(swoosh)
- Today, we are going to talk to the riders
here at the Abu Dhabi Tour about handlebar choice,
because there is a big choice, in terms of aero or standard,
but also the width, and indeed, the shape of the drops.
(mellow music)
- With Caleb Ewan now, who's got
a fairly extreme position as you all know
and also some fairly extreme handlebars here at the front.
You've gone for the traditional drop
and only 40 cm edge to edge, I think.
- Yeah, well I actually had to get these bars
specially made for me
because this is the normal bar over here,
I guess it's like a new style kind of drop
but I felt like I couldn't really sprint on that as well,
so I preferred the traditional drop.
So, yeah, they made me this bar like this
and yeah, it's quite narrow, but then the stem's super long
so, yeah, it's a bit of a,
I guess it's like a bit of an extreme position
but, yeah, I prefer to sprint like that.
I think my upper body compared to my legs is quite long
so that's why I run such a small frame,
but then my reach is quite long.
So, yeah, I guess it helps me to get into that position.
- And finally, quite a few riders still use
the traditional drop, not so many members of the public do.
Have you got any reasons for that, do you think?
- [Ewan] To be honest, I just prefer the feeling of like,
when you're holding here and sprinting,
I feel like you can really pull on the bars more.
I think it's just like personal preference.
Everyone's different, so that's just what I prefer.
- You've got some fairly extreme handlebars
as we might expect, what have you got there?
- I believe they're 38's, they're the smallest
we can get for our mass.
I think they do have a women's model at 36,
but 38's good enough.
And when we did a lot of wind tunnel testing,
we found that not only is it good to be low,
but it's also very good to be narrow.
You know, tucking the shoulders in and everything.
So the idea with this is I can just be
in my relaxed position and be aero.
- But you didn't find that at a certain point,
when you're really narrow, that it kind of
makes your elbows go out at all?
- No, when I actually ride, I still ride like that.
You know, my wrists are inside.
It's not like I ride like that, so I still drop in.
And no, it's, you know when you do it
for the first one week, okay it's a bit different.
But after that, it's fine and then when you go back
to like 42's, it's like driving a bus.
- How much thought have you put into you handlebar choice?
- They're flat on the top
and they've got some rounded bottoms, that's about it.
They're the super ergos, pretty standard.
A little bit flared, 42 on the bottom and 40 across the top.
So probably a little bit easier,
so you don't hit your forearms on the bars as much
when you're out of the saddle,
but there's only so much you can do with a road bike.
We stuffed up a little bit back in the day,
because I always had 42's but,
so we always measured from the hoods,
but the 42 on the hoods but 44 on the drops.
So we've gone, obviously, back to 40 and 42,
which is a little bit better for me.
- [Interviewer] 38 centre to centre at the top
and 42 on the drops.
How did you arrive at this choice of bar?
- I didn't choose, that's how they make it,
so I normally, it was, for years I've been 42,
just a round, standard classic handlebar,
and then, when we changed to Enve, they had this bar
and I wanted to try it because it was flat on the top
and the idea was to use the flat bit
as kind of a rest for my arms.
You can ride, like if you've just got a round bar,
and you hit a hole, or you hit, after a while
you get pain in the arm, but this you can ride
for hours, if you want.
- Have you experimented much with the shape of the drops?
You've got reasonably compact shape here.
Other riders, such as Caleb Ewan, that we spoke to earlier
has got a much more traditional drop.
- Yeah, like I say, I used to just have the classic one
and then I tried this bar and, honestly, at first it felt,
I didn't really like it, I wanted the drop to be lower.
Because like you said, this is too narrow.
But then you, it's like a balance.
Because the other bar didn't have the flat bit on the top
so I just sort of came to abandon that.
- I think about, I don't know, maybe the large one
is more comfortable, but I don't have really big shoulders
so I can stay on with 40 handlebar and yeah.
When you do the sprint it's all about positioning aero
and with the shoulders, with the best
aero composition we can.
So with all the integrated stem
and handlebar from Specialised for the Venge one
and all the cable is inside, so it's a good solution.
It's compact, curved, I have an integrated one in the start
and then I change with this one.
I think it's quite comfortable
and then, also, I can pull really, really well
with the arms also.
And yeah, also you can see the shifter in the good position
to change, so to have a fast change in the sprint
and, yeah, I think this position,
the down position, I used just in the last K,
the last few K's, so because it's so low, no?
Because I want to be aero in the sprint
and then to be comfortable I can stay on the levels.
- And how different is this shape and width
to what you would use in the velodrome?
- It's quite similar.
It's completely the same, the curve and everything
because I use always the same measurement and everything.
I try to use the same measurement and handlebar
and all the same same stuff on the track
because I want to jump from road track,
from road to the track and from track to the road
really quickly without any issues.
(horn music)
- I've ridden 42 centre to centre since I was a junior.
Since I was a whippersnapper.
Yeah, I've always found that it fits.
You know, it just feels perfect
and you know I think if you go,
some people think if you narrower, it's more aero,
but then, you know, if you go narrower
you can tend to ride with your elbows out a bit more,
so, yeah, I've just found this a comfortable set up for me.
- And you've got a traditional,
almost a Merck-style drop there.
Have you experimented on that side of things at all?
- [Luke] I've ridden these bars for five years now.
Just the traditional kind of quite deep handlebar.
I think the only change that we got coming
is there's the integrated, all-in-one setup,
which I haven't got yet.
They haven't made the all-in-one for this shape handlebar,
so I think they're in the process of making it now,
so soon it'll be all-in-one.
- I'd love to tell you there was, like,
real specific request on my part to Canyon for 41's,
but with the integrated bar system that they've got
that's as narrow as they get, whilst still having
the 12 or 13 cm length on it.
On the road bike, actually,
I'm more about what's comfortable.
And the big thing for me is just having
a flat section just here.
I don't like having any kind of dip.
And then having a curved drop,
rather than any sort of bump in it.
I find if I've got, what's it called?
Like, where it's more ergonomic.
If I've got that, then I start
getting sort of dead fingers and stuff.
- Would you say you spend more time on the hoods,
you know, even when you're trying to get aero,
than you do on the drops?
- Yeah, yeah in training, I try to spend time on the drops,
but even like yesterday in the late hour I found,
I don't really remember where I was,
but I kinda stop thinking about it
when I'm focused on just trying to go fast,
but I sort of getting crouched down on the hood
or using the drops, using both.
As long as I get low enough,
that's sort of all that matters.
- This year we're sponsored by Vision,
so they provide us with this aero handlebars,
which I think are great because they're quite comfortable,
but still offer you all the aero advantages
of the other handlebars.
Previously in my career, I've been using narrower handlebars
but these are obviously like a combo,
so they only came in limited sizes.
So this year, I'm using our regular 42 cm.
Before I was using 40 cm
when I was still using aluminium handlebars.
And yeah, but I like this, these are pretty good.
- And in terms of the shape, you see some riders
have a more traditional drop.
You've got the more compact one.
Was that a conscious decision
that you came to after experimentation?
- I've always used the traditional shape ones,
but they don't make them in the aero version,
so I have these now and I like it, it's okay.
- So quite a varied choice amongst the pro riders.
Now a couple didn't want to be interviewed,
because they don't have much choice
in terms of width and drop from their sponsors.
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and then if you'd like to see how riders
choose their stems, you can find that video just over here.