Originally Posted by
Dave Mayer
The video is just advertising aimed at selling trendy new stuff to dentists. The reason for the fast speeds again is Van der Poel, Van Aert, and Pog all pulling out all of the stops in a generational contest of wills. So the pro teams assembled and sacrificed their best riders to drive the pace, and unlike almost all previous contest, the teams did not sandbag for the first 100 or 200km, but went full-gas right out of the start.
Plus it was dry and not as dusty as usual.
Problem with this - record speeds are not just a
PR, and not just for the entire race. Every race, every section of the race, every mountain - record times are getting smashed. Every cobble section of
PR, where the riders are away from their teams, solo even - records smashed. Even Arenberg forest, where they put in a chicane to slow entry speeds, the riders are going faster than ever.
The slow/heavy disc brake bikes with slow heavy fat tires (according to you) are involved in smashing every record ever set on every mountain they race.
Part of this is the bike- the new bikes are faster*. A big part of this is the power figures riders are putting out.
*New bikes are faster, but not by the amounts Silica boy often lists. He is absolutely selling products - he is absolutely self promoting. And why not, he is selling stuff and his expertise.
Silica boy lists the rolling resistance difference between garden hose puncture resistant tires and full on race spec tires. Yes, there are 10-12+w per tire savings in this case. But race tubulars vs race tubeless - minimal. He lists drivetrain savings clean/vs dirty as 8-10+w, where others tested a clean vs dirty setup and came up with 1-3w. He overstates the extremes...
LBL, run this weekend, is a better example than
PR for speeds and advancements. LBL has seen peak speeds of 38-40kph for 50+ years. A spike happened with the dopers, and speeds have remained +/- the same ever since. A small bump happened post Covid layoff - but this bump happened across the boards - at every race. This is due to the riders 100% - tubulars vs tubeless at this race - not much difference at all. Everything else post/pre Covid layoff is +/- exactly the same.
We just saw 44kph at LBL - the winner smashed the records on the final climbs, previously set by himself - and the overall speed record was smashed.
The real question isn't bikes - the real question is how can the two leaders hit the final climbs at 3-5 min @ 8w/kg, putting their in race V02 max numbers at near 100 - with one of them being only 19 years old. Even if the power estimates are off by 5% (in either direction mind you) in race/fatigued V02 max in the mid to high 90's is insane.
Power VO2 estimates are just that - estimates. VAM is not.
-They hit VAM figures of 2500 on the final two climbs of LBL
-Many of them hit VAM numbers of 1850+ on long TDF mountains - never seen before.
Race speeds are up mostly because the riders, in the past 4-5 years, have become aliens.