No, that’s not a ludicrous statement. And yes, I saw all you triple-riders at Savageman. And at the half in Monaco. And at many, many other tough-course triathlons.

True, many of us choose to gear for the hills. Tough race like Wildflower? Put on a 25-tooth cassette. Gonna be a rougher day? And on a tri bike, sometimes that has historically meant strapping on a … ahem … triple front chainring.

For all those who have a triple because it simply makes the hills easier, you’re gonna have a dead groupset on your hands. After all, who wouldn’t want a double, which weigh less, and gave you more gears? That was the delivery with SRAM’s presentation for its new Apex groupset at Sea Otter in early April.

Visually, there’s not much difference between Apex and its other all-black groupset, Rival. Then you look at that cassette and rear derailleur. Sure, it looks like it was robbed from a mountain bike. But you can run a 10-speed road cassette with an 11-32. That’s not a misprint. The 299-gram cassette runs a lower 34×32 low than a triple in its 30×27 climbing low gear. 

On the high end, a 50×11 goes bigger than a 50×12 (when comparing with like-priced cassette offerings from competitors).

In order to accommodate the chain carriage, SRAM created an appropriate mid-cage rear derailleur that can handle all that gear range. It’s all paired with an 890-gram (with bottom bracket) GXP 110 millimeter BCD compact crankset and a 308-gram dual-pivot brakeset.

It’s all part of SRAM’s push of WiFLi; an acronym for Wider (range of gears), Faster (shifting), and Lighter (than a triple). Our take is that WiFLi will fly with triathletes who either want more gears for tough courses (without having to resort to a triple), and those who ride mid- to back-of-the-pack and are aiming to just get up that damn hill. Further, we were told that some bike companies have expressed interest in the group as a spec on entry-level bikes. 

At $799 complete, it’s SRAM’s new entry-level groupset, standing at about $500 less than Shimano’s comparable 105 groupset. That means it’s for beginners only, right? After all, I can do a flat 70.3 bike in under two and a half hours, what would I need triple gearing for?

But it’s not a beginner’s component kit by a long shot. If you have to ask why, you’ve obviously never truly challenged yourself. You’ve never ridden your bike in the Swiss Alps, done the Alpe d’Huez Triathlon or TriStar Monaco, or gone over the Eastern Continental Divide Savageman. Real hills. Hard races. Ask my former colleague (and current ITU media relations director) Brad Culp, a pretty fast guy (who will tell you as much—well he told me ad nauseum, anyway) who unabashedly ran a triple at the Alpe d’Huez tri last year and said he still rain out of gears. 

Is anyone starting to see that yes, this range is applicable to triathletes, whatever their level? To have a range that’s wider than a triple, without having to actually suffer the indignity of riding a triple will be very appealing to many triathletes.

At Sea Otter, LAVA headed out to test the Apex group on the new Trek Madone in Radio Shack livery. And the Monterey terrain, couldn’t have been more appropriate: hills, hills, hills. Laurerles Grade led to Robley Road, and a perfect, car-free opportunity to literally run through the gears. 

Shifting on the Apex shifters was crisp and reliable, the shift throw is nice and curt like that of the company’s Red, Force, and Rival groupsets. Blindfolded, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. The group enjoys the same ZeroLoss 1:1 cable pull ratio that its big brother Rival and Red retail. Same shift throw action. Same shifter shape. Same adjustable lever reach on the road shifters. 

The only difference will come in materials use, stuff like a forged road brake lever, an aluminum crankset, and a non-indexed cam on the brake caliper. But that’s it. In fact, the brakes come with SwissStop brake shoes. Bonus points.

The real test came on the final climb back up into Laguna Seca Raceway: a 400-yard ascent that featured a gradual opening switchback followed by a steep stab to the finish. The test bike, set with that PG-1050 11-32 cassette, went smoothly through the range, without major chasms in cadence between gears, which is always pass or fail with this consumer. Gears were plenty, and transition between gears was seamless.

You don’t have to invest in the entire $799 group. If you ride terrain or have a race with big climbs and are already running SRAM Red, Force, or Rival, all you need to do is disconnect your SRAM chain’s PowerLock link and replace just the rear derailleur and cassette. So not only can you not suffer the indignation of running a triple (the horror!), you can still roll with your stylee SRAM R2C shifters, your Red front derailleur and such. Only the astute will know the difference.

Later in the year, SRAM will be debuting a lighter mid-cage rear derailleur and cassette for its Rival groupset, leading us to believe that this will be a strange first: trickle-up technology, with the top-shelf Red getting the treatment somewhere along the line.

In the meantime, SRAM has an entry-level group on its hands that, delivering features that top-end groups have yet to be addressed, and managing to get a bunch of jaded journalists fairly impressed. 

For more on Apex, visit SRAM’s website.