Last year, GCN did a video with five roadies against one time-trialist. Our cycling club went further and did our own version of the challenge. Finnish national time trial champion goes alone against an amateur team of eight riders on a 48 km course.
The TT champ “MadMatt” does most of his winter training in TrainerRoad. Seems to work well for a 45-year-old family man.
Check out the video [Finnish with English subtitles]:
I wasn’t riding there, but I’m sure the riders did their best by the guidance of the captain. Most were pretty sure that the TT bike would win. In his last year’s championship fitness, the TT champ would have crushed the team with a big margin.
Surely that one guy’s open vest wasn’t really optimal
Yea I was more commenting on the open vest, lack of any skinsuits, road aero helmets, or shoe covers etc as well as saddle bags and stuffed jersey pockets. It seemed more like a club team training ride vs a MadMatt who looked well optimized. I’m sure the guys tried their hardest in terms of effort.
Yeah, a very good point. Some aero optimization would probably have turned this the other way around. Most of the guys rode from home to the start, some more than 30km and in case there was a puncture or something, it would have been a long taxi ride home or at least waiting for the camera crew after the finished ride. Some amateur club limitations here
still a very good effort and an interesting vid to watch! I’d put money on a pro team of road riders vs Ganna though, going back to your follow up question
If the sub7/8 challenge is any indication… a team will beat the best TT/Triathlon rider any day.
Just look at how much faster the ride was when it was a team effort!
But wasn’t the sub7/8 done with very aero TT/triathlon gear on all riders? The aero difference is quite big when you change to typical road race gear.
@redlude97 I think a top level TT rider like Ganna could go clearly above 50 km/h or 31 mph on that fairly flat course. For a road team with road gear, it would be very challenging to hold that for an hour. However, it would be very interesting to see.
I think 10 guys on a TT bikes would beat anyone, but 10 guys on road bikes would come in second… The advantages of pack ride is probably similar to a great aero position if the pack know what it is doing that is.