How To Get The Best Ride For All Of This Summer's Big Races
By Bob Grunewald
A cyclist often wants a bicycle that can do it all, but in today’s age of specialization we have to disappoint them. As bicycles have evolved they have become more and more attuned for specific tasks. The minimal amount of categories for bicycles would be six — road, mountain, hybrid, bmx, cruiser, and kids. This expands quickly to 20-plus sub-categories. Looking at just road bikes there are six categories (without splitting hairs): road racing, time trial, triathlon, track, touring and cyclocross.
Can you get a bike to do it all? The short answer is no. Despite the similarities and the basic idea of a bicycle, there are too many discrepancies in cycling race rules to allow one bike into all of the disciplines.
If you are looking to try road racing, time trials or triathlon, the best choice would be a road bike. A road bike can be used in any of the aforementioned events and, with slight alterations, made to perform well in each.
A road bike is legal to use in time trials (TT) and triathlon (Tri), where a bicycle with aerobars is not legal in road races. Although in most cases TT and Tri bikes are one and the same, there are a few differences in the rules that would make you set up the bicycle differently. For a novice rider, the body position and bike handling characteristics of a road bike make it the best choice to start on. The design keeps your centre of gravity on the saddle with multiple hand positions on a drop bar and the integrated shifters and brakes help make the bicycle easy to control.
The road bike is pretty much ready to race once you are. In Canada, all provinces require racers to be licensed for mass-start road races. In Alberta, that means taking out a racing licence from the Alberta Bicycle Association (www.albertabicycle.ab.ca) and in B.C. it’s Cycling B.C. (www.cyclingbc.net). Their web pages are full of tips and have an extensive list of riding resources.
Each race will have a technical guide that participants are required to read and understand, such as rules on drafting and pack riding that allows racers to conserve up to one-third of the energy they would expend riding alone.
A TT or Tri bicycle positions your body farther forward and spreads you out onto three points and makes you more aerodynamic. This causes the steering to be twitchier for the untrained. The shifters and brakes are separated, making you change your hand position when braking; this can cause problems for sudden stops. The Tri bike keeps a rider in a more aerodynamic position and forces the triathlete to use more of their hamstring muscles, leaving more gas in the quads for the run afterward. The aerobars offer the rider a chance to rest the upper torso and arms, saving them for the run as well. Generally most TT/Tri bikes have a more aerodynamic frame allowing for some wind-cheating properties.
Time Trials are a nearly all-out effort over a 20 to 40 kilometre course. In triathlons, the bicycle distances will range from 10 kilometres (Sprint) up to 180 kilometres (Ironman) preceded by a swim and followed by a run. You do need a licence to compete in a triathlon, but day licences are available. Aero helmets, skin suits and disc wheels will improve the time of good riders, but starting out you only need your bike, helmet and a willingness to push yourself and judge your efforts realistically. For your first couple of races, use your normal position to keep comfortable and in control of your bike.
As you gain confidence in your abilities you will start to change your position on the bike to get advantages. To adapt your bike to get these advantages, you will want to move your saddle forward on the seatpost to move your body into a forward position to help isolate the hamstrings. You may want to add clip-on aerobars to give you a more aero position as well.
Custom bike fitting will help cyclists ride faster, longer and in greater comfort, while reducing the chance for injury. Certified bike-fit technicians are trained to analyze each rider’s unique attributes, pedal stroke and body position. Using the data gained during the assessment, they optimize the bike and equipment to match the rider’s biomechanical profile.
For official bicycle rules from cycling’s governing bodies, check out www.uci.ch and www.triathlon.org.
Avid cyclist and Tour de Bowness organizer Bob Grunewald has worked at Bow Cycle & Sports in Calgary for eight years.
May/June 2011 Issue |
