TT position

[toolonglegs]

[Redbull]

No it was his TT bike...they had to cut a hole in the head tube and mount the stem between the top and bottom bearings.

Holy Cow

Private Benjamin Bufford Blue's bottom lip would be a cow catcher on that thing.

[Grant W]

No it was his TT bike...they had to cut a hole in the head tube and mount the stem between the top and bottom bearings.

Holy crap - that's low!

Boonen would like that bike, perfect position for sniffing the white lines.

LOL

[kosmiccarbon]

No it was his TT bike...they had to cut a hole in the head tube and mount the stem between the top and bottom bearings.

Holy crap - that's low!

Boonen would like that bike, perfect position for sniffing the white lines.

haha that's gold

[philip]

Philip, is there anything you can inexpensively do to get your torso a little lower?

That's what I'm trying to figure out The only thing that I think is possible is a stem that puts the bars lower. But since the TT is only a week away I think I'll make do with what I've got for now.

[TheSkyMovesSideways]

Philip, is there anything you can inexpensively do to get your torso a little lower?

I heard Prince had his 2 lowest ribs removed for that reason...

[DanielS]

philip - I wouldn't recommend trying out any super-aggresive low positions this far out from the race. Just go with what you've got.

One thing that I've found useful on my TT setup is to run the seat further forward and a little higher than it is in the 'road bike' position. The added height is to compensate for the steeper effective seat-tube angle when you put your seat forward. This positions your body over the bars more and opens up your hip angle, so you are not so squashed up. I'm not sure if this would be right for you, but its something you may like to consider.

Re. 2-up TTs - I've only done one of these before. We traded shorter turns, maybe 30 seconds tops.

This may seem obvious, but make sure the lead rider rolls backwards on the correct side. This is the side that the wind is coming from. E.g. if the wind is coming from the left, make sure the lead rider is rolling back on the left to protect the following rider as they come round. And obviously switch sides if there's a turnaround.

Make sure you both communicate with each other - if one rider is struggling they need to admit it! Keep the communication constant through the race!

Oh, and one thing we found doing the 2-up TT was that you can't flick an elbow to signal the following rider to come through when you are on aerobars. So we used a head-shake instead

[philip]

Thanks heaps for those suggestions Daniel. 30 seconds sounds very short, is there a reason for that or is it just what you felt comfortable doing? What distance was the one you did? We're doing the 50km Calga option, swapping every 30 seconds or so for over an hour is a lot of swapping!

[Christine Tham]

Hi Phil,

I have made an attempt to Photoshop the image to correct for lens distortion, and perceived horizontal/vertical perspective distortion (using your wheels as a reference).

It's not a very professional effort, but should give an indication of how you actually look:


I don't know if that helps or not. You are better off taking a photo without perspective distortion, and then correct for lens distortion only to get a more accurate result.

[twizzle]

He can't be competitive - he's missing my special aero-gut.

[philip]

He can't be competitive - he's missing my special aero-gut.

you might be onto something there - when I'm in a lower position my jersey flops about in front - I either need a gut or smaller jerseys!

[twizzle]

I'd have baggy jerseys as well... but they don't often make a 4XL, so I just have to suck my gut in most of the time. Actually, it can't be too bad now, because when I'm low on the bike my thighs are hitting my rib cage rather than my stomach.

[othy]

He can't be competitive - he's missing my special aero-gut.

you might be onto something there - when I'm in a lower position my jersey flops about in front - I either need a gut or smaller jerseys!

...skinsuit...

[DanielS]

Thanks heaps for those suggestions Daniel. 30 seconds sounds very short, is there a reason for that or is it just what you felt comfortable doing? What distance was the one you did? We're doing the 50km Calga option, swapping every 30 seconds or so for over an hour is a lot of swapping!

Yeah there was no science behind it, but it felt about right. I think 30 seconds is enough time to recover in the slipstream, and as soon as the following rider is recovered, its best to trade off so that they are fresh at the front.

