An Audaxer Getting Into Clock Bashing

During early 2021 I’d decided to write up my 2005 LEJOG ride on my blog, and through remembering bits of that ride I’d found myself again watching Michael Broadwith’s record breaking attempt on the classic British End to End route. Damon Peacock made an excellent video of Michael’s attempt and as Damon makes interesting videos, and as Michael is an engaging guy, I veered into watching some of Damon’s Mersey Roads 24hr TT videos. This is what has led me to line up on a TT start line.

Prior to 2021, I’d ridden once in a Team Time Trial as part of the 2018 Tour of Cambridgeshire, where I was a last minute stand in for a mate who couldn’t make the date of the race… after that I wasn’t in a rush to do it again! It was a brutal effort that really took me by surprise.

In the spring of 2021, a work colleague had indicated that his cycling club’s (Bourne Wheelers) time trials would begin in April, and after some chatter on a WhatsApp group, the details of the first “come and try” event had been shared. It would be a 5 Mile out and back Time Trial. So, inspired by Damon’s videos of Michael Broadwith’s 2015 Mersey Roads 24Hr TT, his other videos covering various racers through the event, and also of Francis Cade’s video’s of Chris Hall’s 24Hr Time Trial attempts, I decided to enter my first individual time trial. It went well. I was the only person on a steel road bike in a field of weapon level, sculpted, disc wheeled, time trial specific rigs, and I was very pleased with my result!

• Distance = 5 Miles
• Time = 12:33
• Average Speed = 23.7Mph
• Average Power = 333Watts
• Average Cadence = 90rpm
• Placing = 8th out of 30

Seeking Advice

Coming Away from the race my interest in Time Trialling had been firmed, and I was speaking to anyone I knew who’d previously Time Trialled in search of information and words of experience to be able to better my approach, my technique and my speed.

As it turns out, there is a depth of Time Trialling experience within our own ranks in Audax UK, and it was John Gallagher (AUK #19033) of Crewe Clarion Wheelers who pointed out to me a similarity between Audaxing and Time Trialling;

Hi Andy, that’s a superb effort for a noob or anyone else for that matter. The way I see it is; Audax and TT are very similar: you manage your resources to get over the line.

Message from John Gallagher, 7th April 2021

In fact, for a Briton to be able to ride Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) back in the early 1970’s, the qualifying criteria was to have ridden over 375 Miles in a 24Hr TT. Thankfully, Audax UK was formed and a successful Super Randonneur (SR) Award has superseded the 24Hr TT requirement for PBP qualification.

I’d trawled back through my copies of Arrivé in search of articles on the 24Hr TT, and as recently as 2020 a piece by Greg Melia on the 2019 Mersey Roads National 24Hr TT was featured in issue #147, and going further back issue #122 had 2 accounts of the 2013 24Hr TT. I read these articles with interest.

John Gallagher had dispensed some thoughts to me based on his history of Time Trialling, which consisted mostly of racing his club 10s. He’d suggested;

• To recce different courses.
• Not to be hard on myself if my times were slower than the field.
• To keep a log of my ride data.
• To eat well at lunchtime (for an evening 10).
• To get as aero as possible.
• To continue to ride full gas until you are over the line.
• To remember that if you’re hating it, so is everyone else!

Now, I knew my mate Jim Churton (AUK #2596) had ridden a lot of Time Trials in the past, and when I chatted to Jim to tell him I was dipping my toes into the discipline, his words were helpful, and came from years of experience against the clock;

• Head Up. Dont Forget.
• If you pass the chequer board without being all in, you haven’t tried. True!
• 10s are a max effort throughout. On the rivet. 25’s leave little to chance.
• There’s only one way to ride a TT: Total concentration coupled with maximum effort.
• Get gears you can cope with and turn efficiently.
• You must discipline yourself to fast pedaling.

TTing is an art coupled with concentration and strength, not big gears you can barely turn over, but a gear that propels you at speed… turned with strength – an ability to conquer its resistance.

TTing is also a conflict betwixt mind and body. When they are in tune you can do anything! Mastering the conflict is another aspect of “Contre le Montre”.

Messages from Jim Churton, 26th April 2021

Jim also enlightened me with a brief introduction to F.T. Bidlake. He told me of the significance of Bidlake, as a record setting rider in the 1880s, who went on to carry out administration activities as a timekeeper, and is credited by many to be a significant component of establishing Time Trialling as it is known today. I was suitably engaged in learning about Bidlake, that I made a 220Km DIY Audax out to the F.T. Bidlake memorial garden, near Eaton Socon on the A1 in Bedfordshire. Each year, the Bidlake prize is awarded for outstanding achievements in cycling, a list of winners is shown here; www.bidlakememorial.org.uk.

