The 40k Time Trial An Hour of Power, an Hour of Pain

Tom Anhalt of California, Amateur TT Enthusiast. Photo by Steve Weixel

The History

Time trialing began in the late 1800s in England as a response to a national ban on road racing. At the time, instead of conflicts being between cyclists and cars as they are today, it was often cyclists and people on horseback. After some accidents and subsequent complaints, cyclists in England were in danger of being banned from the roads completely, and racers were seen as a threat that could inspire legal action against all cyclists. To prevent that eventuality, the National Cyclists' Union prohibited racing on the road, hoping to keep the races to the velodrome, just as car enthusiasts today encourage kids to keep the racing on the track. Few velodromes existed, however, so underground organizations formed and began a new racing format that they hoped would not attract so much attention.

Triathlete Uber-Biker Philip Graves frequents
the modern day UK TT Events

The first time trial on public roads may have been in 1895, when Frederick Thomas Bidlake organized a 50-mile race against the clock. Drafting was not yet against the rules in these races, but riders were set out at 2- or 3-minute intervals, with the fastest going first, so drafting was unlikely to occur.

Over time these events evolved into races of 10, 25, 50, and 100 miles, with records being tracked for each one. That 25-mile distance, when converted to the metric 40 kilometers (24.85 miles), would become the 40k TT we know today.

The Significance

Perhaps by accident, or perhaps inevitably, the 40k TT comes up again and again as a relevant and important distance not just in cycling, but in triathlon as well.

• State and National Championships - The 40k TT is often the standard distance used in regional and national time trial championships. Any cyclist interested in winning the yearly TT championships in his or her category will have to focus on this distance. In some regions the women do a shorter distance, but in Texas, women do the same course (because Texas is awesome).
• The Gold Standard - The Hour - In days gone by, when the 40K was actually 25 miles, and when time trial bikes had round steel tubes and bullhorn bars and wheels had spokes, going under an hour for 40k was seen as a gold standard for cyclists. If you could do that, you were serious business. Since then, equipment has come a long way, and a sub-hour 40k won't even always win a cat 5 TT. However, for triathletes, who spend a large portion of their training time running and have to carry around an upper body that is actually useful so they can swim, breaking an hour is still a gold standard. Going sub-hour is proof of studly-ness (on the bike, at least), especially if done in the course of an Olympic distance triathlon (but only if you don't blow up on the run).
• Functional Threshold Power (FTP) - FTP is defined as the amount of power a cyclist can average for one hour. This happens to be an interesting physiological power level, as it represents the crossover point between an almost entirely aerobic power output, and a power output that starts eating into anaerobic reserves that will eventually fatigue you. Cruise around at slightly less than your FTP and you can go for a long, long time. Cruise around slightly above it and you will soon blow up. Many coaches and athletes use this metric to set up training zones. There are many ways to estimate your FTP but the one way to get it exactly right? Go as hard as you can for an hour. For most people, a 40k TT and a power meter will be the best way to do that. To geek out further - Go Here.
• Olympic-Distance Triathlon - One of the most popular distances in triathlon is the Olympic distance, when it first starts to get serious. The bike leg here is 40k, with a 1,500m swim before and a 10k run after. Age group athletes who can break an hour mid race have a good chance of starting the run in the lead. Also, while they rarely time trial it solo, ITU athletes making their bid for the Olympic games also bike this distance in their draft legal format.

Where to Race in Texas

• Iron Haus Time Trial Series - First Saturday of each month - Great out and back course with a wide shoulder the whole way. Located just west of San Antonio in Castroville Texas. You only need to touch the brakes once at the turnaround. It's an informal event, so you can sign up online or the morning of.
• Horse Country TT Series - May 14 and July 17 - Located in Aubrey, TX, this TT course features smooth roads, wide shoulders, and a bit of climbing.
• CapTex Triathlon - May 30 - One of the biggest triathlons in Texas. The CapTex bike course is in downtown Austin. It is a twisty, crowded, multiple-loop course that will test your handling skills as well as your threshold power. Somehow this course remains fast despite the turns and crowds, perhaps due to the constant draft affect of passing slower waves.
• Mineral Wells Summer TT - June 25 and 26 - Event still tentative, check the link for updates
• Marble Falls Triathlon - July 17 - A wee bit short of 40k at 23 miles, but another beautiful bike course with no loops and no crowds. A big uphill to start things off and a fast downhill to finish it.
• The Small Texan Triathlon - July 24 - Is 40k not quite enough? Runner studs got you down? This smaller event in Boerne, Texas, just outside of San Antonio, adds an extra 5k to the bike course for this otherwise Olympic-distance event. It will be hot, there will be no shade, but there will be a great course with beautiful water to swim in before you bike.


Corey May at the TX State TT

• Texas State Time Trial Championships - July 30-31 - Details TBD but this event usually takes place somewhere in Central Texas near San Antonio. Anyone can sign up and they even include a multisport category for triathletes and duathletes. There is also a team competition the following day.
• The Austin Triathlon - Sept 5th - Another huge event with tons of quality competition, The Austin Triathlon takes place in the same location as CapTex with slightly different courses. The 40k bike has the same challenges of twists and traffic, with multiple loops.
• The Houston Triathlon - Sept 25 - A standard distance event near Houston.

Tips

A 40k Time Trial is an exercise in pain and patience. Athletes who go out too enthusiastically will explode enormously. The best way to pace it is an even effort with perhaps a little kick in the closing minutes. It takes great pain tolerance to keep that effort up all the way through. A bike computer can help you pace if the course is flat and winds are low. A power meter is even better; if you know your FTP you can just hold your average power right at it (easier said than done!). Click here for a sample power file of a perfectly paced, sub hour 40k. Stop by ATC and ask about power meter or bike computer options. Even better, stop by ATC any time and head upstairs to the trainer cave and make use of the ATC Computrainers for free! Just ask Don or Adam to help set you up.

