Racing from the back – Time Trial

Racing from the Back

These are intended to be a series of articles to share how it feels to take part in grass roots cycling sports. Having hit a mill stone age (cough 50) I decided to have a go at various competitive cycling events,  just to see what it is like, and as people have asked me what it is like  I decided to put together a few blog items.  They are not intended to be comprehensive guides but hopefully people will look at them and decide to give one or two events a go themselves. So far people have been very supportive and helpful to an old idiot wandering up to events.

My current adventure is Time Trials. Mainly due to having signed up for the Tour of Cambridgeshire with its 25Km TT and 130Km Grand Fondo I decided I have better try and learn about TT. Not so much to win or to qualify, but to avoid being last in my age range.

Time Trials – The race of truth.

In many ways it is the easiest form of cycling sport to get involved with. In order to take part you just need to be a member of a suitable club (Like Performance cycles), have a bike, red light crash helmet and £5 to take part in the local Latton Time trial. 10 miles riding on my own against the clock. So what is it like?

Sign on is at the Ashton Keynes sports ground from 5:30pm, with the TT starting at 6:45pm. Quick tip, get in early if you want an early start time, but be prepared to hang around for a while. Last time I turned up @ 6pm and was number 49, and as riders are released at 1 min intervals that was a start time of 7:34pm. That means a lot of time to hang around but it is also a chance to get advice from other riders, have a gossip and persuade someone to attach your number to your lower back. Also you can look at the kit, and it will vary from basic road bike to full on time trial bike with disk wheels and aero helmets.

There is so much to learn from position to technicalities on bikes and even warm up is subjective. Do not do enough and you are sluggish at the start, too much you have burnt vital reserves. I try and warm up about 30 min before my start time, going slow at first to get into a gentle warm up and then closer to the start time do some sprints. You will find people leave the club house in little groups and head to the start area, then run up and down behind the start point as warm up. Quick note do not warm up on the course, it adds confusion for the marshals and time keepers plus you may get in someone’s way.

The 16km Latton TT course is pretty flat and mainly straight but wind can have a big impact on the times you record

The actual TT what is it like to ride? Well I find my feelings vary. I found it requires focus; it is too easy for your mind to wander and your speed drop off. Also I found myself having a love hate relationship with doing a TT, and I guess the answer is it grows on you, or you get addicted. The first couple of times I found myself running out of steam and not feeling good. Then with time you get interest in the time, can feel and see your speed increase and there is that, “with a bit more I could….” So you end saying that is enough, and you come back next week to do better.

The following table records my various experiments at the course, and as you can see while my times are hardly going to worry the leader board I did manage to make some good improvements by fitting TT bars, altering my riding position and some advice from Gethin and Rory plus a visit to the Jim Curry wind tunnel.

Run	Time	Ave Speed
Standard Road Bike at Start	27:41	35.1 km/h
Standard Bike & Training	27:02	36.0 km/h
TT Bars & lower stem	26:07	37.2 km/h
TT Bars & lower stem & Skin suit	25:57	37.5 km/h
TT Bars & slam stem & Skin suit	25:51	37.6 km/h

My objective in all of this is the Tour of Cambridge TT course expected to be around 25Km long so I created my own test route from the Latton TT course and the old road circuit route to try and give a more varied 25km route.

My results for this route are as follows, the third run telling me to wait more than 3 hours after eating before riding, so I guess even failures are valuable sources of learning. I am most happy that over a longer and more varied course my pace was close to that for the 16Km route.

Run	Time	Ave Speed
TT Bars & lower stem	42:35	35.3 km/h
TT Bars & slam stem	41:32	36.2 km/h
Stomach cramps	41:48	36.0 km/h
Best Run	40:33	37.1 km/h

To follow part 2 the Tour of Cambridgeshire