You’re probably not riding this new popular new tri saddle. I write this because you were more likely riding an ISM if you raced in Kona, and if you weren’t riding an ISM you were aboard a Fizik, Specialized, or just about anything else. Not this.

Look at the chart below and you can see what the most popular 10 saddle brands were in Kona.

To read that chart accurately first understand the following inaccuracy: When I list Women AGers I’m really listing Thursday racers, which included men. But that day belonged predominantly to women, so I listed it the way I did. ISM was the big winner – again – because it probably remains the predominant aftermarket purchase by those looking for the most comfortable saddle when riding in the tri position.

The surprise to me was that Fizik took the second spot. I didn’t see that coming. I do suspect it's an OE spec thing at play. In the old days Fizik won this count and by “old” I mean it was far the most popular saddle in Kona between 2000 and 2010 because of its OE spec and because the Fizik Arione Tri and Tri 2 were among the most comfortable saddles out there. Then came split-nose saddles, chiefly the ISM, and that changed everything. But now Fizik is back and if it's OE spec it's not just that. They make good tri saddles.

It’s no fluke that Specialized sits #3 and it’s so close to Fizik you might say these two brands are in a virtual dead heat. Yes, the Sitero enjoys some OE spec but mostly (or only) on Specialized tri bikes. And yes, there were a lot of Specialized bikes in the race, as this is still the 4th-most ridden bike in Kona even though this brand appears to have lost its current interest in tri bike sales. The Sitero is a legitimate aftermarket choice for those looking for a comfortable saddle.

But the saddle that really surprised me was the 10th-most used saddle by the AGers, made by Gebiomized. I counted every piece of equipment used by every pro in both Thursday and Saturday races and it was a shock to see this saddle on so many bikes. In fact, I probably undercounted this saddle. As you see from the chart below this was the most-used saddle by pros in Kona.

I developed a different, better method for counting saddles for the Saturday race based on my Thursday experience. There were saddles in the women’s pro race I didn’t count at all because I couldn’t identify them. I now believe a number of those were Gebiomized saddles. Even so, as you see this was the most used saddle in the pro field. Was this a case of a brand buying placement in the race? I seriously doubt it. There’s just not enough money in a saddle contract for a pro triathlete at this level to sit uncomfortably for hours during training and racing.

This saddle showed up mostly under the derrieres of European pro athletes and I highly suspect that the 100 Gebiomized saddles in the AG race also came over from Europe. (Gebiomized is a German brand.) To remind you what Gebiomized is all about, there’s a powerful narrative here. This company is best known for its pressure mapping system used by a lot of bike fitters. You place their pressure maps on saddles, aerobar armrests, inside cycling shoes, and you can see on a computer screen color coded images that show where your pressure is applied. You then cure these hot spots using whatever strategies you as a fitter might employ and – the theory goes – the customer is now more comfortable.

I don’t want to speak for Gebiomized – and I’m not their salesman – but it stands to reason that you could use the data to design a saddle that solves point tenderness issues.

Note that this is not a split nose saddle. In fact, if you look at all of these saddle brands listed above, you’ll see that the single nose saddles – Fizik, Specialized, Bontrager, Selle Italia, Gebiomized, Prologo, PRO and so on, add up to about 2,450 saddles. while these are all single nose saddles they overwhelmingly look quite different than road saddles. Adding up ISM, JCobb, Dash you get about 1,950 saddles (both these totals are rounded to the nearest 50).

This isn’t an exact science. The Selle Italia Watt Superflow is kind of a split nose saddle, but barely so. If you stipulate that all the Selle Italia saddles in the case were split nose (certainly not the case, but please play along) then split nose saddles outnumbered single nose saddles in Kona this year.

Of course the Watt Superflow is going to end up on a lot of bikes, because it’s spec’d OE on Canyon Speedmaxes. But it's also a legitimate OE saddle. One reason you see a lot of Prologos in the race is that this is the predominant OE saddle spec’d by Cervelo. Prologo is less popular in the pro field and I think that’s a clue that OE saddles are not changed out by end users. I think we’d need to do a drilldown on saddle models (not just brands) to know which are likely OE and which are aftermarket purchases. A count of all aftermarket saddles would be a much more compelling stat.

There is one saddle I’d like to mention, ridden by Rudy Von Berg. It was the only such saddle I saw in the pro field. The brand is Wove, pictured just above, and it was developed our very own Slowtwitcher Nick Lehecka. Bravo Nick. I believe that was an early prototype, so better to look at the images in the link below for the finish product look.

The saddle in the image highest above is that is the Gebiomized on Lionel Sanders’ Canyon Speedmax. (Here’s this saddle's link for U.S. readers.) As you see the model is the Stride, and that brand and model of saddle was also ridden by Anne Haug, Florian Angert and Braden Currie. Here’s more about the Wove saddle. I think you’ll see some features these two saddle brands saddles share.