Training for a 40k TT will be pretty familiar to triathletes who are used to constant, evenly paced efforts. Cyclists may want to take a break from short intervals and sprinting in the weeks leading up to a big event. One popular workout is to do 2x20minute intervals at threshold power.

Get aerodynamic! We covered most of the key tips here in our Victory by a Thousand Cuts in February. Be sure to clean that bike of clutter and remember you will need little, if any, water for a 40k TT.

Copyright (C) 2011 Jack Mott

How to Succeed at Time Trials Without Really Trying

ATC Racing - 2014 State Team TT Champions

by Jack Mott

The Individual Texas State Time Trial Championship approaches this June 20, 2015, a flat and fast 40K time trial. As usual, for triathletes there is a multisport category, or you can mix it up with the pure cyclists in any category you like! Time trial rules now allow any participant to race in a higher category than his or her own. For example, if you're a brand new cat 5 but consider yourself a cycling prodigy in the making, you can opt to race with the cat 1s. Sleeveless skinsuits are now also allowed, and UCI illegal bikes are perfectly acceptable as well. If you're interested in putting yourself and your equipment to the test, this race is the perfect place to experiment.

How To Go Faster (without really trying)

Triathlon and cycling are full of suspect manufacturer claims about how much time is saved with a given part, or bike. Often these claims don't live up to reality, as every hill and turn on a course will eat away at your aero advantage. But the State TT course this year is flat and straight, and you will get every free second your equipment promises. So here is a quick bang-for-the-buck list of how you can go faster without pedaling any harder.

1. Don't Worry About Weight! - This freebie is so free you don't have to do anything at all. You just have to stop doing something. Especially for the flat and fast State TT, don't worry about how much equipment weighs. Even if $1 would save you 1 kilogram of bike weight, spend that dollar on a better chain lube or latex tube instead. Using the powers of physics, you can illustrate this point. Open up the aeroweenie calculator. You will see two columns that represent two bike setups. You can leave all the default values if you like, or change them if you know what they mean. Now make one bike 1 kilogram heavier than the other. Leave everything else the same. Enter how many watts you expect to do (slower riders will be around 200, faster around 300). Hit the button and see how much time difference 1 kilogram or 1,000 grams makes.  
2. Position - This often costs nothing; you merely need to adjust your bike, or adjust your posture on it. Lower is not always better, but it tends to be. Don't be afraid of low. It doesn't take flexible muscles or a super strong core; it just takes the will to try, and the time to figure out how to make it comfortable. You might not want to make any big changes in your position right before State TT, but one simple thing you can focus on is simply how you posture your body on your bike. If you are like most people, you probably have "periscope head." Drop your head down and look up with your eyeballs. Hold your torso low between your shoulders; don't hold it up.  Just this act of consciously keeping your head tucked down can save 40 seconds per 40K.



Periscope head on the left. Head low on the right. No bike adjustments necessary.

3. Clean and Lube Chain - Compared to a clean chain with a good lube on it, a dirty chain may be eating up as much as 7 of your precious watts. I like to use Rock n Roll Extreme, which has tested really well over at friction-facts, and serves to clean and lube at the same time. If you apply it every few days and wipe the chain down really well with a rag afterwards you will keep it shiny and fast. While you are at it, wipe off the derailleur pulleys with a rag as well.
4. Tires and Tubes - This is the most underappreciated part of the bike and the most important for speed and safety. While it's a bit pricey for some of the best tires, they can save or cost you minutes of time per 40K, so choose wisely.  Read up on our previous post All About Road Bike Tires, and don't use gatorskins for racing!
5. Clothing - A quality skinsuit that fits you snugly can offer massive time savings. For a 40K TT you can use one with no pockets, but a solid trisuit is fine too. If you are really on a budget, find a snug-fitting under armor shirt.
6. Helmet - An aero helmet is typically worth about 30 seconds per 40K over a road helmet, and many affordable examples are out there, making it one of the better bangs for the buck. 
7. Aerobars - The parts of your bike at the front are always the most important aerodynamically, as they hit the air dead on before anything else does. Many bikes come from the factory with inexpensive or easy-to-adjust aerobars. This is a wise way to start for people who will be adjusting their position for a while. But once you figure it out, a more aerodynamic bar can save big chunks of time. Look for models that have an airfoil-shaped base bar, and that hide the cables inside them as much as possible. Options range from super expensive integrated bars like the Zipp Vuka Stealth to less expensive options from Profile Design, Vision, and 3T. ATC can help you pick out the bar that will support your position and budget. While it might seem crazy to spend a lot on an aerobar, remember it can often make more difference than the frame behind it!
8. Wheels and Frames - While at the top of the list for most people, given their expense they are at the bottom of the bang-for-the-buck list. Once you have addressed the items above, shave more seconds away with top-of-the-line wheels and frames. Upgrading from an aging P2 or Slice may not radically change how fast you go, but you can also get handy new features like top tube bolts for bento boxes to install these more cleanly, or integrated water and storage solutions and better cable routing. The new P2 is my top pick for a budget bike upgrade. Pair it with a slick aerobar and you have a bike as fast as anyone. Upgrading from standard training wheels to deep aerodynamic wheels can save a bit of time as well. Don't worry about how much the wheels weigh, or if they are fully carbon or not. Don't even worry about tubular versus clincher, as it doesn't matter! What you are after is aerodynamics. Go as deep as you want in the rear, with a disc wheel almost always being the best choice. For the front wheel, pick a depth you will be comfortable with in crosswinds. Zipp, HED, Profile Design, Vision and others all make great aero wheels. Again, ATC can help you find what fits your budget.

