[Closed] First TT- advice/pointers?

Have a search through the forum, there have been some extensive discussions about TT.
Clip ons will be worth at least a minute, possibly more than that, but try them beforehand to make sure they are tight and you are used to them. If it's a proper hilly TT you may spend a lot of time off the extensions.
You should aim to build steadily to your racing threshold without burning yourself at the start. If it is your first race and you are using an HRM, you will definitely start too hard! The correct starting pace will feel to easy for the first few minutes when you are all fired up. It's all about getting to threshold smoothly and staying there for the duration of the race. Harder to do in a hilly event.
Good luck, and have fun.

Have a chat to people at the race as well, they'll help out with advice.

Greg Lemond (I think)

"As you leave the start, spin the gear up to top revs and then change up. Spin that up to top revs and change up. Spin that up to top revs and change up. Repeat until you either run out of gears or black out and fall off.

Interviewer:  "And that will get you to win a TT

GL: "No, but it should ensure you won't finish last.

Thanks for that, I thought going to hard to early will probably be a thing I do- I always do that on FTP tests!

Any thought on whether to keep it constant or blow up a bit on climbs and recover on downs?

It's 3 x laps of a 5 mile circuit.

That Lemond qoute is class!

Warm up.
Warm up.
Warm up.
Take a bog standard turbo or set of mini rollers. Failing that ride the local roads - but not the course!
Get well warmed up. At least 15 mins of hard work. You want to get yourself to race pace before the race starts.

Time yourself so that you don't get to the start line more than a couple of minutes before your own time. Keep wrapped up in this weather and hand your spare clothing over to the marshalls when your minute man starts.

Don't get fixated looking at your HRM. That will lead to head down riding. That's the best way to ride into a car!!!

If it's a hilly then keeping to a pre set heart rate is almost impossible. So don't try.

Tri bars may help, but on a hilly it's difficult to know without details of the route. I did Circuit of the Dales one year on a bog standard road bike and came 4th. Tri bars wouldn't have improved that.

I've only done a few TTs, and I'm not all that good, but with regard to changing bars first ask yourself the question "Who am I racing?"

If you consider yourself a contender then the money might be worth it (plus you'll need a new bike to put them on, a disc wheel, aero helmet and skin-suit 😉

For me I'm racing previous versions of myself. As such its become important to me that I don't change the bike too much otherwise any improvement is the bike, and not me and I ruin the experiment IYSWIM.

I think the first TT is just a line in the sand, its hard to take too much from it. You won't know how hard to push, or where. Next time you'll have an obvious target to beat.

Good luck, they are awful, and somewhat addictive.

LR

Clip on aero bars will make a difference, but less so on a hilly test - depends how hilly really. If you fit them would be good to go for a spin Sat to adjust to the position (and coming out to use the brakes) Aero position can feel precarious on big descents if you are not used to it, so get back in the drops if it feels better.

I use average speed to guide me on a normal ten - others use power, HR, or nothing at all - they just feel the universal force of testing. If it's 15 hilly then hard to say what a respectable benchmark for your first go would be, depends entirely on the course. Av speed not all that helpful as you'll often be way over / under it, but at least it might give you an idea of your schedule.

I think it was David Millar, actually it could have been Chris Boardman, either way, who said that when you get to half way ask yourself if you can hold that pace for the rest of the ride. If the answer is "yes" then you're going to slow, if the answer is "no" then you're going to hard/fast, the answer you want is "maybe, possibly".

Basically, ride it so you're blow up as you cross the line, which will feel like you're going to blow up about a mile from the finish.

You will inevitably end up pushing a bit harder on the hills, but try to avoid "blowing up" and going too far over the red line.
Warming up is a very good tip. Do a nice steady build up for 10 minutes or so, them do a few 1 minute efforts at 90% of your racing pace, with several minutes recovery in between. Leave yourself plenty of time to get to the start comfortably.

Aero is everything and position is king so clip on likely to save time. Even on hilly tts I go full aero and use the disc.

On hilly courses hit the hills hard and use the downsides to recover an maintaining power downhill is difficult.

As said warm up properly, go out easy and build up effort and most important of all, know the course.

Go harder on the climbs, recover on downs. Speed is lower on the climbs, and air resistance increases with the square of speed (or something), so you get more time gain by working harder relatively on the climbs than on the flat/downs.

