Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

I presume its not so bad on a bank holiday as otherwise they wouldn't run it, but its the A404, a major rat run from the m40 to m4 if traffic is bad, so full of pissed off motorists who've been delayed trying to make up time.

I've only been on the road on a bike once, when I was pootling along a nice country single track lane and arrived straight out onto it and received no quarter from cars doing easily 70 mph not changing lanes to get around me....

The roundabout at Bisham is pretty busy as well...

Bisham roundabout can be busy, but I've never it particularly bad. Find I get more stress from riding busier SC courses like H10/2 and H10/1 than any DC course. I quite often use the A404 as a shortcut home from Marlow if I'm feeling lazy.

I don't understand this comment "compact cranks for lols" 90rpm at 50x11 would be ~32mph, if you are going that fast on a road bike for 10 miles then you really will be laughing...

i'm clearly a wimp then!

ignore me!

Compact cranks get a lot of bashing due to euro steez; I am compact4lyf ..

To be fair I've never ridden it at around a peak time, and I'm very desensitised to traffic.

Find I get more stress from riding busier SC courses like H10/2 and H10/1 than any DC course.

I think the worst course I ride regularly is the H10/10, a combination of drivers doing at least 20mph over the limit on the bendy bit of the Drift Road plus getting in the way at all the junctions. H[10|25|50]/1 and H10/2 are nice and wide for the most part, so you can give yourself plenty of room without being closer to the centre than the edge

You've got those in the wrong order.

This.

You don't have to be doing 32mph+ for 10 miles to justify a taller gear. If you touch that at all and you're under geared you're missing out.

I'm pretty slow but was spinning out very easily on a (windy) rolling course yesterday on 50x12t.

spinning out on 50x12

Do you mean spinning out, or just that you felt you could have gone faster on a bigger gear? Not sure what cadence you think counts as spinning out, but 150rpm on 50/12 is 50mph. You do know that you can only save 12s/mile by going 10mph faster than that, don't you?

To clarify I could have pushed harder on a higher gear. Above around 110rpm I'd really like to shift up.

You do know that you can only save 12s/mile by going 10mph faster than that, don't you?

I don't understand your point (or maths TBH). 12s a mile saved would be very welcome :)

I don't understand your point

My point is that there is not very much time to be made up by going faster when you're already going fast. If you're doing 110rpm on 50/12 (36mph), you need to add 4mph to save 10s in a mile. If you're crawling up hill at 12mph, you can save 10s/mile by adding just 0.4mph. Time trialling is not about going fast, it's about not going slowly :-)

Hey TTers - anyone have one of those saddle / seatpost mounted bottle mounts I can borrow?

Yeah, Bontrager arse rocket cages.

^^^ Now I see your point! I get that riding hardest over the (and out of) the ...er hardest/slowest sections is quickest.

The maths is interesting, something I'd perhaps not fully appreciated.

PM'd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia9wTSwE4zM

Ah, I thought you were talking about Uxbridge Road.

Yeah, I've ridden the 404 before. It's shit like most of the bigger A roads but 8am should reduce traffic numbers a bit for me.

First TT of the year tonight, on the local H10/18 course. Turns out that I've only successfully ridden it with a power meter once before, although it's also the stretch of road I use for my own CP20 testing.

Last year I did 24:00 with 284w (winner was 22:15). My most recent CP20 test on that stretch was 8 weeks ago and gave me an AP of 276w. 20mph headwinds on the return leg suggest I probably won't go sub 24minutes, but I'll be happy if I can hold around 280w.

I'm off around 8am on Friday on H10/22. Anyone got any brilliant ideas on how to get a bit faster? I'm considering just slamming the stem on the TT bike and sod the power loss and glute damage. Rip off the front derailler. Stretch out - I could probably do that and still be well within the rules. Overshoes or no overshoes? Calf guards or no calf guards? What about the course? I'll try harder to ride it isopower but is there somewhere I should deliver the good stuff? I probably won't race another 10 for the year so I should make this count. Damn it, I want a PB before I start going long again.

Where do you stand ethically?

Has Amey hacked Hippy's account?

I ingest nothing on WADAs 'banned' list and as far as I'm aware my bike and conduct meets all the CTT rules. Other than removing stuff from a perfectly working bike or buying go faster clothing, I'm not sure I have any other options. Training has been piss because of the shoulder so I'm not going to get any gains in the next day or so.

Nah, just bored and printed off the course map so I'm wracking the old grey matter to think of other ways to cheat the air. Know any budget liposuction clinics?

The first two miles are fast as there's a bit of a gift hill, so don't start too hard. Take care at Bisham roundabout, especially on the return leg as it can get busy. Immediately afterward the roundabout on the way out there's a bit of an uphill drag, so push a bit more power out there. Nothing to major between there and the turn, then it's mostly downhill to the finish apart from a tiny drag about a mile from the end, I think.

It's a great course, definitely one of my favourites. Tail out/head back is forecast which probably better than the opposite.