Jim doesn’t talk about his palmarès in an upfront way, but when you chat with him you gradually learn that his cycling experience is vast, and now I was understanding that Jim had laid down fantastic Personal Bests for each of the fixed standard Time Trial distances and times (10, 25, 50, 100 Mile, 12 and 24Hr). He’d done these times in the 80’s and 90’s on steel TT bikes of the day; very short wheelbase frames, made to measure with limited clearances and no additional aero accoutrements. For me, now having ridden a handful of Time Trials by this point, my understanding of Jim’s performances was deepened… and I had a very long way to go…

Speed, Power & Cadence

Throughout April, May and into June, I continued to race the midweek TTs organised by Bourne Wheelers, and I continued to place respectably. I was trying to put into practice some of the advice I’d been given, particularly around position on the bike (low/aero) and on pedalling speed. During the races I would concentrate simply on;

• Speed – keep it as high as possible
• Power – don’t blow up but keep it as high as possible
• Cadence – keep it over 90rpm minimum.

As John had suggested, I kept a log of all my races and the key stats so I could somewhat study each performance, weighing up what went well and what didn’t.

Throughout this time I was listening to Podcasts, watching YouTube videos, reading blogs and forums, and chatting more to Jim and others. I was immersing myself in material and was really enjoying learning more about the discipline, and through racing regularly, was becoming more familiar with the hard efforts required.

Joining Cycling Time Trials (CTT)

I’d heard of “Open” events and “Nationals” but I didn’t really have a clue what these meant other than what is given away in the name. Another of Damon Peacock’s videos on the Mersey Roads 24Hr Time Trial from 2016 had a small section of footage where the event organiser explained what the CTT was – and I learned that it is the National Governing Body for Time Trials. So, looking at the Cycling Time Trials website there was some really good explainers and lots of information on courses, riders, clubs, results, competitions and news. It seemed that there were in excess of 1000 open time trials being run throughout the year, and to ride in them you needed to be a member of a club affiliated to Cycling Time Trials.

I wondered if Audax UK was affiliated to CTT, and a quick search on the internet showed me that indeed it was; https://audax.uk/about-us/affiliation. I was beginning to think I would “next level” my interest. So, for me that represented registering with Cycling Time Trials (CTT) and finding a local open event to enter.

As I am a member of Audax UK, it was easy (and free) for me to register with CTT, set up a profile and start looking for events to enter. I quickly found an open 10 Mile event run by Bourne Wheelers – the club whose mid week TTs I had already been riding. The course was up near Grantham and was an east/west out and back on a main road (A52), turning point being a roundabout. I hit enter, paid up and awaited the next step, which was to be accepted to race by the organisers.

10 days or so before the event, I was notified that I’d been accepted to race, and a few days after that the start list was published along with details of the race HQ, exact course details and timings for the day. There were 71 people on the start sheet, and a good representation of clubs from the South Lincolnshire, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire areas.

Turning up to the event, people were all on weapon level carbon bikes, some were warming up on rollers and turbo trainers in the car park and all riders had a level of focus whilst getting themselves ready. This all amounted to me feeling like this would be a step up in terms of competition and seriousness, and it was difficult not to feel a little amateurish with my normal kit and steel road bike on the roof of my car. At this point I was really hoping that I wouldn’t be absolute last on the results sheet.

The race went OK, even though I was passed by 3 riders… Later on during the day of the race the results were published on the CTT website. I had placed 41st out of 60 riders, with 11 riders (of the 71 that entered) either not starting (DNS) or not finishing (DNF). My time was 24:59, and I was very pleased with that, mainly because I had not finished last, and I had just beaten the target I had in my head for the race, which was to be under 25 minutes.

Numbers on your back

Another steer that Jim had given me was an explanation of the Time Trial numbering hierarchy. When I was allocated number 59 in my first open TT, I just assumed that was the number given to me on an application basis, but I was wrong… The number 59 indicated me as a slow rider. This is how it works;

In a field of 120 racers

• Number 1 = The organising club’s slowest rider in the race.
• Numbers ending in 0 = The 12 fastest riders on paper, with the fastest being 120, then 110, 100 etc.
• Numbers ending in 5 = Second wave of fast riders, with the 13th fastest being 115, then 105, 95 etc.
• Numbers ending in 8 = Next quickest after the 5’s. with the 26th fastest being 118, then 108, 98 etc.
• Numbers ending in 9 = The slowest in the field.
• All other numbers are field fillers.

