Orwell Wheelers 2015 Club League Round 19: Team Time Trial

Long Story Short

• I hitched my waggon to the Horan train,
• The team of Helen, Breda, Ann and myself, all Limit riders, had a ten minute handicap,
• Team Horan-Potter recorded a 51:30, the adjusted time with the handicap was 41:30,
• We placed third, twenty seconds behind the first place team,
• After eating healthy in the run-up, we pigged out afterwards.

Strava

View the TTT on Strava: Orwell Wheelers 2015 Club League Round 19: Team Time Trial avec les trios Horans: 3rd.
See Also: Ann's TTT and Breda's Team TT.

View the replay on Strava Flybys. I've enabled:

• Brian Mc; his team won, they didn't catch us,
• Sean; his team finished second, they passed us,
• Myself; we finished third, two successive weeks of not being the token ginger,
• Stephen B: his team finished fourth, they passed us,
• Stephen R: his team finished fifth, they also passed us,
• Dan; he lead the under-age team, we passed them, they finished eighth with two Vets, an U-16 and an U-14 rider.

Members of the teams that finished sixth and seventh didn't show up on the Flybys selection.

Short Story Long

Prepare yourself for lots of lists.

Build-Up

I knew the Team Time Trial was coming up. I wanted to take part, but I didn't know who else was really interested in taking part. I knew I wanted a Limit team, so we'd get the maximum handicap and we'd be evenly matched. I used the new matchmaking app, "TTT Tinder". I gave these girls a swipe. I won't comment on the direction that I swiped the Murnanes. A few cheesy chat-up lines later and I had a team.

Please ignore the "83".

I rode out to Blessington on the Bank Holiday Monday. I did a recon of the route. This gave me an insight into the pacing strategy to employ on the full run. I broke the route into six segments based on the terrain;

1. 0 - 3km - The start is downhill, and flat until over the first bridge.
2. 3 - 5km - There's three ramps. There's lots of flat after these ramps. So we can go hard over them. As long as we're together after the 3rd one. I went Z5 power over these.
3. 5 - 10km - Long flat section until over the second bridge.
4. 10 - 22km - The hard work begins. There's eight steep hills in quick succession. This includes the gravel section (14-16.4km) that Killian was talking about on the forum. I went Z4.5 Power over these.
5. 22 - 25km - After these hills, there's a long flat section.
6. 25 - 28km - There's the ramp near the end, but it's not steep. It ends with the white shed with the red roof and the T-Junction sign. Followed by a small descent and a little drag to the finish. Again I went Z4.5 Power over this.

I didn't go so far as to print out stem markers, but I used a simple format to remember where I was. "3 up, 5 down, 10 up, 22 down". This corresponded to the kilometer and the terrain change.

I researched some Team Time Trial tips. They included the usual basic common sense things, ride in a line, pace from the outset. They recommended keeping communication to one or two word commands. Another small tip was to drink at the back of the train.

Based on my recon I set pace goals for the six segments. I didn't look at the times from the previous years. For the first two flat sections, I wanted to average 37kmh. For the last flat sections I wanted to average 40kmh. For the first three climbs I set a Wattage goal in my Zone 5/VO2 Max, we would be able to recover on the flat. For the rest of the climbs I wanted to pace in the middle of my Zone 4/Threshold.

We agreed, ...well I went "Luke Jong-Un" on it...;

• To take 30 second turns on the front, unless you were suffering. This would give 90 seconds rest.
• To keep the group together until after the eight climbs. This would allow us to have full fire power for the proposed 40kmh sections.
• On "Up and Over" and the call to switch the leader. Make the call, check for traffic and pull off.
• On "On" as the command to signal that the rider was back in the slipstream. So we could raise the speed without the rider having to make a sprint effort.
• On "Off" as the command to signal that we were down a rider. This would keep the group together.
• That on the sections where we planned to aim for 40kmh to do 30 seconds on the front, or until they are not able to 40kmh, which ever came first.

