Absolutely insane!

Funnily enough that's just around the corner from my parents, I'm heading there next week. I'll make a point of steering clear of the A11, i think they'll need to resurface it after this dude ripped the top layer of...

It looks kind of hilly too, or is that just b/c the y axis is 0 to 150 ft, vs the x axis at 528,000 ft (100 mi x 5280 ft/mi).

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Over 700m of elevation is pretty decent, sure is way hillier than the Samorin Challenge champs course which was way less than 100m over 90km.

Check out that mantis position.

Ya, that 2543 ft in elevation translates to about 775 meters. TBH, I've never used "Strava" so wasn't sure how to interpret the elevation number; it does not say "vertical feet of climbing", which would be very clear, but I will certainly take your word for it. Looks like it was a lot of short hills, maybe "rolling hills" would be a good description???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

The Mantis is strong with this one. Note how he turned the brake levers on his Giant.

This performance puts us wimpy triathletes in our proper place in the food chain, that's for sure. That Giant frame doesn't get a lot of love but he clearly put it to good use. Still using a trispoke as well. Surprised no trip socks, those seem to be the rage in the UK. Also interesting to see his positioning and equipment evolution, moved from a super long tail helmet to a much shorter one, not sure which one that is.

It's a Lazer. I *think* it's the Wasp with the "short tail" kit. Wasp did away with the traditional Wasp and now just has the Wasp Air. But then you can put no tail on it, a short tail on it (what I think that is), and the long tail to match the original Wasp.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

Sure this guy is a total beast, but unless it's a sanctioned event, is there any proof he didn't draft a truck or hop in a friend's car halfway through?

Errr... it was a CTT sanctioned race with loads of other competitors that takes laps, so they would have seen. Also, 2 others did 30+mph rides and 4th was only a few seconds over. You can check his Strava as well, and his ride on the Anfield 100 a few weeks ago shows he would have gone faster if A) he didn't blow from going out too hard and B) did lose time from dropping his chain.

This is a double Olympic gold medallist we're talking about...

 

The guy who posted the 3rd fastest time this weekend (I presume it was the same event) Pete Harrison,
at 3.18.58, had the fastest bike split at IM Wales last year, and won his age group (it wasn't because of his swimming :-) )

That's a big big ring.

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Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099

The courses on the A11/A14 are about as flat as it gets for fast courses in the UK.

Richard Bideau in 2nd place with 3:18:54 did exactly the same time as he did in 2015 when it was thought he had done the first 30mph 100 mile TT, but it was declared null and void several months later after the course was re-measured and found to be a fraction of a mile short. So he proved his ability to do that time, but unfortunately for him, he started after Adam in this TT, so his time isn't regarded as having beaten the previous record, as the chronology of records is determined by the time of day that the rider crosses the finish line.

Interesting, thanks. Presumably then, he would've gone a little faster on a pancake-flat course with no wind.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

U.K. Tters hunt all over the country for the fastest courses. It's likely there could be a faster course elsewhere. However, depending on the course in the U.K., passing traffic *can* give a push.
Don't get me wrong, these guys are sick fast and US slowtwitchers have often underestimated their awesome ability.

After accidentally stumbling on some 40k TT results from the UK a few years ago I started spending more time over on the UK TT forums :) Nothing truly earth-shattering in terms of equipment setup or position preference but I will say that most of them do not train using erg mode. If they have a smart trainer, they tend to use it in slope mode.

Pardon my ignorance but I don't have a "smart trainer"; what is "slope mode"???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Rather than setting the trainer to a given resistance in erg mode (e.g. 300 watts) it is set to simulate a given hill slope (e.g. 1%, 2%, 5%, etc).

What I find interesting is that a ton of the top TT guys in the U.K. basically just grind out 2x20 sessions on a Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer with their power meter during the week, maybe commute to work, and then do a long spirited weekend ride. Not as many guys using Neos, Kickrs, etc. as you'd imagine (or at least that I would imagine).

Well, I guess the length of their daily commutes would affect the training effect, plus do they do just one long ride or 2 on the weekend??? IOW, how many mi/wk??? I would *think* that to prep for a 100 mi TT at 30 mph pace, you'd need at least 400 mi/wk??? Maybe you could get by on 300 mi/wk if you did a lot of quality miles.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I was just making a generalization about the fast 20k/40k guys. I'd imagine Duggleby logs lot and lots and lots of quality miles =)

Double Paralympic gold and a bronze, not quite Olympic standard but clearly a very talented tester.

HOLD ON just a cotton'-pickin' second. You've got the audacity to suggest that lots of trick gizmos with slick marketing DON'T act as a magic bullet that preclude them training consistently and in a focused manner?!?!

:) :)

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Eliot
blog thing - strava thing

Maybe you're looking at that the wrong way around.
Look at quality time instead of "quality miles", which is a bit of an oxymoron.

FWIW a lot of the top TT'ers here (including those who compete upto 12/24hr) will surprise you with how much (ie little) training time they do, but what they do counts, and allows more recovery time between such sessions.

That's great news, I too typically use a Kurt Kinetic Fluid trainer for one 2x20 session and at least one other hard 70-90min session during the week and then do a long ride at the weekend. My results aren't quite so impressive yet, but I'll be getting super quick any day now!

The guy looks pretty big, so even if he has a great Cd I would guess it takes 320-350 watts to go 30 mph. Putting out that kind of power for more than 3 hours and holding a super aero position is just crazy. I am really impressed!

Pretty insane to say the least. Inspiring!

