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Since even the tiniest details matter . . .
In the enormous 23 vs 25 mm thread, I grew curious about whether the
pros actually pay attention to every detail because they think that even the tiniest differences might mean the margin of victory. Here's a light-hearted look at some tiny details of stage 1 of the 2005 TDF, a ~21~25=minute 19-km TT with the most extreme bikes, helmets, and costumes in the Tour. Many of your favorite stars showed their opinion of small but easy-to-spot weight and wind-drag disadvantages. Even in a TT where some riders carried empty water bottle for the aero advantage, lots of riders didn't bother to take off their wrist-watches or necklaces. Caution: there's always the possiblity that they might be wrist-mounted heart-monitors. (Yeah, right.) (And don't complain about absurd minutiae--that's the whole point.) *** Here's the stage 1 TT gallery, which happened to have wonderful shots of normally hard-to-spot watches and necklaces: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...gallery-stage1 *** Armstrong cares--at least in the TT. He took off the massive Rolex that he wore on his left wrist for most of the Tour: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...JD05tdfstg1013 But Armstrong still finished 2 seconds behind Zabriskie, who wore nothing extra, either. A few views of the Tour winner's time-piece . . . Stage 7: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../JD05tdfstg612 Look how far away you can see that thing: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../JD05tdfstg705 Stage 8: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...TRONGGIALLO113 Of course, if you're getting your weight in champagne, an extra ~127 grams makes sense: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../JD05tdfstg601 (They made Armstrong take off his helmet, but he slyly wore his Rolex.) *** Boonen sort of cared. For the TT, he took off the watch that he wore for the rest of the Tour and replaced it with a thin and stylish purple wrist band on the same wrist: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...JD05tdfstg1010 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/17 Even if the Michael-Jackson-mono-style purple-strap cost him, Boonen finished a respectable 40th in the TT. *** You can see that Dave Canada really cared. He had a probably empty aero water bottle on front (probably the better spot for one bottle), a monster front hub borrowed from an old motorcycle to reduce wind drag, ultra-aero helmet-visor, sleeve straps around his thumbs, and a drilled chain ring: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...JD05tdfstg1004 Unfortunately, despite all his attention to detail, Canada finished 137th out of 189 riders, 2:52 behind the winning time of 20:51 for the 19 km/11.6 mile TT. *** What a big Rolex is to a Texan, a big necklace is to a Frenchman. Chavanel finished 92nd: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/18 Bonus points for the big sweat bands on his wrists. *** Cadel Evans _always_ knows what time it is: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/18 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...JD05tdfstg1008 Evans ended up in 35th place. *** Garate and a handsome wrist watch with its strap sticking up: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/23 Good for 94th place. *** Landis wears his wedding ring, no matter what: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/11 Don't get me wrong. Floyd's wedding ring is a lot smaller and lighter than a wrist-watch or necklace, it's probably a lot harder to remove, and it comes with a hell of a better excuse. That ring didn't hold Landis back 6 seconds behind Bodrogi, where he finished in 6th place. I'd hate to be the coach who tried to tell Landis to get rid of that extra weight. (Swimmers get rid of their wrist-watches, but any wedding rings usually stay firmly in place.) *** Ullrich's TT helmet hides it, but he always wore a ring, too: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour059/24 I doubt that the extra mass kept Ullrich behind Armstrong's Rolex. Gratuitous photo to remind everyone that the stars like Ullrich are often awfully nice guys--he didn't even reach the ground here before they swarmed him: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../?id=tour059/6 Could Ullrich just be just taking every possible advantage with a cold-blooded plan to recruit future domestiques: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour059/37 Nah. He's just signing autographs for bike-crazy little kids. *** Back to the stage 1 TT. Mayo wore a metal bracelet on his right wrist: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/15 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/46 What the heck, Mayo was heading for 175th place. *** Moreau wore a thin leather bracelet behind his yellow plastic bracelet: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/20 Moreau was 41st. I always like photos of guys who look like they're having fun. *** O'Grady may have worn the biggest watch in the TT: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/39 I wonder if that watch was what put O'Grady in 42nd place, behind Moreau, despite their same 1:50 time? Maybe Knaven wore even more things, since Knaven was listed at 43rd place with the same time. *** Another happy rider with his tongue hanging out in the breeze: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...JD05tdfstg1006 No watch, but he believes in putting a probably empty water