Race Report - Swords 25M TT - 17 June

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 10:23AM #1

This is not so much a report rather than a trickle of my inner thoughts... A report for one man cycling alone for 40kms is more appropriate for Indy cinema not boards......

To my right a guy wearing a full condom, I mean skin suit, pedals effortless circles warming up for his little TT. He glances up and for a split second I see a body double. He's like Jan Ulrich a mountain of I man in peak form... I'm like Jan Ulrich pre-season whipping peanut butter from my lips... This is going to be tough.

Behind me a nervous chatter bubbles along, or is it laughter. 20 seconds, 10 seconds....... 5, 4, 3, 2, boom.

Well boom is an exaggeration I slowly trickled off the start and settled into the new tri bars. It’s a basic out and back course not hilly but not flat. Unfortunately there was a headwind for the first 10 kms. How to pace one self was my biggest problem but after about 10km I decided that my HR was settled at around 170 and any harder had me panting for air. Up ahead I saw a lone rider.... great I thought I'm going fast enough to catch someone....

around 17km..... crickey 3kms to go and I am felling knackered... a short little hill I though I power up... on the way down I had to coast to get the breath back... right almost there..

I was treating this as 2 TT on 20km into the wind and one 20km with the wind behind. My brain kept calculating how far to go as a percentage...

19km in...... the legs are burning lets ease off a little and see how we can go... oh look another rider coming back -- I can see the sign for turning now... oh there's marshals lets push it... its not euro to go slow and look tired

20km......... Around the round about fast now.... It’s extremely important to wave to the stopped traffic so I did that and almost fell off. Push the lap button 34 something I think it said. Awesome I thought there must be at least 8 minutes head wind... somewhere I heard 60 minutes is good for 25m TT....... lets push it

21km... What in Gods name where you thinking. I sit up out of the aero bars for a minute trying to catch my breath. 60 minutes isn’t going to happen today.

22km... There's Raam on the other side of the road I wonder if here's catching me. He looks powerful, toned, and fast like Mario on a good day. I get worried... the last thing I need is for him to pass me... He's not the type to gloat, thankfully its not TinyExplosions, but Raam's silence after beating me after passing me would be enough.

25km... Okay 75% done, no it’s 17% of the second half... no no its 66.6% done can I keep going here. Obviously the brain was melting... I sit up again turning looking for Mario (Raam) flying past me. 15km to go okay let’s push from 10km out....

30km... Time to push... ah lets not bother... looking behind... no Mario yet lets push from the 6km roundabout.

34km... This is so sore. I can't believe I am still pushing in with 6km to go. Serenity sets in... I’m almost there and haven't been passed. Let’s wait a bit to push.

38km... In Batterstown now almost there... Slight uphill but now I am pushing... Shall I stop at the line or push over it like a pro... time to push more.

39km.... This is tough the legs are so so sore but there's more up this little rise then it’s flat to the finish. Number 1 priority done.... Raam can't pass me I'm going about 45km per hour.... lets up it again for the finish.... 47km/h + now.... over the line.

40km.... Stopped pedalling. That’s felt okay. Yes it hurt but I enjoyed it. I can understand why so many people like TT's. I want to do more... I coast back up the road to see my time....Glancing over the shoulder of the marker I see 1:16:09. Ahhhh... my computer says far less. I ask him... he says 1:06:09 plus 10 minutes handicap.... 10 minutes.... 10 minutes.... last week I had 9 minutes start this week I have 10 minutes penalty.... folks never win your first race....

TT'ing was awesome. I'm going to train more for these types of events because I think we could all use more raw speed.... Right next race next week

Post script…. After feeling fine yesterday on the way home today has hit me like a wall. I feel ill and that’s awesome because it means I tried hard…..

Lumen · 18-06-2009 10:30AM

1:06:09 on your second race and first 40k TT. Holy crap.

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 10:32AM

Lumen wrote: »

1:06:09 on your second race and first 40k TT. Holy crap.

Your right it was crap... Raam bet me by about 20 seconds... His cap was backwards so I think thats the difference. But seriously I had some little tri bars that helped

Chips Lovell · 18-06-2009 10:58AM

We'll be doing the exact same TT in July. I've got something to aim for now. Can't have Raam being faster than me in a flat TT.

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 11:10AM

el tonto wrote: »

We'll be doing the exact same TT in July. I've got something to aim for now. Can't have Raam being faster than me in a flat TT.

