Time Trial PB's

[HLaB]

You should have reported him, he would have been disqualified, without mentioning names a woman in a long distance National TT this year drafted another competitor and deprived others of a higher placing.
To add to Colin's post, there are actually some who will request an early or late start on their entry for a TT when it is on a fast DC because they know that traffic is heavier then.
Cheating in all it's forms is not restricted to pros.

It was just a club TT and the only one he's kidding is himself

 

[Rob3rt]

I did a similar time and had the same questions 4 or 5 years ago when I started TTing.

What are your times now?

The thing is, the only person you are racing is you.

Only if you choose to think of it like that, there are many of us who are racing for position!

 

[montage]

It was just a club TT and the only one he's kidding is himself

It is still foul play - I've successfully snot rocketed a cling on drafter who just wouldn't bugger off.

 

[jazzkat]

What are your times now?



Only if you choose to think of it like that, there are many of us who are racing for position!

Lol, If only I was fast enough to be in contention for a position!
My fastest 10 time is 24:12 on Levens but that was a couple of years ago and I'd be faster now (I stopped riding the dual carriage way TT's, not that its necessarily unsafe, I just stopped feeling comfortable mixing it with artic, cars and tractors!!)
My last club 10 was a PB and was my last ride at the end of the season at 25:35. It's a lumpy course and I am starting to finish just above 1/2 way down the results table so I'm more than happy.

 

[oldroadman]

Lol, If only I was fast enough to be in contention for a position!
My fastest 10 time is 24:12 on Levens but that was a couple of years ago and I'd be faster now (I stopped riding the dual carriage way TT's, not that its necessarily unsafe, I just stopped feeling comfortable mixing it with artic, cars and tractors!!)
My last club 10 was a PB and was my last ride at the end of the season at 25:35. It's a lumpy course and I am starting to finish just above 1/2 way down the results table so I'm more than happy.

Good for you, a TT rider showing a lot of sense. At the level the majority are at, surely the essential element is slf-enjoyment, and I can't see much fun in mixing with traffic. Whch comes full circle back to the central point, any system where times are the "god" is a nonsense, when these times are compared on different days and different courses, some "fast" (stupidly dangerous with traffic and all it's possibilities), other not "fast" but likely to be a more challenging route. Simply removing "standard" distances and working on placings and %age of winners times on the day would be miles more meanngful. The pursuit of a specific time is ridiculous.
Awaits brickbats from those who think time is everything and are prepared to take the risks to achieve what they want to prove....

 

[totallyfixed]

Good for you, a TT rider showing a lot of sense. At the level the majority are at, surely the essential element is slf-enjoyment, and I can't see much fun in mixing with traffic. Whch comes full circle back to the central point, any system where times are the "god" is a nonsense, when these times are compared on different days and different courses, some "fast" (stupidly dangerous with traffic and all it's possibilities), other not "fast" but likely to be a more challenging route. Simply removing "standard" distances and working on placings and %age of winners times on the day would be miles more meanngful. The pursuit of a specific time is ridiculous.
Awaits brickbats from those who think time is everything and are prepared to take the risks to achieve what they want to prove....

Now if you had put that post on the TT forum you would be hiring bodyguards.

 

[oldroadman]

Now if you had put that post on the TT forum you would be hiring bodyguards.

Let 'em come if they think they are hard enough! Now and again it's good to be a bit provocative - helps the thinking process

 

[Rob3rt]

If you want to change peoples minds about racing on DC's the 1st thing you might want to do is drop repeated suggestions that people who race DC's are not sensible or that there is no sense in doing it. Clearly many of the riders doing it are highly intelligent and reasoned people, they have come to the conclusion that for them, it makes sense and the reward is tangible! By being "provocative" all you do is get peoples backs up and put them on the defensive.

As someone who races both, this "mixing it with traffic" comment is misleading, you do more "mixing it with traffic" on shitty SC and SPOCO courses than you do racing a DC. Riding the J2/9 feels (subjectively) more dangerous than riding the V718 to me. I would hazard a guess that the number of incidents on the DC's is less than on SC's, however the severity of an incident on a DC far worse. If you look at it in risk assessment terms (likelihood x severity), the risk is probably approximately equal.

 

[jazzkat]

If you want to change peoples minds about racing on DC's the 1st thing you might want to do is drop repeated suggestions that people who race DC's are not sensible or that there is no sense in doing it. Clearly many of the riders doing it are highly intelligent and reasoned people, they have come to the conclusion that for them, it makes sense and the reward is tangible! By being "provocative" all you do is get peoples backs up and put them on the defensive.

As someone who races both, this "mixing it with traffic" comment is misleading, you do more "mixing it with traffic" on s***ty SC and SPOCO courses than you do racing a DC. Riding the J2/9 feels (subjectively) more dangerous than riding the V718 to me. I would hazard a guess that the number of incidents on the DC's is less than on SC's, however the severity of an incident on a DC far worse. If you look at it in risk assessment terms (likelihood x severity), the risk is probably approximately equal.

