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Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT)
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So, with my usual delay I'll try and give a race report from my last race of 2017, the Chrono des Nations UCI 1.1 time trial in Les Herbiers near Nantes in France.

To give a little background I had a decent second part of the season, but every big race just fell short of what I believed I could do. First was the European TT championship on home turf in Denmark in the start of August, which was a very good course for me and I believed I could medal. I ended up with a flat costing me around 30 seconds (which was somewhat my own fault as I overcooked a roundabout and hit the curb jumping down from the cycle path to the road leading to a snake bite) and afterwards also finding I lost around 45 second on some sub-optimal sponsor-required equipment (I should probably keep the description at that in public :p). Anyway, I came 6th 46 seconds down on the winner, Campanaerts from Belgium, who was closely followed by Bodnar (who had just won the last Tour TT a few weeks before), Ryan Mullen, Mathias Brändle, and Jos Van Emden.

Forward a month to Tour of Denmark (UCI 2.HC), the biggest race in Denmark with a TT of 17 km as stage 4. Decent route for me and I believed I had a chance for getting the victory. Mathias Brändle set a really good time early on in nice sunny weather. 30 minutes before I start the skies start opening and more or less as I ride down the starting ramp rain mayhem is lose with enough rain to completely flood a lot of the road making it very hard to even see the road furniture. Hard to say how much time I lose by that, but I end up in 2nd place around 34 seconds behind Brändle IIRC. Again, not quite happy with the result.

Worlds TT is the week after Tour of Denmark. I can tell that for me I don't think it's a perfect lead-up to a TT doing a stage race ending only four days before, but the worlds course was not suited enough for me to ditch the Tour of Denmark TT. I ended up doing decently well with 21st place, 1:12 minutes down on Froome in 3rd place. The more I think about how bad the course suited me, the more happy I actually was with the time gaps to the top guys. So I'm actually satisfied with this race - even though if looking at the result it seems worse than the two prior TT's.

Four days after worlds I did a 54 km 2-man TT in France - Duo Normand (UCI 1.1). I had rested decently and was ready to get some of my anger about the earlier TT's out. Turns out my partner is not having a good day and after 13 km and him pulling a total of 3 minutes he says he's smoked. "To hell with that, I can beat these guys on my own, he just has to hold my wheel." Until around 33 km I think we're still in the running, which is when I hear something is wrong for my partner. Seems like he dropped his chain on a hill. Now he stops completely. I turn around. He broke his chain shifting to the small chain ring and has gotten it stuck between chain ring and chain stay, too! It takes 4-5 minutes to get off and a new chain installed. Suffice to say, it's hard to keep motivation at that point. We end up 9th around 5 minutes down on the winners IIRC.

So, now there's only one race left of the season and it's 3 weeks out. The course is decent for me, I can ride my optimal equipment, I don't have anyone I need to wait for. I do two and half weeks of solid training, nursing the TT bike, testing a few tires. Manage to break a spoke in my HED Jet Black Disc when I try to true it, but luckily I can borrow the same disc from a friend. Everything is ready to go as I turn in my bike to my team on Thursday to be transported down there and fly down myself on Saturday morning - race is 3:16 pm on Sunday.

Weather is really nice down there, around 23-25 C (75 F) and sun. Quite a bit different to most of my training the last couple of weeks that had been in cooler temperatures and often in some rain. But I like the heat, so no problem. I ride the course Saturday afternoon. It's mostly the same as last year, but they have changed a few things and shortened it about 2 km. It's now officially 49.7 km, though my Garmin says more like 49.3 km. There's some kind of reception at 6:30 pm on Saturday, but I'm not back from the ride on the course before 6:40 pm or so, so I skip that - apparently most others went and the organizers probably want the bigger names there. I guess I have to go next year :p I heard Campanearts rode the course in the dark at night on Saturday, probably because he had to attend the reception and didn't have time beforehand.

Dinner at the hotel is quite low key. Pasta and chicken - and that's it. Good we brought some ketchup. And some rice ourselves also. Breakfast is better with several different cereals, bread, eggs, etc. After breakfast I take a short walk to the parking lot to look at the other team's bikes. I can see several riders doing a sort of warm up at this point about 4-5 hours before the start - Campanaert is going at it on a turbo trainer. It's apparently quite normal to do, but I've never tried it, so I kept to my routine.

