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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."
Sunglasses with MP3 playback built in? I'd hate to see what this guy comes up with.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
I'm assuming that you probably have both... And I'll also assume that his one-nutted ass could also kick your ass.
The HPV world speed championships!
http://www.recumbents.com/whpsc2004.htm
Too bad there's not enough interest to really get some money into the development of these things.
Check out my website...
Look at Lance's amazing biochemistry! He wouldn't have made it to any of these races if it weren't for his body and iron will!
The part that connects the cranks together is called the bottom bracket. Its a cylindrical piece which screws into the bottom of the frame (junction of the down tube, seat tube, and chainstays) which contains an axle that the crank arms friction fit to.
;)
Its also a mother to put in correctly
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."
They're not fast enough until you see spoilers fitted at the back of the bicycles!
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!
So, this proves that anyone using the latest cool tech stuff is just trying to make up for something missing in their pants. One day I'll throw out this type-writer and get a computer.
I know we're talking about the TDF and those guys are on a different plane of existence here but there's something I've got to say about some non-pro cyclists out there.
While I agree that the use of technology is important in cycling, there's only so much one can do without having to rely on natural talent and training. Spending $180 for a 13 cm piece of metal in order to save 50 grams, is a problem. I see it with the guys I ride with. They'll spend a shit load of cash on a Litespeed titanium bike or a Trek 5200 but will still mow down a pizza after a ride and not think about the fact that they can get over those hills a little faster if they weren't carrying a anchor on their gut.
Of course, with a bike that old, they would have had to replace, well, just about everything in order to put in a new derailer. In fact it would be only slightly more to simply buy a new bycycle!
So I started looking at bikes. I could get a nice road bike for $800 (US) that was far superior to my existing bike. Then I started looking at the carbon composite bikes, like the Roubaix series. I really didn't think I'd feel the difference until I test-rode one.
Holy S*it! If the $800 bike was an order of magnitude better then my existing one, the Roubaix Comp (at $2600) was an order of magnitude better then the $800 bike. All carbon-composite construction, vibration dampening... the works. Unbelievably light, I could lift the whole bike with my pinky pretty much! Smooth ride, ultra smooth shifting, huge gearing range. The technology is really amazing.
-Matt
So 35 songs for 22 days...how many times can you really listen to 'Eye of the Tiger'?
in bed.
Hour record for a fully faired recumbant is over 100kph, solo, on the flats. Granted, the operative word is 'fully faired'. That's a shell around a rider.
The point is, bike racing is a lot more complicated than going faster than anyone else alone in a straight line on the flats. Sprints, climbinb, break aways, team strategy all play a roll.
Still hurts when 50 'nodes' of the pelaton decide to crash all at the same time, in a cascade, rather like nodes on a M$ network. I wonder what this stuff was designed on...
As an aside, these guys are the best athletes in any event the world over.
I don't know if they have a rule against strapping on an Acme(TM) rocket to the bike. If noone has tried it before, they may not have a rule against it. Or if someone tried it before, they fared was well as Wild E. Coyote, so it didn't effect the outcome for the people who finished -- without going into a brick wall or off of the cliff.
Fight Spammers!
From the Sunglasses/MP3 Player link:
We have a little addendum to our Tech from the Tour de France feature from a couple of weeks ago: this special pair of Oakley sunglasses with a built-in MP3 player that Lance Armstrong was spotted wearing. No idea whether they're planning to ever sell these or not, but a little bit of research reveals that the sunglasses only have enough room on them for 35 songs, which makes us think that they probably have somewhere around 128MB of storage somwhere in there.
True, but that doesn't mean Lance plays only 35 songs for the entire Tour. Does anyone know if the Tour rules prohibit changing electronic media and so forth? He could play a new set of 35 songs every day. At least that would be interesting trivia, what songs did Armstrong listen to every day of the Tour..
Pins are for USCF racers only. International UCI races use stick-on numbers that are really big stickers (so they aren't really that drag-inducing). The only time UCI racers use pins is when they want to reuse numbers (sometimes they want to take a number or two home from the Tour for memory's sake).
In soviet russia, You ask not what country do for you, but what you do for country!
Oh wait...
Cycling is not like Formula One, something I hesitate to call sport any more. Some of the new technology is well cool and anything that makes a bike lighter and stiffer is welcomed by racing cyclists but one fact remains, the cyclist still has to pedal the damn thing. In racing it boils down to legs, lungs and desire at the end of the day because there is no major technology diffentiator possible on a bike. Lance Armstrong on his postmans bike will always thrash his postman on the latest and greatest technology.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Q: What's the cheapest way to shave 500g off your bike weight?
