Respect the Aero-goodies

Triathlon Forum
1

At first I was skeptical - I thought that the difference made by aero-bars, wheels and other toys was minimal - I figured a little extra fitness was more than enough to counteract those with bigger budgets.

There was a 11-mile (7mile gradual climb followed by 4 straight descent) Time Trail held by the University of Irvine today. Now I respect the value of aero.

Made up the hill just fine, held on to placing, and then as soon as the downhill started I was getting passed by guys left and right in their aero-bars on TT bikes. I was spinning hard in 53-12 and these guys were just tucked and flying - one guy was even pedaling backwards, to keep his legs warm I presume.

It was really pretty humiliating.

The descent wasn’t technical at all, the road was great - I’m a little lighter than most people but still these guys on Cervelo machines were dropping me like I was standing still.

Now I’m a believer

T

2

“At first I was skeptical -”

We have a guy in our roadie group (an ex road racer from way back) who is adament that aero goodies are just marketing . He swears that he is just as aero on the drops as anybody is on aerobars. He refuses to listen to any argument.

Here’s a good article to read about what aerodynamics can do for you.

http://home.hia.no/~stephens/aero.htm

3

Were you racing collegiate or USCF?

BTW, I was one of those guys on a Cervelo. Some of the people on Cervelo’s weren’t particularly fast, though.