Ryan Standish and Keegan Swenson join the TrainerRoad Crew to discuss their experience in stage 1 of The Valley of The Sun Stage Race, the time trial, their race strategies going into stage 2 and more in Episode 245 of The Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast.
It relatively flat I agree but, there are three little rises/bumps that combined with wind make you think about how to pace it IMO. Not a big deal but, if new to it I can see it affecting time is all I’m getting at.
The RR “climb” can really hurt too. Just depends on how hard the guys are going and for the heavier guys a tailwind is not welcome. How’s your 5 minute power after a couple hours?
The crit is just plain too damn short. Watch the manhole covers between turn 2 and 3. And the pothole/rough road/creases after turn 4. Be top three in second to last corner and you will end up very good. Cheers!
Yeah - I don’t know how you’d describe that TT as anything but flat.
Was also surprised to hear they’d shortened the cat 2 RR by one lap - it was the same distance as the P1 last few years. Shouldn’t change the dynamic a ton, although I guess one less time up that hill should help
Surprised at how big a delta there was between the FTPs being quoted at the start of the podcast and the TT power numbers. I know a lot of people see a bit of a drop from road to TT (though the TT specialists, stage racers and triathletes I know who train regularly in TT all have little to no drop, a few even put out a bit more power in TT), just didn’t think it would be that big. Especially as I think the guys talked about having their TT positions tested, and they talk quite a bit about the points available in stage races if you’re good at TT (before they changed the rules at least). So it seems like the kind of thing that they’d have nailed with their usual attention to detail. E.g. Seeing a fitter, doing trainer rides in TT position, etc.
I guess on the plus side there is some low hanging fruit!
Two of them are mountain bikers and did it on road bikes, which is a very different position. Nate just got a new tt bike so isn’t dialed in yet (or focusing solely on tts) so it’s understandable
Yeah, wasn’t really talking about the MTB guys who seemed like they just treated it as a good training weekend, was more Jonathan and Nate who I thought were looking for upgrade points so would have maybe optimised for TT a bit more. New TT bikes are pretty easy to dial in with how adjustable they are these days, especially the Cervelos.