Maybe. Seems to work that way on Zwift anyway.

Warm up really well

Don't go too fast at the start

Clip-ons won't help if you can't hold the position and still put out decent power - I suspect trying them for the first time in the race wouldn't be the wisest of moves.

Split the course into thirds. Aim to make each third faster than the previous.

Then you get three matches to burn. Each match is an above threshold effort for no longer than 1 minute. I tend to use these up on short hills that you power over within a minute.

As said already, some hard efforts in warm. These are a shock to the body and it takes time to adjust and realise it has work to do. You want that adjustment to place during warm up, not the race.

Divide the distance into 4. I use power rather than HR but the plan goes along these lines.

1st quarter aim to build to your target HR, don't go easy but avoid going out hard and building lactate in your legs

2nd, aim to hold your target HR being careful not to burn those matches on and of the hill, make those gear changes early to keep the leg speed up.

3rd How is my target feeling, decide to increase or hold where I am.

4th quarter, bury yourself totally you are nearly there, live with as much pain as possible.

Thats how I play a 10miler, not tried it on 15miles, might want to divide it into 5 rather than 4

As sarawak has suggested - avoid riding into a car.
a) It'll hurt
b) On the TTs I ride its an immediate 6 (or possibly 9) month ban from competing.

Take as much weight off your bike as possible - carry an emergency tube / co2 / pump etc & leave the saddle bag behind. For 15mi you probably don’t need a drunk too - which can save weight. Wear your closest fitting kit too & consider the conditions. Deep profile wheels & high winds are not a good combination!

Ask kryton, he did a lot of TT work a few years back.

One more thing.....
If you enjoy it you may want to do more. Than you might get the TT bug. Just remember that it is you and your bike against the clock.
Work out what suits you. Don't do what others do. Your bike set up and preparation are what suits you.
Testing is in large part a mental exercise. You have to be confident that everything is just the way you want it.

Back in the 1980's, 90's and early 2000's when I was strutting my stuff the availability of ready made TT bikes was nil. Every bike was different. All the guys had their own way of doing things. Don't get sucked into following the crowd. That's what crit riders do!!!

Find your Lactate Threshold Heart Rate, using a site such as https://cricklesorg.wordpress.com/ and giving it access to your Strava data (which hopefully has plenty of heart rate data, including parts of rides where you have felt on the edge of exhaustion over a 20min+ period).

Keep below your LTHR for all but the very last bit of your TT.

Try and spin, especially up the hills, rather than grind at a low cadence... At least on the early laps.

If the course is local, try and ride it at least once before the TT, to get some sort of idea of its demands and how hard you can attack the hill climbs by knowing how much downhill recovery you have before the next climb.

Given that it's your first one, I'd suggest just getting stuck in there and trying with whatever equipment you have. It's one of those things, you set the bar, and then you have to raise it, and you will learn as you go. It's addictive.

The tendency is to set off like a scolded cat and it's difficult to curb this urge. That's something you learn over time (and something I found a power meter helped with).

Once you've settled into a rhythm and found something you think you can may or may not sustain, tuck in and stick with it. The occasional peek at your heart rate will let you know if you're over or under-doing it (and you might have to reign yourself in on the climbs).

Go a little harder on the climbs than on the flat, but not too much.

Aero extensions will make a noticeable difference in most circumstances, and actually make a good setup for hilly courses. It's also one of the cheapest modifications you can make in the TT arms race. But then there's usually a roadman category too, which you might want to have a crack at.

Done a few hillys back when I was younger and fitter, they are a bit different to riding a flat TT. As others have already said pacing is key but in my experience think about the following....
Firstly, avoiding blowing up on any of the climbs (unless its a hill top finish where you can hammer it and vomit as you cross the finish line).
If you can ride the climbs seated then you should try to be on the clip-ons/extensions. But you need to be able to hold your form and keep on top of the gear. Once you start looking ragged then gear down, slow down just a bit and get back to being smooth and fast.
If climbs are steep enough to require getting out of the saddle try to minimise time stood up as its not very aero.
TT is all about maintaining a high average speed, so maybe there will be a time that a quick out of the saddle blast will get you over a crest and quickly onto a descent and moving fast again. This is very dependent on the course, just be careful not to overdo such efforts.