bottle on the seat tube, supposedly a worse position than the down tube. Maybe disk rear wheel changes the aerodynamics enough to matter? *** Vinokourov's necklace in one photo and his wrist watch in the other: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/38 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../?id=tour051/8 Bad move--the watch and necklace dropped Vinokourov to third place, 51 seconds behind Armstrong in 2nd place. Some other photos from the rest of the 2005 TDF . . . *** Here's Vinokourov with his watch and necklace, stage 14: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...id=tour0514/18 Nicely framed, the watch didn't hold Vinokourov back much in stage 11: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...KOUROVARRIVO53 *** It's easy to see why Valverde abandoned at stage 13: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../s-valverdeko3 Look at that thing on his wrist! *** Beloki and the medallion that he wears around his neck: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...id=tour0510/62 Damn, Beloki looks tired, but probably not from the weight of his jewelry. Whatever Beloki is wearing, St. Christopher medals are common in the peloton. *** Jalabert and _his_ neck jewelry: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...r0516/jalabert Boonen wore a watch everywhere except the TT's: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour056/65 Fedrigo's watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour053/30 Commesso with a big band of some kind: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../JD05tdfstg503 Flecha and his watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../JD05tdfstg502 Bernucci, whose watch and yellow bracelet didn't hold him back: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../JD05tdfstg614 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...6/S-BERNUCCI20 Pellizotti's watch peeking out from under his sleeve at the start: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour056/45 Kloden with a big watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...id=tour0511/30 Southpaw Guerini, wears his watch on the right--er, the non-left side: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...ur0515/GUERINI http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...ur0517/guerini Nice watch, Wrolich! Wonder if it agrees with the clock function of that cyclocomputer? http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...JD05tdfstg1505 Sorenson knows what time it is: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../nickisorensen Horner, trim that strap! http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...JD05tdfstg2109 Vansevenant's chronometer: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...WIMVANSEVENANT Jacksche, his watch, and a water-bottle in the second-best position: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...7/jorgjacksche Rogers makes sure that we know it's a watch, not a heart-monitor: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...upevansummeren *** Nope, the pros in the TDF don't seem to be quite as obsessed with squeezing out every last gram and reducing every bit of wind drag as we might imagine. Even if they, did, it probably wouldn't change the TDF results unless they wore cuckoo clocks on each wrist and stole Mr. T's entire collection of neckwear. Cheers, Carl Fogel |
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#3
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Since even the tiniest details matter . . .
wrote:
In the enormous 23 vs 25 mm thread, I grew curious about whether the pros actually pay attention to every detail because they think that even the tiniest differences might mean the margin of victory. Here's a light-hearted look at some tiny details of stage 1 of the 2005 TDF, a ~21~25=minute 19-km TT with the most extreme bikes, helmets, and costumes in the Tour. Um, Carl? That was the stage that Zabriskie won by 2 seconds over LANCE. I think that may have been the only full stage TT that Zabriskie ever won over Armstong (prologues aren't full stages). Armstrong and Zabriskie shattered the rest of the field: http://anonymous.coward.free.fr/rbr/tdf05-1.png You think Zabriskie wasn't paying attention to details? I assure you that guys like Piepoli didn't really care about that stage. |
#4
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Since even the tiniest details matter . . .
On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:09:45 -0800, "Robert Chung"
wrote: wrote: In the enormous 23 vs 25 mm thread, I grew curious about whether the pros actually pay attention to every detail because they think that even the tiniest differences might mean the margin of victory. Here's a light-hearted look at some tiny details of stage 1 of the 2005 TDF, a ~21~25=minute 19-km TT with the most extreme bikes, helmets, and costumes in the Tour. Um, Carl? That was the stage that Zabriskie won by 2 seconds over LANCE. I think that may have been the only full stage TT that Zabriskie ever won over Armstong (prologues aren't full stages). Armstrong and Zabriskie shattered the rest of the field: http://anonymous.coward.free.fr/rbr/tdf05-1.png You think Zabriskie wasn't paying attention to details? I assure you that guys like Piepoli didn't really care about that stage. Dear Robert, "But Armstrong still finished 2 seconds behind Zabriskie, who wore nothing extra, either." Cheers, Carl Fogel |
#5
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Since even the tiniest details matter . . .