299 AP
310 NP

According to the power data pulled through by Strava

I don't follow why you say that "quality miles" is an oxymoron. We can quantify training in miles at a given speed, or as time at given speed but they are equivalent for any given effort, e.g. 30 miles in 60 minutes is one high quality hour, or 30 high quality miles.
Further, the adjective "quality" is applied to miles in running and to yards/meters in swimming. I understand and have experienced that, on the bike, speed is complicated by hills, wind, traffic, etc, and hence many cyclists now use power meters. I've never bothered with the PM but rather just go off of times on fixed courses, e.g. I have a flat 3.1 mi (5K) loop that I use to gauge my speed. At one of the USAF bases I serve at regularly, there is a flat 1-mi circle that is perfect for intervals, or for an X mile TT.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

No, it's 312 AP. The full Strava file includes 4 miles of cooldown, look at the laps, lap 1 is the 100 mile record attempt.

Good spot

tttiltheend wrote:

No, it's 312 AP. The full Strava file includes 4 miles of cooldown, look at the laps, lap 1 is the 100 mile record attempt.

He actually put out 6W more power for 15 mins longer at this 100 earlier in the year:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1011045727#24804627453


The two courses are pretty much opposite extremes, the Anfield 100 course is the slowest I've ever ridden. From my TTs on the two courses last year, the Anfield course needed 55W more power than I'd need for the same speed in an indoor velodrome, whereas the ECCA 100 course needed about the same power as an indoor velodrome.

Not to diminish the effort ... but I wonder whether or how much traffic aided this. I've been told that such UK TT courses are generally open to traffic, and often will have a steady stream of traffic alongside riders.

I've done a few TT's that have had sections with steady traffic, and it made a significant difference, esp. depending on the wind. (at least 1mph if not more)

Yes there's traffic and it will have an impact. What we don't do though is draft. ;)

TTing in the UK is a grassroots sport that depends on volunteers to run the hundreds of races a year. It simply isn't feasible to close roads for events (the ToC Chrono has a close roads TT which is 7x the price of a standard CTT-run TT).

You're more than welcome to come over and have a go; that's what Hamish Bond is doing at the moment.

Not to diminish the effort ... but I wonder whether or how much traffic aided this. I've been told that such UK TT courses are generally open to traffic, and often will have a steady stream of traffic alongside riders. //

Kind of like IMBrasil, riding alongside traffic seemed to knock about 15 minutes or so off the leaders ride at least. All the women also seemed to have faster than they should have rides too. I have done a lot of open courses, and unless the traffic is just all stopped up most the time and you have to weave in and out, and there are a lot of cars and trucks passing closely and regularly, then it is a great benefit. Each time a car comes by you can up your cadence about 10RPM without any corresponding effort. Do that a few 100 times and it is quite substantial.


Doesn't mean the ride was not crushing, just more crushing than it would have been on a completely closed course.

 
am i missing something, or was this ride on like a superhighway, with high speed traffic? like an interstate or 400 in Canada. seems dangerous if true.

The roads are open but the races are normally pretty early in the morning, for instance I did a 100 mile TT on Sunday and I started at 6:17am, there are very few cars on the road at that time. I think I saw a handful of cars before 9am. Incidentally the winner went 3:59:XX and this is a notoriously slow course with 4000+ft of climbing. I went 4:39:XX and was mid table.

The dual carriage way courses like this one can be fast but the cars are passing at 70+mph (70 is the speed limit). In my experience you get pushed sideways rather than forward when a car passes so much faster.

On a separate note it can be pretty terrifying when trucks and cars are passing you. If they don't see you you're in big trouble.

It's on an dual carriageway that does get busy, but was run very early in the morning (CTT courses can't exceed a certain traffic count). I've ridden it before as part of a 12hr TT last year, and it's fast, but the float aspect of traffic is exaggerated. There certainly was no 10rpm increase with same effort.

Is it dangerous? Yes, as it's cycling on an open road, but it's the same risk as if you commute on a bike.

BrianB wrote:

Not to diminish the effort ... but I wonder whether or how much traffic aided this. I've been told that such UK TT courses are generally open to traffic, and often will have a steady stream of traffic alongside riders.

In my post, I attempted to quantify the effect by comparing the relationship between speed and power against an indoor velodrome. The road surface is rougher than smooth wood, so the traffic is making up for that difference.

The effect of traffic depends on how strong the wind is. There was some wind when I rode the course last year, and this reduces the benefit from traffic. I didn't ride this year's event, but there was apparently very little wind, so it may have been faster than an indoor velodrome this year. Times seemed to generally be faster this year than last year.

You can get an idea of times in a world context if you look up Marcin Bialoblocki's performances at the World Championships. He holds the UK records for 10 and 25 miles with 16:35 and 44:04.

Another point worth making is that Adam has got a LOT faster over the off-season, presumably due to aero gains. He's unbeaten in 2017, but wasn't in 2016:
https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/individual-result-search?firstname=adam&lastname=duggleby


In general, over the last few years, it has been necessary to take 30+ seconds off your 25 mile time each year to remain at the same relative level in the UK, that gives you an idea of the pace of progress. In 2015, when I did 47:08 for 25 miles, only 8 people had ever gone faster than that time. To get 9th place now needs sub 45:54.

That's really quite remarkable. But not completely surprising, as I know that improvements in equipment and position have largely canceled out my getting slower (fewer watts) with age. :-)

and I want to emphasize again that I'm not trying to diminish the effort here. 310w for 100 miles is impressive -- even if it resulted in 28-29 mph.