Unfortunately it all about conditions... but we should have a boards 25m TT their. I would definately be up for that. We could even do a 2-man TTT -- I'm sure we would have fun. Only problem would be finding some marshalls.... I think I could convince my wife to marshall (at a stretch)

Chips Lovell · 18-06-2009 11:12AM

scottreynolds wrote: »

Unfortunately it all about conditions...

Shhhh. See here was me hoping for a still, sunny day and blowing Raam's time out of the water.

scottreynolds wrote: »

but we should have a boards 25m TT their. I would definately be up for that. We could even do a 2-man TTT -- I'm sure we would have fun. Only problem would be finding some marshalls.... I think I could convince my wife (at a stretch)

Totally on for that. And that course would be perfect.

TinyExplosions · 18-06-2009 11:15AM

el tonto wrote: »

Totally on for that. And that course would be perfect.

+1. Definitely up for a boards flat TT

Lumen · 18-06-2009 11:17AM

el tonto wrote: »

Totally on for that. And that course would be perfect.

+1. That's pretty much my local flat training route. I haven't been near it in ages due to preoccupation with hills.

Scott, you are setting the newbie racing bar distressingly high. Down with this sort of thing.

Chips Lovell · 18-06-2009 11:21AM

scottreynolds wrote: »

Only problem would be finding some marshalls.... I think I could convince my wife to marshall (at a stretch)

To be honst, you probably only would need someone to take care of the times. The only obstruction is the roundabout and that usually isn't very busy.

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 11:21AM

Lumen wrote: »

Scott, you are setting the newbie racing bar distressingly high. Down with this sort of thing.

Apologies. So what does your little geek-o-calculator estimate our poewr at for that ride .... without understanding the conditions.

I think the winner, pre-hanicap on the road, was 59 mins something.

Oh yes.... the most important thing I learnt yesterday was never say I did 1:06 for the TT.... you did 66 mins.... Its more Euro.

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 11:22AM

el tonto wrote: »

To be honst, you probably only would need someone to take care of the times. The only obstruction is the roundabout and that usually isn't very busy.

It was last night.... it could be the difference between you beating Raam and not...

RobFowl · 18-06-2009 11:25AM

scottreynolds wrote: »

Apologies. So what does your little geek-o-calculator estimate our poewr at for that ride .... without understanding the conditions.

I think the winner, pre-hanicap on the road, was 59 mins something.

Oh yes.... the most important thing I learnt yesterday was never say I did 1:06 for the TT.... you did 66 mins.... Its more Euro.

Ps handicaps have not yet been applied that was your actual time ! Well done.

Raam · 18-06-2009 11:25AM

I was never gonna catch you on that course. You were my 3 minute man.

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 11:28AM

Raam wrote: »

I was never gonna catch you on that course. You were my 3 minute man.

I thought it was two minutes.... Still you provided motiviation.... you should have beaten me by more with those light wheels.

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 11:29AM

RobFowl wrote: »

Ps handicaps have not yet been applied that was your actual time ! Well done.

Yeah I was +10 minutes... so 76 ish... I'll await the final result.

RobFowl · 18-06-2009 11:32AM

scottreynolds wrote: »

Yeah I was +10 minutes... so 76 ish... I'll await the final result.

The was time times are done is the stopwatch is started then at 1 minute the first rider goes off. So you actual time is the time on the clock - how long after you started. I gather you were probably 9th rider off so yes 66mins was your actual time.
There are handicaps as well applied later so you might have won !!!

Raam · 18-06-2009 11:35AM

scottreynolds wrote: »

I thought it was two minutes

Two other people set off after you and before me.

scottreynolds wrote: »

you should have beaten me by more with those light wheels.

I need deep section Zipps

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 11:37AM

RobFowl wrote: »

The was time times are done is the stopwatch is started then at 1 minute the first rider goes off. So you actual time is the time on the clock - how long after you started. I gather you were probably 9th rider off so yes 66mins was your actual time.
There are handicaps as well applied later so you might have won !!!

Ahh -- okay that makes sense. I'll have to await my hanicap. I should have tried harder....

Rob... you have finally opened up my eyes to what doctors do while patients are in the waiting room.

RobFowl · 18-06-2009 11:43AM

scottreynolds wrote: »

Ahh -- okay that makes sense. I'll have to await my hanicap. I should have tried harder....

Rob... you have finally opened up my eyes to what doctors do while patients are in the waiting room.

:rolleyes:

blorg · 18-06-2009 12:15PM

RobFowl wrote: »

There are handicaps as well applied later so you might have won !!!

If so I think you'll have to move him up again

Well done Scott, 66 mins is a phenomenal time.