2012 Tour de Gruene Wrap

By Stefan Rothe

November usually means it’s off-season and slowly getting back into shape with some basic strength training, running, and light riding after a few weeks off the bike. But there’s the Tour de Gruene, a late-season race and a Texas tradition if you’re a cyclist and like time trials. And I love time trials!

I’ve gotten 3rd place there in 2008 (a certain L.A. won ahead of then TX State TT Champ Erick Benz) and lost out to super-fast Master racer Ian Stanford from Minnesota in 2011 by less than 20 seconds. When I looked at the (yet again) new course for 2012 I definitely wanted to race it. It was only going to be 10.5 miles with quite a bit of climbing at 600ft and more than a dozen turns – that’s a lot for Texas time trial “standards.”

That being said, I needed to “activate” some time trial legs for November. After closing out the season at Track Nationals I began some structured training a few weeks before with running, core/strength, and cyclocross, and had done one cyclocross race. So I started riding my trusty P4 (courtesy of Austin Tri-Cyclist) a week before the TdG TT. I was trying to get comfortable and powerful in that position after a long time away from it.

Five days before the TT I went down to Canyon Lake and did a couple of laps on the course to get an idea what to expect. “Pretty interesting course,” I thought. “Interesting” because it required a lot of different things in order to come out on top: climbing, navigating tight turns (including a wide 180), descending at 40-45mph, and going flat-out on the few flat sections available. So compared to your normal and “boring” 40K TT, the Tour de Gruene promoter (Will Roetzler) showed some guts by picking this course, a nice loop with start/finish at the same spot – a good improvement from last year.

Race day was perfect: A “late summer” day in November, close to 80 degrees, 8mph winds and sunshine. I was there early enough to ride around for a bit, talk to some friends and athletes of mine, pin numbers and pump up a tire or two for some guys who were running out of time. After that I got on the trainer for ~30minutes and did my usual TT warm-up while trying to stay out of the sun. The start was on the top of the Canyon Lake dam so part of my final warm-up was riding up the final finish hill in my 42x25 trying to go as easy as possible and “paperboy-ing” it.

I was fortunate to have a 90second gap ahead of me and also was the last rider to go off. That adds to motivation and makes things a bit easier. If you’ve got someone around you – in this case the never-boring and always entertaining moto-official Mike Gladu – you don’t have to worry about your back. The first mile was flat-out over the dam on smooth-as-glass asphalt. I aimed to keep it right at 30mph here. Then we got into the twisty, technical part: North Park Loop. For you Austin residents reading, it was basically a bit over a mile on the Veloway at full speed, including 8 turns. You can lose a lot but also gain a lot here. After that it was back down toward HWY 306 and onto some descending rollers towards Canyon Lake. I tried to push it over the little risers and let it “roll” on the descents, trying to give my legs some recovery because the really hard part was yet to come. With the right turn on FM 2673 it was 1-2 miles flat and descending towards the dam. It’s not the Tour of the Gila TT where you spin out a 55x11 and go 50mph, but at 43 it was still fun and I was trying to stay aero and not to move my legs in order to rest as much as possible before that final left turn up to the top of the dam. “Those last 500m hurt the most,” I remembered from last year’s race, but you can lose a lot of time here by spinning. But if you like pain and keep the chain on the 54 you gain some time. I didn’t want to risk shifting under big loads and potentially dropping a chain so I rode the 54x25 (I know, mechanics tell you different) all the way to the top. It hurt but it was satisfying to finally be on top of that damn dam!

US Air Force member and fellow Texas P/1/2 racer Dan Cassidy ended up in 2nd place, while the “New Kid On The Block” Caleb Fuchs came in 3rd Overall.

Thanks to Will Roetzler for another great event out on Canyon Lake with some quicker results than last year. I wonder what chip-timing would cost the individual racer for a future event? I figure it would be so much easier and quicker than manual scoring and keeping track of times, spreadsheets, etc. Just a thought maybe for 2013.

And a big thanks to Austin Tri-Cyclist for supporting me with the best TT bike out there this season, a fast Cervelo P4. And while Wes Jerman did not race this year’s event (we won the Team TT together last year) he deserves a mention as I was riding his HED disc and Stinger 9 in this year’s TT. The P4 and HED TT gear is a winning combo anytime in my opinion. Both are available at ATC, too.

You can view the ride on Strava here

TdG ITT Men’s Overall Results:

Stefan Rothe	22:55
Dan Cassidy	23:42
Caleb Fuchs	24:38

TdG ITT Women’s Overall Results:

Nusha Peliocano	29:12
Barbara Kuhlmeier	29:12
Melissa Kuliska	29:13

Complete results at the TdG Website

The Mopac TT Is Back! AllSports Timing brings new tech to an old favorite

by Kat Hunter

You could say that the Mopac TT is an "underground" cycling event, since it's never been a high-profile or formal race. News of it has always traveled mostly by word of mouth, with many of the same participants attending religiously year after year. But it's not exclusive, or no more exclusive, say, than a mental institution. You're welcome to the club so long as you think doing an all-out 8-mile time trial at 6pm in the dead of a Texas summer sounds like a good idea.


View Larger Map

Started by RunFAR Racing Services in 2004 and long known as the "RunFAR time trial," the Mopac TT was still going strong in 2010, held the second Tuesday of every month from the spring through the beginning of autumn. The course was the same out-and-back, starting near the Veloway at Mopac and La Crosse, heading south and then west until the turnaround at 45 and 1826, and returning to the finish at the same intersection on the northbound side of Mopac. Last fall, however, the rumor mill had it that RunFAR was moving their headquarters to Dallas. Many refused to believe it until they saw the notice on RunFAR's website in large red text: after 7 years, the Mopac TT was no more.

Amid the wailing and gnashing of teeth, other rumors began circulating at the beginning of the 2011 season. The Mopac TT had always been popular in the cycling and triathlon community, and different groups talked of a revival. Training on Mopac, it wasn't unusual to see a smattering of aero helmets and skinsuits out on the old course. The addiction was strong.

