Road Bike Racing - Pros TT'ing with clip-on aero bars?

Saw this on velonews. Doug Ollrenshaw from Rock Racing appears to be using clip-on aero bars in this pic. Why would anyone choose this setup versus a real TT bar on a time trial bike? Surely each pro on a team like Rock Racing has their own TT bike?

Oh, and this looks like it's going to hurt.

http://www.velonews.com/files/images/ToEG08St1-0033.jpg

Maybe he knew that he would need the extra help in handling on that course?

Also, that is an awesome picture, whoever took it is good.

De Rosa's TT/Tri frames are very hard to get a hold of, even for a team sponsored by them.

The real issue here is transportation. Doubling the number of bikes to carry just for a slight aero advantage is often not worth it to teams unless they're in contention for the GC, and then it may be only for those top riders. I remember even credit agricole was using clip-on bars in last year's Tour of California prologue and time trial. In the tour of georgia, the team time trial was done on regular road bikes to keep money from deciding the winners.

I think he needs to let off the front brake.

Where was the pic taken? May have been a relatively hilly course where they wanted road bike handling for descents, and low weight for climbing, but still could take advantage of aerobars in some sections.

That's a great picture, and expression on his face, he looks like he's about to cry. I would too. That looks like it's gonna hurt like a ***** in about 1 second.

Say it ain't so.

The real issue here is transportation.

+1

The hardest working people in a stage race is the team support staff. A distant second is the race staff.

Tour du Pont the big Euro teams had mainly road bikes with aero bars, even Laurent Fignon. Only Bugno had a TT bike on the high dollar Gatorade team. Lemond didn't use a TT bike either.

To help the team staff with logistics a shorter TT ought to have "road bikes only" rules, i.e. UCI approved wheels, no aero bars, etc. Not the case in poor Ollrenshaw's case as his front wheel is definitely a TT only wheel. Tour of PA had this for their 2.something mile time trial. Another way of forcing the issue would have been to have an uphill TT. Short to keep gaps small but hilly enough that lots of aero stuff won't make a difference.

I'm curious what happened there. Not after the picture was taken, before it was.

cdr

*edit* I found that gallery by Ben Ross:
http://www.velonews.com/photo/81257 (some random pic in the gallery).
Seems that the other RR guys have TT bikes, so I think it's probably just one of those things like "I like my road bike set up better" or maybe the bike got wrecked elsewhere or wasn't working or something.

he could save it.

Clip ons seem to be more abundant in early season races, like the TOC.

I little earlier he was thinking, "I wonder if I should wear gloves today?" "Naa."

Anyone know the story behind this pic? Did he end up crashing?

Anyone know the story behind this pic? Did he end up crashing?

Nope, he flew away and was never seen again.

My previous link to a gallery shows him sliding to the curb.

cdr

Hope he's ok, he's local lives like four blocks from me and I occasionally see him at races.

He usually wins.

Maybe it's a backup and he crashed his TT rig.

RR doesn't have a supplier of tt bikes i believe...

my local RR rider uses a disguised scott tt bike

Its the Tour of Elk Grove in Illinois... yes he crashed.

That's like doing a NASCAR race in your neighbor's souped-up Mustang.

Its not just domestic, I was watching a tour from Austrilia (on WCSN) and in the TT most guys were running Discs, areo helmets, front wheels, areobars, but a regular frame. The course was really hilly

My previous link to a gallery shows him sliding to the curb.

cdr

It sure does......

http://www.velonews.com/files/images/ToEG08St1-0044.jpg