Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

I used beta alanine 3 or 4 years ago. Was bloody horrible, could only manage it for about 3 weeks. Still have half a 500g tub if anyone wants it. There's no best before date anywhere.

I want to know what a Tropical Storm tastes like.

I hope it’s like Um Bongo

I'm guessing like a bit of aluminium foil between two tooth fillings.

I'd describe the taste as acidic and aggressive. Quite the sensation.

Please do put it in a Jiffy bag when you give it to hippy.

The Pulse gel secret is out :(

Do you mean Zipp NSW (tubeless) vs Firecrest (clincher)? Zipp NSW wheels are slower than Firecrests*

*yes really

@hippy needs all the help he can get

As someone who scarfs more gels in one race than aerocoach riders use all year, I'm deeply offended you guys think my disgusting gel knowledge doesn't extend to myprotein products as well. Hmmpf!

Sounds hot.

I love the stuff. Sprinkle it on my cornflakes. I'll take it, I can swap you for some other random bag of white powder with little to no scientific backing of efficacy behind its use. You sure you're not talking about BCAAs - coz they're feckin' disgusting.

Ha ha. Defo beta alanine, from CNP. I'll try and dig it out of the garage tomorrow.

Alf Engers test at the track today with Rich Bussell as the test rider - interesting tidbit, when Rich sat up on the base bars on the P4 his aerodynamic drag was within 2w of the extreme Engers position with the old school setup

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Alf Engers test

Except how much are all those exposed Ergopower shifter cables costing compared with the single downtube lever for Engers? Also FD, inner ring, tractor tyres and too many spokes. Somewhere between 10 and 20W available from 1970s optimisations, surely?

Modern position looks a lot safer if winning a TT back then meant resting your forehead on the stem...

I've bashed my chin when using my BTA bottle a few times. Newbury => Lumpbury

I agree - I estimated around 0.01m^2 on the day which would be 15.1w at “Alf Speed” (49:24 speed).

It’s being written up by Cycling Weekly - we’ll be doing an article before it goes in the mag.

Found the tub. Also found a best before date on the bottom. January 2016. It's now in the bin.

FWIW best before for long lifed products normally doesn't mean "definitely goes bad after this date", but rather "our testing lab did not have enough space to store and test the stuff for 5 years, only 2".

That said, I don't know anything about the degradation pathways for beta-alanine, so probably better safe than ingesting some random amino acid byproducts.

It's a best before date. That means it doesn't go off. Would've been fine.

It was in great big clumps, and had a yellow tinge to it. I would think twice about ingesting something that made you feel like shit in date, let alone out.

Feel free to come over and fish it out of the bin.

Now you're really tempting me! Love a good bin dive.

It's ok. I used to use a few vits, multivits and supplements but don't bother with any of them now - they're either doing more harm than good or there's risk of contamination. The BA I get is from an Informed Sport pre workout.

Done a few club 10s and an open this year, keen to do more next year. When does he calender come out?

When does he calender come out?

Xav usually has a spreadsheet for opens pretty quickly in the new year, official open event calendar tends to hit the CTT site in February. Club events are a mixed bag, some districts are good at publishing a calendar, others not so much. Generally not much changes from year to year, so whatever club you were riding with this year will probably be using the same courses on the same evenings next year.