Newcomers should note that even a brief flirtation with the Mopac TT is enough to cause a dangerous preoccupation. In 2010, if you were following pro triathlete Phillip Graves' tweets, you would have seen the telltale signs: First, a brief mention. Then, talk of records, weather conditions, times, and finally, training fatigue from the event that he said had "become an ever increasing part of his life." No matter how fast you go, you'll think you can go faster. Graves broke the course record, and then beat his own time twice after. He still holds the record with a time of 15:24.8 (31.2mph).

Some of Austin's fastest professional and amateur cyclists attend the Mopac TT. Before last year, 2011 Elite National Criterium champion David Wenger held the course record with 15:44.4 (30.5mph), set in July 2007. In April 2010, Graves beat that time by one second on a windy day. Then, in October, Wenger set a new personal best of 15:33, but on the same day, Graves came in at 15:25. At the following TT, Graves set the current course record of 15:24. It's difficult to compare records from year to year, however, since the course changes so much over time. The new fast times were, in part, the result of the new turnaround added at 45 and 1826 last year. Unfortunately, since road conditions have since worsened, it's thought that this advantage has effectively been cancelled out. Graves' record may stand for a long time.



And yet…on June 14, the most recent TT, amateur triathlete Maggi Finley broke the female course record with a blistering time of 17:57 (26.9mph), beating out the 18:01 I'd had the month before. Maggi's run was a firm victory, the record set in a strong crosswind on a day that most riders were significantly slower. In 2010, the course record was held by pro triathlete Desiree Ficker, at 18:13 (26.3 mph). Before the turnaround was added, cyclist Christina Wolfe had the fastest time of 18:22.9 (26.1mph), set in August 2008. For the women, the excitement is likely to continue, even if the record-breaking runs are Maggi, a la Phillip Graves, simply setting new smoking PRs.

The Mopac TT's appeal is hard to define. Maybe it's the frequency of it, or the fact that it's such a short, fast course. Or, then again, maybe it's the low-key atmosphere. Although results are posted online, which demands a certain accountability, there's no prize money or medals to be won and no official start time. You just get there, pick up your chip, and roll out across the mats any time after 6pm and before 7:30. And though you've got plenty of company if you show up in an aero helmet and booties, you can race on a pink cruiser with a basket in front and still not hear anything for it.

The Mopac TT has a special place in many hearts. And since most, if not all, of the Mopac regulars have the idea that they've got a faster time in them, the event's disappearance was cause for despair.

Fortunately, just as hope was about to breathe its last, word got out that AllSports Timing was hosting a free Mopac TT in April. The response was good, so TTs were also held in May and June. All were free, since a permit cannot be obtained for the course. But Chris Oroshiba, owner and founder of AllSports Timing, doesn't see that as a problem and says he plans to continue as long as there's interest from the cycling community.

A runner and triathlete, Oroshiba had participated in the Mopac TT many times himself in the past, and says the spirit behind it is the same as when the event first began. "The purpose of the time trial is to provide cyclists a reason to get out and see what they can do," he says. "Even though I'm not riding, it's still equally satisfying to go out there and hear people come back and say ‘wow, I hit my target.'"

He's also used it as an opportunity to optimize timing equipment. The first two AllSports Timing Mopac TTs used a chip that was attached to the head tube, and mats that were fairly bumpy. In response to feedback and testing, AllSports Timing decided to purchase the current system, which uses thin, adhesive tags that attach to the front of a participant's helmet (just like slapping on a bar code), as well as much smoother start and finish mats.

This is year one for AllSports Timing, but business is good, and Oroshiba says he's already had to turn some races down. Fortunately, since the Mopac TT takes place on Tuesday, he expects to be able to continue to have the capacity to host the free event.

In addition to looking like something straight out of Tron, AllSports Timing's new UHF (ultra high frequency) timing system has a number of advantages compared to older LF (low frequency) systems. UHF technology, also currently used in some types of credit cards and clothing security tags, is essentially weightless, easy to wear, reusable, much less expensive (20 cents per tag rather than $3- 4 per chip), and readable up to 35 feet in the air (vs. the former capability of 2.5 feet, which meant that cyclists were often missed if they crossed the mats on an upstroke). But the best part? Results are available immediately. When you come off the Mopac TT course, you've got your standings before you can even catch your breath.

A few drawbacks remain, however. Any timing system, LF or UHF, will have more trouble tracking an object the faster it moves through the electromagnetic field – for example, a cyclist moving over a mat at 30mph, as compared to a runner moving at a max of about 12mph, becomes more difficult to read. Also, metal and water cannot be in direct contact with the UHF system. Thus, the tags cannot be placed directly on a bike, even if it's made of carbon fiber, and cannot be placed on the body, since the body is composed of approximately 50-80% water. Putting it on the helmet gets a nearly perfect read rate, Oroshiba says, but he's hoping to produce a permanent seatpost mounting for the bike, similar to professional cycling events. These systems could be reused at any race timed by AllSports Timing, including the monthly Mopac TT.

Oroshiba, with 14 years of previous experience in the semiconductor industry, considers his business a technology company and is full of ideas for what comes next. But he says that though they plan on continuing the Mopac TT and even extending the season all the way through November, they can't and won't charge for the event. "If we sell bike numbers for use with any of the races, that will be a different thing," he says, "but it will always be something reasonable."

To attend the event, you must "like" and sign up for each Mopac TT on AllSports Timing's Facebook page. Mopac TTs aren't scheduled in advance, but are announced roughly a week before the event (and usually take place in the middle of the month). Results are also posted on the Facebook page.

