>>1501612For races with flatter elevation profiles, every little bit of aero helps during the make-or-break moments of a race when the peleton breaks up, like the big attacks or the final breakaway. Most manufacturers make their claims of watts saved at 50kph. You can calculate this down to the speeds you'll actually be doing. AFAIK this is how it scales:
50 - 100%
45 - 73%
40 - 51%
35 - 34.5%
30 - 21.5%
25 - 12.5%
So for something that saves 20w at 50kph, you're looking at a savings of 6.9w at 35kph. That's not much, but when you combine it with other marginal gains, as well as a fit that emphasizes aero, you can make a significant savings, if you're an elite racer. If you aren't, work on your FTP.
I wouldn't recommend getting started in racing with an expensive bike or aero shit. I dunno about wherever you are, but in the US, the main goal in the beginner's categories is to simply not crash out or get pulled from the race. You don't even have to think about winning a race until after you cat up twice. In the UK you need to at least finish in the top 10-20 in a race to accumulate points, with 12 needed to get out of the lowest category, but I suspect that's just "finish the fucking race" in most cases. In any case, showing up to a race with thousands of monies worth of carbon aero shit and then destroying it all in a crash would be sad. Just get something like an Allez Sprint Comp or a CAAD12, a good HRM, and a good power meter.
