Coach Carter

For the second weekend in a row, I made the journey up to Farnham to watch some of my athletes race. This time it was Oli and Mike (in PBscience colours); and two other athletes Dan and I work with, Andy and Jill. It was great to see them all ride, and to be there supporting them pre, during and post the race. It was also a good opportunity to catch up with other racers I know in the HQ post event.

It was quite a long afternoon, as the field was full for the 25 mile TT. It gave me chance to camp out on the bridge that stretched over the dual carriageway, and observe the whole race: from early starters, to the fast men at the back end of the field. I was amazed to watch the differences in style on show: I'm convinced in the majority of cases there was a good relationship between how the riders 'looked' on their bikes and their finishing time!

Last weekend when Nic was over from France, he was staggered how much nice time trialling bike kit there was around. As a pro, he has to ride what he is given as part of sponsorship deals (just this week we have found out he can't use his power measuring cranks for the Tour of Brittany - a pain for the both of us as we were hoping to collect some nice data to look at his day to day recovery). People obviously invest a lot of money in their passion; this is equalled by the commitment of training and also time spent pondering how to make the bike faster (internal cabling, angles of tri bars etc etc); even time reading the time trialling forum in the hope of picking up a tip or two to a shortcut So, come race day, its a shame to see so many people undoing their efforts by simply not considering ONE little thing - time trial racing is all about maximising speed / shortening time spent racing.

Yes, as a physiologist I am very conscious of monitoring fitness and performance using power measuring cranks (indeed my comment above about Nic's stage race cements that view). It is a wonderful objective tool. However, its easy to get caught up in 'sustainable power' or 'watts per kilo'. Ultimately, we need power to propel the bike and go fast - but actually, there is a bigger enemy to the time triallist in particular - resistance to movement, whether that be resistance from the road or from the air that the rider must push through.

Its a shame therefore to see so many racers at the weekend looking like they are battling their bikes - in fact, this side to side swaying has been called bear wrestling! Often it comes from a rider using too big a gear (so they end up using their body weight to assist the pedalling action), or from weak core muscles (the stronger the core conditioning, the more the power can be transferred from the legs to the pedals, without it 'kicking back' upwards and moving the torso from side to side). This doesn't only create fatigue meaning you slow down faster, but it also means you are disrupting the airflow over your body.

As I say, aerodynamic drag is one of the biggest enemies to the cyclist. So anyway one can minimise this impact the better. A growing trend is for time triallists to take a trip to the wind tunnel, and indeed, the majority of my riders have now visited my colleague Simon Smart at Drag2zero for this service. You come away with a nicely determined position, and often advice about the best kit / rider interaction. But again, I see this money going down the drain -what is the point of having the most aero position, the most aero kit if you don't stay in the position that an expert has recommended? At this point, I always use this same photo - take a look at Contador on the left hand side here: it doesn't take an aerodyamics specialist to see my point and spot the error this world class rider is making. Yet, come Saturday on the A31 in Surrey, I could count on my hands the number of riders who WEREN'T guilty of this! Admittedly, its hard not to look down - at times of effort especially. But, consider each time you look down, your 'most aero lid' on the market becomes a brick wall of a sail.

I think some of this 'habit' comes from people being obsessed with their power readings. The constant peaks downwards to see if they are hitting their 'sustainable power'. I'm not going to say that is not necessary, but I think riders could benefit from spending more time getting to know how an effort feels vs the numbers. Training more on feel, with a retrospective look back at the powers generated. This might be useful in saving time come race day if it means you can keep looking ahead and imagine sucking yourself down a long thin tube.

My last 'school boy error' is the old favourite - the race number. Again, money spent on a nice aerodyamic race suit - and behind them the rider has a parachute to tow! Don't feel you can only use 4 pins to hold the number on: use 4 more to hold the edges of the square down too. Even better, tape the number on (be careful what you use though, as its a pain for race organisers to be removing tons of gaffa tape after a race!). There is an additional factor these days as many races are now asking for an arm number too - think carefully at their placement. Better to have the number presented head on to the wind (as Michael Hutchinson has here on the right) than to have the number on the side of the arm, where the wind can blow underneath it. Attention to detail - it doesn't take too much of your time, not when compared against time you spend on your bike each week in training. Those extra safety pins might be the best piece of aero kit you have ever bought!

I saw a few other mistakes being made, not just on the course but around the HQ area as riders warmed up. I'll save them for another day!

I'm sure everyone is looking forward to the plentiful bank holidays ahead in the next 2 weeks - me too. I'm taking the opportunity to go on holiday. I'm looking forward to the break, but will have thoughts as to how everyone is getting on at the weekend races. Its so nice to be in race season at last.