Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

It's so obvious when someone else points it out.

A simple and well constructed diagram works wonders for this level of Physics.

Up to you. It's a TT, so seems apt for it to be discussed here, but whatever. Newbs need to realise that they require club affiliation etc.

It's usually fucking horribly windy. I'm thinking about doing it fixed this time, but getting 84" or 90" up Theydon Mount is going to be fun fun fun…

Affiliated clubs, hmm? C.C Hackney appears to be CTT.

What are you in? Wobbly Wheelers CC? GS Garrulous?

I think it's a good newb tt, especially as it's easily recce'ed - some people will already be familiar with the roads as they will have ridden them - and it's not out & back dual-carriage-way thing.

So if you get your wheel ratio right, you should feel like you are riding on the flat when you are going uphill

Is this an example of the sort of advice that you give as a coach? I'm in.

Mechanical doping if I've ever seen it.

I think it's a good newb tt

50km hilly as an intro to testing? Harsh.

50km hilly as an intro to testing? Harsh.

It's not that hilly! Well, unless you think Toot Hill as a hill. Which in any reasonable discussion of hills, and the dimensions thereof, could only be described as a jumped-up speed bump.

Is this an example of the sort of advice that you give as a coach? I'm in.

That diagram forms the entire basis to my whole coaching philosophy.

It's not that hilly! Well, unless you think Toot Hill as a hill. Which in any reasonable discussion of hills, and the dimensions thereof, could only be described as a jumped-up speed bump.

It's brutally undulating, with a lot of testing corners and appalling road surfaces. Even the ups and downs of Toot Hill hurt when you've been riding at your threshold for an hour, in cold temps with 20mph winds. Fuck, I nearly cracked on Essendon at the end of the North Road Hardriders event in an 81" gear, and Essendon is more of a drag than a hill in anyone's language.

I did it geared (the Hainault) last time, with not a lot of winter road miles under my belt. My back went into spasms after 30 minutes, and I limped to the finish.

So it is harsh. But at least it's not mind-numbing :D

Hey Scarlett, are you weeing on my bonfire here?

I'd never intentionally dampen your kindling, Bill. I expect to see you on the day, showboating for the marshalls.

PS. Might do it geared again anyway. Leave Pnut to fly the fixed flag on his own as usual.

PS. Might do it geared again anyway. Leave Pnut to fly the fixed flag on his own as usual.

Definitely doing it geared.

Time to beat appears to be:

Alastair Smith Hainault Roads Club 2:10:29

I'm a vet now! I haven't raced since I turned 40! Yay!

I'd never intentionally dampen your kindling, Bill. I expect to see you on the day, showboating for the marshalls.

Me, showboat? Never. Never. Ever. Except if I catch my minute man. Then all bets are off.

MDCC Boxing Day 10

Due to the very low temperatures forecast for overnight and tomorrow morning, this race has been postponed. We hope to run it on Sunday 2nd January.

Right, when it comes to cycling, I’m mainly a triathlete – I race TTs but to be honest it’s really just as a hard training session. My current bike stable includes my TT bike (which I use exclusively for racing) and a road bike, which I do most of my training on. At the moment my road bike is set up in a conventional road position (with a set of tribars) so that I could use it comfortably on group rides, but the reality is that I seem to be doing all my training alone at the moment. I’ve therefore been considering whether I should set my road bike up to replicate my TT position. I know lots of triathletes do this but I’m not sure whether it is a good idea or not.

The way I’d do it is to set it up keeping as many parts as possible, that means it would just be a road bike (with Tri bars), just with a very aggressive position.

My first question is what are the pros and cons of this and is it worth it? On the positive side it strikes me as a good thing to train in the position I will race in. I know that getting my back/shoulders acclimatised to spending long hours in my race position is a good thing, but I’m not sure whether or not training in a TT position is significantly better than training in a road position (I guess it can’t do any harm). On the negative side I guess that the handling might be really weird with a TT position on a road bike.

Secondly, assuming it is worth it, how do I go about it? What are the main components of bike fit that I need to consider? BB-saddle height, BB-saddle set back [UCI rules not relevant], Saddle-Aero pads reach, saddle-aero pad drop… have I missed any?

