IMWC Nice: Women’s Top 10 Finishing Bike Splits
Now, just a reminder: to play the game, a rider must finish the race.
Equipment trends
- While Cervelo had the most bikes, Canyon took the fastest time
- Pro’s chose Shimano over SRAM, yet chose ceramicspeed over regular derailleurs
- Favero Assioma took the pedal count within the top 10
- No one in the top 10 was riding 1x
- Aerobars are no longer “Stock”
Big steep hills, fast steep descents
With an elevation gain of +8,895 ft and loss of -8,877 ft, the Championship course took a toll on some, yet 8 of these ladies ended up in the top 10 overall. Let’s start with some crazy facts from the GPX file provided by IRONMAN.
CLIMBS
With eight sections that qualified as a “climb,” athletes saw max grades over 20%
- 6.1 mi 1,081 ft 3.6%: Starting mile 6.2 – avg grade of 3.6% and Max grade of 9.7 %
- 0.9 mi 151 ft 2.7%: Starting mile 17.9 – avg grade 2.7% and max grade 8.1%
- 11.5 mi 3,206 ft 4.9%: Starting mile 25.1 – avg grade 4.9% and max grade 23.3%
- 1.1 mi 187 ft 3.2%: Starting mile 39.1 – avg grade 3.2% and max grade 4.1%
- 0.6 mi 106 ft 3.1%: Starting mile 43.9 – avg grade 3.1% and max grade 4.4%
- 1.7 mi 358 ft 4.2%: Starting mile 48.2 – avg grade 4.2% and max grade 8.6%
- 4.1 mi 1,066 ft 4.8%: Starting mile 75.8 – avg grade 4.8% and max grade 7.6%
- 1.1 mi 203 ft 3.1%: Starting mile 90.3 – avg grade 3.1% and max grade 5.1%
DESCENTS
With seven sections that qualified worthy of a “descent,” athletes saw max grades of -12.1%
- 4.2 mi 687 ft -2.7% Starting mile 20.9 – avg grade -2.7% and max grade -4.4%
- 1.4 mi 268 ft -3.1% Starting mile 40.2 – avg grade -2.6% and max grade -4.5%
- 1.2 mi 391 ft -6.1%: Starting mile 53.5 – avg grade -5.9% and max grade -8.6%
- 7.1 mi 1,774 ft -5.5%: Starting mile 68.7 – avg grade -5.5% and max grade -12.1%
- 0.9 mi 147 ft -3.8%: Starting mile 79.9 – avg grade -3.8% and max grade -4.7%
- 7.7 mi 1,766 ft -3.9%: Starting mile 82.3 – avg grade -3.9% and max grade -9.4%
- 10.4 mi 1,950 ft -2.9%: Starting mile 91.7 – avg grade -2.9% and max grade -10.8%
#1 Laura Philipp: 5:02:25
- Speed Machine: Canyon Speedmax CFR
- Drivetrain: Shimano with SRM
- Aerobars: Canyon Custom
- Wheels: Swissside Disc / 800 front
- Pedals: Wahoo Aero
- Ceramicspeed rear hanger: Yes
#2 Kat Matthews: 5:05:46
- Speed Machine: Canyon Speedmax CFR
- Drivetrain: Shimano 2x
- Aerobars: Canyon Custom
- Wheels: DT Swiss Disc, 1100mm front
- Pedals: Wahoo Aero
- Ceramicspeed rear hanger: Yes
#3 Marjolaine Pierré: 5:12:27
- Speed Machine: Cervelo P5 (2019 Model)
- Drivetrain: Sram 2x
- Aerobars: Stock
- Wheels: DT Swiss ARC 1100 Disc / Arc 110 front
- Pedals: Favero Assioma
- Ceramicspeed rear hanger: Yes
#4 Chelsea Sodaro: 5:15:14
- Speed Machine: Pinnarello Bolide
- Drivetrain: Shimano 2x with SRM Crank
- Aerobars: Most
- Wheels: DT Swiss ARC 1100 Disc / Arc 110 front
- Pedals: Shimano
- Ceramicspeed rear hanger: Yes
#5 Nikki Bartlett: 5:17:42
- Speed Machine: Cervelo P5 (2019)
- Drivetrain: Shimano 2x w/Rotor Crank
- Aerobars: Drag 2 Zero
- Wheels: Rolf Prima Disc / Rolf Prima EOS front
- Pedals: Look Keo
- Ceramicspeed rear hanger: No
#6 Marta Sanchez: 5:18:00
- Speed Machine: Cervleo p5 (2019)
- Drivetrain: Shimano 2x
- Aerobars: Custom
- Wheels: Hed Disc/ Speedsix Ultra light front
- Pedals: Favero Assioma
- Ceramicspeed rear hanger: Yes
#7 Penny Slater: 5:18:36
- Speed Machine: TREK Speed Concept
- Drivetrain: Sram 2x
- Aerobars: Drag 2 Zero
- Wheels: DT Swiss ARC 1100 Disc / Arc 110 front
- Pedals: Shimano
- Ceramicspeed rear hanger: No
#8 Lotte Wilms: 5:22:02
- Speed Machine: Strorck Zeitjaeger
- Drivetrain: Shimano 2x
- Aerobars: Sync Aerobar One
- Wheels: Xentis Mark4 5-spoke
- Pedals: Favero Assioma
- Ceramicspeed rear hanger: No
#9 Merle Brunnèe: 5:23:44
- Speed Machine: CUBE Aerium
- Drivetrain: Shimano 2x / Rotor Crank
- Aerobars: 3D printed
- Wheels: Citec disc/ 83 Front
- Pedals: Favero Assioma
- Ceramicspeed rear hanger: No
#10 Daniela Bleymehl: 5:23:50
- Speed Machine: Scott Plasma 6
- Drivetrain: Shimano SRM
- Aerobars: Rad Sport Ibet
- Wheels: Princeton Blur 633 Disc Wake 6560 Front
- Pedals: Shimano
- Ceramicspeed rear hanger: Yes
All this detailed info, but no -
tire Brand, tire Model, tire Size, tire Type (tube, tubeless, etc.)
