How to Break the Hour Record

I enjoyed this video about prepping for the Hour Record.  When the presenter was challenged to ride while putting out 440 W, estimated to be the amount produced by Sir Bradley Wiggins when he took the record in 2015 at over 54 kms, he lasted 45 seconds.  However, there was no mention of watts/kg, a key measure of cycling power.  I can easily produce 440W for a minute, but at more than 12 kg over Wiggins' weight when he did the ride I would probably need to produce something crazy, like 650W, to get around the track in the same distance in one hour. Ain't gonna happen!

A Visit to the Rhenish Hesse Bicycle Museum

Museum opening on April 21, 2002

Germans adore engineering and the country is filled with technical museums covering every possible theme (cars, airplanes, grain threshers, wire, x-ray machines, wallpaper, corkscrews, etc.) and in the wine district of the Rhineland-Palatinate, not very far from Frankfurt and not very far from where Baron Drais invented the bicycle (or at least its forerunner) in 1817, a small band of enthusiastic individuals have established a charming museum dedicated to our beloved two-wheelers in an old Schloss.  Welcome to the Rhine Hesse Bicycle Museum in Gau-Algesheim!


Gau-Algesheim, found between Bingen and Mainz and situated 3 kms from the west bank of the Rhine, is a town of nearly 7,000 inhabitants.  First mentioned in chronicles in 755 it was raised to the status of a town in 1355 and is surrounded by vineyards.  A charming town it does not actually have much to distinguish it from the others in the region except for the impressive Schloss Ardeck, a castle that has been much reconstructed since it was first built in 1112, becoming property of the town in 1925.  But, as is often the case in Germany where there are a lot of impressive old castles in addition to all those technical museums, it is not always easy to find a use for them and Schloss Ardeck was used for numerous local purposes over eight decades.

Enter Prof. Heinz-Egon Rösch, a retired academic who taught sports subjects at the Universities of Mainz and Düsseldorf. A singularly energetic man, he has had 15 cycle touring books published in addition to his academic work and at 82 years of age still rides 4,000 kms annually. With his contacts in the bicycling community he realized that there were some excellent examples of cycling history available that people were willing to donate. With the assistance of the local cycling club and some financial backing by the State of Rhineland-Platinate the Rhine Hesse Bicycle Museum (das Rheinhessische Fahrradmuseum) opened its doors to the public in 2002, occupying the ground floor of Schloss Ardeck. Staffed by volunteers, including the irrepressible Prof. Rösch, the museum is open on Sundays and holidays from Easter to the second Sunday in October from 2 to 6 pm or you can give them a call too. The museum is featured in the book "111 Places You Must See in Rhineland-Palatinate."

Prof. Heinz-Egon Rösch and a high-wheeler

Museum floorplan

Entering the museum (admission is free but donations are welcome) one first enters a nice exhibition area devoted to the origins of the bicycle which economically shows the changes from the draisine to the bone-shaker to the high-wheeler and ultimately to the safety bicycle.

Turning to the left, one next enters the exhibition area covering bicycles used in daily life. Here there are solid Dutch roadsters, an impressive shaft-drive Dürkopp, a Diamant with a carbide lamp and a knee-wreckingly massive chainring and other ancient but honourable machines.  

Shaft-drive Dürkopp

Diamant

Another left turn takes us into the room devoted to bicycle sports. In addition to a number of classic road racing machines (Gios, Bauer, Pinarello) there are some excellent time trial bikes, including a spectacular yellow Giant used by Laurent Jalabert of the ONCE team.

There are the usual items to be found in bicycle museums along with the bicycles themselves: waterbottles, posters, accessories, flags and trophies. This being Germany there is also a display exhibiting cans and bottles of Radler, the beer and soft drink combination known as a shandy or panaché in other countries.

Something very unusual is an example of the bicycle used for Radball, the UCI-recognized sport of, well, bicycle ball (what is this actually called). Imagine bike polo with no mallets but instead you move the ball with your front wheel. Even stranger is Kunstrad, where cyclists, sometimes two on one bike, perform stunts more often seen in a Chinese circus before a panel of serious UCI-qualified judges.



Crossing to the other side of this compact but nicely arranged museum where everything is lovingly labelled there is a display of children’s bikes and an area where children’s educational events are held.

The final area is devoted to changing exhibits and during our visit featured a display about bicycles and art. In addtiion to posters and some original paintings and three dimensional pieces there was a couch with wheels and handlebars. Every cyclist should have one of these in his or her living room!

Prof. Rösch has found a successor (a more recently retired person) and his band of six will continue to manage the little museum. Cycling events take place from its front door and the local tourism office has prepared maps and brochures for suggested riding routes in the area. Educational programs for the local children have been successful and the Rhineland-Palatinate probably does not need to worry about where the next generation of cyclists will come from. Modes but charming and surprisingly effective in telling the story of the bicycle, the Rhenisch Hesse Bicycle Museum is well worth a visit. And you can be sure that Prof. Rösch can tell you where to go for a most excellent glass of Rhine wine afterwards!

