I saw that at least one ST member asked for a race report, so here it is - better late than never :)
Let's start with the UCI Worlds Elite TT. If there's demand for it I will make one for Chrono des Nations also (or maybe I'll just do it anyway if I'm bored :p).
Lead-up to the Race
It was on the 12th of October, but preparation of course started a good while before that. I got selected to participate around mid-late August and had time to prepare from then on. Preparation basically consisted of a whole lot of riding during September. I have a full-time engineering job, so my weekday riding was usually 1 hour to work and then 2-4 hours after work. Luckily the weather was playing nice here in Denmark during September.
I was actually flying in the start of September, probably stemming somewhat from the effect of having done the 2.HC 5-day stage race Tour of Denmark (and the build up to that) in the end of July. I did a local 22-mile TT on September 10th at 4% higher power than I did to win nationals and before that even won my first road race (cat. 1) by attacking 42 km out and riding solo home with a gap of 2½ minutes.
By the end of September heat acclimatisation started with me riding approximately 40-45 minutes on the trainer in a rain coat when I got home from my afternoon/evening ride. At that point I got ill, which was obvisouly not optimal. I managed to still do a bit of training and heat acclimatisation, but it's a fine line to walk to not drag out the illness.
Going to Doha
I flew to Doha (the place of the race) on Tuesday 4th of October still ill. I only did light training the first few days down there, mostly to get some more heat acclimatisation. On Friday and Saturday I did some 20 min tests with a tempature pill to see how my core temperature reacted at race pace. It was the first hard training for more than a week and I was feeling close to 100% again at that point after the illness. It was obviously too late to put more hard training in at that point, but it was good to feel that the legs were still pretty good and that I didn't think the heat seemed to pose a huge problem.
I did the tests at ~3-4% below my standard race pace as that was what was suggested at that elevated temperature and I really didn't feel like that was a problem to hold for those 20 min. The core temperature data suggested that the pace seemed about right.
Tueday 11th of October, the day before the race I was out doing final leg 'tune-up' on the long flat straight on the course (on the shoulder, this part of the course was never closed pre-race) as the forecast said a decent tailwind. And tailwind it was! Not even in full race setup my speed hovered around 62-64 kph at race pace! The forecast for the next day said basically the same wind, so I thought: "This is going to be crazy fast!".
Race Day
Going down to have some breakfast at around 9 am. Going down for last pre-race meal at around 11 am as I was starting at 2:49:30 pm. Two Americans are also eating their pre-race meals in the meal tent at the hotel. I only know one of them - Taylor Phinney. We meet each other at the elevator afterwards heading up to our rooms. I small-talk briefly with him. He seems pretty down to earth and relaxed. He's probably wondering who the hell I am, haha.
I drive to the start so I'm there 2 hours before the start. The national coach is surprised I want to be there that early, but I'm usually at the start of a TT 2-3 hours before. I'm used to setting everything up myself - home trainer for warm-up, inflating the tires, etc. Well, all of that stuff is taken care of when I arrive by the mechanics - sweet! I do inflate the tires myself with the help from a mechanic, though, as I requested that I wanted to be there when that was done to get the pressure I wanted.
Then I basically sit and wait and put my number on. In this heat you only want to do a very short warm-up to not start out too hot. So lots of time to put in a huge amount of pins in the number while listening to some good music.
Half an hour to start, up on the home trainer and put on an ice vest. 5-6 minutes into the warm-up a new ice vest is put on. 5-6 minutes more and my warm-up is done, keeping the ice vest on. Put helmet on, gloves on, etc. Go to the start 10-15 minutes before the start. At this point I realize I need to pee (again). But not really time for that and the national skinsuit has a rear zipper. Luckily the helper was quick in getting an empty bottle - I'll leave the rest to the imagination. There's no bushes in the outskirts of Doha - only some tents, a big parking lot and a lot of sand.
This is probably the point where I should mention I chose to ride without any water (perhaps the only one that day?). I didn't have easy access to an aero bottle down there and thought it was 50/50 being better with an aero bottle than without, so just chose to go without. The national team advisors didn't think a Camelbak would cool much, so that was not really ever in the picture.
Now up to the start house, through the bike check. My TT bike has now officially been scanned for a motor! At the start house I sit next to Alex Dowsett. Funny how I meet several people I know a lot about but they probably have no clue who I am. I small-talk a bit with him. He likes my tricked-out P5 and comments on my 60T chain ring.
The start ramp is the nicest I have ever been at. Big and only me and a couple of commisaires. But hot. The start goes, I know the course pretty well from the days training on it in the last week. The first 5 minutes are very nice actually because the suit is completely soaked (on purpose) so it cools very nicely. After 5 minutes it's completely dry, so the heat starts to be felt. I start at ~3-4% below the power I'm used to hold in Denmark, just as planned - it's actually 6% lower than the power I held in the Danish TT a month before. It feels super easy, but I know it's probably very risky to try and raise is too early.
