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Strategies for mixed gender teaam time trial?
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3 males, 1 female. 34km ttt.

Initial thoughts are for the female to just pull through so shes exposed to the wind for less than 20-30 seconds. Target average pace is around 220 watts with target speed being around 41 kph., each of the guys pulling for 1 minute. Although we are divided on whether she should pull through or just let her hang off the back (i.e. its a 3 man rotation with her hanging off the rear)

220 watts is about just a little above threshold of what she can hold, and just a little under threshold for the guys.
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Re: Strategies for mixed gender teaam time trial? [davidalone] [ In reply to ]
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I've done TTTs with riders of very different strengths. In one case, our slowest rider never went through - we knew ahead of time that would be the strategy because he was a lot slower.


In another year of the same event, the weakest guy was hurting from a crash but did through and off the whole time, with our strongest guy pulling for up to two minutes and me for half that time.


In your case it sounds like the differences in strength are not that much (and without knowing weight, maybe she is actually stronger than the rest of you, if she is lighter :-)


So my inclination would be to have her go through and off. But you need a a simple phrase she can use to tell the other riders to go in if she is going to sit off the back. You all do. Also, be aware of which rider the timing is based on and be willing to drop someone. It might not be the weakest rider if you've parcelled your strengthe well. I did a 100K with 4 guys and our strongest guy pulled much more, then blew up with a few miles to go, which was OK.


I've done a fair amount of TTTs over the years with teams that cannot practice a lot, and the key things to me are:


Focus on riding smooth and fast. Anyone surging is doing it wrong
If someone is feeling strong, they should pull longer, not harder.
Hold back in the first half over what is possible.
If there are hills, be really conservative going uphill, especially if there are differences of strength. Slowly raise the pace over the top, and drive hard going down.
If in doubt about how long to pull, pull shorter. This helps keep the speed up.


Have some really simple phrases you use to communicate:
The person in second position should monitor the speed and say "off" if they think the person pulling is slowing down and/or killing themselves.
"Steady" means to not surge.
"In" means a person dropping back should fill in in front of the person at the back.
If there are hard turns (such as U turns) the rider if front has to be sure the riders in back are on after coming out of the turn, and also not sprint out of the turn. Dial up the speed steadily.


http://www.jt10000.com/
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Re: Strategies for mixed gender teaam time trial? [davidalone] [ In reply to ]
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Sitting on in rider 4 position can be difficult for a weaker rider - they will need to leave a gap to allow the rotating rider to slot back into the rotation and accelerate. That can be the hardest part of a TTT and having the weakest rider do it with every rotation could give them problems unless they are good at on/off style efforts.

Better for them to go up the line but when it is time to come to the front then immediately roll through and swing off. But have this strategy from the start no heroics when feeling fresh in the first few kms.

Another way of managing it is to have them sit behind one rider, move up in the rotation with them but when those two become Rider 1 and Rider 2, rather than come to the front when Rider 1 swings off stay on their wheel and go to the back still on their wheel, then becomeing Rider 3 and 4. Ive made this sound more complicated that it is!
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Re: Strategies for mixed gender teaam time trial? [davidalone] [ In reply to ]
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I've lots of experience with ttt:s and average watts is not really a way to pace them.

From what you told us there is no way to tell who is the best ttt rider. It might be the female if she has better pace line skills or is a bit smaller and gets better shelter.

Your best bet is have the most average rider do pulls of 15-30 seconds at about 30-50w above TT watts for the same distance. Everyone else does pulls at that speed and swings off *before* their legs start to burn. Strongest person maybe pulls for a minute, weakest for maybe 10 sec. (Who is the strongest may vary during the event.) If anyone feels that the pace is to fast at the moment, they should skip pulls. Early on it is better to err on the safe side in skipping pulls. If you are unsure if you can take another pull, stay at the back until you feel sure you can take a few more rotations. After a while your group will settle in at a good pace. The last third or quarter you can allow yourself to get a little burn in your legs during your pulls.

If I understand correctly your TT watts are around 220? Then taking pulls at around 50w above that would get you in the ballpark of you goal pace.
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