There is nothing more important to time trial (TT) preparation than course recon. A solid warm-up will do you good, and a brand new TT bike with disc wheels will help you go fast, but proper course reconnaissance can mean the difference between winning and losing. Especially at the higher levels of the sport, everyone is fast and everyone is strong; knowing the course will give you a distinct advantage over the competition. In addition, short time trials mean smaller margins of victory or defeat. The difference between 1st and 2nd, in a 5km prologue TT for example, can be less than a second; taking just one corner a little bit faster can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Every time trial carries an element of pacing; the longer and hillier the course, the more complicated – but important – the pacing strategy becomes. For example, a prologue, like the one described above, doesn’t require as complicated a pacing strategy as a hilly 30km TT (like the National Championships!). In a short TT (in general), you go out hard, and try to hold it. Maybe you’ll go 95% for the first half, and then go all-out from there – it needn’t be more complicated than that. For a longer effort, however, the timing of every hill, corner, and windy section need to be taken into account. Let’s look into the details…
During TT course recons, I pay attention to a number of crucial elements:
– Length and Time: I break the course up into sections; the length of each section will determine how I pace my effort. A 4-minute TT requires an all-out effort from the start, while a 40-minute TT requires me to be much gentler on the gas at the beginning. The first 10 minutes or so should feel easy; if five minutes in, I’m already hurting, I went out way too hard. By the middle third, I will have settle into a rhythm. This should feel like a very hard, but still sustainable effort. I want to be close to the edge, but not able to see over the edge of the cliff. By the final third of the race, I’m tip-toing the edge. Every second is another second of pure pain, physical and psychological torture. But I’m so close to the end now, the finish line is like a magnet pulling me towards it. The motivation outweighs the pain, and I pile on the pressure all the way to the end.
– Pitch: The steeper the uphill, the more time you will make up going harder, going over threshold, specifically. Quick science explanation: on a flat course, perfectly even pacing is fastest (300 W for 30 minutes, for example). On a hilly course, it is faster to go over your TT threshold on the uphill and under on the downhill; the steepness of the hills determine how much higher/lower you go (330 W on the uphill; 250 W on the downhill).
When performing course recon, I take note of the steepness of each hill, both for pacing and body position. If a hill is steep (>7%) and long, I know that I have to get out of the aero bars. Riding on the ‘cow horns’ won’t slow you down if you’re going less than 15 mph. Conversely, pedaling on a downhill that’s 40+ mph will do you no good – just get up to speed, and then get low and aero. And stay safe.
– Speed in terms of Gearing: this applies to the course as a whole, but also each and every corner. When approaching a tight U-turn (which is common in TTs), you need to know your exit gear. This is the gear that, after coasting through the corner, you will push down on and get back up to speed as quickly as possible. Do you need to shift 1, 2, or 3 times? Some corners may surprise you; they may be way faster than you anticipated, meaning no gear shift is necessary, or slower than anticipated, meaning that many gear shifts are necessary. It’s easy to mess this up, as I did in this year’s U23 Nationals TT. Despite reconnoitering the course twice, I came out of the U-turn much slower than anticipated, and had to turn over a huge gear at 40 rpm to get back up to speed – not fun.
– Speed in terms of Cornering: find out exactly how fast you can take each corner. Find the best racing line – note: Pro CX riders may pre-ride a technical section 10 times in a row before they find the best line. Here’s what you need to know: Do I need to brake before this corner? Can I stay in the aero bars through this corner? Do I have to shift before this corner? Also, make sure you practice taking corners at race-pace, because taking a corner at 30 mph is a lot different than at 20.
– Weather: most important for straight, flat courses, weather can have a huge effect on your pacing strategy. Time is made up most effectively into a headwind – everyone can go fast with a tailwind! (Think uphill/downhill (like the examples in “Pitch” described above). For example: a straight and flat 20k TT with a U-turn at halfway. If there is a tailwind on the way out, you need to hold back, and save your bigger effort for the headwind section. An ‘even’ pacing strategy (holding 300W the whole time) will not be fastest if the wind is significant (i.e. >10-15 mph). Science.
If you have the option to reconnoiter a TT course, take it. Your legs will determine the final result, but putting in the time to learn the hills, the corners, and the conditions will save you both time and stress. It’s an amazing feeling to know that you have a right-hand corner coming up in 400 meters and then a 90-second effort to the finish line, rather than forgetting where you are on the course, and if you have two minutes left or five. With all of this newfound knowledge, you can be fully focused on your effort. Instead of thinking about the next hill or the next corner, you can think about your legs pushing and pulling on the pedals, the 30 mph wind rushing over your aero helmet, and the unmistakable whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of your disc wheel.