Why I ride road drops on my TT bike...

I have the TCR Aero 1 Team ONCE bike..

It's the same thing (other than material) as a Giant Trinity or Giant Aeryn (women's version)...

(As a matter of fact it is more stiff then the carbon bikes with all of extra gussets around the bottom bracket, not that I need it, but it's noticeable)

When I got the frame I never once considered riding it with time trial cowhorns and bar-end shifters...

Why?

For starters, it's my only bike and I've lived in places where space is at a premium. If I'm going to have a couple of bikes one will be set up to ride long distances in a near road position (I'm about 74.5 degrees actual (vs. 72 for pure road), the seat post is 74 degrees neutrally) and the other will be a mountain bike (which I have, well it's in the shop waiting on a new fork)..

Last summer I blogged about why I thought my folks would actually benefit from riding their TT bikes with road drops, ala Chrissie Wellington (and before that Thomas "Hell on Wheels" Hellriegel)

http://juhaviren.blogspot.com/2008/08/in-mean-time-people-still-think-they.html

Wellington's old coach, Brett Sutton goes on about why he set Chrissie up like this for all but straight line races.. You can read about it below as I linked to his interviews.

Outside of one season on a GT Edge TT bike w/cowhorns and bar ends I've always ridden this way, it doesn't make it right for everyone but for me the one full season I did ride exclusively on a TT bike I was uncomfortable much of the time and some days so much so I cut the ride short.

In the end, I knew I needed to optimize for comfort... The next two bikes had the same exact geometry and dimensions as the GT, the only change was swapping out the cockpit.

At any rate, in a racing situation, the idea is to stay as low and neat as possible...

When you see folks sitting up on the cow horns descending or cornering they aren't doing that; of course, it's better they don't take a risk and take a spill but here again, but I think we might be making another point for drops..

Anyway, here are Brett Sutton interviews:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Brett_Sutton_Interview_Part_1_j452.html

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Brett_Sutton_Interview_Part_2_459.html