VeloNews Photography | Blade Re-Sharpened: Notice the shape of the top ... | The Journal of Competitive Cycling.

VeloNews Photography | Blade Re-Sharpened: Notice the shape of the top ... | The Journal of Competitive Cycling.

Litespeed's TT Bike

VeloNews | After a two-year hiatus, Litespeed's TT bike is back and looks sharper than ever. | The Journal of Competitive Cycling.

After a two-year hiatus, Litespeed's TT bike is back and looks sharper than ever.
By Robbie Stout
Posted Mar. 13, 2009
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Blade Re-Sharpened: The new Blade has super high-profile frame tubes.
Blade Re-Sharpened: The new Blade has super high-profile frame tubes.
Photo: Robbie Stout

Re-introduced in September 2008, after a two year hiatus, the Litespeed Blade is a bike with a storied history. The signature titanium airfoil tube shape was created by accident in the early 1990s and brought to widespread prominence when Lance Armstrong used one (disguised as a Trek) in the 1999 Tour de France. Ten years after that historic ride, Litespeed is wielding a totally new Blade, and we had a chance to check out one of the first bikes to leave the test lab.
Sharpening the Blade

I drove to Moab, Utah, a month ago for a training camp with Chip Chilson of Aspen Sport Performance. The Litespeed Blade ridden by Chilson is the first to be released outside of the company. Litespeed engineer Brad DeVaney met Chilson a few years ago at an Interbike dinner and felt that he would be a good candidate to test the prototype Blade.
Blade Re-Sharpened: The new Blade has downtube cable routing and an under-stay rear brake.
Blade Re-Sharpened: The new Blade has downtube cable routing and an under-stay rear brake.
Photo: Robbie Stout

Though the geometry on Chilson's Blade is custom, it gave DeVaney a chance to test the capabilities of the manufacturing process. "We're also creating tools and fixtures to build the bike while we build the bike," said DeVaney. The process used to create the dramatic titanium tube shapes requires innovative methods and tools that didn't exist until the design of the Blade was created.
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More than ever, the storied Litespeed time trial bike lives up to its name. This new Blade has drastically flatter tubes that taper off into a sharp edge. Using 3/2.5 titanium, a more malleable alloy branded “T1,” Litespeed is able to achieve the ultra-narrow tube profiles for the Blade. A front view of the Blade shows the efforts that were made — the frame has a broad side profile and minimal frontal area. The seat tube similarly takes an extreme approach to aerodynamics and to match the effort, Litespeed created a bladed seatpost. Finally, the top tube is triangle-shaped, flat on top and pointed on the bottom, providing added lateral stiffness with minimal side and frontal exposure.
Blade Re-Sharpened: The downtube is left open at the bottom.
Blade Re-Sharpened: The downtube is left open at the bottom.
Photo: Robbie Stout

The wing-like downtube also functions as a conduit for internal routing of the rear brake and derailleur cables. Cables enter near the headtube and exit the open-ended downtube at the bottom bracket junction. As on a growing number of time trial bikes, the rear brake is mounted to the chainstay bridge for maximum aerodynamics.

To complete the package, Litespeed designed a matching titanium aero fork. As a gesture to the stealthy aesthetics of the frame, the logo is printed in black and placed on the inside of the fork, keeping the visible side uncluttered.
Blade Re-Sharpened: The bike is almost two-dimensional.
Blade Re-Sharpened: The bike is almost two-dimensional.
Photo: Robbie Stout

Component Highlights of Chilson's bike:

* Wheels: ZIPP 1080 Tubular Rear and 808 Front
* Handlebar: Zipp VukaAero
* Stem: Look Ergostem
* Drivetrain: Wireless SRM FSA K-Force Light with ceramic bearings
* Saddle: ISM Adamo Racing

A slice through time: the history of the Blade

In this era of carbon fiber, a material permitting almost any frame shape imaginable, a titanium time trial bike radically bucks the trend. But the Blade has a legendary history that lends credibility to this latest iteration.