AllSports Timing is not actively promoting the event or seeking to increase attendance. In fact, they'd rather keep it small, since too many participants could create parking problems. The intent behind it is not to get a lot of people out there, Oroshiba says, but rather to attract the people who really want to be out there. His reasoning is two-fold: one, AllSports Timing gets to serve the cycling community, and two, the company gets connected with individuals interested in future events. Next year, Oroshiba hopes to host a 40k time trial.

As a competitor, the most important thing to remember is that although the Mopac TT is a great opportunity to test yourself and go as hard as you can, you're not on a closed course and your safety is your responsibility. Don't take any unnecessary risks, and be sure to watch the intersections carefully. Remember, as well, that your behavior is likely to influence the future of the event, and some of us are dependent on Mopac TTs for our mental health. Traffic has increased in recent years from new development in the area, but there are still no stoplights, and the Mopac TT remains, without a doubt, the most constructive thing you can do on a Tuesday evening.

We hope the obsession continues for many years to come. Viva la Mopac TT!

Pacing on the Bike

by Jack Mott

Missy Ruthven of ATC Racing finishing the Mopac TT

Position, power, and pacing are three keys to a solid time trial or triathlon bike leg performance. Obviously, you want to be capable of producing as much power as possible by training hard. We previously talked about position and equipment setup. Now let's talk about pacing. Optimal pacing gets you the most speed for your available energy. To a very close approximation, the best pacing strategy on a flat course is to hold constant power for the whole course. The most common mistake is to start out too hard because you feel good, which you pay for later.

40k TT - a little too hard the first half, but not bad

To illustrate the kind of time that can be wasted by bad pacing, we can run some numbers through the website Analytic Cycling. Suppose a 75kg rider is capable of producing 250 watts for an hour, and completes a flat 40k time trial with perfectly even pacing. This rider would complete the 40k in about 59 minutes and 24 seconds.  Now suppose that this rider makes the classic mistake of going out too hard and does 275 watts for the first 30 minutes, then starts to blow up and has to average 225 watts for the rest of the ride. This would result in a finishing time of 59 minutes and 32 seconds, about 8 seconds slower for the same average power.  That doesn't sound too bad, but in fact it would be impossible for the rider to maintain that power output of 225 watts after going out too hard.  The harder you push, the bigger the physiological price you pay, and if you start out too hard you will not be able to maintain the same average power.  A more realistic scenario is that the rider would have to drop down to something like 200 watts after starting out that hard, which would bump the time to 1 hour and 53 seconds. Almost a minute and a half slower.

So you don't have to have the new Cervelo P5 to see significant gains. You can potentially save more time by pacing properly than you can by upgrading your bike (of course, you could do both!). All you have to do is practice and ride smarter!  The most sure-fire way to nail your pacing perfectly is to use a power meter, but with practice you can do quite well without one. We will discuss how to approach both situations.

Pacing with Power

The first step to pacing an upcoming TT or triathlon bike leg is to pick a power goal.  For time trials, you should estimate about how long the event will take you to finish, and then look at your past power data to figure out what power you are likely to be able to do for that duration.  The Mean Maximal Power chart (or MMP) is very useful for this.  At a glance you can see what your best ever power production is for a given duration. For example, suppose you have an upcoming event that will take about 20 minutes.  Load up your MMP chart with some of your recent training history. In Golden Cheetah it will look something like this (WKO+ has a similar chart):

Click to Zoom

At a glance I can see that the best 20-minute power I've done is around 280 watts, but I can also see that there is a little bump around 17 minutes, where my best power is 300 watts.  This implies that I've never done an all-out 20-minute effort, and am probably capable of doing a little more than 280.  So a reasonable power goal might be 290 watts for the upcoming TT.  Be sure to take into account weather conditions and your fitness and fatigue levels when setting your goal. Hot weather will often lead to significantly less power, for instance.

Triathletes will usually want to set their power goals by doing practice bricks or by extrapolating from past races.  A great way to set a power goal is to do a bike ride that simulates race conditions as closely as possible, and then do a short run afterwards to be sure the pace left you fresh enough to run well.

Once you have your goal power, you don't want to follow it blindly on race day.  You might be capable of more, or you might have aimed to high. You need to listen to your body to some extent, but you also need to try to defy it sometimes when it tells you to slow down!  Since the most common mistakes are to start out too hard and to give up too soon, I like to use the following protocol:

1. For the first half of the event do not ever go above your goal power, but if you feel terrible, you may go under it.  This is especially important in the first few minutes.  It is okay to surge for 4 or 5 seconds to get up to speed, but then settle down, no matter how amazing you feel. It will pass, I promise.

2. For the second half, never go below your goal power, but if you feel great, start trying to raise it up gradually.  This ensures you won't totally miss out on any unexpected fitness or heroics.  We are all naturally capable of more than we think, so no matter how bad it hurts, never drop below that goal power in the second half, you can do it.

That is all there is to it. With this general approach you can almost guarantee you nail your bike legs and time trials every time. However, don't skip the section below where we talk about pacing without a power meter, because sometimes mechanical problems will leave you without your power meter, and you should be ready to perform well, and without stress, when that happens.

Pacing by Feel

The challenge with pacing by feel is the incredibly strong tendency to start out too hard.  The adrenaline of race day and your fresh anaerobic stores will leave you ready to go 100 watts or more too hard for the first few minutes, for which you will pay dearly later on.  Do not go out too hard. Do not go out too hard!

The most important thing you can do is practice. If you have a 40k event coming up, practice 40k TTs a few times. If you have a half iron race coming up, practice a 56-mile bike ride, evenly paced with as few stops as possible, and then run afterward.  Pay attention to the wind, your speed, and how you feel to get an idea if you have paced it well.  An evenly paced time trial will generally feel very easy for the first few minutes.  As you get near the halfway point, things will start to be very hard; you will not believe that you can keep up the effort the whole time.  After halfway begins the ultimate suffering that you must fight through and never give up. A well-paced triathlon bike leg will be quite different. Ultimate suffering should be avoided and used on the run instead!

