A Deeper Look into my Nationals TT

I'm not a person that goes on about 'could have, should have, would have', what's done is done and I always try to look forward. This does not mean, however, that there are no lessons to be learnt from the past, one should try not to repeat the same mistake twice. As they say, experience is the ability to recognise a mistake when you make it again.

Alex Simmons is an Australian cycling coach who is a regular and respected contributor on various forums and mailing lists that discuss training with power (check out his blog at http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/). He has developed a tool and methodology for designing an optimal pacing strategy for a given TT course. I asked him to have a look at the data from my Nationals TT for 2 reasons. Firstly to see how well I paced the course, and secondly to try to assess the impact that my rubbing brake block had on my overall time. His analysis makes use of a technique for estimating CdA and Crr called Virtual Elevation (see http://tinyurl.com/kpeyx6).

Based on the profile of the course, an isopower (constant power) pacing strategy may not be optimal. He uses the Normalised Power algorithm as well to figure out how hard the rider should go on the climbs, and how much to back off on the descents. The following graph shows the optimal pacing strategy for the Nationals TT course, and my power output overlaid.

Interesting to see the correlation, even though I didn't pre-prepare my pacing strategy. I'm really pleased with my physical performance, there is not much more I could have done from a pacing perspective, as shown in the following table which ranks my performance against various benchmarks.

The really interesting part of the analysis comes from the figure Alex had to use for my Crr (coefficient of rolling resistance). In order to get the virtual elevation model to balance (i.e start elevation and end elevation to match up), he had to use a Crr value of 0.018. A more typical value of 0.005 would have resulted in a time improvement of 4m20s.

Hopefully I don't need to point out the moral of this particular story!

Thanks to Alex for doing the analysis for me, I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad!

Nationals 2009 Road Race (40-44). More Furstration!

Before getting into a race report, I'd just like to comment on some of the events leading up to the race which were disappointing to say the least.

The team I race for is Cyclelab SuperCycling - Powered by Toyota. Which represents the largest cycling club in the country. The club was founded by Andrew Mclean, who is a world class cyclist that at the age of 45 can more than hold his own in Elite categories. A few years ago, he attended Worlds, and did not win his age category. So, the next day he rode in a younger category and won it! He is a high profile person, and does a lot of media work.  Being a high profile person, he is subject to the tall poppy syndrome and can be the target of abuse at times.

At Nationals, that abuse spilled over into obsession, which was totally uncalled for and leaves a bad taste.  Nationals this year was held in Oudtshoorn, a small town in the Klein Karoo about 70km from George. For most of the participants, this meant a significant journey, and a number of days away from home if you wanted to compete in both the timetrial and the road race. For amateur riders, this is a significant commitment. Andrew requested, and was granted, permission from Cycling South Africa to compete in his own age group (45-49) and the younger age group (40-44) in which most of his team compete. He also rode in the timetrial in the 45-49 age group. He had to pay entry fees for both events.
The 45-49 age group race was on Saturday afternoon, and the 40-44 age group race was on Sunday morning, less than 18 hours later. On the Friday, we were informed that a formal complaint had been lodged against him racing two races. Officials from CSA met on Friday night, and ruled that Andrew must chose which category he wanted to race in, but he could not race in both. After trying unsuccessfully to get an earlier flight back home, Andrew decided to race in the younger age category, with the rest of the team.  On Saturday night, we were told that some of the riders were organising a signed petition to try to prevent Andrew from racing on Sunday morning, and when we got to the start one of the officials told us that he had overheard threats being made. One of the 45-49 riders, Jorge Faria, made a public speech at the start line, saying that Andrew was violating the rules as he had ridden the 45-49 timetrial, so he could not take part in the 40-44 road race, even though the officials had made a ruling on the issue. Why he was wearing his riding kit, as well as his numbers I don't know!

