I few things stand out when you're moving through the racks conducting this survey. The most technically advanced bikes were the Walsers ridden by Karin Thürig and Lothar Leder. These were the bikes ridden by Jan Ullrich's Bianchi team in the Tour team time trial. You'll remember these because of that team's uniquely uniform rider positions, and their unexpectedly good third place finish.
Funny thing about the Walser, it never seems to have its own name on it. This Swiss company had Bianchi's name on the downtube in the Tour, it's got "Cube" on Leder's bike, and "Wheeler" on Thürig's bike.
What's interesting is that it's not just another carbon monocoque. Notably, the bike's thinner. The bottom bracket is narrow. How much more so than a standard bike's BB? I don't know, but probably a couple of centimeters anyway.
There are two photos included here that show the BB, the one above is from the Wheeler that Thürig rides, and the one adjacent is from's Leder's Cube. The black line runnning up underneath the down tube is a computer wire.
You might think, hey, now that the BB's narrow, you could narrow up the bike's rear end. That's exactly what they've done. How narrow is it? Likewise 2mm — as opposed to the current spacing of 130mm between the dropouts the Walser appears to be around 110mm. One thing, though, you're pretty much resigned to using the Walser rear wheel, at least unless somebody makes a rear that is spaced the same way between dropouts.
These bikes also used Walser's aero bars, and you can tell these because there is no upturned section at the end, and your forearms must point downward to use them while in the aero position.
How did these bikes do? If you're Thürig, it did fine (4:50, just shy of a new bike course record). If you're Leder, well, he'll live to ride another day.
How seriously do they take security at the Hawaiian Ironman transition area? Here's the bomb sniffing dog. No lie. Forget trying to run off with a bike here.
I also found compelling the test case of the Reback bikes. These were a pair of Calfee Dragonfly Tri bikes that were set up precisely the same, with Zipp 404s, Shimano Dura Ace 10-speed, Profile Carbon X bars, the whole nine. I'm guessing that these two bikes as a pair, as set up for the race, would set you back $15,000.
Further, the shoes were placed on the pedals which sat at precisely the same angles in the racks, and the bikes had the same buy-at-7-Eleven see-thru water bottles filled with the same elixir in the same apparent saturation, judging by the color.
And the brothers Reback had the same underwhelming race results. This suggests to me that, on one spec choice or the hydration or something, one brother should've said to the other, "You know I've been with you all down the line, but I can't hang with you on this — here's where we've got to part ways." I hope John and David Reback don't mind me poking a little fun, because they really are marvelous athletes, as is the rest of this high-achieving first family of triathlon. They double-handedly demolished most all of America's best age-group triathletes in Shreveport two weeks prior, and so can be ribbed, I hope, for their less than stellar Konas.
At first glance you might think this bike the lowest-tech of every bike in the first row. Just a round-tubed Cannondale road bike with a pair of Syntace Streamliners bolted to its road handlebars. No bar-end shifters. No steep seat angled tri bike. No fancy one-piece bars, no aero tubes, nothing special. On closer inspection, however, this would not be an inexpensive bike to reproduce if purchased. Note the carbon fiber brake lever signifying Campagnolo Record, in this case 10-speed Record. The wheels are also deep dish Campy, and the only non-(highest-grade)-Campy component was the crankset/BB that comes with this top-end C'dale.
Though the frame was built with road angles, the rider steepened it with a post designed for the purpose. But still, I'd have rather seen him on a bike with bar-end shifters and a front drink bottle, so that he could pay more attention to the job at hand. He's German, though, and the current theory in that country is that stiffness and durability and fatigue resistance are the things that matter, to the expense of other things that matter — like aerodynamics and biomechanics and comfort and ergonomics and stuff like that. Who's bike is it? At first I thought it was Thomas Hellriegel's, because it was round tubed, a C'dale and in the first several of the racked bikes (Thomas rode a bike like this last year). Then I was correctly apprised by a reader that it was not his, but instead that it was Stefan Holzner's. But it appears to be wearing a bib number 7, which indicates Markus Forster (either way, he's German).
What do I propose as this rider's solution? How about the Softsling? Or the Slingride, or the Softshot or whatever you want to call it? This bike started its life as a Slingshot, which differs from a rigid, double diamond frame in that it flexes side-to-side. And then a Softride beam was added so that the bike flexes up and down as well.
It's got an old QR Illuminero fork, which during its day was quite an aerodynamic fork, with the downside that you could also use it to fix your cabin cruiser to the ocean bottom, even if there were no rocks or features to attach it to.
The Softsling's owner was nothing if not economical. Its seatpost, now rendered superfluous by the beam, was reinvented as a spare tire mounting post. I would like to see this bike ridden by its owner, who is one Jay Connaughton. I consider him a peer, and not only because he is in my age group (45-49). He is, like I consider myself, a great synthesizer of the ideas of others. As Lothar Leder Thomas Hellriegel eat at either end of the technological spectrum, Jay Connaughton eschews both and, plate in hand, samples at the inventors' smorgasbord, choosing a little of this and a little of that.
