Anyone doing the the Georgia Cup Time Trial this weekend? Looks like about 50 people showed up for the race last weekend in the pouring rain. I’m guessing lot more people will show up if the weather is a bit nicer. I’ve never done a TT race but I’m thinking about doing this one as a workout. What should I expect? How are these races typically structured? Should I bring my trainer to warm up on?
Here is a link for anyone interested:
I would definitely warm up on the trainer. Nothing crazy but it is definitely nice to have the legs primed before you start you ride. The first couple of times I did the Tundra TT I didn’t warm up and I wish I had.
Usually it’s a straight TT style start, every 30 seconds or so a rider takes off. Make sure you get in line early since their watch and your watch may not match up. Usually it’s by race number for order and you can find out your number a little while before so you know when you’ll start. The Tundra used to have the ramp to start on but they didn’t this year, which stunk, the ramp is one of the most fun parts of this festival of pain. This one is a 30K so it’s a bit longer than their normal ones. That’s about 19 miles so it’s a good little stretch for a TT. Definitely go out reasonable and then speed up. Most people take off way too fast from the start and blow up (speaking from too much experience being that dumb). It’s got one good little hill in there and some rolling terrain and it’s an out and back so it should be a good course. Don’t cook the turnaround either, it’s way faster to take a turnaround a bit slow than it is to whipe out and have to pick yourself back up (don’t ask me how I am such an expert on what NOT to do in a TT 
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Have an awesome time. Other than cross, TTing is about the most fun you can have abusing the hell out of yourself on a bike. If you finish and you don’t immediately want to puke…you dind’t do it right.
Have you done this particular course? If so, is parking going to be near the start? How early do I need to arrive before my start?
I’ve signed up, but it’s a 4 hour drive for me. Ugh. Don’t know whether to try to drive up the night before and flop in a fleabag hotel or just tough it out in the wee hours driving through the hinterlands.
The key thing to a TT is not to overcook the start. Lots of newbies redline in the first mile or two and then they’re done for the rest of the race.
Study the course profile on the GCTT website. Everybody will go fast on the downhill grades. Plan to go fast on the uphill grades and get a little recovery on the downhill grades where, even if you back off a notch, you won’t go that much slower.
When you approach the turnaround, try to shift into the gear you’re going to want to be in when you come out of the turnaround so you don’t have to fumble for it as you’re trying to get back up to speed.
See y’all there.
I would offer you a place to stay but I’m in Downtown Atlanta which is a good 1-1.5 hours south. Hopefully the weather will be good and there will be a big turnout. One of the guys from All3Sports (they are a sponsor) was telling me how over 300 people showed up in the rain for the one last weekend. I guess he was exagerating a wee bit since it looks like only 50 or so people raced.
Any idea if there are any good places to do a short 2-3 mile brick run or will I likely be way too spent for that since this is my first TT and I know I’ll screw up the pacing.
I think we’re supposed to be starting at an elementary school an, if I’m seeing things right on Google Earth, there’s a running track. All I know about the area is what I’ve seen of it on Google Earth and, based on that, it’s a very small town and we’ll be starting on the western edge of it. Should be places to run, I’d think.
Thanks for the thought on the place to stay. I think I’ll just make the drive early. That makes the packing part a little easier.
So I’ll be the guy sleep-walking through the TT (not like I haven’t done that before).
Andrew,
Regarding that “little hill” you mentioned … is it still a big ring hill? I was hoping to run my single chainring setup.
Thanks.
It’s a 3% grade, so you should definitely be able to do it big ring, depending on fitness I guess. But if you’re already running single ring, my guess is that won’t be a worry.
I’ll be there. They are pretty well organized. Last week they got the result in about 20 minutes or so after thae last rider finished. I typically bring a trainer, mainly because I like a good warm up and it can be hard to do that at some venues.
Last week about 50 or so, but I suspect that there were close to zero day of entrys and I know of at least 3 no shows. The weather was too bad for the race.
Styrrell
I talked my buddy into going so we are definitely in. I just totally changed my position so I’m very interested to see how that change effect my power output. This is going to be fun!!!
Two of us are driving up from North Fl about 4/5 hour drive,we did one in September,turned cold/hilly but had a good time.I will be on a red/yellow Tiemeyer
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Maybe we can say Hi.look for red/yellow Tiemeyer
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Here’s me getting underway at the Tundra TT a few weeks ago. I’ll be in the same skinsuit and on the same bike ('09 P2 with 3T Ventus aerobars. I’ll be trying out a visor on the helmet.
I’ll look forward to meeting you. Have a save trip!
How about a race report fellas?
Psycholist, good ride, looks like 10 seconds cost you one place. There’s another example for for those that often ask, “does aero, weight, etc, really matter?”
Good course,hilly with some flats,very foggy before the start,i had a good ride even though i got about twenty minutes of sleep the night before(forgot a RLS med), The guy i rode up with got a flat right before the finish and had a meltdown so i never got to visit around after the race. I got 7th out of 12 finishers, My Cat always has some great talent,Phycholist had a great ride,and i am sure he will fill us in.
