- Welcome to Ask GCN Anything.
This week, I'm joined by "Stat Attack" Jon.
- Hi everybody.
- Who has stepped out of the screen behind me.
And let's get started straight away
with this question from Callum Sutton who asks,
"Is there any significant difference between a
triathlon bike and a time trial bike?"
And clearly a lot of you do want to know the answer
because it had 24 thumbs up.
Jon, what are the differences?
- Well, there are some.
That's mainly because of the
regulations from the different sports.
So, triathlon has different rules to the UCI,
but triathlon is also segmented into different areas.
So, I think in an Ironman, you'll have different
rules from an ITU event, that kind of thing.
Frames in triathlon, quite often become more
dare I say it, "adventurous" than in
certain other aspects of it.
Frames integrate hydration systems,
that kind of thing and,
yeah they look quite wild and wacky.
- So, triathlon bikes can actually therefore be more aero
than a time trial bike used in a UCI race.
- Yes, I mean the UCI have relaxed their rules recently.
So, I think maybe we'll see some of those,
some of those frames which we saw
back in the mid-nineties reappear.
- The more adventurous designs might come back.
In the meantime though, you should check out
this stunning example of a UCI legal time trial bike.
It's Tony Martin's craftwork inspired Canyon.
- This is the very, very special,
Canyon Speedmax CF SLX
of world time trial champion
Tony Martin of Katusha-Alpecin.
This could well be one of the trickest bikes
at the Tour de France.
Now before we get started with the
prototype, one-off components that are
littered all over this bike,
let's tackle that paint job.
That is super cool.
- Okay, next up is a question from Silviu Sfeta,
"#TorqueBack Does having an aerodynamic face help
on descends compared to a round face?"
Wow, that's a great question.
We've never thought about that.
- We've never even gone down the road of
how could we answer that.
What are your thoughts on it, Jon?
- I mean I'm not sure if cheekbone surgery
is a great idea for this,
to be perfectly honest with you.
Because you may well hinder your breathing,
getting up there --
- What is an aerodynamic face?
- Yeah, I don't know.
Do you have to squash it in a vice?
- I guess it would be one like a bird's head,
with a beak, wouldn't it,
to cut though the wind.
- Yeah.
I mean there are some riders in the past who have been
nicknamed "The Falcon", "The Eagle of Toledo",
things like that.
We're gonna have to have a look at their photographs,
their faces and see,
do they have a bird-like face?
- Is there an aerodynamic face type?
Anyway, although we haven't looked at that,
we have done a lot of GCN Does Science videos
where we've explored the issue of aerodynamics.
And in this video Dan and Simon find out,
does being more aerodynamic help you to climb faster?
(upbeat electronic music)
- [Voiceover] How are we going to test this then?
Well to put it simply, we're each going to
ride up the climb twice.
The first time riding on the tops,
so in a really upright position,
and the second time, in the most
aero position we can manage.
- Quick-fire round now Jon.
First up we got this one from Geoff Hiemy,
I thought you could answer this one particularly well.
It says, "How does Dan get better looking as he gets older?"
- I don't know, and I don't know if
that's actually from Geoff or if that's from Dan.
- Thanks for your question Dan.
- Moisturiser, who knows?
- On to the next one.
Ashman Racing.
"Can you do a video where all presenters get 200 pounds
to find a 'gem' of a bike,
and then do three challenges,
sprint, hill climb, or tt.
I think that's a cracking idea.
- Yeah, great idea.
I think that's really one we should explore.
It would be, quite frankly, terrifying as well.
- Definitely.
Jarne De Prius,
"This is one for the rapid fire round."
And it's also one for Jon.
"How many seats of cleats does a pro rider
get through in one season?"
- Whoa, that ...
I really, I honestly do not know.
It's interesting though, this one,
because some riders are really mechanically minded,
and others, they just give their shoes
over to the mechanic and they let them do it.
Whereas others, they will sit there and measure them,
and everything.
You know, and really give mechanics
quite a hard job on that.
Yeah, don't know.
Depends how much they like to walk around,
play football in the shoes.
Yeah, who knows.
- Five or ten?
- I wouldn't have though 10.
I would have though, five,
five probably at the most, yeah.
