Take tomorrows stage, assuming they are using a 53/39 up front what will most of the top climbers use, 12-23, 12-25, 12-27?
Dave in VA
not sure about the large cogs, but i would bet that most would use an 11-tooth small cog.
11-25, 11-27, many compacts will be out this year so you will see allot of 11-21 as well. They get to ride things we never even knew existed…
11-23 or 12-25
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Take tomorrows stage, assuming they are using a 53/39 up front what will most of the top climbers use, 12-23, 12-25, 12-27?
Dave in VA
Ivan Basso used a FSA SL-K MEgaExo Compact crank with the unusual 52/36 front chainring gearing at stage 11 at the Giro when Basso dropped everybody but Savoldelli with his high tempo. (This was the stage where Basso took the Pink jersey. Before Basso’s bad stomach).
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005/giro05/?id=live/giro0511
16:09 CEST
Ivan Basso has a special FSA crankset for Stage 11, with a 52/36 front chainring for the steep ascent of Passo Duran and the final climb up to Zoldo Alto/Dolomiti Stars. We asked CSC team director Bjarne Riis what was up with the special gearing and he cagily replied, “You’ll see on the climb”.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/giro05/?id=giro0511/cn-giro05-cervelo02
For those using traditional cranksets (53-39 chainrings), most will use an 11x23 or 12x23 for the high mountains while sprinters and TT specialists will sport more exotic combinations (compact cranksets or 11x27 rear cassettes with a 53-39) in order to limit losses on the climbs. They don’t have to be fast getting over the cols, just have to cross the line within the allowable time deadline.
I saw on TV someone said Lance rides an 11-23…
Basically the whole team uses compact cranks with 52-36 and an 11-23 cassette.
Hey Gerard, I noticed CSC uses Cervelo. I’m just curious-is Cervelo a sponsor or does the team buy all those bikes? What kind of promo dollars does Cervelo spend on something as huge as the TDF?
Roughly they get the frames from us, and we get the parts for free. Our biggest expense is in time, I really had no idea when we started this in 2003 that it would take so much time. For example, my business partner Phil is with the team for four weeks, starting one week before the Tour and ending in Paris. That’s a lot of time not to be in the office, but it is also a great way to get feedback and to work on new products. We don’t spend much on the Tour other than his time, we do a bit of online advertising and we spent a lot of time putting that media center on our site, but that’s about it.
Interesting. thanks.
It’s gotta help with your marketing in having those Cervelo labels flashed all over the OLN coverage.