On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:41:45 GMT, Ryan Cousineau
wrote: In article , wrote: In the enormous 23 vs 25 mm thread, I grew curious about whether the pros actually pay attention to every detail because they think that even the tiniest differences might mean the margin of victory. Here's a light-hearted look at some tiny details of stage 1 of the 2005 TDF, a ~21~25=minute 19-km TT with the most extreme bikes, helmets, and costumes in the Tour. Many of your favorite stars showed their opinion of small but easy-to-spot weight and wind-drag disadvantages. Even in a TT where some riders carried empty water bottle for the aero advantage, lots of riders didn't bother to take off their wrist-watches or necklaces. Caution: there's always the possiblity that they might be wrist-mounted heart-monitors. (Yeah, right.) I've probably trimmed too much here, and I know you're mostly joking, but pretty much all of those weird watches appear to be either Polar or Ciclosport logging heart-rate monitors. Nope, the pros in the TDF don't seem to be quite as obsessed with squeezing out every last gram and reducing every bit of wind drag as we might imagine. Even if they, did, it probably wouldn't change the TDF results unless they wore cuckoo clocks on each wrist and stole Mr. T's entire collection of neckwear. The pros have proven to be quite willing to give up probable performance benefits for other reasons. These guys and their trainers do obsess over the day's data after each stage in some cases, though whether it makes much difference _during_ the race is another matter. It may be quite useful for post-mortem analyses, especially for subsequent seasons. Some riders were doubling up, with a power meter and separate HRM. In some cases we may have been seeing the results of, for example, using a power-meter's head unit for speed and time readings, dumping the power-meter hub for TT gear, but keeping the HRM (and hidden wrist-strap) to log heart rate. Nowadays, budgets and bike weights are such that even the all-out weight-conscious TT and climbing bikes often sport power-measuring cranks or hubs. You'd probably see fewer separate wrist-mounted heart-rate monitors if you looked in the last year or so, but a lot more funny-looking cranks or rear hubs. I might be wrong about that. Dear Ryan, Some may be--hard to tell for sure from the photos alone. But to compress a bit . . . Armstrong wore a Rolex with dial hands for most stages: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour055/26 That's just after a stage, but you can see it in photo after photo when he's riding stages. It turns out to be common knowledge: http://www.melrosejewelers.com/rolex...our-de-france/ Armstrong's Rolex GMT Master II probably weighs 127 grams: http://www.replicawatchesreviews.com/Rolex-GMT.html I don't think that the necklaces have any digital technology for the TT: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/18 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/38 Nor for the other stages: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...id=tour0514/18 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...r0516/jalabert Vinokourov is wearing a chest-band with the thingy on his wrist, so I think it may be for telling time. Two unrelated watch stories . . . Sam Whittingham said that at one point he complained about how his wrist watch was hitting the side of the fairing inside the Varna Diablo. The designer said to leave it off, and modified the damn thing to be just that little bit narrower. "Before crossing the finish line [stage 11 1951 TDF] Koblet took a sponge, wiped his face, and combed his hair. He had used the comb as a psychological weapon before. In the Tour of Switzerland he had combed his hair on the hardest climb to give the impression of ease. In reality he was suffering with hemorrhoids. But it fooled his rival, Francois Mahe, who gave up trying to stay with him." "Koblet then calmly got off his bike and started his stopwatch to see what advantage he had gained over the field, a move that was not just for show. He had reason to mistrust the timekeepers as his experience in stage 7 shows. He wanted no repeat of that mistake. [A timekeeper initially gave the TT win to Bobet, until Koblet protested and pointed out that intermediate timing records made Bobet's alleged time physically impossible. When the timekeeper changed his decision, Koblet's 85-km TT time was still so fast that 12 riders were cut for being outside the time limit--yikes!]" --p. 176-7, "The Story of the Tour de France, Vol. 1," Bill McGann Cheers, Carl Fogel |
#6
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Since even the tiniest details matter . . .