Depends as well what pedal cleats you're using as well.
- Frank Villani,
"What are your thought on racing with a water bottle
in a thirty minute crit?"
I would do it.
What about you?
- No.
- Doesn't matter.
Ed Markey,
"What's with the Tour riders drinking Coca-Cola?
It's not a healthy sports drink."
- A quick sugar rush.
Yeah, a quick sugar rush,
something different from the norm.
Something different from water or an energy drink
which may, may not agree with them.
Normally, you would see that towards
the end of the stage, or in the feed zone.
Just something else.
You know, in the musette.
- 'Cause they burn a lot of calories and they
like the taste I guess?
- Yeah, I guess it's something, yeah.
More of a mental thing.
- Cameron McGuinness,
"Other than lotto, is there any significant similarity
between Lotto NL Jumbo and Lotto Soudal?"
- Both from the BeneLux.
That's about it really, on that.
You know, they're both lottery,
lottery companies,
but that's probably about it.
- Yeah definitely.
Graham Thompson,
"How does passport control work for races that cross
between borders during the stage of a race,
like the opening stage of the Tour?"
With the Tour, that's in the Schengen Zone.
So, once you're in one country within Europe,
you can then pass freely to the other one.
I have done one,
I did the Tour of Serbia,
almost 10 years ago,
and it crossed into Bosnia.
So you had to give your passport in at Sanegon
that morning and they stamped it for you.
- Well there we are.
- There we go.
So sometimes you have to give your passport
to the race organisers.
Peter Colijn,
"Are there any vegetarians or vegans in the Pro Peloton?"
- Yes, I think that Simon Geschke is.
- Really?
- Yeah, think so.
- Veggie or vegan?
- Not sure, not sure.
But I think he is.
I think he's a vegetarian.
- Maarten Tjallingi was,
but he's no longer in the Pro Peloton
as he retired recently.
- Yeah, that's right, yeah.
And also there was the ill-fated Linda McCartney team.
Which our very own Matt Stephens raced for.
- Matt Stephens was a vegetarian in the Pro Peloton.
- Yeah.
- If you know of any more let us know in the comments.
Finally, Kalina Chakalova,
" Hi GCN, can I combine a 52 chain ring
with a 34 chain ring?"
Jon, I thought this was one for you.
- Uhh, it may work, but the shifting
will not be perfect.
It's just purely because of the drop from one to another,
or ramp up, is not going to be ideal.
Try and get a 50 chain ring, or a 36,
but I think that gap is going to be a little bit too big
to have good shifting.
- It's a bit of a bodge.
- Yeah.
- This is a good question, Jon.
And it's definitely one for you again.
It is from news, who asks,
"Is there any need to have the UCI minimum weight limit?"
- Oh, great one.
Well back in the late nineties, I think it was,
the UCI actually introduced that.
It's because riders were fed up, really,
of their heavy bikes.
I mean, you know, they're just coming out of the
steel era of bikes, so bikes previously were pretty heavy.
So, they were going into aluminium,
experimenting with carbon fibre, that kind of thing.
Simply, riders were going to their mechanics
and they were asking them to
do things, not naughty, to them.
Not like motors in them, or anything like that,
but they were actually asking them to scrap weight.
To drill holes in, file things off, that kind of thing.
So ultimately, parts were becoming not safe really,
for use.
So imagine hurtling down a descent.
You know, some of these riders back then,
they were going at some fast, fast speeds.
- With no helmet.
- Yeah, that's right, yeah.
You know, without a helmet as well.
So really, yeah, they were ...
They just weren't safe for the purpose.
So the UCI, they are planning to actually revisit this,
I think for 2018, because technologies
have moved on.
Manufacturing has really made some
drastic improvements since then.
- I guess, if that's what you're saying,
if it was about modifying parts.
The UCI has kind of covered that one up as well,
by mandating that all parts are commercially available.
- Yeah.
- So, there's kind of, I guess less opportunity to
drill into your cranks or something like that.
- Yeah, that's true.
- Anyway, it isn't always the fact that a lightest
bike is best, or even the case that pros have
bikes that are right on 6.8 kilos.
As Dan found out at the Dubai Tour.
Look, seven.
Right on cue.
