Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

Nat 50 cancelled due to cones reducing lane width. TTF meltdown in...

I was chatting with a Kiwi guy before the Oxonian CC 25 this morning.

He went on to ride a not particularly forgiving course (H25/17) in 45:52.

I realised later why his name sounded familiar - Hamish Bond, double Olympic gold medallist, and current national TT champion. Time trialling in the UK is getting a bit of celebrity appeal at the minute!

Unfortunately for him, Marcin did it 3 seconds quicker a couple of weeks ago.

I wonder if that dishy former 24 hr TT world champion will be making an appearance again soon?

Because of all the nationals and how the calendar sits with when Hamish is over here we had to get a bit creative with the races to ensure we could benchmark his performances effectively (he rides for AeroCoach).

H25/17 today, F11/10 next week are good ones, then we have some smaller K district club races the week after that. Also doing a 25 up in Market Drayton, we could have got him to ride things like the R25 but he’s travelled around so much recently we’re limiting it to ~90min from the Midlands where he’s staying.

Very interesting. How was his performance today compared to what you expected? Did you expect him to get near, or to beat, Marcin's time? Is he training for anything in particular, going for the comp record, or just doing a TT season?

Is anyone selling or considering selling a 58cm TT bike or frame and forks?

I've never tried a time trial on a geared bike but it's becoming the main type of competitive cycling I do, and I do feel a bit limited by riding fixed sometimes - which I know is my problem and not really what's actually happening, but I'd like to try it and see anyway.

I doubt you’d need a 58 unless your 190 cm with 92 cm inseam.

^ this

Measure pad stack and reach and go by that instead.

I'm 188cm with a 90cm inseam...

Would you recommend a 56cm and more seatpost/spacers?

You’d probebrly get on a 56 but all depends on stack and reach.

I’m a little shorter with slightly shorter legs and I’m on s 54 but could ride 56 p2.

So get stack and reach for your current tt bike and then start checking what frames work and in what size.

I've thrown an entry in for the ECCA 50mi.

Not a clue how that's going to go with some pretty deep fatigue from that little 4000mi jaunt across the US. I might try and touch the TT bike this week to see what I can do on the turbo.
#pray4aerogooch

There was a 56cm classic p2 for sale on TTF for £250, you could do a lot worse than that. Would work with fixed if you got a few chain lengths and a 130mm Zipp disc.

edit - it's sold but point still stands

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F123224001476

There's another 56cm on eBay for a decent price but with a power meter and Reynolds Assault wheelset, which I could sell on and make a big wodge of the money back.

I'm tempted to sell my cross bike and have a go at that.

Looks like a sub 20 ride is unlikely on Sat, I'm off 7 mins after England kick off their semi final so the will be no traffic! There is also the fact that I need to find over 30 seconds.

Where are you racing?

F11/10 - off at 15.07

Hmmm I am off at 3.42 so will have the same, although guess there might be an increase due to half time?

No cars messing up a ride at a RAB though..

Good point. Wind and air density are looking good as well.
1.180 is low right?

Yeah - pretty decent

I knew there was a silver lining to not getting a ride.

Just anecdotal but there wasn’t a lot of traffic when I’ve ridden the f11/10, particularly on the first and final leg, less than I’d say on an evening club 10 on h10/2.

The Hill and getting the right wind direction are much more of a factor. Plus being stupid at the first roundabout!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1051919883/laps

Has my pacing strategy in the laps of this, ftp is about 290 so a bit of an underperformance in power, probably because I did a club ride in the morning, and was a bit fatigued from that!

in an ideal world id have put out more power relatively from the bottom of the hill to the final roundabout, but once I realised I was still on for a PB at the final turn with a tailwind to come, adrenaline kicked in and I managed to squeeze a bit more out.

gutted I still haven't managed to ride the course again since.

It's literally 2 x 4 mile intervals. Nail the first turn, if you don't carry speed you're fucked. Also make sure you don't miss the exit for the first turn, comes up sooner than you think.

If you have a big enough ring to turn the pedals at not a stupid cadence, pedal a bit (<200w) down the hill otherwise don't bother, just get tukt as fuk and recover. Second turn to the finish can be a slog. Make sure you follow the rules about getting back on to the exit sliproad.

Awesome thanks, that's interesting to look at.

It's my first 10 with a power meter so I'm not going to have power showing on my garmin, just pace it as I usually do. Not ridden it since 2016 and I'm a bit faster now.

Is there a general consensus as to the best wind direction?