I had my Garmin set to display;

• Power Zone - For Pacing on the Hills,
• Cadence - Just for my own gear selection,
• Lap Time - To know when my 30 seconds was up,
• Lap Distance - For the markers of the distance I had highlighted,
• Current Speed - For Pacing on the Flat.

Helen suggested that we not use the TT bars. This was the correct decision. The course was too technical and required too many gear changes outweighing the aerodynamic benefits on offer.

Pre-Race

I woke up Thursday morning and I knew that I didn't have the form that I had the two previous weeks. Especially the imperious, Pegasus-like, flame grilled strength in my quadriceps that lead me to fourth after working like ...whatever is the politically correct personification of the modern standard of hard labour... distant relative of a North Korean defector.

I wasn't confident of making it through the eleven kilometer hilly section. I had witnessed half of my team (and everyone else) destroy me on the steep pitches (Conor Pass, Dunloe, Molls Gap and Ballaghbeama) in the TKAS. Basically I didn't want to be Nico Roche.

After a few consecutive hours of converting Oxygen into Carbon Dioxide, cumulating in a Tuna Steampot and a pair of bananas being scoffed, I arrived in Manor KillBuzz. I hadn't been reading the Kilbride Chronicle since they increased their subscription price. My knowledge on the relationship between bike racers and residents was based on the first Sally Gap race. I had no sooner exited my automobile than some lady recklessly parked her car in front of mine and get on her phone. "This is some Twin Peaks, Wayward Pine type shit" I thought. After a few minutes of talking on the phone and glancing at me, she reversed away. "She's probably asking her cohorts to pick up some Kidney beans for the Lukie Con Carne" I'm not one for smoking the wacky tobaccy, so this paranoia was real. More motorists passed whilst slowly passing and they were on their phones too. Turns out there was a speed ramp that I couldn't see. There was also a large traffic jam on the main route, so these people were probably calling for directions. With Bebo just being released in Wicklow last week, I figured Google Maps was a few years away yet.

Other notble pre-race meals: Ann and Helen had tea and sandwiches, Breda had Couscous al a Chicken.

Ann arrived at the community centre and I located Helen. With bidons empty and possibly a child's life ruined, we used a back road to practice some "through and offs" on our way to the sign on. Ann noticed that the person second in The Horan Express should make an effort to keep their wheel to the inside of the person in front. This would remove most of the element of risk of the leader pulling to the outside. I can't quickly tell my left from my right, so I use inside and outside.

We signed on, and tried to play mind games with the opposition. I used to be a master at the mind games, although I may have lost my touch. Some say Daragh hasn't been the same since the Ericsson tag rugby derby of 2013. But the mind games may have backfired as you can see from the picture below, where I've developed "The RÁS Stare", before the club league TTT. But is wasn't as serious a case as Eugéne's RÁS Stare from the W200. I ate my Trek FlapJack.

Half of my team needed to answer the call of nature just as we were told to roll out to Blessington. So we were a bit pushed on the ride over. We continued the TTT drills on the way over. This was to give Breda a feel for the format as she had missed the ride from Kilbride.

When we arrived, our two-minute-team had just departed. I could've sworn I was in a World Cup Cyclocross start grid. The girls' took off their jackets and handed them to Jen, the Van Der Haar-ns. I consumed a Caffeine gel, Orange flavour. It needed a Frank Seymour-esque monologue to describe how horrible it was. But there wasn't time for that, Red. Eddie gave the countdown...

Race

... and Ann and Breda had already gapped myself and Helen. I had a bout of Matt Stephens-itis, struggling to clip in. We caught up pretty quickly. The turns started and were very smooth. I was at the front going into the first corner. I moved out to assertively hold the lane from the car approaching behind. I wanted a really good line through the corner. I knew that there wasn't gravel on the inside or outside, so the line was going to be easy. As I got through, I pulled off the front. My teammates didn't need the accordion effect.

