How to TT like a pro, and what will make all the hard work pointless.

This month, I've been stuck pondering whether to discuss stem lengths or time trial positions. With the most important race of the year just finished (junior and masters road nationals — obviously) and the second most important just beginning (UCI Road World Champs), I'm going to pick TT bikes and positions this time.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/3dd477_06fff0862675459d83438cfb57f2c33b/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Stable and comfortable contact points are the first thing to get right. Developing your best tt or tri position is refined over time.

For those of you that like riding with other people, not spending hours on the trainer alone suffering or obsessing over tiny watt savings, you can probably skip the next few paragraphs. I'm also going to just refer to these bikes as TT bikes for speed (pun intended), but I'm really encompassing tri bikes too.

Firstly, nothing to me screams how rapidly developing and young sport science is like time trial positions. In 10 years, we went from "just move the bars all the way down, then get on and adapt to the position" to "let's get your arms as high, narrow and close to your face as possible." Two positions that couldn't be more different.

As someone that does a lot of TT bike fitting, I think it's important to remember that the main gain is from actually having a TT-specific bike and getting into the right position. From here, the gains can still be massive, but you will also need a proper wind tunnel and an R&D team willing to custom make you items.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/3dd477_686208d7dc964955a653b53f341e8b26/720p/mp4/file.mp4

The reality is, to optimise your position, you must be willing be to purchase specific equipment that matches your bike and body. A bike fit is the best way to guide these purchases. We offer tailored advice plus detailed bike mechanics.

Having watched the UCI Men's and Women's TT this morning, I thought I would try to sum up the commonalities between the top performers. It's fascinating (for me at least) to see what the top pros are doing with their position, and if we can distill any of that and make it achievable for non-pro-level athletes. Ultimately it's this: low torso angle, narrow and high elbows/arms, and contoured extensions that act as a fairing for the arms. The 'big gear, pedal fast' part also helps.

Outside of this, the most common pitfalls I see that stop people achieving their goals are: 1) not enough time riding the position outside, and 2) ignoring the effects of heat stress on performance.

It's simple: the faster you go, the more energy you are saving by being aero. Lots of riders spend all their time indoors, then struggle to handle the bike in real-world conditions — wind, bumps, descending... I think it's better to sacrifice improvements to FTP if it means gaining better bike-handling skills on the TT bike.

• 

• 

• 

Secondly, in Australia, I think it's so important to factor in heat as part of your performance management for TTs. Heat stress massively affects your ability to sustain your FTP. If you don't do everything possible to prepare for and manage this, you may as well not even have a TT bike! Simple equipment choices like a white helmet — making sure it still has good ventilation — plus some heat-specific sessions, go a long way.

Bonus Content

Best second-hand TT bikes to buy (disc only): Cervelo P-Series, Giant Trinity

Best New TT/Tri bike to buy: Factor Slick, Cervelo P-series, Specialized Shiv (The reasons are too long to explain here)