Andrew asked for a show of hands from those riders that felt he should not be riding. Quite a few people raised their hands, so he withdrew from the race. I was shocked and amazed at the behaviour of the riders. This is amateur sport, which is more about participation than winning.  Anyway, the race started with a long neutral zone. Apparently the officials tried to contact Andrew to persuade him to race, but he had already left the start area. About 10km into the race, Andre Morse (Club 100) attacked off the front. First bit of bad luck, my teammate Issy Zimmerman punctured and was not able to use the wheels in the neutral support vehicle because they were Shimano.  A short while later, Morse was joined by Daniel Schmeisser (Cycles Direct) and they opened a nice gap. The course is a 54km loop, with a long climb split into 3 sections. Riding the course the day before, it was clear that if the wind was blowing, the course would be very tough. The first part of the climb saw the bunch staying together, but things started to happen on the second part. Danie Marais (Mr. Price) went hard, with about 6 or 7 riders on his wheel. About 2/3 of the way up the climb, he started to slow, and Graeme Cronje (Ocean Basket) kicked on. The bunch was in pieces down the short descent, then Graeme kicked again on the third part of the climb. He opened up a gap which I was not able to close, and when I turned around, I only had Gary Marescia (Cyclelab/SuperCycling/Toyota) with me. He was already deep in the red, so also wasn't able to close the gap to Graeme. The gap of a few seconds stayed that way for a while, then Graeme started to open it up and bridge across to the two riders already up the road. At this point I was on my own, and knowing that Graeme was in good form, decided to sit up and let the small bunch behind me catch up to me.

The chase group formed (about 10 riders) with John o' Connor & Guy Pike (Daikin Gu) and Robbie Setton (Velo Atlantico) doing a lot of work to try to bring the break back. Looking at my power stats, I did a peak 1min of 660w when trying to catch Graeme initially. I needed to recover a bit, so I tried to hide in the group until we finished the first lap.  The gap opened to nearly 2 minutes, and was becoming concerning. We needed to chase, but with the wind now having picked up, the climb was going to be hard. Fortunately, as we hit the climb we found that the break had lost one of it's riders. After the first part of the climb, Andre Morse came back. A bit further, Daniel Schmiesser was also dropped by Graeme, so he was now alone. But with 30km left to go, I thought he would be capable of staying away unless a proper chase happened. A few minor attacks on the second part of the climb came, but nothing serious.  I decided that I had to commit and had nothing to lose. Robbie Setton (Velo Atlantico) and I drove the pace really hard. I had a duel purpose, firstly to try to get rid of some of the riders who were sitting in and not getting involved in the chase, and secondly to catch Graeme. I was feeling really good, and we were able to drive it really hard.

We caught Graeme with about 15km to go, and kept the pace as high as possible. Looking at the riders still in the bunch, I felt that Deon Coetzee (Tony Impey Cycles) was probably the biggest threat in a sprint. I planned to get his wheel in the final corner with 200m to go for the line. Unfortunately, more bad luck! With about 3km to go I punctured and that was the end of my race! I was feeling really good as well!

 

Deon went on to take the win from Mark Linnington (Club 100) and John o' Connor (Daikin/Gu).  Congrats Deon!!

Power stats for the race can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/mu7t5v

S.A. Nationals TimeTrial - 40-44 age group

Personal bests don't count for much when you make stupid mistakes! These are my best ever power numbers on the TT bike! 30w average better than my Provincials race in which I got silver.

The problem was that I had a front brake block rubbing and didn't realise it! After 4km into the TT I was caught already! I could not understand what was going on - I thought that the guy that caught me must be incredibly strong if he caught me within 4km and I was averaging better than 360w.

I ended up 21st overall (out of 23) with a 360w average!

Central Gauteng Provincial Championships - Road Race

Yesterday was the Central Gauteng Provincials Road Race, also held in the deep South near Daleside (I keep expecting to see guys with white hoods and burning crosses!).

The 30km lap circuit (John Boscoe) is a lot harder than it looks, especially when the wind is pumping, which was what we were hoping for.

A short discussion with the officials before the race was held, in which the gutter section was discussed and they agreed to provide a lead car to ensure the safety of the bunch. The team tactics were to hit it hard right from lap one - and that's exactly what we did.

A short section of a couple of km's with a tailwind from the start, then we turned right into a perfect gutter - a 45degree tailwind from the left. Andrew hit the front, leaving space for myself and Issy, and went hard! Within about 2km the bunch was completely shattered. I took a turn at the front, then peeled off and nearly got caught out because I thought there were a few riders behind me and there weren't! Next thing I was fighting to close a 10m gap with Andrew Mclean driving the pace. He saw what had happened and sat up to let me get back on. The start group of probably 50 riders was suddenly down to 6. With 120km of racing left, there was no point in trying to get the group any smaller. So, Andrew, Issy, myself, a Panda rider, Deon Coetzee, and a Boss Logistics rider started working together.