I have had a quick explore and I think that in order to do this I will need a new seat-post (currently when I reverse my seat-post I can’t get the saddle flat – do reverse seat-posts exist?) and a longer stem (to accommodate moving the saddle forwards). Also my road frame is a size larger than my TT frame so I think I’m going to need a negative angle stem (or an upside down one) in order to get low enough.

SOrry for the long post - any thoughts/advice appreciated.

You have most bases covered. If you can't get your saddle forward enough with a zero offset seatpost, there are not many options - Profile Fast Forward is the obvious one, in a choice of aluminium or carbon, both with a 38mm offset. Putting a sufficient drop on road bars to get your elbow pads at the right height will also put your brake levers pretty close to the floor, there is a reason why we use bullhorns with tribars. Before you go any further, try your road bars with the stem you think you'll need for the conversion and see if you feel comfortable barking - you don't need to be comfortable for long in that position, obviously, but the very low front moves your weight forward so it has quite an effect on handling under braking.

The advantage would be in having the same (or as close to) your TT set up for training sessions that are done at TT intensity, as concentrating on your body position and pedaling at that level will be beneficial.
It's not important for recovery or aerobic rides.

Most coaches will advise you use the same bike (or one set up identically) for the high intensity sessions.

I'd keep your road bike set up in it's 'normal' way, and train your lungs/legs enthusiastically as is.

I know many people feel that they can adapt via a few weeks of riding on their TT rig as the season approaches, and there's also the Boardman approach, where you do some short big gear intervals in the TT position as a way of quickly adapting (focussing on keeping the upper body 'calm').

The handling would be weird on the road bike if you tried to replicate the extreme angles of a purpose built TT bike. You'd probably get plenty of benefit just by being disciplined about riding on the drops (and on the rivet) on your road bike. That stresses the lower back in a similar way to a tri-position, and gives your triceps/shoulders a good workout too.

Some, however, will espouse the 100% specificity model, and train on their TT bike, or another cheaper TT bike :D

It's not important for recovery or aerobic rides

Maybe less important, but for long time trials it can come as a shock to spend several hours in a position you've previously only used for short intervals. It also helps to do long training rides in the position so that you get used to eating and drinking without getting off the tribars.

^I'd use the race bike for that though. Particularly as it's a chance to sort out minor position tweaks that you don't want to discover the need for halfway through the first event of the season.

or another cheaper TT bike :D

^This.
Get a cheap undersized road bike and use it to replicate your TT position, with bullhorns to make the handling on the tricky bits as similar to your race bike as possible too. Lots of people do it, either for road training or as a specific turbo/rollers bike.

^Come here from the "Any questions answered thread", taking the post above to be good advice I presume I can look for a cheap 56cm bike and TT-ise it.

Bon.

What's the pay rate?

This thread just popped up and I realised I hadn't responded to the helpful points above, so thank you!

I think for the time being I'm going to keep my road bike largely as is. The saddle is a little further forward, and the bars a bit lower. To get a close match with my TT position I would need to replace the headset/stem/seat-post and probably saddle - after which I might be in the right position (but I might not) and there is a chance my handling would be really twitchy. Not worth the hassle - at least for now.

That said, I do think that training in my TT position will be beneficial. Most of my races are middle/iron distance so I want to be in the TT position for up to 5 1/2 hours.

One of the reasons I was asking is also that I'll be travelling to Australia for 10-12 weeks for work just before IM Austria, I get back a week and a half before the race! Since I can only take one bike I was considering taking the road bike in "TT mode", but now I think I'll take the TT bike with training wheels.

In the meantime I'll keep my eye out for a small road frame to convert into a TT-Training bike. which raises Dammit's point... Would a road frame work ok (even downsized from my normal size)? Won't a road frame set up like a TT bike handle weirdly? I thought TT bikes had a shorter wheelbase to make them more stable when the weight is over the front wheel?

Finally if anyone has an old/cheap Soloist/S1 frame-set then that would just solve all my problems!!