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As Chris Boardman said over 10 years ago, this is the question that a rider asks themselves during a time trial: “Can I sustain this effort until the finish?”
“If the answer is yes, you aren’t going hard enough. If the answer is no, then you’ve already lost. The answer should be ‘maybe’.”
Everybody who knows me will know that I love the discipline of time trialling. It doesn’t matter whether it’s on a time trial bike, a road bike, on gravel or an e-sports race; in essence each of these is the same and each is an art. It takes some analysis beforehand (course length, profile, weather) but also honest reflection on race day of what you are capable of.
I’ve seen many novice racers set off when the countdown hits zero, looking as though they are tackling a 200m sprint. The consequences? At some point they undoubtedly blow up. I’m lucky in that I seem to be pretty much incapable of destroying myself in a short duration sprint and as annoying as that can be in a road race because I struggle with some of the accelerations, it does mean that I am naturally quite well suited to a time trial.
A lot of people don’t enjoy time trialling as a discipline; the idea of hurting yourself as much as you can cope with, for a duration of up to many hours, is not necessarily the most appealing. On a ‘bad day’ I can share the dislike. However on days when things come together perfectly there is no better feeling. Pedalling is effortless and smooth and speed feels free. These days don’t come often but they truly make the hard work worthwhile.
I recently experienced one of these ‘magic days’; stage 6 of the MyWhoosh Championships was a 33.6km time trial with 600m climbing in Wollongong. Effectively the course was flat until the final ~5km and then you hit the finishing climb so pacing needed a little consideration. I raced the championships in category 2 and the TT stage was unsurprisingly a big goal for me, though with it being towards the end of the stage race it was difficult to know how my legs would perform. I actually had a great day on stage 5, which ended with an ascent of Mount Fuji, so I took confidence from that but also was a little nervous of being able to repeat the effort. My race warm-up felt good; not ‘perfect’ but definitely solid, with a good power/HR ratio. I actually amended it slightly from the full warm up I would normally do, cutting out some of the really high power bursts towards the end as I wasn’t planning to sprint at any point during the TT but my legs also didn’t feel as though they needed it. It was a slightly unusual format in that all riders started together, so you could see your competitors and where they were in relation to you, but there was zero drafting. As the clock ticked down the final 10 seconds I was nervous, but ready, and as soon as I accelerated out of the pen I knew that I was going to have a good day.
I produced one of my best 60’ power efforts to win by over a minute; I actually was quite near the back of the pack for the first few hundred metres of the race as some riders demonstrated the infamous TT starting sprint. However steady, considered pacing won through as it almost always does in a time trial, and although I went really deep with the effort, I always felt just about under control. If you’d asked me that famous question, my answer throughout would have been ‘maybe’.
I’ll be writing a series of blog posts on all things TT, encompassing all the various disciplines and speaking to some riders. If there’s anything you would like me to cover then please do reach out and let me know. The regular TT season might now be over but we are well and truly into hill climb season! With a variety of events on offer, there really is something for everyone and there’s guaranteed to be plenty of cowbells encouraging your efforts! Look out for my next post which will cover a very special (and sadistic?!) hill climb of sorts..
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