Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

it was the H10/3a, started on the B4000 near to j14 of the M4, went over the M4 and through Stockcross and turned at the A4 roundabout, back onto the B4000 to finish before the M4 bridge.

My friend lives locally and said that he's done evening 10s on the course, not sure which club organised them.

21.23 to qualify.. sounds like Roller racing and yet another time I'll never see :)

Note that I said "I guess this is not attainable by many forum users* at the moment."

*Many riders go on improving for years, even decades in some cases. That's part of the interest in this game - many of us have achieved personals which we would once have thought impossible.

I'm glad I did not imply that no forum member could go that fast, since there was at least one. Congratulations to 16simon. On that course 21.21 is a great time - we have to remember Hutchinson is on a different level of existence.

Hounslow & District Wheelers 100 – Preview.

The Hounslow and District Wheelers promote their most significant time trial of the year next Sunday: The Ron Brown Memorial 100. (31.5.09)

Entries are substantially up this year with 95 brave men and women intending to face the timekeeper on Sunday morning. The first man off is at 6.26 am, the last at 8 am.

The course to be used is on the A31 road between Farnham and Alton. (A complete description can be found on the CTT website). HQ is Bentley Village Hall

The seeded riders and qualifying times are:

No. 120 Paul Dring (Echelon SPIUK) 3.48.10 (last year’s winner)
No. 110 Nik Bowdler (Farnboro. & Camberley) 3.37.52 (Current BBAR)(77t Chainring!)
No. 100 Paul Holdsworth (Hounslow) 3.41.39
No. 90 Sean Childs (RN&RMCA) 3.49 58
No. 115 Aran Stratton (VC St Raphael) 3.55.34.

There are six ladies on the start sheet. Last year’s winner Michelle Ayres (South Bucks RC – 4.15.57) is defending her title and the most threatening challenger appears to be Claire Ella (Lincoln Wheelers) whose qualifying time is 4.10.37.

The above is my press release for the local papers.

Forum readers might consider going to watch this. I'd be the first to admit that time trialling is not really a spectator sport, but these longer events are more interesting, especially in the closing stages, and especially if you have a sadistic streak.

Don't expect to see the fast men suffer though, they take it in their stride. They're not even on their bikes all that long, not compared with the longmarkers who are still struggling to reach the finish after five hours in the saddle.

Just a word about the seeding. I expect most of you already know about this, but for newcomers knowledge of this makes time trials easier to understand from the roadside. The normal practice (which has been used for this event) is to put the best riders on the '0' numbers (10,20,etc), and the second string riders on the fives. There is a hierachy for the others, but I won't go into this here.

The most prestigious position is to be the last starter, and this is one reason why organisers who don't have a full field start their numbering sequence from 120 and work back towards the lower numbers, as has been done on this start sheet.
 This method is not always used, but I think it is the best way to lay the field out. The chief advantage being that the main contenders for overall victory are 10 minutes apart, so if one rider on a '0' catches another seeded rider he has already taken 10 minutes out of his victim and there is unlikely to be any question as to which will record the fastest time. If they had started only one minute apart there would be a greater temptation for the caught rider to try to stay with the man who has overtaken him, leading to possible accusations of pacing.

In the past at least one competition record was disallowed because of a dispute arising from this problem.

Michelle Ayres says she intends to ride a 50 the afternoon before the Hounslow event - you might think this sounds like insanity, but there is an explanation. She tells us she intends to ride the 24, so this weekend is part of the toughening up process. I wish her luck with this venture!

If any of you do come out, don't forget to do your best not to obstruct the competitors on the course.

Hope to see some of you on Sunday.

I'd love to pop in and check out Bowdler's ring.. ;)
but I will be spending another week "recovering" (drinking the pubs dry) from ToI.

I love how these people do 100mi as fast as I do 100k and are doing consecutive 25s faster than I can do one. Mentalists.

Wow, first TT in 9 years, Hippy you were right it hurt!

Pleased with my time though 26.58, winner only did a 25, was a very sporting course

The National course was, according to the boss, TOUGH. She got round in 24.55 and came in 29th (which considering that this time last year she didn't own a road bike puts me to considerable shame!).

Lovely day out for me - drove the course; took the dog for a gorgeous walk in fabulous countryside; drove out to the pub in Mashton to see her go out, and then back; drove back to HQ and had a pint as we waited for the results to come in. Ogled disc wheels. Got driven home.

There's a lot to be said for spannering...

Chapeau to her!

What did she do before Time Trialling?

Chapeau to her!

What did she do before Time Trialling?

She did a bit of running, but by no means competitive; more to keep fit. Other than that, nothing much. She started cycling properly last June with the London Dynamos on a Bianchi I found on Gumtree, and it went from there. Her first time trial was at Blenheim last year.

Last nights 10 saw me net 27.09. I'm now thinking that it's time to jump up a chainring. I'm currently on 46x 16 giving me a GI of 75.6. I'm over spun on the short descents that I have and am spinning pretty hard on on the flats. A quick calculation says that I'm currently getting an average of 100rpm throughout. I don't think I'll improve much on what I'm doing so here's the question.

Do I go to a 48 front chainring for a 78.8 GI where I'll still have to still spin at 100 rpm to get a 25 or do I go higher and ease off on the spin. The 10 course in question has 1 soft descent of about 1/2 mile, two short sharp climbs to roundabouts with short sharp offs and two soft climbs to roundabouts with soft offs (I can currently keep pressure on the soft offs but find it hard on the second short sharp off).