The Rhine Hesse Bicycle Museum

Schloss Ardeck

Schlossgasse 12

55435 Gau-Algesheim

Tel. +49-6725-992143

The town of Gau-Algesheim has its website (with bits in English!) here.

2010 Good Friday Time Trial

Stopwatch test
photo by casey.marshall, Creative Commons

Today was the Ottawa Bicycle Club's traditional kick-off to the racing season: the Good Friday 15 km Time Trial.  Last year the temperature was 2C and the wind was coming out of the northwest at 17 km/h.  Today, eight days earlier in the calendar, it was 21C and the wind was out of the southeast at 15 km/h.

With weather so beautiful, it is no wonder that there was a massive turnout.  The 122 riders who registered probably represented the single biggest time trial field that the OBC has had.  There were lots of familiar faces and a whole lot of first-timers trying the Race of Truth.

Things started out well when I received my little medal for completing the 200 km brevet ride last year.  But when I set up my wind trainer I found that it made so much nice that people complained.  I suspect that after a winter of non-use, it needs lubrication, but it sounded pretty terrible.  So I just did circuits in the National Aviation Museum until it was time for me to start.  I was No. 49A, so it took a while.

I had estimated my time would be around 24 minutes and was seeded there but I noticed that some riders who were faster were sandbagging, and started quite a bit before me.  I was worried that I was being a bit optimistic since my training this winter was not optimal and my weight is a bit higher than I like but it was such a beautiful day that I didn't care too much about my time.

After a good start, I ran into a much stronger headwind than I imagined and was seeing heart rate numbers that were pretty high.  I gently backed off and concentrated on easing my way up to the cyclist who had started 30 seconds ahead.  I could see him just ahead and felt that I had settled down nicely, although I was not seeing much more than 36 km/h.  The new computer does not seem to like the disc wheel much as it would make sudden jumps up and down in speed, but the heart rate indicator and of course the elapsed time seemed accurate.

I saw my 30 second man approach the turnaround and I began to shift down.  He made the turn but when I looked behind me I was annoyed to see three cars, two together and one further back, coming up.  It was unsafe to turn and it seemed to take ages for them to get by me so I had to keep riding for some distance before I could turn.  This is only the second or third time I have ever had issues with traffic during time trials on this road.

Needless to say, this did nothing for my concentration and I lost my rhythm, as well as probably a good 20 seconds, and when I finally headed back I did not see anyone ahead of me.  Soon after I was passed by two other cyclists and then, nearing the finish, by a third one.  But riding with a tailwind I felt that I was recovering from the exertion on the way out and I was able to push my speed back up to 40-41 km/h, and crossed the finish line at 44 km/h.

I looked down and saw that I had crossed the line at 24:35, which was identical, to the second, to the time I posted last year.  This was an average speed of 36.6 km/h.  This was slower than I liked, even if I could have deducted the 20 seconds lost to traffic, but for the first ride of the year was good enough.  Now to lose some weight, pick up some power and get ready for when time trial season begins in earnest in May.  Before I do my next time trial, I must remember to kiss the hem of the Team Saxo Bank jersey I have that was personally signed by Fabian Cancellara!

Why Time Trialling is Useful

Here is a clip from today's E3-Prijs race in Belgium. Watch what happens at the 56 second mark, as the leading group of Tom Boonen, Juan Antonio Flecha and Fabian Cancellara splits up. Great stuff, and remember that you just can't ride away from these kind of pro cyclists. Unless you are very, very strong. Very.

Specialized Transition: Too Fast for the UCI

As an enthusiastic owner of a Specialized S-Works Tarmac, I have long been impressed by the technology and design of this company’s bicycles. Of course, they have gone to a huge effort to market them, including placing them under some of today’s finest professionals. It is on my wish-list for when I move up from my cheap-but-cheerful Leader 735TT eventually.

Three years ago, the company introduced its time trial/triathlon bike, the Transition, and it has appeared with great success in the pro peleton and under triathletes. Of course, for people with access to even more funding or support, it has been supplanted by the Shiv, ridden by Alberto Contador at the Tour de France last year and by Fabian Cancellara in his dazzling ride for gold at the World Championships in Switzerland. However, the first clouds on the horizon appeared when UCI officials made threatening noises about time trial bikes at last year’s Tour of California, and the storm broke with the banning of the Shiv at UCI-sanctioned events in February.

I was nonplussed to see this morning, in our daily local triathlete e-newsletter, no fewer than three not-inexpensive Transitions offered for sale by some of the fastest time trial riders in Ottawa. It turns out that the Transition has been banned as well and although triathletes can ride them, the Ontario Cycling Association will enforce UCI regulations in provincial events. This means that these athletes, who have invested a great deal in buying and setting up their bikes, are pretty much out of luck. The only way to make them legal for time trials would be to saw off the fins that fair-in the area between the head tube and the down tube. The governing body in the United States, the USCF, will allow Transitions to be used by Masters group cyclists, probably because a lot of people own them.

