"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Sandy Hook TT Race Report

Well, I thought with a short flat course I may be able to approach the elusive 30mph, but the wind today quickly snuffed any hope for that happening. No, I did not win, but the closest guy behind me was a bit over 30 seconds off of my pace which is a LOT of time in 7 miles. My hat goes off to the blazing speedster of today who nipped me by 8 seconds.

http://www.westwoodvelo.com/showthread.php?p=3037#post3037

thats still incredible. you are really racking up the results. you are amazing. congrats :beer: :beer: :beer:

snap!

crackle!

Pop!

Feel free for a double edit to get it in there :)

Done.

Seriously, DrWJ, that's a strong effort. Well done.

Yeah....quick, someone give the Doc a doping test...

:D

I wish I could maintain 30 mph for any length of time. Well...I can. Downhill.

I spent 45 minutes on my trainer warming up envying the guys under that tent. Doing my best to hunker down next to our car to get out of the wind. You guys definitely had a great setup, the tent and the bikes underneath it. I never thought I see so many P3C's in one place as I did at that race.

I'm usually racing tri's so I did this as my first bike-only race, mostly because my father was racing in the 55+, and I though it would be cool to go and hang out. Didn't realize that it was going to be 30 and windy. I ended up spending time a lot more time warming up than I would have thought. But I guess the race went as well as it could racing in winter clothes.

I may have to get into a few more bike races this season.

is that 1000w spike your turnaround?

Are you happy with how you ran the race or do you think you should have pushed harder or softer at the beginning compared to the end?

Did you watch your power numbers during the TT? How much pain were you in at the 1/2 mark? The end? I know NOTHING about time trialing, so please don't take this as criticism, but it seems that if you were able to push over 1kilowatt on your turnaround, that you could have pushed harder in the first half.

Thoughts?

I too am trying for an r600DA-like 400w over 10 min. There aren't any TT's I'll be able to do for a few months....

^
You get a pretty good spike on most turnarounds, it's the same kind of flash reading you get powering away from a stop light; it'll usually produce a big torque number too.

Those are sick watts numbers Doc. What was the winner's time?

is that 1000w spike your turnaround?

Are you happy with how you ran the race or do you think you should have pushed harder or softer at the beginning compared to the end?

Did you watch your power numbers during the TT? How much pain were you in at the 1/2 mark? The end? I know NOTHING about time trialing, so please don't take this as criticism, but it seems that if you were able to push over 1kilowatt on your turnaround, that you could have pushed harder in the first half.

Thoughts?

I too am trying for an r600DA-like 400w over 10 min. There aren't any TT's I'll be able to do for a few months....

1) Occasionally glanced down to see I was not pushing 450 or 500 or conversely 330. My target was 360ish and then ramp up. I did that almost perfectly.

2) Pain at 1/2way mark? No more or less than at any other point. TT is about being miserable the whole time. :) As Vino said, there will always be a spike when accelerating. The turnaround is a BIG place to lose time, and so getting back up to cruising speed is of utmost importance.

For the most part, the TT is an Aerobic effort. Accelerations are anaerobic. As such, even though I may have been on or near my aerobic effort, there are always a few short bursts of power in the legs.

In fact, you are not wrong that I could have pushed arder in the first half. However, as much as it does not totally make one comfortable, I have found that measuring the effort and then ramping up gets me better overall times. If you slip over the edge early on, then most of your TT you are fightig to recover while still going. If you ramp up, there is never a recovery because you don't go over the edge until near the end (after which you can recover).

I have seen a lot of power files of a lot of different riders (including of course my own) and I see so many push it too hard from the beginning and then fight to get back to an acceptable level of power because of the accrued debt.


What was the winner's time?

My "official" time was 14:59. The winner did 14:51. I say "official" because everyone's "official" times were 30 seconds faster than real time. Results are here (http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2007/04/07-Sandy-Hook-Time-Trial.asp).

Trin2du, how did you fare? You should stop over and say hi the net time you see us out at a TT.

However, as much as it does not totally make one comfortable, I have found that measuring the effort and then ramping up gets me better overall times. If you slip over the edge early on, then most of your TT you are fightig to recover while still going. If you ramp up, there is never a recovery because you don't go over the edge until near the end (after which you can recover).

I have seen a lot of power files of a lot of different riders (including of course my own) and I see so many push it too hard from the beginning and then fight to get back to an acceptable level of power because of the accrued debt.

I seem to remember Greg Lemond saying something like that. Maybe. Sounds like solid advice.

Trin2du, how did you fare? You should stop over and say hi the net time you see us out at a TT.
Didn't do too well in the standings well down in the 4/5's at just over 20 min. But given the conditions and that this was the second road ride on the new bike, I wasn't too upset. And I realized that I need to work on my pacing, first TT so it was a good learning experience. Good place to start this season, no place to go but up.

And if I see you guys again, I'll swing by and say hi. But I don't race in Jersey much. I was at this one because my father races for ABC and him and some of the other guys I know were racing.

That really is smokin' fast. As a sprinter, I'm happy just to be TT-ing at a 26mph :eek:

Good work!