Pretty quickly I can feel that the wind direction is not what the forecast said. It's more like 90 degrees different, so not that much of a tailwind out on the long straight run-in to Doha. I take note of that, but it's not changing pacing strategies much - but I won't really have use for that 60T chain ring now.
The first 15 minutes continued to feel easy. At 15-20 minutes I could slowly feel the heat starting to have an impact. It's a different feeling than simply starting out too hard. Your legs are fine, but your body in general just starts to feel bad. I decide to simply keep the power at the same level. When reaching Doha city after 27 km (out of 40 km) I can definitely feel the heat (literally), but I'm not hanging on for dear life yet. In a 'normal' TT I might have tried and up the power a bit at that point, but I didn't feel like taking the risk and blowing up completely in the heat - I had seen what had happened to some of the female riders in the TTT.
Only with 1-2 km to go I up the power and squeeze out what I have. Not that I had a lot in the tank, but looking back I could probably have gone a bit hard for the last 10 km or so - but not much. I end up pacing the whole thing extremely evenly doing perhaps 1-2% lower power than I had hoped for. When I cross the line I'm in 5th place, but am not 100% satisfied as I had hoped for a top-10 (but knew it would be tough) and that 5th at that time would likely not be enough for a top-10 final result.
Edited to add: I've posted pacing graphs showing power pacing and HR pacing on the next page.
I'm interviewed for national TV a few minutes after I cross the line and they seem extremely surprised and happy with my ride - as is the national coach. I think I'm the only one not extremely satisfied.
The final result is a 13th place:
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=172289
With the 1-2% more power I had hoped for I think I would have just about made the top-10 - I had 15 seconds up to Bob Jungels in 10th place. I believe that without the illness and/or with a little more experience riding in those conditions (but not many of my competitors probably had that either) I could have sneaked into top-10.
The good thing is I beat Taylor Phinney, so perphaps he knows who I am now :p And I was the fastest Scandinavian. And the fastest on a Cervélo - hey, just that make me the world's fastest on a P5? Oh, and only Europeans were ahead of me - it's a bit funny to think that if I go to another continent I will officially be the fastest TT rider on that continent (well, if none of the ones in front of me is on that continent at least).
Here's a picture I got sent from someone who took it from the latest edition of the magazine "Procycling". I think it's cool:
Let's start with the UCI Worlds Elite TT. If there's demand for it I will make one for Chrono des Nations also (or maybe I'll just do it anyway if I'm bored :p).
Lead-up to the Race
It was on the 12th of October, but preparation of course started a good while before that. I got selected to participate around mid-late August and had time to prepare from then on. Preparation basically consisted of a whole lot of riding during September. I have a full-time engineering job, so my weekday riding was usually 1 hour to work and then 2-4 hours after work. Luckily the weather was playing nice here in Denmark during September.
I was actually flying in the start of September, probably stemming somewhat from the effect of having done the 2.HC 5-day stage race Tour of Denmark (and the build up to that) in the end of July. I did a local 22-mile TT on September 10th at 4% higher power than I did to win nationals and before that even won my first road race (cat. 1) by attacking 42 km out and riding solo home with a gap of 2½ minutes.
By the end of September heat acclimatisation started with me riding approximately 40-45 minutes on the trainer in a rain coat when I got home from my afternoon/evening ride. At that point I got ill, which was obvisouly not optimal. I managed to still do a bit of training and heat acclimatisation, but it's a fine line to walk to not drag out the illness.
Going to Doha
I flew to Doha (the place of the race) on Tuesday 4th of October still ill. I only did light training the first few days down there, mostly to get some more heat acclimatisation. On Friday and Saturday I did some 20 min tests with a tempature pill to see how my core temperature reacted at race pace. It was the first hard training for more than a week and I was feeling close to 100% again at that point after the illness. It was obviously too late to put more hard training in at that point, but it was good to feel that the legs were still pretty good and that I didn't think the heat seemed to pose a huge problem.
I did the tests at ~3-4% below my standard race pace as that was what was suggested at that elevated temperature and I really didn't feel like that was a problem to hold for those 20 min. The core temperature data suggested that the pace seemed about right.
Tueday 11th of October, the day before the race I was out doing final leg 'tune-up' on the long flat straight on the course (on the shoulder, this part of the course was never closed pre-race) as the forecast said a decent tailwind. And tailwind it was! Not even in full race setup my speed hovered around 62-64 kph at race pace! The forecast for the next day said basically the same wind, so I thought: "This is going to be crazy fast!".
