Semi OT, triathlons

If you go in alot of high end bike shops atm (think spech shops etc) you see alot of really expensive and radical design triathlon bikes, but sat here atm waching the womans race on TV and they all appear to be on standard road bikes am I missing something as if the worlds best are on road bikes why would you use anything else?

Because they are allowed to draft so pointless in a tt bike.

Tri’s that the average man/woman in the street will do ban drafting so having tri-bars can help increase speed. The courses tend to be fairly flat as well so not as much need for a bike that is great on climbs. Also another opportunity for bike manufacturers to target a new market segment to sell more bikes – not dissimilar to the 29er and 27.5 developments in MTB or disc brakes on road bikes.

Spesh only have one tri specific bike – the Shiv Triathlon, and I’ve never seen one in a concept store (or anywhere else). Most of them are TT bikes which can be used for tris.

But yes, elite tris now being draft legal means they’re on road bikes, and has turned triathlon into a running race.

njee20 – Apart from the Brownlee brothers! Although in the last tri they took time out of everyone else on the bike and in the run!

Yes, Alistair’s about the only one strong enough to do it, and can drag Johnny with him. It’s still more often a bunch race though, much more interesting if it was a proper TT effort still.

Yeah does seem it’s a critical swim for the initial selection, then the bike part is a bit of a precession until the race starts again with the run.

imo it was always better to watch when they couldn’t draft and made it more of a race.

That course in Stockholm is excellent as it gives no real advantage to the group, so solo cyclists can actually get in a break after the swim and look to maintain a lead. Especially when it was wet like last week.

It’s especially obvious in the womens racing at the minute. Gwen Jorgensen is often in the second bike group after the swim, rarely does a single pedal stroke in the wind during the bike leg and is often 1 min to 1.5 mins behind coming into T2. None of this matters since she can run 10km about 2:30 faster than any other woman in the field.