The longest Individual Time Trial of this year's Vuelta a España is today.
Or Tuesday 2nd September if you're watching this in the days afterwards.
Anyway, this is still a discipline where technology can give you a real advantage and riders,
teams and equipment sponsors are still pushing the UCI's stringent regulations to their limits.
We caught a few snippets of equipment that certain riders will be using on the stage
and we also caught up with David Millar, a previous winner of a time trial at the Vuelta
a España, about his thoughts on equipment and also on the stage itself.
David, things have changed a lot since you turned pro many moons ago, I hope you don't
mind me saying, but the equipment regulations from the UCI are quite stringent, not just
for the equipment itself, but also for the position that you can get into as a rider.
In your opinion, are the rules at the moment the correct rules, or could there be certain
changes made by the UCI?
I think this year they made a big step forward, actually it was a bit of a leap forward really
in that they've given a dispensation to riders over 190cm tall. At the moment the maximum
difference between your bottom bracket axle and the end of your TT bars are 80cm and they've
extended that to 85cm for the tall guys which is great for me because it means for the first time,
probably in my career, I've been able to actually have my proper position.
One rider who's had his fair share of great Individual Time Trial results in the past
is the Estonian rider Tanel Kangert from team Astana, and this is his Team Specialized Shiv
bike. One of the newest models - it's got the direct mount front brakes here.
He's also using something which you will see on a number of riders bikes, which is what
looks like quite a stubby saddle. This is the Sitero model. What that enables the riders
to do is to sit further forward without being too uncomfortable. The UCI rules stipulate
that the saddles have to be completely level, they can't point down. There also has to be
a 5cm gap from here to the centre of the bottom bracket it you draw a line down, so they can't
go too far forward, but they'll sit forward in order to have the same kind of angle in
their legs that they'd have on their standard road bike.
He also using Campagnolo Super Record EPS group set, which means he's got the shifters
both on the sides here and also on the handlebar extension on the front of the time trial bars.
If you're wondering what this bit of rubber is here, that's simply Campag's method of
turning off the battery when it's not being used.
You have to keep it fairly standardised because otherwise we would...the bottom line is
although it's great to have the innovation like the stuff that Graham Obree led with
the 'superman' position and his scrunched position before that. The bottom line is that
kind of makes the playing field uneven in that not everybody can get that equipment.
So I think what they've tried to do is by standardising it and giving access to everybody
to the same equipment, to the same opportunity to compete fairly against each other.
Behind me on top of their car you can see David Millar's time trial bike.
If we have a quick look at his bike, it's a fairly standard piece of equipment. You've
got a Cervélo P5 frame at the heart of the bike, a Mavic disc wheel here at the back
and there will be a deep-section time trial wheel at the front. We've got the 3T bars
and stem integrated here. We've also got the Magura hydraulic brakes. At the very top of
the bike we can see a Fizik saddle. That's a time trial specific saddle and it's quite
short in order to allow him to get a bit further forward than he would do normally with a normal
saddle, while still meeting the UCI regulations. One thing which I did think was slightly different
were the lengths of the cranks. He's got 180mm cranks on here - that is quite long compared
to the standard 175s. However, I've just had a quick look at his road bike on the other
side and also Ryder Hesjedal's road bike and they're both running 180mm on those as well.
How does a bike like that with all the other equipment on top of it - the electronic gears,
the great disc wheels - how does that feel compared to the bikes that you used to use
back in the olden days?
If you'd shown me my P5 now and I could take it back in time I'd have thought it was something
space-age, with the electric gears and everything. The stiffness, the aerodynamics, these bikes
are just light years ahead of where they were when my career started, when it was a bit
of a joke really. They were still doing 24 inch front wheels and 26 inch front wheels.
Actually my first team thought I was mad for having two wheels the same size, which was
what Chris Boardman started. You always had the smaller front wheel because they thought
you could then get lower down at the front and it was all just old wives tales. The sport's a lot better now.
Finally, a prediction for the time trial here at the Vuelta?
Tony Martin or Chris Froome actually. They'd be the two safe bets. I haven't actually seen
the course but Tony Martin on any course when he's going well can go good. I think this
course that's got the hill that everyone's talking about will be good for Chris Froome,
so between those two I'd say.
Thanks very much for your time and I guess enjoy your last Grand Tour.
Yeah, thanks Dan!