I believe that bike racing should be about the athlete and not the equipment but decisions like this impede the progress of technology, not to mention that for three years the bikes have been fine. The reshaping of tubes to take advantage of aeerodynamics is a minor change but an apparently effective one. The UCI is concerned that bike technology will advance beyond the reach of all but the elite. It is certainly much cheaper to engineer some fins into a tube than to use a disc wheel, for example, but the UCI allows other elements (the disc, aerobars, shoe covers, really goofy helmets) that clearly only have an aero function.

Although I suspect I still will not catch the fast guys in Ottawa unless they ride mountain bikes in the time trials, I feel sympathy for them. I notice that on Specialized’s website, there is no mention of the UCI/Transition problem anywhere, so buyer beware.

Time Trial Season Winding Down

One fast guy: Fabian Cancellara, 3 time World Time Trial Champion
photo by UCI

My last time trial of the season was scheduled for today but thanks to the all-day rain (actually beginning during the night) the event has been cancelled.  After all, driving for an hour in the rain, followed by forty-five minutes of "warming up" in the rain, followed by an hour of maximum exertion in the rain before driving back again probably does not make much sense.  Unless you get paid for it.The weather is definitely tending towards Fall since the trees are turning and it was only 3C (37F) when I got up yesterday morning.


So that is the end of the season for time trials for me.  Although I did not make my goal of averaging 40 km/h on the 15 km, on the shortened 10 km course I actually managed to do this not once, not twice but three times, with my highest average close to 41 km/h.  Dreadnought 2, my Leader time trial bike, is already set up on the Kurt Kinetic so that the Tour de Basement can begin.  My performances were better than last year, although my very best time trial was only 2 seconds faster than my best effort in 2008.  40 km/h next Spring for sure...

Fabian flying at the Tour of California
photo by Darcy,©Creative Commons

For some people, riding 40 km/h is clearly not a problem.  On Thursday, my fave pro bike rider, Fabian "Spartacus" Cancellera, destroyed the field in the World Cycling Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland, doing three circuits of the 16.6 km course in front of his countrymen in the astonishing (to me) time of 57:55.74, averaging 51.54 km/h over the 49.8 km distance. I checked my math on this twice.  For those not metrically inclined, this works out to 32.03 mph.  The next rider came in 1:27 later, even after Fabian slowed down in the last 250 m to wave to everyone.  It would be marvellous to see him go for the One Hour Record.

In today's elite road race he had hoped to get another gold but it was not to be but fifth place is still not a bad effort at all.  Now he can spend the winter building up his strength with cheese fondue and chocolate or whatever it is Swiss champions train with.

Fabian's Time Trial Frame: The Shiv

This is the frame on which Spartacus rode 40.5 kms in 48:33 today at the Tour de France's Annecy time trial. This ride included the Cat. 3 climb at Bluffy (not to be confused with nearby Gruffy!) and comes after several days of dragging the Schleck brothers around the mountains. Well done, Fabian!

Time Trial Thursday Yet Again

Stopwatch Test
photo by casey.marshall, Creative Commons

Although I was feeling a bit tired after doing a 15 km time trial on July 2, a 40 km time trial on July 5, a 10 km time trial on July 9, and another 40 km on July 12 (every one of which was a personal best on those courses), my coach thought it would be a good idea to do the Thursday Ottawa Bicycle Club Open Time Trial yet again, describing its importance more a mental thing than a physical one. So I left work a bit early and cycled home to get ready, with what looked like an impending thunderstorm overhead. Quickly packed up, I drove off to the course although I have to admit I did not feel as aggressively happy as last Sunday, or the previous Thursday.

While the thunderstorm did not actually appear, there was a goodly amount of wind blowing down the course. This week there were almost no rollerbladers so I could not use the excuse that I had to change my line as a reason for riding so slowly. The number of time triallers seemed to have dropped from last week as well and someone told me that a lot of the 15 km participants don't bother coming out for this shorter ride. I have to say that I like riding on a smooth closed road very much, and if nothing else it is a 10 km interval training session.

The warm-up went well, although I was starting to overheat a bit as the temperature was around 26C, but I find that I go better in heat so I was not worried. The launch went smoothly but I could feel the tailwind as I quickly reached up to nearly 51 km/h before spooling down and getting into a more relaxed position. At about 3 kms I felt some pain in my stomache but I could see my 30 second man, on a fancy Cervelo, up ahead, and I quickly forgot my discomfort.

At the turnaround, I tried out the advice of braking at the last second as the volunteers gesticulated wildly, probably thinking I was going to keep going. It was not the best turn but I was on the climb very quickly and found on this part of the return course I could really bring up the speed, hitting 44/45 km/h. I could still see the rider on the Cervelo and thought I was getting a bit closer, although it was unlikely I could catch him.

Fully into the wind now (it was blowing out the west at around 20 km/h) and I had trouble keeping the speed much over 39-40 km/h, and my heart rate was a hammering 172 bpm. This week the finish line did not come up unexpectedly but seemed tauntingly far away once I saw it. But I kept at it and crossed the line in a decent time, albeit not nearly as fast as last week. I actually felt slow for most of the course and the wind really exhausted me at the end. I was surprised that I was only 13 seconds off of last week's pace, coming in at 14:44, for an average of 40.72 km/h in spite of the wind. My coach thinks this shows a good consistency and I am happy that last week's fast ride was not a fluke. Two of the riders ahead of me were two I was faster than last week so perhaps next week I can surpass them again. It was a breakthrough of sorts since I was no longer placed 5th in my age group, leaping to 4th (and only 5 seconds away from a podium placing). Still came 15th overall, this time out of 47 riders.

