- We have here Heather Wurtele's
new Parlee TT1R time trial bike.
She's only just been on this bike this season,
and it's a pretty striking-looking machine.
(techno music)
Let's start by looking at the cockpit,
and this is all Parlee design,
very much aero here,
with all the cables in underneath.
You can see the flat aero base bars.
But the most unique thing about this,
specifically for Heather's bike,
because she rides such an aggressively aero position,
they can actually get the poles low enough,
but we're gonna be talking to her
a little bit more about that later on.
Now, she's using Shimano Dura-Ace,
and she's got shifters
on the ends of her base bars,
and on the ends of her poles here.
She's also using the Garmin Edge 520
bike computer on her poles.
And then keeping with the aero position,
Heather's using the XLab Stealth Pocket 200
top tube bag here, just to keep some nutrition.
We're seeing more disc brakes in triathlon now,
and it's no exception here.
Heather's using the TRP disc brakes,
and an interesting feature on this bike,
it's actually got a carbon cover over the disc
to add for the extra aerodynamics.
Let's have a look at the chain rings,
and you can see, it's the Q-ring design,
and she's using the two-in-one Rotor power meter.
It's actually molded so there are no bolts
needed for that, and on those,
she's got 175 mil cranks,
with Shimano Dura-Ace pedals on the end of those.
And for this race,
Heather's gonna be using the 53/39 chain rings,
and an 11/25 cassette.
And you might notice here,
she's actually got Shimano Ultegra rear mech,
and you might spot these silver-red jockey wheels.
They're actually CeramicSpeed.
All right, onto the wheels,
and Heather's been sponsored by ENVE
for quite a few years,
so she's got the aero ENVE disc wheel on the front,
and then at the back,
ENVE doesn't actually make a disc,
so this is actually a Hed wheel,
and then on that, she's using
the Schwalbe Pro One tires.
She's got 23 mil on the front,
and a 25 mil tire on the back.
Well, as we know, Heather is very tall,
so I can just about reach up to the saddle.
She's using the Fizik Antares VS saddle here,
and she's actually taped in
all of her spares underneath,
to keep them out of the way, for aerodynamics.
She's using the Gorilla XLab bottle cage,
where she's gonna have her hydration on race day,
and then she's also got the Elite aero bottle cage
on the down tube here.
Okay, well, Heather,
let's take a quick look at your actual kit
that you're gonna be using on race day.
So, we start talking us through
your wetsuit. - Sure, so I wear
the Aqua suit, Aqua Sphere Phantom wetsuit.
This is actually a men's small.
It's always a challenge for me,
being as tall and thin as I am,
to find the suits that fit perfectly,
but it works well.
It's just a little short on the arms and the legs,
but yeah, and I like the superhero blue as well,
so always a little standout at the start.
- Superhero, is that what you call it,
superhero blues. - Oh yeah, absolutely.
That's what I feel like when I put it on, so.
- I like it.
Well, talking, you've just touched on fit there,
and I know you're very excited about
this piece of catch, and I'll hold it whilst
you talk us through it. - This is,
this is the best thing ever.
Really thrilled to be working with Endura this year.
They're a fantastic company based out of Scotland
that make really amazing aerodynamic kits.
It's the first time I've ever had
a one-piece tri-suit that really fit me properly.
Being, yeah, tall and thin,
I was just sort of always rocking, like,
the men's medium default suits
that never really quite fit,
you know, under the arms,
and just rent that aerodynamic - Oh, I know what you meant.
- A little flappy around the chest,
'cause I'm just quite narrow,
so this suit fits brilliantly.
It has this incredible aerodynamic
chevrons on the shoulders. - That is, what is this?
It's very nice to touch, but. - Yeah,
so they've done a lot of wind tunnel testing,
and so, it just,
creating little vortex generators on your arms,
'cause that's what's in the wind
when you're in the aero position.
So a lot of brilliant science behind this suit,
but also, it's just incredibly comfortable,
and really aero. It doesn't flap.
It's really light and thin,
and so it stays cool on race day,
and so, yeah, super stoked
about this race kit, yeah. - Yeah, we can tell you are.
That's awesome. Thanks for looking it.
And something else that's quite new.
And we've got two versions here.
Should we look at this helmet first?
- Sure, so another
super cool thing from - Talk me through your helmet.
- Endura and Drag Zero,
is they have a, sort of a two-in-one helmet.
So, this is the training version,
and then you can just take
the tail off the aero part,
and the visor off,
and then you get the - So then these two
are the same helmets. - So, the exact same helmet.