One more thing…..
If you enjoy it you may want to do more. Than you might get the TT bug. Just remember that it is you and your bike against the clock.
Work out what suits you. Don’t do what others do. Your bike set up and preparation are what suits you.
Testing is in large part a mental exercise. You have to be confident that everything is just the way you want it.

Back in the 1980’s, 90’s and early 2000’s when I was strutting my stuff the availability of ready made TT bikes was nil. Every bike was different. All the guys had their own way of doing things. Don’t get sucked into following the crowd. That’s what crit riders do!!!

Respect to a tester of your vintage, sarawak, but those days have gone - you were timetrialling when it was harder and you all needed to have your secrets. Times have dropped a lot in recent years and it ain't because everyone's doing their own thing. Quite the opposite - there are no secrets, everyone trains to power, everyone knows what works aerodynamically and what doesn't, everyone can get a fast skinsuit and a good bike setup.

Your position will always be your own, so that is good advice not to pay too much attention to how others look like. Some people can drape themselves over the bike with that beautiful Wiggins-style flat-back, others would hurt themselves trying to do that - more than one way to skin a cat here.

Good advice up there, clip ins definitely worth but get some practise runs in first they feel very dodgy to start with, more so if you are on a hilly course.

Breaking into quarters is a good call and is what I do now

I was told to go flat out, it’s only a 10 in my first tt, I blew up inside 3 mins and then suffered the next 20+

I was a TTer before finding fat tyres last year, if the course is local recce the descents as you can make up a lot of time there. TT rigs are not always the best for such courses so take advantage where you can.

If you do use clip on bars, you will need to adjust your position. Move the saddle forward on the rails at least a cm. you can also lower the saddle a little for more Aeros. the TT position is similar to road but rotated about the bottom bracket. You don’t just crank over a bit lower and hope to put down the power. You won’t hold the position.

You won’t need a drink. You won’t need food. You will need to warm up. Harder up the hills. Harder on the return or second half. Finish fast as you can. And you can hurt yourself more than you think you can.

If you run a garmin use autolapping on distance and divide the distance into four. Then look at average heart rate or power if you have that, or just speed if not. Try and keep level effort for first half then ramp it up.

Advice for first tt? Dont do a second!

Is that a 15 mile hilly course at Brill by any chance? If so I'll see you there as I'm doing signing on.

Doubt I'd bother with clips ones for 1 race. If it's really hilly you won't be on them much, if it isn't then you won't be used to the position.

East Leake. No idea where Brill is

Thoroughly enjoyed that. Cheers for the advice all.

Averaged 21mph on a hilly course in 30mph winds with no aero bars etc, very happy with that for a first bash, saw me under 45 mins which was my goal before going.

Appreciate all the tips on pacing, really helped! Felt like I got that bit bang on.

P.s. anyone got a tt bike for sale? 😂

Have a look on the timetrialling forum. Always plenty of bargains. And the forum software works too.

P.s. anyone got a tt bike for sale?

Maybe... I have an beginners boardman hanging up unused an am considering my coached MTB career as ending  🙂

I learned a lot from TiRED, but basically go out much easier than you think work hard throughout but not to your max, then on the last 5th of the TT its balls out and till you can't see properly.  Don't be tempted to go hard mid TT.

If you're using power its useful to know your 20 min power for 10k's and work to average that throughout, then go balls put for the last 5 minutes.  Some people go harder on hills where time is made up, some don't.

After all that you're into the minutae of position, which is a massive can of worms in a positive way.

Above all, enjoy it.  TT's are all about a bio / machine amazing moment coming together with tea and cake after.

I'll have a look on that forum, cheers Tired.

Kryton... if it's unused it's likely out of my price range at the min.

Don't go for a warm up spin, misjudge your start time, have to finish your warm up with a sprint to the old fella who holds your bike up and set off 5 seconds later still panting.

If you do decide that's the plan then don't follow it up by getting into the bottom of a deep dip approx 200m in the course, drop your chain over the big ring and have to stop to sort it all out thereby losing all momentum, starting the climb from a dead halt and getting passed by your minute man after approx a minute.

After that you'd prob not put in a great performance.

Apparently.