A Time Trialing Thread

… so how are you determining that they are “In the same position” when they are so very different in design?

100m TT - Anyone?

OK, so I’m not trained as I would like to be but I’m ready to suffer. I have entered a 100m TT in 2 weeks time. Now training time which would have an impact has come and gone so looking for any other bits of advice that may pay dividends on the day.

Fueling?
Pacing?
Etc.

The course is a 4 lap course on decent roads. Often direct headwind one way then tail the other (like a rectangle) withshort cross winds at each end.

Thanks

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I thought at the first moment, that it was a photo of my experience from last weekend :joy:


It happened the exactly the same way and with pretty much the same mileage. I was able to stop properly, despite it having lost the air supper quickly.

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@PhilSJones has done a few recently and may be able to advise. The longest I’ve done is a 25 which requires no fuelling but its on the limit. I’m down for a 30 on Saturday and have a soft hydration pack coming today hopefully it lets me go beyond the hour barrier. If it does I might try a 50 or 100 next year :wink:

@Stehan90 BDCA 100? If so, I will see you there, all being well.

I did this last year, and thought I got it about right. In terms of nutrition, I had about 1.5 litres of carb drink, with total 150g carb, plus 3 caffeine gels with total 60g carb, spaced evenly throughout. I carried all this in a home-made between-the-arms cage, so I didn’t have to take any hand-ups and didn’t have to reach bottles. It was right there, straw pretty much in my mouth.

My pacing could have been a little better; I set off a little too hard, averaged 260W for the first lap, but by the last lap I was probably closer to 225W, for an average 240W. It did make the last lap feel pretty ugly, so I’d be conservative.
One thing I noticed; even though I slowed a bit, there were a ton of folks who rode the first half in a decent position, but who seemed to be on the base bars for a large part of the last half. I would definitely advise riding conservatively, but making sure you are able to stay aero throughout.

Other than that, I had my “usual” 25m race kit. Skinsuit, aero oversocks, all that. Small tool kit and spare tube, although that was as much to get me home if anything happened. Decent rear light.

And if you are doing the BDCA event, the road surface coming into a couple of the roundabouts is awful; my elbows were killing me by halfway. I have much better elbow pads this year.

I have done two 100m TTs, one of which was June this year.

Two weeks is less than ideal – how confident are you of holding your position for 4 hours? That’s the deal breaker for a lot of people.

Fuelling – my plan was: four gels + 3 sachets of SIS beta fuel = 328g carbs.

Pacing – my NP was 0.79IF for 3:50ish. Somewhere around the z2/z3 border would be a good idea for you. If in doubt, knock a few watts off and build. Starting too hard will lead to a world of pain.

My race report

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Ok these similarities are starting to get scary :joy:

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Thanks.

No its not BDCA its the N&DCA in the North.

Yes I can hold TT for 4hrs I just know my fitness isn’t ideal at the moment. However, I’m hoping by nailing the nutrition, sticking to aero position and just suffering I will make up some ground on the few watts I am down from peak fitness.

I’m looking at around 70g carbs per hour after loading at the beginning. I’m thinking of a bladder?
Keeping everything else in terms of position and equipment the same as shorter ones as have no time to truly test a change and I know I’m comfortable at the moment.

Looking at my power curve my lower threshold power is currently 252 which is just under 80% threshold. I’m thinking of starting just under this, then building as the race progresses.

Its not too far away from me so I’m planning on doing a course recce before hand and test out bladder (if that’s what I use) and do 2 laps which will be 50mile.

There are a load of people that favour the “aero belly” or bladder down skinsuit approach. I hated it, so I had a bladder between my arms. However you hold it, I think a bladder is better than any kind of bottle(s).
Like @sam.fuller1 I was just below 80%, at 0.78IF. At this intensity, I’m probably burning as much fat as glycogen. As a result, I didn’t focus on maxing out my intake.

I’m using one for the first time this weekend, an aero belly. It seems secure enough under my skinsuit on the turbore. I’ll see how it handles on the road tomorrow as I need to pull the hose out a bit with one hand before biting.

