Hopefully you enjoyed our April 1st "News"!
The recent Milano San Remo WorldTour win by Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) was highlighted by his incredible escape on the final descent off the Poggio. When it was later revealed that he had incorporated a dropper post, the internet exploded at this use of a mountain bike component in pro road racing. The UCI subsequently announced that dropper posts were perfectly legal.
Canadian Cyclist has learned that the Canadian track program has been experimenting with dropper posts for the past six months, primarily in the Team Pursuit program.
"We wanted a way to enable the [three] riders following the one at the front to increase the amount of draft they received," explains Jenny Trew, the lead endurance track coach for the national team. "We spend a lot of time working on the order of the riders but, since they aren't all the same height, the taller riders unfortunately don't get as much aerodynamic protection as the shorter ones."
Once the lead rider swings off the front to rejoin the team at the back, if they are a taller rider, they drop their saddle height using a dropper post. Trew admits it has taken considerable effort to determine what gains are possible.
"If they drop the post too much, they lose power output, but we have found that, in the right circumstances, even a drop of a centimetre in the right combination of riders can provide reduced power requirements in the recovery phase of as much as 2%, which is huge."
Trew wouldn't commit to when they would use the new tech in competition, but admitted that it could come as early as the Nations Cup in Milton, in early May.
