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Race Tech: Tour of California, February 23, 2007
Fast and wet along the California coast
By James Huang in San Luis Obispo, California
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Today's stage 4 was one of the most difficult segments of the 2007 Tour of California as the peloton wound its way down the Pacific coast along Highway 1 from Seaside to San Luis Obispo. In addition to being the longest stage at 213.4km (134 miles), the route also covered three KOMs along the way with steadily undulating terrain interspersed throughout.
Uncertain weather added to each team's concerns as the day began under heavily overcast skies and intermittent heavy rains, which threatened to make for a very unpleasant day at the office for the 130 starting riders and their equipment. Team mechanics were seen slathering viscous grease on chains in an effort to keep them lubricated in the event of a deluge (which, thankfully, occurred only once about 20km from the start), and derailleur housing ferrules equipped with o-ring seals were used on a number of machines to maintain crisp shifting.
The day's rolling terrain would seemingly have favored a lighter shallow-section wheel what with the frequent accelerations and decelerations in addition to the crosswinds coming off of the sea. However, a majority of riders left the starting line rolling on deep-section carbon fiber wheels from a variety of manufacturers, including Reynolds Cycling, Bontrager, Zipp, Shimano, and Campagnolo, as superior aerodynamic performance was deemed more important for a successful day.
As a general rule, higher speeds tend to downplay the importance of minimal weight and, as it turned out, the riders proved to be particularly eager to get to the finish line. The day produced a very high average speed of over 41km/h (26mph) with significant surges as the field worked to chase down the seven-man breakaway on the approach into San Luis Obispo that more than justified most riders' choice of rolling stock.
The fastest bikes of the day may not have necessarily been the lightest, but with the current UCI weight limit of 6.8kg so easy to achieve, intelligent weight 'budgeting' has replaced weight reduction at all costs, and riders have proven time and again that speed is still most important.
Photography
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Images by James Huang/Cyclingnews.com
- Team CSC mechanics applied Shimano's telltale nuclear-green grease to their riders' chains to keep them lubricated and running smoothly in the wet conditions of Stage 4. Like most teams, Team CSC was running aerodynamic deeper-section carbon fiber wheels (from Zipp, in this case).
- The use of sealed housing ferrules is a small detail, but an effective one at keeping out water and road grit in an effort to maintain crisp shifting performance.
- Whoops! Somehow I get the feeling the mechanic didn't do this on purpose.
- Deep section wheels are becoming the norm in the pro peloton as racers are realizing that their superior aerodynamic performance almost always makes up for their marginally heavier weight.
- The Navigators Insurance Cycling Team wheel of choice was the Bora from Campagnolo.
- Campagnolo's bright gold Shamal wheels are no slouches in their own right, but were relegated to 'spare' use during Stage 4 for the Navigators team.
- Even with a carbon fiber hub shell and all, these wheels spent the majority of the day riding on top of the team car.
- Levi Leipheimer's Trek Madone was topped with a rare black-anodized Shimano Dura-Ace seatpost.
- What the??? A Thomson four-bolt stem, more typically found on the trail instead of the road, is spotted on the front of this Navigators rig, marked with key points of the day's stage.
- Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle is running so many wireless PowerTap SL 2.4 hubs that they must be numbered in order to keep them straight.
- Rotor's elliptical Q-Rings continue their slow march into the pro ranks, as found on Davide Frattini's bike of the Colavita - Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light team.
