by Alison Powers, ALP Cycles Coaching
A few weeks ago my friend quarantine teammate, ALP athlete, and ALP designer Daphne, and I did a fun and interesting test. We did this test because the past few times we had been riding bikes together, she was dropping me on the downhills; fairly hard and I wasn't just sitting around coasting. There were a few differences that could be the reason for the dropping. Clothing: I had on baggies and she was wearing spandex. Bikes; we were both on CX/Gravel bikes however, I rode a bike with flat handlebars and she rode a bike with drop bars so she could get into the drops. TIres: I had knobby tires for a mix of single track, loose dirt, and snow. She had tires with no knobbies.
We decided to do a test. Let's limit all the other factors minus tires. Riders agonizing time and brain drain over tire selection for racing. We were going to get to the bottom of it. Are knobby tires really that much slower?
For the testing we both:
Our testing strip was ~300 meters long of fairly hard packed dirt with some gravel and bumps. We had two lanes - right lane and left lane. For each test, we tested in each lane to make sure our conclusions were accurate.
Test 1:
Test 2:
The end result was tire selection matters - and kind of a lot (when it comes to speed). Also, our right lane was significantly faster, and how much those bumps slowed each of us down really drove in the point that line selection when riding dirt/gravel roads matters. Smooth is fast. Be smart where you decide to put your tires.
For fun, we decided to test a few other things.
In conclusion, everything we learned:
To make the testing even more fun, we videoed it. You can watch it below:
Remember our ALP Cycles Climbing Challenge is May 22-24. You can win coaching, a customized training plan, schwag, and other cool prizes. Plus you can use your hard-earned fitness in a fun event.
Happy Riding!
ABOUT ALISON POWERS
Now retired from racing, Alison Powers is the only person, in history, to win all three road discipline National Championships in one year (Road, Criterium and Time Trial - 2014). These go along with two previous national championships (Time Trial 2008, Team Pursuit 2008), two National Racing Calendar titles, and a 2nd place at the Leadville 100 mountain bike race (2013, 7:26hrs). Today she is the owner of ALP Cycles Coaching where she teaches road, cyclocross, and mountain bike clinics, and high performance race preparation and tactics. Alison is also team director for ALP Cycles Racing, a professional women's road and cyclocross team based in Boulder, Colorado.
ALP Cycles Coaching
Colorado-based ALP Cycles Coaching has over 25 years of professional sports experience. Each coach brings specific strengths and personal experiences to coaching sessions while collaborating to create a training plan that works for each and every person. Learn more at alpcyclescoaching.com
Pactimo is a Colorado company known for quality, reliability and unsurpassed customer service. Since 2003, we’ve shipped 2 million+ garments to Olympians, national champions, teams, clubs and individual cyclists around the globe. We hope you feel the inspiration of Colorado and our passion for cycling in everything we do.
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