Getting Aero   Let’s assume for a moment (always dangerous) that your meticulous race preparation has already covered all the other bases - training, nutrition, weight etc.  You are already as trim and as prepared as you can be so you turn to the last possible domain of speed gains - your bike equipment.  Instantly you are confronted with aero everything: frames, wheels, helmets, even water bottles.  Which of these products will make a measurable difference and how do you decide?  Maybe your preparation is less than perfect.  Let’s assume for a minute that you are busy and have a few family or social commitments.  Should you bother with this aero stuff or is it only for “the really fast guys”?  The answers are not what you might think…   Firstly the problem:  Why can’t we ride much faster?  The short answer is drag (or friction).  Sure it holds your water bottle screws in place but friction is what stops us from averaging more than the 30-40kph limit during a race.  To break it down a bit further, the drag in our tyres and drive train accounts for about 5-10% of our slow speed, the wind drag accounts for the rest.  ‘The rest’ is made up of about 15% wind drag of our bikes and 85% wind drag for our bodies.  That’s right – you are the problem.  Not your bike, not your wheels and not your expensive tubular tyres but you are the major contributing factor that is slowing the team down.   I’m 85% of the problem?  Yep, but don’t feel too bad, the human body was not designed to move through the air at high speed.  If we were, we’d all look like Falcons (the bird, not the car), sadly we just look like triathletes.  What can be done about our very un-aerodynamic bodies to make race day a little easier and faster?  Lucky for us the downhill skiing community has already solved the problem – the tuck.  Have a look at a fast downhill skier in their race tuck and you get a pretty good idea of the most aero position available to us.  But, as well as remaining aero we also have to pedal a bicycle and this is what brings us undone.  For a triathlete (who is not drafting) a nice compact aero position is around 20% more efficient than riding up on the base bar.  The take home message is that you need to find an aero position on the bike that you can hold for the duration of the distance.  It gets more complicated than just being aero, you also have to be comfortable.  If it was as simple as just being aero we’d all ride like time trialists.  That means super low at the front, elbows together and all on a frame a few sizes too small.  Sadly for us as triathletes we are not greeted at the end of the ride with a stage win, a massage and the team bus ride to the after party, no, we a marathon to run.  Its complex but for us as triathletes, being super aero is great, but we have to be comfortable and super aero to be in shape for the run.    So how do we do this? In a few short words, we need a frame that is on the large side rather than the small, we need a few spacers under the stem to keep the hip angle open, we need the arm rests spaced wide enough to accommodate our swimmer upper bodies, we need shorter cranks to reduce stress on the hips – in short we need an aero position that is sustainable for about 180k’s or so.  It’s OK to have a stretch now and then, it’s OK to sit up at the turn around, but unless you are drafting your ass off, it’s not OK to get out of the aero position if you expect to have a good race.  I’d rather have an aero position that you can sustain for the length of the course than a ‘more’ aero position that you can only hold for a few hours.  Once your head pops up and you reach for the base bar you are not aero, you are a flying brick and bricks do not do well in races.  The best bit about this ‘true aero’ is that it does not require a wind tunnel or a test protocol.  You don’t need to worry about yaw angles or Cda, its simple really, you just need to find an aero position that you can sustain for the race distance.  While the solution is simple, finding a position that works for you can be a very difficult task.  Its partly the role of your bike fitter to pick a frame and components that will get you into the right position and its partly about you doing the stretch and core work to help sustain it.   But my aero position is pretty good, can’t I put some icing on the cake?  Sure you can.  Even if you are a bad athlete and have no cake you can still buy some speed.  Let’s look at a few possibilities to shave off a few more watts.  Firstly, tweak your aero position.  Assuming you can stay aero for the entire bike leg consider the following: A little lower at the front.  Moving the seat forward will allow you to drop a spacer or two under the stem while preserving the same hip angle.  It only seems to work up to a max of about 79 degrees of seat angle and it can mean crushing some delicate bits but tri positions have moved from 74 degree road bikes to 78 degree dedicated tri bikes so steeper is the current trend.  Bear in mind, steep is not for everyone, some athletes perform much better back at 76. Get the elbows in.  You need to have enough room for your chest to expand (TDF TT’s are run over about 40 k’s so they can accept more extreme positions) but keeping things tucked in usually helps. Cut the crap.  Spending tens of thousands on a new aero bike and then hanging a bunch of tyres, bottles and electric devices off it does not enhance its aero properties – keep it clean.  Same goes for you, flapping race numbers and chin straps all add up, so keep it neat out there. Without a wind tunnel it’s impossible to be more prescriptive than this.  The biggest gain you can make is to find a comfortable and sustainable aero position that lets you run off the bike.  This will yield far more aero benefit than any equipment you can buy – remember your body is the main aero problem we are trying to solve .  Get into your aero tuck and stay there.   OK, I’ve turned myself into the human tear drop, my tri club mates have nick named me the Silver Surfer, now can we talk about that cool gear?  You mean the 15%.  Sure we can.  It is after all the most fun part of the sport.  Assuming you have a nice aero position you can hold without having your hands zip tied to the aero bars, you can go shopping and purchase some drag savings!  In order of priority (not cost but aero gain) here is the list: Get an aero helmet.  Your scone is the first thing the wind hits and the second biggest surface area after your torso.  Currently you cover it with a helmet whose claim to fame is to have more vents than any other helmet.  Vents equal drag equal slow.  Get an aero helmet.  It does not provide an aero advantage because of the long and impressive tail that hangs off the back.  Although this is a great talking point and highly erotic, the long tail only helps a bit, the reason the aero helmet is so effective is because it has minimal vents at the front for wind to attach to.  A stack hat (with only a few very small vents) is about as aero but I would never suggest one of those.  Lose the road helmet. Get aero wheels.  The deeper the better as long as you can stay in your aero position.  There is no point getting a set of 1080’s if you weigh 45kg’s as will get blown off the road by a 5kt gust.  Best of all get aero wheels with a torodinal buldge (it works like the wing on an aeroplane) and is a far better shape in more wind conditions than flat sided aero wheels (Zipp and Fast Forward wheels are good examples of this).  Best of all, get a disc. Get a nice new aero frame.  As long as it fits, as long as it fits, as long as it – you get the idea.  The gains from a more aero frame are pretty minor and all will be lost if the fit on the new frame is not perfect.  Into the wind tunnel.  It’s not impossible, just really expensive.  As long as money is no object get in there.  No two people ever test the same so what works for one may not work for another.  It’s beyond the reach of most of us, sadly…   So what do I take away from all this? You are not aero but if you can find a bike position that keeps you on the aero bars and is reasonably low and tucked in you will have solved the most difficult part of the aero challenge.  It doesn’t matter whether you average 30kph or 40kph, the aero stuff works pretty well at both ends of our speed spectrum.  Get an aero helmet and some aero wheels and enjoy your next victory at Kona.  Aloha!