- So I'm here at the Challenge Roth transition area
and as you can see,
it is packed full of thousands of bikes.
So I'm keen to get in there
and see all sorts of different tech
that might be in those racks,
so I'm going to go have a look.
(energetic music)
Right so,
two bikes here right beside each other
that really caught my eye in transition here
for different reasons.
This one here, the Principia,
is one of the first ever bikes that I had,
a Principia model,
Danish brand that you really don't see anymore
because they're really a long since gone,
but his one here has his name on it,
and it's Martin, he has written on it.
Martin must be pretty local
because there's a sticker here from
it's bike shop which is Hilpoltstein,
which is just down the road from transition area
so I hope he has a good day
probably done Challenge Roth a few times being a local.
And then here to my left
we've got absolutely tiny bike,
brand new model Canyon that's an extra small.
Love this paint job,
it's a Rapha edition paint job.
So, here we have old and the new.
Disk brakes 11 speed Di2.
So love having these two bikes side by side.
So since I'm at a legendary German race here,
Challenge Roth,
it would be rude not to talk about this bike
that I've just spotted
which harks back to the days of another German legend,
Ironman athlete, Normann Stadler.
He, won Ironman in Hawaii twice abroad a Kuota Kailbur
and it's a frame set that you don't see too often
so its quite nice to see this one still sitting here,
a few years old
but still a cracking TT bike.
Got some Zenta's wheels on here
that again, you don't see very often.
So I'm glad I spotted this one.
Now maybe I've just not been around the sport long enough,
but this is a set of pedals,
I haven't ever clapped eyes upon before.
Vista Magic X is what's written on them,
so maybe you guys can help me out.
(upbeat techno music)
so you see all sorts of storage facilities on bikes,
in a transition area like this.
You see brand new
and you see, well, not so brand new.
Now this one here,
I must say caught my eye because,
it's quite enormous.
I've no idea what's getting stored in here
because there's a clear top to it
which I presume might be for a phone to sit on top
so you can see through that,
but then underneath that there's
all sorts of other stuff stuffed in there.
I think there's spares, could be food.
But I think there's even the kitchen sink inside that one.
So it wasn't just that Kuota Kaliber
that Normann Stadler rode out in Hawaii
to winning effect.
He also then went on to ride this Kuota Kueen-K,
which they designed as a newer model to replace that one,
and he also used on the big island
named after that very famous highway
that is stretching out to Hawi on the bike course in Hawaii.
So rather nice to see these two bikes in here.
(bass thumping beat)
Look what I've found now.
This bike got to be older than me,
or I think it is anyway.
This is a Cinelli steel frame.
What a beauty it is,
in immaculate condition.
But its got seven speed gears,
I mean that is proper old school
and then up here at the top
we got some down shoot shifters as well,
which is just something you never see anymore
in a transition area.
(techno music)
Now this is a German brand
that I don't see very often anymore.
It's a specialist brand, I guess you could say,
the Cucuma,
and it's this color way that caught my eye,
as you can imagine,
this orange and green certainly stands out
amongst all the more regular frames,
shall we say.
But another aspect of this athletes bikes,
which is quite interesting
you don't see it so often but it's a really good idea,
is a little reminder or
resume, I suppose,
of their energy strategy for the day ahead,
when to take jails,
when to take on water
and even, right through to
how long they think it's going to take them to do the ride.
Well this is a rather unique bike, indeed
because this is one of the very new bikes
given to the athletes lucky enough to be apart of
the Zwift Tri Academy.
This is British athlete Ruth Purbrook's bike,
head of the race tomorrow and Challenge Roth.
I haven't seen one before,
didn't realize that they had such a funky paint job
so certainly stands out
and, well you won't be missing that one on race day.
Now here's another DIY hack that we've spotted
here in transition area
on the back of this specialized Shiv.
Very clever, 3D printed storage
that's been out in here,
also acts as a bit of a fairing too
on the back of the down tube,
there's a flap on the other side to get into,
I presume, because I'm not going to try,
to get a few bits and pieces stored in there,
but the cleverest part of this that I can see
is that there's a light integrated into the designs,
so they're going to stay nice and safe out on the roads.
So simple old schooled hack we've got here,
is some cereal bars to them,
literally masking taped on to the top tube.
Nothing wrong with it at all,
probably be easier to stick them
in a back pocket of a jersey,
to be honest
and I do hope that they've got a little bit more food
than this for race day
because its a long old day tomorrow.
