Powertap or Mavic Cosmics for Challenge Roth?
June 8th, 2007 by Nikola Tosic
My first high priority race of this season is closer and closer. It is Quelle Challenge Roth on 24th June, close to Munich, Germany. It is one of the fastest ultra distance triathlon courses and I feel super ready.
My swimming has been lazy since I already accomplished my goal for this season back in January (sub 60min on 3800m with a wetsuit). My cycling has improved a lot and I hope for around 32.5-33.5kmh average. This is due to my “European winter” training in Cape Town and my recent purchase of Powertap. And of course my coach, Bojan Maric. My running has always been my strength and I hope to achieve 4:40-4:45min/km pace. All this puts me very close to 10h. If I have a good day I might break 10h. If I have a bad day I might strugle to break 15h. As the slogan says “Anything is possible”.
However I am not worried about my fitness. I have the whole year to work on it. What worries me is my lack of race experience. Ironman is full of little situations that challenge us every second. You can gethit during a swim, fall of the bike, drop your nutrition, dehydrate on the run… I did not have a lot of races this year and I feel I lack the race experience. I am trying to compensate this with doing local sprint races but this is a different sport. It helps little.
My biggest dilema at this point is weather I should use a Powertap or Mavic Cosmic Carbon wheelset. Few months ago I started training with Powertap and I am addicted to it. Heart rate training or racing seams like a joke. I can not even get on a bike without have those three digits telling me how hard I am pedalling. And this information is crucial for me.
However I just got Powertap as an experiment and I did not think about it much. I did not plan nor I could afford at that point to buy an aerowheel with Powertap built in already. My purchase of Powertap was somewhat spontaneous and now it is too late to change much. So I can only use it with my 36 spoke training wheel.
My other option for the race is Mavic Cosmics, which I know will give me an extra 1kmh per hour for sure.
I can not have both. I could combine the front Mavic Cosmic and back training wheel with Powertap but that just seams weird. Maybe I will do it.
Anyway the question here is weather I should rely my ride on quality information or should I go for aerodynamic advantage. I would really like to hear your opinions, especially if you have the experience with both. If you wish to share more than just a vote please comment bellow.
Thanks!
June 8th, 2007 at 9:26 am
I am not going to debate the merits of power over heartrate but I will say that if you have become that dependant on power readings, not having them in the race will be a distraction that you cannot afford. Just remember that its a tool and must not dictate your pace, rather use it to measure your performance after the race.
Aerodynamically you will gain far more by improving the aerodynamics of the front wheel than the back, perhaps as much as an 80/20 split. This is largely due to the fact that the front end cuts the wind while the back of the bike labours through turbulent air.
Since there is little you can do to smooth airflow over the rear wheel because of the preceeding crank motion, it is safe to say that you will get 60-80% of your 1km/h improvement by using the cosmic on the front and your training wheel at the back.
Of course tailwinds change the dynamics a little but in those cases the gains are really only made with the use of a disc wheel or really deep section like the Zipp 808’s or Blackwell 100’s