Anyone done the course on both and have a preference for the race? What are the pro vs. cons? I don’t remember any super long section were you could stay aero, that along with the relentless hills is making me consider the road bike.
Anyone done the course on both and have a preference for the race? What are the pro vs. cons? I don’t remember any super long section were you could stay aero, that along with the relentless hills is making me consider the road bike.
Might see a handful of road bikes on the course come race day. Aero trumps on pretty much all courses. You can stay aero for long segments on that course, just need to HTFU a bit. But really maybe riding the Alpe D’Huez triathlon is the one time triathletes would need a road bike. If you want a more comfortable and slower ride then road might be your cocktail of choice, but most choose tri.
Anyone done the course on both and have a preference for the race? What are the pro vs. cons? I don’t remember any super long section were you could stay aero, that along with the relentless hills is making me consider the road bike.
I have ridden those roads for years. The advantage to road bike is ability to shift easily when needed. On a tri bike, having R2C or electronic shifting takes makes it a non issue, as does having a comfortable set up with hand resting on shifters. I personally have a harder time shifting on my tri bike (conventional shifters) but it is a small price to pay for aero.
If you are not comfortable shifting on tri bike, do not like descending in aero position, do not like climbing on your tri bike, like your road bike better (weight, gearing, comfort, etc) then use your road bike.
Can you pre-ride the course?
I am going to do the race this year on my tri bike. I might shorten my aero extensions a centimeter or so I do not have to move arm to shift.
I rode/raced it on tri bike previously. Gonna try and ride it on my road bike a few times and tri bike a few times to see advantages if any.
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try a search, as it has been discussed quite a bit. It seems a definite Tri bike course as you will find out in those threads.
Depends on what your goals are and how you define advantages…
If you want to be comfortable, then a road bike may be the best choice. If you want to go faster, then TT bike.
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On my tri bike, my neck gets sore, on my road bike my saddle and wrists get tired.
For me at least, with my tri bike it would take probably almost 40 minutes less time to complete the course.
So do you want to have a sore neck and ride for a 6 hours, or a sore ass and wrists and ride for 7 hours?
The maybe… maybe 1lb weight difference from comparable road and tri bikes will not even come close to equalizing the speed lost on the other 85% of the course that either downhill or flat.
If your tri bike is that uncomfortable, you may have a bad fit and are not looking at “comfort” correctly IMO. It’s all about contact points and how the influence each other.
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Shifting should be a non issue. When transitioning from a change in grade as your speed drops, you should be following this sequence anyway:
- drop out of big ring (still aero)
- downshift until you below about 10-12mph to maintain your target Power or RPE/HR.
- Sit up once below 10mph. You may only have 2-4 gears left at this point anyway.
- go back to aero as you accelerate over the top.
Based on similar hills around my home, I’m already at my “climbing pace” by the time I sit up. When I sit up, I naturally prefer to drop about 5rpm anyway. I’ll also only have 1-2 more gears left anyway after I sit up.
I don’t understand why it’s that BOD to reach over and shift. You should only be sitting up in sharp or bumpy corners, braking, bottle exchanges or steep climbs anyway. Otherwise it’s aero all the way… as the tri-gods intended.