2010 Tour de France: Stage 7, Tournus - Station des Rousses, 165.5 km

[limerickman]

Wearing my parochial hat - it is something else to see Nicholas Roche at 8th place on GC.

23 years after his dad won the TDF.

 

[limerickman]

Great ride by Chavanel, another stage win and the yellow jersey. Pineau also doing a great stage, clocking up lots of points for the polka dot jersey. Probably see him going off the front again on Tuesday.

Can't wait until they post the full stage results, it'll be interesting to know who had the most team mates in that front group.

Yeah great rides for all those riders that you mentioned.

Hondo impressed today, I thought as well.
And the rider who finished second did really well too.

 

[slinea3]

I was hoping to get some opinions from people who actually have these bikes, or have ridden them.

I am a mountain biker, that said, I have a fixed gear road bike for exercise because I fell in love with them. I have ridden the Trek 1.5 and really liked it, although I was borrowing one that was several sizes to small for me. I am probably going to do the MS150 (~180 miles) this coming year (April I believe). I will need to buy a decent bike to train with and use in that ride. I'd like to stay around $1k, prefer to go new unless I know exactly what I'm getting used.

Since I've ridden the Trek 1.5, it is at the top on my list. How does it compare with the following:

Fuji Roubaix 2.0 Road Bike
Fuji Roubaix ACR 3.0 Road Bike
Specialized Allez Sport Triple
Specialized Secteur Sport Compact
Trek 1.5
Trek 2.1

Thanks for the insight, all of these should be available to me locally so I can test ride to be sure I get the sizing right (not sure if I need 58cm or 60cm)

Also have a question about "compact", I see it listed on the Trek 1.5 too, what does that mean?

 

[garage sale GT]

A compact frame is a frame with a sloping top tube, which allows more standover clearance while still having a headset height that doesn't require a tall stem.
 
A compact double is a smaller set of two front chainrings, usually something like 50-34 instead of 52-39.

 

[oldbobcat]

Originally Posted by slinea3 .

Also have a question about "compact", I see it listed on the Trek 1.5 too, what does that mean?

When Trek or Specialized talk about compact, they're talking about the crankset. Compact gearing means using a double-chainring crank that is designed for smaller chainrings. This gives a wider gearing jump between the two rings, which can give the rider the same practical top end gearing as a standard double crank and almost as low bottom end gearing as a triple crank, without the overhead and overlap of a triple.

I enthusiastically recommend compact double gearing for mortals who (a) are reasonably fit and ambitious or (b) who don't live in mountainous regions.

Of these bikes I prefer the Allez and the Treks, mainly for their lighter, more nimble frame designs. Fuji is a bit of an odd brand--their MSRPs are absurdly high but all the dealers discount them so deeply that you can usually get a drivetrain upgrade over a comparably priced Trek or Specialized.

Beware of sizing. Fuji measures their bikes differently. Size down about 3 centimeters from what you'd take in a Trek. Specialized runs a just little larger than Trek. For example, I sit on a 58 cm Trek quite nicely, but on Specialized I'd prefer a 56 with a slightly longer stem.

And the Trek 2.1 is quite an upgrade in frame and components over the 1.5 and the Allez.