Winter Series Week05

The Team Time Trial.

There was just one time-trial stage during the 2014 Tour De France. It took place on Saturday the 26th of July, between Bergerac and Périgueux, on a distance of 54 kilometres on the eve of the final arrival in Paris. It's an individual time trial - a straight race against the clock with no drafting. A massive feat of strength and endurance. But the team time trial returns to the Tour in 2015 on stage nine with a 28km contre-la-montre between Vannes and Plumelec near the Brittany coast.

The team time trial (TTT) is quite different from the non-drafting individual event so popular with MATCC members. Against the clock, for sure, but drafting plays a major part. Each member of the team takes a turn at the front of the pace line while team-mates 'tuck in' behind. After their turn, the lead rider will swing over, allowing the next rider to take the lead, while the leader goes to the back of the team.

Teams start at equal intervals, usually two minutes apart with the highest ranked teams normally starting later. The rotation of riders in a single pace line, the cycle skills this demands, the awesome anaerobic power output of the lead cyclist and the fact that the last team is “hunting down” the others makes the event especially exciting.

The main principle behind a TTT is that a few riders can ride at the front of the formation slightly above their aerobic threshold while others draft behind these riders. The riders then rotate, allowing some riders to recover while drafting behind fresher teammates. A rider who is riding at the front is said to be taking “a pull”.

Accelerations require harder efforts, and therefore it is desirable to have a smooth, steady pace. Different riders have different power outputs, lactate thresholds and aerodynamics. In order to equalize the efforts in order to not burn some riders off too early, the weaker riders take shorter pulls and stronger riders take longer pulls, all at the same speed to minimize the change in pace. A rider finishing a pull usually rotates to the very back of the formation, and the rider who was formerly behind this rider takes over. A rider who needs more time to recover may take a longer time at the back of the formation while the other teammates rotate in front of this rider. With increased desired speed, the riders take harder but shorter pulls at the front so as not to burn themselves up.

The choice of formation is crucial to the performance of the team because it dictates how fast the riders can rotate. The two most popular formations are the single paceline and double paceline. In a single paceline, riders take longer pulls. Often, a double paceline is desirable since each rider takes shorter pulls, and therefore a higher pace is able to be maintained. This is why double pacelines are more often seen at the end of a TTT event when the teams are nearing the finish line.

The recorded finishing time in a team time trial is often based on the final qualifying rider's time for that team. For example, in stage races such as the Tour de France or Giro d'Italia the finishing time is based on the 5th rider of the team, out of a total of 9 riders per team. Therefore a team may choose to have a few of its riders take a death pull towards the end of the TTT event, in which the riders take as hard a pull at the front to lift the pace at the cost of exhausting themselves with no hope of being able to latch onto the back of the formation for drafting. They then drop back and leave the remainder of the team to finish the time trial.

The 2013 World TTT Champions were the Omega Pharma-QuickStep team of Tony Martin, Sylvain Chavanel, Michal Kwiatkowski, Niki Terpstra, Kristof van de Walle and Peter Velits. They won the men's team time-trial in Florencewith a time of 1:04:16.81 seconds, just 0.81secs ahead of Orica-GreenEdge after 56.8 kilometres of racing ! Team Sky, including Tour de France champion Chris Froome and fellow Briton Geraint Thomas, were third, 22.55secs behind.

Mark Cavendish led the 2014 Tirreno-Adriatico race after the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team won the opening team time trial of the week-long race in March. Omega clocked 20min 13sec over the 18.5-km (11.5-mile) route from Donoratico to San Vincenzo. Orica Greenedge finished second, 11 seconds behind, and Movistar – featuring the Tour de France runner-up Nairo Quintana – were third, 18 seconds behind.

Ok, so where does that leave you on Wednesday ? Surging a lot I guess. Taking a lot of time on the front and grabbing the respite where you can. It's going to be as tough as last week - but this is going to be the highest quality cycle you do this week ! Expect record TSS scores.

Duration : 1h:27m
Location : Ottawa, Canada

Session Power (% of FTP) Profile ....

Power Profile ....  Zone 1: 3% ; Zone 2: 4%; Zone 3 : 38% ; Zone 4 : 29% ; Zone 5 : 30%

What's Zone 5 again ? It's how you improve your VO2max. Errm  ? :  how much oxygen your body can process in excercize. ... Lets recall Andy Coggan's Training Zone Table which can be found in much more detail at Training Peaks (here).

Zone 5 has a typical intensity of longer (3-8 min) intervals intended to increase VO2max. Strong to severe sensations of leg effort/fatigue, such that completion of more than 30-40 min total training time is difficult at best. Conversation not possible due to often 'ragged' breathing. Should generally be attempted only when adequately recovered from prior training. The table below shows what adaptations you can expect from training time in each of the 7 Zones. This emphasizes the high physiological value of a lot of cycle time in Zones 3, 4 & 5.

Zone 5 work uses your muscles at a high intensity for a short period of time. As a result, it can help ...

• Develop stronger muscles
• Improve your VO2 max (the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise) and thus improve your cardio-respiratory fitness
• Increase your capacity to withstand the buildup of waste substances (such as lactic acid) and remove them from the body. This means your endurance and ability to fight fatigue will improve.
• Overall, anaerobic exercise is better at building strength and muscle mass and still benefits the heart and lungs.

Here's the skinny on Wednesday evening ...