By now we had turned into a long drag section, with a strong crosswind coming from the front. First off the back was the Boss Logistics rider. This was going to be interesting, because now Boss Logistics and Club 100 did not have riders in the break - would they chase?

The gap on the first lap was around 45sec, so the pace was kept up. Unfortunately my powertap CPU shot off my handlebars towards the end of the first lap, so no data for the rest of the race. Up to that point though I was averaging 345w so the going was pretty hard.

The gap slowly grew during the second lap, getting to about 1:10 by the end of the second lap. The conditions meant that there was no point on the circuit that could be used to recover. The uphill drag had a strong crosswind from the front, and the downhill section had a direct tailwind. Pushing the pace on the downhill and flat meant that there was very little shelter.

At the start of the third lap, Andrew an I rode away from the group. Not an attack, but it seemed like a couple of the guys just blew simultaneously. Andrew sat up a bit to see if he could pace Issy back into the break, but Issy wasn't able to get across.

Now it was just Andrew and myself, with a gap of under 2 minutes. Not safe by any means, so Andrew went hard up the drag! Within about 5km the time gap jumped to 2:30 so clearly the fight had gone out of the chase group. Now all that was left was pain and hoping that no punctures or mechanicals would happen. Andrew was pacing the headwind sections, and I did my bit on the flats and downhills. By the last lap the gap was up to 4:30!

Andrew was more than happy to let me take the win - he has plenty medals and gets a lot of pleasure out of team-mates winning, thanks mate!

Official time was 2h52, but looking at Andrew's powertap data, I have it at 2h59, just a shade over 40km/h in tough conditions. 23min faster than the 30+ age group, the slackers!

Thanks to Ali, Carri-Ann, and Den (+ boys) for supporting us. And thanks to Michelle Cound for the pictures!

Edit: I have removed references to a rider that would prefer not to be named, apologies if I caused any offence.

Central Gauteng Provincial Championships - TT

The provincial timetrial for Central Gauteng was held this last weekend on Saturday morning down in Daleside. I'm not sure why this location was chosen, since it falls within Southern Gauteng, which is a different cycling union.

Anyway, the course was an out-and-back course which turned out to be 20km, having been specified as a 30km TT. This is the same thing that happened a couple of years back, so it didn't come as a surprise.

The profile is quite flat, with an uphill out bound leg and a downhill return. Wind conditions meant that the out leg would also be predominantly into a headwind/crosswind, and the return would have the wind behind us.

I was hoping to have my SRM available for my TT bike, but it is not back from being serviced yet. That, along with getting some changes to the TT bike means that I had only managed to get onto the bike for one computrainer session, and one road session - not nearly enough.

Turns out that with the wind the way that it was, my Bontrager Aeolus 5.0 wheels with my powertap were fine for the conditions, so nothing lost.

I did manage to break the cardinal rule of TT - start on time! Our start times were brought forward 20min on the day, which disrupted my warmup plans quite a bit. Anyway, I went to the start ramp in time, and was told there were a few riders ahead of me still. So I quickly went to the toilet and to sort out my Garmin 705 pairing with my race wheels. Returned to the start and was waiting patiently went I was informed that my start time had gone 20sec ago!

Cursing myself, I hit the road quickly! The best thing about riding a TT with a power meter is controlling the adrenaline at the start and keeping a lid on the power! I focused on staying aerobic and got into a rhythm. Feeling a lot better on the bike than my previous ride.

I haven't done a test on the TT bike, so I was not sure what numbers I could sustain for 30min. I do know that I am not able to match my road bike numbers when in full TT position, so I started out at around 340w (I had done 370w for 38min in the Panarama TT a few weeks back on my road bike).

Then I started having problems with my Garmin CPU - which came lose and kept rotating on the bars! So I ended up fiddling with that a bit - not good when trying to keep a good position and go as fast as you can!

At the turnaround point I was feeling pretty good, and decided with a downhill tail wind I was going to really nail it. Taking a few seconds recovery every now and then would not impact my speed much. I managed to produce 13w more on the return leg.

Stats for the ride can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/r4dlmh

It is interesting to note that I did the same time in the return leg as Andrew Mclean (overall winner), showing the advantage a bigger rider has in a downhill tailwind situation.

This was good enough to get me second place in the race - with some confusion over the results as I was initially told I was third, but found out I was second at medal presentation! My official time also didn't quite match my powertap times so who knows??