Opinions please.

Bigger is better. :)

Bigger is better. :)

Faster is better. If that happens on bigger gears, then bigger is also better. The good thing about doing evening 10s week in week out is that you can experiment with gearing and see what works best for you. There is a temptation to be a cadence snob, but the timekeeper doesn't count your revs, only your elapsed time, so if you find by experiment that an average of 60rpm yields the best times, don't let spin doctors dissuade you. FWIW (i.e., nothing) my average cadence in the last two outings was between 90 and 91rpm on 53/15

Honestly, the ingratitude of some people. You'd think after you'd given a chap course directions and held the air chuck so he could gets his tyre pumped up, the least he could do would be to stay politely behind you until the finish!

Still, I don't suppose 16Simon knew who it was as he came flying past, catching me for 8 minutes inside 20 miles, partly becasue he was going by so fast and partly because by then he'd already passed so many people he must have thought he was in a bunch race, not a time trial.

Great ride on not the easiset day we've ever had on the Marlow ski slope, that form could see you in the top ten next week.

Thanks mate, if you hadn't taken the time to go over the course with me and tell me what to look out for, I probably would have ended up in Reading....

There's some info here about the pursuit meeting that I was telling you about. You should give it a go - they're letting in TT bikes so you won't even have to swap your bars.

There's some info here about the pursuit meeting that I was telling you about. You should give it a go - they're letting in TT bikes so you won't even have to swap your bars.

Hmm...tempting, but there's a 50 the next morning which I'm planning to ride. Ten quid for 4 minutes of suffering, or £7 for a whole two and a quarter hours?

As a matter of interest, do you know what speed you hit going down the ski slope this morning? I topped out at 37.2mph, 135rpm

I like it... get the most suffering for your money.

Not sure what speed I hit, I only use a heart rate monitor, but I was spinning out in 53x11, a bigger chainring would have been good. I want to get a 55T but it costs £85 for a Dura Ace ring in that size, ouch.

I want to get a 55T but it costs £85 for a Dura Ace ring in that size, ouch.

Assuming you don't do much shifting from one ring to the other, DuraAce is an unnecessary extravagance
http://highpath.net/cycles/eggs/02.html £71.95 for a 55t solid ring
http://www.fibre-lyte.co.uk/ £81.95 for 55t carbon fibre
Not much of a saving, but either could be made stiffer than the DuraAce, and the fibrelyte would be substantially lighter.

If you want to try a 55, I've got a Stronglight Dural 130pcd in excellent condition (done a couple of 10s on it) you can have for £10 posted. Definitely works with 9-speed chain, not sure about 10-speed - it meshes OK with the 10s KMC on my road bike, but I haven't actually ridden it with a 10s chain.

Bexley CC are still running their Wednesday evening Ten's on the Q10/26 at West Kingsdown.
Start in the layby just before the entrance to Brands Hatch race course at 7.30pm, it is a rolling course goes out to the Wrotham Hill roundabout back down Gorse Hill to Eynsford.

I ride it on an 88" gear much to the amusement of the other entrants :) did a 26.10 a few weeks ago.
PB 25.10 last year average 90rpm on 88" gear and maxed 175 @46mph

I rode a 10TT on the Harrietsham A20 course yesterday at 25.39, winner was Peter Tadross in 20.35

I'm thinking of doing a TT this week, and going through the usual difficulty in finding a decent stem that will give me a low enough position to make using clip on bars worth while. I've got a 1 1/8 steerer, and an oversize (31.8mm) handlebar and am looking for a 73 degree stem or thereabouts. I'm almost about to try an adjustable stem.

Assuming you don't do much shifting from one ring to the other, DuraAce is an unnecessary extravagance
http://highpath.net/cycles/eggs/02.html £71.95 for a 55t solid ring
http://www.fibre-lyte.co.uk/ £81.95 for 55t carbon fibre
Not much of a saving, but either could be made stiffer than the DuraAce, and the fibrelyte would be substantially lighter.

If you want to try a 55, I've got a Stronglight Dural 130pcd in excellent condition (done a couple of 10s on it) you can have for £10 posted. Definitely works with 9-speed chain, not sure about 10-speed - it meshes OK with the 10s KMC on my road bike, but I haven't actually ridden it with a 10s chain.

And if you don't take up mitre_tester's generous offer, you can get a 55t/130BCD Gebhardt ring from Sonic Cycles for £25.95 posted. You might have to enquire about the 10spd mesh though...

I like it... get the most suffering for your money.
Not sure what speed I hit, I only use a heart rate monitor, but I was spinning out in 53x11, a bigger chainring would have been good. I want to get a 55T but it costs £85 for a Dura Ace ring in that size, ouch.

£23 for a FSA 55T..
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/fsa-road-chain-item84758.html

^stock level FAIL.

Ring them.

No, you ring them.

Fine! I have to do everything in this relationship anyway. Hmmpf!

I'm thinking of doing a TT this week, and going through the usual difficulty in finding a decent stem that will give me a low enough position to make using clip on bars worth while. I've got a 1 1/8 steerer, and an oversize (31.8mm) handlebar and am looking for a 73 degree stem or thereabouts. I'm almost about to try an adjustable stem.

My bottomless parts bin has the answer once more! Get proper low with a Deda Newton Pista 67deg stem. I've got a 10cm one laying around, would accept £30 + post or meet if possible. PM me if interested.