Team Time Trial

Practice, practice, and more practice. Basically you will all need to ride together to figure out which order works best for you & how long everyone can normally pull. You probably will not want the smallest rider in front of the biggest guy, etc... Some riders can pull for 10 - 30 seconds, others over a minute - just make sure you do not blow apart the team when doing it as you need to stick together. Start at a slow reasonable pace and work on accelerating towards the finish. Make sure you keep the speed steady for at least 10 - 15 seconds to allow the guy that was pulling to catch his breath before accelerating. Best of luck & let us know how you do.

The Dubliner said:

On asking advice of an old sage about her first attempt at an ITT, my partern was told 'go out hard', settle in faster, and finish even faster still'.

But what about a TTT?

A group of 4 of us who regularly race criteriums at club level have entered our first TTT event. What advice would you give us in establishing the order of riders, how long should we be pulling turns etc.

I would say it is the NSW club TTT championship at Calga in August, correct?

This is not a flat course. It is undulating, hilly in parts and the only close to flat section is near the finish.

You are going to have to sort out amongst yourselves -

1. Who are the three strongest (time taken off 3rd rider) and to quickly decide at what point of the trial should you wait or proceed on relating to a dropped rider. The question you must ask yourselves at that point in the race "will we benefit as a team in time to have that fourth rider with us or can the three remaining not lose time." It is usually preferable to wait for a dropped rider early in the race (but dependent upon that rider's ability) and not wait towards the later stages.

2. The length of turns on front. We run 200-300 metres but if that exceeds a rider's capability at that pace then that rider should opt for a quicker change.

3. On the two hills (Peats Ridge 1.2km & "Blood" Hill .8km but steepening) which rider is going to set the pace. There should be no changing of turns on hills.

Communicate amongst each other, try to keep tight and only accelerate gently, particularly over crests of hills. If gaps form then the fluency is lost and riders expend a lot of effort, that should be applied when doing a turn, bridging small gaps.

A lot of TTT groups lose time over the difficult Calga course because they are constantly reforming after riders get gapped. It is ideal do establish a common speed that keeps all riders together. A team of riders of equal ability can usually produce a time better than teams that have a combination of mismatched riders that appear stronger on paper.

Thanks for those comments guys. Yes, it is the Calga event we're after. Will we see you there Veloflash?

The Dubliner said:

Thanks for those comments guys. Yes, it is the Calga event we're after. Will we see you there Veloflash?

Yes, but be vigilant. I will be the rider with the white helmet. Will I wear a rose to stand out? 🙂

VeloFlash said:

3. On the two hills (Peats Ridge 1.2km & "Blood" Hill .8km but steepening) which rider is going to set the pace. There should be no changing of turns on hills.

Communicate amongst each other, try to keep tight and only accelerate gently, particularly over crests of hills. If gaps form then the fluency is lost and riders expend a lot of effort, that should be applied when doing a turn, bridging small gaps.

A lot of TTT groups lose time over the difficult Calga course because they are constantly reforming after riders get gapped. It is ideal do establish a common speed that keeps all riders together. A team of riders of equal ability can usually produce a time better than teams that have a combination of mismatched riders that appear stronger on paper.

I'm interested about the comment re climbing in a time trial. I am not disagreeing, but I wonder why you say it is better not to pull turns. Even on a hill of 5%, there is a significant power difference between being on the front and on the wheel; at what gradient would you say you should stop swapping off?

Roadie_scum said:

I'm interested about the comment re climbing in a time trial. I am not disagreeing, but I wonder why you say it is better not to pull turns. Even on a hill of 5%, there is a significant power difference between being on the front and on the wheel; at what gradient would you say you should stop swapping off?

Swapping turns on a hill, IMHO, will be speed dependent rather than gradient.

The lower the speed the less benefit that drafting provides. The other factor is the rider finishing a turn has to ease off and then accelerate to rejoin. It is not economical on a hill to be changing pace. The average rider (here read non climber) most efficient climbing speed is a consistent speed or consistent power application. There is no opportunity to recover on a hill from an over exertion like on the flats other than to significantly reduce pace.

It is my experience that on these hills TTT riders will bunch up around their nominated pacer rather than run in a pace line. This is of benefit when cresting the hill and speed picks up. The last rider will not have to accelerate whilst still climbing.

There are other hills on the course which are of similar gradient but are faster because they are shorter and the approach is off a downhill. We run these anaerobically in a pace line and swapping turns. With an approach of circa 65kph the draft benefit outweighs the gravity losses. We would be cresting these shorter hills (longest 800m) at 40+kph.

Well, we weren't last in our age division (MMAS2-4). The wind was a big factor, we just didn't cover each other enough.

Our team was a bit mismatched, but I suppose every team is. The better ones just balance things out. We had two guys who weren't as strong on the hills, but were great on the flat. Your advice on tackling the hills was sound, but we just weren't prepared enough. There is nothing like practice on the circuit itself.

I rode out to the start, and noticed that none of the other competitors had held their fourth person. Was there a common strategy of someone doing a suicide ride to the bottom of Blood Hill, and rolling off there. Leaving the other three to tackle the hill and last 3km stretch?

It was good fun, and we'll have a (more) serious attempt next year. I'd like to keep the same team members and see how we can improve against the winning time.

How did you go VeloFlash?

VeloFlash said:

I would say it is the NSW club TTT championship at Calga in August, correct?

This is not a flat course. It is undulating, hilly in parts and the only close to flat section is near the finish.

You are going to have to sort out amongst yourselves -

1. Who are the three strongest (time taken off 3rd rider) and to quickly decide at what point of the trial should you wait or proceed on relating to a dropped rider. The question you must ask yourselves at that point in the race "will we benefit as a team in time to have that fourth rider with us or can the three remaining not lose time." It is usually preferable to wait for a dropped rider early in the race (but dependent upon that rider's ability) and not wait towards the later stages.

2. The length of turns on front. We run 200-300 metres but if that exceeds a rider's capability at that pace then that rider should opt for a quicker change.

3. On the two hills (Peats Ridge 1.2km & "Blood" Hill .8km but steepening) which rider is going to set the pace. There should be no changing of turns on hills.

Communicate amongst each other, try to keep tight and only accelerate gently, particularly over crests of hills. If gaps form then the fluency is lost and riders expend a lot of effort, that should be applied when doing a turn, bridging small gaps.

A lot of TTT groups lose time over the difficult Calga course because they are constantly reforming after riders get gapped. It is ideal do establish a common speed that keeps all riders together. A team of riders of equal ability can usually produce a time better than teams that have a combination of mismatched riders that appear stronger on paper.

That's just cruel....making you race a TTT over a course like that!!

🙂

ed073 said:

That's just cruel....making you race a TTT over a course like that!!

🙂

To quote one of our club members "Calga: It's nearly a 4 letter word"