And now I can look forward to some bike polishing and some recovery time before next week's time trial.

Time Trial Sunday: 40 Kms around Fournier

Although the weather has been generally miserable this summer in the Ottawa region, we had our second superb Sunday in a row, which has worked out nicely since both of them featured 40 km time trials. This week it was the Ottawa Bicycle Club's 40 km Open Time Trial held, as it was last September, in Fournier, Ontario, not far from the boundary with Quebec.

Although the weather was excellent, with sun and temperatures around 20C, there was some wind. Going out on the course, the promised tailwind did not materialize, but more of a niggling side wind. The course is not flat but constantly climbs and descends except for a medium hill near the turnaround.

There were 36 participants and my friend the Mocha Man joined me but decided he was not feeling well enough to race so he was a much-needed volunteer, freeing up someone who did plan to ride. Rather than going with the usual one minute starts, it was decided to go with the 30 second intervals we use for shorter races. This was a bit strange to me as I caught my first rider within 6 kms and proceeded to overtake a (for me) astonishing number of other cyclists. Of course, this did not preclude me from being passed at the 27 km mark and again at 37 kms.

I did not recall that the road was quite so cracked when I did the ride in September and running Dreadnought 2's tires at 140 psi I could really feel a lot of jolts. I held a pretty steady pace, reaching the turnaround at 20 kms in just under 31 minutes. But the way back was hard although I was making good time, having done more than 38 kms by the time I reached the hour mark. But the last 2.5 kms saw the road turn directly into the headwind and I could feel my energy draining out.

My sinuses were bothering me as well for the last part but I think the ride was a good one. With a time of 1:02:56 and averaging 38.14 km/h, I easily beat last September's time of 1:05:30 although I am still somewhat off the winner's mark of under 52 minutes! And the riders I beat or tied on Thursday's short time trial easily outpaced me this time as once again I placed 5th in my age group (my invariable position) and 17th overall. It was really fun (especially when it was over) and I will not have another 40 km time trial until the next Calabogie one in September.

Thursday Night Time Trial: Short but Sweet

It is always good to go back to basics and think about your training and racing, and earlier this week I very carefully read a piece by Bruce Hendler about time trial basics here at pezcyclingnews.com. In the article he interviews two coaches about time trialling and techniques they are using to improve performance. It confirmed the approach my own Coach of Cruelty suggests but I found it helpful as well to think about working more in the time trial position and to work on my flexibility. As well, one of the coaches expressed his irritation with riders with $6000 worth of equipment who nevertheless wore gloves, had cables sticking out, and used jerseys instead of skinsuits. Although I certainly do not have expensive equipment, being the Very Cheap Time Triallist, I took the hint and wore my Louis Garneau skinsuit for the first time, having been a bit too self-conscious to wear it before. And I did not wear gloves.

We had a glorious sunny evening in Ottawa, with not too much wind and temperatures around 23C. Due to road construction, our course has been shortened to 10 kms, which makes the starting area a bit crowded as we are no longer at the nice big parking lot at the Aviation Museum, but also means that we have only smooth pavement instead of the usual 2 kms of bouncing and banging that starts and ends the 15 km course. It also means that the climb up to the St. Joseph Blvd. overpass is a greater proportion of the ride so although the smooth pavement would help I was a bit worried that my overall time would not be much better.

The other issue was that since the road is closed to traffic now we had other users to contend with: rollerbladers. They tend to use up a good part of the road and not be as aware of other traffic as they should be. My 70+ nemesis, Hermann, signed up and then decided not to race as he thought it would be too dangerous to mix it up with the bladers. I decided to try and see how things went.

My launch was faster than expected due to the smooth road and I was suddenly pushing 50 km/h and seeing a heart rate of 170 bpm within the first minute of riding. I backed off to around 40-41 km/h and tried to get comfortable but it was hard for me to establish a good rythym. I passed a few rollerbladers but they kept their lines fairly well so it was not too difficult since I had no oncoming traffic to consider. Suddenly, it seemed, I was on the climb, and rapidly backed off to let my heart rate come down. My speed dropped quickly to around 30 km/h but I soon felt comfortable raising it a bit so that I was climbing around 35-37 km/h.

The turnaround was 50 m before the usual spot and I came up to it too fast and had to brake more than I had planned, so the turn was not so great. But I had geared down properly and could attack the return part of the hill very well. There was a slight tailwind coming back and I was able to hold my speed around 42-43 km/h and even passed another rider on a small rise as he was overtaking a rollerblader.

