Tonight I discovered something interesting. I have a rather low handlebar vs seat post on my bike (not too extreme but not bad). When I want to get in the most aero posistion in the hoods or drops (basically 90 degree arm angle in the hoods or way down in the drops) my power output is different than when I am in a flater posistion (i.e. slight bend on arms in hood or in the tops). In order to reach the lower posistion I rotate my pelvis which puts me in the more areo posistion. It also has another side effect.

I seem to shift my butt up and then my pelvis forward, putting me about 2 inches forward on the saddle in the most areo posistion, effectivly moving my arms closer to the bars. That changes my hip angle and the angle of my legs to the pedals as I move forward. In the normal posistion I sit farther back on the seat which puts me higher on the bars. The difference in posistions I would say are the downhill and in the super areo posistions vs the normal riding posistion and the climbing posistion, pelvis flatter on the saddle.

I was riding along today, pulling the group (actually off the front) up this 2 - 5 percent graded road at about 23.5 MPH average. (BTW that is about 1 MPH faster than 3 weeks ago ) I hit a little steeper grade and was tiring (about 9 miles of pulling later, everyone loves to draft off of me in this group), and I was sitting in the hoods quite low, back nearly flat. I started losing speed. Then sat up at 22 MPH and instantly was able to push back to 24 MPH on the steeper hill, but not very areo. This makes me believe one of two things.

1. Riding in the tops and high in the hood recruit different parts of muscles that are less tired... or

2. Changing the ride angle puts more weight on the saddle and more power in the legs vs wasting some in the areo posistion.

Any ideas on which is the case? I know that I need to be fitted professonally... will be done in a week or so.

Oh ya, I was questioning whether to even do the ride, my knee was a little sore today. I got on the bike (2 days since the crash) and was feeling good. On Tuesday some people in the group were complaining because they said my areobic base speed (about 19 MPH) was too fast for a recovery ride). Tonight without even thinking about it I was off the front right away. It was not until one of the fast guys came up and commented that I was not in the big ring and that he wanted to go faster... My knee felt great once I got going in the big ring, I am feeling real good... and stronger than before