So tt season has started up in Scotland. Had my first club event last week, a 5 miler. Came a respectable 2nd, with a surprisingly decent time of 10.45, although power was fairly gash. Done absolutely zero training or indeed riding of any kind this year so I’ll be relying on aero gains to be even slightly competitive against my club mates.

Dreading any longer TTs, even doing ten miles on zwift on the tt bike breaks me.

Anyone else planning to race this year?

Done 2 club races already

A 10 and a hilly 12.

Our club have stopped all out and backs – CTT only

Not really been going all out. Just been aiming for a flat power curve.

Staying between 3-320 w for the duration plenty in the tank.

+30kph Winds been killing me though. Disk and 82 front and gates. Never been so glad as to turn into a block headwind 🙂

24min for the 10 and 32 for.the hilly 12

We’ve run one hilly and 2 flat club TTs so far.

So far I’ve stuck to marshalling, much easier.

No chance – TT is a game for balmy summer evenings, not this shite ☹

Did an open 10 in the road bike category. Awful. 50seconds off my pb and mediocre placing. Missing a couple of hilly spocos with family stuff and holidays. 2 up was fun and I’m down for a 3up at some point. Might try my luck at a few evening club events to see if I have any form. There is a 50 coming up which probably suits me better.

Won the local road bike category in the season prior to lockdown. Zero motivation when not even worrying the winner.

New job, life and everyone being a furlough pro is not helping.

Probably start next week – club events have been going for a couple of weeks around me but had stuff on. Did do an early ten last month and felt OK but it was Baltic cold blowing a hoolie, so wasn’t that engaged (some skinny U23s had no problem holding position, mind – impressive to see).

Not expecting much right now but hope to turn them over every week, so we’ll see what happens. That said, I’ve just ordered my graphen wax so massive gains possible.

Haven’t had the best of starts this year. First one, a 25 miler was a dnf after 20 miles due to a puncture. Next race, a 10 on a (for me) new course wasn’t the best due to pacing it all wrong. I was advised to save some matches for the last 2miles that was uphill into a headwind. Trouble was I went to soft on the way out so although I finished strongly the damage was already done. Next race was a dns because my crank bolt sheared off on my warm up 😭 Had another 10 on a quick DC course last Saturday. Conditions weren’t the best but I got round. My last 3 rides on this course I’ve gone sub 20 so was disappointed to post 20:43. Still, all my training up to now has been building a solid base for the 12hr National in August so done very little high intensity efforts so now that I’m starting to introduce some I’m hoping my 10 times will get back to what I was doing.

Good to get the mechanicals out of the way andy.w.

Had an outing last night on our local 10 – a workmanlike mid 23. Position felt pretty solid – I have one of those adamo saddles which is quite downwards sloping when the rails are horizontal, pitched it up a fraction and seemed a better platform.

Felt a bit blocked in that I wasn’t all that tired at the finish (relatively speaking) – often get this with the first few tests. Think it’s just lacking some physical and mental condition – takes me a bit to get to that level where you can fully open the taps (some folk can do this regardless).

That said, I’ve just ordered my graphen wax so massive gains possible.

Dunno about that. I had a brand new chain degreased ,air dried and dipped

It hasn’t lasted long at all. 50k dry conditions and is noisy already. Not best pleased

Gonna reapply and give it one more shot but early indications are not good

But then I had similar experiance with squirt which people love and yet finishline dry lube lasts ages for me….

Given I’ve done no training whatsoever I’m more reliant than ever on aero gains and the like. I came 2nd the other day but the 2nd – 5th were separated by less than 10 seconds. I put beating the 3rd placed rider by 2 seconds down to fact I spent 70 quid on a gold waxed chain the day before

Event two of the club series on Thursday.. and it’s a hill climb. It should of suited me given I have a decent watts per kg, but realistically I’m so unfit I’ll be lucky to make it to the top without stopping.

Dunno about that. I had a brand new chain degreased ,air dried and dipped

It hasn’t lasted long at all. 50k dry conditions and is noisy already. Not best pleased

Gonna reapply and give it one more shot but early indications are not good

But then I had similar experiance with squirt which people love and yet finishline dry lube lasts ages for me….