- We had one request for a reweigh
because Alex Dowsett here is showing off the fact
that he's got two bikes.
So here, for the hilly stage, you're on your
lighter one you think.
What do you think this one weighs?
- 6.853.
- Right let's put it to the test.
7.030, so only, what,
a hundred grammes lighter than you're other one.
- Yeah.
- Could make a difference though.
- Yeah, yeah, I hope so.
I mean it's got ...
The geometry is a little more suited for
climbing and races like classics and stuff.
So, I've got the option of both, depending on
what day is ahead.
Quite lucky really.
- Thanks very much indeed.
- Cheers Dan.
- Okay, next up, this is a regular question we get.
This one's from Pim Huinen.
" #torqueback, How can I become a better climber
in a place without mountains or hills?"
- Well, there is a long and distinguished history
of incredible Dutch climbers Jon.
Have you got some names?
- Yeah you had, Joop Zoetemelk.
He was King of the Mountains back in
the seventies, I think.
I think he won the King of the Mountains
in the Vuelta, in fact.
So, Holland has had some fantastic climbers
for a country which is
renowned for being flat.
Some of it even under sea water, in fact.
Steven Rooks, King of the Mountains, Tour de France.
Gert-Jan Theunisse.
You know, and I mean more recently there's been
some names as well, hasn't there.
- Yeah like Wout Poels, Steven Kruiswijk, Tom Dumoulin.
So I think, the fact is, you can become
an amazing climber, even if you don't perhaps have
immediate access to a load of climbs.
And it's all about sustained,
consistent power output, isn't it?
- Yeah, that's right.
It's all about getting out that power.
And you don't have to have the mountains for it.
You could try riding into headwinds a lot.
Again it's all about just getting that power out.
- Yeah, Robert Gesink he used to apparently,
used to train into headwinds
so they felt there was some resistance.
- Yeah that's right.
Towing old tyres, I've heard of riders even doing that.
You know, as daft as it sounds, I have heard of
riders putting a car tyre on a rope,
round the seat post and riding.
- I'd love to see photo evidence of that.
- Yeah.
- But, if instead of training for the hills,
you want to climb faster without training,
which I think we probably all do too.
- Definitely.
- Check this one out.
- [Voiceover] What's better for climbing?
In the saddle, or out of the saddle?
It's an impossible question to answer,
because what works for some,
doesn't for others.
However, what we would suggest,
is spending around 95% of your time in the saddle,
but deliberately getting out of the saddle every so often.
Just to use slightly different muscle groups
and give your other muscles a break.
- Final question now.
Don't forget to comment with your questions
for Ask GCN next week.
And this one is from Sam Carleton, who is asking,
"Why is my FTP outside always higher than
when they test it inside on the trainer?"
- That's an interesting one.
Because, personally, I would find mine to be higher
inside than outside.
- Really?
- Yeah, because inside,
you can control the environment.
So you're always going to have the same resistance,
you're not going to have headwind, tailwind,
pot holes, corners, children.
Anything like that, you know, to contend with,
when you're out riding.
- True, true.
- So that's a really interesting one.
Let us know you're FTP in the comments.
- Yeah, I would say that if you are testing your
FTP outside and comparing it to an FTP that
you've tested inside,
you probably need to do it on a dead flat road as well.
Doing it on a climb does gain the system a little bit
because you get out of the saddle and stuff like that.
- Yeah, yeah, definitely.
- But, if you want to improve your FTP
and your general fitness,
we suffered through a whole load of training sessions
for your benefit.
- He did.
- Check this one out.
- Okay, welcome to GCN's short climbs
indoor training session.
It's short, it's gonna be sweet,
it's going to be a little bit painful,
but again it's going to be some fantastic miles
in the bank, all about working on your ability
to ride the short, sharp climbs.
The kind of climbs we see perhaps in the Tour of Flanders
over in Tuscany, or even in the Arden.
- There we go, another Ask GCN Anything,
and Jon's first ever video.
So don't forget to hit the thumbs up button,
share, and do leave your questions,
maybe even for Jon, down in the comments.
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And Jon, point to a video you want to shout out.
- Mark Beaumont and Si.
- Okay, where's that.
- Just here.
- Thumbs up.