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Tour De France Showcases Multitude Of Tech
whoda writes "When you think of a bicycle, you most likely think of 2 tires, a chain, some gearing of some sort, and other assorted mechanical bits. However, when Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, and over 180 other riders get together to compete at the Tour de France every year, there is a lot of technology that comes along for the ride too. From Lance's Sunglass'/MP3 Player to the advanced use of composites seen on Tyler Hamilton's
time trial bike, there are many examples of
high technology making the racers faster through better training, materials and
aerodynamics."
Tyler Hamilton has a website too. I don't know why his wasn't included along with Armstrong's and Ullrich's. Personally, Tyler is my pick for the winner of the TDF this year. Riding with a broken collarbone last year (finishing 4th, and winning a stage!), and riding with a broken shoulder blade in the Tour of Italy the year before (finishing 2nd!), he has more tenacity than even Lance. And this year, Tyler has the form. Watch out Lance!
"My girlfriend's got sodium laureth sulfate hair."
Lance et al have spent a lot of time in wind tunnels reducing drag (see Trek). I watched a bunch of the Lance Chronicles on OLN. One significant source of drag they discovered- the race numbers on their backs. All riders have their number attached to their jersey on their lower back, on both sides (as seen here). They found that the number caused significant drag, and they were quite unhappy that there was no way to design a sharkskin suit or the like to include the number. Technology taken down by paper!
They have made it so that the most you can lose is 3:00
It's true that this keeps a well-trained team like Team Postal from tearing up the General Classification, but that's all it's doing. Their goal was to keep so many teams from being out of it due to one team trial.
As Lance said, it's their race, their rules. They knew about the changes in advance, and the rules apply to everyone, so he just has to ride it.
Besides, it's the mountains that make the biggest difference in overall time, and is also where Lance excels at.
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
He doesn't wear it in the race. Riding in a peleton takes every bit of concentration, and you have to be able to hear, feel, see and practically smell the other riders around you if you're going to avoid the crashes and not miss the breakaways. I've seen him training with an iPod, so maybe he's using this for training and warm-up rides.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Must...control...fist...of...death! OH my god, you're an idiot.
Considering that the main drug of choice for cyclists (EPO) still has no reliable test that can't be beat by a quick I.V. to water down the blood supply.
Nope, they do have a test for EPO now; granted you can still get beneficial effects and test clean, but a "quick IV" won't beat it. They also test hematocrit levels - if they're too high, you're suspended (this is actually not a positive test, since no drugs are detected, but you can't race for "health reasons"). This goes to the heart of how EPO helps performance.
Instead he went from being a sprinter who was a middle of the road time trialist and basically poor climber into a virtuoso. I don't buy it for a minute.
Is this why he was Junior National Time Trial champion? Is this why he road away from the field at World's (1993, and also as a junior (he didn't win as a junior, but he put the hurt on people)). Lance was never a sprinter - he was much more of a rolleur until he was able to reshape his body after chemotherapy (by losing the upper body mass from his triathalon days). THEN he became a good climber.
Check out the book LA Confidential:
Which is the subject of multiple lawsuits by Lance against the author. Also, Walsh (the author) even admits he doesn't prove anything. He merely "implies" that Lance used drugs; I'm guessing Walsh's defence in court will be along these lines.
People like you make me angry. Lance has been the most tested athlete over the last few years and has NEVER tested positive. The French judiciary had a mutli YEAR investigation into his alleged drug taking - the case was thrown out when they couldn't uncover ANY evidence that he had used performance enhancing substances. That investigation even subpeonaed his medical records, btw, so they had full access to all available information.
Go away.
jon
"As a close follower of cycling, I have always doubted his cancer story and just assumed he made it up to cover his tracks and maybe make some publicity for one of his suppliers."
I now crown you Supreme Grand Poobah of the Tinfoil Hat Society. And that says a lot given what we read on Slashdot.
Dude, you're assuming the guy FAKED cancer? Because he recovered better/faster than you did? And you don't like it?
