RR: Calga TT

This was a new one for me, having never raced an ITT before. Perfec
conditions greeted the riders in the Multisportal Hed Disk 43km ITT. I
was about 18 degrees at 8am and not a breath of wind or a cloud in th
sky. I put the commuter with aerobars on the roof racks and heade
north.

The Calga-Peats Ridge course is an out and back/up and down cours
without a flat bit at all (as far as I could tell). This made it har
to judge pace and I think I didn't go hard enough, unconciousl
treating the TT as I would treat the cycle leg of a tri - I'm sure
could have run a good 10km run leg afterwards. In the final washup,
finished with an average around 35km/h, which was mid-field. The winne
broke the course record with an average about 42km/h.

It's normally bad news to be overtaken, but it was a highlight to hea
the sound of a motorbike and see a full carbon, disk wheel set up zoo
past down hill! Wooosh! (but I bet he didn't ride that bike to work th
next day...)

Oh well, perfect weather and a good hit out on a Sunday morning
Another tri coming up next weekend - let's see if the cycle leg is
little quicker

Cheers,
Ritc

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ritcho

ritcho wrote:
The Calga-Peats Ridge course is an out and back/up and down course
without a flat bit at all (as far as I could tell).

If this is your tri bike I assume you have aero bars on it. How much use
do you get out of them on a hilly course? Do you use basic bars or the
ones with gear shift levers on them? I really struggle to get much use
out of them on a hilly course (I've got the basic ones) because I keep
getting off them to change gears rather than stay on the bars and push
on in a gear that is not quite right.

DaveB

DaveB Wrote:
ritcho wrote:
The Calga-Peats Ridge course is an out and back/up and down course
without a flat bit at all (as far as I could tell).

If this is your tri bike I assume you have aero bars on it. How muc
use
do you get out of them on a hilly course? Do you use basic bars or the
ones with gear shift levers on them? I really struggle to get much use
out of them on a hilly course (I've got the basic ones) because I keep
getting off them to change gears rather than stay on the bars and push
on in a gear that is not quite right.

DaveB

I have clip on bars without shifters. Shifting is done through Ultegr
9sp STIs. I tend to stay on the aero bars until speed drops below 30
changing with the quick flick of the wrist. If it drops below 30, th
steepness of the hill becomes more important than aero, so I tend t
drop to the small chainring, ride on the hoods and maybe climb out o
the saddle for a bit (for some relief). The Calga course doesn't hav
too many real hills, it's just rolling all the time, making pacin
difficult. I had a good time chasing the guy that started two minute
ahead, which helped for pushing in the last fifteen minutes - just go
'im about 200m from the end...

The triathlon at Kurnell has a very flat cycle leg, so I'm keen to se
if there is any improvement. I think I could push harder there tha
previously.

Ritc

--
ritcho