In article ,
wrote: On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:41:45 GMT, Ryan Cousineau wrote: In article , wrote: In the enormous 23 vs 25 mm thread, I grew curious about whether the pros actually pay attention to every detail because they think that even the tiniest differences might mean the margin of victory. Here's a light-hearted look at some tiny details of stage 1 of the 2005 TDF, a ~21~25=minute 19-km TT with the most extreme bikes, helmets, and costumes in the Tour. Many of your favorite stars showed their opinion of small but easy-to-spot weight and wind-drag disadvantages. Even in a TT where some riders carried empty water bottle for the aero advantage, lots of riders didn't bother to take off their wrist-watches or necklaces. Caution: there's always the possiblity that they might be wrist-mounted heart-monitors. (Yeah, right.) I've probably trimmed too much here, and I know you're mostly joking, but pretty much all of those weird watches appear to be either Polar or Ciclosport logging heart-rate monitors. Nope, the pros in the TDF don't seem to be quite as obsessed with squeezing out every last gram and reducing every bit of wind drag as we might imagine. Even if they, did, it probably wouldn't change the TDF results unless they wore cuckoo clocks on each wrist and stole Mr. T's entire collection of neckwear. The pros have proven to be quite willing to give up probable performance benefits for other reasons. These guys and their trainers do obsess over the day's data after each stage in some cases, though whether it makes much difference _during_ the race is another matter. It may be quite useful for post-mortem analyses, especially for subsequent seasons. Some riders were doubling up, with a power meter and separate HRM. In some cases we may have been seeing the results of, for example, using a power-meter's head unit for speed and time readings, dumping the power-meter hub for TT gear, but keeping the HRM (and hidden wrist-strap) to log heart rate. [Er, "chest-strap." The receiver is a watch-like thing that can be bar-mounted or wrist-mounted] Nowadays, budgets and bike weights are such that even the all-out weight-conscious TT and climbing bikes often sport power-measuring cranks or hubs. You'd probably see fewer separate wrist-mounted heart-rate monitors if you looked in the last year or so, but a lot more funny-looking cranks or rear hubs. I might be wrong about that. Dear Ryan, Some may be--hard to tell for sure from the photos alone. But to compress a bit . . . Armstrong wore a Rolex with dial hands for most stages: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour055/26 That's just after a stage, but you can see it in photo after photo when he's riding stages. I am now going to dig myself a little deeper here, and spread a little confusion. That photo above was just after a stage, but as you can see it was after a stage when he wore the yellow jersey: http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005...esults/tour055 So he's already changed his shirt and put on a hat. Has he changed his watch? I can't believe the race photographers don't spend more time documenting the rider's chronometers. It seems a real loss. We keep getting Loch Ness photos like this one: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...S-ARMSTRONGGIA LLO946 Rolex? Polar? Nike Lance Armstrong 4? I can't tell... http://www.gems4me.com/nilaar4.html It turns out to be common knowledge: http://www.melrosejewelers.com/rolex...and-his-rolex- embrace-fatherhood-and-the-tour-de-france/ Armstrong's Rolex GMT Master II probably weighs 127 grams: http://www.replicawatchesreviews.com/Rolex-GMT.html I don't think that the necklaces have any digital technology for the TT: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/18 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/38 Nor for the other stages: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...id=tour0514/18 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...r0516/jalabert Vinokourov is wearing a chest-band with the thingy on his wrist, so I think it may be for telling time. Do you mean it the other way around? The chest band is a transmitter, there's a receiver somewhere on his bike. He has both a bar-mounted cyclocomputer and a wris****ch. The wrist accessory looks a bit like this one: http://www.pccoach.com/products/hrms/hrm_S720.htm Very spiffy; I own one myself. The jewelry is indisputable. I don't think any of that looks like a logging awesomeness-meter. Back to Lance, he's a little inconsistent: No watch: http://www.atomicsportsmedia.com/new...0Armstrong.jpg watch: http://blogsimages.skynet.be/images/...0armstrong.jpg Watch that looks a lot more like a Rolex than an HRM: http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2006/writers/e...g/p1_lance_091 2.jpg But I have an explanation: this is the substantially ceremonial final stage. Lance doesn't even have a cyclocomputer on the bars. But he does have some pretty serious aero wheels, probably because the non-ceremonial part of the ride is to stay with the peloton all the way to the finish, despite the fact that some impertinent types who are not Lance may try to win the stage! http://www.threesources.com/pix/lance_armstrong.jpg