Originally Posted by zymphad

Person mentioned in this thread won the race... Obviously sponsored athletes are expected to promote the sponsor's product. But if the athlete wins with said product, that speaks for itself.

But as @caloso has mentioned, you can find plenty of anecdotes from other racers who wanted a more economical solution.

And my comment wasn't necessarily about how amazing the weld is. It's more likely the geometry, design of the bike. But person I was replying to was criticizing the weld and saying his old steel bike has better. I was replying, I highly doubt it. I would bet the smartweld is stronger and lighter and provides better strength at the joints than his double or triple butted steel. The smartweld to me isn't just smart, it just makes sense. And I expect all future aluminum bikes to have something similar to that.