Mark: Okay, so you excitingly enter a triathlon but then you find out that it's over
a unusually challenging hilly and technical terrain. Naturally, you then debate as to
whether you should use a road bike, or a TT, or a triathlon bike, if you have the luxury to choose,
of course. I'll be honest, I have been in a similar position before myself and
with this growing trend for more challenging courses over hilly and technical terrains,
more and more of you seem to be asking similar questions. Which is
faster over those types of courses? Actually, in the Ironman 70.3 World
Championships in Nice last year, there was a divide of opinion even amongst the pros.
For today's video, Orbea has stepped in to help. They've provided us with their brand new Ordu
TT and triathlon bike, as well as their Orca road bike. We're going to be putting them up
against each other to see how they fare over these differing terrains as well as helping you
make those decisions for future events. [music]
There have always been hilly and technical courses in triathlon but, as I mentioned already,
there really does seem to be an increasing trend towards these more challenging courses with
more hilly and technical sections in them. Just as a channel, we've really noticed we've been
receiving more and more questions from athletes wondering whether we would recommend they use a
road bike or a triathlon bike for a set course. I think it's about time we made a video about
this. I'm going to first off take a look through our options. Here we have a bike that most of
you would be familiar with, a road bike. It is the Orbea Orca. The benefits of a road
bike are they're typically considered to be more comfortable particularly if you're a beginner.
They also tend to be lighter which means you don't have to carry quite as much weight up hills. Also,
their handling is often considered to be better which means they deal better on those technical
sections and even descents. The disadvantages however of a road bike are their aerodynamics
which are typically worse than a triathlon bike. In this instance, I'm on the brand new Orbea Ordu
triathlon bike. The main benefits of a triathlon bike are predominantly it's aerodynamics,
meaning that it requires less energy to travel at the same speed or the same energy, and more speed,
whichever way you want to look at it. This newest iteration of the Ordu claims to have
shaved a staggering eleven and a half percent drag across the entire bike, which Orbea says took over
2,500 hours of calculations to achieve. It's things like this super clean front
end that really allow them to achieve this. You'll notice that the stem, the base bar, and the forks
are nicely integrated to really smoothen out that airflow. On many new triathlon bikes,
like this one, they really are designed with triathlon in mind with integrated storage and
setup options to help you during a triathlon. In this instance, we've got an integrated toolbox
and hydration system down towards the bottom bracket, along with a newly designed down tube
which also results in a 2.9% reduction in drag. Typically though the disadvantages of a triathlon
or TT bike are, they tend to be heavier and bulkier which means that they may not handle
hillier or technical sections quite as well. As I say, typically that is true, and yes, okay,
the bike I'm on right now is heavier than the road bike with me but it is remarkably light. It weighs
just 1,130 grams. Either way, there are still some clear differences between the two bikes,
so which should you choose? [music]
Well to help you with this we need to get a little science here for a second. Now speeds
below approximately 15 kilometers an hour, our greatest resistance comes from rolling resistance.
As we exceed 15 kilometers an hour, aerodynamic drag takes over and becomes our greatest
resistance and increases exponentially beyond 20 kilometers an hour. In fact,
by time you hit 50 kilometers an hour if you can manage that, it's pretty much around 90%
of our power that goes into overcoming aerodynamic drag. That is why as triathletes we look towards
aerodynamic triathlon bikes to help us. What about the hills? Well, obviously the
biggest worry on hills is the weight. As mentioned before, typically triathlon bikes are slightly
heavier than road bikes. That's where things get interesting because for a pro rider research
has shown that aerodynamics still holds the advantage over weight up to gradients of
around seven and a half percent. Obviously, that drops slightly for your average amateur rider to
around four and a half percent simply due to the fact that they're traveling at slower speeds.
Obviously, those numbers do vary slightly from individual to individual but in essence,
all the evidence suggests that unless you're doing a crazily hilly course or a summit finish,
a lightweight non-aerodynamic road bike maybe isn't warranted. Assuming there are some flat
sections in the course, more often than not the gains made on those flat sections with
a triathlon bike, will far outweigh any of those small gains made on the hilly technical sections
with a lightweight road bike. In fact to prove my point further,
today I'm going to pit these bikes up against each other. The brand new
Ordu, the same model ridden to Kona win by Andrew Starykowicz to numerous
Ironman bike course records against the lightweight road bike the Orca. Although,
now with a slight modification with some clip-on aerobars as most people would for triathlons.
[music] For this,
I'm riding the bikes over the same four-kilometer
flat segment whilst holding the same power of 300 watts for each. Then we'll compare the times.
[music] There we go. It was 5:58 for the road bike.
5:42 for the triathlon bike, which is a 16-second difference which would equate to about 12 minutes
over a 180-kilometer Ironman bike leg, should the course be perfectly flat of course.
I appreciate there's a lot more to it than that. There's the comfort, the handling,
the feel, and so on. I'm going to take this a step further. I'm going to also compare them
over all our efforts over a technical section, a climb and why not a descent whilst we're at it.
Of course, this is merely a bit of fun but will hopefully provide us with some
good food for thought. I am however genuinely intrigued to see how the triathlon bike fares.
It's clearly fast but in this instance, the Orbea is surprisingly comfortable too. It's also Orbea's
claim of improved handling that really interests me. They've apparently managed this by increasing
the reach but also it's ergonomics and weight. [music]
Well, that's not a total surprise. The road bike was fractionally faster but what is, is how close
those times were. When we compare that to the huge margin over the flat segment where the TT bike
was substantially faster, well unless the course you're choosing to do is insanely hilly, it's a
no-brainer really. The triathlon bike will in most cases be a lot faster. However, do make sure you
do your course research. Also, it's worth noting triathlon bikes do take a little getting used to.
That said, this new Ordu has been an absolute dream to ride. This is more or less my first
ride on it and I've been super comfortable. I think that just shows how much attention
and how much work Orbea have put into striking that balance between aerodynamics,
but also the handling and the comfort. Well done, Orbea. I would love to ride this bike all day
long but I think that's all for today's video. If you would like to see me racing this bike on
my own solo against Hank and Connor from GCN in a two-up on their road bikes head
on over to GCN now. If you've enjoyed today's video give it a like and don't forget to head
on over to GTN's social media channels, give them a follow and if you're not subscribed,
hit that button just down below. [00:08:11] [END OF AUDIO]