This morning I followed through on my plan and went cycling with one of the Darwin cycling groups. On a day where it was cold and wet in Perth I got to spend 100km riding through this:
Pretty magic.
The ride itself was pretty good too. Despite the fact that I haven't ridden with this group for around 5 years the ride route itself was remarkably unchanged from when I last did it. There was even one or two familiar faces giving me a good chance to catch up with folks.
The guys in the group didn't hang around though. In my experience most cycling groups fit into one of two categories:
- Mates riding together in a no drops type ride - where you make sure everyone finishes it safely
- Fend for yourself - where a group of people ride together and it is survival of the fittest.
Today's ride fitted well and truly in the later category. The guys in the group seemed out for blood from the first turn of the pedals and it didn't really ease up until the end of the ride about 80km later An average speed of over 35km/h attests to a solid morning out on the bike.
If I am honest it isn't my favourite style of ride. I didn't really have trouble keeping up but having to react to constant attacks and surges wears thin after a bit. Still, when you wrap a bunch of testosterone in Lycra and put it into a small area you are bound to have one or two people go a bit crazy.
Still I can't complain too much, it was a very fun way to spend a few hours out in some glorious weather.
The other bit of excitement today has come in the form of Territory Day, which is when the Northern Territory celebrates having being given self government from the Commonwealth. That is all well and good, but for a lot of Territorians the main highlight of the day is that you get to legally buy and let off fireworks, the NT is the only place left in Australia that you are allowed to do so.
Fireworks Day is one of those perennially divisive issues in the Territory. Some people love it and others hate it. I used to love it when I was a kid, but living here a few years ago with young kids I came to be less of a fan. It is definitely a fun night out for a lot of people, but it does mean that this is the sound track to your evening (turn on sound). Syria, Baghdad, nope just my parents' front yard.
Still, this year we did join in the festivities a bit ourselves, letting off a few little fireworks with the kids down the street. It must be said, they had a ball, which is sort of the point. So perhaps it isn't that bad after all. Like all good things maybe it just needs to be taken in moderation.
The last thing I will write about tonight is this link.
Which is a link to a SlowTwitch story about some folks who crowdsourced the funding to run some truly independent wind tunnel testing of some of the top Tri Bikes available on the market. These bikes included the Cervelo P5X, Cervelo P5, DiamondBack Andean and the Ventum. The story has a link to a whitepaper that they published which is really worth a read.
In short it looks like the guys who ran this test really knew their stuff. Their testing protocol seems about right and they were very open about assumptions they were making etc, which is a nice change from the usual windtunnel spin you get from bike manufacturers.
For me what was very interesting in the article is just how little difference there is between the top bikes and the slower ones (2 minutes in an Ironman) and the fact that in the case of the Ventum, one of the most expensive bikes on test ($13000 for a bike in Australia) was also the slowest. Just goes to show you can't always believe the hype. It is also interesting to see just how good the Cervelo bikes are. While there isn't a lot of difference between the top bikes and the rest, there is no denying that the Cervelos are the quickest.
And while 2 minutes across an Ironman certainly isn't a lot, what this test shows is that between something like a Cervelo P5 and a more normal TT bike like my Ridley Dean, there is probably around 5 watts difference. I came out of Ironman Busselton last year knowing that I needed to find another 10 watts on the bike. Another 10 watts probably would have been the difference between me riding alone (as I did) and me staying with people. While I am certainly happy with my day at Busselton, it would have been interesting to see how the day would have gone if I had been able to work with others for 180km. After Busselton I was very focussed on finding those extra 10 watts. That wasn't to be obviously, but it was something that I had been keen to work on. If you had told me that I could have gained half those watts simply by riding another bike I probably would have given it some serious thought. It may not be much, but sometimes it doesn't have to be...
Now excuse me, I have some Tour to start watching.
No comments:
Post a Comment