The Bikes of the Fastest Pro Riders in Kona 2024

I think lactate is totally different ballgame than glucose and when/if it comes to market will be very useful. I hear everything you say about CGMs, my point still stands - if it was so useful for athletes, they would have a business (look at core). Maybe someone will be able to make it useful at some point, we’ll see.

Anyway this started with oversized pulleys. My main point is that pros need to shill stuff even if its snakeoil to make a living. No point in arguing over CGM, there are plenty of other examples.

So no more Speedplays? (Except for Lange). I remember few years back half of top pros were on Zero Aero.

Why is that?

that’s what I’m wondering as well. Like they are no more aero or what’s going on here?

curious to think about crank length vs rider height and then the athletes’ Kona run performances.

What I see with the pros I fit is that the shorter we go with cranks, the more quad dominant they are, so if we use crank length to keep the glutes engaged and then use other factors to open the hip angle, we get to a better race performance. Talk about that with Ronan of Escape Collective in his Performance Process podcast here.

and here: Your Bike Fit Begins With Your Saddle — Wove

If they ride using their quads heavily, it negatively affects their run.

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Would love to know how you’re measuring muscular activation during the pedal cycle if it’s not proprietary. Surface EMG? Limb based kinetic sensors? Oxygenation sensors? Combination?

Also, given that running acceleration is predominantly driven by the posterior chain, with the quads providing braking and stabilizing forces, what about quad fatigue is it that you think limits running potential? Most triathlon courses do not have high amounts of downhill running where quad capacity is most important. Not disagreeing, just looking for an explanation.

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Fair point !

I notice that this year all the top pros are using full aero helmets, and a good variety of them as well. Usually there’s a few road-aero helmets in the mix. Was the heat less extreme this year, or just the competition was so tight that no one could lose the watts?

I know some athletes gave up watts to not overheat. The chose an aero helmet but not the fastest one.

Others knowingly rode warmer helmets to save watts. It was a conscious decision

I won’t say all, but several decisions were data driven

It was not crazy hot with aero helmet due to cloud coverage. If you sprayed water into the helmet it was fine. I imagine the situation would be different with direct sun.