In 1992, DeVaney was shaping a large titanium tube that was meant for a tandem. Just as he had it heated and under pressure from the press, the tube cracked. "Once a tube is cracked, it's garbage," recalled DeVaney, "Therefore in my frustration, anger, embarrassment, I completely squished the cracked tube as I bottomed the press faces together." At that moment a second crack and pop were heard. When the press was raised, to DeVaney's surprise, there lay two perfectly symmetrical, slightly ovalized halves of a tube. "I was off the hook by having mistakenly formed the first Blade tube halves," he said, "I dressed the edges and had the two parts welded into a tube immediately."
Blade Re-Sharpened: Notice the shape of the top tube and the narrow profile.
Blade Re-Sharpened: Notice the shape of the top tube and the narrow profile.
Photo: Robbie Stout

After the initial discovery, Litespeed developed a more consistent, cost-effective process of manufacturing tubes for the Blade. After four years of research and development the Blade was first brought to production in 1995, said Litespeed's Chris Brown.

DeVaney then worked with Steve Hegg and Lance Armstrong in 1996 on building the best available time trial bike. Hegg won his third elite U.S. national time trial championship and Armstrong won the final time trial (and overall) at the Tour DuPont in 1996 on a Blade.
Blade Re-Sharpened: That's no Trek under that paint.
Blade Re-Sharpened: That's no Trek under that paint.
Photo: Graham Watson

In 1998, Armstrong called DeVaney seeking a UCI-legal time trial bike for the 1999 Tour de France. He went on to race the prologue and time trial on a Blade, painted blue with Trek decals.

Not only did Armstrong famously ride a Blade, the RLX Polo Sport triathlon team used the Blade in 2002 and 2003, as did the Lotto-Adecco team at the 2002 Tour de France.
Carving a new niche

Now after 14 years and 12 generations of the Blade, Litespeed has once again designed a time trial bike unlike any other on the market.

Even though Chilson’s frame is a prototype, the design is virtually complete. “It’s down to aesthetics,” says DeVaney, “When a bike is at that segment of the market you just don’t make any compromises.” By “aesthetics,” he means the slightest details of joints and welds, not so much the shape of the main tubes.

Due in part to the high price tag of the new Blade, upwards of $10,000, DeVaney expects that a good percentage of these bikes will be made with custom geometry — Litespeed has the capacity to make every Blade fit like a glove.

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Top Stories > More Tech Articles

HyperPower Protocol #4 -- The Redemption

HyperPower Protocol #4 -- The Redemption - The Cycling Network

I sure am glad I'm not doing this workout tonight with the boys.
This is the exact email I sent them:


Hope you are psyched cuz tonight's gonna be off da hook.

Everyone's zones increased based on the files I received from last week, including the power profile test if you sent me one.

There is one caveat in that if you are feeling tired, we will modify (especially in Orion's case).

However, tonight's workout is going to challenge you to the next level...meaning, remember the flow we spoke about last week where the first workout was kind of an opener but was perhaps too conservative, the second one was tough and the last one felt easier. Well, my bet is that this one will be tough again.

So gear up mentally because I'm sure physically you've already done all the right stuff.

Now, don't get hung up on the primary digits of your zones. Just round up or down as appropriate (example: Mike's will target 355 or 360 watts for the first 5min workout, Orion 420, Stan 350 and so on).

I sure am glad I'm not doing this with you!!!

Kam

HyperPower Protocol -- mid-way analysis

HyperPower Protocol -- mid-way analysis - The Cycling Network

We are 3 weeks into our HyperPower Protocol and everyone is doing great. Some are feeling a bit fatigued and others are thriving under the workload.

Last week's session was a fun one in that our guest coach, Hunter Allen, added an element of support and inspiration to help us through the grueling 3rd week workout.

I don't know if it was Hunter's presence, the added fitness or perhaps a little bit of both, but all four athletes commented that last week's workout felt easier than the previous week's protocol (number 2). Since I did not reduce the workload nor their target power zones, it must be the combination of gained fitness and Hunter's presence that added that extra OOMPH the boys needed.

Last week ended with a scheduling of the second Power Profile Test, which the athletes performed before our very first session to establish a baseline of their fitness. This very same test will be performed again at the end of the HPP to measure the fitness gained during this 6-week protocol. Take a peak at the PPT and see what entails this test.

Only two of the four athletes had the opportunity to perform this test and their results are posted on the published spreadsheet we use through Google. Take a look at each athlete's numbers by clicking on their name in the tabs on the bottom of the spreadsheet.

One athlete, Orion Berryman, participated in what turned out to be an epic road race with regards to the conditions: snow, wind and cold hammered the racers at this year's Boulevard Road Race in San Diego East County.

