LarryOz
Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
You should have joined our challenge with a nice course like that. You still can. Get a ride in today - and then 5 more weeks to improve.
2019 Cruzbike Summer Time Trial Challenge
- Thread starter LarryOz
- Start date
LarryOz
Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
What goes into, say, designing(?) a Time Trial ride? Me, with no prior racing experience, figuratively hopped off the couch and went for a 12 mile bike ride, that first time.
Just yesterday, it suddenly dawned on me that I’ve been biking the distance of almost half a marathon each week. I’m used to thinking of a marathon as an incredibly long distance.
This had me poking around Google Maps for where I could do a 5K bike ride, a marathon bike ride, rides with greater difficulty of hill climbing, and got to wondering if there are long or short distances not suitable for Time Trial rides.
Neal,
Ideally it is a route with minimal (or no stopping). Low traffic roads are also best. Right hand turns only are also a big plus because at least if there is traffic you have to navigate, you usually don't have to stop.
The real goal is to have something that can be duplicated every-time you ride. If you have stoplights, or crossroads where you might have to stop and wait on other traffic then you results will be inconsistent. It is OK to have turns where you slow down, as you will have to do it each time. As you get stronger you might not have to slow down as long, or at least you can accelerate back up to your cruising speed faster.
For the fastest speeds totally flat and no hills, no turns (maybe one-turn around) are best.
The absolute best ones are on a closed track. I ride some of my own on a 1/3 mile oval traffic, and also some on a 1/4 mile track. Those turn out the fastest, but you also "never" have a break in the effort like you do it you have a few little hills.
For a distance like ours (12 Miles) - it might be hard to fine 6 uninterrupted miles, but that makes a nice out and back course.
You should always start and stop at the same spot, that was the elevation in neutralized. Otherwise results are inconsistent.
For our kind of challenge the elevation gain during your loop (or your actual time) does not really matter. No one gets any points for going faster than someone else. Only a gain in your PB is what matters, so you can make gains on any route.
Hope this helps.
Larry
Just yesterday, it suddenly dawned on me that I’ve been biking the distance of almost half a marathon each week. I’m used to thinking of a marathon as an incredibly long distance.
This had me poking around Google Maps for where I could do a 5K bike ride, a marathon bike ride, rides with greater difficulty of hill climbing, and got to wondering if there are long or short distances not suitable for Time Trial rides.
Neal,
Ideally it is a route with minimal (or no stopping). Low traffic roads are also best. Right hand turns only are also a big plus because at least if there is traffic you have to navigate, you usually don't have to stop.
The real goal is to have something that can be duplicated every-time you ride. If you have stoplights, or crossroads where you might have to stop and wait on other traffic then you results will be inconsistent. It is OK to have turns where you slow down, as you will have to do it each time. As you get stronger you might not have to slow down as long, or at least you can accelerate back up to your cruising speed faster.
For the fastest speeds totally flat and no hills, no turns (maybe one-turn around) are best.
The absolute best ones are on a closed track. I ride some of my own on a 1/3 mile oval traffic, and also some on a 1/4 mile track. Those turn out the fastest, but you also "never" have a break in the effort like you do it you have a few little hills.
For a distance like ours (12 Miles) - it might be hard to fine 6 uninterrupted miles, but that makes a nice out and back course.
You should always start and stop at the same spot, that was the elevation in neutralized. Otherwise results are inconsistent.
For our kind of challenge the elevation gain during your loop (or your actual time) does not really matter. No one gets any points for going faster than someone else. Only a gain in your PB is what matters, so you can make gains on any route.
Hope this helps.
Larry
Osiris
Zen MBB Master
Can't do it Larry. I'll never beat my current record. Besides, 12 miles is a long way to go on a recumbent.
LarryOz
Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Read the rules - you don't have to beat your all time PB. You go ride it now as well as you can - That becomes your PB for the challenge. Then the next week to try and beat last weeks PB. If you do, then that becomes your PB, if not then it stays the same.Can't do it Larry. I'll never beat my current record. Besides, 12 miles is a long way to go on a recumbent.
LarryOz
Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Cruzbike 2019 Summer TT Challenge - week #10 results
What a great challenge so far!
This past week we had 25 people ride their TT route.
Only 5 people PB'd however.
Andrew Thompson takes this week's honors with a 91 second gain in his PB - Amazing.