A: Lose 500g.
Funny thing about the Tour de France though...automobile traffic is SO not an issue.
I would like to request that Slashdot drop it's discrimination/bias against unicyclists and tricyclists of the world. The poster assumes that everybody will think of two-wheeled "bicycles" when they think about cycles. This is not the case. I would also like to request all Girls to stop being biased against unicycle and tricycle riders. We are every bit as good as the so called "bicycle" riders.
Please join the fight against even-wheeled cycle fanatics.
Thank you.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
There are plenty other regulations for international competitive cycling:
-the entire bicycle must weigh at least 6.8 kg
-the frame must be of the 'double diamond' design (this rules out recumbents)
-no fairings
-all competitors are encouraged to use performance enhancing drugs (and their masking agents), as long as the team manager's girlfriend's doctor's cousin carries them.
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?
I seriously doubt that standard equipment will make it into the UCI rules. Mainly, there are too many variables for proper bike fit. Something minor, like pedal style, can make a big positive or negative impact on a rider. Other things, like leg to torso to arm proportions, make geometry standardization totally unfair.
(S(SKK)(SKK))(S(SKK)(SKK))
If the cyclists are listening to mp3's, maybe their playlists look something like this:
10. "The Cougar Fight Song": Nothing is quite as stirring as hearing the band break into "Rise and Shout" at the beginning of a sporting event.
9. "Olé": No, this is not the Ricky Martin World Cup song. It's the chant soccer fans around the world have been singing far longer that consists of just that one word: "Olé, olé, olé, olé... olé, olé."
8. "SportsCenter Theme": Every true sports fanatic now recognizes the familiar intro to a full hour of the best of the day's sports action. Most of us watch it two or three times a day.
7. "Chariots of Fire" - Vangelis: This classic theme music has defined track songs for over twenty years. The Olympic team training on the beach idealizes the essences of pushing yourself to the limit.
6. "The Hey Song": Who can resist the compelling, "duh-dun duh-dun duh-dun duh-dun duh-dun-dun . . . HEY!" during a game? We all know it . . . and we all yell just as loud when it's played.
5. "Eye of the Tiger" - Survivor: The most compelling sports stories come from the underdogs, the little guys (see March Madness and every sports movie ever made). This song epitomizes fighting against the odds.
4. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game": Any list on sports songs must include this classic. It conjures up images of lazy afternoons at the ballpark, of the seventh inning stretch, and of preserving the tradition and history of sports.
3. "You All Ready For This?": Sports action must be on tap whenever you hear this familiar opening music. It gets the blood boiling and the vocal cords limber for the excitement to follow.
2. "We Are the Champions" - Queen: Athletic competition means winners and losers, and no song better embodies that than this one. In extolling the journey, it honors the effort it takes to get to the top.
1. "We Will Rock You" - Queen: Stomp, stomp, clap. Stomp, stomp, clap. Everyone steps up to the challenge when the greatest sports song of all time is played. It's played at every level in every sport, making it easily #1.
Honorable Mention: "Sweet Georgia Brown" (Harlem Globetrotters theme), "Charge!", "Hey, Baby", "Jump Around."
John Kerry is a Joke!
You can do it -make it 6
I recently biught a Trek 5200. I could have easily gone with a Trek 2300 or smaller, because I am no power rider. I ride about 10-20 miles in the morning. Every other day. That's it. Many of you could destroy probably cream me on a $99 Huffy.
But the bike is a joy to ride. I owned a crappy Schwinn most of my road bike riding days and so I splurged a bit and got some Sidi shoes and this bike. I enjoy riding it, esp. going up hills.
Maybe I overspent, but I enjoy the bike. The OLCV Carbon is damn light. And if I enjoy riding, I'll ride more. I had my fill of heavy steel bikes, this really is a whole different league. I've read a few responses that mock people for spending too much on the bike. Most of those people have a iPod and a $500 video card just to play counterstrike.
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
One does wonder what other sorts of biochemistry are going on with riders(I've always thought it was kind of ironic that Lance was sponsored by a major pharmaceutical, and yes, I am deeply suspicious that Lance's chemo and related drugs somehow altered his body to make him much stronger; I don't think he would be stupid enough to be doping himself), seeing as how doping is rampant in virtually all other sports- and the message to little kids has been nothing of zero tolerance but instead "I'm a good guy, I couldn't have been doing drugs, even though my trainer was caught twice before doping his runners and I failed a drug test" etc etc.