And as suddenly as the climb had come, the finish line loomed ahead of me. There was still gas in the tank so I wound it up to cross at around 45 km/h. My feeling was that my pacing had not been very good because with 5 km less of riding I should have pushed much harder on the return and crossed feeling more tired. But for a first ride on a 10 km course it probably was okay to set a baseline to work with over the next four weeks while we still are using the short course. Plus I like to think of this as serious interval training to get me ready for the 15 kms when that happens later this summer.

The official results have come in and to my surprise I came 5th out of 15 in my age group, only 10 seconds off of the Virtual Podium, and 15th out of 62 riders overall. My time was 14:31, giving me an average of 41.3 km/h, and putting me ahead of a number of racers who are usually much faster than I am on the 15 or 40 km courses. Maybe I am a prologue specialist? Anyway, I did not feel overextended on the ride and am very much looking forward to my 40 km time trial on Sunday in Fournier.

Tour de France Team Time Trial

I very much enjoy following the time trials of the Tour de France and so far this year we have not been disappointed, between the excellent opening individual time trial in Monaco and today's team time trial. Although Team Astana was the winner, I thought that Fabian Cancellara's nearly single-handed attempt to drag Team Saxo Bank to the finish line was terrific as well, and it keeps him in yellow for at least one more day. Here is a video showing Saxo Bank's finish after getting a bit disorganized, and watch how the Man in Yellow brings everyone in:



Of course, not everyone had such a great day, as you can see from the misadventures of poor team BBox Bouygues:

Almonte Bicycle Club 40 km Open Time Trial: More Progress

After an hour's drive, I arrived in Calabogie feeling very rested in spite of having gotten up at 5:00 a.m. Conditions on the course were ideal for the time trial today with very little wind, and the turnout was quite big at around 45 participants.

I felt really relaxed and had a good 45 minute warm-up before rolling out to the start line, hoping to be possessed by the spirit of Fabian Cancellara. My launch was smooth and my new strategy of working on pacing meant that I tried to keep my heart rate around 158 bpm on the outward leg, which is uphill. There was a very slight headwind nibbling at the front of the bike but it was no big deal. I found this lower heart rate let me maintain a good speed without feeling too tired, and I made a serious effort not to chase down riders ahead of me but just slowly ride up to them. I passed one at 6 km and another at 15 (1 minute starts). At this point I was holding a speed of around 38-40 km/h but could not get much higher without feeling stressed.

The turnaround is difficult on this course as it is downhill on a narrow road but I shifted into the small ring, coasted through the turn and immediately spun fast up the climb coming back. I felt much stronger than I had previously on the course so now I added speed to bring my heart rate up to 163+. I was seeing lots of big numbers, with long drags at 45-47 km/h, and some of the downhills at over 60. At 60 minutes I had ridden 37.06 kms. I crossed the finish line at 1:04:02.

This was more than four minutes faster than last time but conditions were very poor then. A better comparison would be the rides I did last year: 1:06:10 and 1:06:18. This was also faster than the flat 40 km course I did in September at 1:05+. I was very conservative with the pacing today and am sure that I could increase speed on the return leg even more. Since I had always been pretty exhausted on the return leg, I had never noticed that it is markedly downhill. I also used my small chainring a lot more today and tried to spin up the climbs more quickly. A lot of extremely strong riders were out due to the excellent weather, so we had a dozen under 60 minutes, but I think my results were very encouraging.

Next Sunday there will be a flat 40 km time trial near Fournier so we will see if my pacing strategy will work there as well as it did today on 350 m of climbing.

Time Trial Thursday: Improving (...a bit)

After a week of excellent weather, I was looking forward to last night's 15 km time trial. It has been several weeks since I was able to do one and I thought my training had been going well. There was another excellent turnout. It was quite hot (29C/84.2F), and when I was warming up I was pretty worried about the wind but it died down a lot by the time I got on the course.

I had a very good launch and pushed hard to take advantage of the tailwind. I was up around 47 km/h but I thought it would be good to back off a bit since my heart rate was pushing 180. As I slowed down to a sustainable 42/43 it was obvious that there was actually no tailwind at all but a slight crosswind/kind of headwind. So I just kept on riding as steadily as I could. I could make out my 30 second man after about 6 kms. I was making excellent time, although a very fast rider overtook me just near the turnaround.

On the way back there was a bit of a headwind for sure and I could not hold much over 38 km/h on the way back and felt pretty tired near the last bridge. My time was 23:03, which was a bit of a disappointment as I thought I could go under 23 minutes. But what was very odd was my heart rate. On the launch it hit 179 and never really came down. I saw 173 for most of the ride, and even counting the five minutes of slow riding after my average HR was still 164 bpm. I wonder if I have been underestimating my max HR or exactly what happened here. No cramping and my first 10 kms was actually very fast at around 15:30 so if I can just improve the finish I should have a much better time. As it is, this was my fastest so far this year and my third-fastest ever, with an average of 39.05 km/h.

I think that the high temperature during the ride (and it was around 7:00 p.m that I began) affected me as I woke up this morning with some symptoms of heat exhaustion. As usual, I always forget something in the excitement of the time trial and I did not put my bandana (or, as Bikesnoby NYC calls them: Euroschmatte) on under my helmet to help deal with the heat. Live and learn, I guess. At least this time I remembered to put on my gloves.