I will pause a sec to brag on my friend (Andrew) who casually rides a Cruzbike soft-rider. He has been riding this challenge up until this past week only with his cell phone in his pocket to record his time and route on the Strava app. We ride the same route as we only live about 10 miles apart. This past week we rode the route on Sat morning like we usually do. When we finished Andrew went to stop and save his ride on his phone only to see that it had malfunctioned and did not record anything. Prior to this week I had a 14:35 advantage on him riding my Magic, so I left 14:35 after he started. He was long past the finish line when I came across and I was only 3 seconds behind my PB, so I know he set a PB just no proof. I talked him into using my spare Garmin (with time and avg speed displayed) and to go out the next morning and try again which he did. I told him to keep his eye on the avg speed and keep pushing at the end to keep it up. Well, even after running hard (and probably breaking his PR only a day) before Andrew went out and crushed his PR by 91 secs! way to go Andrew!!! The best of the week by a long shot!
Other interesting factoids:
Dave Zinke continues to hold down first place in the points race. Andrew Thompson is just 8.5 points away.
Only 7.5 point separate 3rd thru 6th places (Larry, Dean, Rob, & Chris H)
Only 10% (4 out of a total of 40) participants have ridden all 10 weeks = 10%
Only 10% (4 more) have ridden 9 of the 10 weeks.
10% (4) more have ridden 8 of the 10 weeks
Those 12 people occupy the top 13 places in the points race - it has a lot to do about doing it every week.
Winners of each week including how many seconds they beat their existing PR by:
Week #1 (18 riders) - no winner - everyone PR'd
Week #2 (32 riders) - Neal Brooks (574)
Week #3 (16 riders) - Robert Onishi (177)
Week #4 (30 riders) - Jimmie Clark (160)
Week #5 (25 riders) - Robert Onishi (103)
Week #6 (27 riders) - Mary Elks (206)
Week #7 (20 riders) - Chris Stancliff (159)
Week #8 (21 riders) - Neal Brooks (256)
Week #9 (20 riders) - Rob Lloyd (232)
Week #10 (25 riders) - Andrew Thompson (91)
In 9 weeks we have had 7 different people (and 2 repeats, Neal, Robert) set the highest PR of the week - Congrats to all of you!
We are 2/3 of the way done - I encourage everyone to continue to try there hardest. 5 more weeks left
You might not be able to win the points race, but still strive to go as hard as you can and win 1 of the weeks.
There may also be random awards/recognition at the end for most improved, most consistent, closest average time, smallest gain, largest gain, etc.
Thanks again for being a part of this challenge
Larry Oslund
What a great challenge so far!
This past week we had 25 people ride their TT route.
Only 5 people PB'd however.
Andrew Thompson takes this week's honors with a 91 second gain in his PB - Amazing.
I will pause a sec to brag on my friend (Andrew) who casually rides a Cruzbike soft-rider. He has been riding this challenge up until this past week only with his cell phone in his pocket to record his time and route on the Strava app. We ride the same route as we only live about 10 miles apart. This past week we rode the route on Sat morning like we usually do. When we finished Andrew went to stop and save his ride on his phone only to see that it had malfunctioned and did not record anything. Prior to this week I had a 14:35 advantage on him riding my Magic, so I left 14:35 after he started. He was long past the finish line when I came across and I was only 3 seconds behind my PB, so I know he set a PB just no proof. I talked him into using my spare Garmin (with time and avg speed displayed) and to go out the next morning and try again which he did. I told him to keep his eye on the avg speed and keep pushing at the end to keep it up. Well, even after running hard (and probably breaking his PR only a day) before Andrew went out and crushed his PR by 91 secs! way to go Andrew!!! The best of the week by a long shot!
Other interesting factoids:
Dave Zinke continues to hold down first place in the points race. Andrew Thompson is just 8.5 points away.
Only 7.5 point separate 3rd thru 6th places (Larry, Dean, Rob, & Chris H)
Only 10% (4 out of a total of 40) participants have ridden all 10 weeks = 10%
Only 10% (4 more) have ridden 9 of the 10 weeks.
10% (4) more have ridden 8 of the 10 weeks
Those 12 people occupy the top 13 places in the points race - it has a lot to do about doing it every week.
Winners of each week including how many seconds they beat their existing PR by:
Week #1 (18 riders) - no winner - everyone PR'd
Week #2 (32 riders) - Neal Brooks (574)
Week #3 (16 riders) - Robert Onishi (177)
Week #4 (30 riders) - Jimmie Clark (160)
Week #5 (25 riders) - Robert Onishi (103)
Week #6 (27 riders) - Mary Elks (206)
Week #7 (20 riders) - Chris Stancliff (159)
Week #8 (21 riders) - Neal Brooks (256)
Week #9 (20 riders) - Rob Lloyd (232)
Week #10 (25 riders) - Andrew Thompson (91)
In 9 weeks we have had 7 different people (and 2 repeats, Neal, Robert) set the highest PR of the week - Congrats to all of you!
