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You can also do some high gear/low cadence/high resistance stuff to get a similar relief effect to standing.
Changing hand positions is good - it has a knock on effect. And rolling back onto your sit-bones in an exaggerated manner helps, within reason.
And FFS, never spend more than 45 minutes on there. I'm currently doing 2 different turbo sessions per week, and both are 30 minutes, which includes 10min w/up and 5min w/down.
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If I'm going the other way, maybe I'll be a mountain goat before I die..
Congratulations on your second place - you were close to the winner at 4 seconds. Anyone who gets near two minutes there is going well.
However, don't count on becoming a better *grimpeur *as you mature. Climbing ability is generally the first thing to go - as I know to my cost.
You don't mention whether you were on gears or fixed. If you rode gears, I strongly suspect you would have won with the right fixed sprocket.
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You can also do some high gear/low cadence/high resistance stuff to get a similar relief effect to standing.
Changing hand positions is good - it has a knock on effect. And rolling back onto your sit-bones in an exaggerated manner helps, within reason.
And FFS, never spend more than 45 minutes on there. I'm currently doing 2 different turbo sessions per week, and both are 30 minutes, which includes 10min w/up and 5min w/down.
My plan currently has 2x 1 hour sessions this week, 2x 1.15 sessions next week, and 2x 1.30 sessions the week after....
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Great "Angry Hippy" picture that.
top effort on the hill climb as well.
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^ me too. However, having taken the plunge and signed up a coach, i'd better behave myself. I do have 2x sessions on the road at the weekend as well - however, my work / family commitments preclude long sessions during the week.
Now, who knows how to merge / forge Garmin sessions on a UCX file?
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You don't mention whether you were on gears or fixed. If you rode gears, I strongly suspect you would have won with the right fixed sprocket.
Ay, and there's the rub. Picking the right gear for Windsor Hill is probably the way to go, but you need to do several full-effort test rides to refine it. I've only raced up there once, and after a few tests on different gears on my road bike, I settled on 42/21 fixed for my race, and came an impressive dead last. While I was waiting for the start having got there much too early I watched Rob English ride up about 10 times for training, and then he won it in 1:35 on his road bike.
http://www.maidenheadcc.org.uk/results.2005/tt051016.htm -
When I've got a good base of TTs done geared I may consider doing some fixed. Until then I'll be doing everything geared. Such was my lack of interest in this hill climb I wasn't even going to do a test ride up. The biggest concession I gave towards 'knowing' the course was taking it somewhat easy when we first rode down it, trying to pay attention to it's length and gradient. Haha waste of time.
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Rob English is pure class. I know he tried experimenting with aluminium cassettes, but they weren't up to the task of hillclimbing.
I had a look at the map contours for Windsor Hill. Guessed a mid 60...?
I usually work to the hill's maximum gradient, and being slightly overgeared on that. 25% is about a 55", 15% about a 65", and 10" about a 75". Something like that anyway. There's always the wind and stuff to deal with.
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There's always the wind and stuff to deal with.
In my case, the "stuff" I had to deal with in that race was the 215lb of stuff I'm made from.
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I think there is a big difference doing a hill climb v tt with respect to the geared v fixed debate.
I agree. With a standard TT there will always be a debate about which is best - with hill climbs there's no question: fixed is better, just so long as you've got the right gear for that course.
This is the reason why 21 and 22 tooth sprockets often turn up in jumble sales - they represent some one's aspiration, in the distant past, to win their club's hill climb!
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I'd love to have a go at either on fixed, why did i sell my track bike...... Oh yeah wasn't using it
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I think gears have the edge on variable gradient climbs, especially since the playing field has been levelled regarding bike weight. But it needs good technique under pressure, which is probably why cyclo-xers like Jody Crawforth do well.
Robert Gough's bike is a fantastic climb-specific machine. Single ring, cassette whittled down to 5 cogs, chopped/flipped drops with a bar end shifter. Weighs fuck all too.
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We'd all like a Crumpton SL special or a Parlee Z1.... It would make me super speedy up hill.
If I lost as much weight off my bike as I've lost off my body in the last year, I could park it on the ceiling :-)
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I'd love to have a go at either on fixed, why did i sell my track bike...... Oh yeah wasn't using it
I can't help with the bike, but I can offer you an event to have a go at:
Hounslow Club Hillclimb
8th November 2009
Course HCC011 (Windsor Hill - same as the West Drayton MBC hill climb above)
Start time 10.45You'll need to be there a little bit before that if you want to enter on the line.
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Are you doing this clubman? It would give me another excuse to ride my neglected bikes..
There's also one more 25 and a bunch of 10s on the West District calendar:
http://www.lwdc.org.uk/bydate.pdf -
We’ve been asked to repeat anything interesting that we posted during the past five days.
This creates the problem that we have to judge for ourselves whether our own posts were interesting to others; a matter about which I am always in doubt.
As it happens I had been asked a question, how old am I?, so I will repeat my answer. At least this will prove I didn’t manage to sabotage the server because I’d had second thoughts about revealing my age.
Clubman’s D.o.B. is 7.8.45.
I had said in a previous post that I now choose to rest on my laurels so far as hill climbs are concerned, and there was a response which related to the climbing ability of a rider in his early forties.
Just to try to get this thread moving again, let me give you a brief account of John Woodburn’s age defying TT career:
Woody, or P.J.Woodburn as he was originally known in the results section of ‘Cycling & Mopeds’ dates from 1937, and so is now in his 73rd year
In the recent Brighton Mitre 25, reported above in this thread, he walked away with the Vets’ standard prize having recorded 1hour 2minutes and a few seconds, and while this time will not impress those who weren’t there to witness the tough conditions, I believe no one could fail to be startled by his qualifying time of 54.21.(Q.time is a rider’s best performance at the distance in the current and past three seasons). This time would have been competition record until 1965.
TT Championships include:
1961 25 miles 56.01
1979 12 hours 285.51 miles
1981 12 hours 269.48 “
1983 12 hours 266.37 “1978 British Best All Rounder, average speed 26.067 mph.
This was the first time the BBAR had been won with a speed above 26 mph, and I believe also the first time it was won by a vet.
Naturally Woody was an active roadman in his day, and an RRA record breaker, but I won’t bother you with that since I’m not his press officer, merely an interested bystander with a CTT handbook.
The point I’d like to make is that for some older riders there is remarkably little deterioration in TT performance. However we are talking here of a traditional style British TT where the course has been selected for speed rather than interesting scenic views. If you are racing as a vet, don’t be disappointed if you struggle to compete with younger riders on ‘sporting’ courses, play to your strength and find somewhere flatter.
willo
BringMeMyFix
clubman
Sainsburys_Ed
gbj_tester
BoardChrisman
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Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT
Posted by
@hippy
Stand up whilst remaining balanced. :P
If I can get out of the saddle and continue pedalling without breaking turbos and skewers you should be able to. Make sure you use good steel skewers and tighten turbo onto them properly of course. And pedal smooth like buttah.