New race wheels...

Today I went for a nice little group ride with my wife and a few other guys, including a very promising new Jr. in our are who, mark my words, will be mixing it up in the Pro 1/2 races by the end of the year.

When we rolled in, there are the porch, thanks to sponsor Zipp, were my new race wheels for this year. Drum roll please.... 808 Tubulars.

Now, some might think its "too heavy" and more of a TT wheel or that they are n0t light enough to accelerate out of the corners at a crit, (i hear that one a bunch). Well its like this, aero always wins over weight...well almost always. Ideally I would like to have a set of 303's for hill climbs 404 for really hilly road races, I would use a 404 front and 808 rear if it was extremely windy, and 808's the rest of the time. But... I can only have one set of wheels so the best choice for an "all around" wheel is the 808's. Like I said aero always wins, even if there are some hills, and they are a bit heavier, the races around here have more terrain where a more aero wheel will save you way more time than a lighter one on the few hills. You save way more watts in a crit by a wheel that rolls through the wind at 25 mph, than you do with a "light" one that may accelerate out of the corners just a tad easier. Once you have ANY wheel rolling at such speeds, weight begins to make less and less difference and aerodynamics become MORE important.