The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered what to do with all of the coolness that people write, and while I share a lot of it on Twitter/X and Facebook, this is a better forum for sending it on to y’all. Most times these different streams don’t overlap, so be on the lookout at all these places for good stuff!
So with that, let’s get into the action!
DCR Posts In the Past Week:
Here’s all the latest on the site:
Tuesday: Look’s New Road KEO Blade & SPD Power Meter Pedals: Hands-on!
A quieter week of travel for some product stuff, more to come soon!
YouTube Videos This Past Week:
Here’s what hit the tubes over on the You of Tube, definitely don’t forget to subscribe there to get notified of videos the second they hit!
Stuff I Found Interesting Around The Interwebs:
Here’s a not-so-small smattering of all the random things that I stumbled on while doing my civic duty to find the end of the Internet:
1) Behind F1’s Velvet Curtain: This article has caused all sorts of drama, where it was initially pulled from Road & Track because…well…it probably ticked off F1. I see this article as less about F1 tech/etc, and a more interesting comparison between cycling & F1 journalism/media coverage. The journalist (Kate Wagner), is also a writer at the Escape Collective, which has republished the pulled article in full.
2) Apple Fitness+ now on Gympass: This was apparently announced back in January, but it definitely slipped by my radar in the flood of CES news that week. Anyways, interesting.
3) Garmin’s inReach SOS Year in Review: This report charts every emergency button press, by location, type, and more. Worth a quick glance.
4) The engineering of Redbull’s 300KPH F1-chasing drone: You may have seen the social media snippets of that crazy F1 drone, but just in case you didn’t see some of the engineering aspects, the full Redbull YouTube video is worth a watch. Also, didn’t expect to have two F1 things in my round-up this week, since it’s been a very long time (if ever), since I’ve had even one F1 thing.
5) Peloton is testing more new games on their platforms: And these ones are definitely quite unique compared to the regular Peloton experience.
6) University research looking for data from age-group triathletes: Essentially they’re looking for 6-months of training data, and then a quick survey. You can enter here, or more details at the Slowtwitch post link above.
7) Nix Hydration Sensor Review: This came across my Twitter feed, and is quite well done. As some of you know, I started a review last year on the Nix Hydration Sensor, and had all assortment of problems. I did a large slate of tests, along with my wife, and also another friend as well. We did all the pre-workout naked weigh-ins (…not together with our friend), hydration and nutrition weight tracking, post-workout naked weigh-ins, etc… The whole thing. And TLDR: Nix was way off. Way way off. For all of us. All the time. Then, as I got close to review, Nix significantly changed their algorithms, to account for breathing losses. But I haven’t tested that. However, I have some hot-weather travel coming up next month, and will restart this entire naked circus again. In the meantime, that link/review seems to show exactly what I found a year ago, on virtually every level (from tech quirks to hydration data quirks)…except now just with current data/experience.
8) Anti-doping testers swoop Spanish amateur race, 130 riders abandon: Well then, seems like there might be something slightly more important for the UCI and related authorities to focus on than non-compliant socks.
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Thanks for reading!
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Great perspective on the Nix and agreed that it’s – not great. Garmin (at least my F945 and E1040) already provide estimates of water loss/hydration needs for workouts, is anyone aware of a systematic or informed look at accuracy of these? Minimum it seems to track to actual training temperature and indoor/outdoor activities.
The F1 article is behind a paywall. 🙁
I believe you get a certain number of free articles per month with Escape. In this case though, it’s also available via the internet archive: link to web.archive.org
No idea why they would try to get rid of the F1 article… Sure, it’s not praising F1, but other than that… nothing spectacular at all.
I am guessing but it might be that they invited a journalist on a trip to write nice things about F1 and get more US audience but she said things like this:
“Ferrari used to be the king of F1 but has been reduced to an often-futile chase of Red Bull’s dominance. Instead, Red Bull has so dominated the field of late the sport is barely worth watching at all.”
and
“That’s a lot of money for an ordinary person to splurge just to see Max Verstappen on pole and Max Verstappen P1”
and
“…no one there thought it made much difference whether we went on qualifying or race day. The results would be the same: Max Verstappen pole, Max Verstappen P1.”
