Racer Ex 

I won my first TT. 3rd race ever, part of a stage race. So I figured I had at least the mental ability to parcel my effort and suffer. And my time was pretty decent relative to all comers.

TT's are more about efficiency and consistency than power BTW.

merlin55

Like most things, attention to details will improve your own performance. Mostly, lots and lots of practice, timed time trials, and you can improve. I rode a timed 10 mile time trial 3 times a week during my early racing years....back in the 70's. I was a Cat 3/4 but my flat course time trial times in stage races were crazy good for a 3/4 for back then (22 min and change for 10 miles)....Like Eddy said, if you want to learn to ride fast, then ride fast.

milliWatts

milliWatts sincerely hopes this is true.

CrimsonKarter21

Well said. I think one of the things that helps me out in a TT is that since there is less to pay attention to than a RR or crit, you can focus on staying smooth and you're much more aware of what your body is doing.
At the State TT I tried to make a game out of it, trying to keep my position as rigid and aero as possible with no power lost.

Kai Winters

I was not a powerful rider from the start but I do have a higher ratio of slow twitch muscles so distance running and longer events are my stronger suit.
Training makes the difference between an average tt'er and a good tt'er.
When I dedicated one season to training for our regional TT championship, Mass, I was able to average 28.5 mph for the 40k and got the bronze in the Masters 35 category. The winner also turned in a faster time than the winner of the cat 2 field...the bastage...lol good friend and great rider.
Training paid off in the end. As much of the training was mental as well as physical. It is a long time to focus so intently on doing just one thing.

patentcad

They never have any questions for the weak TT riders. Why is that?

waterrockets 

Enthalpic

Jynx

I can't speak for everyone but this is what happened to me.

I live on Long Island. It is extremely flat. For the first 2 years I started riding I would go out and ride as fast as I could for a little over an hour on the same route I did everyday. I am right near the water too so when I would ride it was always extremely windy (which is great for getting an aero position), so I always found my self at hard consistent TT efforts.

When I wanted to start to train for racing I changed up my riding to find what little hills I could and work on climbing along with working on bursts of speed for sprinting. Having never really done them and being a big guy I quickly found that I suck at climbing and don't have the short term power for sprints. So being so much more developed in TT'ing leads me to psychologically dread hill and sprinting and when I want to "take it easy" I always go for TT style rides. This is like a viscous cycle of always falling back to TT efforts.

umd

Tom, I hope you don't mind...



I assume you mean Gary...



And you can put Mr. Chicken Ranch in the BIG and POWERFUL category...



Edit: and here's me... I haven't invested much in my TT setup or position. I'm nearly as powerful as Tom (much more so on W/kg) but I suck at TT'ing. I don't have the aerodynamics or the mental aspects down. Don't discount the mental aspects of suffering through a TT...

furiousferret

You don't have the cool helmet either. Get the helmet and you'll look faster.

milliWatts

Wouldn't it be a little more aero with the mouth closed?

LT Intolerant

Considering he beat about 20 of the pros at last years Amgen TOC in Solvang (he paid about $ 1,000 for the honor of riding the course beforehand) why dont you tell him to shut his mouth

milliWatts

"he paid about $ 1,000 for the honor of riding the course beforehand" ???

tanhalt

This was literally minutes before the pros rode...and it was for charity and included being announced out of the start house by Dave Towle. IIRC, they even had lead motor bikes and follow cars

Kinda cool event...wish I could've done it...

LT Intolerant

Steve, I'm going to pile on here and embarass Tom even more. Tom should be the role model for the 95% of us who come into this sport wt freakish genetics. He is a killer in TT events, taking the bronze at this years SoCal District M40-45 TT against a tough field.

You'd think he'd have a w/kg in the high 4s or even 5 range to see that kind of result based on the raw horsepower in the field, but Tom would be the first to tell you he probably isn't in that exalted range.