We are 2/3 of the way done - I encourage everyone to continue to try there hardest. 5 more weeks left
You might not be able to win the points race, but still strive to go as hard as you can and win 1 of the weeks.
There may also be random awards/recognition at the end for most improved, most consistent, closest average time, smallest gain, largest gain, etc.
Thanks again for being a part of this challenge
Larry Oslund
Last edited:
benphyr
Guru-me-not
Awesome Andrew!! And a huge thanks to Larry for doing the grunt spreadsheet and communicating work, inspiring, pushing us - even those of us inconsistent enough to not even make the spreadsheet...Thank you Larry.
NeaL
Guru
NeaL
Guru
Why not use them? Probably because I'm not yet familiar with them.
The last time I did something like this, it involved pencil, paper, ruler, protractor, compass, square, etc.
In this case I found a random, blank grid picture online. Converted all of my times into seconds. Subtracted my fastest time from my slowest time, figured each square to be about 34 seconds difference, used an "annotate" tool in one of the picture programs on my MacBookPro to manually place dots and lines...
No messy pencil erasing this way, at least.
LarryOz
Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Updated Week #10 results.
Note: These results have been updated since David Zinke requested to use his 2nd week time as his 1st week time. This was due to him riding a 30 year old upright bike on the first week (since his Vendetta was in the shop) - He road his Vendetta the second week resulting in a huge 409 second improvement and scored him 32 total points. He felt this was unfair to the group as a whole since he switched bike types like that and was in first place now. Once I re-ran the week 2 results, he ended up with 12 points less and everyone else that PR'd during the 2nd week ended up gaining 1 point. Doing this moved him into 2nd place and moved Andrew Thompson into 1st place by 3.5 points. I think everyone else remained in their same place, a few with an extra point. Still a really close race between Andrew and Dave - even closer now!
Note: These results have been updated since David Zinke requested to use his 2nd week time as his 1st week time. This was due to him riding a 30 year old upright bike on the first week (since his Vendetta was in the shop) - He road his Vendetta the second week resulting in a huge 409 second improvement and scored him 32 total points. He felt this was unfair to the group as a whole since he switched bike types like that and was in first place now. Once I re-ran the week 2 results, he ended up with 12 points less and everyone else that PR'd during the 2nd week ended up gaining 1 point. Doing this moved him into 2nd place and moved Andrew Thompson into 1st place by 3.5 points. I think everyone else remained in their same place, a few with an extra point. Still a really close race between Andrew and Dave - even closer now!
LarryOz
Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Cruzbike Summer 2019 TT Challenge week #11 results
Another great week everyone!
Stats:
27 riders participated this week with 8 of them setting PBs
Brant from Alvin's "thursday night time trial" group took this week's top honors with an 87 second decrease in his PB from 36:35 to 35:08
What a close points race!
Dave Zinke took 1st place back and now leads Andrew Thompson by 1/2 of a point! wow!
Larry is a distant 3rd 22.5 points back.
3rd-thru-7th are only separated by 16.5 points
It is great to see everyone doing so well - and I hope you all keep going strong - only 4 weeks left in the competition!
Ride hard and be safe!
Larry
Another great week everyone!
Stats:
27 riders participated this week with 8 of them setting PBs
Brant from Alvin's "thursday night time trial" group took this week's top honors with an 87 second decrease in his PB from 36:35 to 35:08
What a close points race!
Dave Zinke took 1st place back and now leads Andrew Thompson by 1/2 of a point! wow!
Larry is a distant 3rd 22.5 points back.
3rd-thru-7th are only separated by 16.5 points
It is great to see everyone doing so well - and I hope you all keep going strong - only 4 weeks left in the competition!
Ride hard and be safe!
Larry
LarryOz
Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Cruzbike Summer 2019 TT Challenge week #12 results
The hurricane in eastern NC prevented Thursday night TT group from doing their ride. Only 2 of them did there ride on Sunday so we had a low turnout this week.
Stats:
12 riders participated this week with 5 of them setting PBs
Congrats to David Neilson who took this week's top honors with an 25 second decrease in his PB from 35:40 down to 35:15
What a close points race!
Andrew Thompsontook 1st place back and now leads Dave Zinke by 1 and 1/2 points! wow!