Plus the comments about the wealthy and insta-famous probably didn’t help either.
Nice insight on Lewis though.
Just my thoughts.
Sadly, this is 100% true. Yes, Red Bull should not be punished for developing a better car, but why do they not replace Checo? Someone like Fernando, Lando and even Lewis will drive for Red Bull if given the opportunity, and provide much better competition for Max. Unfortunately, no journalist are asking this question.
The F1 drone video is unbelievably cool. Thanks Ray.
Go back and watch 1988 and 1989 Tour de France. The bikes are not so different but the guys are suffering so much more. They don’t always bounce back 100% from day to day.
Particularly look then at 1990 and 1991. Chisppuci in particular went from being ground down day by day to just attacking every day in the mountains and riding by himself off the front for hours like it was nothing.
Now everyone seems superhuman. People are going at absurd speeds over mountain passes in grave at 20% grade now.
It’s not that bikes are 4kg lighter and “incremental gains”. There is something else. It’s not that Lance Armstrong was some kind of outlier. This is a sport of high tech and not just in the training, nutrition, and gear.
Watch the changes in Indurain too. It’s a miracle that I don’t think is possible on effort alone. Indurain is such a mensch that we don’t want to think badly of him. But he and Banesto worked with Conconi and Delgado tested positive and got off on a technicality of a variance in UCI and Olympic doping rules.
Michele Ferrari who masterminded the Postal / Discovery doping program was trained by Conconi.
It is all conjecture and circumstantial. But my assessment is that it has never stopped. The outlier is that Armstrong and Landis were American and so they were thrown under the bus. (Also Lance not very likable.)
When I was a cat 2 in the 1990s in the US drugs were common. Especially asthma inhalers for people without asthma. (Like Froome and Salbutamol.) And steroids and stimulants.
It’s a brutal sport and there is no doubt these guys race hard and suffer for victory. But I doubt anyone is clean in the pro peloton.
“This is a sport of high tech and not just in the training, nutrition, and gear.”
I think it’s both a combination of everything that’s been gained from tech and not tech, and undoubtedly a bit of doping still occurring. Likewise, doing things right at the very edge of that line (what is considered doping vs not).
Tech advances are certainly huge, but so are massive advances in how to train, how to ensure the body is more recovered, and how to properly fuel it before, during and after a race. Some of these things matter more for a 3-week race, than they do a one-off crit or single stage race. The non-tech things are arguably the biggest advancements in the last 20-30 years, heck, even fueling strategies in the last 3-4 years has gone a massive change. Same goes for cooling strategies.
But certainly, doping is still a part of it.
If performance enhancing drugs somehow did not exist, we would have still seen a huge drop in race surprises from the introduction of power meters and the increase in understanding that comes from that data. This happened roughly in parallel with the EPO wave, so we can’t really separate one influence from the other.
thanks….garmin sos info is a good read
No comments on FCC filing for new Hammerhead Karoo?
That should be this one: ?
link to fccid.io
Looks like it, not even the slightest attempt at keeping the product name out of the pre-release files.
Noteworthy is the absence of cellular frequencies in the certification, guess they did some statistics about how many buyers actually put in a SIM.
Ray certainly won’t comment on anything while under NDA.
Sorry can’t edit:
Screenshot of menu:
link to fccid.io
Device measurements:
link to fccid.io
Sir, yes Sir!
In addition to your STUFF I FOUND INTERESTING AROUND THE INTERWEBS:
link to mantel.com
Although the link says 2, the site says 3 already.
Is there, finaly, news comming in march/april Ray?
For the lack of anywhere else to put:
Ray, has your dog a Strava account yet?
When will we see the review for Fi: link to tryfi.com
Haha, no Strava account for Lucy yet.