact with a large amount of the riders body right at the leading edge of the airflow. It’s a huge reward to have a custom build and difficult to legislate against. It’s like trying to make rules about the shape of insoles.
Some systems are EXTREMELY configurable and as fast as any custom setup.
You approve “systems” that can be put togther like Legos. Within the box. Maybe you regulate the shapes of some of those components
IMHO, the whole “custom” thing is a status symbol, more than a real advantage.
You don’t think taking the exact position coordinates of a lego-like system of parts and turning that into a smooth monocoque that blends the arms and bars into an airfoil shape would be measurably faster?
Practically none of the current ‘systems’ allow for 5-6cm pad reach in front of basebar, nor rear of pad to extension tip distances if 46-50cm
“measurably” ? Is that means “can it be measured”…yes, it can probably be measured
if it means makes a significant difference, no, it does not.
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