Being betten by a girl in my 3rd race spurred me on for months.

Do we have any good time trilers here?
I'm not a very good sprinter so rarely win races, but I can sit on the grade about my current grading. I figure the best way to improve my results is to work on my time trial so I don't need to chance a sprint. Does anyone have tips for TT'ing or improve the sprint of a breakaway rider?

Brian

Practice those skills.

Out on rides do jumps from normal cruising speed up to your max and try to hold it as long as you can, when your speed starts to drop, back off and go again when your mentally ready. Do windups from a dead slow crawl in your normal sprinting gear, wind it up until you can't go any faster, then back off. Also try seated climbing in a big gear (big enough that your peddling at about 30rpm) to build power.

For TT's, find some to ride, and concentrate on form and speed. If there aren't any locally, find a good 5 mile course and ride it once a week, do a lap concentrating on form and speed and then ride a recovery lap, then do another lap trying to improve on your previous time, just concentrate on getting it all out, don't worry so much about your form. If you do it right, you'll just be able to ride slowly home, spin in a very small gear to help your legs recover.

At least, that's what I got told to do when I last had a coach back in the 80's, and I was never a good sprinter, but I could TT a mile on the road and hold a bunch off....

_________________
Ride lightly!

Brian,

I did a good drill with another guy who wanted to time trial better, its all about focus. We were on a 400m outdoor track and riding above the blue. First we jammed it into the 12 and pounded around at around 18mph where he felt quite comfortable. Lap by lap we made little improvements. First lap we get on the drops. Speed goes up to 20 mph.
He's rocking his shoulders so we iron that out. Speed still 20 mph.
Then we try to get him to make a constant arc with his pedalling. Speed gets up to constant 22mph.
He holds this speed for a while, now he's concentrating on the pedalling and keeping shoulders steady so he doesn't notice the pain so much.

Then hitting the banking starts to hurt so I make him get ready for the bank just by squeezing the pedals a bit. Now he's holding more momentum and up to 24mph average per lap.

Then I get him to use the tail end of the banking to pick up a bit more momentum so he's now up to 27 mph per lap. All this time he's mashing 53x12 whereas previously he's never used that sort of gear.

It's all about focusing on efficiency. I think Cyco has done some reading on this.

To put this into practice, try riding in a big gear along the normal kind of roads on which you will do a TT. Try and get into an aerodynamic/comfortable/efficient position and focus on holding that.

As you mash along, take account of the terrain ahead of you and prepare for it.
-is it a long climb?
-a short climb?
-are you going to stay seated and click down a few gears?
-are you just going to power over it out of the saddle?

If you have the solution to hand, you'll find you are able to ride close to your threshold for the duration of the TT without running out of gas towards the end.

As far as sprint training goes, have a word with this guy.....
www.mastercoach.co.uk

Some riders have been known to refuse to get on the track to race him. Forget the ambulance, they'd have needed an undertaker. Good coach though!!

thats legro.... my coach....

you can get hold ov him on here aswell http://www.veloriders.co.uk/phpBB2/index.php

I'm trying a few of these ideas in my training, I'll let you know what improvements I see.

Cheers

Brian