Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

I rode the course this evening and they have resurfaced a few poor bits since I was last on it (albeit not racing, just transferring from RAB to start as a marshal). Generally good surface throughout and traffic was considerate at 8pm.

Btw it was a quick evening, Chris Fennell did a 17.40.

It’s a quick day every time Chris Fennell puts his leg over a bike!!

TTs have become a marginal gains money pit

Yes and no. The Tuesday club 10 still feels a bit more egalitarian. People at my local 10 turn up on all sorts and there’s a few who simply chuck their £2.50 into the ice cream tub and enjoy a bit of an effort without feeling the need to turn themselves inside out.

I hope it’s still going in 10 years.

Very much enjoyed racing some hilly ones on my road bike last year. Especially passing spaceships, but mainly just racing against myself and seeing how hard I could push.

chuck their £2.50 into the ice cream tub

Those were the days. With the type B levy at £3 (and only after protests against the board's attempt to get a £4 contribution to their hookers n coke fund), I'm now paying £5 or £6 to ride an evening 10.

12hr Maybe I'll go back to using the Shiv's Fuelselage thing in the downtube - if for no other reason than 500ml of bonus liquid. I really don't like fighting (or losing) bottles from the seat cage for 12 hours.
Another option is to just grab bottles, drink and throw them at someone else down the road.

These days it's like the 24hr - everything coming down to one event per year so if any of your decisions are shit it's basically all over. Unlike the 24hrs though I'm doing 0 road training, it's all turbo because I hate London now so it's making practical decisions a little trickier although I did the same last year.

Anyone want to rent me a house cheap in Norfolk or wherever the fuck the B12 course is?

It’s gone up to £3 members. £5 non-members.

Losing bottles is a distinct possibility on the northern end of the Breckland 12hr course. They've resurfaced most of the southern end, so it's not too bad, but while there are plans to do the northern section they're not going to be done until much later this year. In one race on the Breckland 100 (largely the same as the main bit of the 12hr course) I lost three out of four bidons, two of them before I'd even managed to drink from them.

Losing bottles is a distinct possibility on the northern end of the Breckland 12hr course.

I had one full one go in last year's 12. I was on a fairly aggressive hydration schedule so it didn't help to lose a bottle at all. That's what I need to improve this year along with better pacing.
I'm hoping fixing those two things makes up for being fatter and slower.

You just need a slightly faster day.
IME being fatter and slower doesn't make you go faster, but it doesn't make you go very much slower either. Whereas a good day makes a world of difference.

I don't remember what the weather was like last year but I can't control that anyway. What I can control is (clearly not my eating habits) power and fueling. I definitely started too hard last year - unsurprising given how little I'd been TTing and how I'd spent the year on a turbo trainer but my pacing is normally pretty good.

But I also think too little fluids really messed me up towards the end - I was having to ease up a lot to stave off cramps and I was constantly yelling at the guys to give me more fluids and salt but it was too late by then.

So rough plan this year is simply do the same but start 5-10W lower and take in more drink, sooner and maybe add some extra electrolytes although I think just drinking more will probably be enough.

Anyone want to rent me a house cheap in Norfolk or wherever the fuck the B12 course is?

I do live just off this.... and I'm away that weekend for LEJOG now. I can ask the question if you like

Ha, I only posted here jokingly although I was seriously thinking of getting a temporary place out there because I just don't want to ride in London any more and figured I could get away with working out there and doing some riding on the TT bike during the day.
I asked the grrl's bro if he might be available that weekend to help out and maybe we could make a little holiday of it. So, thanks for the offer, but if we do make it out there it'll probably be for more than just the race weekend.

A bit off the wall and probably won't fit the shiv frame, but I've got a crank tank if it's any use?
https://adventurehydration.com/#!/cranktank

I'm going to test the bladder in the skinsuit some more (yesterday's twitter fun). I think that might work for me.

I'm thinking about trying one of these bladders: https://www.ultramarathonrunningstore.com/Hydrapak-2-Litre-Hydration-Bladder-p/hydrapakb2l.htm

The baffles to reduce sloshing seems like it might be a good idea for down the front of the skinsuit, based on previous experiments.

sinusitis

That's a new one.

The Platypus has a similar thing to the Hydrapak. I've both. But both have the solid plastic bar across the top whereas I was thinking about the newer Camelbak bladders that have a cap on one side only.

Lol, bloody autocorrect.

The think that interested me was the bit down the middle, to make it more into two sections, reducing the amount of sloshing

Yeah, I know. I have one of those bladders on the Mason. The Platypus I tested yesterday has a similar middle join. My problem with both is that they have the rigid top piece.

This puts the "lid" on a side and it also looks like it's joined in the middle like the other two.

Ah, cool - that's useful to know.

Hi TT chums. Before I put a proper advert up, anyone keen for a Zipp 900 clincher (10spd) which also comes with a track adapter so you can run fixed or geared off the same disc? Was thinking about £600 all in might be about right but always hard to price.

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Interested in the track axle if you split.

Rodger that!

Does anyone have any data regarding Narrow Wide chainrings for TT use? Are they any more or less efficient than normal rings? If they are less efficient, could their extra chain retention ability make up for losing a front derailer or chainguide?

Will stay closed without plastic bar