Good luck with the 100. There is not much you can do differently, in such a short time, but a few suggestions from my various 100s and 12s.

  1. Definitely take more drink than you would expect, I run 3x750 for a 100, which gives me a boost at the end if I need it. I eat bars and then gels towards the end. (If using a bladder, or even Off the back bottles, practice drinking and holding your line.)
  2. Treat 80-85 miles as half way… then see how you feel…
  3. Personally starting around 75% and push harder near the end or into a wind. My fastest was .76. my slowest .83 :slight_smile:
  4. There is no harm in raising the bars say 5 mm or so. I have pulled out of a 100 at 66 with neck ache. However if you are happy, go with it.
  5. the only catch with a bladder is it is hard to tell how much you have drunk. I deliberately use 1/3 of a 750 every half hour, and so I can see how much I have had. I met a guy who tried to ride a 100 using a 500ml aero bottle. he was in a dreadful state at the end :slight_smile:
  6. ingnore other people’s pace. Concentrate on yours.
  7. Perhaps use mywindsock to get a sense of the time/speed for each out and back lap, as there can be quite a difference if its a bit windy. Then you don’t fret when you have a slower lap, as the faster one makes up for it.
  8. Don’t sweat roundabouts etc. If you are help up, just treat it as a handy break to recover for a few seconds.

Not much more I can add to the other comments.

Have a good one.

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Wow, that is very thin!

Raced the Northern California/Nevada State Championship TT on Saturday and came in with a win in the masters 35-39 cat. Between this race and my previous one I ended up completely revamping my fit. I went up about 20mm on saddle height, about 15mm forward, and raised the cockpit 30mm. The result was lower RPE for higher power and the ability to drop my head and tuck much lower than before.

The race was a flat out and back course of about 18.5 total miles (29.8km) and had wind coming out of the northwest of about 4-5mph (6-8kph). I built a plan in Best Bike Split around about 95% FTP (387w np) that claimed to net me a time of 38:21 @ 28.97mph.

On race day I figured I’d go out and target around 385w on the out leg and see how I felt, since I’d never held anywhere near that kind of power for 30+ min on a TT bike. I ended up at 382w avg for the first 9.5 miles out (21min), but with the wind being stronger than BBS had predicted, the average speed was a bit slower than I expected, at 27.1mph. As soon as I hit the turn around the impact of the wind became very apparent. In the first 2-3 minutes I slowly started ramping up power to 350-360, then 370 and noticed that my average speed for the return leg was climbing > 30mph. As soon as my split average hit 31mph, I decided to ignore power and just send it. Keeping the average as close to 31mph as I could. In the end, I averaged just under 29mph for the full course at a time of 38:28. Stats below

Overall: 38:28/377w avg/28.9mph avg
Out: 21:19/382w avg/27.1mph avg
Return: 17:09/373w avg/31.1mph avg



I think over the off season I’ll experiment with dropping the stack a bit to get lower, but being so big and wide I was generally happy with how my form looked in the photos on course.

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Congratulations! That’s a fantastic ride, and thanks for sharing some of your data. Your position looks really good in those head-on shots.

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@Stehan90 - how did you get on with the N&DCA 100m TT? Was your nutrition plan OK? And what was the power/intensity you managed to hold?

I did a solo 10 mile TT yesterday and decided to analyse the ‘race’ on TrainingPeaks and jot some thoughts down.

The effort was on the Q10/29 course, with a fairly stiff 14mph SSW wind. You can pretty much tell whether I had a headwind or tailwind based on speed.

Am I the only geek that does this sort of stuff, or do any of you do it too? I’m interested to see other people’s post-race analyses :slight_smile:

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Solid ride and effort! I also geek out some but mainly just on strava.

Unfortunately I’ve had the tt bike hanging since our State race but I have a stage race next month with a short 5 mile TT so it’s time to pull her down and dust off the cobwebs.

:slight_smile:

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Ditto, but I also geek out with RWGPS too :joy:

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This was a couple of weekends ago but has had me thinking what could I do on my TT bike with a full aero set up. Probably won’t get a chance to try again this season but one to target next year.

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If I had to guess, I’d say a short 53

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