With practice you will get to know what it feels like to pace evenly.  You can even borrow a power meter or use the CompuTrainers upstairs at ATC to practice.  If you do own a power meter, occasionally practice with the display covered by tape, and then review how you did after the fact. This will leave you capable and confident on race day even if something goes wrong with your power meter.

Pacing the Hills

Hills will disrupt the simple plan of holding even power. The proper approach to maximize speed on hills is to go a little harder on the uphills and a little easier on the downhills. The most common mistake is for people to launch out of the saddle and throw an extra 100 or 200 watts on the uphills. This is too much; instead, raise power by 20 to 50 watts depending on how steep the hill is, and lower it by about that much on the downhills.  For longer distance triathlons, consider putting a cap on your power output about equal to your threshold or one-hour power to ensure you don't dip into anaerobic reserves.  If you don't have a power meter, just remember to raise your power on the uphills, but don't hammer like a mad man. On the downhills don't give up and coast; keep a little bit of effort on the pedals and shift as necessary to keep moving well.  Again, longer distance triathletes may want to consider coasting on any decent downhill to conserve energy for the run to come. Time trialists and short distance triathletes should keep pedaling whenever possible!

Pacing the Wind

Wind follows the same pattern as hills, but to a much lesser degree.  The harder the headwind, the higher you should raise the power, and the stronger the tailwind, the more you should reduce your effort. However, the optimum change is very small, only 2 to 4 watts in either direction.  This is so small of a difference that it can be hard to put into practice even with a power meter, so you can feel free to just ignore it and pace evenly for the most part.  Exceptions include cases where the tailwind on one part of the course will be so strong that you run out of gear. In extreme cases like that, you will want to push much harder into the headwind since you will get a forced rest with the tailwind.

BestBikeSplit.com Texan Software Optimizing Your Bike Split

by Jack Mott

Back in June 2013, Dallas-based software company Best Bike Split quietly launched a groundbreaking new website, one that replaces the guesswork and superstition so inherent to time trialing with real data and real math. Taking inputs about the individual rider, bike, course, and weather conditions, the tool allows a user to predict finish times, optimize pacing plans, and make intelligent equipment selections. The data nerd can enter every last thing, from CdA to rolling resistance, but for the novice or less detail-oriented athlete, the software can also make intelligent guesses on many unknown minutiae. BBS has been used with great success by various local Austin professionals and top amateurs, including pro triathlete Kelly Williamson, 787 Racing's Steve Guzman, and ATC Racing's Kat Hunter, and the site continues to improve, offering new features regularly.

How Does It Work?

When you set up an account, you enter various personal statistics, such as your mass. You also set up a profile for each of your bikes, including the bike's mass and your aerodynamic drag on that bike.  If you don't have an estimate for your aero drag, BBS will estimate based on your height and weight and type of position. You can then upload a course you want to model from a GPS device or mapping software in .GPX format. Most popular TT and triathlon courses are likely already uploaded, and you can simply search for them and select them. From here, the magic of mathematics takes into account all your profile data, wind, corners, hills, and so on and allows you to answer pressing questions such as...

Optimal Pacing

A sample power pacing plan

Most people know that you need to go a little harder uphill and a little easier downhill to go as fast as possible for a given effort, but exactly how much to vary your power can be tricky to determine. BBS does the math for you to give you an exact answer. You can use the resulting pacing data in a number of ways: simply review it to get a high-level idea of how to vary your pace on key climbs, download the pacing plan to select GPS devices so that you have a second-by-second power goal as you race, or use BBS to output a simplified "cheat sheet" that you can memorize or tape on your top tube.

Sample Pacing Chart
Sample Cheat Sheet

Predicting Time or Power

If you have a goal time for your bike leg, like a sub hour 40k TT or 5-hour Ironman bike split, you can use the BBS goal time model to tell you what power you will have to generate on a given course to achieve it. Conversely, if you are trying to decide on a goal power for your event, you can use the regular pacing model to see what time will result at each power level.  For example, is it worth the risk to try going 20 watts harder in  your triathlon than last year? Find out exactly how much time it will save before you decide.

Optimize Equipment Selection

Yaw Angle Distribution

Challenging bike courses with lots of hills often leave athletes wondering if they should use a road bike instead of a TT bike, or light wheels instead of aero wheels. With BBS you can set up bike profiles for various options and do the math to fairly definitively decide which option is really best.  A great example of this being put to use is the Flo Cycling weight vs aero study. True aeroweenies can dig even deeper using the yaw distribution feature. This will give you data on the time you will spend at each yaw angle on course. Since the benefit of some equipment choices such as tire and wheel width depends on the yaw angle of the wind, you can use this to shave off seconds nobody else would even think about.

Optimize Your Position

The Wind Tunnel Model is an upcoming feature that will estimate your overall aerodynamic drag by analyzing your past performances. This will allow you to compare test sessions or races with different equipment or positions to see if you have managed to reduce your aero drag or rolling resistance.

How Accurate Is This?

BBS uses well-established cycling physics to make its computations. If provided with accurate input for the rider, course, and atmospheric conditions, it will produce very accurate output. Many amateurs have reported spooky accuracy even when using estimates for some inputs, such as their aero drag.  BBS also features a few case studies on their website.

Cost

BBS has free, premium, and coaching memberships available.  Premium membership unlocks unlimited bike profiles, unlimited course plan downloads, and advanced features. Coaching memberships allow you to keep profiles on all of your clients.  BBS also offers a pro-level analysis service, providing personal attention to ensure the accuracy of course and rider input, as well as increased processing power for more accurate course modeling, if necessary. Pricing plans are detailed here.

