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Old 07-22-21, 04:33 PM
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gurana
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Bikes: 2001 Lemond Nevada City; ~1987 Peugeot US Express; ~1985 Panasonic Sport 500

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Originally Posted by canklecat

It was interesting to watch the gradual development of more aero bikes and rider skills. Not long ago I rewatched the early 2000s TdFs and as much of Floyd Landis's rides in 2006 as I could find online. Landis was an underrated rider whose strengths and skills were overshadowed by the doping scandal... and possibly by his quirky personality. But he was a strong, skillful TT rider, looking much more comfortable than most of his rivals on the aero bars. And he was using the then-legal and much more aero praying mantis position, which was later banned by UCI, although I think it's still legal for most triathlons. So now most UCI competitors use aero bars nearly parallel with the ground. I suppose the UCI prefers it because it looks more ... I dunno ... traditional? Hard to tell, since this is the same organization that now bans the puppy paws invisible aero bar position, with forearms draped across the tops of the drop bars, which didn't seem dangerous on breakaways. That puppy paws position enabled Remco Evenopoel to dominate some breakaways and time trials that prohibited the use of aero bars and special TT bikes. Remco mastered that position and was very comfortable and stable using it.

Nowadays when a race analyst says "So and so didn't spend much time on the time trial bike," that rider still appears more comfortable and faster on the TT bike than many of his predecessors in the early 2000s.
My recollection of that first post-Armstrong Tour was that people found it weird that Landis was "the guy" to take up the mantel. That could be my memory revising history based on the eventual outcomes though, but even with my limited knowledge of bike racing there were more than a few other riders I would have thought were going to be better. A lot of the explanation at the time though was how much effort Landis had put into perfecting the time trial. Must have seemed plausible at the time and I certainly remember some talk about the unique arm position.
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