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Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods



 
 
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Old July 29th 08, 06:30 AM posted to rec.bicycles.racing
Tuschinski
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Default Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods

On 29 jul, 03:44, hizark21 wrote:
On Jul 28, 12:16*am, Tuschinski wrote:

On 26 jul, 20:52, hizark21 wrote:


Climbing: riding on the tops vs riding on the brake hoods


I have noticed that most climber since the mid 90's tend to climb
seated with their hands on hoods.Personally I prefer climbing on the
tops since this a more relaxed position. Climbing seated on the hoods
put's more strain on my wrists. *The one advantage of the hoods is
that you can brake faster. In the end I suppose it's a matter of
climbing style.


Aero wheels are probably marginally beneficial in longer mountain
stages. The Discovery team was using aero wheels on the mountain
stages. I have not seen any studies to verify this however.

Climbing is really more a matter of pacing than wheel sucking.



Definitely not true. Studies like these are done (amongst other by the
Dutch Magazine Fiets) and point out that Aero wheel trump a few kilos
weight loss if powering up Alpe D'Huez.

Its actually rather easy to figure it out. If you ride on the flats
with a slowish 25 kmph, air resistance is very noticable if you "suck
wheel". Talk about 25% watts. Climbing changes this somewhat, gravity
kicks in, upping the weight influence. However, air resistance still
drops a neat 25%.

If a 75 kilo pro (66 kilo guy, clothes, shoes, water, helmet, bike~9
kilo) drops a kilo from his bike, he gains 13% on gravity. Obviously
there is a cut off, but gravity needs to be a bout twice as important
as air resistance. With pro speeds (25 kmph+ uphill) Aero is simply a
deciding factor.

And this is why there is definitely more to wheel sucking than simply
pacing. It saves watts! Not as much as on the flats, but definitely
noticable. If a pro saves 5% of his power on an Alpe D'Huez climb he
could shave of 2.5 minute on a 50 minute climb!

This is exactly why not just Lance, but also Jan Ullrich started using
Lightweight Carbo high rimmed wheels. Nowadays it's a lot more more
common now that Zipp, Mavic and Campa also offer light aero offerings.
I checked the pictures of the contender group on the alpe: Most used
Carbon High section rimms (zipp for CSC, Evans+Valv used Campa).

For a finisher I will quote a study by a university researcher.
Cervelo has it on its site, though I found it on other places as well:

The effects of bicycle weight, even on a tough climbing course are
minimal compared with the effects of aerodynamics


http://www.cervelo.com/content.aspx?...erodynamics#10






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