My journey up the learning curve of TTing has been a steep one this year. It has been my first year of TTing regularly and on Sunday I was expecting another lesson in how not to race. You see recently I have failed with my racing, either going the wrong way or just generally blowing up and grinding in to the finish rather despondent. But I think I may actually be getting somewhat nearer to the top. I just need bigger legs to hit the summit.
Waking at 4.30 for the 7.03 start and seeing the trees out of my window getting battered by the wind was more than a little daunting. Luckily I am now starting to get used to the time of day so with a clearish head and blurry eyes jumped into my car, that I had packed the night before (lesson learned from previous race about ways to minimising being late and missing your start time!!) and got blown off my feet to the car.
A TT of 50m does not really need a decent warm up and so arriving at the HQ more than an hour before the off wasn’t needed, 30mins should do. A quick change, clip on my number, assemble wheels to bike and roll (blown to the start) was done with instinct rather than panic. The lessons of races past have well and truly been learned.
The course, U21/50, is almost entirely on the A38 from Axbridge near Cheddar to Bridgwater with a loop towards Burnham back toward Bridgwater and then ‘Home’. Having never done a TT of 50 miles before my ‘prediction’ of my estimated time would be around 2 hours 15 minutes. That’s an average speed of around 22mph. If I could get this time in ‘normal’ conditions then I would be ecstatic, as close as possible with the wind would be a bonus.
Unlike a 10m TT which is go out hard and hold on for grim death and a 25m TT which is kind of similar. A 50m TT needs a much more intricate pacing strategy. Luckily in this regard the wind conditions and the direction of the route made this fairly straight forward. A horrible 4 mile start into the jaws of the wind was an ideal ‘warm up’. Go easy with a low gear, high cadence and wait till the first roundabout, turn left and expect head/cross wind to start to building the pace. Get to the final turn and pick up the tail wind ‘feeling fresh’. Get to half way, evaluate, and repeat again. It all worked perfectly, my average speed ticking up and up through the whole race, 20mph…20.5mph…(turn)…21mph…..22mph…….
The good thing about a course with loops in it is that you get to gauge yourself against the minute man in front and behind you. I caught my minute man in the first 4 windy miles, riding upright on standard road bike would have been hell! Poor bloke. The guy behind me looked like a well-seasoned TTer from Swindon RC. If I could keep him at bay then it would be another bonus. At the first turning point I could see he had gained on me, well within a minute of my wheel. At the next he must have been no more than 20 seconds or so. I wasn’t too worried though as I was feeling really good at half way and working hard into the wind and ‘easing’ off with the wind was working nicely. Just wait until I start working with the wind as well.
By the next turn around he hadn’t had passed me, I knew I had been going a few clicks faster, but was expecting him to still be breathing down my neck. Turing around the roundabout a look back down the road and I could see he hadn’t crested the small rise nearly half a mile away. This gave me so much belief, for a brief moment I felt like Fabian Cancellara. Legs like pistons, working so hard without any hint of pain or fatigue. The strong tail wind made the sensation phenomenal, almost like flying.
With 10 miles to go I really started to open up and began pushing the next highest gear and keeping the cadence going. For the first time I could actually feel pain in my legs. Quite an achievement after 40 miles at 22mph and ridiculous wind. My average speed ticking up 22.2mph…….22.3mph……..22.4mph. The last 5 miles was painful, but yet enjoyable as the tail wind was amplified by the Mavic Cosmic Disc wheel I was riding. Crossing the line, shouting out my race number to the poor time keeper tied down and huddled over a chair, stopping my timer on the GPS at 2:09.28 was surreal. I was tired, sure, but not exhausted so was the thrill of riding with what cyclists call ‘form’. Finishing at an average of 23.2 mph was beyond what I thought was possible.
At this point I want to mention the Mavic Comete Disc wheel I have been using. I am an engineer, started studying Mechanical Engineer before converting to Civil/ Buildings. I have a decent level of understanding of aerodynamics and terms such as drag. It is obvious the benefits of using a disc wheel by watching the Tour de France. Everyone uses one during TT stages, which does suggest more than a mere marketing ploy. The British Cycling Track guys and girls have been using Mavic Disc wheels for all their Gold Medal rides, so when one became available with an aluminium clincher breaking surface without needing to remortgage on ebay I took a chance on it.
I can only say that it has paid off, while the term ‘negative drag’ (self propulsion in certain wind conditions) gets used as a marketing tool by wheel manufactures it is actually impossible for this to happen. What can happen is similar to sail boats where a lift force caused by the angle of the disc wheel, an aerofoil affect, into the wind exceeds the drag force and the bike is ‘sucked’ in a direction dependant on which way the wind is blowing, and this isn’t always the way you want to go. Experiencing this is hard to explain, also hard to control with gusting winds. There is wind pushing you one way, the lift at another angle and the direction you actually want to go in whilst tucked up on the aerobars. Throw in passing traffic and it’s a mental challenge of predicting where everything might come from as you turn a corner. The steadiness of the wheel though is suburb and is an absolute joy to ride, even more so when you understand what is going on.
No comments:
Post a Comment