The only disadvantage to taking more turns is that the two of you as a 'unit' lose a bike length every time the lead rider pulls off. If the 50km TT takes you, say, 1:15 and you're trading off every 30 seconds, the total 'lost' distance is 150 bike lengths, or about 300m, or around half a minute. So not a huge amount compared with if you traded off every 2 minutes, where you would lose something like 5-10 seconds to trade offs. I think you will make up the difference in the added speed! (I hope that makes sense)

The 2-up TT we did was 44km, here in SA. It wasn't dead flat, there were some slight inclines/declines, and one fairly decent hill.

[Parrott]

Is that seat high enough, looks a little low in the photos going by the bend in your knee in the top shot, can't see your foot though. Apart from swapping the stem and rotaing the bars up a bit at the front doesn't look like you can do much more to get a good position on that bike You seem pretty high at the front.

[philip]

Well went and did the TT today at Calga - last month the weather was rubbish so we gave it a miss. 50km, 2 man. The course is by no means flat:



We did the 50km course so 2 laps of that. The guy I was riding with had done a 130km ride yesterday but he claimed he "rides better on tired legs" haha. This was my first TT and he hadn't done one up there before so it was a learning experience for both of us. We probably didn't push ourselves as hard as we could have, by the end of it I was still feeling pretty good so could have definitely gone harder. The results should be up soon but from memory we did 1:23:something and our 2nd lap was a minute or so faster than our first. He had a couple of mechanical problems which cost us maybe a minute. I did manage to get the bars a bit lower than I had in the pics in this thread so my position was ok. I didn't have any troubles with the position either which was good given that I had only spent about 20-30 minutes trying them out. We think if we pushed a bit harder we could probably have done a couple of minutes faster - we will have to go again next month to prove it

[toolonglegs]

Nice Philip...is the two man TT a regular thing now?.

[1q2w3e4r]

Nice Philip...is the two man TT a regular thing now?.

Seems to be, I've only been up there twice (last two months) and both times they had multiple two man TT's going.

[mikesbytes]

36.1kph ave. Not a bad at all, especially as yo didn't know the course

[philip]

Nice Philip...is the two man TT a regular thing now?.

A bunch of the guys I ride with do a 2up as a bit of a friendly competition. From what I've heard at Calga you can make a team size of any number you like.

[Chris249]

ps.
This is me on my road bike...maybe you don't need clipon aerobars after all to look slippery!

Nice work!

Is that a dish back wheel, or a spoke cover?

I'm the acme of mediocrity at TTing (dead in the middle both times at Calga) and don't normally get sports gear to look cool, but I have to say I want a cover or disc back wheel just because they look drop dead stunning!

[Richard.L]

Ant's seat seem to be 5cm higher than his bars. Does this matter in TT's? or is that only a road race rule?

[Parrott]

Ant's seat seem to be 5cm higher than his bars. Does this matter in TT's? or is that only a road race rule?

Don't know that rule. The front of the seat has to be at least 5cm behind the middle of the crank spindle if you drop a plumb bob off the nose of the saddle.

[Ant.]

ps.
This is me on my road bike...maybe you don't need clipon aerobars after all to look slippery!

Nice work!

Is that a dish back wheel, or a spoke cover?

I'm the acme of mediocrity at TTing (dead in the middle both times at Calga) and don't normally get sports gear to look cool, but I have to say I want a cover or disc back wheel just because they look drop dead stunning!

I missed this: it's a disc wheel, not a wheel cover. (you don't get the 'woosh woosh woosh' sounds with a wheel cover )

[Ant.]

Ant's seat seem to be 5cm higher than his bars. Does this matter in TT's? or is that only a road race rule?

Don't know that rule. The front of the seat has to be at least 5cm behind the middle of the crank spindle if you drop a plumb bob off the nose of the saddle.

I run a 10cm saddle-bar drop on my road bike. No rule to do with that. As per Parrott, your saddle tip must be 5cm (or more) behind the bottom bracket (that photo there, saddle is about ~9cm behind I believe)