Cruzbike Time Trial Challenge 2020

[Bill Wightman]

But most time trialers will tell you that higher cadence is better because the load on your legs for the same power is significantly less which means you can usually ride at a higher power output, or at least train up to it.

I'm no elite rider but... I think I have heard more than a few times that speed comes from pushing a higher cadence, but improvements in speed come from pushing a larger gear (slower cadence) at the same speed. That lower cadence is not sustainable for most ride lengths but it builds leg strength at the same heartrate. It is essentially weight lifting. I am trying to end my night rides with 2-3 miles of slow cadence "burn down the legs" type ~75 RPM exercises. We will see if it helps.

 

[ratz]

I'm no elite rider but... I think I have heard more than a few times that speed comes from pushing a higher cadence, but improvements in speed come from pushing a larger gear (slower cadence) at the same speed. That lower cadence is not sustainable for most ride lengths but it builds leg strength at the same heartrate. It is essentially weight lifting. I am trying to end my night rides with 2-3 miles of slow cadence "burn down the legs" type ~75 RPM exercises. We will see if it helps.

What you are looking for are called tractor pulls or stomps depending on which way you do them.

Tractor pull
1. Slow down
2. Put bike in biggest gear
3. Slow RPMs to 30
4. As hard as you can spin up to 99+ rpm as fast as you can. Stop at 100rpm.
5. Level out to 90 rpm, shift down to a sustainable gear and ride at recovery rate for 4 minutes,
6. Repeat until you can't get to 99+ and then go home.

Stomps
1. Ride in a big big gear no shifting
2. do 70 RPMs
3. Sprint up to 120rpm as fast as you can if you exceed 10 seconds stop.
4. slow back down ride 2 minutes
5. repeat 20-30 times.

 

[Bill Wightman]

What you are looking for are called tractor pulls or stomps depending on which way you do them.

Stomps looks like the ticket. Thanks. I finally decided my knees are almost bulletproof (might be wrong on that one) so I am going to strain them for a while and hope that the high collagen and vitamin C doses I consume will keep them rebuilt.

 

[ccf]

For those using Zwift for the TT, @trplay and I have done some scouting on the route this week. As a reminder, this is the Fuego du Lollipop segment. If you ride the desert route, the Strava segment is likely hidden. I starred the segment so it always shows up.

If you look at the segment on Strava, it is not clear where it starts. Searching online gave me no answers either. Rather than each of us fumbling around to find the start/stop points, I took screenshots last night while riding my TT.

The segment starts almost 10km into the Tempus Fugit route. It is just before the turn around at the other end of the desert. Just to the left of me, on the other side of the road, is a marker that Zwift uses to designate game segments. We are heading to the circle, but that is the start of the segment.

View attachment 9376

From here, we are going to ride around the circle we are next to, the head back across the desert. Ride around the circle at that side, then come back across the desert again. Finally, ride around the circle out in the desert once more and finish at the line. All told, you cross that line in the road 4 times. Here is a shot of the line coming up during my ride. I believe this was after the first time going around the first circle.


View attachment 9377

So if we enter Zwift by selecting Tempus Fugit, do we need to change direction at any point to ride the Fuego du Lollipop segment?

 

[nobrakes]

Some of you might have seen my thread on BROL - tomorrow is my first chance to test my 'better bike split' software in anger. You can do CdA and Crr analysis, then plug in a TCX route, tell it your FTP, your desired NP (IAP in my world) and time in zones to tweak the type of profile it produces, and it gives you the optimal speed solution to export to your Garmin. I have tested it out on the road and it does work pretty well, but I went out on a really windy day and forgot to take that into account (more config parameters on the other tab). Work in progress but showing promise. Good as my TT route isn't dead flat so the optimum pacing is not full gas at FTP.

I'm not convinced I can hold approx. 280W for the outward leg but I'll see how it goes

 

[ratz]

For those using Zwift for the TT, @trplay and I have done some scouting on the route this week. As a reminder, this is the Fuego du Lollipop segment. If you ride the desert route, the Strava segment is likely hidden. I starred the segment so it always shows up.

