Originally Posted by
kingston
My point doesn't really have anything to do with the strength of the team. I was riding with a solo RAAM finisher and his wife, so it was a pretty strong team. As soon as it got steep, I wasn't able to keep up with them downhill anymore and needed a big uphill to catch up. If I happened to be with them at the start of a big uphill, it was hard to ride as slow as they had to go, and if they got ahead of me on a downhill with no uphill for me to catch up, I didn't see them until the next control.
Believe me. There are strong tandem teams. It's a myth that tandems
always climb slower than singles. Tandems climb at a power output that is the sum of the team. If you have 2 300w riders, they climb faster than a 300w single rider because of being more aero. Thing is, most tandems are tandems because one of the riders is considerably weaker than the other. That's how they get that reputation. I've ridden with national AG champs on my single and they are very fast on the climbs. I can stay with tandems while descending on my single as long as they can't hit 50. At 6", it's 60 watts. At 6', it's 600 watts. Only a slight exaggeration. Fortunately, good tandems are so smooth that 6" is OK. A good trick is to come over the top abeam of the tandem, then accelerate for all you're worth as you drop into the vortex.
Our tandem is not strong, yet we once did 15 miles of .5% downhill at 30 mph on the wheel of that champ tandem. Most fun I ever had on a bike. At one point I was tiring and told stoker we were going to drop off. Stoker said, "No we're not!" and pounded the pedals. We didn't.
Our tandem can hang with singles on descending rollers because we drop like rocks - dual aero bars on our bike. But it's not really fun for either them or us, so we let them go a bit and try to time it to just come near them at the tops of the rollers.