Looking for anyone who has experience racing on powercranks.
Specifically:
How well were you adapted prior to trying them in a race? (ie were you able to ride at your normal cadence in the aero position for 90k or 40K?)
What were the results…good, bad, ugly?
Any suggestions for using them during a race?
thanks
As a road racer, I’ve been in a few races with riders using them. I wish they wouldn’t and I’d even support a ban in RR’s. The riders struggled with cadence changes during risers and hills, often ‘falling off’ with both legs dropping. In a tight group at speed, the changes in speed when one rider stops pedaling is very disturbing. I found that most of us wouldn’t ride anywhere near him. I didn’t like it all.
That said, in a TT or Tri, if you’ve become accustomed to them and feel better using them, do so.
As far as I know it is all over the board, from people being barely ready and doing the race as a “training race” to those who are well adapted and doing the race expecting to do as well or better than they could on regular cranks. Most of the race feedback I have received has been very positive regarding the experience.
Frank
I have now completed 2 club Du’s, 1 Olympic distance National points series Du, a 10m TT and 3 or 4 evening training crits on PC’s, overall I have been pleased with the results. Several people have commented on my improvement. It is difficult to say how much is due to the PC’s and how much is due to the fact that this is only really my second year of racing and the first year I have stopped playing the Team sports that took up most of my time.
I have Tried to ride PC at all times except on my MTB rides. All my PC rides up until last week have been on my Road bike without Aero bars.
My findings:
I had no problems doing the TT with them I guess the start might have been slightly slower but I am not at a level yet where that is important. They have made me ride bigger gears so I didn’t have to change into the small chainring where I had previously. Without Tri bars I was still about 2 min quicker than last year.
The Club Du’s - transition are slower - you cannot have your shoes clipped in as some do on normal cranks (I have not master this yet anyway so not a big problem for me). The first race I was 1 sec of the quickest bike split and again I rode with no aero bars + training wheels). Second race (this weekend) I had the quickest bike split. I raced on a Tri bike with Angel pursuit bars, krysrium wheels and was actually 30 sec slower over the 24min split than on my road bike. I had hoped that the extra wind cheeting (+I put in less miles the day before) would see an improvement. I don’t know if this is just a case of needing to adapt to be able to produce the same watts in an aeroposition as I can on the road bike as my hamstrings started to burn quite early on. I did have some gear problems and slipped a pedal at the start which didn’t help and of course the conditions might have been slower. I did notice I could stay in on the aero bars up some of the hills overtaking people who we getting out of the saddle so hopefully with more training on the tri bike I will really be flying once I can get the PC benifit in an Aero position. Strong hill climbing seems to be a big PC plus (again this is something people have noticed about my riding this year).
Oly Du - Again slower Transition , very hilly/rolling 2 lap course. Again climbing well unitil I got cramp in my calve on the last hill of the first lap. Took it easy from then on Again I rode with out aero bars which was a disavantage on some sections and as my cadence is quite low I struggled to keep pace on some of the long straight downhills (perhaps it is wise to put on a bigger chainring for courses with downhill streches at least until i can effectively hold a quick cadance for a long while). I was disapointed with my bike time for this race (10 or 12 mins slow than quickest time) but then it is a bit different racing a National comp than a local one and the winner was second at 1/2 IM UK - hopefully after a few more seasons I can close this gap!.
With the crits I can see the point about the excelleration, but I have found this the toughest part of RR with or without PC’s and I think it is a weakness I have which I don’t think is much better riding with normal cranks. I have been off the pace a bit though some of this is down to poor tactics. As PC’s are banned in the UK for RR I have been asked to remove them as other rider did fine them unnerving. On the plus side it means I can stick them on my Tri bike to practice training in an areo position with out having to keep swapping them about.
Overal - I think I need to put alot more miles on PC’s in an aero position as at the moment they seem to make my hamstrings (which seem to be the weakest PC link) tire and anythink fast over an hour would problem be quite painful. If you are comfortable PC ing in an aero position or don’t mind racing in a slightly more upright position I would say go for it. I am looking for long term improvements so I will try and get as much experience as possible riding them even if it means some short term costs.
I am currently trying to decide if I should ride mine at the Duathlon WC in Belgium next week - Flat course but lots of bends - to excellarate out of(also trying to decide which bike will be best decisions, decisions). I guess I might even eventualy save up for a set of the new lighter more race friendly cranks, though I think I need to slow down my spending rate on this sport!
As a road racer, I’ve been in a few races with riders using them. I wish they wouldn’t and I’d even support a ban in RR’s. The riders struggled with cadence changes during risers and hills, often ‘falling off’ with both legs dropping. In a tight group at speed, the changes in speed when one rider stops pedaling is very disturbing. I found that most of us wouldn’t ride anywhere near him. I didn’t like it all.
That said, in a TT or Tri, if you’ve become accustomed to them and feel better using them, do so.
Russell, those guys your talking about must not be very good using PCs or must not have developed the strength needed to ride very long. I ride all the time with roadies, not in races, but they might as well be. Most of the guys I ride with are Cat 2/3/4. I have no trouble with cadence changes and can not figure why a person with PCs would drop both legs on risers/hills (i.e. they are not going to get up the hills very fast that way if at all).
Now where I would be at a disadvantage is around tight corners. I feel I just can not corner as fast as I could with normal cranks. You have to hold a leg up and it isn’t as stable.