Snowmen

Hi guys,

I want to get into time trialling but I can't seem to find races... I live in Quebec near the border so I was thinking about racing in the US since there are no TTs here. I looked at the race list on USAC and on Bikereg but I couldn't seem to find many time trials in the New England area. Any great time trials (regardless of whether they've passed already or not) you guys know? I'm also interested in learning about how bike races are organized in the US since that would help me find them in the future...

Ideally, I'd like to do some longer ones since I can push power well but I'm not that explosive.

Thanks for your help!

dz_nuzz

Heh, New England native here. We don't have many TTs at all.

There are the TT regional Championships in CT on the 25th I believe.
The TTT in Sidney New York.

Then there are a few local, weeknight time trials around the Boston area.

One to the north in Concord, MA (Wednesdays)
One to the south in Duxbury, MA (Thursdays)
One to the south in Kingston, MA (Tuesdays, right next to Duxbury)

You may have better luck if you were looking for hill climbs since there are a bunch of those in NH / VT (Crank the Kank, Kearsage, Okemo, Washington, etc.). But there is a real lack of TTs around here.

dz_nuzz

Well, dropped coin on a Felt DA. Thing looks mighty sleek. Just in time for me to ride it on the trainer . Joking aside it will be nice to try and dial in the fit over the winter so that I can terrorize the local KOMs.

revchuck 

Sweet!

Racer Ex 

Pictures or it doesn't exist.

spdntrxi

still fiddling with saddle and bars.. saddle can go up a little next ride.

dz_nuzz

I am now left in a slight fitting dilemma, I feel like I either want to go low and backwards (More closely approximating my road bike position) or use the 5cm exemption, bring the nose of the saddle to the center-line of the BB and jack the height until it reaches my BB-Saddle position height. I brought the front end about as low as it can go and I feel like either saddle position doesn't bother me with the cockpit set up like that (I am guessing I built some flexibility due to the fact that I rode the IAB position a LOT on my road bike this year).

Is there any conventional wisdom around such things?

Will also post the pics soon enough.

wktmeow

Scored an older tubular zipp disc in fine shape & 404 front with cassette and tires on Craigslist for $100 today! Lucky my bikes are all 10 speed still

Coupled with getting re-fit on my TT bike last week has me excited to start gettin' aero. Need to trim the extensions a little shorter but overall feeling good.

Enthalpic

Wow, one hundred bucks for all that.

wktmeow

I know, right? Dropped everything and drove 2 hours each way to get them

Doge

Garmin / Strava pacing....

Does anyone use the feature of Garmins to pace yourself against a Strava ride you want to beat?
How did that workout?

spdntrxi

I did the same for my BMC TT bike... but I drove to LA from the Bay Area... sure it was more then $100 bucks, but it was still a drop everything and drive kind of deal at the time.

Voodoo76

Been working on position for a couple weeks on the trainer. Out on the road for the first time today, a little over an hour Z2 to Tempo. Pretty solid other than feeling a little narrow at the elbows.

PE felt about the same but my HR was significantly higher. For the ride it was roughly 15 BPM over the same NP on my road bike. Is that just lack of time in position?

kensuf

Hawt.

Ygduf

I am on the left. Dude on the right did 9 more watts and beat me by ~1:10, 24:40 to 25:57. I'm fat, so I'm giving up probably 20 of those seconds on the uphill 5.5-mile outbound leg. He put 50s into me uphill and 20s into me downhill too. Maybe I need to move to nice tires and all that bull****, but that's all a handful of seconds when I'm looking for the better part of 1 minute.

LandyachtzDH 

I typically lurk here, but thought I'd give my thoughts on this as I have a fair bit of TT experience. You've obviously got the engine, so setting that aside, you need to maximize everything else. TT's aren't about finding one thing (ie. tires) that will get you a handful of seconds. They're about finding 5-7 things that each get you 5-10 seconds. I think a lot of people that get into TT's from road racing seem to get embarrassed about chasing down small gains, but you need to let go of that if you want to maximize your wattage. So here's what I see:

1) Your skinsuit is not great. I have that suit from a prior team. Ditch it. If you look at a few of the close up pics, you can see all the wrinkles in the suit. Now look at the next pic of Kevin and see how well his suit fits. Take a look at Nopinz. You can get a faster suit (like the bioracer speedconcept) AND they will sew in a number pocket, which will smooth out your number (lot of protour teams doing this now).

2) Tires and tubes. You need to care about this. I don't know what you're using now, but take a gander at bikeblather.blogspot.com. Tom Anhalt keeps a list of tires he's tested. Current champ is the new Vittoria Corsa Speed. Also, you absolutely need to use latex tubes (assuming you're on clinchers) or find tubulars with latex inner tubes. Learn to install latex tubes (talc powder, being careful about checking for tube under the bead, and never trust an old tube on race day).