"I had similar surgery to Lance (had my left testicle removed)and there was no way I was getting back on a bike for over 9 months."
Well thank you for setting the limit of the human experience for us. Really, it's comforting to know you're the pinnacle of human endurance, pain tolerance and tissue healing.
I had similar surgery (hours of slicing and dicing, lots of fun recovering, I assure you) and was back on my bike in 7 WEEKS. And none of my riding friends were pointing at me and saying I must have faked it. I ride a lot, not huge amounts, but 100-125 miles/week typically. My body was used to it. And that's a mere pittance compared to any Tour rider's training schedule.
By your reasoning I must have faked my surgery. Or maybe there are people in this world who just deal with it. Hamilton rode most of the 2003 Tour with freakin' broken collarbone. He must've been faking it too.
"Instead he went from being a sprinter who was a middle of the road time trialist and basically poor climber into a virtuoso. I don't buy it for a minute."
I see. Or maybe it was because he:
Was already a damn good racer before.
Dropped a few dozen pounds during cancer treatment and kept it off (this greatly affects climbing efficiency - 10 lbs of extra mass is a LOT of weight to drag over several mountain passes each day)
Modified his training to use higher cadences (== less time above lactic threshold) to greatly improve his climbing efficiency.
The pain of cancer treatment recalibrated his sense of pain, suffering and misery.
Started actually scouting and RIDING key upcoming Tour stages during training.
Damn sad day when those who've never come close to attaining feel compelled to snipe at those who do.
About Jan Ullrich:
Last year, Jan wanted to make up time on the last time trial, but the sloppy weather did him in. He slid out on a turn and thus lost 8-10 seconds; there was no way he could make up enough time to win. (One of the OLN commentators said that Lance slowed to 5 MPH on the part where Jan slid out, and his rear wheel still skidded a bit. Dangerous! All Lance had to do was ride very carefully and not crash, to secure the win... he already had a time advantage.)
On flat road stages, there is no way for Lance to get a time advantage on Jan, or for Jan to get an advantage on Lance. If either of them gets in a breakaway, the peloton will reel them in immediately. They both know it. Jan didn't "do nothing" during the last few days; he did what he could, which wasn't enough to pull out the win.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Has Lance started trying yet? Um, yes.
Lance and his guys have incredible focus on just one thing: Lance finishes the race with the fastest time. They have been doing an excellent job of tracking that goal.
They don't waste energy trying to win stages needlessly, but when riding hard will give them an advantage, they do it (e.g. stage 3, they rode hard and fast to stay ahead of the crashes expected on the cobblestones). When Lance got the yellow jersey after stage 4, they let everyone know he wouldn't work to defend it because he didn't need it that early, and they let it go.
Part of winning the Tour de France is simply enduring the abuse. If you burn yourself out on one stage, you may find yourself in trouble on the next stage. That's okay if all you care about is winning one stage, but Lance absolutely needs to avoid burning himself out. He needs to out-ride everyone, and part of that is not wasting energy. Use it when you need it, and when you don't need it, save it for later.
On flat road stages, it's basically impossible for any of the GC contenders (Lance, Jan, Tyler, etc.) to gain any significant time advantage. The peloton is faster than any single bicyclist. Since the race is structured this year with a whole bunch of flat road stages up front, we have been watching Lance and his guys spend their time riding mostly defensively. That's okay.
If you look at the race standings, Lance seems far from a win. But the guys ahead of him will lose big time in the mountains! And his real rivals, the guys he worries about (Jan, Tyler, etc.) are all behind him on time. Jan is almost a minute behind him.
Lance's big chances to gain a time advantage are time trial stages and mountain stages. When he hits those stages, expect him to really pour on the effort. But it's just not true that he's slacking now.
what the hell is the name of the thing that connects the crank arms?
The bottom bracket, which has a shell containing some bearings and a spindle. If that doesn't answer your question, try googling for "bottom bracket parts" or some such.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely