Anyone have any experience racing in a Triathlon on PC’s yet, both long and short distances? I’ve been training on them for just over a month and a half and I have a sprint race this weekend, a half iron in May and a full iron in September. Do I need a different race strategy if I plan to race on them? Another set of cranks will have to wait till next month.
Many people have done so up to half ironman distance. I hope to see the first IM races done on them this year (I will be announcing some incentives soon).
I think your strategy will depend upon how well you have adapted. If you have adapted pretty well and can ride them hard during training for the distance of the race then race as you normally would. If you can’t yet (more likely if you have only been on them a month), then see it as a training race to assess your abilities so far.
Frank
With the way you coast all the time, your Ironman bike ride is at most a 1/2 Ironman bike ride.
I’m still waiting for you to buy some Wilson and then we’ll see how long you last on them.
Frank:
I’m doing the bike leg of The Great Floridian in late October and would be willing to try them in my training starting about May1, dependent upon the incentive. 
I’ve got a PowerTap and a Computrainer so I think I’d be able to tell if they were helping. I’m also retired so I have plenty of time to get into all kinds of trouble.
-Robert
One option would be to use those things as Dr. Day recommends and get faster on the bike (and run).
Not sure how the impress-the-pretty-girls-by-coasting-by-with-both-legs-at-six-o’clock strategy is working for you out on the levee, but maybe I’ve missed you striking up some good conversations after they pass you back up when your quads are toast.
The incentive is not finalized but will involve a refund of race entrance fees for the first three finishers (amateurs) who do an IM race on PowerCranks plus some other stuff if they win their division. It will be announced in the upcoming newsletter due to come out soon.
while i think it would be extremely difficult to do an IM on PowerCranks with just a few months training, I am also offering incentives to the first person to do RAAM on them and there are a couple of people who are starting training on them now who want to try. We will see if they are still as enthusiastic after a few weeks on them. Anyhow, it may be possible.
i did a race on PC’s. the bike was only 16 miles. if you do this, i recommend spending as much time in your aero position as possible (with the PC’s of course). i had been on PC’s for about 4 months but had spent too little time in the aero position. i faded after about 12 miles but i still came out with a top 3 bike split.
as with other training, it’s about specificity.
-b
I’ve been a PC rider for over a year. I love them, but would not use them for racing. Just put your regular cranks back on. They are lighter and you’ll have a better race. Just make sure that you pedal at the same RPMs as what you use on your PC’s. I’ve been getting my PC cadence up so that now there is no difference between my conventional crank cadence and PC cadence.
Dev, I am not so sure that one will always have a better race on regular cranks (at least if one has the PC base for the race being done). Lightness has almost nothing to do with being fast on a TT type of race such as a triathlon. In fact, many many people tell me that the place where they see the biggest PC difference is in climbing. If lightness were an overriding consideration they would all be reporting going slower when climbing.
Every race is not an A race so racing on them is a reasonable choice even for someone who has only been on them for a month, if they have a bigger picture in mind. Each person will make their own decision as to what is right for them. Until some well adapted people do some racing on PC’s we will never know. The purpose of the incentives is to try to get well adapted people to try to find out if my theory is correct. If it is correct, then many of those who don’t use them enough (this does not include you) to even think about racing on them might reconsider how they use them in training so they see even better results.
Frank
Frank, I agree that not all races are A races, so it might be viable to use them in racing. Fair enough, I’m waiting for my Carbon Fibre PC’s so that I can take you up on your incentive and race the Ottawa Half Ironman on Aug 28th :-). This would be a “B” race for me. This race is pancake flat, so on the one hand the weight of PC’s is not an issue. On the other hand, spending 90K tucked in the aero position at half Ironman race pace (my splits are typically around 2:30 on this course), might be pretty tough.
I do strongly disagree with you that weight is not an issue. 2.5 lbs of delta is 2.5 lbs and if you have to haul it around a course of with let’s say 1000 m of climbing, then the additional work (mgh) = 1 kg*(9.8 m/s^2)*1000m = 9800 joules. Worse yet, this is rotating weight and arguably, the rotating weight helps you on the down stroke, but hurts you more on the upstroke. Otherwise we would be living in the idealized Physics 101 world of lossless-frictionless-100% efficiency closed loop systems. To me, this is not insignificant. Why else would manufacturers try and sell light bikes and at the same time, UCI put a limit on min weight of bikes ?
Paul, man, I’d reconsider that pancake flat race with PC’s. Hilly is where I’m MUCH better on PC’s. I just can’t hold a decent aero position for long periods of time like a flat race would dictate. I’m getting old, so you youngsters may be able to adapt to a decent aero/power compromise easier than me. If I don’t get my neck pain fixed, I’ll be fine on all my races on PC’s because I’ll be sitting so upright anyway…I just can’t keep getting the pedals over the top for more than 7-8 minutes duration while in an aero position.
I should have PC’d my first triathlon this year…a very hilly short course…it would have been perfect. But, I had never been on the course (another course where I started going the wrong way while volunteers just stood by and watched me turn incorrectly…it is definitely MY fault, I should have memorized the course…I just was too lazy and didn’t do it). I still had the top bike split in my AG…and I always climb better on PC’s…especially if I have to stand (which is RARE). I bet I’d have been a minute faster or more on PC’s.
Dev,
I think the advantage of the PC’s will be greater on hilly courses than flat. IMC or LP would be better course for PC’s than IMF or other flat courses in my guess. Of course, we will find out what the real deal is as people start racing on them and giving feedback.
Frank