The numbering protocol should help to keep riders well separated when on the course, such that similarly paced riders dont end up on top of each other during the race.

Kit

Its a big and expensive subject and I’m not going to say too much about kit, aside from I’ve ridden 9 TTs on my steel bike with clip on aero bars and its been perfectly adequate, and has drawn minor attention and surprise at the midweek 10s. As the TT discipline has taken further hold I did find myself looking out for second hand TT bikes… and yes, I did buy one; a second hand Ridley TT bike. I’ve ridden 1 or 2 TTs on it and the difference between my steel bike and the TT specific carbon bike is indeed very noticeable. I have purchased a cheap aero helmet, and the next ‘threshold’ items on the list are; a skin suit, a deep section front wheel and a rear disc wheel. All of which can wait a while.

Training

There are many ways one can approach training, and generally I have not been particularly structured with how I “train” for the riding that I do. I seem to do enough training to be in good enough shape to do the things I want to do, and I also rather bluntly just do more when I know I’ve got bigger rides on the horizon.

With looking to extract more from myself for the Time Trialling, I’ve been engaged in looking for methods to help me improve my speed and technique, in a way which would give me gains in the TTs and also provide a benefit towards the long distance rides I like to do. This basically meant that I needed to increase my Functional Threshold Power (FTP) – doing that would mean increased power (and hence speed) available for TTs, and it would also mean for longer rides, I would operate at a lower power for a given speed, which is a good thing for Audax and Randoneurring.

Through the time trialling forum I found a link to a good blog site at wattkg.com, which is an excellent resource for accessing surmised research studies on training types and methods. There were several blog posts that I read and I also downloaded some of the free pdfs Martin provides. I settled on a Polarised training plan lasting 9 weeks. This would see me mixing tough intervals with longer easy rides each week. I had weekly TTs to squeeze in too and I knew that life would get in the way of absolute plan compliance and execution, but having a plan was the first step.

The tough intervals were indeed very tough sessions – 8 minutes at 102% of my FTP (300Watts) repeated 4 times… daunting, and you need to be prepared in your head to let some hurt in to be able to complete the workout. It took me 5 attempts before I could fully complete the last interval, and from then on I was able to complete each session. I could feel it was doing me good.

If you read only one book on TTs…

Then make it Adam Topham’s 2012 book; “Time Trialling. Fly through the pain barrier” (ISBN-13 :‎ 978-1848766433).

It is an excellent resource which comprehensively explains and discusses many, many elements of time trialling. It is written in a way which is accessible and aimed towards the person who has to balance work, family and their interest in time trialling. It becomes clear through reading this book that time trialling is a power and endurance event, and getting faster at it will require a person to push oneself HARD in their training sessions.

Whats Next?

My initial interest in the 24Hr TT had naturally come from my Audax and long distance riding, there was something about the emotion of racing for 24Hrs that I could see in Damon’s videos that I thought I would like to experience one day, maybe…but to me it was more accessible to start out by riding in local shorter races. By doing that I have a better appreciation of how hard it must be to ride a good distance at a 12Hr or a 24Hr TT.

I want to build to the longer TT distances through structured training, and as I write this piece I have another open 10 Mile TT scheduled in July 2021 along with my first open 25 Mile TT on the horizon in August 2021. I would also like to enter a 50 Mile TT before the seasons end, depending on making it work with family, work and other riding.

My longer term aspirations are to ride a 100 Mile TT, a 12Hr and a 24Hr TT. I’ve ridden several times at these distances and times through Audax but I now realise there is a huge difference between riding and racing such a distance or time. I think it would be rewarding to race a 24Hr TT, and I know that when the time comes for me I will have the backbone of a decent support crew behind me…

A 24 is raw and emotionally aggressive. It’s miles controlled by tempo and belief.

Training starts a year out, it’s like preparing for PBP but with speed. If anyone can, you can.

You need a good support team, and I’ll organise it for you. What you want, you will get.

When you leave the timekeeper I’ll be there for you and I’ll ensure you are well prepared.

Messages from Jim Churton on helping me in a 24Hr TT – May 2021

Thanks to Jim Churton, John Gallagher and Rick Smith for personal encouragement and generous sharing of advice and experience.