When two passionate age groupers as serious as Donovan Geldenhuys and Paul Muller chew the fat to agree on a key piece of tri gear, it’s always interesting to hear the verdict. You know they tested properly when they debut the gear at Ironman 70.3 East London and finished with times of 4:05:25 and 4:52:40 coming first and ninth in the scarily competitive M40-44 age group.
While compression’s relationship with performance is still up for debate, as we’ve recently learned from Dr. Laura Redman and Physio Grethe, there is no doubt that feeling well definitely makes you faster, performance is just as much mental as it is physical. So when 2XU launched their new tri suit, featuring strategic compression panels, our interest was piqued.
Paul says: “The one piece of equipment that gets used in all 3 disciplines and can cause the most discomfort if not carefully selected is the Trisuit, I’m sure there’s a few people out there that have made that last minute decision to buy a new suit at the expo to make sure they look legit on race day! - Or took a last minute delivery of their club kit only to find that come race day they had made a monumental mistake!”
“A poorly fitted trisuit not only looks horrendous, but nullifies all the attempts you have made to get aero on the bike - either because of inferior materials or because you keep adjusting your position with the saddle shuffle because the chamois feels like it has razor blades in it!” We all know the nervous feeling of racing with a new piece of gear, even if you have trained in it, race day always magnifies the smallest issues and unearths previously unnoticed niggles. Paul is no different and had his apprehensions going into race day. “I must be honest I was a bit nervous racing in a “Compression” Trisuit but the technology sits in just the right areas specifically on the quads and has a great feel while racing . The upgraded pro Chamois is also well positioned and provides ample support where it's needed most! One of the best features in my opinion is the mix of materials in the upper half, the suit is constructed from a top quality breathable mesh making use of their COLDBLOCK technology which improves airflow but prevents harmful UV rays from toasting you out there over the longer distances.”
Age Group world champion Don (aka The Dutch) also applauded the materials, “I’m someone who gets cold very easily, at the most recent race the weather wasn’t pleasant early on and after a very cold swim onto the bike, I found the suit kept me nice and warm and when things heated up later in the day ventilation was great in terms of cooling effect. The compression section around the legs worked fantastically, nice tight fitting around the quads and hamstrings which ensure ample blood flow and protection, while working hard on the rough bike.” “The suit highlight for me is the option with a complete zip down in front. You can drop the upper half of the suit for the swim and just easily zip it up should you not want to swim with suit on, but I found that the fit and material around the shoulder area is perfect and I swim with the top half of suit on without any issues.
Conclusion - "If you prefer racing in a suit that is very well fitted, on the tighter end which helps massively for aero dynamics and at the same time have no restriction on movement this is definitely a high end tri suit to consider.”
Learn more about the new 2XU tri suit at https://2xu.co.za/