Lumen · 18-06-2009 12:28PM

scottreynolds wrote: »

Apologies. So what does your little geek-o-calculator estimate our poewr at for that ride .... without understanding the conditions.

Calculator says 40km in 66 mins = 196W on aerobars vs 239W on drops. Obviously that is dependent on lots of things.

Threshold power is often described as average power over a perfectly paced 1hr TT effort. 200W threshold is quite poor TBH (mine's well over that and I am pretty much last up the hill on boards spins despite my 67kg weight), so I'd guess the calculator is underestimating.

I'll do the course at some point and get some proper numbers, if only for my own amusement.

More on TT pacing here.

What I can't really figure out is why you're so quick (for a newbie) having done apparently zero high intensity work - ISTR all your training has been mega distances at endurance pace.

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 12:38PM

Lumen wrote: »

What I can't really figure out is why you're so quick (for a newbie) having done apparently zero high intensity work

I'll download my data to the PC and post it up. Looking at others times 66 minutes is nothing out of the ordinary... Its not like I was miles ahead or anyone.

As for speed work... I have a plan for that... 12 x 1 minutes all out on Turbo Trainer... Aparently a killer workout.

zzzzzzzz · 18-06-2009 12:40PM

Good man scott - that's a great time. how'd you find the tri bars?

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 12:45PM

aidan.offbeat wrote: »

Good man scott - that's a great time. how'd you find the tri bars?

Lovely ... I didn't get too uncomfortable and spent almost the entire time in them. They aren't ones that stretch me out too long so the position was similar to the drops just a bit more aero looking. The guys at wheelworx are good and gave me some good advice on which ones to get so I just got them and slapped them on the night before.

I'd like to know the actua difference but I can't see myself going to a wind tunnel just to find that out.

blorg · 18-06-2009 12:58PM

It sounds good to me, that is 38.5km/h, right? That is around/faster than we go in the bunch in races!

Must be the aero bars

Raam · 18-06-2009 01:00PM

blorg wrote: »

It sounds good to me, that is 38.5km/h, right? That is around/faster than we go in the bunch in races!

Must be the aero bars

36.5760 kmh by my calculations

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 01:05PM

Raam wrote: »

36.5760 kmh by my calculations

distanceKM = 40.0
timeInMinutes = 66.1 -- rough guide
minsPerHour = 60

(distanceKM / timeInMinutes) * minsPerHour === 36.308580

I think Blorg included crash time

blorg · 18-06-2009 01:07PM

Raam wrote: »

36.5760 kmh by my calculations

Right, that is shít then

Only ~0.92 x estimated average cruising airspeed of an unladen European swallow. You were beaten by a swallow Scott.

shaungil · 18-06-2009 01:07PM

From Swords website re points allocation for TT's. Good luck figuring it out.

Time Trials
We have decided to apply a simple h/cap system for the 10, 25 and Hill Climb
Your h/cap will be based on the the 5 groups into which riders are slotted for the CPs and your h/cap will based on whatever group you are currently riding with. If you go up or down a group, then you h/cap will change to that of your new group.
In the case of the , the 10mile TT :-
Group 5 - Scratch, Group 4 -1 minute, Group 3 -2 minutes, Group 2 -3 minutes and the Limit Group is allowed 4 minutes. Much the same for the 25 mile using an interval of 3 minutes, and an interval of 20 seconds for the groups in the hill climb. If you check out the most recent results you will see that the riders who rode impressive times are still within the points. I have looked at TTs from the past and this system works quite well although the lower groups would still be outside the points in the hill climb but we feel that with the added incentive of the h/cap they might hurt themselves a bit more!!
In the past we have used systems that were labour intensive and not so transparent and like all systems were imperefect. well this system is also imperfect ............but it is transparent!!
Regards Hugh

Raam · 18-06-2009 01:07PM

scottreynolds wrote: »

distanceKM = 40.0
timeInMinutes = 66.1 -- rough guide
minsPerHour = 60

(distanceKM / timeInMinutes) * minsPerHour === 36.308580

I think Blorg included crash time

25 miles = 40.2336 kilometers :P

This is a handy link: http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/bike/speed_distance_time_calc.html

scottreynolds · 18-06-2009 01:10PM

blorg wrote: »

Right, that is shít then

Only ~0.92 x estimated average cruising airspeed of an unladen European swallow. You were beaten by a swallow Scott.

The swallow doesn't meet UCI specifications when apply the 3:1 rule so they were disqualified. Also, and I am sure RobFowl will know the exact details, I'm not 00% sure they meet the 2 triengles rule either.

Race Report - Swords 25M TT - 17 June

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