Larry is a distant 3rd, now 29 points back after being sick this week and missing his PB by a whopping 40 secs! Ouch!
3rd-thru-6th are only separated by 12.5 points - so a podium spot is still up for grabs!
Hopefully we will all have great weather and be able to get a ride in this week. Only 3 more weeks left!
Ride hard and be safe!
The hurricane in eastern NC prevented Thursday night TT group from doing their ride. Only 2 of them did there ride on Sunday so we had a low turnout this week.
Stats:
12 riders participated this week with 5 of them setting PBs
Congrats to David Neilson who took this week's top honors with an 25 second decrease in his PB from 35:40 down to 35:15
What a close points race!
Andrew Thompsontook 1st place back and now leads Dave Zinke by 1 and 1/2 points! wow!
Larry is a distant 3rd, now 29 points back after being sick this week and missing his PB by a whopping 40 secs! Ouch!
3rd-thru-6th are only separated by 12.5 points - so a podium spot is still up for grabs!
Hopefully we will all have great weather and be able to get a ride in this week. Only 3 more weeks left!
Ride hard and be safe!
NeaL
Guru
I guess I got mine in too late, then.
LarryOz
Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Sorry Neal- Each ride for whatever week needs to be complete between Monday and Sunday of that week. Week #12 = 9-2 thru 9-8
3 weeks to go!!!
I thought this week was the last week. How many more "new PB" bonus points can I get with these tired legs? Will the altitude give me a nosebleed if I keep climbing the leader board?
Shame about the hurricane, but best to be safe. The remnants of that and another tropical storm will be passing through here this week with 35mph winds expected today, but I already have a ride bagged for yesterday. Let's see if we get any more good days at the weekend.
I thought this week was the last week. How many more "new PB" bonus points can I get with these tired legs? Will the altitude give me a nosebleed if I keep climbing the leader board?
Shame about the hurricane, but best to be safe. The remnants of that and another tropical storm will be passing through here this week with 35mph winds expected today, but I already have a ride bagged for yesterday. Let's see if we get any more good days at the weekend.
That didn't go well.
Almost perfect conditions this week. Coming to the top of the only "hill" on the course with a left turn 90-deg bend at the top and a road entering from the right, a tractor pulled out from the right, across my path. It then chopped across me, as I braked hard enough to leave rubber on the road. The rear wheel of the trailer clipped my right lower leg/ankle and shoved me into the kerb. Result - no bike damage, but I have a load of road rash on my right hand and forearm, friction burns all down my right leg and a very sore twisted ankle.
Given my speed to that point I was on for a massive PB, I was a good 0.8km/h ahead on lap one with the fastest part of the course still to run.
Almost perfect conditions this week. Coming to the top of the only "hill" on the course with a left turn 90-deg bend at the top and a road entering from the right, a tractor pulled out from the right, across my path. It then chopped across me, as I braked hard enough to leave rubber on the road. The rear wheel of the trailer clipped my right lower leg/ankle and shoved me into the kerb. Result - no bike damage, but I have a load of road rash on my right hand and forearm, friction burns all down my right leg and a very sore twisted ankle.
Given my speed to that point I was on for a massive PB, I was a good 0.8km/h ahead on lap one with the fastest part of the course still to run.
LarryOz
Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Wow Dave - glad you are OK. I had a scary experience this week myself, but nothing like your accident. I was nearing my turn around point and noticed a big truck gaining on me. I usually do a two-lane turnaround and use the entire road. I was really scared sso I slowed down way too much. kept pointing to the left indicating I was going to turn that way - but I was too chicken to do it from the far right of the lane, so did it from the middle of the road. The result was that I rode way off the road into the gravel and almost came to a complete stop. Probably cost me 8-10 secs to get back on the road and up to speed. But I was riding sick anyway with no chance of a PR, so I was less bummed. Heal up for next week!
Thanks both, got off pretty lightly considering. Twisted ankle, slightly swollen, but should be OK in a few days, gravel rash on rigt hand and tyre rash on leg, looks worse than it is and just stings a bit now.
I think the wife was more concerned than I was especially after last year's more serious injury. It's really just a matter of statistics, with about 5000km a year it's bound to happen at some point, just twice in relatively quick sucession.
I think the wife was more concerned than I was especially after last year's more serious injury. It's really just a matter of statistics, with about 5000km a year it's bound to happen at some point, just twice in relatively quick sucession.
NeaL
Guru
Larry, can we get Week 13 results posted here, as well? The FaceBook posts reduce the image size and make it look pixelated and messy. Posted here, it’s easier to read on smaller smartphone-like screens.
