Unlike road bikes, it’s very easy to get a preliminary sense of a TT bike just by looking at it. There’s just so many more features to look at. I like to check out the tube shapes, to see who uses a true airfoil. The point isn’t that the bikes will go THAT much faster with a proper tube cross section – I’m sure the difference is minimal. But it tells me who’s designing bikes with engineering in mind and who has marketing in mind.

Also, it was very apparent from the show that the TT bike arms race will eventually require companies to incorporate certain features.

*The rear wheel must be covered as much as possible. Some will copy the P3’s curved seat tube, others will cheat by extending a straight seat tube back as far as possible.

*Brakes will have to be hidden behind the fork and under the seatstays. Word is that the hiding the front brake makes more of a difference.

*The head tube will be hinged, with a fairing attached to the fork. Who knows if this is faster, but it sure looks cool.

*Downtubes will extend to form a fairing for the front wheel. See above. However, make it too close and you won’t have room to tuck that front brake behind the fork.

*Seatposts will have two mounts so you can ride UCI legal or super steep for tri’s.

*The rear wheel will be tucked in so close that the dropouts will have to open to the rear. Some will be adjustable like Cervelos.

*Cables will be routed internally.

Schmalz: I agree with Andy, the future of the TT bike is all in the details zzzzzz……….

Schmalz mockery in italics.