"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - TT position refresh

I know some of you are getting annoyed with TT position threads. So, why do you keep clicking on them? :lol:

The "wheel block" we were using doesn't level the bike, so I'm actually a tiny bit flatter than it appears ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-P4tnf3TKA

Anyway, I dropped all my spacers, and am now sporting a 7.25" drop from the saddle. I think I could remove the mounts under my aero bar pads and drop my elbows another 3/4".

This position is pretty comfortable. I did a 40k TTT with it yesterday, and didn't have any numbness, but I was getting sore just from inexperience in a TT position (I've only been working on it seriously for 2 weeks). After 50 minutes of riding, I was still able to ramp it up for the finish and get up close to MHR.

I'll try it out again at the RunFar TT tomorrow night.

I guess I'll add a brief race report: It was me (cat 3), a cat 5, and two one-day licensees who are (all 3) really strong. No TT wheels or helmets, and I have the only skinsuit. We rode together pretty well, with minimal surging, but one guy flatted 25% through the course. The remaining 3 of us caught our 2-minute men (Cat 3) before the turnaround, which felt good, but we were dying. We took another minute out of them, but still ended up slow at 57:21 (26mph). I haven't seen the official time, but I saw the race clock when we hit the tape. Results haven't been posted, but I know we weren't last in the 3s :)

I'm not experienced enough to help you with your position, but the youtube was cool and should be really useful, as compared to a couple still shots, for the coach who chimes in.

Your hips are a rockin'. You have the Sergei Gonchar head sway thing down pat.

Love the song. That's in my head a lot when I TT.

Position looks very nice. I'm about to put a serious drop stem on mine to lose some more inches on the front, but you don't need that.

You move side to side a lot. Maybe do some core strength exercises?

Glad to hear the TTT went well. I was happy with my ITT run. 11th out of 40 with a 59:58. Considering that was my first-ever 40k, I was happy to break the hour, if only barely. I paced it totally wrong -- went out too hard, and faded a bit on the back stretch. Although, I only passed people on the back stretch, so I guess they faded more than I did! The aero position was totally rocking on Saturday, though, I was able to get super low.

Your hips are a rockin'. You have the Sergei Gonchar head sway thing down pat.

lol, yeah, I like to think of it as "dynamic." I was riding at my 5-minute interval level, and trying very hard not to behave differently for the camera. I see a lot more rock-steady youtube-trainer videos than I see rock-steady guys on their bikes :)

If you watch some youtube TTs by Lance, Ullrich, Vino, etc, they're all moving around a lot, so it doesn't worry me too much for how hard I was working. I was wondering if it was a sign of to high of a saddle, but it really hurts my knees to lower it.

It looks pretty good to me, Maybe your saddle is a tad high but its really more just preferance.

You could of course go lower in the front to get your back flatter but honestly when your that close it isnt going to make an aerodynamic difference. And its just going to make you uncomfortable.

Now just train in that position constantly.

Position looks very nice. I'm about to put a serious drop stem on mine to lose some more inches on the front, but you don't need that.

You move side to side a lot. Maybe do some core strength exercises?

You know, that's a really good point -- my abs are TORCHED today, from my aerobar commute on Friday and my race on Sunday. I'll bet that's an area I could develop.

Any recommendations? Is "core exercise" just the modern term for ab workouts? I've got a bunch of oblique crunch kinds of sit-ups I know that can be done on the floor (feet 1" off the floor and crazy stuff).


Glad to hear the TTT went well. I was happy with my ITT run. 11th out of 40 with a 59:58. Considering that was my first-ever 40k, I was happy to break the hour, if only barely. I paced it totally wrong -- went out too hard, and faded a bit on the back stretch. Although, I only passed people on the back stretch, so I guess they faded more than I did! The aero position was totally rocking on Saturday, though, I was able to get super low.

Yeah, I saw your time and was very impressed. I don't think I could touch an hour the way I'm time-trialing. It was really tough to go easy on the way out on that course with the tailwind. It just felt to good winding it up to 31 or 32 during my pulls. I certainly increased my effort on the turnaround, but it's tough to hit the turnaround at 28.3, then find yourself stuck at 24.5 the whole way back in the headwind. Ech.

Good job though, and congrats on a sub-hour 40k. That's badass. One of my training partners hit the Cat 5 TT in one hour on the nose, for 7th. Maybe I can crank one out one day (though I'd much rather attack somebody on a roller from the safety of the pack :) )

An hour is a loooong time to hammer. I can't even imagine the pressure going after the hour record with that timing bell every lap, haunting you.

Looks like a good position for you. Doesn't look like you could lower the front end anymore, otherwise you'd have to come even more forward to accomodate your diaphragm and that aint happening. Still think it'd be better to lower that saddle a bit to get more out of your pedal action.

Good job on the 40k.

Any recommendations? Is "core exercise" just the modern term for ab workouts? I've got a bunch of oblique crunch kinds of sit-ups I know that can be done on the floor (feet 1" off the floor and crazy stuff).

An hour is a loooong time to hammer. I can't even imagine the pressure going after the hour record with that timing bell every lap, haunting you.

I dunno, I haven't been too responsible with that stuff. Lower back is supposed to be as important as abs, but again, I need to go read more about that all.

No kidding...

I had the same problem you did. I had a *really* hard time holding everything in check on the way out. I ended up going a bit too hard. Kind of faded at around 50 minutes, but was able to get a decent last-minute push into the line.

Oh well, next year I know... Pacing = good.

OK, here we go:

http://www.cptips.com/exabs.htm

http://www.cptips.com/weights.htm

...now I just need to find some workouts for those...

....and some more:

http://www.roadcycling.com/training/timetrialstrength.shtml

Good info. I'll start simple after I recover from the race. As it is right now, I think I already got a great core workout yesterday :)

I remember back in Colorado, in the spring, you would start hitting the long climbs again after the winter base. The lower back would get really tired on a 30 minute climb.

The back of my neck would get really sore too after a 15 minute descent in a low tuck, trying to get my head up enough see at least 100m of road.

It's weird, but 30 minutes of hill repeats here in Austin don't replace that feeling. When I was in Colorado last month, in one 22 minute climb, my lower back got tired -- and I've been doing hard hill repeats here for about 20 months -- every week.

Oh well.