I plan to be faster next week and the following week. After that we lose our course due to repaving, alas, and the tt will be reduced, probably to 10 kms. This might be a good training opportunity to raise my speed by hammering a shorter distance. It will also be entirely on a smooth road. I am sure that I lose a lot of speed due to the first and last 2.1 kms of the present course which is very rough.

Of course, if you want to read about a real time triallist, check out Jered Gruber's excellent summary of the Tour de Suisse's final time trial here.

The Tour de Suisse

My current favourite pro rider, Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, clinched the overall title at his home tour today with a 38 km time trial. He started the day four seconds back of the yellow jersey and, when the dust settled (not that there is dust in Switzerland), he was the overall winner, with the second place rider nearly a minute and a half behind him. His average speed was 50.19 km/h. It has been a meagre year for Spartacus, with only the prologue win at the Tour of California to show for all that training, a definite comedown from last year's great victories It looks like his form is back now...

Alex Zülle was the last Swiss rider to win the race (in 2002), but the Swiss have actually been quite successful in what is considered to be the fourth best stage race in Europe. I recently obtained a massive German-language book on the Tour de Suisse and will provide a review of it as it remains one of my very favourite races. In 2005 I rode the famous passes of the Tour in the Swiss Alps and loved every minute of it.

My 2009 Racing Season Begins!

Dreadnought 2: My Latest Time Trial Weapon of Choice

Today was the Ottawa Bicycle Club’s traditional Good Friday time trial. I did not ride it last year as Good Friday was about two weeks earlier and there was an ice storm. Today we had sunny weather but a goodly amount of wind (about 20 km/h, or 12.4 mph, from the west, meaning the usual headwind on the inbound leg).

Warren MacDonald, going very, very fast
photo by Jules Gagnon

To my amazement, about 90 people showed up to register! Needless to say, this delayed everything so I got to spend a looooong time warming up--nearly two hours, in fact. We had to indicated what our expected time would be for seeding, and I felt pretty ambitious and went for 24:00. Somebody later told me that everyone was adding at least two minutes to their best times from last season to compensate for the cold (and believe me, it was COLD at 5C (41F), which was closer to 1C/33F with the windchill!), the wind and the fact that it is so early in the season. And that is how I found myself as Rider 49A, with 77 riders ahead of me, and positioned with the scary-fast guys at the back. I figured that I was going to get shelled by the Serious Racers blasting past. One of the participants was the Canadian 15 km record-holder, Warren MacDonald, on his brand new Specialized Transition.

Outward Bound, and looking pretty bundled up for a race
photo by Gilles

As this was my first time at speed, or even on the road, with the new
Leader, I was hoping to really test my position on the new frame and not worry too much about getting overtaken. Actually, I was more concerned about cramping as my workouts have fallen to zero since I returned from North Carolina, much to my extreme annoyance. The drive back was pretty tiring, work has been dumped on me in greater quantities than ever and my wife kindly gave me her cold, but in a milder version that I have fought off. We actually had two days of snow when I came back, which kind of killed my holiday mood.

Riding with my Race Face
photo by Gilles

Anyway, I had a very fast start on the time trial since the smaller frame seems to let me accelerate very quickly. My heart rate hit 174 bpm and I was onto the bars pretty fast, with a top speed of just under 48 km/h (29.8 mph). I am definitely a lot lower and the first part of the course went pretty well although I was having some trouble keeping my breathing under control. I almost caught my 30 second man at the turnaround but then things became a lot more difficult as I hit the headwind and my legs started to ache (although thankfully there was no sign of cramping). It was getting pretty painful but I managed to actually accelerate back up to 37-38 km/h (23-23.6 mph) a few times but by the time I crossed the line (after being passed by only two other riders) I was having trouble holding a paltry 35 km/h (21.7 mph). I did not quite make the 24 minutes, hitting 24:34. Which is, in fact, about two minutes different than my best time last year.

Fighting the headwind coming back
photo by Gilles

Although I think I was beaten by the 71 year old German again, I am pretty pleased with how things went. The new frame is really good but I think I have to raise the seat up and move it back a bit as well. I was getting a sore neck and shoulders so I was not as relaxed as usual and/or I have to get used to the new frame. My legs are pretty sore now (four hours later) but given that I had only four rides outdoors before I went to North Carolina for four days of climbing, I should not be surprised. By the time May comes around my legs will be a lot better and I should get to my next goal of 40 km/h early in the season. I want to get below 22 minutes by the time summer comes.

Lookit that cable travel!

The Latest Tin Donkey: since Dreadnought 2 has finally come out of the basement and been raced for real, I thought it a good time to take some photos of the new bike, which is actually only a new frame since all the tasty parts from Dreadnought 1 were transplanted. I particularly like the way the cables go into the frame, both in the top tube and at the bottom bracket. It looks pretty evil, I think. And although it is probably faster than the old frame, Dreadnought 2 is just as stiff as the first version, particularly with 140 psi in the tires. I am excited about getting a whole lot faster this year--if my legs stop hurting, that is.

