Road Bike Racing - What goal for this year?

I just did my first 10 mile TT. Time was 30:01. I feel like I got nearly everything out of the engine that was possible. I was wiped out at the end, but still maintaining my flat ground pace of 22mph. My average speed over the 10 miles was 20.1mph There were a few small hills, but nothing big.
What time should I set as a reasonable goal for this year (racing is over in Sept)?

As in a goal for time trials or cycling in general?

Training goals should be challenging yet attainable, and able to be measured.

What's your background in a nutshell?

you rocking aerobars?

My primary aim is to win the King of the Mountains competition at the Tour de France. My secondary goal would be to not get shelled in any of the 35+ races I participate in this year. So far so good.

you rocking aerobars?

it should be against the law to write things like that.

I just did my first 10 mile TT. Time was 30:01. I feel like I got nearly everything out of the engine that was possible. I was wiped out at the end, but still maintaining my flat ground pace of 22mph. My average speed over the 10 miles was 20.1mph There were a few small hills, but nothing big.
What time should I set as a reasonable goal for this year (racing is over in Sept)?

keep it simple. beat 30 minutes

No aerobars. Pretty nice road bike.


As in a goal for time trials or cycling in general?

Training goals should be challenging yet attainable, and able to be measured.

What's your background in a nutshell?

I'm looking foa reasonable goal for the 10 minute TT.
My background, I primarily commute, and utility ride. I am 5'10" 165 lbs. 35 years old. I am in good health now, but am a cancer survivor.
Over the summer I don't have to commute, and was looking for something to do, so I'm going to ride the TT each week for the summer.

No aerobars. Pretty nice road bike.



I'm looking foa reasonable goal for the 10 minute TT.
My background, I primarily commute, and utility ride. I am 5'10" 165 lbs. 35 years old. I am in good health now, but am a cancer survivor.
Over the summer I don't have to commute, and was looking for something to do, so I'm going to ride the TT each week for the summer.

Aerobars will probably save you 1+ min without any extra specific training. I think 25 min is not an unrealistic, resonable goal. Start by working smaller goals like shaving a 30 sec at a time until you get to there. You need to do interval training if you wish to get any faster than what you already are.

Get clip-ons. Go for 27:30, then 26:00, then sub 25:00.

it should be against the law to write things like that.

its teh internets

OP, congrats on beating cancer. Aerobars will give you the best time increase with the least training, but if you want to see an increase in fitness you can measure that w/o the aerobars. Same position on the bike with more power = less time. Same power, better position = less time.

More power, better position = less less time.

keep it simple. beat 30 minutes

1+

This is your only goal. Get some clip-on aerobars; they help more than any other single piece of equipment including helmet, wheels, clothing. TT's are all about racing against yourself. Each time you go out, you should be aiming at attaining a PR (personal record). If you follow this plan, results against your peers in TT competitions will come naturally.

I thought about aerobars, but I am mainly interested in seeing what improvements I can make, to myself. Plus with car, motorcycles, and bikes I have been down that road before, and aerobars start me down the road to a new Cervelo TT bike, and that is a road I'd rather not travel. Also my handlebars are wing tops, would aerobars even attach to these?

My goal will then be to improve some every week. Any improvement will be considered a sucess.

I just did my first 10 mile TT. Time was 30:01. I feel like I got nearly everything out of the engine that was possible. I was wiped out at the end, but still maintaining my flat ground pace of 22mph. My average speed over the 10 miles was 20.1mph There were a few small hills, but nothing big.
What time should I set as a reasonable goal for this year (racing is over in Sept)?

Don't worry about any of that. Just keep racing your bike. That's the important part. You'll get faster if you do, but that's just a fringe benefit. The Zen is in the cycling, the racing helps with that, so keep hammering. How fast you go is very secondary to all of that.

But you won't get faster by not racing.

I just did my first 10 mile TT. Time was 30:01. I feel like I got nearly everything out of the engine that was possible. I was wiped out at the end, but still maintaining my flat ground pace of 22mph. My average speed over the 10 miles was 20.1mph There were a few small hills, but nothing big.
What time should I set as a reasonable goal for this year (racing is over in Sept)?

All of these things cannot be true: >30 min, >20 mph, 10 miles. I suspect that it was really slightly more than 10 miles, or your computer's calibration is off. But seriously beating 30 minutes is a good immediate goal, then try to knock a minute off.