If you look at the segment on Strava, it is not clear where it starts. Searching online gave me no answers either. Rather than each of us fumbling around to find the start/stop points, I took screenshots last night while riding my TT.

The segment starts almost 10km into the Tempus Fugit route. It is just before the turn around at the other end of the desert. Just to the left of me, on the other side of the road, is a marker that Zwift uses to designate game segments. We are heading to the circle, but that is the start of the segment.

From here, we are going to ride around the circle we are next to, the head back across the desert. Ride around the circle at that side, then come back across the desert again. Finally, ride around the circle out in the desert once more and finish at the line. All told, you cross that line in the road 4 times. Here is a shot of the line coming up during my ride. I believe this was after the first time going around the first circle.

https://veloviewer.com/segments/20365299

 

[Pollock]

Thanks @ratz ! Looks like it is just a bit before we expected.

 

[ElyDave]

Larry, thanks so much for organising this again, I'm looking forward to getting back into the TT mentality again, maybe I'll manage a ride each week this time with no vacation travel. One additional prize I might suggest is a Lantern Rouge award, rewarding those who still get out and put the effort in without any prospect of being the quickest.

Also to confirm, we MUST use the same bike all through this year - last year we were allowed to change?

A total change of course this year will make it interesting, completely flat, no hiding from the wind and a bit more technical than last year with 6 right angle or sharper turns on a two-lap course. Learning to corner without losing speed could be the key this year. A nice 10km warm up riding out there and cool down riding back, to give a decent session overall. Last years course is through my village, and I could time it for a clear run, but this year with lockdown, there are cars parked either side of a narrow street most of the day, with only room for one car between them, I don't fancy TT'ing down that.

Time on the turbo over the winter and spring seems to have been useful, as I'm faster than all but three of last year's times on my first run

 

[Bill Wightman]

Learning to corner without losing speed could be the key this year.

My fastest corner in the TT last year, where I could see the cars coming from far away, was around 24 mph. This corner comes right after an overpass so I could conceivably take the corner at 28-30 but that is not too likely. I am experimenting with shifting body position like a motorcyclist instead of leaning over like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Because I ride one loop as an audit, I can check for hazards like construction or new gravel. I ride a course similar to yours, two laps with six right turns each lap. Four turns I have to slow down because my view of oncoming cars is blocked by trees and fences. I will try harder this year to get windless nights to ride on. That is constrained by no-drunks evenings such as Sun thru Wed. Lots of fun though.

 

[nobrakes]

I lost a ton of time in my turn around today. Next time I need to do it without unclipping.

 

[Mathew Fy]

I may take my leaf blower out to clear gravel from my turns prior to riding my route. This should help shave a few seconds off my times.

 

[Kathleen Palmer]

5/10/20
1. I have an. established segment that I did a TT with yesterday. (The Race of Truth). I stopped my garmin at 12 but in looking back my results were 11.96 and I do not show on the segment leaderboard. Is this acceptable for my first ride? I did ride the segment and stopped at 12 but it was short. I went to go back this morning but it is raining and weather reports it will rain all day. Do I need to repeat it to get the 1 point credit?
2. Does the TT start with bike at a stop or is a rolling start acceptable?
3. No drafting is understood. Is it acceptable for many bikes to ride the TT at the same time or should it be done individually on the road?

 

[RojoRacing]

5/10/20
1. I have an. established segment that I did a TT with yesterday. (The Race of Truth). I stopped my garmin at 12 but in looking back my results were 11.96 and I do not show on the segment leaderboard. Is this acceptable for my first ride? I did ride the segment and stopped at 12 but it was short. I went to go back this morning but it is raining and weather reports it will rain all day. Do I need to repeat it to get the 1 point credit?
2. Does the TT start with bike at a stop or is a rolling start acceptable?
3. No drafting is understood. Is it acceptable for many bikes to ride the TT at the same time or should it be done individually on the road?