Tuesday, April 14th Update:

The Official Results for the Good Friday time trial have been posted and even with my badly-adjusted bike on the road for the first time ever I finished 4th out of 16 in my age group with 24:35, and 29th out of 99 (!) in all categories. The top rider in our group was 90 seconds ahead of me, and 9th overall. The two 70 year olds both beat me! Two of them! Well, at least I cleaned the clock of the guy who just turned 81. I could train a lot better if I was retired, I guess.

As usual, there was a bit of a gap between the first three in my group, and the fourth position (me, for the first time). The hyper-fast guy in our age group did not ride on Friday. The Canadian record holder rode the course in 19:40 (avg. 45.76 km/h) which astonishes me for a cold windy day in early April and must surely be attributed to that new Specialized Transition of his.

Next:

a) I want to beat the 70 year olds, so I need to get my time under 24 minutes pretty fast.

b) My next targets will be beating the two riders who finished directly ahead of me in my age group. I have checked their best times in 2008 compared to mine and they are within reach. Grr.

Roller Racing in Ottawa!

West Quebec Wheelers Retro Flyer

Another weekend has passed quickly and still no sign of warmer weather, although Spring is officially here. Suffering from a lousy cold on Friday, I felt much better on Saturday. Not only did I do an hour of spinning at the athletic club and an additional hour of weight training, but I got back on the Ancient but Honourable Bianchi and went out on the Eastern Parkway for some more on-the-road training. Compared to my last ride there this was actually pretty unpleasant as the claimed 6C (42F) was nowhere near that and the wind was gusting at around 30 km/h (18.6 mph). I did manage two circuits but that was quite enough for me and I was happy to at least have an extra hour of training to my credit. In spite of shoe covers (admittedly the lightweight aero versions and not the neoprene Frankenboots), my feet were pretty cold as I pulled into the driveway at the end.

The final missing element in my Official Training Room was obtained when I went to buy some bolts ($3) at a local store to replace the one that broke on Friday as I was riding home, leaving BlackAdder momentarily seatless, and discovered weight training benches on sale for half price. Now I can do the full range of strength training exercises at home, between my chin-up bar, dumbbells, skipping rope, tension bands and Swiss ball. I will no longer be weak and puny, my friends.

On Saturday night I went with my friends Pat and Barry to, of all places, the Candian Legion Hall on Kent Street for Round 3 of the West Quebec Wheelers Roller Races. This is an indoor racing event that pits four sprinters against each other on bikes fixed to rollers. A big clock-like sign shows the standing of each contestant as they spin like mad to get to 500 m. This takes around 23 seconds, so the races are pretty fast.


I think Roller Races began in the UK in the late 1940s to make up for the shortish outdoor season and I first heard about them on "the Bike Show" podcast as the Rapha clothing people are sponsoring these now. It is great fun to watch and nobody was holding back in their pursuit of medals and a very fancy trophy. There was an excellent turnout of noisy fans and we were impressed with the number of participants and the presence of some very high-quality bicycles. 28 cyclists signed up for the 500 m heats, with wide age (and fitness) range. From having only one female contest in Round 1, this Roller Race saw enough women to run two heats of four.


The 500 m races used the fixed version, but for the 1000 m event the racers used their own bikes on rollers without being attached. This looked pretty scary as some of the riders were not used to roller riding but there was a spotter standing next to them to prevent anyone from flying off too far.

In addition to these races, there was a match-up between Warren MacDonald and Michael Nash, who have ridden the 15 km (9.32 miles) OBC time trial in times of 18:32 and 18:39 respectively. My best time was 22:43, so I am happy neither is in my age group or I would be depressed. I only have to beat the guy who is doing it in 19:25. Only.

We drank Legion beer and cheered lustily but left before the final event, which was a 5 km free-for-all challenge. And who says nothing ever happens in Ottawa?

Sunday was cold again but I did 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer before a 90 minute spinning class. There was a stand-in instructor who could yell above the sound of the machines and the music, amazingly. Her program was pretty brutal and by the end of the class the original 16 or so participants had melted down into 5 remaining hardy souls. I was certainly in no condition to go for a training ride afterwards, but with freezing temperatures this was not a very appealing idea anyway.

In the afternoon a very tall person came and bought my old time trial frame and headset. I was delighted to sell it as it was too big for me, and he was having trouble finding a frame big enough for triathlons so we were both happy. He was Austrian in origin so I had the chance to practice my German and even used all those cool technical terms, like "Sattelstutz."

The final great accomplishment for the weekend was to read and review a beautiful new book from Australia on custom bicycles. The review should go on www.pezcyclingnews.com shortly. So riding in to work I felt on top of things today and for a brief time I was able to ignore the fact that the windchill made it feel like -19C (-2F).

End of the Summer Time Trial

Doug: he's no slug, finishing second overall

The Ottawa Bicycle Club has regular Thursday night 15 km Open Time Trials, and on Tuesdays has one for women. Both series have now ended for the season but there are occasional 40 km events as well and the final one for 2008 took place today, the first day of Autumn. So, goodbye to summer! I think that the course had been run twice so far this year and someone mentioned to me that it was pretty flat.