Am I missing something?
interesting breakdown
Tire size would be great but I would imagine most are limited by frame design how wide they can go. Can many TT bikes fit a tire greater than a 28? My TT bike is getting a bit old and maxes out at 28mm. Do the new TT bikes let you go wider?
Also I am a bit surprised at the climb stats. I was told how hard the course was but those climbs don’t look as hard as i thought they might be? Certainly not as steep as I thought.
How about estimated watts? I know somebody here has it pretty close using best bike split or another app.
We have a lot more articles we are doing over the next couple of weeks. I do hope that you keep in mind how hard it is to get information like that. The amount of time we get in the pro compound is super super lean. We are NOT allowed to even think about touching bikes and It’s only me thats allowed in. So when we get our like 90 mins to collect data off of 46 bikes…What get what we can and also we get what we think it actaully important to talk about and what I really mean by what is important is what is on these bikes that the athletes are really thinking about and why.
Saddels, Aerobars, Bike Brands, Wheels and Drive Train for all the pro’s. Just to be honest I dont really care what tires most of the women are riding on. Because generally speaking neither do they. So what they have on thier bikes really doesnt have a lot of “purpose” to it. The women tend to be very picky with saddles and aerobars. Those are what we are going to be diving into. Now once again I said generally speaking some of the women can school me on tire information but for the most part they have to look at the tires just to tell you what they are riding on.
Did ceramicspeed provide these Rd’s as freebies to the pros? it kinda reminds me of Rudy project’s strategy of free helmets to KQs, only to see them advertising “the top helmet choice of Kona.”
if they dont care about tyres than they are not pros , its a key risk and reward component.
ps at the same time nice to see the top bike split bikes back on st after what i think was a few years of not doing it .
Im sure they did. But the pro’s still have to Change them out and its not cheap. I do know that ceramicspeed like almost everyone else is cutting way back on sponsorship $$.
Thanks. In all all honesty the main reason it went away was becuase of Ironman and then main reason it’s back is becuase of ironman ( funny how that works) for years our access was just taken away and our abillity to gather information to report was super limited. But over the last 6 months we have really come together on things. Nice was a great warm up to the information we want to gather for KONA. The good news is that the women got some extra coverage they deserve the sad news is we where still a little rusty at it
are you sure? Ceramicspeed had a booth and mechanics to do free pro changeouts near huggo’s when I was last at Kona, and I remember thinking it was kinda cheese (the practice, not huggos). I can’t imagine it is now any different.
Point is - and this is with all due respect to the labour of the bike count and reporting - it’s kinda like a “you just proved bench advertising works” ad. It says nothing. They figured out how to exploit a report that describes gear choices that pros make, but it’s not really indicative of anything else.
Given the prominence it carries in the first round of your articles, but recognizing it’s not really indicative of much except executing $$ on marketing, would you consider removing that part?
@davetallo Last in Kona ? What year? I feel like You’re assuming alot with your above statment by the way.
Also to your “Point is” and thanks for your “Due respect” ( i mean that it sets the tone that youre asking questions and not being an a@#$) so with that I find and found very interesting and one of the main reason why I fought so hard to start doing this stuff again is that this is the first real year in many years that real information can start to come out that isnt surrounded with what you are trying to talk about and that is because most pro’s arent currently bike sponsored. In regards to the other part of your reply I’ll that I said was that 6 out of the 10 pro’s had a non stock derailleur on thier bike which is a fact. Its also something I find personally interesting. So much so I plan on getting one so I start to see for myself… “Why” . It’s like when K-Swiss was around and then they left. ( What shoes did they really start wearing ) same with any brand that throws a ton of money at the pro’s. The real questions and answers always start to come out years down the road in the age group counts. ( assuming we are allowed to change those up without getting our heads cut off )
If you look at every Canyon athlete, they all use CeramicSpeed. If you go to order a Speedmax outside of the US (so globally) you have the option to upgrade to CeramicSpeed parts before checkout. It’s clear to me 1 of 2 things, CeramicSpeed gives Canyon units for their pros for sponsorship and advertising or Canyon covers the cost and adds to all the pro’s bikes so when people see them and then order their own, they upgrade to be like their favorite pro, generating more revenue and profit for Canyon.
It’s interesting that Eric thinks this is interesting enough to note. Pierre bike doesn’t appear to be a CS set up and Laura has the aero CS set up……but that isn’t mentioned,
Makes me question the motive here a bit.
Additionally to say woman pros don’t care what tires they ride seems very wrong.
2 things… #1 I noted that both of those athletes have them ( maybe not to your level of desire but the boxes are checked) #2 my motive? My motive is 100% pure curiosity and looking at the ever rising trend of cermainc bearing in general ) And you can think whatever you want about my thoughts on the womens field and tires but dont take my words and twist them.
thats all great to hear .
Thanks for responding.
if you checked the box, why not the box be accurate, “oversized jockey wheels” instead of ceramic speed rear hanger?
if you are curious about ceramic bearings, that I can get behind. But again, sadly, you chose a brand, not a type of bearing. Did the athletes above without a ceramic speed rear hanger utilize wheels with ceramic bearings?
Last, I don’t think I twisted your words, if you feel I did then I apologize.
My thoughts and words are genuine regarding this, I think it is fair and solid.