Tire rant.

This year we're really lucky to get a tire sponsor, Continental, and I've been really impressed by their new rubber compound -- "black chili". The "gummi" is super sticky and is an improvement on last year's compound: I think as a general rule in road / track cycling, softer compounds are better than hard. This isn't necessarily true off-road where tire squirm and knob stiffness are a factor, nor is it true in motorsports in which heat cycling, track temperature, and tire wear must also be taken into consideration.

Even though it's a bit more expensive, I only train on racing tires. If that little extra grip can save me from crash a year, it's worth it to me. Other things I do to increase grip is run a lower tire pressure (on the road) 6-7.5atm / 90-115psi. It boggles my mind when people run 120-170psi -- who wants more rolling resistance and lower corner speed? I once won a fairly big crit by sprinting from 300m out and leading it into the last corner. I'm convinced I won it on agility -- I was running Michelin Pro Grips at 95psi, I only weigh 135lb, and this allowed me to take the corner faster and also get back on the gas before everyone else.

One nice thing these days is that there are many great clinchers out there and if you look at the studies, the best clinchers perform just as well,if not beat,the best tubulars in terms of rolling resistance. However, I think tubulars still have an edge on clinchers for grip, and their much better clinchers in a blow out. I've been able to ride out a front blowout at 56kph in a scratch race--and I sure was glad I was on my tubies.