Lowered my bars, lost power - should I raise them back up?
I lowered the bars on my Cervelo P2 by one spacer ring last night, just before racing one of my bike club's time trials. The previous time I'd raced this course, it was 100-degree heat so I held back a bit, but this time the weather was nice so I pushed hard. Nevertheless, I lost power and speed this time compared to last time. My time went up from 34:37 to 35:03, my normalized power dropped from 225W to 217W, and my average speed dropped from 21.9mph to 21.6mph. TSB was the same on both dates. Should I conclude that dropping the bars was a bad idea, and I should move them back to their previous position?
0
Comments
I would have to say those numbers are to close to say for sure if it was from lowering your bars. I would give it a few more times before I went right back.
My 2 cents
Personal experience note. I lowered my bars by a spacer before a big IM, and had the worst race of my life, getting leg cramps in my inner thighs after four hours which sabotaged my run. I raised them back for another IM 6 weeks later, and had the best race of my life. I then went to a Retul fitter who is also a physical therapist, and he gave my a kindly lecture about what I did to my position that caused the cramps, and then set my up with a number of tweeks, including RAISING my saddle, which have me rock solid this year.
Fiddle with your position at your peril, especially without professional help. What works over an hour might not work so well after 3-6 hours.
Also, what Al said. I would never adjust my position right before a key race unless I simply had a comfort issue. However, That's highly unlikely, since my position is dialed in WAAAAAY before race day to ensure that I'm comfortable enough to get through 5-6 hours on the bike.
Since this was my first TT bike when I got it in March of this year, I should probably get it refitted before next year's races anyway. Do you think it would be better to get it fitted at the start of the outseason (Nov 1) so I can train with the new fit all winter, or wait until the spring? Or both?
If you plan on doing your OS workouts on the TT bike, as I do, then it's a no-brainer to get fitted before starting that.
Another bit of anecdotal evidence here, I had a professional bike fit this year (Cronometro in Madison) and one of the things I wanted to address in the fit was lowering my bars so I could be cool like the kids in the magazine too. Exaggerating there, but there is so much pressure on increasing aero and I felt I had become a competent enough rider that I could handle going lower. As soon as I started dropping spacers the fitter immediately remarked that something was off, he wasn't sure what, but something was. My power measurement on the CT remained the same, as well as my L/R pedal balance, everything looked solid but he kept insisting that something wasn't right, it didn't sound "right". Shortly thereafter we mutually discovered that there was a more pronounced "whoosh" to my pedal stroke that was not there before, when I lowered my bars it for whatever reason put a greater percentage of my power into the down stroke of the pedal rather than the up. This was pretty negligible in the fitting room, but could have manifest into much more tired (or less evenly utilized) legs out on the long course due to this somewhat intangible change to my pedal stroke.
At the end of the fitting I did not end up changing a whole lot, but the fitter explained to me the reasons why things were for the most part working (I had arrived there by trial and error) and definitely prevented me from messing up my fit on my own, prior to the fit I was about to start dropping spacers from the front end. This is just n=1, but figured I'd throw it out there.
Kevin, My thoughts ……………..
There are a ton of variables that impact the results between the two days and the results are not that different. You took 1.25% longer to complete the course and you made 3.6% less watts on average.
Have you checked the wind conditions for the two days? I would not take much wind difference at all to make the difference in the total time.
What was your power VI for the 2 events? If you were less steady in the second event, that could account for the difference and then some. Rest / fatigue level into the two events.
How you positioned your head, stayed in the drops, braking for turns slightly differently could swing the results either way.
I am willing to bet a an adult beverage that if you rode that course once a month for 10 months with the same bike set up you will have a greater variation than what you saw between these two events.
OK so with that being said. I’m not surprised that your peak power fell with the lower position which compresses the chest to hip angle. To counter this you may look to see if you can move your seat forward and make the appropriate set height adjustment to get back to the same hip angle.
As AL says, bike repositioning efforts are best done with the help of an experienced tri bike fitter. I adjusted my tri bike cockpit down in the off season about 2.5 cm and reduced my frontal area significantly. I moved my seat forward to keep my hip angle almost constant. At IMCDA, Al asked a couple of questions on my bike position. I had some cramps on the run – (and major ones one the swim). So I went back to the best fitter in town and he said all was great but my seat was now too high. We dropped the seat ~ 1 cm and that caused be to gain roughly 10 watts and still have a flat back. I did a race rehearsal for upcoming IMLOU and covered the 112 mile on a flat course with low wind in 5:13. This was 12 min better than my previous best on the same course and on the slower ride I had race wheels and aero helmet on.
SO – I am a strong proponent of a low aero position when properly fit and with the body flexibility to ride it comfortably for 6 hours. Less energy expended leaves more for the run.
Good luck finding that elusive best bike fit – there still is a lot of art in the process!!!
Matt
If you think you are more powerful up a tad higher I would go with that. I would want to see the position before I say this for sure but without a tunnel you are pretty much just guessing about which one is more "aero". Sometimes it is counterintuitive. Comfort and being able to stay in the position would likely be better.
I just had a Retul fit this past weekend. The guy I went to spent 4 hours with me and made some huge changes. He raised my seat about 3 inches and moved my handle bars forward. If I remember right before the fit my back angle was about 49 degrees, after the fit it is now 24 degrees. He wanted to raise my handle bars just a bit but did not have the right angle stem. So he told me to ride for about three weeks and if I wanted to tweak it, I could go buy the right stem and come back. The next day I did a three hour ride at least for now I like the angle and am going to stick with it. He said my watts should go up, but first I should notice the ability to stay in my watts longer. During my first ride I definatly noticed different muscles being affected and I could tell I was able to spend more time in the desired watt range. So far it seems to be well worth the money.
It was crazy just watching him. He did not do it all at once, just a little bit each time. But then he would adjust the handle bars and move the saddle forward each time. Finally moving the saddle from back of the seat post to the front. When we got done I jokingly said, so what your telling me is my set up before was like riding a recumbent bike. He just laughed and said not that bad. I can tell it definitely feels better, I don't know how good though since the last two weekends I have been riding in 30 to 40 mile an hour winds and have been hanging on for dear life. Sunday winds will calm down so I should be able to focus on the workout.
3 inches is a crazy amount, 3/8's of an inch should be a big jump in terms of a bike fit. Not that it applies directly to seat height but think about the fact that the difference between a 48 cm bike and a 58 [the difference between Nemo size and bigger than my size] is about 3 inches.
OK so it was a slight exageration
. I went and measured it, it was about 1 3/4 inch move. Still a lot, it just looked like a huge amount when it was moved. I will say this the next day when I got on the bike I felt so high it felt like 3 inches.