Tour de Droopy: Part 3.0

I don't wanna come off as (too) smug, but I'm taking a victory lap because I told you so.

I was on my way home from Pisgah when I reentered the world of cell signal and was greeted with messages and texts about Mohorič winning the Milan-San Remo on a drooper post.

All because a fair amount of people remember that I said the drooper's day in the world of professional road cycling would come back in 2014, and I re-argued my point two years later in 2016. 

To say I was shitting my pants with joy would be an understatement.

In a nutshell, I've maintained the idea that if you're coasting on a descent, your gonna be faster with a drooper post than without one for a couple of reasons, aerodynamics and lower center of gravity.  Why and how did I figure this out back in 2014?

I bought my first drooper post back in November of 2013.

I guess I was taking photos with the camera built into my alarm clock back then.

The KS LEV was a short-lived experiment (because is sucked) and was quickly replaced with a Thomson 27.2 jawn in a manner of months.  The odd thing about any of this was I don't remember trying a drooper post beforehand.  Something about it just made total sense to me, and it wasn't long before I was full-commit, and every mountain bike I owned had to have a drooper.  Shortly after getting on a drooper, the Vertigo Meatplow V.7 was commissioned, and I was fully vested in droop life.

That year's Trans-Sylvania Epic was the real eye opener event for me.  Yeth, I enjoyed the drooper in technical and steep riding, but quite honestly, I was one of the few people showing up to endurance events with 600 grams (or so) of seat post, drooper button, and an extra cable.  By "few," I don't remember anyone else, save for the guys who were riding trail bikes... but as far as folks trying to get on a podium?  Not so much.

Yeth, I won the Queen Stage in 2014.

And I squeaked out a second place overall, because I used to be an "athlete."

Here was my big take away.  I'd been racing longer backcountry type events on a single speed ever since my first ORAMM in 2004.  One of the areas where I always struggled was that I could overtake riders on a climb, but only to lose it back (and then some) when heavier riders would just EFFORTLESSLY coast by me on open gravel or paved descents.  Back then, I was 120-125lbs, so just about everyone was heavier than me.  In 2006 (the first year of the NUE), I was late to the game of swapping over to 29" wheels, and that only made things worse.  I swapped to clown wheels (that was funny back then, emmaright?) in 2007, but that only brought the gap back to where it was before.  I would even do an insane super tuck position, sitting on the extremely sloped top tube of my Misfit Meatplow V.5, resting my bird chest on the top tube, and tucking my knees in so close to the violently spinning 2.35 Rampage tire that I'd end up bloody.

The results were the same.  Heavier riders would casually coast right by me... usually smiling... while I was wincing in pain from my uncomfortable position and knackered knee skins.

That all changed in 2014.  As I said, I was one of the first guys I'd seen trying to fight for the podium with a stupid drooper post.  I'd gained confidence in the technical bits and steeps, but the best part was that I was no longer getting dropped (or caught) on the coasting descents.  I would droop my post any time I hit more than 17MPH (best guess based on what I know now), put my hands next to the stem, elbows in, and just go.  It worked... for about a year... or so.

Then more and more and more single speeders started getting droopers, and now I'm back where I started.  It was good while it lasted... while I still cared.

But the writing was on the wall... and shortly after that, I wrote my first Tour de Droopy blerhg post in July 2014 basically saying that REAL drooper posts totally belong on road bikes and would someday make it into the world of Pro UCI road racing.

And now a drooper has stood on top of a podium in one of the big Classics.

Suck it, world.

Part two soon'ish.