I understand all the marginal gains stuff and that not sliding about on your saddle might help with power delivery etc but can this really have helped him go faster?

Grip tape on saddle;

results in;

Poor bloke but really, what did he expect to happen?

Rather unfortunate choice of slogan there, too.

http://gosportsnews.com/tony-martins-specialized-s-works-shiv-tt/

Bet he wishes he stuck the grip tape to his shorts instead…

Seems odd not to have realised that the obvious would happen.

Easily solved with a patch of Kevlar cloth on the shorts too.

http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/products/kevlar-protection/coated-kevlar-protective-patch-material.aspx

He’s been doing that for years, nothing new

his arse must be entirely made from scar tissue by now!

Anyone want to dig out the photo of him bleeding over the finish line?

Loads of folks do that. Ever done a ITT/TT? Once the powers down you want to keep in situ and focus on the output.

Prologo Nak’s I use have a similar effect, no where near as severe but certainly work.

Ever done a ITT/TT?

No, but if I was a professional who was a world champion I think I’d have devised a method that didn’t wear through my shorts in half an hour.

As I said in the OP, I understand the ‘why’ it’s the ‘how’ that seems a little odd.

That degree of discomfort can’t help his time, surely? (Other than ‘pedal harder so it’s over quicker and I can get the savlon on the chaffing’)

Don’t imagine that a skin suit has the same value to him as it would to most of us.

Isn’t there some sort of UCI regulation about how far the nose of the saddle can protrude in relation to the BB?

IIRC, The grip tape is there to allow them to comply with the regulations while getting the better position that being sat further forwards gives them. I cant remember if it’s better power delivery or, more likely, a more aero position.

UCI rules 1.3.013 and 1.3.023 still state that the tip of the saddle must be 5cm behind the plane of the center of the bottom bracket spindle, and arm positions are restricted by limiting the difference in height between elbow supports and the lower aero bar to +/- 10cm.

He should’ve gone for

🙂

He runs that a lot. Wear does seem excessive though. I’d guess that he had some other issue that caused him to move on the saddle a lot more than he usually does.

That photo of him crossing the line in white shorts and what looked like blood coming from his erm, bits.. was in fact just a red dye from the saddle wearing away and the shorts absorbing the dye. If he’s been wearing black shorts nobody would have seen it.

Back to this, I think the UCI have rules around using velcro as it’s an “attachment”, clearly thought of that. But grip tape is used by quite a few TT’ers.

It really is about time the UCI looked at the position settings/requirements of TT riders and bikes. Riding 70k on that ^^ is not healthy.

There used to be that old Bontrager saddle that was considered as the Wold’s Most Uncomfortable Thing Ever.

But the game is on totally different level now. 😯

I use an Adamo saddle for TTs, I had thought about Evosticking some rubber – like table-tennis bat rubber – on the nose to stop me sliding around. Has anyone tried it?

Back to this, I think the UCI have rules around using velcro as it’s an “attachment”, clearly thought of that. But grip tape is used by quite a few TT’ers.

I’m sure they use to have rules about modifying saddles too but looks like that’s been relaxed a bit.

Great ride by Kiry for the win though. He gets to train at long ITT efforts pretty much every race he does!

Yep, I wanted to make my Adamo a bit more prologoish…

I’m sure they use to have rules about modifying saddles too but looks like that’s been relaxed a bit.

That rule is still there actually, basically, you can’t modify an existing saddle. But what you can do is ask the manufacturer to make you one with the modification you need. So Tony Martin’s saddle is not a modified TT saddle, it came from the factory like that.