I have been suffering from sinusitis for several days and woke up at 3:30 with a splitting headache, that I tried to control with a lot of codeine. I did not sleep very well afterwards so it was pretty miserable to get up at 5:45 am but luckily I had packed the car last night. I drove a short distance to pick up Doug, a fellow-OBCer who needed a ride to the course. It was pretty cold but sunny and the time passed quickly as we drove along the 417 highway and within an hour found ourselves in the village of Fournier. We were probably the first cyclists as we did not see anyone at all around but backtracking we found some of the others and followed them to the little park where we could park and get registered.

After signing up, I set up the trainer and plugged in my MP3 player to warm up. I got so involved that I forgot to pick up my number and get my start time; I noticed a crowd had formed around the registration table so I ran over in my cleats. It was a bit embarrassing as everyone was getting ready to start. My number was 18, indicating I would be the eighth rider out. There were 23 riders, less than the Thursday group but still a good turnout. There were two riders who had come from last week's Ontario championships as the top provincial time triallists in their age categories, among other fast riders.

I was not going to be one of the fast riders. My head was still aching but I was optimistic as I lined up at the start. A good launch and I was off, hitting 47 km/h. Needless to say, this did not last long as I discovered I was heading right into an ice-cold 11 km/h headwind and my speed bled off rapidly.

The course was not really all that flat and I seemed to spend the first 20 kms battling the wind, the rough road (I had thought it was smoother and had really pumped up the tires) and the incline. My turnaround was a bit slow but on the way back I found I could push up the speed to 40-42 km/h at a reasonable heart rate, but I was already very tired from the outbound leg. I passed a few people, and was passed myself right at the finish line. I came 4th out of six riders in my age group, but the first three were very fast.

Waiting for the official times

My time, 1:05:30 was nothing special (although it actually is my fastest 40 km tt of the year!) and as soon as I crossed the line my head hurt brutally, but at least I had one more time trial under my belt. Doug had ridden brilliantly in only his second 40 km time trial ever, and came second overall at 56 minutes. We packed up and a group of the cyclists went to a truck stop near the highway where I enjoyed an enormous cheese and mushroom omelette, hash browns, toast and tea. Although I had had some breakfast at home I was ravenous!

Gunther (blue jacket) and Alex (in yellow) are our dedicated officials

We are very fortunate to be able to ride time trials regularly and I am appreciative of the timekeepers, Gunther and Alex, who keep things working so well. I learned a lot this year in the time trials and look forward to improving next season. The club has a lot of excellent time triallists and I hope to benefit from their experience.

Canyon Speedmax CF at Eurobike

The German mail-order bicycle company, Canyon, unveiled its latest time trial machine at Eurobike 2008. Canyon, based in Koblenz, will be the supplier of bicycles to Cadel Evans' Silence-Lotto team in 2008.

Clearly not having this bicycle is what is keeping me out of the top ten at the Ottawa Bicycle Club time trials. Time to start saving up...

Thursday Night Time Trial: the end

Well, I went off yesterday to do my last Ottawa Bicycle Club 15 km Open Time Trial. I felt great, had a good warm-up and hit the course at high speed. There was a variable wind but I felt good at the turnaround and shortly after passed my 30 second man. He stayed with me for a while but when we had to overtake two non-racing cyclists on the Parkway I stomped on it and left him far behind.

In spite of this my time across the line was 23:05, 10 seconds slower than last week which was already 12 seconds slower than the week before. I was very disappointed not to reach the 40 km/h average I had hoped for this season, having managed 39.6 km/h in my best race. I will just have to see if I can build up some strength in the gym and then try again in Spring. I was exhausted after the race and slept very soundly but am stiff and sore all over today so it was not from lack of effort. I am still hopeful but I have yet to prove that in cycling sufficient training can overcame lack of inherent talent.

I am puzzled as to why I was so slow and won't make any excuses but it was definitely much colder than in previous races. Looking at the results this morning I see that for most of the racers there were only a few Personal Bests.

One more chance at redemption comes on September 21st when I go for the flat 40 km race.

Time Trials Unending

Back in the real world of Fierce Old Guy racing, I did the Ottawa Bicycle Club's 15 km time trial on Thursday. Conditions were not as good as the previous week and although I rode well (and the chain stayed in place this time!) I lost a bit of time to the headwind coming back and clocked 22:55, or twelve seconds off the pace from last week.

Today I did the Almonte Bicycle Club 40 km time trial in Calabogie. It was pretty cold in Canada this morning and the wind picked up a bit, so again conditions were not as good as in July. I was consistent, I guess, with a time only 3 seconds slower than the last one: 1:06:13. This is a beautiful course, but hard with the climbing and also with having to get up at 5 am to go and do it! There was a very fast field on the course today, with ten cyclists coming in under 60 minutes.

Two time trials left in the season: one 15 km on Thursday, and then the OBC's End of the Season 40 km time trial on September 21. This is reputed to be flat flat flat, so let's see if the wind plays along.