Specialized appear to have swept the TT board recently and their Shiv thingy looks like an absolute missile. The performance difference between Martin and Wiggo was only 1.14% – yet Wiggo was stuck pedalling that silly wobbly Dali-painting Pinarello thing.

Would he have won it on the Specialized rocket ship?

Hmmm…?

Martin was in a different league, that’s all. 1.14% is a good margin at elite level.

I would doubt it. The Shiv maybe 1% or 2% more aero or 1% or 2% ‘faster’ that the Pinarello Wiggo was on, but the bike only makes up a small percentage of the overall drag.

The Bolide really that much worse than the Shiv? I’d have thought it was pretty spot on given that it’s a British Cycling special and used in preference to the Graal that a lot of the other teams are still using. Matrin was riding clinchers though when the others were on tubs.

Though I think at that level the only difference really is the rider.

Marketing person’s dream ^^^^^^

Tony Martin would have won on my Nan’s Raleigh shopper after a trip to her local Spar. He was that good.

You don’t have to believe everything the biggest spender on marketing tells you. But they’d rather you did 😉

No.
Hth.

… and the top three have all had wins against the others this season on those bikes.

Tony Martin was pretty incredible though. I read that he’d have come 6th on his own in the team time trial competition!

Wiggo is a great TT rider, But Martin is a specialist and a beast to boot. No way he was gonna lose that Shiv or no Shiv.

I think I am basing this mostly on looks.

The Shiv looks most awesums.

The Bolide just looks slightly, I dunno, out of proportioned and willowy, like most Pinarellos.

And Cancellara’s front wheel looks amazing, like a jet-turbine-powered-knife,
but then again, those calves ..

Wheels are the answer; deep aero wheels take more energy to maintain a high speed. Tony Martin was obviously the best on the day! But Wiggo and Cacellara are equal to him IMO Wiggo just needs to get his act together, it’s been a rough season for him. Cancellara isn’t getting any younger; and still a top TT rider. Bikes had nothing to do with the result. Just the best man on the day. Oh, and maybe the right choice of wheels and tyres?

Tony Martin put in a stunning ride on a stage in the Vuelta just to see if he was where he wanted to be for the worlds, he spent the whole day of the front of the bunch and only just got caught on the line. The guy is a tempo machine, and a deserved world champion. Surprised Cancellara wasn’t second as he also rode the Vuelta and put in some stunning performances to help his team captain win the vuelta, and his ride in the Tour Of Flanders was just a sheer display of power, 12 miles to go and he just rides away from everyone averaging just over 30 mph, no tri bars/fancy wheels/super slick frames, just sheer power.

When you see Martin in his position from the front or back it is almost as if he has no shoulders…he’s made for time trialing. That is going to make a bigger difference in terms of watts saved particularly compared to Cancellara rather than a very small difference in their choice of bikes

And Cancellara’s front wheel looks amazing, like a jet-turbine-powered-knife,
but then again, those calves ..

For me the Speed Concept is the best looking TT bike, I think most are hideous, but that’s awesome, particularly from the front – so clean.

Surprised Cancellara wasn’t second as he also rode the Vuelta and put in some stunning performances to help his team captain win the vuelta, and his ride in the Tour Of Flanders was just a sheer display of power, 12 miles to go and he just rides away from everyone averaging just over 30 mph, no tri bars/fancy wheels/super slick frames, just sheer power.

Whilst not moving away from TT’ing (obviously as he raced the worlds) Canc has said he’s trying to become more of an all rounder and focus on the classics. Flanders was rather awesome, to power out that corner and ditch Sagan then TT to victory was one of the wins of the year.

It’s shame that we’re now wondering wether the man or the machine won the race. This is why the UCI needs to keep the playing field level, even when bike makers are forcing new tech on consumers.

no idea about the rider but there are 2 versions of the Shiv on the market

the one for the TT people (it has to be UCI legal, something to do with regulations on the aero properties i.e. how big the down tube and fork blades are??)

the one for the Tri people (damn those UCI fools and their rules..)

I have worked on, and custom built lots of Shiv Tri but not the TT model, until next week when I have a £8.5K custom build with Dura Ace 11 speed Di2 and Zipp 808 for a customer, should be an interesting “learning” experience

No mention of Martin’s mahoosive front chainring? That was a 58 tooth beast, and still at a pretty decent cadence. The man is a machine.

That red thing….. argh my eyes!

Aesthetically displeasing.

Do you guy know there in a drinks bladder in the down tube…. the straw pop out just behind the stem.

And while we talking about Tony Martin .. I read the other day when he first came into cycling and was riding along in the peloton he told Lance Arm to do one.

I like him even more now

Yep, when Lance came up to tell the young Martin how it was in the peloton, he just said f*** off.

Ah crap, hearing that means I’ve got another cyclist to have a man crush on….

And …..

Big Tony’s winning time in the ITT would have placed him 6th …. 6th!!!… in the TTT

Wow !!

(it has to be UCI legal, something to do with regulations on the aero properties i.e. how big the down tube and fork blades are??)

3:1 rule and no removable or purely aerodynamic/non structural bits I think. The original and Tri Shiv had an UCI illegal nose on it afaik.