Not its not just cereal bars
that can be taped to the top tube
because here we got some gels taped on as well.
Now each one of these is taped on individually
at the top of the gel,
which makes perfect sense
because you could just rip it off as you want each one
but the problem that I'm seeing here is
you could grab that gel to rip it off
and then squeeze it
and then you can see what's going to happen,
potentially gel everywhere,
over the bike, over the hands.
So I hope they've had a wee practiced this before tomorrow.
(jazz music)
Now Cube TT bikes, if I'm honest
are not ones that I'd seen enough a lot of
in transition areas,
but here in Germany they seem to be rather popular.
This brand new top of the line Aerium SLT
has definitely caught my eye
because this color way is rather stunning if you ask me.
So I just spotted this wheel here
which is a set of lightweights but very old lightweights
or I think they're pretty old.
Certainly never seen them with the Germans spelling
of the branding on the rim
was what caught my eye,
if I'm honest.
Normally you're just used to seeing
the usual lightweight as it's written in more modern wheels,
and I hope this person gets through their ride tomorrow
in one piece
because this is a pretty worn looking tubular glued
to this front wheel.
Hope it's going to last.
(bass thumping beat)
So this giant Liv here in the racks
caught my eyes
because it's got a nice bright paint job
and you guys know me with paint on bikes.
But moreover
I just thought it was a good opportunity to talk about
the race number.
Number belt that Laura
or Laura as the German pronunciation, I guess would be,
has got her number attached to her base bars
because it's just one less thing to worry about
in race morning.
You don't see it on many of the other bikes
but just means it's there,
it's obvious
and you can just step into it
before you get on your bike to leave.
(bass thumping beat)
So you don't see this very often
but somebody here's got an entire collection
of their race venues that they've been to, I guess.
All over the bike.
We've got Frankfurt, Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea.
We've even got Lake Placid, Santa Rosa, Texas, Florida.
An entire trip round the globe, it seems.
Well this is one way to make sure you can spot your bike
in transition area.
Just go for the full on Project 1, custom color way.
You guys know me,
absolutely love the speed concept
and the colors that Trek can do.
So here is another beautiful example of that.
(bass thumping beat)
Now this Parlee here has made me stop
and have a look
not just because of the paint job,
the blue and the gray, quite nice
it stands out,
but it's these fairings for the disks
that I haven't really spotted before.
I didn't know that they had those on the Parlee bikes
so that's a little bit different.
(bass thumping beat)
Now you got all sorts of storage options on bikes these days
and I've definitely not spotted this before
because as far as I can tell
it's a custom 3D printed box to slot right into this gap
that sits down between the seat tube and the down tube
just snugged up against the water bottle cage as well,
so perfect fit.
(lighthearted indie music)
Now forget custom paint jobs on the frames,
look a custom paint job to take a look at here
on this helmet.
This is Pedro's helmet
and, well he thinks he's Iron Man
by the looks of it.
I don't think any told him that he was at a challenge race.
(lighthearted indie music)
Now I don't know about you
but I do not fancy spending a 180 K's riding on this thing.
That is a full Carbon Selitalia Saddle
so they're a braver person than me.
(lighthearted indie music)
Here's a set of wheels I haven't seen in a long time.
Probably in fact
since I was flicking through the magazines
when I first started racing triathlon,
because these Corima wheels
that I've got behind me
really hark back to quite some time ago.
Fantastic wheels, just been around a long time.
We've got the four spoke in the front
and the Carbone disk on the back.
Now I find this quite interesting,
well the geek in me does
because this here is a Cube Arium SLT
this here is a Cube Arium SLT.
This one is as it should look,
with all the usual branding and color ways
on the frame set.
But the owner of this bike, for whatever reason
and very unusual to see in the age group ranks,
has meticulously taped up everything,
and I mean everything
that could make it look like a Cube.
Very well done in terms of the taping
but I'd be fascinated to know what they have against Cube.
Well it's always fascinating to take a wonder through
the transitionary racks in a big race
like Challenge Roth.
We've got over 4,000 bikes in these fields here
ready to go tomorrow,
and refreshingly we're seeing a whole spectrum
yet again of the very old,
to the absolute cutting edge.
So hopefully you've enjoyed this
small peek inside this transition area.
Please hit that thumb up like button if that's the case.
Find the globe on screen
to get all the other videos on the channel.
And if you want to see the
Age Group Transition Tour we did at Ocean Side,
you can find that here.
And if you want to see the Challenge Roth Tour
from last year,
you can find that here.