Psycholist, good ride, looks like 10 seconds cost you one place. There’s another example for for those that often ask, “does aero, weight, etc, really matter?”
Thanks.
It was a really cool course. For future reference, when someone from northern Georgia tells you a course is flat, take their frame of reference into account. When I arrived at the course and looked at the road we’d be racing out on, I could see a ridge off through the clouds and mist about 5 miles in the distance. So we gradually ascended for five miles, did about two miles of rolling terrain across the top, then plummeted off the other side and continued the final couple of miles to the turnaround.
My problem … and where I lost my 10 seconds (and the race) … was going back up that which we’d plummeted down. Relying on what I’d been told about the course being “flat,” I’d donned my trusty single chainring and my straight block cassette. It wasn’t enough for that climb and I really bogged down. But I was happy with how I bounced back over the top.
The course was outstanding. Very fun, very smooth, very safe. Rolling, but not technical. Low traffic. Nice job by the Georgia Cup folks.
It was great to meet and/or see all the fellow STers there. Toolguy, glad to hear the elaboration about why your travelmate was so upset. Hey … if you flat, you flat. It happens – especially in those kinds of conditions. Having said that, if I’d driven 4 1/2 hours for that race and flatted just before finishing, I’d probably have chewed the heads off of small animals or something.
Psycholist, you looked very smooth passing me at the 16 mile mark. I’m sure that single chainring sucked on that nasty little rise coming back to the finish! You needed that setup on GCTT#1. Its going to be interesting to see you and my teammate Bob challenge each other for the next event.
The course was flat with 2 hills that kicked up enough where I got out of the saddle. I think this course is faster than the GCTT#1 course. Hard to tell since it was pouring raining during that one.
The GC put on another great event. They post the results really fast and on the website later in the afternoon.
Rex
Its going to be interesting to see you and my teammate Bob challenge each other for the next event.
I didn’t know who he was. I parked right next to him and when I saw him on the trainer I said to myself, “I hope he isn’t in my age group.” He looked like Lance in all those recent pictures of him with all the muscles. The guy’s totally ripped. I googled him when I got home and, if I came up with the right guy, I saw stuff like RAAM and 24-hours of adrenalin, etc. No doubt … he’s the real deal and he did a great race.
So you thought the GCTT#1 course was flatter? I’ve not raced it, but I drove it a few weeks ago. It seemed like a pretty big hill up to the finish line. It looked like there was a lot of traffic and lots of homes and farms right up along the road. It didn’t strike me like it would be nearly as safe a course as #2 was.
Since this was my first Time Trial I went in with very low expectations and really just wanted to learn what TTing was all about. I came away feeling pretty good and definitely learned A LOT that will undoubtedly help me on the next one. The first thing I learned was to have EVERYTHING ready to go on the bike before I arrive. I had a few small things that needed to get done and Bill from All3Sports (one of the sponsors) said he would do them when I arrived. I had an early start time though and Bill had other people to help. In the end my bike was totally ready until about 2 minutes before the start. I started scrammbling to get to the start line and actually missed my start by 30+ seconds (not sure exactly how long). So I didn’t get any kind of warm up whatsoever. To top it off my cleats weren’t strapped tight, the battery on my Powertap died at the start and my visor totally fogged up for the duration of the ride.
My plan was to follow some of the advice here about not starting too hard. That was pretty easy since I didn’t have a warm up but I know that cost me a few minutes. But about 10 minutes into the ride I was starting to feel pretty strong. I passed a few people and started to get into a good groove. I got passed by one gentleman and tried to use him to pace for awhile. It became a pain in the ass to avoid his draft though and I was afraid that I might be going to hard since I didn’t have my power meter to help gauge my effort. I let him go and settled into a slightly lower rhythm. By now I was feeling pretty good. When I got to the turn it felt like the course was pretty short. I need to practice turns on my tri bike because I left at least 30 seconds right there.
I remembered that the big hill was just after the turn around. Now I’m 220 pounds so a 3% hill is nothing to sneeze at for me ususally. But I honestly felt great going up the hill. In fact the whole ride back I felt very strong. I assumed there would be some sort of sign to say when I was half way back. My plan was to just go all out from that point on. But if there were signs I didn’t see them and without my powertap I was never sure how much further I had to go. When I saw the sign at the 1K mark I was a little miffed as I knew that I had been holding a lot back trying to pace myself for the entire ride. I went as hard as I could but at the finish line I had A LOT of gas left in the tank.
I finished in 50:48 for an average speed of 22.56 mph. Between missing my start time, not being warmed up at the start, taking the turn way too slowly and then not going hard enough early enough I know I left at least 4 minutes on the course. I won the novice category by almost 10 minutes and beat my buddy in the process but I was 51st out of 66 overall so I know that I have A LOT to improve on for the next race. I had a ton of fun and I’m definitely looking forward to the next race. Hopefully I will be able to meet more of you guys at the next race when I’m a little better organized.
Well done. Next time make sure you suffer. By the way, some believe that warmups are overrated.