Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

Well, having spent quite a while trying to go sub-hour on a 25, and managing it for the first time on Saturday, I managed it again this evening on the club 25, with a 59:38. This was despite the fact that just after the halfway mark I spent a mile sitting behind a 40 ton artic which was singularly failing to pass my 7 minute rider, who was mimbling along. Assuming that I'd lost the chance to go sub hour again, I decided to just give it the beans for the last 10 miles, on the basis that if I blew spectacularly then I'd lost nothing, and upped my power target from 260 watts to 300 watts. With a mile to go I realised that sub hour was possible after all, but it was going to be close, so did the last mile at 340 watts. Looking at the power data, I think I just need to try harder in the future.

Bonus points go to the rider doing the 10 mile trial, who I'd overtaken before being held up by the artic, who overtook me on the right, squeezed between me and the artic, undertook the artic (this is on a SC A-road), pulled in front of the artic and overtook the mimbler at the front. Can't decide whether he's committed, brave or incredibly stupid, but I'm tending towards the latter.

Sorry to come to this so late, I just got Vukas with S Bends. They're great. I like S-bends as I can grip the riser bit and make my position a little shorter when the cadence goes nuts and the surface gets sketchy, then go full length when the going is good. The arm rests I find very comfortable and secure feeling.

In other news I did my second 25 last night and shot a 54.21. Nice and damp, warm, no wind.

Nice one danstuff. Sometimes taking an involuntary breather is an advantage I find. I had to wait to give way to traffic on the rb last night, felt really fast after that.

No apologies needed, appreciate the extra feedback!

In other news I did my second 25 last night and shot a 54.21. Nice and damp, warm, no wind.

Very nice - What gear?

55/15 last night. Got a wobble on downhill at 125rpm, but overall I felt like I was nicely on top of it, puts my cadence at about 100 which I'm finding I prefer to the 90rpm I usually calculate for. Did a 50 on the same course on Sunday with 52/15. Next Tuesday is a 10, same course again, I'll go for 55/14 and see how I get on muscling it over at a lower cadence. I don't think I can risk spinning out on the downhill on a 10.

Didn't tester say to gear for the fast part of the course? Suck it up on the rest?

Yeah, probably.

Tester's line is always "use the gear that gets you to the TK quickest"

Three general approaches, gear for the fast bits, gear for the slow bits or gear for desired average cadence at predicted average speed.

The last one, that's what I do. Pick an optimistic time, figure out the speed, plug it into bikecalc, get as close as I can with the gears that I have to choose from.

That's way to complicated. I'll stick with my 11spd 10spd 9spd...

What's the deal with 'private' or 'unsanctioned' time trials.

For instance if a club said "lets go on a group ride to a local TT course, set off at one minute intervals and ride the course as hard as possible while a volunteer times us, and then ride home. Oh, and lets do this on a semi-regular basis and have a club league table".

I know people are free to do as they want, and that this is similar to some of the more clandestine aspects of UK TT history, hell, it might even be an effective way of persuading more riders to race "proper" sanctioned TTs once they've experienced racing in a more informal setting...

But, surely both club and open TTs run under CTT rules for a reason. I know nothing of the administrative side, but presumably there are risk assessments to be filled out, traffic counts, insurance, police notification, marshalling etc etc.

I regularly go out and ride hard efforts in full TT gear on part or all of my local 10 course, and when I first got into cycling I would set off on a local loop 1 minute ahead of a friend and he would race to catch me before the finish... we recorded our times on a scrap of cardboard in my garage after each ride. But at what point does a hard informal training session over a measured course become an 'event'? And once it's an 'event', at what point does it need official approval? If something goes wrong in an unsanctioned event, or if relevant local authorities notice the presence of unsanctioned events, might this impact the ability of clubs to promote sanctioned events in the future?

I support anyone who wants to get into TTing, and by and large I think people should be able to go out and ride wherever they want, but when I heard about this it immediately struck me as a bad idea. It's not like there is a shortage of sanctioned club events around here... with a little bit of effort it's probably possible to find a club TT within an hours drive on almost every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the summer on a variety of courses from closed road to DC.

