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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Good news from the collegiate front

First, the 2010 Nationals will be held on the roads of Madison, WI. Good news for all cash-strapped collegiate teams around the mid-west!

Second, they won't allow TT equipment at collegiate races any more! More specifically:

Wheels: there is a minimum spoke count that automatically allows a wheel (in the 20s?) The UCI also has a list of allowable wheels with fewer spokes including many deep-section wheels meeting certain durability requirements (this list includes some very deep rims.) For the most part, this rule eliminates discs, three and four-spoke wheels, and wheels from companies that have not gone through the UCI approval process.

Bicycles: Must use regular drop handlebars. There might be some frame designs allowed in TTs that are not mass-start legal, in which case these will not be allowed.

Helmets: most TT-legal helmets would be legal in mass-start events.

Full text. The changes will be effective for the 2010 season for categories B through D, and will affect category A too starting in 2011.

* * *

I remember when I did my first time trial. Weeks before the event I started obsessing over the aero bar thing, even though I was just a cat C racer. Everyone seemed to be using it! So I spent a fair amount of time researching the best and lightest aero bars that I could afford, and a fair amount of money buying a snazzy pair of carbon thingies. I used them, and I did fairly well at my races (an ITT and a TTT), but that was in spite of the aero bars, which probably made my position on the bike less aero than if I had just simply ridden on the drops. Very soon I came to hate my aero bars, because I had much less control over my bike when I was on them, so they just gathered dust in a corner of my closet. I eventually sold them on eBay for a fraction of their original price. Sigh.

(Morale: Before you buy a pair of aero bars, practice riding on the drops until it feels natural, even preferrable. Then lower your regular handlebars, one cm at a time. Practice again. Repeat this process until you reach a nice, "flat back" position while riding on the drops and feel comfortable riding like that for at least half an hour. Win a TT. Then you can buy your aero bars.)

The technological escalation taking place even at the lowest levels of competition is absurd. It doesn't make any sense for a cat D rider to spend any money on aero bars, or aero helmet, or aero wheels, ... Or even for a cat C or B rider. I would even argue that it doesn't make sense for most cat A riders, i.e. those who won't move on to do some serious racing for serious teams. The same comment goes for regular (non-collegiate) races and other types of ultra-expensive, "performance-enhancing" equipment: deep-section carbon wheels, ceramic bearings, carbon bottle cages, ultra-light helmets, and, yes, skinsuits, just to name a few.

The proliferation of expensive equipment keeps some new riders away, i.e. those who can't spend four grand, but believe they need to do so just to get started in the sport, just because they saw the "fast guys" do it. So sad.

Full disclosure: yes, this is coming from someone who has already spent too much money on equipment given my level of fitness and skills. But at least I own neither aero bars nor aero helmet nor carbon wheels.