About Best Bike Split

Best Bike Split was co-founded by Ryan Cooper and Rich Harpel in June 2013 as an offshoot of their first company together, Optimized Training Labs, which uses advanced mathematics to create training plans for triathletes and runners. Ryan is a Ph.D. mathematician who specializes in optimization mathematics, while Rich’s background is in design and web development. The two met in Dallas while training for the 2006 Ironman Coeur d’Alene. Best Bike Split’s goal is to be the standard for predictive race modeling and analysis for triathletes and time-trialists racing with power meters.

ATC Racing 2015 Highlights

As winter approaches, we’re looking back at a fantastic season for ATC Racing. Shop athletes have represented the ever-speedy dillo in duathlons, triathlons, criteriums, time trials, road races, and even the Tour de France (erm, on the route, at least!).

A few races remain on the calendar—including the skills-based and age-based State Championship Road Races on September 26 and 27—and the dillo doesn’t hibernate, so expect to see more ATC action this fall and winter.

Team Marsh
If you haven’t been following Amy Marsh’s battle with cancer, catch up with the variously heart-wrenching, thoughtful, and brutally honest posts from Brandon Marsh on the Team Marsh blog. Professional triathletes and longtime friends of ATC, the Marshes have accomplished the biggest “result” of any ATCer this year by far: Amy came home this month.

ATC Junior

Junior rider Estefy Gonzales, part of ATC Racing’s new initiative to promote junior women’s racing, is a 15-year-old student at Cedar Park High School. This is her first year of racing for the team, and she’s had great results, including a second-place finish at Bike the Bricks in the W4 race, second-place junior 15-18 at the age-based state crit championships, and fourth out of the 25 cat 4 women racing Houston Grand.

CX Nationals, January 
Spotted on a Portlander, a T-shirt sold post-CX Nats that said: “Even disappointment is bigger in Texas.” Indeed. Austin’s attempt to host the event was a disaster, but we’ll still list out the ATC highlight reel: mechanic and pro cyclist Tristan Uhl (787 Racing) raced the single-speed and elite men’s races, taking fourth in the singlespeed race. Mechanic Chris Warren competed in the 10-29 non-championship race, and Sammi Runnels (Team Super Awesome for CX, racing for ATC on the road) competed in the stacked women’s elite field. Read Sammi’s race report here.

Race Around Austin, January
The ATC Racing women’s team started the road season off by putting on The Race Around Austin, a fun, gran-fondo-style event in which five-person teams competed to reach three “secret” (until race morning, that is) checkpoints for a grand total of 90ish miles. Marla Briley said all hands were on deck to make sure the event ran smoothly: Christie Tracy was the spreadsheet guru (providing live calculations on who had checked in where, and also the final rankings) as well as sponsor organizer, Allison Atkinson was in charge of marketing and PR, Missy Ruthven provided day-of event coordinating, Mina Pizzini took care of timing, and Sammi Runnels, Katie Kantzes, and Anne Flanagan were tireless worker bees, taking their places in the field to provide racers with nutrition and snap photos. Marla was the “Little Engine That Could “ in getting the idea off the ground (all in one month!), from becoming a race director on TXBRA to setting the event up and ordering finishers’ mugs, organizing rest stops, and cooking jambalaya for the finishers. As with bike racing, in which each team member offers a special skill (whether it’s sprinting or climbing or time trialing), the ATC women used teamwork to make RAA happen.

For more on RAA2015, Read Allison Atkinson’s pre-event interview or Jack Cartwright’s race report. Start collecting your teammates for January 2016!

Blue Norther Duathlon, February
At the 25th annual rendition of this little multisport classic in Seguin, Jason Lewiss and Missy Ruthven were the overall male and female winners, with Marla Briley taking second overall for the women and the fastest female bike split. Usually the Blue Norther earns its name with bitterly cold or wet conditions, but this year the weather played nice. Missy was a big fan of the post-race eats: homemade baked potatoes and cookies!    

Lago Vista Day 2, March
This much-loved bike race, in its 24th year, is known for being hit or miss on the weather. In 2015, Saturday’s race was sunny, and Sunday’s was miserably rainy and cold. On Sunday, Katie Kantzes and Allison Atkinson took hard-woman points as well as second and third in the Women’s Open race, aided by teammates Chelsea Smith, Christie Tracey, and Missy Ruthven.

Hammerfest Stage Race, March 
Though a long way from Austin, this Fort Davis event is one of the most scenic and worthwhile races in Texas. The women’s ATC Racing team had stellar results: Saturday’s hill climb – Sammi Runnels 1st, Allison Atkinson 2nd, Christie Tracy 4th, Chelsea Smith 5th; Saturday’s road race – Allison 1st, Chelsea 2nd, Sammi 3rd, Christie 5th; Sunday’s road race – Sammi 1st, Allison 2nd, Christie 3rd, Chelsea 5th; GC – Sammi 1st, Allison 2nd, Chelsea 4th, Christie 5th.

Fayetteville Stage Race, April

For most ATCers, this two-day stage race is a favorite on the road calendar. Missy Ruthven tends to have bad luck: in 2013, forgetting helmet and shoes and starting the second stage in clown-sized shoes borrowed from Kat Hunter (5'10" to Missy’s 5'2''), and in 2015, realizing right before the TT that her Di2 battery was dead and thus racing it on a “singlespeed.”

This year the women’s 123 field was very small, perhaps because the weather was rainy or because the race had been moved from its typical early-season spot on the road calendar to a later date that conflicted with other events. The ATC team of seven made up more than half the Open women’s field. ATCers took the top three podium spots in GC, with great results across the board in each stage and a good team effort by all. Read Marla’s W123 race report and the W40+ report from Colavita rider Pam Downs.

Burnet Tri, April
This year the Burnet Tri at Inks Lake State Park, a sprint tri traditionally held in the winter, took place in the spring and added an Olympic-distance option. Missy Ruthven competed in the Olympic-distance race, which included a tough trail run, and went home with the overall female win.