Orion did well just to hang in there with the conditions, let alone taking 26th in the Pro 1-2 race, a race in which 2/3 of the field dropped out. From a coaching perspective, Orion is sure to pay for that race for a few days and so I will modify his Wednesday training with either lower power zone targets or have him do only 1/2 the number of intervals by taking twice the rest.

A quick look at Orion's performance management chart reveals several interesting things.

1. His Chronic Training Load (CTL) is heading in the right direction. CTL has long-term effects and measures the accumulation of long-term training. Is Orion training effectively to peak at a later date? The answer is YES. The trick is to make sure CTL doesn't rise too aggressively and that he backs off in time to peak for his season's top event(s).

2. His Acute Training Load (ATL) shows a more erratic pattern but this is to be expected as athletes mix high-intensity days of training with easy recovery days during the week. What is important to note is the deep trough before the sudden peak towards the right side of the graph. This says that Orion took it easy the day before Boulevard and that it was a hard race for him. The astute observer will notice that the ATL for the Boulevard race is not as high as the first HPP session or the few workouts after that. The answer is that while the first HPP was certainly hard, because of missing data prior to the first HPP the algorithms used to measure ATL and CTL will measure the physiological impact of the first workout against no workouts. In other words, the software assume Orion suddenly put away his potato chips, wiped his hands on his T-shirt and jumped on his bike to do a massive workout. And, we know that while he may have wiped his hands on his T-shirt, Orion is certainly favors spicy tortilla chips to potato chips.

3. Because of the longer interval requirements associated with a road race, I would expect to see power numbers for longer than 5min intervals to head up. And, we certainly see this happen in 5, 10 and 15min power graphs. And we see a drop in all the less than 5min power zones, including 2min, 1min and 15sec power...the same 15sec power that we have been hammering on during the HPP. Oh, Orion...how could you? Nah! This to be expected because in reality, we don't expect to see too many all out 15sec bursts and the road race, especially Boulevard, is mostly about sustained effort. So, in a sense, one could say that Orion was perhaps not doing the right kind of training for Boulevard, which is okay because it is very tough to train effectively for that race the first year out. I my opinion, it takes one year to learn the course and one year to train for it effectively.

4. Last, and perhaps most importantly, Orion's Training Stress Balance (TSB) is headed in the right direction, up, which indicates that there is a high probability that he would have had good legs for the race last weekend. TSB, oversimplified, is a measure of how good you can expect to feel for a particular ride, whether it is training or racing. TSB is a function of work and recovery, the two "duh" variables needed to gain performance in athletics. A positive TSB number means there is a greater chance of the athletes being ready for a good performance. A negative TSB means the opposite.

Thanks for reading.

Coach Kam

HyperPower Protocol -- sesssion 2 analysis

HyperPower Protocol -- sesssion 2 analysis - The Cycling Network

Per the previous post, I would like to remind you that a thorough analysis of our week-day sessions is perhaps not as advantageous as the analysis of the three Power Profile Tests (PPT) that the athletes perform before we start the HyperPower Protocol (HPP) to establish a baseline of their fitness, at the half-way point to determine how they are reacting to the HPP and at the end of the protocol to determine fitness gains from this 6-week program.

By keeping the PPT the same, we can use performance in it to determine the effectiveness of the HPP for this sample of athletes. By keeping it the same, I mean to try and duplicate as much of the physiological and environment variables present during the times they performed the first PPT....within reason.
Having said all of this, in this post I will walk through some of the basic things I do when I look at a power file from a HPP session. Some of these were covered in a previous post and you should refer to it for reference. And CyclingPeaks does a fine job of introducing you to the basic elements of power-file analysis here.

For this post, I will look at Mike Ash's file from our second HPP session on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at B&L Bike and Sport in Solana Beach.

After bringing up Mike's file for the session, the first thing I do is to look at the Summary of the workout either in the journal or graph view of Mike's file.


I am interested in a few numbers from this data by doing down the list:

1. The duration of the workout is useful, adding further context into how hard this ride was for Mike when combined with the other data such as energy expenditure (presented in KJs of work) and the Training Stress Score (TSS) and Intensity Factors. I invite you to visit CyclinePeaks to learn more about what goes into and how TSS, IF and Normalized Power are calculated and why they are useful and more about TSS and IF below. But for now, I just want to see how long Mike rode, in this case 90 minutes total time.

