Which bike is faster? The triathlon/time trial bike vs. the road bike!

As summer was fading away, I was spending the vast majority of my time “working from home”, meaning I would have some coffee while watching the Tour de France, Giro d’ Italia and the Vuelta a Espana. Being the armchair quarterback I am, I was baffled while watching the best bike racers in the world break from their perfectly engineered time trial positions, hop off their perfectly engineered time trial bikes and hop on their super light weight road bikes for the hill climb portion of the time trial. There is just no way that’s faster than staying on your TT bike…right? After another cup of coffee and some chocolate covered Oreo’s I changed my mind, the best cyclists in the world simply don’t make the wrong decision and if the road bike is faster up La Planche des Belles Filles it must be faster up Centennial rd in Topton! Heck maybe I’ll even ride my road bike at Lake Placid OR maybe I’ll buy an “aero” road bike and ride that at Lake Placid OR maybe I’ll change bikes in the middle of Lake Placid! If those decisions make you want to pull out your hair don’t worry, I was right there with you. Which is why I put it to the test!

Unfortunately for the vast majority of us, we don’t have the luxury or privilege of racing at the highest level of cycling, so this decision is a moot point. BUT I have heard time and time again statements such as; “Placid/IM Canada/ 70.3 CT, etc is so hilly you should just ride a road bike”. Which makes me wonder if there is any validity behind these statements for real world triathlon situations. Well we’re in luck because I just happen to have loads of free time to test it out!

The following experiment took place on Friday November 20 in the late afternoon. Weather conditions were the same for each ride as well the gear I was wearing and power output. The only thing that changed was the bike. The test was broken down into 4 sections as follows:

1. Hill climb on the road bike.

2. Hill climb on the triathlon bike.

3. Flat time trial on the triathlon bike.

4. Flat time trial on the road bike.

My hypothesis was the obvious one. Road bikes will be faster on the hills and the triathlon bikes will be faster on the flats...duh...right? Let's find out.

Test 1: Hill climb on a road bike.

The Stats:

Bike : Trek Emonda SLR

Weight: 15 pounds

Distance: 2.19 miles

Speed: 12.5 mph

Elevation gain: 531 feet at 4.5% grade

Time: 10:33

Power: 322 watts

Test 2: Hill climb on the triathlon bike

The Stats:

Bike : Cervelo P5

Weight: 19 pounds

Distance: 2.19 miles

Speed: 12.7 mph

Elevation gain: 531 feet at 4.5% grade

Time: 10:21

Power: 323 watts

Test 3: Triathlon bike on a flat road

Test 4: Road bike on a flat road

The Stats (Test 4):

Bike : Trek Emonda SLR

Weight: 15 pounds

Distance: 2.46 miles

Speed: 24.6

Elevation gain: 46 feet at -0.2% grade

Time: 6:00

Power: 302 watts

The Stats (Test 3):

Bike : Cervelo P5

Weight: 19 pounds

Distance: 2.46 miles

Speed: 25.6

Elevation gain: 46 feet at -0.2% grade

Time: 5:46

Power: 301 watts

Now it’s time for science!

The Hill climb conclusion:

The triathlon bike was actually 12 seconds faster than the super lightweight road bike up the climb! This wasn’t exactly a surprise to me because of the type of hill I was climbing, which leveled out several times allowing me to get in the aero bars and up over 20 mph. I was however surprised at how much faster this was than the road bike.

The Flat road conclusion:

The triathlon bike was 14 seconds faster than the road bike on the flat time trial. This was to be expected since the triathlon bike is indeed meant for…you guessed it, time trials.

What comes next:

So now that we have established that the triathlon bike is going be the fastest bike on the flats and hills with a moderate grade it would be interesting to find out how steep the hill needs to be for the lightweight road bike to be faster. La Planche des Belles Filles Climbs 2011 feet in roughly 4 miles with an average grade of 9.3% and kicks up just over 18% at times….so just an enormous amount more difficult than Centenial rd in Topton.

While I’m not going to fly to Europe or the Rocky mountains to find “real” climbs, I am interested in evaluating whether conditions that are a closer approximation of Tour conditions might yield different results.…maybe Hawk Mountain? I’d also be interested to see how the times compare at varying power outputs. How much more time does more power yield and if the fatigue trade off worth that output?

Also it’s important to note that in a triathlon you should ride the bike you’re comfortable being on, which is the bike you train to be comfortable on…that’s obvious AND even more important is that you should purchase the bike that best suits all of your needs. Not simply the one that will save you 12 seconds on a training ride.