Clinchers as Race Wheels, Are you Serious?

Clinchers have come a long way in this sport, 20 years ago when I started racing I wouldn’t have dreamed about lining up for a race with clinchers on my bike. Back then the majority of people even trained on tubulars. Despite tubular’s lighter weight and better road feel, I eventually switched to clinchers for training, entering the dark side. I now train on clinchers full time and have even raced on them for a few seasons in the past, mostly due to economic situations, not choice. That is until now. This past weekend I got a chance to race on Zipp’s new 404 clincher. I raced on a hilly 70 mile road course on Saturday and a tight technical 6 turn Criterium course on Sunday with a section of pavers. Two completely different courses and the wheels remarkably performed flawlessly. I am shocked to say in the least, I am a firm believer in Zipp’s magic, but to make a full carbon clincher that is so versatile is truly a miracle. They did go to the drawing board with this one, making a wheel unlike any other carbon clincher on the market. What sets it apart is the rim shape. Saying the wheel is wide is a gross understatement, it is wide enough that I had to open my brakes almost fully to use them, but in that width you get two clear advantages. First, the wheel is very stiff making it super responsive and second, the wider tire bead stretches the tire out a bit allowing you to run a slighter lower pressure that gives your high quality clinchers an almost tubular like feel. Everyone wants to know how fast the wheels are, well to give you an idea, on the descents in Saturday’s race I would go from mid pack to shooting off the front by just coasting. The faster you go, the more these wheels just work. Then on Sunday I ran only a 100 lbs of pressure in the tires and they tracked perfectly on the pavers and in the tight, technical 90 degree turns. The only things these wheels give up to their tubular competitors are a little bit of weight, but honestly I didn’t notice it. If you are looking for a fast wheel that you can race on and if you get a flat, doesn’t cost you $90, run, don’t walk to the shop and pick up a pair of these wheels. Yes, they will make you faster.