Our run over the first bridge lead to the three climbs. We gapped Breda a bit on the second one, which was longer than the other two. We slowed a bit and we were all together on the next flat section. Ann kept upping the pace too soon on this flat section, but that ironed itself out. We had Dan's team in sight, but another team had us in their crosshairs. The team of Hammond/Kinch/Maher/Barry/Hendron passed us on the outside around the bend. The pass was a bit tight for my liking. Especially as they forced us into the inside line the whole way round. A twitch from any one of the eight of us and it was game over. But it went by without a hitch.

Pretty soon after the corner we were onto the section of eight climbs. We passed Dan's team. They had splintered into two equal sized groups. At one stage we were in the middle of them. Breda was having some trouble on the hills. I was determined to keep her in the train. She was recovering the ground on the descents. I was climbing pretty well, as were Ann and Helen. I was aware of a dodgy corner approaching. I communicated this, I asked for a lot of space to be given to allow braking. This was granted. Aisling and Siobhan were marshalling here and did a good job of keeping it clear. There was also a guy taking photos here, but I havn't been able to track them down I tracked him down.

The next obstacle was the gravel section from 14.1km to 16.4km. I made the others aware of this. They let me go first. I had ridden it a few days before. There was a tight corner at the start. Again I called for space between the riders. Most of this section was downhill and I lit it up. I got myself a decent sized gap on my charges. I did some of the pulling on the gravelled climb, relinquishing to Helen, as I used the sliding room to Breda to recover.

I was counting down the climb, I thought that this would help. I also thought that this would result in being told to STFU. Although as Oxygen debt set in, the odds of being told-off decreased. We were passed by both Team Rowan/Williams/Holland/Moore/Boyd and the Swift-Murnanes in quick succession. Both teams were down to three riders. We were about to make the run for home. Breda took her last turn as we upped the pace to 40kmh. The Murnanes Swiftly disappeared down the road, although we kept Rowan/Williams/Holland in view for a short time.

We approached the last climb, with three of us left, we had to stick together. The time would count at the third rider. I was getting pretty stressed, as I wanted to power to the finish, like the previous week, but my legs were heavy. The finish line came pretty soon.

Post-Race

51:30 minus the 10:00 handicap, which gave us a time of 41:30. After watching the way that two other of the other teams sailed by us, I was not very confident of a placing. I also believed that there was only points for the top three teams.

We discovered that we each had different strengths and weaknesses;

• Helen: Tears uphill, fears Gravel.
• Breda: Likes going down, doesn't like coming back up.
• Ann: Strong on the flat, not as strong going down.
• Luke: Strong on Gravel, has a weakness for Caramel biscuits/squares/drizzle sponge cake.

Pacing Review

The initial pace goals for the TTT were decently accurate.

The dark grey is the gravel section. Click the image to make it bigger.

I packed up and went into Blessington to get petrol. There was Police checkpoint checking for tax, insurance and NCT at the Industrial Estate. I wished them a good evening, they were not so confident in everyone else having their documents in order.

So there I was in the chipper, and I get a message from Eugéne. He was congratulating me on my exploits. I was pretty hungry, so I wasn't in the best form. I wasn't the only one getting my chub on with my Cheeseburger and Chips.

Sorry cow :'(

Helen was going to town on a Pizza, Oatcakes and Brazil nuts.

Breda was being healthy with some Banana Bread and Green Smoothie.

I checked the results, we were twenty seconds off first place. Twenty seconds is still a decent effort to overhaul, as the target was not static. The low-light of the night was discovering that the hot water was not on. I took my character-building shower and slept.

What Was Learned

• Team Time Trials are something very different.
• The recon ride provided very valuable input.
• The handicap system made the TTT very interesting.
• I still can't believe the John West Tuna Steampots are not on the UCI banned substance list.