2. Next is the measure of the real work Mike performed during this ride. I say real work because a power meter measures actual force applied to propelling a rider forward, which is one of its advantages over other meters such as heart rate monitors that measure physiological changes, in this case to your heart and other body parts attached to it: where a heart rate monitor measures changes to your heart and power meter also measures how much work you are doing to move forward. With a heart rate monitor you can fool your coach if you, for example, ride at 10mph and hold your breath so that your HR goes up. With a power meter, no such luck! We, coaches, love power meters!!! In Mike's case, we can say (for simplicity sake) that he performed a 827kj ride.

For more advanced riders, I often prescribe a work ride followed by specific intervals once that work has been performed. Such as: go on a long group ride to burn 3,000kj then do 3X10min intervals at 90% of your LT with 10min recovery in between. For Mike, averaging his number to about 415kj/hr, we can determine that overall this ride appears to be moderately paced. In other words, if the analysis were to stop right here (90min ride and 827kj of work), I would think Mike was out on a moderately paced endurance ride with his friends talking pretty much the entire time. However, the analysis is not yet done and we press on.

3. Next are the TSS and IF scores briefly mentioned in #1 above. If you want to geek about TSS, IF, Performance Management and more, feel free to visit this document written by Andy Coggan, Ph.D. But for the rest of us, to put it briefly, TSS represents a calculated number that takes into account the duration and intensity of a workout to arrive at one, single score of the overall training load and physiological stress created by that session. For example, a TSS score of 100 with an IF of 1.0, correlates with one hour of effort at your lactate threshold, or a one hour honest-effort Time Trial!

This is where it starts to get interesting. For Mike, a TSS score of about 130 and IF of 0.93 means that he was not putting around and that he actually did some good work during this workout. This TSS score means that he may feel some residue fatigue in his legs the day after, which is valuable information in planning the rest of his rides for the week and the IF score tells me that he kept the effort level honest. Now I want to discern the quality of work that Mike has actually done and to answer this question I refer to the rest of the numbers.

4. I look at Mike’s Normalized Power next and just make a note of it, again in context with the other numbers. His normalized power of 215 watts for this ride is close to the Functional Threshold Power that we assumed for Mike, 250 watts, even though we know from prior lab work that his true Lactate Threshold is somewhere around 300 depending on the season. We purposefully underestimated FTP numbers for all athletes for the first few weeks so that we would get to know one another better and give them the opportunity to ease into the HPP. Okay, so with this number I now know that Mike for sure did not putt around during this workout and that perhaps he performed intense bouts of work followed by intense bouts of recovery, which is right in line with one of the primary goals of HPP: lots of short burst intensity and recovery.

5. I also look at the total distance. In this case, Mike covered the equivalent of 20 miles in about two hours. This is an honest ride on the road, especially given all the easy recovery spinning we did! Good to know…again, in context with the other data.

6. Last, I also look at average, min and max numbers for power and heart rate, although I do not give too much weight to these numbers because there is a ceiling to the max power Mike puts out under the controlled intervals of the HPP. I also look at his heart rate briefly to gauge what the physiological cost on his body was like during the workout…a higher than normal HR means that he was really working and that perhaps he was tired or fighting something. This is why it is a good idea to know and track your morning heart rate frequently…a significant swing up could mean you are fighting something and should adjust your training accordingly. In Mike’s case, I am interested in the max watts number in relation to the normalized and average power. The greater this gap, the better I like it in regards to the HPP. If his were an actual road ride or race, his max power would be a lot higher…and I know this because I have seen him hit and hold 1500-1700 watts consistently during hard rides and races. Power and heart rate numbers are within norm and so we move on.

With all of these numbers noted and properly stored in my brain, I now turn to the graph. Again, you may want to refer to the previous blog post in which I analyzed Stan’s file.

I toggle the view the entire graph, smooth it to 10% and draw a horizontal power line across Mike's approximate FTP at about 250 watts: this line will help me visually determine how many times Mike went over his estimated zone. You may also want to toggle some of the other numbers such as speed and cadence to view a cleaner graph.


I then go back to the Stacked Graph view to dissect Mike's ride more closely, following the graphs as I remember the workout.

One of the most valuable variables in a coaching-athlete relationship is the knowledge coaches gain of their athletes through time. I have worked with Mike for a number of years now and know, pretty much, what type of athlete he is. I know, for example, that Mike is an enthusiastic, energetic guy and likes to push himself and to go above what is prescribed for him. Normally, in training, this can be advantageous...unless it backfires. And, in this session, Mike's enthusiastic and energetic to make the most of his workout backfired on him. In addition to coming to the workout a bit tired, Mike pushed himself way above his prescribed numbers as evident in this graph. The circles areas are times when Mike pushed himself, perhaps not to his limit, but enough that he paid for it later on in the workout: notice the absence of consistency in the final set of intervals, especially around an hour and 15 minutes. The highlighted section is the longest interval during the workout: 25 minutes at 150% of his FTP.


Well, believe it or not that is it! Coaching is about utilizing tools and science to combine with quite a bit of art and experience to formulate a program that will help an athlete achieve his/her goals with the least amount of effort and quickest possible time.

Having knowledge of Mike's abilities combined with this data I know that physiologically he will be a bit fatigued for the next couple of days. I also know that Mike is a bit stressed at work and that perhaps the stress will interfere with his recovery. I also know Mike to be resilient and know he will keep at it until things turn around. My coaching suggestions for Mike of the coming days are to:
1. Keep your rides relatively short and at no harder than endurance level.
2. Learn from last Wednesday's physiological tax and come to the next workout with a plan to avoid the mistakes of the previous session.
3. Learning from these mistakes will keep him from beating himself up mentally.
4. Mike spends the weekends with his family and does not get the opportunity to ride. Get in a couple of 90-120min rides over the coming two days, perhaps ride to and from work, to enjoy your weekend with your family.

I wish you success with your training and thanks for following our HyperPower Protocol.

Kam

Competitor Film Festival

In effect! Showing of a few really good sport oriented movies, ending with the feature presenation of the classic cycling move, Breaking Away. Goin on now...today...at the La Paloma in Encinitas.

HyperPower Protocol: second session

We are approaching the second HyperPower Protocol© (HPP) workout on Wednesday at B&L Bike and Sport. Last week’s session went as smoothly as expected and all four volunteer athletes (Mike, Orion, Jon and Stan) did wonderfully. All four athletes use PowerTap by Saris Cycling and also used the CycleOps fluid trainer. Very much a coincidence! Stan is borrowing a PowerTap wireless unit from a friend, Orion is using my trainer and Jon got to borrow one of the fluid trainers from B&L.

I kept their target power zones on the conservative side for this first workout but it was still challenging for them and they did well to adapt to the unknown. They have all sent me their power files and I have completed some high-level analysis using CyclingPeaks Software. I used Stan’s file as an example to show how I go about analyzing a power file in the last post. I will continue to rotate through each athlete by rotating through their files for all future posts. You can see Stan’s analysis at this link: http://raceplan.ning.com/profiles/blogs/some-initial-analysis-of

Based on the feedback I have received so far, I feel the need to say something about the value of analysis of these session power files. Here is the story, told as clearly as I can. The real value of analysis in power files for the HPP comes from not the Wednesday interval workout, but from the Power Profile Test (PPT) benchmark workouts that each athlete will perform before we start training, at the halfway point and again at the end of the protocol in six weeks.

1. The baseline: The PPT will establish the baseline of fitness: how fit is the athlete right now using a series of challenging intervals.

2. The halfway marker: The PPT is performed again at the halfway point to gauge how the athlete is responding. The main question I will look to answer is whether each athlete’s power zones are on target, too high or too low, and by how much?

3. The final goal: The PPT is once again completed at the end of the protocol to help measure gains made from before we embarked on the protocol as well as at the halfway point.

For the second workout, since I started each athlete conservatively, we can afford to increase their target power zones by between 15-20 percent!

Our second Wednesday workout will consist of the following:

· Warm up: 10min general spin

· Openers:

o 2min all out, 2min recovery

o 3X 30sec all out, 30 sec recovery

o 2min spin

o 3X 1min @ LT, 1min recovery

o 5min spin

· Main set #1: 5min worth of 15sec on/off @ 150% LT

· Rest

· Main set #2: 25min worth of 15sec on/off @ 100%-125% LT

· Rest

· Main set #3: 7.5min worth of 15sec on/off at 200% LT

· Cool down

Each athlete has their own specific power zones to follow, which you can see and follow using Google Docs: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pSz8qle8MBKBw4r1GX4Xqag

To see all the workouts, visit this post: http://raceplan.ning.com/profiles/blogs/hyper-power-protocol-test

See this link to access all the HyperPower Protocol posts, pictures and video: http://raceplan.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=hyperpower

You can also find us on Facebook at this link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=49709292186

Check back to see photos, video and more analysis of these brave athletes as they tackle the HPP!

As always, comments welcome.

Kam