This will be my first year at Wildflower, and it is also my first year on a true tri-bike–I’ve always ridden a road bike in my version of the big-slam version before. So, based on the size & # of hills, would it make more sense to ride my road bike or tri bike? I climb much better on my road bike–probably 2-5 mph faster as I am able to situp/sit-back on the bike & bring other muscles into play as opposed to just spinning up on my tri-bike. I’m much more comfortable on my road bike as well. Given that, and based on the fact that I’m not going to be pushing the bike until the hills & saving for the run, which would you recommend?
On the same vein, which is more important on this course–weight or aero? I can run a Zipp disc, Zipp 909 front, tri spokes front & rear, or any combination…what would you recommend?
provided that you have the right gears, I’d go with the tri bike, and a disk is always the faster option as far as I am concerned. That is what I’ll be on at Wildflower, tri bike, with a Renn disk on the back.
There is a long stretch of slight downhill from mile 25 to 35 - you can get aero and fly down this part. I maxed out at 38 Mph on this run and I was on a road bike. The only climbs where you need to be concerned with your geometry are Beach Hill and Nasty Grade. You can probably deal with this by putting a 12-27 or bigger and spin up. Personally I am bringing both 13-26 and 13-29 cassettes and will decide which one to use on Thursday or Friday.