2015 'PRO' cycling discussion

[KWalker]

My point exactly jooo...KWalker you're only as good as your competition...

I'm not so sure Cavendish had the same quality in competition as the riders I mentioned previously...

Who did Cipo really have in his earlier years?

Cav still raced against Petacchi in the Tour (who went to win the Green). Hushovd wasn't a slouch either in 2009-2011. I see your point, but I don't think it was necessarily as if there was no one. I'd argue there have been more leadout trains the past 3 years than in any time in the past if you consider that Lotto and Giant now have pretty dialed trains and Cav has lost his.

Don't get me wrong Kittel is a really good rider and has given Cav a run for his money recently, I just don't think people always remember that Cav has still accomplished more than any other current sprinter thus far. I'm sure someone else will rival him. Degenkolb could be the next Zabel. Kittel the next Cipo/bunch guy. Someone like Bouhanni more of a Freire. But Cav has still done a lot, isn't very old, and will probably end up with higher win totals than any of these guys.

[KWalker]

yea track dudes , blythe included, seem to like LOW LOW.

Don't want to get into a fit discussion, but there is such a thing as too low. Even for pros. When the forearms are horizontal(-ish) there's less drag than when they're straight(-ish) down.

Then again one sees Stannard dropping Boonen from the hoods. So maybe this is his optimised position.

Yea i agree, fit discussion is pretty bad. From my extensive research of google images and eurosport high definition feeds for usage during my own merckx-style time trial case study, I've come to the conclusion fit and pro fit discussion seems like a wash when it comes to road racing (time trialing spaceships is different). There are just as many pictures of phinney, fabian, boonen, wiggins in their drops riding hella fast and other pictures of dudes riding hoods (probably wiggins not as much). Convinced that comfort for them > aero faff. In an ideal world and ideal windtunnel, sure #aeroiseverything, but the extreme pole to it is like.... riding cobbles on tops vs flat back 90deg arm hood style. If a pro (or any of us) can't ride in the aero position, what good is it? With unlimited time, unlimited watts, and unlimited flexibility then sure, but comfort and going fast is whats important.... Noone cares about the dude finishing 50th place , who 'rode on hoods' the whole race. The trend to pro fits, is no trend. So i defer to who's riding the illest bicycles and winning races.

There was less drag with forearms horizontal in all of 2 wind tunnel studies that were published. One was by Cervelo to justify tall headtubes, the other was a leaked data sheet from Cam Meyer's development of the Sphinx bar with 3T. Hardly definitive.

Aero depends on tons of factors- width, shoulder profile, head profile with the back, etc. and on the road all that stuff is very hard to control for or duplicate. The eye wind tunnel only goes so far and in most situations I bet these guys care much more about all day comfort. Like Stannard, I am tall with long arms and having them a bit more locked out on the hoods is simply more comfortable than hella bent doing pushups all day. I can still race an entire crit in my drops and get low on my hoods, but when I'm cruising around don't have to.

The biggest example of too low in the modern era is probably Andy Schleck, who could barely reach his drops and descended like shit.

[xnavalav8r]

Andy who?

[nathanong87]

andy had really sweet looking bikes doe.

[petepeterson]

Natelife if you read Millar's book he says that your method for fit/aeroness is pretty much exactly what he did. Look at photos and vids of fast guys that look good on the bike and duplicate.

[nathanong87]

Natelife if you read Millar's book he says that your method for fit/aeroness is pretty much exactly what he did. Look at photos and vids of fast guys that look good on the bike and duplicate.

never read his book, but he seems like a radical dude haha. His Millar x Fizik collab yeezy footwear jawnts were pretty awesome.

[djm]

Dowsett and other team mates on (non team sponsor) Zipps for Omloop

https://instagram.com/p/zsUOp_lbQ_/?modal=true
https://instagram.com/p/zruQCboLj7/?modal=true

That's Russell Downing in the first pic old chap.

Maybe they are short on some components after the theft in Mallorca? (Or was it somewhere else?)

[wingguy]

The haven't locked horns that often and I know you could argue that Cav has made it to sprints where Kittel has been dropped earlier but none the less, Cav hasn't beaten Kittel in a heads up sprint in what, close to 3 years now?

Maybe, but they didn't get a showdown at all last year. In fact, while he's undoubtedly been the top sprinter of the last two seasons Kittel has only beaten Cav overall at one GT and the score then was 4-2.

Instead of rushing to judgement I think we should just look forward to seeing the two of them in July. Whichever way it goes the battle should be fantastic.

[jooo]

Do you mean this year or last year? Kittel beat Cav twice at the Tour of Britain last year. They also raced at Dubai Tour where Kittel won three stages (even if Cav wasn't always in the mix).

[wingguy]

The Tour of Britain being what, a month after he came back from the TdF injury?

[Sjoerd]

I've noticed that Cav was using his "old" Nike shoes again in K-B-K. I've seen pictures of him riding the Specialized S-Works before, so I wonder what made him go back.

[mattr]

If he's anything like me, it's thanks to the entire specialised range of shoes being utterly horrific and leaving me hobbled for a couple of days after a 15 minute test.......... I'd rather go back to any of my shoes from the 80s or 90s than try another pair of specialised.

[nathanong87]

ah mark back to slammintown, phew

[Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez]

Looks good without the shifter completely tilted up.

[Kjetil]

He's always had his controls like that. Doesn't he change his position a lot, though? Slam today, stack tomorrow?

Interesting tailoring on that thermal jersey btw.