Definitely a Rolex. Unidentified hydration beverage in other hand. Can't see the watch face. Can see the un-Rolex rubber watchstrap: http://www.thesportstruth.com/wp-con...ance_armstrong _actionsized.jpg Probably a Rolex. That looks pretty conclusively like a metal wristband to me: http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/79/91779-004-C90EB1BF.jpg Certainly not a Rolex: http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/20...408_wideweb__4 30x335.jpg ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/3...lance_armstron g_247.jpg This year, Lance has started reading rbt and is eschewing a wris****ch: http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-01/44606806.jpg Submitted without comment: http://www.singletracks.com/blog/wp-...9/lance-armstr ong-mountain-bike.jpg Two unrelated watch stories . . . Sam Whittingham said that at one point he complained about how his wrist watch was hitting the side of the fairing inside the Varna Diablo. The designer said to leave it off, and modified the damn thing to be just that little bit narrower. "Before crossing the finish line [stage 11 1951 TDF] Koblet took a sponge, wiped his face, and combed his hair. He had used the comb as a psychological weapon before. In the Tour of Switzerland he had combed his hair on the hardest climb to give the impression of ease. In reality he was suffering with hemorrhoids. But it fooled his rival, Francois Mahe, who gave up trying to stay with him." "Koblet then calmly got off his bike and started his stopwatch to see what advantage he had gained over the field, a move that was not just for show. He had reason to mistrust the timekeepers as his experience in stage 7 shows. He wanted no repeat of that mistake. [A timekeeper initially gave the TT win to Bobet, until Koblet protested and pointed out that intermediate timing records made Bobet's alleged time physically impossible. When the timekeeper changed his decision, Koblet's 85-km TT time was still so fast that 12 riders were cut for being outside the time limit--yikes!]" --p. 176-7, "The Story of the Tour de France, Vol. 1," Bill McGann Lovely. -- Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/ "In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls." "In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them." |
#7
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Since even the tiniest details matter . . .
wrote:
On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:09:45 -0800, "Robert Chung" wrote: wrote: In the enormous 23 vs 25 mm thread, I grew curious about whether the pros actually pay attention to every detail because they think that even the tiniest differences might mean the margin of victory. Here's a light-hearted look at some tiny details of stage 1 of the 2005 TDF, a ~21~25=minute 19-km TT with the most extreme bikes, helmets, and costumes in the Tour. Um, Carl? That was the stage that Zabriskie won by 2 seconds over LANCE. I think that may have been the only full stage TT that Zabriskie ever won over Armstong (prologues aren't full stages). Armstrong and Zabriskie shattered the rest of the field: http://anonymous.coward.free.fr/rbr/tdf05-1.png You think Zabriskie wasn't paying attention to details? I assure you that guys like Piepoli didn't really care about that stage. Dear Robert, "But Armstrong still finished 2 seconds behind Zabriskie, who wore nothing extra, either." Carl, Armstrong had refused to use the "narrow" Trek TT bike, probably because he'd been listening to you and Frank and thought the difference was negligible. That was a mistake that he could have gotten away with for the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Zabriskie was using a Cervelo P3C. And, Zabriskie rode bare-handed. |
#8
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Since even the tiniest details matter . . .
I wrote:
Carl wrote: "But Armstrong still finished 2 seconds behind Zabriskie, who wore nothing extra, either." Carl, Armstrong had refused to use the "narrow" Trek TT bike, probably because he'd been listening to you and Frank and thought the difference was negligible. That was a mistake that he could have gotten away with for the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Zabriskie was using a Cervelo P3C. And, Zabriskie rode bare-handed. I just checked. Here are the time gaps for Armstrong in all TdF ITTs from 1999 to 2005. "Year","stage","km","gap","gap/km" 1999,0,6.8,7,1.03 1999,8,56.5,57,1.01 1999,19,57,9,0.16 2000,1,16.5,-2,-0.12 2000,19,58.5,25,0.43 2001,0,8.2,-4,-0.49 2001,11,32,60,1.88 2001,18,61,84,1.38 2002,0,7,2,0.29 2002,9,52,-11,-0.21 2002,19,50,52,1.04 2003,0,6.5,-7.4,-1.14 2003,12,47,-96,-2.04 2003,19,49,-14,-0.29 2004,0,6.1,-2,-0.33 2004,16,15.5,61,3.94 2004,19,55,61,1.11 2005,1,19,-2,-0.11 2005,20,55,23,0.42 As you can see, Armstrong lost the first stage of the 2005 TdF by about a tenth of a second per km. At the speed these guys were going, that's a bit less than 10g of drag. If Armstrong had been able to drop 10 more grams of drag, or if Zabriskie hadn't, the results would've been different. http://anonymous.coward.free.fr/rbr/tdf05-1.png |
#9
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Since even the tiniest details matter . . .
