This was a new one for me, having never raced an ITT before. Perfect conditions greeted the riders in the Multisportal Hed Disk 43km ITT. It was about 18 degrees at 8am and not a breath of wind or a cloud in the sky. I put the commuter with aerobars on the roof racks and headed north.
The Calga-Peats Ridge course is an out and back/up and down course without a flat bit at all (as far as I could tell). This made it hard to judge pace and I think I didn't go hard enough, unconciously treating the TT as I would treat the cycle leg of a tri - I'm sure I could have run a good 10km run leg afterwards. In the final washup, I finished with an average around 35km/h, which was mid-field. The winner broke the course record with an average about 42km/h.
It's normally bad news to be overtaken, but it was a highlight to hear the sound of a motorbike and see a full carbon, disk wheel set up zoom past down hill! Wooosh! (but I bet he didn't ride that bike to work the next day...)
Oh well, perfect weather and a good hit out on a Sunday morning. Another tri coming up next weekend - let's see if the cycle leg is a little quicker 🙂
The Calga-Peats Ridge course is an out and back/up and down course without a flat bit at all (as far as I could tell).
If this is your tri bike I assume you have aero bars on it. How much use do you get out of them on a hilly course? Do you use basic bars or the ones with gear shift levers on them? I really struggle to get much use out of them on a hilly course (I've got the basic ones) because I keep getting off them to change gears rather than stay on the bars and push on in a gear that is not quite right.
The Calga-Peats Ridge course is an out and back/up and down course without a flat bit at all (as far as I could tell).
If this is your tri bike I assume you have aero bars on it. How much use do you get out of them on a hilly course? Do you use basic bars or the ones with gear shift levers on them? I really struggle to get much use out of them on a hilly course (I've got the basic ones) because I keep getting off them to change gears rather than stay on the bars and push on in a gear that is not quite right.
DaveB[/QUOTE]
I have clip on bars without shifters. Shifting is done through Ultegra 9sp STIs. I tend to stay on the aero bars until speed drops below 30, changing with the quick flick of the wrist. If it drops below 30, the steepness of the hill becomes more important than aero, so I tend to drop to the small chainring, ride on the hoods and maybe climb out of the saddle for a bit (for some relief). The Calga course doesn't have too many real hills, it's just rolling all the time, making pacing difficult. I had a good time chasing the guy that started two minutes ahead, which helped for pushing in the last fifteen minutes - just got 'im about 200m from the end...
The triathlon at Kurnell has a very flat cycle leg, so I'm keen to see if there is any improvement. I think I could push harder there than previously.