So to the OP I'd say that if you are a mere mortal like the rest of us, go to Slowtwitch and read Tom's posts & guest columns, study his position, and by all means PM him and beg him to share his secrets to success. I know I have, and I've seen my TT improve because of it

tanhalt

Not at all...that's a cool pic...


Yup...and as fast as he is, there's room for improvement. I'm working with him on that for next year

Big time...


True dat (i.e the mental aspects)...but that can be learned/trained as well

rizz

The two local guys that I know which are exceptional TTers both have the same riding style: They climb hills sitting down and generally roll in big gears when everyone else is spinning away. They also tend to sprint more like Julian Dean and Fabian Cancellara (i.e., ``power'' riders) and less like most of the traditional thrash-and-mash sprinters.

Speaking of exceptional TTers, I'm number one in my zip code. I'm surprised the USCF site tracks such a worthless fact like that.

tanhalt

I'm not telling him to shut it....YOU tell him to shut it

Actually, I think that might be part of his power secret...think of it as "Ram Air Induction" for a cyclist (pssst...I do the same thing too a LOT)

milliWatts

Cool video. He definitely looks like a powerhouse. To hear him talk about how pleased he was to be w/in 7 minutes of Levi's time (after Levi rode 6 hours the day before) says a lot abut how fast (and maybe juiced?) the top pros are.

ZeCanon

I also came from a mtb background, which requires the same kind of sustained effort. A pro mtb race, done properly, is essentially a 3 hour time trial. So the intensity is a bit lower, but the duration is longer.

When I started road racing I wasn't particularly good in most TT's, from a speed standpoint. I was doing them on my road bike, and I weigh about 138lbs. W/kg didn't help at all, and I wasn't used to dealing with the wind. I still did well (won a couple with some climbing in them) cat 4 TT's, but considering I already had a 'semi-pro' license in another discipline of the sport it would have been kind of embarrassing if I hadn't.
Last year I did a couple TT's on various borrowed TT bikes and ended up in the middle of 2 fields. For next season, I have picked up my own TT bike. My position will be better and I'll actually have trained in the position (man did my ass muscles burn in TT position last year). I'm never going to be a great TTer, my only goal is to limit losses in stage races. I'm a punchy climber (a result of my body type and sprint power) so I have to use that to my advantage even when TTing - I hit small climbs HARD, and gain time there, because I know I'll be losing it on the flats and downs no matter what.

So basically I am NOT one of those natural TT body types - 5'10 138lbs - but with a little hard work and the right equipment I can still hold my own, and maybe even do well.

tanhalt

Well...to be accurate, that was actually the CBR (i.e. non-USCF) State Championship event (a much smaller field than the SoCal district)...and I was borrowing Gary's bike

I raced the straight Cat 4 field at the SoCal districts and took 7th (at the age of 45)...in which the Cat 4 winner's time would've taken 4th in the Cat 1/2s (now THAT'S a guy with freakish genetics)

"Killer" in TT events?...ummm, no...

Believe it or not, my W/kg in those 2 events above was more like ~3.5 ....like I said above, it's more about W/CdA. I've measured my CdA with the setup in the pic above at .228 m^2. When Gary let me borrow his P3C, it was more like .205 to .210 m^2

No more secrets for you Gene...you're getting too fast! I don't need any more competition

LT Intolerant

My bad on your bronze Tom. I forgot that was a CBR event where the guys are FULL-TIME TT maniacs vs the USCF event where they are only part time TTers at best! You are too modest!

umd

^^^ Gene, you need to add a "/" in the ending quote tag

deadly downtube

i used to commute to work 8 mi (total) a day on my fixed gear hipster mobile... then a friend told me to go do the local monthly time trial.. did the 11mi rolling w/ climb TT on my 46x16 fixy and pwned all the kurmudgeon roadies and the timer guy was like "woah thats a cat 3 time" so i was like hell ya i'll get a road bike and go do some real races... then i got a road bike and got my ass handed to me a dozen times then gave up. i'm prolly just gonna stick to the local TT involving old out of shape roadies.