On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:48:27 GMT, Ryan Cousineau
wrote: In article , wrote: On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:41:45 GMT, Ryan Cousineau wrote: In article , wrote: In the enormous 23 vs 25 mm thread, I grew curious about whether the pros actually pay attention to every detail because they think that even the tiniest differences might mean the margin of victory. Here's a light-hearted look at some tiny details of stage 1 of the 2005 TDF, a ~21~25=minute 19-km TT with the most extreme bikes, helmets, and costumes in the Tour. Many of your favorite stars showed their opinion of small but easy-to-spot weight and wind-drag disadvantages. Even in a TT where some riders carried empty water bottle for the aero advantage, lots of riders didn't bother to take off their wrist-watches or necklaces. Caution: there's always the possiblity that they might be wrist-mounted heart-monitors. (Yeah, right.) I've probably trimmed too much here, and I know you're mostly joking, but pretty much all of those weird watches appear to be either Polar or Ciclosport logging heart-rate monitors. Nope, the pros in the TDF don't seem to be quite as obsessed with squeezing out every last gram and reducing every bit of wind drag as we might imagine. Even if they, did, it probably wouldn't change the TDF results unless they wore cuckoo clocks on each wrist and stole Mr. T's entire collection of neckwear. The pros have proven to be quite willing to give up probable performance benefits for other reasons. These guys and their trainers do obsess over the day's data after each stage in some cases, though whether it makes much difference _during_ the race is another matter. It may be quite useful for post-mortem analyses, especially for subsequent seasons. Some riders were doubling up, with a power meter and separate HRM. In some cases we may have been seeing the results of, for example, using a power-meter's head unit for speed and time readings, dumping the power-meter hub for TT gear, but keeping the HRM (and hidden wrist-strap) to log heart rate. [Er, "chest-strap." The receiver is a watch-like thing that can be bar-mounted or wrist-mounted] Nowadays, budgets and bike weights are such that even the all-out weight-conscious TT and climbing bikes often sport power-measuring cranks or hubs. You'd probably see fewer separate wrist-mounted heart-rate monitors if you looked in the last year or so, but a lot more funny-looking cranks or rear hubs. I might be wrong about that. Dear Ryan, Some may be--hard to tell for sure from the photos alone. But to compress a bit . . . Armstrong wore a Rolex with dial hands for most stages: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour055/26 That's just after a stage, but you can see it in photo after photo when he's riding stages. I am now going to dig myself a little deeper here, and spread a little confusion. That photo above was just after a stage, but as you can see it was after a stage when he wore the yellow jersey: http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005...esults/tour055 So he's already changed his shirt and put on a hat. Has he changed his watch? I can't believe the race photographers don't spend more time documenting the rider's chronometers. It seems a real loss. We keep getting Loch Ness photos like this one: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...S-ARMSTRONGGIA LLO946 Rolex? Polar? Nike Lance Armstrong 4? I can't tell... http://www.gems4me.com/nilaar4.html It turns out to be common knowledge: http://www.melrosejewelers.com/rolex...and-his-rolex- embrace-fatherhood-and-the-tour-de-france/ Armstrong's Rolex GMT Master II probably weighs 127 grams: http://www.replicawatchesreviews.com/Rolex-GMT.html I don't think that the necklaces have any digital technology for the TT: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/18 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour051/38 Nor for the other stages: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...id=tour0514/18 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...r0516/jalabert Vinokourov is wearing a chest-band with the thingy on his wrist, so I think it may be for telling time. Do you mean it the other way around? The chest band is a transmitter, there's a receiver somewhere on his bike. He has both a bar-mounted cyclocomputer and a wris****ch. The wrist accessory looks a bit like this one: http://www.pccoach.com/products/hrms/hrm_S720.htm Very spiffy; I own one myself. The jewelry is indisputable. I don't think any of that looks like a logging awesomeness-meter. Back to Lance, he's a little inconsistent: No watch: http://www.atomicsportsmedia.com/new...0Armstrong.jpg watch: http://blogsimages.skynet.be/images/...0armstrong.jpg Watch that looks a lot more like a Rolex than an HRM: http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2006/writers/e...g/p1_lance_091 2.jpg But I have an explanation: this is the substantially ceremonial final stage. Lance doesn't even have a cyclocomputer on the bars. But he does have some pretty serious aero wheels, probably because the non-ceremonial part of the ride is to stay with the peloton all the way to the finish, despite the fact that some impertinent types who are not Lance may try to win the stage! http://www.threesources.com/pix/lance_armstrong.jpg Definitely a Rolex. Unidentified hydration beverage in other hand. Can't see the watch face. Can see the un-Rolex rubber