Anyway, here (http://jfmwebdesign.com/TT/ttResults512.cfm) are some results for our local TT. The guy with 22:44 is a cat 2 on the verge of being a cat 1. Its hard to compare times because every course is different, but When I first started this TT, I think my time was almost 29 minutes, and my goal was to beat 30 min. I got the time down to just over 25 minutes with a road->TT conversion and then the course was changed slightly. My first run on the new course (those times are from the new course) this week was about 26:30, but it was very windy and most people's times were down 30 seconds to 1 minute, plus I was nearly hit by a car at the end which cost me about 20 seconds.

Wouldn't 20mph be 20 miles in one hour? So 20mph would be 10 miles in 1/2 hour?

The time came from the event organizers, the distance is listed at 10 miles. The average came from my cycle computer.

But the plan is to reduce the time.

Wouldn't 20mph be 20 miles in one hour? So 20mph would be 10 miles in 1/2 hour?

Yes, so you could not have done 20.1mph in 30:01 if it was truly 10 miles. It would have been 19.999... Sorry, being pedantic.

Anyway, here (http://jfmwebdesign.com/TT/ttResults512.cfm) are some results for our local TT.

Kind of useless without distance, don't you think?

Kind of useless without distance, don't you think?

SOrry its a 10 mile TT also.

I think that without aero bars you can make a significant improvement. The biggest aero obstacle is your body, so if you get into a better position, you can go faster.

As far as equipment goes without aero bars, you can slide the seat forward and up (keep the same saddle-bb distance), lower the bars. This will put you in a more TT type position, more speed, I think less long term sustained power (i.e. up hills). Experiment with where to hold the bars - I think some studies found it beneficial for many riders to hold the hoods and not the drops. Less angular limb hitting wind.

Aero bars are a small thing, but I can see how that could spiral into a TT bike, but they aren't a big deal and you can put them on virtually any bike with bars with a standard stem.

A non aero part you can put on (if you don't already have one) is a close ratio cassette (1 tooth jumps between many of the gears you'd use in your TT), so you can make minor adjustments to your cadence as necessary.

For setting a goal, look at a rider who you think is good, has a similar background (fitness, build, and perhaps experience), and see how they do. If they're doing a 27:00, then aim for that. 25:00 is 25 mph, and that's pretty fast. I barely broke 25 mph on a 7 mile TT course (back in the day) and I thought that was a pretty hard ride. And yes I had a TT bike, disk wheel, 24" front wheel, aero bars, and even an aero helmet. 25 mph is doable but if you can do it on a regular bike, you could be racing regularly/competitively as a Cat 3 or probably a Cat 2 (pending knowledge of riding in a pack and tactics and all that).

Good luck and hope this helps,
cdr

Clip-on aero bars are so inexpensive and make such a difference in drag. If you want to get better at TTing then you need to work on position and practice in that position over anything else.
The distance is longer but for reference my first 40k TT was done at 23mph(1:05). The next year I did the same course on the same equipment but better position at 26.5mph(57:20). This year my position was better still and added about 40w to do it in 28.8mph.


TTing is a discipline that requires lots of analysis and patience. You are trying to achieve a maximal output for so long that little details add up to you make your goal or explode trying. As for goals set a long term and short. Short team goal could be a 30 second improvement a month till the end of the year(2 minutes off your current time). If you reach that goal sooner then set another.

I thought about aerobars, but I am mainly interested in seeing what improvements I can make, to myself.


I understand your point, but part of improving yourself in the context of time trials is improving your postion on the bike, and aerobars will help a lot with that. You can get some for $50 or so.

Dial in your position, and start doing some interval training, and 25:00 should be possible.

Ok I would consider aero bars, but how do you mount them on these bars?

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/3307/barow4.th.jpg (http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=barow4.jpg)

Ok I would consider aero bars, but how do you mount them on these bars?

You peel back the tape until you have enough exposed bar. There are some (e.g. Deda) that have a single clamp so you only need to do it on one side.

^^^I understand that, but they are not round. They are oval 4.5cm x 3cm.

25 mph is doable but if you can do it on a regular bike, you could be racing regularly/competitively as a Cat 3 or probably a Cat 2

I am the incarnate contradiction to your statement.

the aerobars clamp right next to the stem. I have wing bars, too, and there is a 31.8mm round area that extends out about 1 in on either side from the stem.

Measured the round part of mine, they are round for 8 mm out from the stem. I may hace to get some and see if they'll mount.