Was it a fast 50k though @trail_rat?

I guess very fast and very durable is not possible so it’s a question of the compromise point. Old timey testers used sewing machine oil in their bearings – strip and re-apply every TT.

Not me, but I am going to bask in the reflected glory of my friend’s 19m20s 10miler the other week :-0

Felt a bit blocked in that I wasn’t all that tired at the finish (relatively speaking) – often get this with the first few tests. Think it’s just lacking some physical and mental condition – takes me a bit to get to that level where you can fully open the taps (some folk can do this regardless).

Very much the same as me Garry_Larger. Due to last year’s racing not getting underway until late summer I spent most of last winter, spring and early summer just doing SS and tempo training sessions. A few longer distance TT’s then the season was over and I was back doing long Z2 and tempo over this winter. So I’ve done next to no high intensity training for 18months. It’s as if I’ve forgotten to put myself into the pain cave on the short 10mile races. Last Saturdays race was a case in point. Only managed an average HR of 162. Normally it’d be 170 +

Folks,

Never done a TT and relatively new to road.
My 1/2hr rides have an avg HR of 165ish (max 190).

Out of interest, how close are you to max HR on a 10/20?

Fair play, sounds hard.

No chance – TT is a game for balmy summer evenings, not this shite ☹

Snowed on us the week before last. Doing 30mph adds significantly to the windchill too…

@robowns TT is a massive effort but very controlled, so nothing like the spikeiness of a race. HR readout is just a big red rectangle, prob 90% rising to 95% for me on a ten.

Be rare to max HR on a test I would have thought. Big smooth and even power delivery is usually the name of the game. If you’ve got a very surgey output and are ringing max HR it would point to things not having gone well IME.

Managed to get a few in so far this year. The coldest 10 ever (didn’t get above freezing during my ride. Horrible!) and a couple of spocos, both of which have been either pouring down rain or headwindy sleety hideousness.
Enjoying the steep learning curve about getting my position sorted on the bike I built up over lockdown – judging by my times I’m not too far off being ‘decently aero’ but my (meager!) power’s still way down compared to the position on my road bike, so lots more fettling and training on the bike required.

Also, what do people use to stop their visor fogging up in the rain? I spend most of my event riding one handed while trying to wipe the steam off 😮

I was going to do my first one a few weeks ago but saw the weather forecast and decided better of it. It was cancelled mid event due to the snow on the road… in May!

Did another open 10 Saturday evening and actually managed to finish 😄 local course to me so signed in, picked my number up and went back home to do the warm up in the kitchen on Zwift 😂 The race went ok, not my fastest time I’ve set on there (bad cross winds in places) but managed 9th out of 81 and set a course power PB so overall happy. Got a 25 this Sunday morning, my best time on it was when I just started TT’ing using my roadbike with clip-ons so hoping for a PB

Also, what do people use to stop their visor fogging up in the rain? I spend most of my event riding one handed while trying to wipe the steam off

An old motorbike racers tip was to use a drop of washing up liquid on the inside of the visor then rub it in with a cloth.

Done two that our club have put on. First was on the road bike on r10/17 and posted a 23’23” which I was happy enough with. Was 5th. Horribly windy night.
Second was on the lumpy club sporting course in torrential rain. Not the first tt ridden on a cyclocross bike but the first with luggage and in almost full winter kit 😬

Pic from up Clytha gorge. Was 25’15” which was again happy enough.

Well my 25 I had planned on Sunday turned out to be another DNF. 10 miles in and started loosing pressure on my tubeless rear disc. Thought about carrying on but a couple of iffy moments going round the corners made my mind up to sack it off. Of the six events I’ve entered I’ve only many to finish three 😩 As they say bad luck comes in three’s so I’m hoping that’s all of them out of the way and I can have the rest of the season trouble free.

Had a decent outing today – warm afternoon must have been v favourable conditions, as I did a mid 22 just a few secs off my course pb despite a bollox of a slipping aero bar all the way back. Plus some fellow hobbyist decided it was a nice day to take his comedy steam-roller out for a drive along the local A-road. Backed the traffic up chronic but it was more of a concentration thing then getting sat up.

