Tour de France thread

Watching the final downhill run a few minutes ago, I couldn't help thinking that they could go just as fast and be much safer by swapping to BMX bikes after they cross the summit. They may not be as fast on the straight bits, but from what I remember from my teenage years, they have got to be much faster through those hairpin turns. And so much safer. Then you can swap bikes again at the bottom of the mountain.

 

I think there was one rider on a time trail stage a couple of years ago that switched from a aerodynamic time trial bike to a lighter climbing bike during the stage because they thought it would give enough advantage. Much harder to do in an active stage where it isn't just one car / one rider at a time going down the road.

I imagine fatter grippier tires would provide improved corner speed, but not enough to make it worth swapping bikes twice. Even today once they got out of the twistiest sections, the group easily caught up with the yellow jersey and he was killing them in the switchbacks.

 

I remember that.

 

It happened in this year’s ITT. He lost ~8 seconds during the swap. As the commentators noted, I’m not seeing how the bike made up that time and what it does to the body to suddenly stop and have to restart again has to be traumatic.

 

Froome won the ITT at the TdF in 2017 with a bike swap. There have been many other TT courses where bike swaps were used. Contador switched to bikes with shorter gearing at times for big mountains. If you save 15-20 seconds by switching, it's worth it.

 

It all depends on the length of the climb and steepness of the climb.
TT position fucks you up for anything that's not flat or gentle rises/falls.

 

Did you watch stage 13 and see the course?

I used to ride a Giant Trinity (tri positioning) as my everyday bike. It had been over Smuggler’s Notch, along with countless other climbs and century rides. I loved the cockpit of that bike. When I moved over to gravel, I setup this bike with essentially the same cockpit dimensions and aerobars. My next bike may end up being a flatbar and aerobars mounted on a Fred Bar adapter.

 

I didn't watch the ITT this year. To me, those stages are relatively boring unless you want to fap to all the carbon/ti and aero gear.
When I was racing, my road frame (1993 Litespeed ultimate Ti) was very different than the bike that I set for my TT (Klein quantum II) as the Klein had the seat pushed forward a bit and the TT bars were the same height (which mean the normal bars were lower than). Big change in geometry for me. If I came out of the Tri-bars on the Klein, it was twitchy as fsck.

I'm sure some of those guys (domestiques/rolleures) just throw on aero bars and wheels and call it good.
Some of those other guys, spend hours and hours on rollers in a wind tunnel getting that shit right.
Front to Back
Seat to Spindle
Bar height
Seat Height
Bar forward
Shoulder width vs. O2 uptake (how wide can we make you to allow for Max O2 without killing aero position cross section)
Crank length vs. Normal bike crank length
Etc....

 

One of the groups I ride with won't allow tri bikes. Braking issues caused a crash a few years back. Probably a rider issue. No offense to tri riders, but there seems to be a bit of snobbery with some of them.

 

There’s always been that argument that “tri-riders” didn't have the best bike handling skills. I always saw it as riders who tried to ride in the aero position in wrong situation, such as in a pace line with riders you don’t know and you don’t know their bike handling skills. Or, a rider not familiar with riding in the aero position.

 

The douchenozzle roadies grumbled on a group ride I showed up to. When I was inline, I was on the basebar. When I pulled their asses for miles at a time on the aerobars, then, they claimed I was accelerating on pulls, when all I did was maintain speed. Fact is, I punched a smaller hole and it was harder for them to stay attached. Likewise, I was heckled at a century ride, for what I was riding. WTF difference does it make at an open ride what I choose? I could be an iM athlete getting in some training miles. Went and busted that shit out in ~5hrs and went home. Fuck trying to appease people, as there are always going to be those who have to bitch about something.....sounds like social media.

The reality with aerobars is one can quickly get to the basebar and apply brakes about as quickly as one can get from the drops to the hooks and levers. Riders on road bikes crash all the time, but, other riders are rarely blamed; it’s just part of group riding, to them. But, show up with something different and the oddball will be blamed. Happens all the time in snobbish crowds. Snobbery caused me to quit patronizing a tri-centric/roadie shop I’d spent thousands in (~$10K in one year).

Aerobike geometry is more stable than road/crit/race bikes so favored by the posers. It is so, because of the riding position and purpose. Given I rode an aerobike so much, it felt normal. When I’d get on my road bike, it felt twitchy, because the geometry was much snappier. When I hear someone say TT/tri bikes are unstable and twitchy, I cringe, because they’re not. The geometry numbers prove they’re not. They just handle differently from what one is used to. When the peloton spends thousands of miles on a road bike, they’re not going to be as proficient on an aerobike. But, commentators and media editors HAVE to regurgitate the same bullshit, over and over.

I’ve tired of the crowds and expectations, which is partly why I choose the path less traveled; gravel. It’s, also, why I choose to patronize the local shop most know nothing about. I’ve found a much more peaceful and gratifying world to cycle in.

 

In triathlons, you don't ride in a peloton and it's also frowned upon to draft.. It's tough to get good pack riding skills without pack riding. I could see a local club enforcing that rule when, like you said, they know nothing about who is showing up.

 

There is a lot of snobbery and bullshit in road cycling. Funny thing is, a lot of the snobby guys suck. There's also a lot of great people, but the sport seems to attract introverts so sometimes it doesn't appear to be the most welcoming.

MTB and gravel have figured out the camaraderie aspect. Road hasn't worked that out fully yet.

 

I won't road ride in groups. Well, other than a handful of my MTB buddies. But I'm done with the roadie pricks.

 

That attitude is one of the big reasons I switched from crits and road racing to CX. The cliques and the lack of camaraderie in road racing made me feel like I was back in middle school or high school.

I pulled the plug on group rides many years ago after since someone in Reston, VA passed away when he crashed on a popular group ride. I see several group rides when I'm out training...I wave and carry on, I don't want any part of those.

 

The responses prove my point. Just ride and enjoy it.

 

Damn, Pinot out.

 

I enjoy riding by myself, in groups, CX, and I'd do crits again if I was in good enough shape.

 

We will finally get a new yellow jersey today? Could be.