It speaks to her mentality. She’s being cautious. And you don’t win Kona being cautious.
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Or maybe you do, since most of the men’s field blew apart on the run after riding their brains out! But you’re right in equipment setup, especially if it’s not $$ out of your pocket, take everything you can get!
With the TT/road helmet, hasn’t it been cooler in Kona recently too?
She might have had a bad run of flats with the TTs. I switched to latex and the first 4 tubes all flattened on me over 3 weeks time. I was using the powder but just didn’t work for me. I won’t use them now. Clearly they work for a lot of people and they are faster, but I would rather have the flat protection of a tougher tube. She might need that peace of mind of the TRs
Well there’s a difference in being stupid and being aggressive regarding the men.
I can’t remember for sure but everyone has said the past several years have been easier conditions. At least dating back to 2018. Winds haven’t been crazy. Some years have had overcast but I can’t remember which.
Even if it’s hot, if the rest of your competitors are wearing an aero helmet, why wouldn’t you? Why would you put yourself at that disadvantage? If she isn’t confident in her heat tolerance than shame on her and her team for not doing more heat training.
If she comes 2nd or 3rd, there’s going to be a lot of “what if”.
Were you finding cuts in the tire where it punctured? Could it have been pinch flats? The TT’s are supposedly harder to mount which I could see leading to pinch flat risk if you are running tubes.
And looking at the forecast for Saturday it shows a high of 80F. I don’t really consider that hot. Taylor is known to be extremely particular, and I’d wager it was recommend to wear an aero helmet but she, for some reason, decided she’d give up X watts.
See Alice Alberts at 8:30
She got a flat tire on TT !!!
Better Now then race day
This thread keeps getting more and more funny to read
Help me understand why we are using 72 PSI in this conversation?
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X3. Trek has done this a few times now, just a mash of colors. Horses for courses, but not my cup of tea.
You could try to get hold of her aero and gear adviser and explain the choices.
The first two were pinch flats, the third I pierced during install and the fourth was a pinch flat. I’m sure it was user error, but I obviously don’t know how to use them and I’m not confident using them, lol.
Tubeless my friend. And you’ll never have to worry about another pinch flat again.
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While I really like a bunch of pics, I wonder if sit downs with few athletes, get into some deeper conversation wouldn’t be more interesting. Doing it ahead of the race and a last minute photo shoot may be the way to go.
I also feel interviews with the people behind the athlete would be more interesting although much harder to do. Maybe @E_DUB and @Tritalkingfacts need to go for a beer.
Triathlete did an interview with Bottrill about her position recently: The Evolution of Taylor Knibb’s TT Position from Road Bike to Aero — Triathlete
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Yeah I agree with you that the Helmet is a bigger miss than the tires. Even the best road helmet is gonna be giving up a fair mount of watts to the best TT helmet (which Taylor should’ve ben testing several models in the tunnel). N=1 but on flat roads for me it’s 0.5-1mph faster in the Wing Dream vs my usual road helmet (especially once you get up near 30mph and can really tuck the head on downhills). I’m sure something like the Evade or Ballista would perform better, but the Wing Dream even kicks the crap out of my aerohead 1 and isn’t is stifling hot either.
Also should anyone misinterpret, I think we’re all not being critical to to be critical and act like know it alls, but we genuinely want her to put her best foot forward and do as well as possible. For better or worse equipment choices have a big impact on results, especially as the speeds get higher and the women’s field in particular has more depth at the top. You can’t just throw whatever on your bike and demolish everyone with much more power a la Daniela Ryf of the 2010s, the other contenders are too good now!
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I was just making sure we are admitting that we are talking about some data from a 3rd party that tests in a lab without any sort of reference to wheels, frame, riders weight and riding conditions. And telling everyone reading this that based on this report…. Taylor Knibb and her team are stupid cause she is going to lose 5.4 watts
While we havent had a beer together. We did sit in the parking lot for about 45 mins talking about her postion and bike. I summed that up in my article about her.
I agree though Those interviews would be fun.