A Time Trialing Thread

He ended up running the 100mm Titan even though they’d picked up the PCW 6560

Aero is king but sub 50 on less than 300 watts surely can only be wind assisted and not on an out and back course?

I thought track pursuit riders had CDAs of maybe 0.19, 0.17 seems pushing it, but I guess they may not be within the UCI rules?

UK TT rules are less strict than UCI

Yeah, weird story as a whole.
The question remains, but basically everyone with unsponsored equipment ended up with the titan

Looking at TdF pics, it seems the high hands position is out of favour again. Or is there something in the uci rules that doesn’t allow it?

FWIW I did 54 flat on that V236/1 for 322w a couple of months ago on a not particularly fast day.
Agree that it’s a decent course and the weather (mainly wind speed/direction) definitely impacts if times are fast. I also clock the distance being about ~200m long.

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UCI regs limit how high the hands (technically the extensions) can be relative to the forearm pads, 15cm I think (?).

Edited: 10cm, thanks jezza323

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10cm

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Aero coach claim their 25deg poles are UCI legal I am currently using non UCI 45deg poles. The optimum is supposed to be inbetween(35deg) which is again non UCI legal :joy: I’ll never qualify for a UCI event though so I think I’ll stick with my CTT legal set up which is nice and comfy :+1:

“Aero is king but sub 50 on less than 300 watts surely can only be wind assisted and not on an out and back course?”

Just looked at the times & power of the top 4 finishes of the 2019 UK National 25TT (on my local course, which is out & back with 260ft of ascent)… not considered as a fast course by the top riders.

|1|Chris Fennell 46:02 32.6mi/h 384W
|2|Phil Williams 46:27 32.3mi/h 379W
|3|Adam Wild 46:41 32.1mi/h 349W
|4|Arthur Franklin 46:43 32.1mi/h 334W

Emily Meakin 49:38 30.2mi/h 264W

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Height is definitely a consideration when talking about times on flat courses and watts. A taller rider definitely has to put out more power than a small rider to reach the same speed, so saying „sub 300 doesn’t give you 50kph“ alone doesn’t really mean much.
For me (6‘3“) 300W clearly doesn’t give me 50kph.

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Impressive numbers. Are those courses typically open to traffic?

The course I mentioned is dual carriageway so there is traffic. That particular race started at 06:00 so there was virtually no traffic. There are 3 roundabouts and an up and over turn to also slow riders down.

Hello everyone, first time posting in this thread. Im a long course triathlete but love to do tts with the bike being my strength. The local race series started up again and went out to the first tt in the middle of training for a Ironman. Won the tt by 26 secs. Pictures from 70.3 St. George just to show my bike position I did the tt in.



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Just seen the Spindata predictions for the National 24 – good luck @GregElwell! If ever there was an event that aero matters, it’s the 24! :smiley: All the best

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Thanks, Sam. I’m hoping that aero is my secret weapon! :grin: However, i went for a course recce yesterday and the course is a lot faster than i expected… which means i will be faster on the black bike - assuming i can tolerate the position. Its a bit of an unknown; i did a 100 on the black one last year, which was comfy-ish.

I am seriously thinking what i could do to make the black bike more comfortable for 24h. Suggestions please!

Aero should definitely give you an edge. Everyone will be doing 150-220w average so investing in aero makes sense.

I supported a clubmate in 2019. 446 miles at the age of 59! and wrote a blog post about it.

Graham Kemp, who won the 2019 race and set a record of 544 miles, was metronomic — every time we saw him he looked like he hadn’t moved an inch out of position, and was really smooth. It was amazing.

As for aero upgrades, I think just try to make the bike as fast as possible. Obviously don’t mess with comfort but if there are any cables you can clean up, true the wheels, make sure all the bolts are correctly tightened, and you’re running the right tyre pressures. As for you, well I presume you’ve done the training including long rides on the TT bike (Martin did three eight hour rides back to back over three days which I think was a bit excessive but meant his position was dialled).

Definitely take a spare helmet in case of an accident and be sure to consider clothing options. It was very cold at night on then Prees roundabout so a well-fitting jacket could help.

Also consider your lights and where you’re going to position them. Rear under the saddle if possible and the front ideally between the bars not below the base bar.

I know some people don’t believe aero makes a difference (I had this conversation in 2019 with a helper) but remember the rough formula of:

1 watt = 0.1 second per kilometre

Saving 10 watts for a rider going 700km = 700 seconds or almost 12 minutes — that’s 6 kilometres extra!

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Thanks for the reply, @sam.fuller1 - I really appreciate it. And the blog is brilliant, well worth a read for anyone wanting to know what crewing one of these events is like.

At the level I’m aiming at, 200W-240W is the standard, I think. I expect to start in the middle of that and drop a bit by the end. But with my position, that will make me very competitive at the start, and time will tell how I last. I sense that there are folks in 24h racing and also Audax who think that aero doesn’t matter. :man_shrugging: Its still the greatest limit to forward progress. Some folks get it, some don’t.

For a TT like this, I’ll be taking spare everything including the kitchen sink! Spare clothes, spare bike, spare wheels… issues that would essentially mean “game over” in shorter TTs, like a bad puncture, are not such a problem in a 24… if you deal with them efficiently. Easier said than done, I know!

If others would be interested I will post pics of my final setup including bottles, lights, etc?

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UK RTTC 100 mile champs today:

Chris Fennell (3.18.18) averages 30mph for 100 miles to win the Men’s RTTC National 100 mile championship on Sunday (July 4); Joanna Patterson (3.42.35) fastest woman

https://www.velouk.net/2021/07/04/result-rttc-national-100-mile-championship-2/

https://www.strava.com/activities/5572385429

(Winning women’s Strava seems private, so can’t share)

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… and I am still trying to average 30mph for 10 miles :joy:

Also: 347W average for 3:18h.
What the actual…

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