Originally Posted by
guadzilla
How much faster would you go if you were pedaling?
The hilly courses around these parts have winding turns, so I have very rarely been able to get speeds beyond 35-36mph. So this is purely academic - but if i am only going to gain a little bit by pedaling on a downhill, it may be better to go harder on the climbs and recover on the downhill, no?
IMO, the course dictates how to apply power effectively. One of my favorite time trial courses is Santiago Canyon in Orange County, CA. It is 12.4 miles starting with a climb of about 3 miles and then a staircase descent. It is not an out and back course. Once you finish, you ride back to the start which is not easy per se.
I have done it on a road bike with a 50/11 and a time trial bike with a 54/11. I am faster on the TT bike and spin out the 54/11 on the descent so I could use a 56/11. One might think that the climb would favor a road bike but that is not the case. What happens is that the staircase decent offers very fast descending followed by flattish racing so I carry a lot of speed into a flat section and there is an opportunity to apply power and maintain higher speed longer with a larger gear and then get into a optimized front rear combination. If there is an opportunity for “recovery” on the descents, it is sweet spot. And most of us have shot a lot of bullets on the climb already.
I think courses like that make time trialing an art form as well as the ability to apply physics to optimize time.
My ideal combination today would be a 56/44 chainring setup versus the 54/44 I am currently running.