Am I just being a Health and Safety wetlip?

I guess you've answered your own point, if you want to go for a training ride with a mate there's no reason not to, if you want a number then go to your local TT, its not like they are intimidating or expensive....

well at least not in my experience!

Section 31 RTA88 -

'A person who promotes or takes part in a race or trial of speed on a public way between cycles is guilty of an offence, unless the race or trial—

(a)is authorised, and
(b)is conducted in accordance with any conditions imposed,

by or under regulations under this section.'

Not a wetlip. I think it's difficult to describe the distinction between an informal training session where you keep a note of your times, and a proper race, but I think in practice the distinction is likely to be fairly obvious in most cases. The description you give of the club league seems to me to fall squarely on the side of the 'proper race' side of things. So it's a criminal offence, and of course then there's the question of insurance to cover the organisers and competitors.

Yeah that's pretty much what I thought and I found a thread on TTF saying similar. Message sent to the 'organiser' so that they are at least informed...

"Events" cancelled. Turns out it was an enthusiastic club member taking things on themselves to encourage some TT'ing. The club has shut the idea down and will be promoting their own series of sanctioned club TTs under CTT rules next year.

It's great that there is such a desire to promote events, but with 30 odd people expressing an interest for the first of these TTs it would have been a noticeable and obvious 'event' and so could have caused problems. Hopefully it won't dent the enthusiasm of those involved, and great news that there will be another club promoting even more local club TTs next year.

In other news, should I ride tonight's TT on the H10/181? I'm knackered and went to bed at 0530 this morning and my training program specifies a run. But I've hardly done any TTs this year and I think it might be more fun :-)

I think the best way of encouraging people to try a TT is to provide a mentor who can give advice and show a newbie the ropes. When to turn up, who everyone is, what to do, what not to do, where the course is etc. Just some friendly advice from someone who knows all the stuff that the newbie doesn't. Like, where to sign on. For my club runs, it's the boot of Brian's car, but a newbie might not know that. Where the HQ is. Where the start is. Pinning on a number. All bread and butter stuff to us, I'd imagine, but potentially intimidating if you're not one of the gang.

As for doing the TT, of course you should. I was tempted not to ride yesterday, given that I'd raced on Saturday and the weather forecast was looking dire, but I'm glad I did. And that was a 25 in the rain, with a side order of traffic jam...

One of the AeroCoach riders did an 18:17 on the V718 last night and hammered everyone. Older bike, skinsuit etc., shame no-one on TT Forum GAF!

I noticed! Huge ride, is that second fastest this year? Did you ride?

Hope conditions are decent on Saturday :/

Coz everyone does 18s on the V718 innit?

;)

Also, 10s >>> races for children

;0)

Shame I never got to ride on V718, was in good form that day. But it rained like it does here.
/fastcourseit'snotcheating

Yeah second fastest behind Wiggins I think. I did ride but it was no fun, did 20:02. Might not be able to make Saturday, I was nearly sick on the start line from all the paracetamol I'd taken!

Where is Saturday's TT? is there a calendar/information? I live east.
Never done a TT, but used to do triathlons so I have a bike.
I don't mind the running, but I really can't be bothered with the swimming anymore so I think I would really enjoy TT.
I've lost my helmet, would it be possible to borrow one?

Where is Saturday's TT?

If you mean the TT that Xav and umop3pisdn are talking about, then I think they mean the Selby CC 10 on the V718 course in Hull?

If you wanted to get a ride then you would have needed to enter 2weeks ago and have a qualifying 10mile time faster than about 21:00.

is there a calendar/information?

There is a list of 'open' events here (http://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/events) but many local clubs organise more informal 'club' events where you can just turn up and enter on the line.

Helmets are not compulsory although they may make you more aero.

Didn't tester say to gear for the fast part of the course?

That's Xav's formula, I prefer to target average cadence.