Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

A bit of advice from seasoned time triallers please...

What is the one thing I could add/change to my standard road bike to make a meaningful difference when TTing? I did my first ever TT 2 weeks ago, 10 miles, and come home in 26m 48secs on my standard road bike. (Avg 183bpm)

The easiest way to get a faster time is to ride slower... this may sound counter-intuitive but let me explain.

The best way to ride a TT is at or slightly under your lactate threshold, and only to start to wind it up towards the end. If you averaged 183bpm you were probably nailing it all the way and must have been hanging on (and losing time) in the later half of the ride because you went too deep early on. My threshold HR is about 171bpm, my max is 189, but threshold is trainable and I do a lot of TTing so YMMV.

Most people make the mistake of sprinting off from the start, and going too deep straight away. The adrenaline rush you get after being counted down encourages you to do this. They then compound this by pushing too hard and dying towards the end of the race and losing time there. If you get a split time at the turn you can check this.

The way you should ride it is to start easy (not too easy tho...) and take a minute to get up to pace. Hold back in the first half then start to raise the pace. By the last quarter, you should have enough left to lift the pace again really make it hurt.

I like to fall off my bike and hyperventilate/retch at the side of the road after I've crossed the line in a TT, that way I know I've done a good ride. Fun eh?

If you averaged 183bpm you were probably nailing it all the way and must have been hanging on (and losing time) in the later half of the ride because you went too deep early on.

Based on what? He only gave an average HR, no indication of threshold or max values. We don't know how old he is, or how fit, or anything.

FWIW (almost nothing) I rode a 25 last Sunday at an average HR of 179bpm. It took 0'52" to hit 179bpm from the start. My lap speed were highly consistent, in fact I took what time I did out of my closest rivals by holding my speed in the third of three laps where they dropped off. 23.5m of the 25 (1h1'18" of 1h5'1") were spent between 175 and 185. I can also tell you that I hit 23mph (my average speed) from a standing start in 14", and I can assure you that I've watched fast people starting in front of me and they go off much harder than I do. We slow people chat among ourselves while we're lining up at the start, and it's not uncommon, when somebody on a number ending in 0 starts, to exchange comments along the lines of "Blimey, he's taking it a bit seriously"

My last 25..

               [php]              MIN    MAX   AVG

Heart Rate: 112 185 176 bpm
Speed: 14 55.7 38.5 kph[/php]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BoardChrisman
*Anyone going to the East Velo TT this Fri?

I'll be going, though never been before so wouldn't mind riding up with someone who knows where it is.

I'm in highbury so can meet somewhere on the way*

i went
did you

I went but there was loads of traffic and i didn't make it in time.

Still haven't done any races since my comeback...

Based on what? He only gave an average HR, no indication of threshold or max values. We don't know how old he is, or how fit, or anything.

I am making some basic assumptions, but I think I'm safe in saying that someone who is new to TTing won't have a threshold anywhere near this high.

FWIW (almost nothing) I rode a 25 last Sunday at an average HR of 179bpm.... I can also tell you that I hit 23mph (my average speed)...

Did you have a headwind - both ways? Puncture? That's pretty slow.

Anyway, I was just trying to help someone who asked for advice.

Based on what? He only gave an average HR, no indication of threshold or max values. We don't know how old he is, or how fit, or anything.

Well, since you ask, 37 and fit - resting HR c. 50 (high 40s if I'm really rested and been eating & sleeping well). I wouldn't have thought that 183 was my threshold although my max is just under 200 (I think I hit 195 on the last uphill kick of this particular route - the E83). When I was running last year, it would peak at 197 if I was putting in a final 60 second all-out sprint at the end of 10k. In the absence of lab tests I had assumed a threshold of around 173 - based on what I could sustain for >5 minutes on the turbo and/or what I could hold at on hills before I felt like I was going to blow up.

The going easier bit intrigues me - I had wondered why, on the 10 mile TT when I was going at 183bpm avg I averaged 22.4mph yet if I look back 2 weeks in the training diary I did a much hillier (ok, ok, its Essex, its relative) evening training ride and covered 22.4 miles in 1hr 4mins, avg 20.8mph and avg HR 164 bpm. Whilst it was a good workout on the training ride - it certainly wasn't maximum effort all the way. Comparing the two I don't seem to have gained much in the way of avg speed for the additional effort during the TT. (conditions almost identical by the way).

I've got a similar max to Catman, a higher resting hr and did some 10mi TTs last year. Those I could find had Avg HR of 173, 178, 176. Comparing different people's HRs though is pretty pointless since everyone is different.

Did you have a headwind - both ways? Puncture? That's pretty slow.

I did mention that I was one of the slow people. Again, the baseless assumptions. FWIW (still almost nothing) it was a little breezy and the course is sometimes described as sporting. The people who finished 4th and lower obviously found it a bit more 'sporting' than I did :-)

Comparing different people's HRs though is pretty pointless since everyone is different.

That was kind of my point; 16simon jumping in and saying the OP must have ridden it all wrong based on nothing more than an average HR from somebody about whom he knows nothing seemed presumptuous.

Well, since you ask, 37 and fit - resting HR c. 50 (high 40s if I'm really rested and been eating & sleeping well). I wouldn't have thought that 183 was my threshold although my max is just under 200 (I think I hit 195 on the last uphill kick of this particular route - the E83)

Ah, the E83, it's one of my local courses but my least favourite due to the draggy return leg then that final climb.