Race Day
Going down to have some breakfast at around 9 am. Going down for last pre-race meal at around 11 am as I was starting at 2:49:30 pm. Two Americans are also eating their pre-race meals in the meal tent at the hotel. I only know one of them - Taylor Phinney. We meet each other at the elevator afterwards heading up to our rooms. I small-talk briefly with him. He seems pretty down to earth and relaxed. He's probably wondering who the hell I am, haha.
I drive to the start so I'm there 2 hours before the start. The national coach is surprised I want to be there that early, but I'm usually at the start of a TT 2-3 hours before. I'm used to setting everything up myself - home trainer for warm-up, inflating the tires, etc. Well, all of that stuff is taken care of when I arrive by the mechanics - sweet! I do inflate the tires myself with the help from a mechanic, though, as I requested that I wanted to be there when that was done to get the pressure I wanted.
Then I basically sit and wait and put my number on. In this heat you only want to do a very short warm-up to not start out too hot. So lots of time to put in a huge amount of pins in the number while listening to some good music.
Half an hour to start, up on the home trainer and put on an ice vest. 5-6 minutes into the warm-up a new ice vest is put on. 5-6 minutes more and my warm-up is done, keeping the ice vest on. Put helmet on, gloves on, etc. Go to the start 10-15 minutes before the start. At this point I realize I need to pee (again). But not really time for that and the national skinsuit has a rear zipper. Luckily the helper was quick in getting an empty bottle - I'll leave the rest to the imagination. There's no bushes in the outskirts of Doha - only some tents, a big parking lot and a lot of sand.
This is probably the point where I should mention I chose to ride without any water (perhaps the only one that day?). I didn't have easy access to an aero bottle down there and thought it was 50/50 being better with an aero bottle than without, so just chose to go without. The national team advisors didn't think a Camelbak would cool much, so that was not really ever in the picture.
Now up to the start house, through the bike check. My TT bike has now officially been scanned for a motor! At the start house I sit next to Alex Dowsett. Funny how I meet several people I know a lot about but they probably have no clue who I am. I small-talk a bit with him. He likes my tricked-out P5 and comments on my 60T chain ring.
The start ramp is the nicest I have ever been at. Big and only me and a couple of commisaires. But hot. The start goes, I know the course pretty well from the days training on it in the last week. The first 5 minutes are very nice actually because the suit is completely soaked (on purpose) so it cools very nicely. After 5 minutes it's completely dry, so the heat starts to be felt. I start at ~3-4% below the power I'm used to hold in Denmark, just as planned - it's actually 6% lower than the power I held in the Danish TT a month before. It feels super easy, but I know it's probably very risky to try and raise is too early.
Pretty quickly I can feel that the wind direction is not what the forecast said. It's more like 90 degrees different, so not that much of a tailwind out on the long straight run-in to Doha. I take note of that, but it's not changing pacing strategies much - but I won't really have use for that 60T chain ring now.
The first 15 minutes continued to feel easy. At 15-20 minutes I could slowly feel the heat starting to have an impact. It's a different feeling than simply starting out too hard. Your legs are fine, but your body in general just starts to feel bad. I decide to simply keep the power at the same level. When reaching Doha city after 27 km (out of 40 km) I can definitely feel the heat (literally), but I'm not hanging on for dear life yet. In a 'normal' TT I might have tried and up the power a bit at that point, but I didn't feel like taking the risk and blowing up completely in the heat - I had seen what had happened to some of the female riders in the TTT.
Only with 1-2 km to go I up the power and squeeze out what I have. Not that I had a lot in the tank, but looking back I could probably have gone a bit hard for the last 10 km or so - but not much. I end up pacing the whole thing extremely evenly doing perhaps 1-2% lower power than I had hoped for. When I cross the line I'm in 5th place, but am not 100% satisfied as I had hoped for a top-10 (but knew it would be tough) and that 5th at that time would likely not be enough for a top-10 final result.
Edited to add: I've posted pacing graphs showing power pacing and HR pacing on the next page.
I'm interviewed for national TV a few minutes after I cross the line and they seem extremely surprised and happy with my ride - as is the national coach. I think I'm the only one not extremely satisfied.
The final result is a 13th place:
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=172289
With the 1-2% more power I had hoped for I think I would have just about made the top-10 - I had 15 seconds up to Bob Jungels in 10th place. I believe that without the illness and/or with a little more experience riding in those conditions (but not many of my competitors probably had that either) I could have sneaked into top-10.
The good thing is I beat Taylor Phinney, so perphaps he knows who I am now :p And I was the fastest Scandinavian. And the fastest on a Cervélo - hey, just that make me the world's fastest on a P5? Oh, and only Europeans were ahead of me - it's a bit funny to think that if I go to another continent I will officially be the fastest TT rider on that continent (well, if none of the ones in front of me is on that continent at least).
Here's a picture I got sent from someone who took it from the latest edition of the magazine "Procycling". I think it's cool: