Fitting Tina Pic
Team Colvita/Sutter Home rider and 4 time US National Criterium Champion Tina Pic was kind enough to entrust something so important as her bike set up to 55nine Performance. She visited me at the 55nine Performance headquarters equipped with her Blue Competition Cycles Rc7 road bike, T-14 time trail machine and enough spare parts to make any cycling connoisseur jealous. While I try to treat every client with equal importance, I could not help but be overly attentive in all I said and did with her. Tina is one of the most accomplished cyclists in the US and when it comes to sprinting, she is one of the best in the world. So why come to 55nine Performance at this point in her career? That’s easy. The best never stop trying to be better. Tina is the best in the business when is comes to standing up and sprinting, but when pedaling while seated 55nine was able to help her produce more power at a lower metabolic cost and improve her comfort. That means she’ll be able to arrive to the sprint fresher and position herself better prior to the actual sprints.
Tina may not be as well known for her time trialling, but that doesn’t mean they are unimportant to her. Sometimes she goes all out to take a leaders jersey, sometimes she is out there to lose time, so she will be allowed a bit more freedom at the front end of a stage race. It all depends on the tactics of the day. Either way, by fine tuning her position in a balance of power output, aerodynamics, comfort, & UCI rules we can help her arrive to the finish line faster &/or fresher.
After the fittings we took advantage of an oddly warm evening and went for a ride. My road bike is in the shop (it was in the back of my truck when I was rear ended last week in FL), so I was on my Kona King Kikapu.…knobby tires and all. Tina was on her race ready, 55nine fit Blue Rc7….I was in way over my head. She worked me for about an hour and half. I was comfortable on the steepest climbs and on the descents, but everywhere else I was working just to hold her wheel. If it were not for the traffic of riding in town, I would have been completely cooked.
Afterward, her and Namrita chatted a bit while readied myself to get on the rollers. Unfortunately, the wheel base on my Kona is a little longer than what is ideal for the rollers. If the front wheel turned even slightly it felt like it was going to slide right off. Within 20 minutes I had it under control, but just barely….then about an hour in I was doing tempo and nearly ate the wall in front of me. That was enough! I called it a night and will not be using the Kona on those rollers any time soon.
Eddie O