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~ Ed Hood, as spoken to Martin Williamson from the passenger seat, driving alongside a stage route on the Tour de France.
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TT Bikes – The Unhealthy and the Ugly: Egan Bernal bumped into the again of a bus that had stopped to let a passenger off. The Colombian Tour and Giro winner was coaching on his time trial bike, this has sparked discussions on social media concerning the risks of TT bikes.
The hazard of the TT bike
Ed Hood spoke to Nikolai Razouvaev final yr about time trial bikes, the Russian ‘within the know’ gave us his thought on the ‘race towards the clock’ bike – The professionals and the cons – however principally the cons.
Huge crash for World champion Dygert within the ladies’s particular person time trial
We’ve been speaking to our Russian Amigo, Nikolai Razouvaev once more and on this piece, he offers us his views on time trial bikes. It’s controversial – however you have been anticipating that. . .
The US group in LA ’84
The 1980 Moscow Olympic Video games left a footprint in my reminiscence. That was when aero helmets and skin-suits hit biking scene’s prime time.
And ‘humorous’ bikes.
Image a 14-year-old bicycle owner who heard about 6-speed freewheels however by no means noticed one. Then image me watching on color TV how our Soviet group in pink skin-suits and white aero helmets smashed the East Germans in gray skin-suits and white aero helmets in a 100 km group time trial on bikes that appeared unusual to me.
These East Germans in gray
I couldn’t work out what was incorrect with them till the commentator stated one thing about aerodynamics after which I noticed it – the pink Colnago bikes had a small entrance wheel. It didn’t make any sense to me however I assumed the blokes who rode them knew their enterprise. After that I watched Sergei Sukhoruchenkov blow the street race aside with a protracted vary solo assault. A play like this one, you keep in mind it for the remainder of your life.
1980 Olympics street race
That is when a brand new phrase entered Russian biking slang to explain a motorcycle with bullhorn bars – ‘rogatiy.’ It’s the identical phrase you’d use to explain a husband if his spouse is sleeping round and everyone is aware of this besides the husband. By 1984 once I made the Soviet nationwide group, Reginald Vorontsov, the Soviet model of Dario Pegoretti, made a dozen ‘rogatiy’ street bikes for the nationwide group and that is what we received the junior world’s TTT on that yr. Then in 1985, Ernesto Colnago despatched us his masterpiece – a TT machine with 2 Campagnolo disc wheels, the usual time trial gear everybody needed by then.
In 1989 Greg LeMond gave us the clip-on triathlon bar and bike producers married it to the prevailing TT bikes and that’s what we’ve at present. That’s a fast historical past overview.
Now my argument towards TT bikes
Everyone knows why time trial bikes have advanced the way in which they did – to make you go sooner though I don’t understand how a lot sooner the bullhorn bikes made us in a time trial. My guess is, not rather a lot. However as soon as we’ve added the triathlon bar, it modified the time trial racing like nothing else did earlier than, not even disc wheels. This innovation took the TT bike to its personal league in comparison with the street bike; conferring a large benefit.
Benefit – that’s the phrase I need to zoom in on.
The BikeRadar web site claims the benefit a TT bike offers you is 60-70 watts at 40 km/h, that’s, it takes 270-280 watts to trip a street bike at that pace and 220 watts to trip a TT bike. Translated into seconds, a TT bike offers you 9 seconds per kilometre benefit. That is six minutes in a 40 km time trial. Insane. Though I don’t consider the TT bike’s benefit is that staggering, it’s apparent you’d be silly to race a time trial on a street bike if everybody else is on a TT bike. That a lot is obvious.
Pogačar within the beautiful Tour TT
What’s not clear is that this – if everybody saves 60-70 watts, or regardless of the watt quantity is, why trouble with a TT bike in any respect? It appears to me the purpose of technological innovation is to have an edge, a marginal achieve (as Sir David would possibly say) over your rival. If everybody has the identical edge, it’s not an edge anymore.
Image automotive racing: if everybody races a manufacturing automotive, does it actually matter if vehicles are powered by 300 hp engines or 320 hp engines? They’ll drive sooner, sure, and perhaps the present might be extra fascinating due to that additional energy however biking time trials are nothing like automotive racing. A rider leaves the gate and races alone towards the clock besides now he rides sooner on a TT bike. Each single racer does.
Tour’89 last TT
In contrast to the drama of the 1989 Champs-Élysées time trial the place Fignon would possibly’ve had an opportunity towards LeMond had he rode with a tri-bar and wore an aero helmet, at present racing on a TT bike doesn’t have an effect on the tip end result as a result of everybody takes benefit of a TT bike. And that’s it, there’s nothing extra to it – everybody will get a sooner time on the outcomes sheet. That’s what TT bikes delivered to the game – sooner occasions. One thing else they introduced: complications, damaged bones and ruined careers.