Then there's the baseball players, who were TOLD AHEAD OF TIME they'd be tested. When they were tested- ONE QUARTER of them failed! Unbelievable! That's like telling everyone the answer to a one question quiz, and then having 25% fail!
I forget which bike race it was, but police did a raid on the rider's barracks one night, and it was like a scene from animal house- they had riders leaping out of windows in their underwear, hiding in the bushes, running off, etc. They found dozens upon dozens of drug vials, needles, pills, you name it. It was absolutely pathetic.
Please help metamoderate.
"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.
Bio-Pace failed because a large number of riders developed knee problems.
From what I understand they changed the course to have less hills which are Lances strong point.
Just the opposite. They have helped out the climbing specialists by increasing the importance of the mountain stages. For instance, the first individual TT is practically just L'Alpe d'Huez.
Armstrong doesn't really have a strong point; or rather, he has no weakness, being extremely good at both climbing and TT. However, he is not small enough to be quite as good as the very best of the pure climbers.
"The good reader is a rarer swan than the good writer."
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
Lance's team came in a full minute ahead of the second-place team. Under the old rules, Lance and his guys would all have picked up over a minute of advantage compared to Jan Ullrich and his team. Under the new rules, the second-place team was scored as having come in exactly 20 seconds behind Lance's team, thus wiping out about 40 seconds of advantage for Lance and his guys.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I am sure that in the early 90s there was no specific rule banning recumbants, according to Les Earnest (a UCI official and also a prof at Stanford- you out there Les?) always said there was nothing to specificly rule out a recumbant. Now, there were major changes in response to advances to beat the hour record. I think the 'double diamond' part came in then. I would think a recumbant would be far superior for a TT, and Les's only speculation as to why they were not used then is that it position is different enough from an upright, that it uses a different muscle set.
That is, at that level, one could train for one or the other, but not both.
Sam Whittingham is a (former?) HPPVA world record holder is a pretty mean upright sprinter as well, but he's not world class as a roadie.
I have to run, but google on 'les earnest rec.bicycles recumbant uci' might turn something up.
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
The technology is neat, but the technology can't actually win the race. It's still about the riders.
Lance has a cool bike, but all the Tour de France riders have good bikes. There is a limit to how much benefit you can get with a better bike, and all the tour guys have bikes that are close to this limit.
The slowest of the Tour riders, on a bad day, could ride me into the ground on a 20-year-old piece-of-junk bike, even if I were on my good bike. Sure I could climb Alpe d'Huez, but it would take me at least a couple of hours, and the Tour guys race up it in 40 minutes or so, as just part of a 5 or 6 hour day of racing!
The most important tech to Lance is the tech he uses in training. He trains and trains. They measure his power output in Watts, how many Calories he burns, how much wind drag he has on his time trial bike. It's his training that will win the race, his training and good tactics (both his and his team director, Johan Bruyneel).
P.S. The Tour rules have a lower limit on how much a bike can weigh. I think this is a good idea. There is a point at which "light" becomes "stupid light"; where the too-light components aren't strong enough and things start to break. The minimum weight will keep the bikes from getting into a stupid-light arms race.
The Tour rules also now require helmets, and the helmets have to actually be able to protect the riders' heads. Last year riders wore lightweight helmets for the time trial stages, and the lightweight helmets were basically just streamlined shells that wouldn't protect them at all in a crash. This year even the time trial helmets are required to meet crash safety standards. I'm in favor of the idea.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Bio-pace was a huge success. It helped Shimano kill Suntour. That and the Kobe earthquake.
Bio-pace sucked, but it was marketing genius. Everyone had to have it on their bike. Kinda like IE...
I'm actually most impressed by the technology involved in the television coverage. First, you've got about about 20 cameras on bicycles, showing images at race level (almost what the cyclists see themselves). They send the pictures to helicopters overhead, which in turn send the images to satellites. Let's also not forget the cameras on the helicopters themselves, and the beautiful display of flying and camera ability that brings gorgeous and rock-steady shots of 170 bicyclists zipping through fields of sunflowers.
Add to that GPS transmitters on every bike, which brings instant results at the end of the race to the 100th of a second, and (this year on OLN) up-to-the-second time gaps among the groups on the road (this'll really shine when they hit the mountains).
All this, plus entertaining commentary, live worldwide.
Nuff said.
US Postal
The Cyclysm
Wear Yellow
Except, the TdF never goes down L'alpe D'Huez only up, but I suspect you already knew that.
I'm not sure if this was mentioned in all of the posts about the TDF; but, there is a site run by my company's European division that has a real-time tracking of the cyclists. From what I remember reading, it uses RFID technology to aid the scoring.