This is just, so you know,
you don't have to buy two helmets,
'cause they're not exactly cheap,
and then you have your training helmet
and your racing helmet all-in-one,
so you're only packing one thing
when you're going to races,
you don't need to like,
look like a goof doing all your training
in your aero helmet.
You can just wear this.
So it really is,
it's nice. - And do you always race
in this one, as is, with the visor,
and with this halo, - You know,
- Would you go to the race with glasses, and.
- Yeah, I'm, depending actually on the terrain.
If maybe you're expecting
a ton of side wind or something,
you can just choose to opt for the aero road version,
but yeah, for this course,
definitely the time trial version.
- Heather, obviously we've had
a good look at your bike,
and one of the things that really fascinates me,
your aero bars. - Right.
- Coming out underneath.
Talk me through this.
- Yeah, well, this is the Parlee TTiR.
They have a propriety base bar,
really nice carbon design.
I love them, but I have a pretty aggressive position,
and so, for me to get in the position I wanted,
we had to mount the aero bar extenders
underneath the base bar.
And so, it works really nice for my position.
Yeah, with my arms like that.
But they're coming out underneath the base bar,
so yeah, so we decided to do
a little bit of our own
work to get to be nice in that way.
They're actually designed to be
underneath the arm pads,
on the top of the base bar,
but for us, that was just the setup that worked to
to nail the position. - Yeah, you're ready to have
an aggressive position.
I like it. - Yeah.
- You've got your Garmin mounted here.
What numbers do you look at?
What do you have on your screen
when you're racing?
- I have speed, I have average power,
I have real time power, and distance.
- So yeah, just talk me through
your Rotor cranks that you've got on
the bike here. - Yeah, so this is
a really sweet new piece of kit there,
the Rotor 2INpower cranks.
So, power measured at the crank.
And what's really cool too is that
Q rings are a new, they're all one piece,
so there's no bolt between the big and the small.
It's all cut out of one piece of aluminum,
which is, so, looks really nice,
and it's stiffer, lighter,
so that whole setup is just really beautiful.
Yeah, yeah. Really nice. - Okay, whilst we're,
so in this area, hydration.
You've got a bottle here,
and you've got the cage here.
Is that all the hydration you carry on this bike,
and do you change anything for race day?
- No, this is the race setup on the bike.
Yeah, usually for halves,
I only have two bottles.
I like having one where that
I can change it in and out, and then, this one,
the aerodynamic bottle on the frame,
I sort of save with my hydration for the end.
- And what do you put in, in your bottles,
and what's your nutrition plan - Yeah...
- For the race? - I use First Endurance
EFS-Pro lemon flavor, it's really nice.
It's not very sweet,
it just tastes like lemon water.
Really high in electrolytes,
especially for a super hot,
sweaty race like this one.
And so, it's really important for me
to have my own nutrition,
then I usually just get on-course water.
- Okay, and what do you keep in
your top tube bag? - Yeah,
in my top tube bag,
it might even be in here,
I have a flask here, First Endurance.
They're electrolyte.
It's liquid shot, so it's,
doesn't have any gelling agent,
so it's easier to digest in your stomach than gel,
but it's like a gel-type kit system, like see.
So it's electrolytes, and sugar, and yeah.
- Okay, and I think, finally,
I just wanted to know, what was the,
you were on Cervelo last year
and you're new to this bike,
and this is the first time
we've looked at the Parlee bike as a, on GTN.
How, you know, how does it ride,
how does it feel,
how do you like this bike?
- You know, it was one of those things where,
I've ridden a lot of really nice bikes in my day,
and yeah, you hop on it,
and you're just going,
ah, this is a fun bike to ride.
It obviously feels more like a road bike
than a TT bike.
It has this real sort of peppiness and stiffness
about the frame, and what I like the most
is just this really great feeling of power transfer,
like every little bit of energy
put into the pedals,
you're just rocking forward on this bike,
and for sure,
especially compared to the P5x,
it has all the force, very light,
and so, that's nice to,
you just feel sort of springy,
and it's a very well-designed bike
and I'm very happy
to be riding it. - Well, we are very privileged
to have had a look at it.
- Yeah. - Thank you very much. Cool.
Well sadly, Heather's actually had to dash,
but it'll still be really interesting
getting to see a new bike on the triathlon circuit,
and I've certainly found it interesting myself.
And if you don't want to miss
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And Mark did a video looking at the difference
between rim brakes and disc brakes
on a road bike, and that video
can be found just here.
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then they can be found just here.