What is time trialing?

A time trial is a cycle race where each cyclist is timed individually against the watch. The race is a tough solo effort from beginning to end and there can be no help from other riders along the route.

Most seasoned cyclists therefore call the time trial “the race of truth”.

The individual time trial (ITT) has various race distances. A classic time trial distance well-known to cyclists is the 40km or 25 mile time trial. Top riders can do the 40km time trial in under 50 minutes for men and just under 55 minutes for the best female riders. Other distances can vary from 10 miles to 100 miles and there are also 12 hour time trials and 24 hour ‘solo' races.

A rather special and indeed famous time trial is the World Hour Record. This is an exciting event held on the ‘track' (a purpose-built indoor arena). Riders use a track-bike rather than their road bike. They have only one gear, and no ‘freewheel'. Recently, Leontien Van Moorsal smashed the World Hour Record for the women completing an amazing 46km in one hour.

It is also worth noting that time trialing is a part of road racing. Stage races and tours include time trials. Also, breaking away from the peleton and winning ‘solo' requires time trial ability. So it is in your interest to learn and practice some time trialing skills.

What attributes are needed to be a successful time trialist?

If you are looking to score in time trialing, then you need to race fast against the watch. Racing fast against the watch requires you to cycle with efficiency. Efficiency is defined as, ‘'being productive with minimum waste of effort''. Therefore the more effort that is wasted through bad technique, the harder it is to be successfully productive. This can be directly related to time trial cycling performance.

Normally, it is not a rider with a high ‘peak' power output that will ride well against the watch. It will be a rider that has a higher ‘average' power output at his/her lactate threshold than the rivals. This assumes of course that all the other efficiency variables are equal, and that the course is totally flat.

This means then that a big rider with a larger absolute power output will almost definitely have the advantage on a flat course compared to smaller cyclists with a smaller absolute power output. You might therefore conclude that the smaller athlete doesn't have a competitive chance against these larger athletes, even if the smaller rider is a relatively outstanding athlete. Sadly, some coaches have been fooled by this over-simple analysis to such an extent that they have been known to select riders for time trailing on the power output observed during an indoor laboratory test!

But in the real world, a small talented cyclist can beat a larger cyclists hands down. Jeannie Longo-Caprelli at under 50kg and a height 1m64 (documented in various cycling literature) has held multiple World titles in time trialing. Nicole Braendli of Switzerland, who is even smaller than Jeannie Longo, has been twice Vice World time trial Champion, and runner up to Jeannie Longo in the 2001 World time trial championships. In a lab test alone these women probably would not win hands down on their absolute average power outputs against some of the other women. It can be concluded then that other important ‘efficiency variables' are crucial to these athletes for them to be so highly competitive at time trialing.

To be a successful time trialist small or large, five ‘efficiency variables' or attributes should work in harmony with one another, to increase your efficiency. These attributes in my opinion are: power output, aerodynamics, cadence, race-coordination and your race-psychology. Let's take a closer look at these time trial efficiency attributes in turn:

1. Power output and training

Developing your ‘relative' power output at the lactate threshold is just one of the five variables that will help towards you being the best time trialist you can be. This means that as you gain power, you can go faster for the same heart rate. In other words, your lactate threshold will have improved: you will be ‘building up and removing lactic acid' in the specific muscles more efficiently.

Interestingly, some top elite time trialists can ‘cruise along' at about 90% of maximum heart rate! Genetics does come into play for the very best, although everyone can increase their lactic thresholds and improve their time trial power outputs significantly.

Training involves working to a “structured” programme. Structured training means ‘organised' training, focused towards a specific performance goal. You may need a coach to help you structure your workouts.

Please read the article on the importance of ‘conditioning' for cyclists. The conditioning phase should be the same for all cyclists – without a super winter base, your body will not stand hard training and racing later in the season.

Specific training for time trials should emphasise the hills. To go fast you need to acquire power. Resistance through hill work should build excellent power. Remember to plan for recovery or you will start to accumulate tiredness. You don't especially need expensive equipment to ‘measure' your power improvements. Use your speedometer and heart rate: the faster up a hill you go, the more power you are using. Keep a log of how fast you go ‘generally' up a certain hill. Over time you will see improvements.

In addition to hill work, you need to work on your lactate threshold. This is best done on a static indoor bike. Work with your heart rate monitor at top end zone three to hold your threshold. These can be very tough workouts. Start with one training a week in spring. When you feel that you are stronger, increase to two a week. If you are racing, just do one workout on the static bike a week. Much of the racing you do should be embraced as an integral part of your overall training programme; look on these races as simply a different form of training.

The keys to power improvements are recovery and consistency. Endless training without recovery will not get you strong and may even weaken you! Without the necessary recovery you will not optimise your time trialing come race day. Also, if you're not consistent in your training you won't improve much either. After a hard training session, you have to develop the skill of ‘listening' to your body during the recovery phase, so that you can correctly judge when you have recovered sufficiently to be able to rain hard again. By learning this ‘listening' skill, you will optimise your power training with the result that your power will increase steadily.

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