While its tough to see on the Strava elevation chart the climb is really in 3 segments: bottom 1/3 is moderate, 1 mile steep in the middle, and the last 2 miles is flatter, except the last 1/4 mile which ticks up steeper. What pacing tips and strategies can you offer for the best performance? THANKS!
Great site for giving you pacing tips. Iirc the last time I paced an uphill tt on there it had me going a good bit harder on the steeper sections then backing off a bit on the flatter.
It won’t let me go to that for some reason, just pushed me back to my dashboard… But, that seems a little strange. For me it was a shorter tt, but it was about a minute slower than my eventual time, 16 vs 17 minutes. In any case, it could give you a good idea of what segments to take harder, which ones to take easier.
Don’t start off too hard would be my overriding message!!
Assuming a 20min climb (ish), I would settle in to high sweetspot/low FTP on the initial 1/3, attempt to ride around FTP for the middle steep section, back to sweetspot/low FTP for the flatter top (maintaining a low aero profile on the bike), before the final steep section at VO2 max.
My guess is, the last section will be where the vast majority of riders lose time. You’re reasonably light and could gain a bit of time here if you keep a bit back and put in a solid effort.
Depending on your training I think you should be able to sustain between 100-105% ftp, or even higher for a sub 25 minute ride. Being a short time trial, and as BBS corroborates, there isn’t much min/maxing to do on your pacing strategy. Just set your average sustainable watts for the duration and hit it. If you’ve got a little more juice towards the end fire it up for 1-3 minutes.
Biggest pointer I have is don’t let your watts drop on the flatter section. So many people lose massive amounts of time because they let up even just a little bit.