I eat a little bit of their lunch (pasta and chicken again) at noon. My team (two soigneurs in a car, really) along with the U23 rider from my team that is competing in the U23 category leaves for the start at around noon since he has to start around 2pm. They bring most of my things, while I leave the hotel at around 1:30 pm on my bike with a small backpack of stuff. There's only 3 km to the starting area. I have to walk the last 500 metres and when going past a barrier I am asked to open my bag so they can see what's inside. They are not taking any chances :)

Around 45 minutes before the start I begin my warm-up. It's hot and sunny, so I have gotten permision from a fellow Danish team to warm up beside them under their shade. So I warm up just beside Mikkel Bjerg that ends in second place and starts 2 minutes in front of me. A bit strange to warm up so closely besides your competitor, even though I know him well.

Around 15 minutes before the start I get off the bike, get the bike off the turbo trainer, put on the disc wheel, and get my helmet on. I go to the start ramp, get my bike checked, and then wait. I small talk a tiny bit with Mikkel Bjerg and Ryan Mullen - the guys just in front and behind me, respectively.

3:16 pm, off we go. It starts out with a 3-4 km hill, where I tried to give a little more power than last year, but still not emptying the tank too early. From last year I could see that the first 10 km was where I lost all the time, so I tried to minimize that a bit. The next 20 km or so are more rolling terrain, but still with some hills, where I try and keep a steady pace and recover a little bit from the start. Halfway through it suddenly starts raining a little bit, but never enough to get the roads really wet. The last 20 km or so are the most flat and here I slowly up the power little by little. With 5 km or so to go I can see someone's support car in the distance up the road. I'm not sure if it's Chavanel's or Bjerg's - after the race I see that it's probably both as Bjerg has catched Chavanel in the end



As I cross the line I can see I have gone just below the hour (59:58 minutes) and I have beat Bjerg by 1:22 minutes at which point I know it's probably a pretty good time as I thought he was likely to be a top contender - and that my average speed was around 1 kph faster than the winning ride of Kiriyenka last year. I don't usually race with a radio, so I haven't gotten any split times from anyone. After I cross the line I roll to our team car, sit down in a chair and get some chocolate milk while sitting in the sun. That's probably my favorite part of a good time trial!

As people - Mullen, Campanaerts, Castroviejo - cross the line I can see that there's no one beating me (or Bjerg). Suffice to say I'm very glad to have won. I have to go on the podium where I get two huge trophies and a lot of kisses on the cheeks. I really don't know what's up with those huge trophies.



People that don't know me wonder how I could beat the bigger names, but in my head - perhaps a bit smug - they should be glad I didn't beat them two months earlier.

I go home by car, travelling all night and get to Copenhagen Monday morning. But this trip is more fun than the trip home from France three weeks earlier. Especially as my team mate was also number two in the U23 category - and Bjerg's team mate won the U23 category, so it was a pretty good day for the Danes!

Results can be seen here:
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=182224

The live streaming can be viewed again here (though they didn't cover me much):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUFt2brdeCc

Now, here's to see if I can built on top of this for next year. I believe I can, but it's hard (but mostly fun!) work. I'm planning to have a go at taking the Danish hour record back from Mikkel Bjerg in January and hoping to give Wiggins' record a shot next year. Any Slowtwitcher's up for some crowdfunding to help pay for my trip to Mexico? ;p
Last edited by: MTM: Nov 8, 17 13:03
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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Great report, thanks!
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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Chapeau, and bump!

Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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congrats again! That's a massive trophy

My Blog - http://leegoocrap.blogspot.com
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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Doing it the hard way (with a real job) - amazing! Thanks for posting this.

_______________________________________________
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [Bonesbrigade] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks, guys!

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try and answer them :)
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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What "level" is your team? I'm mildly familiar with how UCI teams work, but mostly here in the USA.
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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Amazing. Congratulations! Really nice that a guy who is beating world class UCI Pros is posting on slowtwitch.

I have a lot of questions, do you log your training anywhere, maybe Strava? For how long have you been doing this and how what mileage did it take you? Your favourite workouts for a 40km TT?
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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Amazing! It looks like you did not have any hydration- is that your usual routine for all time trials, regardless of length and/or conditions?

If you never use hydration, is that to be more aero, save weight, or because you simply do not feel that it's needed?

Thanks!!

-Physiojoe
Instagram: @thephysiojoe
Cycling coach, Elite racer on Wooster Bikewerks p/b Wootown Bagels
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [Physiojoe925] [ In reply to ]
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They look like adidas socks? Some secret aero gains to be found...
Last edited by: EnderWiggan: Nov 9, 17 16:30
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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Congratulations! Great writeup and incredible performance.

Eliot
blog thing - strava thing
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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Congrats!

