Giro d'Italia

Now we have something / quite-a-lot to discuss and celebrate.
Shuggie
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Re: Giro d'Italia

Post by Shuggie »

Norman H wrote:On a similar theme a lot of wind tunnel testing goes into skin suit designs. As I understand it the holder of the Maglia Rosa is obliged to wear the skin suit provided by the organisers.
TGH may have been relieved that he didn't inherit the jersey at the end of stage 20.


Not true as he had to wear the White jersey for the TT, though with Castelli being the Giro jersey sponsor and also IG’s I’m sure neither he nor Jai Hindley were really that disadvantaged overall.
rualexander
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Re: Giro d'Italia

Post by rualexander »

Norman H wrote:On a similar theme a lot of wind tunnel testing goes into skin suit designs. As I understand it the holder of the Maglia Rosa is obliged to wear the skin suit provided by the organisers.
TGH may have been relieved that he didn't inherit the jersey at the end of stage 20.

Except he had to wear the Maglia Blanca white jersey skin suit provided by the organisers, so both were equally disadvantaged.
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cycleruk
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Re: Giro d'Italia

Post by cycleruk »

Listening to Bradley Wiggins, during the TT, he reckoned that TGH was pedalling more efficiently than Hindley. Tao's cadence was obviously lower than Hindley's spinning which Wiggins suggested was better for this flat TT.
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mjr
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Re: Giro d'Italia

Post by mjr »

cycleruk wrote:Listening to Bradley Wiggins, during the TT, he reckoned that TGH was pedalling more efficiently than Hindley. Tao's cadence was obviously lower than Hindley's spinning which Wiggins suggested was better for this flat TT.

I heard that. I've also seen links posted on another site which suggests that mashing is indeed faster than spinning on the flat (although it's pretty hard on all joints on both rider and bike), but I seem to recall that the opposite tends to be true uphill.
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mjr
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Re: Giro d'Italia

Post by mjr »

Brucey wrote:And many of the pro teams do so little TT work that they are not immune to making absolute howlers; for example having a radio down your back might be OK on a road stage (rather less so if you crash and land on it I suppose) but it is guaranteed to slow you down in a TT. Yet this exact thing is seen often in what is meant to be the pinnacle of professional cycling.

No-one is immune to making absolute howlers: the Garmin speed/power/etc display supplied to Geraint Thomas for the world championship time trial did not fit on the bike he was using and this was discovered just a few seconds before the start! (says "The G-Rowe Preview" episode of their "Watts Occurring" podcast)

The real question is why other professional cyclists don't spend more time optimising their setup, riding position and tactics for time trial stages in grand tours; it can clearly make the difference between victory and defeat.

It's often thought to be a balancing act: much of what you could do to aid time trialling would detract from climbing, and the opposite. There have been few riders so far who can do both equally well (Van Aert may become one, or there are other possibles) and post-Armstrong grand tours have generally been won by climbers who aren't awful at TTs, with only Dumoulin standing out in my memory as a TT expert who learned how to climb well enough, but in his Giro win, he won the first TT but not the other: he didn't need to but didn't know that when he finished and was worried watching Quintana finish.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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