The going easier bit intrigues me - I had wondered why, on the 10 mile TT when I was going at 183bpm avg I averaged 22.4mph yet if I look back 2 weeks in the training diary I did a much hillier (ok, ok, its Essex, its relative) evening training ride and covered 22.4 miles in 1hr 4mins, avg 20.8mph and avg HR 164 bpm.

Maybe aim for something in the middle - try and ride the first half at 170 then ramp it up to 175, see how you go. Club events are good for trying different strategies like this - like my club's Friday Navestock 10 that was mentioned earlier in this thread.

I'd guess that your threshold is about 175 although I'll probably get jumped on again for making assumptions.

Oooh.. the testers are getting testy.. :)

Putting clip-on tribars on a road bike should be worth about 1 minute in a 10m TT at your pace

I did this last year, didn't help a bit. They're pretty useless if you don't have the balls to use them, given that on a road bike you're giving up all simple braking and (heaven forbid) gear changing in favour of a less stable position. For us real slow ones (23mph ave is more MOP from where I watch) some time to get used to them and getting comfy changing position to reach the STI's comes in useful.

I think you should say "Competently and confidently using clip-on tribars on a road bike should be worth about 1 minute in a 10m TT at your pace"

When do we get to start discussing which foot it's best to start with? ;)

I think you should say "Competently and confidently using clip-on tribars on a road bike should be worth about 1 minute in a 10m TT at your pace"

Fair point; my estimate was based on fitting them to my fixed gear road bike, so braking and shifting were non-issues. It's also the case that I took to them straight away when I first fitted Profile Aero IIs to my then geared roadbike in about 1989, but I realise that not everybody has such a seamless transition.

Ah, the E83, it's one of my local courses but my least favourite due to the draggy return leg then that final climb.

Funny, I must have ridden that road hundreds of times - it forms one of the core parts of at least 50% of my training routes - but now I realise almost always from the Blackmore direction - I never realised how bad that stretch into the woods is coming the other way.[/quote]

Funny, I must have ridden that road hundreds of times - it forms one of the core parts of at least 50% of my training routes - but now I realise almost always from the Blackmore direction - I never realised how bad that stretch into the woods is coming the other way.
[/quote]

I avoid riding it towards Blackmore even in training - I don't know why, but it always takes a lot of effort to go even slowly in that direction.

26.48 is a respectable time for your first TT on the E83. You should aim for just under 26mins, it's a realistic target for that course on a road bike if you've got a reasonable level of fitness. My best time on it last year was 22.47, but that was on a TT bike with pointy hat and skinsuit.

Well ain't this fun. Night!

I just fitted some Diamante Pro 20mm tyres and removed my bottle cages. So, even if I'm slower, it should buy me 30 seconds tomorrow :)

Keep the bottle.

#5 of http://www.socalttseries.com/Training/Top10SpeedTips/tabid/196/Default.aspx

Keep the bottle.

#5 of http://www.socalttseries.com/Training/Top10SpeedTips/tabid/196/Default.aspx

Was the base configuration for an empty cage or no cage?

BTW, typical Merkin grammar fail:
"The top riders usually always carry a bottle"

And I wouldn't take speed tips from anybody who seriously recommends Tufo tubulars for any use, given the appalling rolling resistance. The suggestion that Conti GP4000s (tractor tyres) are suitable for time trials is also pretty laughable.

Keep the bottle.
#5 of http://www.socalttseries.com/Training/Top10SpeedTips/tabid/196/Default.aspx

Yeah I'd always used that theory based on that old German list of aero tips found on Sheldon, but I wanted to try without two bottles and cages.

If you look at the link you posted, you'll notice that drag with no bottles is still less than drag with two bottles as I would typically have. So, no bottles should've been 10s faster than my normal 2 bottles.

But.. 38s faster if I used only a down tube bottle! What a difference!

I have had a chest infection which has kept me off my bike for the past month. It has reduced my enthusiasm for posting on forums and destroyed my racing programme.

One result is that I have spent nothing on entry fees or on travelling to races and so I have donated £25 to the Hounslow 100 as a prize for the best fixed wheel ride.

The event is on Sunday May 31st and is to be run on the Farnham - Alton course (A 31 road) which I would say is reasonably well suited to fixed since it does not have any major climbs and is not particularly exposed to wind.
If there is only one fixed rider (and I wouldn't think that was a particularly low response) then to qualify for the prize the rider must beat my own last effort at the distance on fixed which was 4 hours 41 min. 09 secs.

I have no doubt there are plenty of you here who could beat this rather pre-war time which I did in this event, using the same course, in 2006. As a reference point the winner on that occasion was Paul Holdsworth with 3.51.42.

If there are no fixed riders the money will go to the other prize winners.

I'll be happy to respond to any queries with further posts in this thread.

I would totally be up for this but I'm out of town for a mate's birthday.. balls.

If only I'd known - I've already used a yellow highlighter in the handbook for a 25 on the same day, and I don't want to mess it up by changing my mind now :-) It's got one of those PostIt tabs on the page and everything. Such a shame...

hehe it's only an extra 75mi.. not too much to ask?!

Congratulations to Hippy for getting his name in the conventional sports media (Willesden Times, 23.4.09. p.36 in case no one had noticed).

No, I don't think the extra 75 miles is too much to ask, especially from the relatively youthful readers of this forum ( I now count anyone under 40 as being in this category)

Willesden Times eh? Gawd.. famous and I can't even read about it!

Googles..

Did it look like this?
http://www.wbtimes.co.uk/content/brent/willesdenchronicle/sport/story.aspx?brand=KLBTOnline&category=SportCycling&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=sportwbc&itemid=WeED22%20Apr%202009%2012%3A22%3A31%3A960