Let’s begin with damaged bones
TT Bikes Are Harmful
It’s like somebody sat with a pen and paper and requested himself: How do I make a street bike harmful to trip?
That is the checklist.
The 1st step: Cut back management of the street bike to a minimal. Begin with bike place. Transfer your physique ahead to load the entrance wheel and make it more durable to manoeuvre.
Step two: Now that you simply’ve loaded the entrance along with your physique weight, end the job and place your elbows subsequent to one another on the handlebar. This manner, you could have even much less management over the bike now and might solely go straight or at greatest lean into a large curve. When it is advisable flip, you’ll should get your arms off the tri-bar and seize the bullhorns.
Step three: Brakes wreck aerodynamics so whenever you design a TT body, overlook about brakes and concentrate on pace and aerodynamics. Whenever you end the body design, tack on one thing someplace that appears like brakes to go the UCI definition of a street bike. Don’t fear if brakes don’t work, you don’t want brakes in a time trial.
Step 4: End the package deal with aero wheels. Placed on the entrance no matter you will get away with to maintain the rider on the street towards the wind gusts. Each time trial, pray that when a rider takes the elbows off the tri-bar to lean right into a nook flying at 55 km/h, a sudden wind gust doesn’t blow him off the street. Sounds farcical as a result of it’s. It’s farcical and tragic on the similar time. Tragic as a result of TT bikes wreck careers and break riders’ bones. Ask Chris Froome.
That is how David Brailsford described the crash the place Froome broke a femur, different bones and broken inner organs: “He got here down a technical descent and on to a straighter piece of street with homes both facet he signalled to Wout that he was going to clear his nostril, he took his hand off the bar to try this and a gust of wind took his entrance wheel, he misplaced management and went straight into the wall of a home.”
A gust of wind
A gust of wind and the dream of profitable a fifth Tour de France is simply that, a dream. Do you suppose he’d have gone down on a street bike? Do you suppose he’s that clumsy on the bike? The man who rode away from the peloton on the descend to Bagnères-de-Luchon in 2016 Tour de France is clumsy?
Or have a look at Alejandro Valverde’s Tour prologue crash. Moist street, sure however that is an outdated professional. Moist or dry, he is aware of what to do but it seems to be like he doesn’t management his bike in any respect.
Michael Rasmussen was on his method to win 2007 Tour de France (besides he didn’t) when he crashed twice and got here shut to a different one or two as he stored going. Keep in mind how sloppy he dealt with the bike earlier than every crash? This can be a former UCI world mountain bike champion and these guys have very good bike dealing with expertise. Not a slipshod rider.
And there’s the star of the present, the Montpellier TTT stage in 2009 Tour de France. A little bit of a circus.
TT Bikes Require Additional Coaching
As a result of TT bikes transform your place on the bike, it’s a must to spend hours and hours of coaching to adapt to this queer place. Earlier than a Grand Tour, mucking round on a TT bike is a serious ache within the neck as you’re making an attempt to tweak your kind and on the similar time trip your TT bike to maintain the bio-mechanics tuned in.
TT Bikes Add Additional Expense
A TT bike is an additional bike a group can do with out in the event that they didn’t should trip them a number of occasions in a season. They take additional storage room on the street and on the group base. Extra bikes – more cash for organisers to spend on transfers between phases inflating the price of the race. Extra bikes – extra vehicles, vehicles and buses to maneuver them round and extra gasoline to burn. Extra vehicles and buses, you want extra drivers – extra bills.
World Tour groups rent between 24 and 30 riders. That is one other 40 or so additional bikes mechanics should take care of (some riders have 2 TT bikes, plus spares). You in all probability want to rent an additional mechanic to deal with this additional work. To make the most of a TT bike, it is advisable spend time in a wind tunnel including extra bills. Some groups should not have cash for wind tunnels and this lack of funds penalises them towards groups with larger sponsors and larger budgets.
Conclusion
As a result of everybody races on a TT bike in a time trial, nobody will get an edge on the rivals from the TT bikes themselves. By design, TT bikes are harmful to trip. Nobody, even a talented, skilled rider, is protected from a crash, nasty harm or an finish to a racing profession as a result of a TT bike is a canine to deal with at excessive pace on the street. To take a full benefit TT bikes provide, it is advisable spend additional time to coach on them. TT bikes add bills to the groups and the organisers they will stay with out if UCI bans TT bikes from the game.
Closing Thought:
The UCI won’t ever ban TT bikes as a result of bike manufactures promote in all probability 40% extra bikes with this scheme. The riders will preserve crashing. The Grand Excursions will proceed to lose main favourites as a result of bikes manufactures need to promote extra bikes. It’s the way it goes.
# You possibly can meet up with extra of Nikolai Razouvaev’s ideas at: www.nikolai.com.au. #
The submit Better of ED: A Case In opposition to TT Bikes appeared first on PezCycling Information.
