We've grouped Italy, France and Spain into one category for the purposes of our survey, because when you consider each country separately they bear a striking similarity one to another in thematic categories. For example, these sixty one athletes favor drop bars to pursuit bars 46 to 15. When you break it down, you find that in France it's 24 to 8, in Italy it's 12 to 4, and in Spain it's 10 to 3. Likewise, In all three countries shallow angles are preferred to steep in precisely the same numbers.
This is meaningful to us on several levels. First, it is obvious that the prevailing view among athletes coming from a long and deep tradition of conventional road racing is more conservative than in places like North America. Second, while we might pick at an overly conservative view of bike set up, it is striking how sophisticated the numbers would suggest the riders are, at least as regards basic reasoning. It is obvious to us that road bars (drop bars) and steep angles do not go together, and it's apparent that this is also the understanding in these countries to a man (and woman).
All of these countries also prefer Profile Design aero bars to Syntace. Not only is Profile Design the winner 28 to 10, it is the clear winner in each of these three countries. There were seven riders each who had 3T and Cinelli aero bars on their bikes.
As you might guess, this trend carries over to wheelsize. Each of the three countries eschewed smaller wheels for the more traditional 700c size. The one area in which they break from tradition is in frame materials. It has been whispered, and even overtly reported in the European cycling press, that long-time European bike makers—especially those coming out of a road race tradition—are uneasy about the craze for aluminum. This is a new material for the European builders, and U.S. and Asian companies churn out aluminum race bikes cheaply and in copious numbers.
Yet, while the existing Southern European road race establishment has been able to keep its clientele focused on traditional bike designs, that hasn't worked in terms of frame materials. In fact, it seems the stampede toward aluminum is greater in the Mediterranean countries than in other parts of the world. Riders from Spain, Italy and France preferred aluminum over other materials at a rate better than two-to-one, and the riders in Kona from other countries chose aluminum only 53.7% of the time. Steel, the material favored by most Mediterranean bike builders, was all but nonexistent in this group (though it faired better than titanium, 4 bikes to 2).
The two bike brands that liberally appear underneath riders from just about every country were rarely ridden by riders from these countries. Kestrel had only 1 bike in the race among those in this group, and Trek only 3. Cannondale has obviously done a good job of penetrating Southern Europe with 9 bikes in the race. Otherwise, it was all over the place. Giant had 4, Principia and Decathlon (a French sporting goods chain) had 3. Juggernauts like Bianchi and Peugeot had only 2 bikes each represented. Imagine this: Colnago had 15 bikes in the Hawaiian Ironman, and only 2 came from Italy, France and Spain combined. There were 3 from De Rosa and the same number from Fondriest at Kona, and in both cases 2 of the 3 came from outside these countries. The French powerhouse Look had 25 bikes in Kona and only 3 of those were under riders coming from Southern Europe. In Kona there were 4 Carreras, 3 Bassos, 7 bikes from Pinarello and 7 from Corima—all Mediterranean-based builders—and none of them were ridden by an Italian, Frenchman, or Spaniard.