Never start your ride at the start of a segment and never stop at the end of the segment. Due to gps rounding errors,strava may not think you did the whole thing and it won't show up on your ride. Always roll into the segment a 1/4 mile early and well past the finish to ensure completion.

Post a link to your ride and I'll take a look

 

[RojoRacing]

@Kathleen Palmer ok so I looked into your ride data and considering you went through the effort of riding it again in the rain I personally would give you a pass on your first effort +10 seconds. I say 10 seconds because looking at the data, the distance you stopped your gps early yesterday would have taken you 5-10seconds to cover.

So yesterday would have been 37:14 + 0:10 = 37:24
Today was 38:23

Of course @LarryOz would have to make an exception so it's up to him

As I stated on strava make sure your gps is running a minimum 100 yards before and after the segment start. In your case start you gps then ride down Robin and make a right onto mockingbird

 

[Kathleen Palmer]

@Kathleen Palmer ok so I looked into your ride data and considering you went through the effort of riding it again in the rain I personally would give you a pass on your first effort +10 seconds. I say 10 seconds because looking at the data, the distance you stopped your gps early yesterday would have taken you 5-10seconds to cover.

So yesterday would have been 37:14 + 0:10 = 37:24
Today was 38:23

Of course @LarryOz would have to make an exception so it's up to him

As I stated on strava make sure your gps is running a minimum 100 yards before and after the segment start. In your case start you gps then ride down Robin and make a right onto mockingbird

 

[Kathleen Palmer]

Thank you RojoRacing....emotions really fly sometimes...yesterday’s turmoil got, resolved today with “make it right”. TT goes on even in the rain (was the ?). Get humble. My most important lessons have been thru my mistakes. Thank you for your attention, time and calculations..in the end LarryOz will be the judge!‍

 

[RojoRacing]

zwift time 26:55
did a very tough ride yesterday and considered just skipping this week but last minute decided in the spirit of all those of you giving it your all, I could at least give it a shot to get things started. I'm pretty sure I can get into the 25's

 

[RojoRacing]

For those of you who want to give this thing a shot on zwift but don't know where the segment starts and finishes because there is no in game markers for the mentioned segment, here's is your quick picture guide.

Strava segment link https://www.strava.com/segments/20365299?filter=overall make sure to click the star left of the name on top so it'll highlight it on future rides.

Fire up zwift, select watopia and then select "tempus fugit" for your route. You won't have to worry about any turns, just ride and the start of the TT will come to you.

About 5.4 miles you'll enter Las Vegas


About 5.7 miles you'll go through a left turn onto a short straightaway, look at the mini map on the top right. This is important because it's on this short straight that the segment starts. You can click the map in game for three zoom options, this is the most zoomed out view. Notice the saucer structure off in the distance? that's your first and third turn around.


This bus stop on the right marks the start of the segment. Now you're going to go around that saucer thing, come back past this bus stop, race across the desert, go through the roundabout on the other end and come back to this same spot. WARNING do stop at the bus stop you're not done yet, you need to go around the suacer a second time and finish at the bus stop from the other direction at mile around mile 17.5



The view of the bus stop from the other direction, notice were back on that short straight on the mini map. Don't mind the mileage in this picture, this was done on my cool down ride.


So if you use the bus stop as your start and finish line you'll be able to maximize your effort.

 

[trplay]

@RojoRacing so its not the sprint line just slightly up the road towards the circle?

 

[RojoRacing]

@RojoRacing so its not the sprint line just slightly up the road towards the circle?

That's not the sprint line you're talking about, that's the start line for the long desert in game segment. The sprint segment is on the other end of the course. Someone in an earlier post pointed out where the start and finish was but it seemed wrong so I'm correcting it now.

@LarryOz maybe you could post a link to my post #81 in your original instructions so others can find it easier when it gets buried in a day or two.