"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - TT Pacing Advice

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA

View Full Version : TT Pacing Advice

king-tony
03-03-08, 07:38 PM
My first real time trial is this weekend. I feel comfortable on the bike and like I have trained well this winter. I'm 6'4 and 194lbs so I am by no means small on the bike. I believe my FTP to be around 315 and my LTHR is 158. I'll be running a 54X12 so I don't think I will run out of gearing. I'd like to hear thoughts on pacing strategy specific to the course profile below. I think the scale may make the course look hillier than it really is, but there is certainly some elevation change. Being heavier than much of the field it would seem that I would have an advantage in the first half of the race, and be penalized coming back (the most likely wind directions would be a head wind going out with a tail coming back). Should I try to maximize my weight advantage on the way out and go over my FTP? Would my weight allow me to go a little under FTP on the way out and then over on the way back or should I just try to stay at my FTP wattage?

http://www.southerncycling.org/springforwardttprofile.pdf

branman1986
03-03-08, 07:40 PM
go a little easier on the way out, and a little harder on the way back.
merlinextraligh
03-03-08, 08:08 PM
Divide the TT into parts, First part go easier than you think you can hold for the entire time (so a little under fTP) Second third, bump it to the effort you plan to hold. Third, third, gradually ramp it up until you die at the line.

As for the profile of the course, it only looks hilly because the graph compresses 40 kilometers. Thebiggest elevation change is less than 250 feet

When it is uphill, you can go over FTP, and recover on the downhills. You get more time gain from each watt of output on the uphill. So it's better to go slightly above what you can sustain on the climbing, and not push so much downhill.

Treefox
03-04-08, 04:39 AM
If you don't vomit at the finish, you didn't go hard enough. :D

Though vomiting on the course will slow you down. When you have a mile left, try to calculate how hard you need to push to vomit immediately after finishing, but not before.

If on an empty stomach, collapsing against the side of the road with one foot still clipped in as your hands and toes go numb is a viable next-best option. :)

I'm actually a vastly better 10mi TTist than on 25 because I just know my 10 mile pace. As there are far fewer 25 and 50 mile TT's out there, I just don't have my pace down so well.