Why no disc? smart or not?
Very smart, check out the stage profile, it’s crazy technical. One rider said, “you’re either going up or going down, there are no flat parts.”
why all the other big names have disc? they are not as smart?
Looks like the smartest guy won. He has also been th strongest in the tour. On the other hand, Lance is smart and picks his battles and only works like nuts when he needs to. Imagine if Vino worked when it counted rather than attacking all over the map for no good reason. Hopefully, he can join a directeur sportif to reign him in and selectively unleash his power.
Dev
As soon as I saw his setup I thought “Oh boy, the ST crowd is going to on and on about this”…
Yea me too. If he wins he looks smart , lose and he was dumb… Jan was trashed by lots of folks last year when he went sans disc. Two things I know for sure. Lance was faster today and he had to have lost 10 seconds yanking on his shorts. I am not really sure what I think of the wheel deal. Would he have won by more or less with the disc? Who knows?. I am sure someone will come up with a genuine scientific and smart explaination and we will say Oh yea, now I get it.
Was the wheel lighter than a disc? Or heavier? Was it more or less aero? It didn’t look like the wind was howling much. No doubt in my mind Lance rode best today. Feel bad for the 4 bike changes and two crashes later ride ride. That couldn’t have been much fun.
Seeing all the turns on the course I’m wondering if he chose to not use the disc so he could accelerate faster out of the turns. That and maybe the weight on the climbs?
it was brilliant. what’s the point of a disk on a course like that?
lance more than made up for losing straight line speed the way he was taking those corners.
he rode like he was on a road bike. that TREK looked might good today.
If the two wheels weigh the same acceleration wouldn’t change. I thought of that too. Now maybe a deep dish would be more complient but the three spoke is as stiff as a disc as far as roadhop because they are both solid.
It might be that he prefers the braking surface of the rear HED 3 over the zipp/bontrager, or wanted consistent front/rear braking. A disc isnt any slower accellerating out of corners, in fact its faster than a lightweight 32 spoke wheel. But with the need for accurate lines through the corners the braking of the wheel might be important.
Not sure if that is really the case, but just a thought that occured to me.
If the two wheels weigh the same acceleration wouldn’t change…
Sorry to be an engineering geek, but it’s not the weight, it’s the moment of inertia.
Correct. If they weigh the same, the disk will be faster just because its weight distribution is better.
The decision probably was made due to the technical/hilly nature of the course. I imagine the Hed3 handles a tad better and weighs less. However, he still could have won on a disc. Likewise, Ullrich still would have lost had he skipped the disc. It’s all about the rider.
watching Basso and Rasmussen ride with thier disks, I thin LA made the right call.
I really think disc or no disc only had minimal effect. The reason why Lance was cornering so well was because he had reconnoired the course thoroughly and knew the corners. Also his cornering technique was spot on, his cornering perfect and smooth as silk. In fact it looked like he could have gone even faster if he wanted to with those perfect lines but like he said he didn’t want unecessary risks.
In contrast Ullrich was not using the full road to advantage to maintain speed to a max around corners. He was smooth but he could have carried a lot more speed into, around and out of them corners. Basso was worse because he was apexing and commiting the corners way too early before the exit could be seen. Meaning he had to brake like shit in order to prevent himself over shooting which means loss of speed in the corners as well as slow exits into the straights. A lot of time lost from lousy cornering and big disruption to his rhythm because of lack of fluidity.
And the creme de la creme was Chicken with no proper line, going so slowly round the bend and still finding himself upside down in the ditch. Fast max cornering is about concentration and today Rass’s mind was already self-defeated. Normally Rass can corner. His down the windy mountain run in his stage win was impressive and he’s a former World Champion Mountain Biker for Chrissakes.
The motorbike shots following the bikes round them corners from the rear clearly shows how each of them were tackling them corners.
Besides Lance many of them could have gained from having read and applied that book on fast bicycle cornering, co-written by Keith Code the Guru of Motorcycle Road Racing. I think them Pros figure that doing fast corners is a small part of cycling whereas Lance being the consummate cyclists figures all skills and details need be considered. And in today’s TT it shows.
Yep,I learned what drifting to the high side meant lon before I got on a bicycle. Excellent points. High speed motorcycle riding really accentutes the mistakes that can be made on a bicycle.
Yeah Kenney, in motorcycle road racing, any fool can go fast in a straight line. But carrying full speed into a corner (no 2 corners are the same), committing full lean angles with knee scraping as a pivot of control and exiting the corners full blast requires very refined execution. Hence the title of the bible of motorcyle racing, Twist of The Wrist - Soft Science Motorcycle Racing. As I mentioned the author Kieth Code has co-written a book for bicycle fast cornering. (apologies but I can’t recall the title) Although I flicked through it before, cuz I don’t really need to review techniques already second nature, Cyclists I’ve met swear by this book. So for those looking to improve confidence, safety and speed in doing high speed corners …
The only way Lance could lose the tour was to crash. If no disc reduced his chances of a crash by even the slightest, that is why he would take it, even if it possibly cost him the stage victory.
IMO, that is why Lance continues to “get lucky” while riders like Ras have “bad luck”.
Ras could have been riding his road bike and the result would have likely been the same. His mental was screwed largely due to the undue pressure he placed on himself for bragging off especially to his own Danish media. Besides claiming he was the man to beat Lance he hinted in a later interview that he would pull off a stupendous TT because in previous TTs he just never really tried. He inadvertently put the whole weight of Scandinavia on his shoulders when he was trying to negotiate them turns.
To be a winner besides the physical ability and form, the mental attitude is crucial. Look at Lance, even at this point in time he has not himself said even once that the Tour is his. In fact his fav saying is it isn’t over until it’s over. And look at Robbie, he’s got to be focussed on today’s finish but he never went making any great predictions about his own prowess and the results that have not yet been raced. BTW Chicken never got a puncture just back wheel adjustment needed maybe due to his first crash.
Well alls well that ends well and everybody looked pretty happy.
Another person who put his foot in it was T Mobile’s Directeur Sportiff Walter Badfoot. Imagine making a public comment in the middle of the TdF that your own team is lousy. And he even had unkind words to say about Vino. Today T-Mobile ends up with the team classification, 3 stage wins including Vinos 2 which includes today’s massive effort. Not forgetting Jans efforts second in the TT and 3rd overall. Obviously it was no thanks to any encouragement from Badfoot.
He could have retired on a better note.
T-Mobile has over the past few years has been one of the, if not the biggest dominant teams with the budget and ability to buy the best talents. But somehow there just seems to be just something lacking when compared to teams like Disco or CSC.