I did my first Time Trial yesterday morning. I had a lot of fun and did reasonably well, but I realize there’s lots of room for improvement. It was a 33.3km (actually 32.3 since it was cut a little short due to construction) time trial and I got 52:16, so roughly 22.5mph average. It was super windy but pretty flat with good road conditions although HOT.
Anyways, I’m planning on continuing to train hard for more Time Trial events, but want to see what modifications would be worth doing since I’m on a fairly tight budget. Most people at the event had skin suits, aero helmets, disc wheels, aero shoe covers, etc. How much time would I save (based on my speed above) by doing these modifications?
The quick/easy things that I know I need are:
Tighter fitting jersey
Better fitting (or aero) helmet… My current helmet is a Giro but I have an oval head shape so it’s quite a bit wider than it needs to be - Bell helmets fit me much better.
More aggressive bar position?
How much time am I looking at saving with modifications? What order would you do them in?
it was 30.5km, cut short 2.5 k due to missing pavement
windy …check
tour riders riding 5 across over centerline in various locations…check
missing corner guards in two corners, including one with a stop sign for approaching riders…check
blown over start clock…check
carnies in town…check
Jeff, that sounds right about the distance. I emailed this morning and the coordinator said it was 1km short because of the pavement. 3 short sounds more like it.
What do you thibkbabout the above? My position still need to be more aggressive?
How’d you do?
Earlier this season I did back to back 11.5 mile TT’s … First one was in full TT gear, bike, helmet, skinsuit, etc. … the second one was with road helmet, road bike, road wheels, Eddie Category.
Bikes were Argon 18 E-118 (Flo 90 front/Disc rear) and Cannondale CAAD10 (Mavic Open pro 28f/32r).
The conditions were good, temps in the low 60’s, low wind and closed course.
The difference between the two TT’s was an average speed of right at 3 mph … however, remember the Eddie race came after the full TT race. If fresh, the difference would be closer to 2 mph - 2.5 mph on average.
So … you will not gain a “Huge” amount, but you will gain a fair amount.
Start with better position, helmet, skinsuit and a rear disc cover … that the lowest cost areas with the biggest overall improvement in speed. Try and hide exposed cables, glue your number on with spay glue, etc. for the small details.
After that, when you get money … go with wheels, better bike, etc.
Moving the aero bars lower and a wee bit forward, Aero helmet , and tight fitting cycling clothes would be about $300 or less; prolly gain you 1 or 2 minutes.
Improving your engine will gain you several minutes.
Better fitting (or aero) helmet… My current helmet is a Giro but I have an oval head shape so it’s quite a bit wider than it needs to be - Bell helmets fit me much better.
More aggressive bar position?
You could get a compression shirt from Walmart for $10 instead of a jersey… and unless you spend the $$$ for an aero speed jersey it will probably be faster.
Aero helmet will help, but it becomes less of an issue if you can get your head below your back.
Way more aggressive. Chest level with the ground. Get a long adjustable stem (~$25) and point it down. That probably still won’t be enough.
As for riding more, I’m trying! I’ve been doing the TrainerRoad 40k TT High Volume Training Plan on my computrainer and I think that’s really helping.
I’ll definitely get a long adjustable stem and will take your advice on the Walmart compression shirt until I can afford a speed suit. I might pick up a Javelin helmet too since they can be found for $80.
I didn’t think about Latex tubes. For tires right now I’m running Conti GP 4000s clinchers on my Mavic Cosmic Carbone wheels. I’ll look into the latex tubes. At my speed, how much time are latex tubes going to take off my 30-40k TT time?