You are in all probability correct, in fact the time I mentioned my concerns about riding my local DC course, one of the old time riders said something like its no different to your riding it on the way home. He's right, although I'd rather ride an alternative route home, despite being a slightly longer hillier route to avoid the DC. Most drivers are pretty good and move over to overtake, but the ones that close pass at 70+ mph scares the living poo out of me! So I've decided that riding on the 'ragged edge' in a TT on, what is to all intents and purposes, a motorway is not for me.
The problem I have with my local DC course is that it changes from dual to single back to dual again and there is a bottle neck with riders coming both ways, with two lanes of traffic being funnelled into single carriage way. In summer I have also seen tractors pulling laden trailers at about 20- 25mph causing riders to overtake by moving into the fast moving outside lane. If it was DC all the way it would be better IMHO (apart from the tractor issue).
Ultimately it's my choice, in the same way that it's the riders choice if they want to ride it - free country and all that, I have no problem with people that want to do it.

 

[Brahan]

Lol, on my first TT down here, I got caught by my minute man; I doubled the effort and blasted by him like he was dead on the slope; a mile and a bit later he came by looking fresh I was then told why, he'd been drafting me

This has happened to me before and I hated it. But I've also been in the position where it has taken me ages to catch a rider but not had any 'go' to get past him to leave him for dust. This meant that he sat just off my slip stream (I know because I checked behind me) but was enthused to keep up with a target, so he found the extra bit to end up passing me after about 3/4 of a mile, which is a long time to have someone you're trying to drop sitting on your wheel. Anyway, he went past me and I, having put so much into catching him up fell about 200 metres behind. But with about 1/2 mile to go I got a burst of energy and ended up passing him before the line.


*EDIT: I've just checked the figures on that race (I remember it because it was my first 25) and I'm not quite accurate. I beat my minute man by 1 minute 5 secs so it must have been in the last mile or two that I passed him. Such a bad memory.

 

[Rob3rt]

The onus is on the overtaken rider to not draft the rider who has overtaken them, if this means easing up for a few seconds to let a gap open up, then they should do this!

 

[Brahan]

I'm aware of that, but I had the last laugh; he was on a zero and got beaten by a 1st timer

 

[Rob3rt]

You will always get the odd tosser who doesn't have the brains for it. I've actually had a rider sprint back past me (immediately after passing him) and then slot back in front again, good job dickhead, you are holding me up (as if the traffic holdup behind him for about 3 miles of the course wasn't a big enough inconvenience to my ride) and forcing me to ride a poor line to avoid drafting you whilst you take up the whole lane, have just gone into the red to get past so are now puffing and slowing down and even more idiotically (since you are not very sporting) you have given up the chance to draft a faster rider for a little bit! Smart move, just farked both of our rides!

 

[Mr Bunbury]

It's your responsibility to drop back if you get overtaken. The other side of this is that it's really annoying if you get overtaken by someone who doesn't then have the strength to make it stick. They slow up, you slow up to try to keep off their wheel, they slow up some more, you eventually give up and re-pass them, after they've wasted your time and energy. The moral of this story: don't get ultra-competitive and blast past them if you can't make it stick!

Since I'm here:

10 23:23
25 58:43
50 -
100 4:28:17
12h 235.49
24h 442.92 <- This is the one of which I'm most proud.

 

[gds58]

Haven't raced for a few years now but used to mix it up between mainly time trials, road races and some track in that order.
PB's as follows:

10 miles: 19m 11s on V718 (31.97 mph)
25 miles: 49m 04s on H25/13 (30.57 mph)
50 miles: 1h 47m 01s on F1/50 (28.03 mph - should have sprinted for a 1-46!!)
Medium Gear 25 (72"): 59m 45s Cambridgeshire somewhere, non DC

All of these were on Dual Carriageways and were deemed to be 'fast' courses but I don't really care and I don't like to get onto 'discussions' about relative safety etc on different courses. There are merits and negatives for both. I'm just proud of what I achieved. The only one of these I won was the '10', the '25' was won by a certain Chris Boardman in 47m 17s and interestingly the first 11 riders beat 50 minutes! I cannot remember who won the '50' but I think it was one of my Leo Road Club team-mates, Stuart Dangerfield.

The one I'm most proud of is probably the '10' which on paper I wasn't the quickest and I drove 200 miles to Hull for it, got there with just 20 minutes before my start time, and then probably rode on pure adrenaline, took exactly a minute off my PB and beat the next nearest by half a minute! Went back to the same course a week later and did another '19' but not quite as quick.

I do miss the racing but I'm still enjoying my riding now and still taking out some training rides and dishing out some pain to a few younger riders. I can only ever dream of a return to the sort of form I had when I did these PB's though. Hope this is of some interest to somebody!