I am an newbie to this sport and plan on participating in someraces this year. I plan on doing some short tri's (sprints) but more all road bike races. I already have my clip on aero bars for the tri's and am planning to purchase lighter wheels for races.
My questions are 1) are "aero bars" not allowed for all road bike races (other than time trials)? 2) Amongst the Zipp wheel line up what is acceptable for all road bike races (other than time trials)? are Zipp 404 acceptable for all road bike races? I'm assuming disc wheels are not allowed for road bike races, right?
The reason I ask is that I don't want to purchase a wheel set that is fine for triathlons and are illegal for purely bike races. I'd rather be optimized for the bike races than the triathlons.
No you can't have aero bars in a mass start race, thats a UCI rule. Theory is that its too hard to get from the bars to the breaks. If you are on the drops the breaks are right there.
Secondly, there are UCI approved wheels. Basically, 'normal' wheels are fine and anything else has to be tested. The UCI doesn't want a carbon wheel breaking in half and spearing someone. Check out the wheels on the website, or ask at your LBS, they will know if they are legal.
