Interesting he ran mechanical Dura Ace on both his TT rig, and road rigs....

Just the confirmation I needed that I do not need to go electric

Even more interesting he doesnt go aero but just rides the domane

...in the hoods.

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works for him, power to spare

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For the TT it makes sense for him due to the UCI rules concerning measurement. Essentially the mechanical allows him to gain an extra 2-3cm in aerobar length (considering his height, that length is helpful).

For the road bike, there are quite a lot of road racers that DESPISE Di2. I'm one of them. There are quite a number of problems that many riders have racing with Di2. I know of at least a half dozen riders that have switched from Di2 back to mechanical because they can't stand it.

And for him riding the Domane, rather than the new madone - I believe it has to do with the fact that he was involved with the design. It is highly likely that that was the bike that he trained on in the spring, and therefore is most comfortable on.

^ I am also not a fan of electric. Just curious what issues your racing buddies had?

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And nothing to do with marketing/sales at all...

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1) They cannot "feel" the shift and complain that they sometimes miss shift

2) The buttons were to close together. When we wore full winter gloves we had problems shifting properly.

3) Shifting was too slow - mechanical was faster


Things like that.

Interesting that you say mechanical was faster. I thought Di2 big gain is quicker and another shifts.

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The biggest difference with DI2 is the shifting at the front, but those guys race on the big ring all the time so that doesnt really matter. At the back you can only shift 1 cog at a time, so yes mechanical is faster.

^ I don't think the 1 cog at a time is true if you do FWB hack. But I guess stock it is true.

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By slower I am not referring to 1 cog at a time, I'm referring to how quickly it shifts 1 gear. There is a lag time when you shift just one gear. Mechanical is essentially instant.

Not wanting to cause an argument or be too blunt but honestly when does this matter in a race? When does it come down to gear shift time?

For racing I find the quality of the Di2 shifts is far more important and beneficial to my efforts than any potential time lost shifting gear, I've never dropped a chain on either my road or TT bike with Di2 in what must have been over 15000kms.

At 95rpm what would a Di2 rear shift take, ~0.8s? If you reduced that by 20% your saving 0.2s, just how close run are these races and why can't you hold on for a minuscule increase in rpm to make up for what ever is could be lost by shift time or shifting ahead of time in preparation for a sprint?

I will concede that I miss shifting up 3 gears at once on dura ace but Di2 will shift gear perfectly as fast as I can press the button which has been enough for me and by the looks of it so far the majority of Di2 sponsored riders.