Of the 1631 bikes we counted this year, 851 rode seat angles of 76 degrees or steeper, and 780 rode 75 degrees or shallower. We considered where the saddle sits relative to the bottom bracket in making our determination. Therefore, it was possible for a Cervelo P3 to be considered "shallow" by us if the bike was small enough, if the seat clamp was in its rearward configuration, and if the saddle sat in the center or rearward of the seat clamp (i.e., if the saddle was back on its rails). Conversely, a road race bike with a "turned around" Thompson "setback" seat post, or similar way of making a shallow bike artificially steep, might've been considered by us "steep." In any case, we used the "trained set of eyeballs" method, with my eyeballs making the determination, and L.A. Tri Club (and F.I.S.T.-certified) coach Ian Murray as my second line of defense, should he form a contrary opinion.

The 851 steep bikes constituted 52.2% of the field compared to 47.8%. This marks a reversal from previous years, where seat angles have been trending backward since 1999 ("steep" bikes constituted 46.7% of the field last year — five and a half percentage points fewer than this year).

The changing of minds is evident in both the age-group and pro ranks. Two of the exponents of rearward riding have been popular American pros Steve Larsen and Cameron Widoff. Larsen has been riding more and more steeply this year, however, and was as steep as anyone while riding ten minutes faster than the "lead pack" at Wildflower this past May. As can be seen in the adjacent photo, it's pretty difficult to consider how you can get a P3's saddle any further forward than Larsen has his.

Widoff hasn't gone that far, to be sure, however he's taking baby steps in that direction. He rides a Trek TTT bike, and that seat angle is not so different than what he's ridden in the past. For the first time in my memory, however, he's riding a forward seat post. He's also riding quite low in front, and quite compact, in probably a more pure TT position than he's ridden throughout most of his career (plus, I spied him doing a lot of nose riding throughout the race).

Of the top 10 men who returned from last year, only Alex Taubert from Germany appeared to be riding at an angle shallower than 76 degrees (with Widoff on the border). Even France's Francois Chabaud (6th last year) appears to have steepened up a bit for Kona. Hellriegel has ridden less steeply in recent years than he rode in the mid to late 90s, while most of his fellow Germans stayed steep — Zack is as steep as ever, maybe steeper.

Tim DeBoom, Peter Reid and Cameron Brown are all in the high 70s (77-78 degrees), and it's also notable how low they all ride in front. In Reid's case, the 6'2" Canadian has almost the smallest head tube you can put into a bike, along with an integrated headset (lowering it another 2cm), and a flat (minus 17-degree) stem. I don't know what his armrest drop is, but I'm guessing it's beyond the aggressive end of our armrest drop formula. Incidentally, in this picture you can also view a brake lever that Profile Design made, then discontinued, because it was nigh unto impossible to use (but certainly aerodynamic).

However, there were some notables riding shallow. Chaboud's fellow Frenchmen ride shallow, including Xavier LeFloch, Cyrille Neveu, Giles Reboul, Rene Rovera and every other French pro entered in the race. So do Swiss riders Christoph Mauch and Olivier Bernhard. While most (including Zack, Stadler, Sabatschus, Al Sultan, Eggert, Forster, Bracht, Kolm, Heim, Lang and Holzner) of his fellow Germans ride more or less steeply, Lothar Leder is shallow on his Walser (more on that bike in a future installment).

Luc Van Lierde rides shallow. But I must say that he was a shell of his former self, and of his former bike position. His set-up seemed almost amateurish to me — which is unfair to amateurs, many of whom had better positions than Luc. Reports from the race from Cervelo's Gerard Vroomen indicated that Luc might as well have not had aero bars on his bike at all, since he spent a lot of time not on them. I hope things pick up for the 2-time Kona winner, who is really one of my favorites out there.

Chris McCormack also does not ride steeply, and frankly I suspect this is part of the reason he has trouble on the run. His bike position in Kona is not entirely unlike Van Lierde's.

And finally the mystery man, Rutger Beke, appears to have a shallow set-up.

It should be noted that we considered bike set ups, not how the bikes are ridden. Kenny Glah rides a steep-angled Quintana Roo TiPhoon, but he doesn't ride it steeply. Same bike, same effect with U.S. pro woman Heather Gollnick.

If you take all the male pros as a group, they cancel each other out. Northern Europeans ride steeply, Mediterranean, Eastern Europeans (with exceptions, like Petr Vabrousek) and Swiss ride shallow. Is it a point of tradition? Partly. It is also due to terrain. Interestingly, the pro men as a whole precisely mirror the age-groupers. Out of 69 male pros in the race, 52% are steep, the balance ride shallow.

Among the women, a somewhat greater percentage (61% to 39%) ride steeply, and many or most of the very best women ride that way. Lori Bowden got off a Specialized bike she's rather disliked over the past few years to remount a Cheetah that is quite steep and has a very low position, as is evident below as she wheeled her bike into transition before the race.

This isn't to say that there's anything wrong with Specialized, because Peter Reid got off a Trek with which he hadn't had particularly good luck and onto a Specialized that suits him very well. Which all goes to show you that, as someone who ought to know once said, "It's not about the bike."

Likewise, Natascha rides an aggressive position, as does Heather Fuhr and Paula Newby-Fraser. They are as aero and as aggressive in their positions as Reid, DeBoom and Cam Brown. Lisa Bentley rides steeply as well.

On the other hand you've got the German speakers, Nina Kraft and Karen Thürig. Kraft I can't say much about, because I've neither seen her ride very much nor have I closely inspected her Red Bull bicycle. Likewise Thürig, fresh off a high finish in the World Time Trial Championship. I must assume that she's riding similarly to the form and style used in bike racing and for that reason. Until I get any better evidence, we place Kraft and Thürig squarely in the shallow column.

What continues to mystify me is why people come to Kona with bike set-ups more suited for the Alps than the lava fields. They see the same men and women riding the same way, and winning the same medals and the same prize money, as they have in years past, and they do so on steep bikes with low front-ends. Of course it's not mandatory to ride that way. Dave Scott didn't. But Mark Allen did, as well as Scott Tinley, Pauli Kiuru, Ray Browning, Wolfgang Dittrich and most of the best riders and overall finishers of the era just before the current one.

But progress (if you consider it so) is being made, at least in the age-group ranks. The world has been turned rightside-up and steep bikes again form the majority.

LATE ADD...

Upon further review, and with the help of a Slowtwitch reader, we've got a much better idea about how and what Nina Kraft rides. We're changing our minds. By virtue of her turned-around Race Face seat post and tight cockpit she's positively Zäck-like. Move her to the "steep" category.