The Tri Town Times: 2/5/24

• Posted on 5 February 2024
• By Antonio Gonzalez
• Posted in the tri town times
• 0

Hi all,

Here is your weekly Tri Town Times newsletter:

Weekend highlights:

Boise-native Will Barta took his first professional victory at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, an early season race located in the autonomous region of eastern Spain. Barta rides for the Movistar team.

Industry News:

- The T100 Triathlon World Tour is the rebranded race series jointly launched by the PTO and World Triathlon. The series runs from March through November, featuring eight races across three continents. The top 20 male and female triathletes worldwide will compete in these events, vying for a total prize purse of $7 million. The first race of the series is scheduled for March 9th in Miami. The name 'T100' is derived from the race distance itself: a 2k swim, 80k bike, and 18k run.

- Ironman has hired Scott DeRue to replace retiring CEO, Andrew Messick. DeRue, formerly the president of high end fitness club Equinox, notably lacks a triathlon background but is an avid ultra runner and mountaineer.

Quote that struct a chord:

"That which gets measured gets managed."

This famous quote from management guru Peter Drucker came to mind after reading a Velonews article on why Tadej Pogacar was so late to adopting disc brakes on his race bike (hint: the weight).

An obsession with weight is common in sport and tends to be polarized towards putting on as much weight as possible or removing as much weight as possible. For cycling, the focus tends to be on reducing weight. When I speak with a rider fixated on bicycle weight, I try to explain how little a difference weight typically plays in the performance of a bike. This is not an opinion; it's simply physics, and it turns out to be relatively easy to calculate with various online tools.

For example, the difference in weight between the highest-end racing bike and the most basic entry-level road bike is about seven pounds. If we use the sixteen mile Bogus Basin Hill Climb as an example, adding seven pounds of weight will cost you approximately ten watts while climbing. These ten watts would result in an additional 1 minute and 15 seconds of time.

For most bikes the weight difference is much less than seven pounds, more like half a pound to maybe one pound for comparably priced models. Of course, all things being equal, a rider should always aim for a lighter bike; it never hurts to be light. However, often, all things are not equal when we focus too much on one factor of performance.

Weight becomes the focus of attention for many riders and even bike brands because it is easy to measure. You can feel it and easily compare the weight of one bike to another. Other, often more important factors like aerodynamic properties, rolling resistance, stiffness, and even mechanical reliably are often passed over due to the difficulty in measuring them.

Athletes are notorious for allowing the measure to become the target. There is no scale at the finish line. The lightest rider or rider with the highest FTP does not always win the race. These measures are signs of potential for high performance, but they are not the complete picture.

BTW: Disc brakes add about 300 grams to the weight of a bike, which would cost a rider of Pogacar's ability four to five seconds at the Bogus Basin Hill Climb. Many races at his level are decided by less than five seconds, so his concern over weight makes perfect sense.

Have a great week!

Antonio Gonzalez

Tri Town Bicycles

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