Chrissie Wellington is leading the world back to traditional
low-tech non-streamlined technology.
Photo (C) 2008 Mariano Kamp
A few years ago, it was considered a dilettante mistake to wear a normal "swiss cheese" cycling helmet in Kona. An aero helmet can cut wind resistance by seventy-five percent, giving a several-minute advantage over a 112-mile bike ride. With wind gusts that can exceed 20 mph, aero helmets could prove especially important in Kona. The problem? They're hot, and in Hawaii keeping your body temperature down is paramount to save energy for the run.
In 2007, Chrissie Wellington became world champion wearing a "mushroom cap" helmet, and people were taken aback. The following year, she pulled the same stunt, missing the best female bike split of the day only because of a mechanical problem. In 2008, Craig Alexander won using the same tactic and it looks like this year the other pro's have picked up on the trend. As Paula Newby-Fraser noticed walking through T1, there are many more traditional ventilated helmets sitting on aero bars waiting to cool the illustrious heads that will occupy them in just over an hour.
Another piece of equipment that can provide a huge aerodynamic advantage are disk wheels. Aerodynamic wheels can cut about a minute off your 40K time, or four minutes or more over an Ironman. That is, as long as there isn't a crosswind. If there is a crosswind, deep dish wheels can act as a giant sail, slowing them down tremendously. Disk wheels are prohibited in Kona for this reason, but the tradition in Kona has been to use three-spoke and deep dish wheels to reduce wind drag. However, Wellington has been the iconoclast on this front again, and trends have caught up. According to Newbie-Fraser, many pro's are opting for shallow rims and traditional spokes hoping that the traditional technology will give them the advantage they need to collect on the biggest day in Ironman racing.
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