watchstrap: http://www.thesportstruth.com/wp-con...ance_armstrong _actionsized.jpg Probably a Rolex. That looks pretty conclusively like a metal wristband to me: http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/79/91779-004-C90EB1BF.jpg Certainly not a Rolex: http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/20...408_wideweb__4 30x335.jpg ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/3...lance_armstron g_247.jpg This year, Lance has started reading rbt and is eschewing a wris****ch: http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-01/44606806.jpg Submitted without comment: http://www.singletracks.com/blog/wp-...9/lance-armstr ong-mountain-bike.jpg Two unrelated watch stories . . . Sam Whittingham said that at one point he complained about how his wrist watch was hitting the side of the fairing inside the Varna Diablo. The designer said to leave it off, and modified the damn thing to be just that little bit narrower. "Before crossing the finish line [stage 11 1951 TDF] Koblet took a sponge, wiped his face, and combed his hair. He had used the comb as a psychological weapon before. In the Tour of Switzerland he had combed his hair on the hardest climb to give the impression of ease. In reality he was suffering with hemorrhoids. But it fooled his rival, Francois Mahe, who gave up trying to stay with him." "Koblet then calmly got off his bike and started his stopwatch to see what advantage he had gained over the field, a move that was not just for show. He had reason to mistrust the timekeepers as his experience in stage 7 shows. He wanted no repeat of that mistake. [A timekeeper initially gave the TT win to Bobet, until Koblet protested and pointed out that intermediate timing records made Bobet's alleged time physically impossible. When the timekeeper changed his decision, Koblet's 85-km TT time was still so fast that 12 riders were cut for being outside the time limit--yikes!]" --p. 176-7, "The Story of the Tour de France, Vol. 1," Bill McGann Lovely. Dear Ryan, A stage-by-stage gallery of Armstrong in the 2005 TDF, looking for that thing-on-his-left-wrist (Call it a watch for short, with the understanding that someone may spot details showing that it's sometimes a heart-rate monitor.) It disappeared on 6 stages: 01 TT 04 TT 10 Galibier 14 Pyrenees 15 Pyrenees 20 TT Stage 01, no watch, TT: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...JD05tdfstg1013 Stage 02, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...52/ARMSTRONG98 Stage 03, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour053/31 Stage 04, no watch, TT: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20..._discoveryline Stage 05, watch before or after, at sign-in, autographs, finish line: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour055/26 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../?id=tour055/1 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour055/20 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour055/61 Stage 06, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour056/52 Stage 07, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20.../JD05tdfstg705 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...S-ARMSTRONG630 Stage 08, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...TRONGGIALLO113 Stage 09, watch at sign-in and finish-line: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour059/21 http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour059/66 Stage 10, no watch, Galibier: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour0510/9 Stage 11, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour0511/7 Stage 12, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...ONGHINCAPIE290 Stage 13, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...05-csc-arms-28 Stage 14, no watch, Pyrenees: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...?id=tour0514/4 Stage 15, no watch, Pyrenees: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...TRONGBASSO-886 Stage 16, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...id=tour0516/20 Stage 17, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...05-armstron-62 Stage 18, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...TRONGBASSO9787 Stage 19, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...id=tour0519/17 Stage 20, no watch, TT: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...JD05tdfstg2005 Stage 21, watch: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...id=tour0521/85 Cheers, Carl Fogel |
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Since even the tiniest details matter . . .
On Feb 17, 2:36*pm, "Robert Chung"
wrote: As you can see, Armstrong lost the first stage of the 2005 TdF by about a tenth of a second per km. At the speed these guys were going, that's a bit less than 10g of drag. If Armstrong had been able to drop 10 more grams of drag, or if Zabriskie hadn't, the results would've been different.http://anonymous.coward.free.fr/rbr/tdf05-1.png Hmm. Still fixating on time trials, I see, as if that's the only thing that matters. Did you forget that I've been discussing other types of riding, like mass-start road races? Still, I think you should write to Lance and offer him advice. I'm sure he'll recognize your "nothing is negligible" expertise as being vastly superior to that of his current technical advisors. You know, the ones that let him wear a watch. - Frank Krygowski |
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