Put a couple of entries into two 10s at Levens next month (closing date for the first one (12th June) is tomorrow if anyone else is interested). The God of winds has never smiled upon me up there, but it’s fun to ride a fast DC course every once in a while, as there aren’t any local to me.

Dunno about that. I had a brand new chain degreased ,air dried and dipped

It hasn’t lasted long at all. 50k dry conditions and is noisy already. Not best pleased

Gonna reapply and give it one more shot but early indications are not good

My first few applications of the graphene wax were similarly a bit short lived but I’ve started leaving the chain in for a bit longer and it seems to have improved.

The wax worked well on last week’s 10

That said….. I did not. Had 3 hrs sleep thanks to Jnrs party so couldn’t get more then 195wattz -and that’s a poor power output for a glass of water.

My first few applications of the graphene wax were similarly a bit short lived but I’ve started leaving the chain in for a bit longer and it seems to have improved.

How long do you leave the chain in the wax for Stevious ? I’ve been using absolute black wax and had mixed success. I normally leave it in for 5mins (stirring it all the time) I’m lucky if I get 120 miles out of it, much less in wet conditions.

Did a 25 last Wednesday and actually managed to finish 😄 Not the best of courses (14 roundabouts to contend with made for a lot of freewheeling 🤬) and the wind was awful! The course basically runs North to South and on the night we had to contend with strong, blustery Easterly winds so running my deep section front made for some “interesting” moments. Stoped the clock in 54:43 placing me 5th overall.

How is the form with ye all?

Had to park the training for a bit with a cold but back in the saddle with a good ride at Levens last night. First time I’ve done it with a crosswind and it was a lot faster. Raged it out at 30 mph avg at the turn but flagged a little on the way back for just over 29mph all done. Prob around 20.40 ish which is a minute faster than my best on that course, (usually has a westerly headwind out ime).

Put a 60T cog on which worked well – see plenty of folk using these now. Drivetrain efficiency thing, rather than legs of steel thing, but got it turning nice on the Levens start ramp.

How long do you leave the chain in the wax for Stevious ?

More like 8 minutes. I don’t bother agitating for the first few mins as that’ll just be the chain getting up to temp.

Having thought about it, it might well just be better wax build up after a few applications.

Chain started rattling this week so time for a re-wax – ride back from the last TT was very rainy and gritty. Got about 80 miles out of it outside, plus around 13 hours on the turbo. Set a pb on the test – reckon when your chain is just starting to rattle you’re at peak graphene technology.

Does anyone change chains for the turbo or is that madness? It’s one more thing to do but simple enough I guess – I use erg mode pretty much all the time, though, so the chain coating is prob getting minimal wear indoors.

Done three TT’s since my last update. A 10 (the same night and course as Garry_Larger I think) 25, and a 100.
No Pb’s on any of them so a bit disappointed really. The 100 was supposed to be one of my main A races this year but it didn’t pan out at all. Set off with a power target for 25mile laps and after the first lap felt really good and bang on target so started to up it slightly. 30miles in I felt my right hip starting to give me a bit of pain and unfortunately it got progressively worse, in fact after 75 miles I nearly jacked it was that bad, I just couldn’t get the power out that I wanted. Managed to finish and after getting back to the HQ and gingerly climbed off the bike I noticed that my saddle had split causing my hips to rock. Got round in 3hrs 46mins, over 7mins slower than my Pb on this course. Got a 50TT this Sunday back up at Keswick then nothing until the National 12hr at the beginning of August.

Sounds like the legs are there @bjj.andy.w if you can knock out a 3h 46 for a 100 under those circumstances.

I plan on doing a local 50 at the end of the month, just to tick it off- never done longer than a 25. Would aim for 2 hrs evens, prob have the legs for that but the position idk – unknown territory.

A 2hr target is always a good benchmark to start with for a 50. As for being in position I find getting outside and doing training rides helps massively.

Ab wax people….

Got 350km out of it on my touring bike (8spd) at weekend….applied the same way.

So either it doesn’t like my max beans or 11speed chains. As I still have not had more than 80ish k before it’s unbearable on road bike or TT bike….