3) Position. You look a little high, but not overly so (and this will correct itself with the other changes I'll list). Narrow your elbows as much as possible. You also should aim to get your elbows in front of your shoulders by 5-7 cm. In addition to getting you a little lower, this facilitates three things: 1) it will keep your narrow elbow position from impacting your breathing 2) it will allow your shoulders to more naturally roll in 3) you'll find it helps relax the muscles in your neck, which should facilitate getting your head lower (and being comfortable doing it).

4) Shoe covers. This is small, but easy and relatively cheap, so you may as well do it. I can't tell from the pictures, but those look like plain lycra shoe covers. What you want are the tight rain shoe covers (ie. velotoze, or the Pearl Izumi ones like Kevin is wearing)

Those are all relatively low cost ways to get faster, and should be easy to accomplish. Anyway, I hope that was helpful.

Ygduf

I appreciate the feedback. Funny thing is I have a fast skinsuit, better shoe covers, and fast tires/tubes - all **** I used to get on the podium at nats but I've been too lazy for all that prep. First thing I did after seeing the pictures was go move the pads in to get used to that, so yeah, I agree. Power has been pretty decent - e.g. I did 340 on the tt bike for the 26 min and 338 on the road bike for 27:10 in the merckx. Not giving up too much, but still nowhere near the ~400 I can do for 27min on a climb.

I was ready to give up the sport after that first run, but results have me as the 4th fastest rider out of 100+ dudes, so I dunno. Just haven't been passed on a TT before combined with my frustration at being decently fit but simultaneously fat. Giving back a lot of the work I've put in because of stress eating. Meh.

gwarne

Any one wanna critique my TT fit? (pictures credit of Pbcreative ... i stole one by just taking a pic of my computer screen, but I did pay full for the other, so hopefully he doesnt mind assuming this is the only place I use it).

I definitely think I could drop some spacers and get my back a little bit lower, and I need to keep my head down better I think. But overall I think not a bad position for my first TT. Any criticism more than welcome.

Ttoc6

Looking for casette advice. I currently have an 11-28 on my disc, with a 53/39 (aero Q ring in the biggest offset) on the front. Do people run 11-23 for tt's? Seems like it would be nice to have the straight block to really optimize cadence.

revchuck 

I ran a 12-23 (ten speed) on mine for that reason, but it's pretty flat where I live. I'd get an 11-23 if I lived in Utah to swap in if I had a flat race coming up, but I'd probably leave the 11-28 on as the default.

jsk

My disc wheel cassette is 11-23, and that's with 55/42 on the front. Even for rolling hills, I think I would be OK with 42/23, but honestly I don't think I've ever needed the small chainring in a TT around here (it's pretty flat in Houston). Come to think of it I've probably never needed anything more than the 18T in back, so I guess there wouldn't be any real-world difference for the vast majority of my TT's between an 11-23 and 11-25...

furiousferret

I have a 50/34 and 11/28 and I spin out. Not necessarily spin out per se but in a tailwind I've been in 50/11 and have had to pedal at a uncomfortably high cadence (I mash).

Ideally I'd have a 53/39 and 11/23, there aren't too many hilly tt's left around here.

Doge

What is your cadence. A assume because of age 95+. If so I like the 11-28 or 11-25 for the TT. Reason is it puts the important gears with better chain line. So the 14-15-16 are in great alignment. If you have a cassette where you don't need the big cogs you can remove them and put spacers there. Many RDs adjustment screws will block that nicely. I would avoid actually using the 11 and 12.

Ttoc6

Don't have a good pedigree in Time trialing. Road races I usually sit high 80's and I know in time trialling I usually spin just a tad bit faster. Looking at some old TTT data from collegiate last year, looked like I was low to mid 90's, but those shouldn't be indicative.

Valley of the sun looks to be a pretty flat TT, would imagin I'm going to be pushing hard on the way out and trying my best on the way back. I know your son had some pretty good results there. Was that generally his pacing strategy at that race?

Doge

Out is generally where you want to go harder. There are a few riders that do differently, but I'd suggest 53%/47% and stand and sprint at the end if you have it in you, and if you don't, you road a good TT.

Junior times are a bit deceiving. They are affected a bit by bike (road bike - more restrictions than typical Merckx) and gear and it takes more than ideal rpm to stay on top on the return (so they may average a few RPM high). The juniors I follow/d inc, but not only, my kid slowed cadence once they went to open gears. Best junior times were above 100RPM. VOS TT is often posted on Strava. The TT has a 300ft climb which generally means 2 mph difference in speed between out and back. Again, see Strava. Wind is almost always from the west, sometimes 5 mph, sometimes 20mph. If you have a choice on profile for the front, the deepest may not be the best. 50mm is good for winning juniors. Tri-spoke is great too.

Not trying to start another power/HR thing here, but temperature and humidity (lack of) make things a bit different. It is normal for HR to be a few higher than most venues.

Good luck.