2018 PRO thread

[wingguy]

Speaking of 'marginal gains'.
Mast year everybdy was on the TT suit of team Sky with the dotted arms.
Remember? this year they are riding the same but apparently it'sno big deal anymore.

It wasn't a big deal then, really.

One or two other team managers thought it was outside the UCI rules, and the UCI said they were totally happy that it was inside the rules and everyone else would be free to do the same thing. Making a big deal of it now would be the very definition of beating a dead horse

[Nefarious86]

Yes but wouldn't the drag from all the additional edges cause more drag than they're worth?

Honestly they just look like they would add more turbulence and drag with any kind of yaw involved.

Turbulent flow is associated with reduced drag, it is the reason golf balls and wheels have dimples so that there is an edge at 90 degrees to incident airflow to cause laminar to turbulent conversion.

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[Miller]

Yes but wouldn't the drag from all the additional edges cause more drag than they're worth?

Aerodynamics is complicated so I don't think it exactly works like that. The idea of dimples etc is that they act as 'trips' to separate laminar airflow from the surface it's following. This actually causes turbulence, meaning drag, but avoids a bigger turbulence loss that would happen without a trip when the laminar flow would later separate sharply from the surface. As for yaw, remember that for road pros riding at ~50kph, there usually isn't much in the way of yaw to consider.

[ave]

I would think they tested the two bottle setup a wind tunnel.

[CrankAddictsRich]

Yes... I'd assume that if he was running it that way, that Merida tested it with him in a wind tunnel since he's their GC hope for this race. I know that last year, there was a feature on Incycle with Nibali doing wind tunnel testing with Merida prior to the TDF.

That being said, he looked horrible on the TT. I know he's on the short side, so it may be hard to find a bike that allows him to get low enough in the front, but even his saddle position looked weird. His knees were pushing way out to the side almst like when you see a beginner that has their saddle too low.

[CrankAddictsRich]

I haven't seen any videos of the drafting.... Alex Dowsett had some thoughts on it that he posted on instagram.

"So, today, 6th place, bit of a rollercoaster with the late penalties rolling in. My ride was solid, would’ve been a really tough course without having 15 stages in the locker beforehand, this was due to its relatively untechnical nature, just on the power the whole time with minimal letup (rest) points, I had a target of 420watts in my head, I’m usually pretty optimistic with target powers and this was 20-30w too optimistic but gave me something to really fight for. The other target was on the long straight sections getting my wrists up and head down which resulted a few times in literally putting my head in my hands as a result of the real hurty sectors
.
Was surprised to be quickest at the finish given the numbers throughout the race but I guess I quickly came to the realisation that everyone must’ve been feeling the same, bit of fatigue in there! Had put some good names away but there was some really good names to come still. A couple of surprises in aru and ullisi popped up which raised some eyebrows, penalties were dealt out, with aru and the police or camera motorbike specifically perhaps it’s easy to jump on the blame game towards Aru, but actually should we be looking at the motorbikes instead, is it a rider’s responsibility to not run up behind a lazy motorbike or worse a motorbike trying to influence the race, if you’re taking your regular racing line and the bike is there what do you do? Go a longer way around to not be in the draft? I don’t know the answer here except that basically the issue shouldn’t happen in the first place but I’m personally glad action was taken afterwards."

I haven't seen the drafting situations, but watching the stage, I was quite surprised at just how tight some of the roads were in areas and if you happened ot catch a rider or motorbike in those areas, there's no were to go. Should the rider slow or avoid his racing line. That's completely the opposite of the rider's goal and sort of rediculous to expect them to do so.

[kkibbler]

Oooh Imma need a gif of that flipping the bird!

[djcharlou]

Oooh Imma need a gif of that flipping the bird!

NEED +1

[Nefarious86]

All out chop off

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[mentok]

https://gfycat.com/PessimisticTanAntelopegroundsquirrel

not watching live here - who was it directed at?

[spdntrxi]

Speaking of 'marginal gains'.
Mast year everybdy was on the TT suit of team Sky with the dotted arms.
Remember? this year they are riding the same but apparently it'sno big deal anymore.

Take a closer look at the bike of Pozzovivo during yesterdays TT.
Was he so thursty he neede 2 big flat aero bottle in the 30km tt?
I bet there is nothing inside them but I'm sure they provide an aero advantage with such a small frame.

Honestly they just look like they would add more turbulence and drag with any kind of yaw involved.

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I know he’s small... but those bottles are really not that big and hold barely anything. I have some of those bottles . So I agree with N86

[BdaGhisallo]

I haven't seen any videos of the drafting.... Alex Dowsett had some thoughts on it that he posted on instagram.

"So, today, 6th place, bit of a rollercoaster with the late penalties rolling in. My ride was solid, would’ve been a really tough course without having 15 stages in the locker beforehand, this was due to its relatively untechnical nature, just on the power the whole time with minimal letup (rest) points, I had a target of 420watts in my head, I’m usually pretty optimistic with target powers and this was 20-30w too optimistic but gave me something to really fight for. The other target was on the long straight sections getting my wrists up and head down which resulted a few times in literally putting my head in my hands as a result of the real hurty sectors
.
Was surprised to be quickest at the finish given the numbers throughout the race but I guess I quickly came to the realisation that everyone must’ve been feeling the same, bit of fatigue in there! Had put some good names away but there was some really good names to come still. A couple of surprises in aru and ullisi popped up which raised some eyebrows, penalties were dealt out, with aru and the police or camera motorbike specifically perhaps it’s easy to jump on the blame game towards Aru, but actually should we be looking at the motorbikes instead, is it a rider’s responsibility to not run up behind a lazy motorbike or worse a motorbike trying to influence the race, if you’re taking your regular racing line and the bike is there what do you do? Go a longer way around to not be in the draft? I don’t know the answer here except that basically the issue shouldn’t happen in the first place but I’m personally glad action was taken afterwards."

I haven't seen the drafting situations, but watching the stage, I was quite surprised at just how tight some of the roads were in areas and if you happened ot catch a rider or motorbike in those areas, there's no were to go. Should the rider slow or avoid his racing line. That's completely the opposite of the rider's goal and sort of rediculous to expect them to do so.

I rather agree. Unless a rider was drafting another rider, and for more than a few seconds as all riders use the slipstream of the riders they catch to slingshot them, or their team car (either the one supposed to be following them or one they catch when they catch a teammate), it should be the obligation of every other race vehicle to get out of their way. You're right in that some of those roads were very narrow and were narrow for lengthy stretches. No rider should be forced to slow because a convoy vehicle puts themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Blatant drafting is one thing and should be penalized. Incidental drafting where the rider doesn't actively seek it out, should not, imo.

[ave]

> Incidental drafting where the rider doesn't actively seek it out, should not, imo.
Why not? Even if the rider is not at fault, he gains time while drafting. So docking him 20-30 seconds is more fair, than leaving him with the actual recorded time.

[nathanong87]

seems like ARU got a good deal out of it.... the penalties were based on footage by the judges. He might have gotten 2 minutes of time for 30seconds of penalties. I dunno was this for italian pride to try and win the ITT? isn't ARU like 20 minutes down anyways

[wingguy]

At last a UCI president who actually acts instead of being complicit like the clown Cookson.

How do you think he's doing with this now, Mac? The majestic French action man turning the UCI into an agile, decisive organisation, totally unlike the slow, useless Cookson who would have just let things run and run...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lappart ... de-france/