Bit of a thread resurrection. With the TT season more or less over with how did it pan out for you all ? For me it was a bit of a mixed bag. My run of DNF and DNS’s early on in the season hampered me somewhat. Also due to me really concentrating on the BAR standings this year I never trained as much as I’d of liked for the shorter stuff and my 10 and 25 miles times showed this, not beating any of my previous PB’s at these distances. I did however set PB’s on two of the BAR distances. Beat my previous 100 mile time by nearly 4 minutes. Also did a huge distance PB at the 12hr National championship of 27miles (it was admittedly a much quicker course though) it was a bit bitter sweet for me though, a balls up by me on the nutrition side of things meant that I stopped far to long during the race and definitely cost me a podium, possibly the win but hay ho, you live and learn ( I did however manage to come 2nd in the VTTA standings that made my cock up a bit easier to swallow) As for my BAR speed I averaged 27.4mph over the three distances, sneaking me into the top 10 for the year.My 50 time let me down badly due to it being relatively early in the season and I was still building my peak for the 12hr. Had I got near my 50 PB I’d of probably snuck into the top five of the BAR standings. Also managed to win an open event near the end of the season, a 30miler held on the Levans course. Although a lot of the big guns either didn’t enter or turn up so I was quite lucky.
As for next year I quite fancy entering the National 24hr although A:trying to persuade my wife it’s a good idea and B: getting a support crew together to help me might prove difficult 😞

Congrats Andy – that is really impressive. How far did you go in the 12, not 27 miles lol? The 24 sounds like it’s Next F Level but you are clearly in a place where you can do well in it, so prob best to strike whilst the iron is hot?

I had a good season on the times (all tens) – pbs on my local J, on Levens, and overall – did a 20.15 down south on the F11. But it wasn’t built on much of a base so it was like 6 weeks of going fast and then crashing pretty hard – been awful on the bike this past month (which sucks as cross is my favourite discipline).

For next season I think I need a more sustainable approach, build some real fitness – easier said than done. It’s good to know that you can go decent on the tens on the back of not much, but it’s not the best way.
A ​19 is in reach on Levens with realistic improvements, so that is the aim. I acknowledge the absurdity of thinking 19.59 and 20.01 are different numbers, but I am not even arsed. (I wasted my best chance this year on a rainy but fast day when my visor fogged badly – did a mid 20, a learning experience, very unsafe).

Didn’t go as fast as I’d have liked but not really unexpected given I did absolutely zero training. Don’t race on dual carriageway courses or anything particularly fast so my times arent ever going to be particularly quick, 22.40 for a 10 was the best this year but more than happy with that given circumstances . Came 2nd in my club tt league, but then again the standard is pretty low!

What bikes are we all using? I used a Dolan scala this year but just picked up an sworks shiv for next season. Kitted out with d2z cockpit and numerous other ridiculously expensive aero upgrades I’m more hopeful for next year

I’m on an old exocet2 frameset but good wheels and front end. Thought hard about a new bike this year (my friend was selling a P5 in excellent nick) but decided against it – the frame is a nice size for me and it’s a lot of money for likely no or even negative speed increase. Upgraded to etap for next season though.

Congrats Andy – that is really impressive. How far did you go in the 12, not 27 miles lol?

Hahaha ! Yes slightly longer than 27miles. Managed 311.something miles, just under an average of 26mph ( yes it was a fast course!) still mad on my result though. I did a two stop strategy involving camelback bladders which meant I stopped for nearly 8minutes. The winner had a guy handing up bottles and food so only stopped for 30secs. I was only 3miles behind him so if I’d of used the same strategy the speeds we were doing I’d of been right in the mix 😩
A 19 on Levans is definitely achievable for you Garry_Larger. It’s certainly a quick course. Probably one of the quickest in the country now the mighty V718 is no more.
My bike is an old Cannondale slice that I picked up 2nd hand for £650. (Although it’s been upgraded with a new cockpit and wheels

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQGVR3ZhmG8/?utm_medium=copy_link

Over 300 miles in a 12, by that margin, is impressive. Chapeau!