Question: what are you running for a front chainring?
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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Very nice. Glad everything came together for you.

Got to ask about those socks/compression sleeves. It looks like the Velotoze go underneath the sleeves. Almost English CTT style.
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [jkhayc] [ In reply to ]
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jkhayc wrote:
What "level" is your team? I'm mildly familiar with how UCI teams work, but mostly here in the USA.
It's a UCI Continental Team called BHS-Almeborg Bornholm. So basically third tier after WorldTour Teams and Pro Continental Teams. There's no teams higher than Continental level in Denmark. Continental Teams can't participate in WorldTour races and only in HC races (like Tour of Denmark) in their home country, but not abroad. So the highest level races we can normally participate in is level 1 races like the 1.1 race Chrono des Nations.

Championship races like Worlds and European Championships are something you participate in for your country, so you don't have any team limits there - but the national coach has to pick you for the race.
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [bentus] [ In reply to ]
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bentus wrote:
Amazing. Congratulations! Really nice that a guy who is beating world class UCI Pros is posting on slowtwitch.

I have a lot of questions, do you log your training anywhere, maybe Strava? For how long have you been doing this and how what mileage did it take you? Your favourite workouts for a 40km TT?
Thanks!

I don't have anywhere public I post my training, but I do put some of my races up on Strava - you can find Chrono des Nations there. I might consider putting the training up, but I haven't bothered so far.

I've been cycling for about 15 years now and competing for around 10 years now. My guess is for the last 10 years I've probably done around 200-250,000 km in total. I basically just do a lot of aerobic work at 70-75%. I find it works quite well for TT's - as long as you do at least 10 hours a week or so.
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [Physiojoe925] [ In reply to ]
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Physiojoe925 wrote:
Amazing! It looks like you did not have any hydration- is that your usual routine for all time trials, regardless of length and/or conditions?

If you never use hydration, is that to be more aero, save weight, or because you simply do not feel that it's needed?

Thanks!!
Yes, I can't remember the last time I used hydration for a TT. I might have been the only one doing the 40 km Worlds TT in Qatar last year without hydration, but it went fine. I don't find I need it - I usually don't bring hydration for my 2 hour training rides either - and have yet to find any indication bringing hydration (in a UCI legal manner) will not hurt aerodynamics. The little testing I've done on this myself also suggests bringing hydration is detrimental.
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [EnderWiggan] [ In reply to ]
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EnderWiggan wrote:
They look like adidas socks? Some secret aero gains to be found...
I hope my competitors are not reading here, because they still haven't figured out what those sock are it seems :p They're Rule 28, though from my testing they don't seem much different than e.g. the NoPinz ones aero-wise. But they are easier to get on and off and likely not as sensitive to placement since they don't use a trip wire for their aero effect, which is why I like them. I'm hoping to obtain some of the shoe covers Bioracer and Castelli are supplying their pro teams with, but I have yet to be able to get my hands on any of those.
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [GreenPlease] [ In reply to ]
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GreenPlease wrote:
Congrats!

Question: what are you running for a front chainring?
Thanks!

It's a custom wide/narrow chain ring that fellow SlowTwitcher Marco Mani has helped develop. We're looking into a bit more manufacturable design so some can be put up for sale to get some money back and to make it 100% UCI legal (though that rule does not really seem to be enforced much).

If any UCI commissaire is reading along: Yes, you can buy the chain ring. There will be some months delivery time and price will not be cheap :)
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [grumpier.mike] [ In reply to ]
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grumpier.mike wrote:
Very nice. Glad everything came together for you.

Got to ask about those socks/compression sleeves. It looks like the Velotoze go underneath the sleeves. Almost English CTT style.
It's aero socks and then just short Velotoze :) Compression clothing is not allowed under UCI rules.
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [MTM] [ In reply to ]
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Martin, amazing result and certainly a good way to end the season. Thanks for sharing your reports here on ST. We're incredible lucky that top performers like yourself share their stories here on the forum.

Pain is temporary.
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [joelcox] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for the kind words.

I'm glad to give a little back, I've gained quite a bit of knowledge on this forum during the past 7-8 or so years - and still am :)
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Re: Chrono des Nations 2017 Race Report (UCI 1.1 TT) [joelcox] [ In reply to ]
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joelcox wrote:
Martin, amazing result and certainly a good way to end the season. Thanks for sharing your reports here on ST. We're incredible lucky that top performers like yourself share their stories here on the forum.

I just want to echo this.

So cool to have top level performers sharing their results with us mortals.

----------------------------
Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.
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