Breaking Down a Hill Climb TT

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hna
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by hna

Start "easy". As in 5-10 watts below your target, then ride on your target when the climb starts properly. A negative split is very often the best tactic for hill climbs. A lot of people starts way above their sustainable effort and blow up towards the end of the climb.

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djconnel
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by djconnel

Not sure about that negative split thing. Some of the best climbers I know go out on middle-distance climbs hard then suffer to the finish. I've done good timed both on a steady pace and going harder, then managing the fade. The argument for a fast start is this assures you use your available anaerobic resources. The downside is if it's a long climb you'll pay interest on this later. But if it's on order 15 minutes "later" may be manageably short.

On the steep-versus-gradual: Tapeworm nailed it. Slightly more power on the steep, but adjusting for enthusiasm, "slightly more" feels "ridiculously easy".

And my princple is "if it doesn't make me faster, it makes me slower." Do sunglasses make me faster? Out. Gloves? Out. Watch? Only if I need it to make my start time. Otherwise out. HRM strap? Out. I do take my Garmin 500 because I like a record of how I did.

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hna
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by hna

It depends really. For me a negative split works best for an individual start on the middle-distance climbs. 5 to 10 watts for a minute or two isn't much and I make sure that I stay strong the whole way. Especially if the first minutes of the TT is somewhat flat. A flat pacing strategy might work better for others, though.

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Tinea Pedis
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by Tinea Pedis

And don't ride back down :shock:

natefontaine wrote:130psi Front and 140psi Rear

natefontaine
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by natefontaine

I was ~64kg that day and rode my Caad9 ~6.4kg. As for starting a TT, you need yo get up to speed. 15s at ~600w should be fine, then hit 10w below your estimated max 10min power and suffer till the bitter end.

1st 500 in the drops hoods and tops the rest.

PS. I would just let some air out for the descent. (Just looked at my notes...150/160psi that day ;)

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nathanong87
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by nathanong87

natefontaine wrote:I was ~64kg that day and rode my Caad9 ~6.4kg. As for starting a TT, you need yo get up to speed. 15s at ~600w should be fine, then hit 10w below your estimated max 10min power and suffer till the bitter end.

1st 500 in the drops hoods and tops the rest.

PS. I would just let some air out for the descent. (Just looked at my notes...150/160psi that day ;)

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk


holy moly!

boots2000
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by boots2000

Looks to me like your power trended down in the 2nd half.
I think not popping it out of the start and holding power slightly down in 1st part would have helped your time.
Started too hard-

natefontaine wrote:I know that course, below is my power file from it. I think that I could have saved some time if I focused on my speed in the switch backs. Power surges out of the saddle to keep momentum might have been the only way I could have gone faster.
http://tpks.ws/t7FC

I would also recommend:
Aero as possible, 130psi Front and 140psi Rear, tight range cassette 11-23 or 21.

ipdamages
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by ipdamages

tomorrow is the big day. thanks for that training peaks data, nate. you went harder on the first flat part than I would have thought was best, but it's hard to argue with your results!

as regards your question, ryan, I've talked with lots of people on this topic and the consensus is consistent with your premise that you want to exert more effort on the steeper grades. and that you want to end up depleted after a consistent draining of energy, but with a hard push in the last few minutes.

there are markings on the course at 1k, 2k, and 3k to go (I reconned it Monday, just after you and i met up).

my buddies leibert and konsmo have it pretty well figured out. I predict konsmo is going to rock it, given his recent training data.

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WMW
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by WMW

ipdamages wrote:as regards your question, ryan, I've talked with lots of people on this topic and the consensus is consistent with your premise that you want to exert more effort on the steeper grades. and that you want to end up depleted after a consistent draining of energy, but with a hard push in the last few minutes.


Just be careful not to exert too much effort on the steep parts.

Yes, and don't over do the beginning. Nothing feels worse than blowing up half way through and crawling the rest of the way.
formerly rruff...

boots2000
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by boots2000

It never feels hard at the start- that is why it is so easy to overcook it.
As WMW say, keep harder punches on hard parts to 5-10%.
You want to be full gas in 2nd half- when you blow it, it still feels just as hard (or harder than when you get it right).

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