I’m doing a time trial race next weekend and I’m trying to decide whether I want to ride my tribike or my road bike with clip on aerobars because there is a lot of climbing. I am definitely faster uphill on my road bike and it is significantly lighter but I’m not sure if this will offset the aero advantage going downhill on the tribike. Also a lot of the turns are at the middle or bottom of the decents so its difficult to get too much speed going downhill. Here is it elevation profile: What do you think?
tri bike
with a disc and everything
and stay aero =)
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Given that I’m a relative novice, take my advice with a grain of salt.
It’s especially because that I’m a relative novice, when I find myself asking: road bike or tri bike for any course, I already know deep down inside that the answer is road bike…
Hmmm … tough call since we can’t see the turns and such. First impression is time trial bike all the way though, but I’m very partial to an ultralight roadbike for long hills (that first hill is 4.5 miles) and my climber is a full 5 lbs light than my tri bike, and I actually descend faster on it as well (3 mile descent on your map) (assuming the death tuck). But, you probably have about 10 miles there where the TT bike would be best.
I’d personally lean towards my road bike with clips. I always climb better on a road bike but sealing the deal would be the technical descents. My road bike is a Kestrel Talon so it wouldn’t be giving away a lot of aero to a tri bike compared to round tubes, plus the bike handles beautifully on fast descents. Both my QR and Cervelo P2K were a little sketchy on fast downhill corners.
Have you rode the course yet? If at any time I had to get off the aerobars on a tri bike to sit up on the hills, that’s when I’d definately without question take the road bike.
Just did the OUCH (Oregon Uphill Championships) which is ~16.5 miles, 13 which are climbing. Did it on a Soloist team (S1) in road, and was wishing I used the aero setup. I like the tops a lot while climbing, but if it’s gradual enough (5% or so), the aerobars (clipons) would have saved me a few mins.