Texas State Sprint Tri, April
Rounding out a string of victories for ATC owner Missy Ruthven, this San Marcos race was another example of everything “falling into place,” which Missy admits doesn’t happen often! Missy again took the overall female win, with ATCer Liz Shelton placing second with her usual smoking-fast run split.

CapTex Tri, May
The swim was cancelled for poor weather, so this popular Austin event was actually a duathlon. Missy Ruthven’s group was fortunate to have the only no-rain window on Memorial Day weekend, and she placed third in the elite division (Olympic distance) with what she termed a “solid” bike and a “suffering” run.

Castroville TT, May
On the third of the Castroville TT series (May 10), Mina Pizzini finished the 40K TT in 2nd with a time of 1:01:09, and Christie Tracey took third.

Mina Pizzini in the P12 State Crit. Photo by Kato Bentley.

Oklahoma City Pro-Am Classic, May
In its fourth year, the Oklahoma City Pro-Am Classic offers three days of crit racing. Christie Tracy finished second on day 2 in the women’s W3/4 race.

State Criterium Championships, May
In the skills-based P12 State Crit Championship in Greenville, Mina placed fourth , and Christy Tracy was second in the 35-39 age-based crit championship.

Chelsea snagged the win in the 30-34 age-based crit championship. In the last lap she got stuck behind a crash, but she put in a hard effort to get back to the pack. She says she decided to take a risk and start her sprint early, which paid off in the end with a win. Chelsea, who’s new to the team this year, says the best highlights of the season are really off the race course. “It’s been wonderful to get to know each of my teammates,” she says. “ATC girls are a group of amazing women who give their all to everything they do, not just bike racing. I’ve enjoyed road trip jam sessions, naming llamas and cows on our training rides, countless dinners, and more frozen yogurt than I should have eaten. I’m looking forward to a great 2016!”

Pflugerville Tri, June
Meet Q—Mina Pizzini’s Quintana Roo TT bike—on his first road to multisport victory, the Plugerville Tri. Read Q’s story, as told by his owner:

It has been almost four years since my last triathlon due to a nagging hamstring injury, three job changes, three moves, and a divorce. Sometimes life gets in the way of racing. It was Q's  first tri! He was very excited, having only raced a couple of TTs in his short life.

I had to start with my age group (45-49) vs. the open wave in order qualify for Olympic Distance Nationals. There were at least 50 in my AG. Quite a turnout for this popular little sprint tri. I went out fast and quickly found some feet to follow, but the owner of those feet wasn't going to give me a free ride. Rather than lose time over who would draft whom, I went to the front and navigated my way through the prior wave and the long grass growing up from the bottom of the lake. I was first out of the water in my wave and happy to see my trusty steed, Q, waiting in the transition rack. 

Out of transition, I did a clumsy cyclocross mount and spent the next two miles trying to get my feet into my shoes. Once firmly strapped in, I got down in the bars and set off for real under threatening skies. Q was wondering why all these people with aero bike weren't actually down in their aero bars?  No matter, we slipped by them. Halfway through the bike leg, the skies opened in a serious downpour. Q wanted to keep pushing, but I eased him back. Better safe than sorry. Rounding the last corner we saw a rider on the ground. He had t-boned a car looking for a parking spot. 

Back in transition, I racked Q and set out on the run. I knew this would be the tough part; I'd been slacking on my running the last couple of months to focus on riding. I figured I could gut my way through a 3-mile run. My goal was to break 20 minutes, and I was on pace at mile 2 and decided to pick it up a bit. Then my calf tightened and shut it down to 8-minute miles.  I came in off the run at just over 20 minutes. I was 5th woman overall and won the masters division.

State TT Championships, June
In two sweltering days of fun, ATCers posted good individual and team results at the State TT Championships. In the ITT, Mina took first in the masters category, and Allison Atkinson took second in cat 1/2. Christie Tracy was fourth in cat 3. In the TTT, the team of Allison, Christie, Katie Kantzes, and Kat Hunter (guest riding) were first in the TTT. Read Kat’s report here.

Duathlon Nationals, June
ATCer William Jabour competed in Duathlon Nationals in St. Paul in June, claiming his spot for Worlds in Aviles, Spain, in 2016. His race report for the ATC blog tells the whole story.



Charter Reserve Stage Race, July
At the Charter Reserve Road Race in Tyler, Christie Tracy took the win with help from teammates Allison Atkinson and Katie Kantzes.

Redhook crits, summer
Sammi Runnels, who races for ATC on the road, competed in the Redhook fixie crits in Brooklyn, Milan, and Barcelona. Read her race report on Milan here.

Driveway Series, March-October
The ongoing Pure Austin Driveway Series is a playground for team tactics for the women of ATC Racing, who are weekly devotees. Check out Christie Tracy’s personal season recap and the 2015 results. In the “Summer Solstice” miniseries, Marla Briley was third in the WOpen and Mina Pizzini was second in the W123 (combined with masters field). In the “Dog Days of Summer” miniseries, Christie Tracy and Allison Atkinson were first and second in the WOpen, and Sammi Runnels was third in the W123. In the “It’s Still Hot Out” miniseries, which concluded Sept. 17, Mina won the WOpen; racing the combined field of women and masters men, she has finished 4th and 6th overall the past two weeks. Mina is now riding a new 2015 Cervelo S5.

From “Fat Kid” to State TT ChampionA Profile of Nate Sheetz

By Kat Hunter

http://jahicks.zenfolio.com/

The average American seems to think of weight loss, or fitness in general, as a kind of destination—“There, I made it!” The truth is, of course, much harder. If there is a path to success, it looks sort of like the yellow brick road after an earthquake. There are ups and downs, bridges out, potholes as big as swimming pools. And there’s no end. If you make it to where you want to be and find yourself a nice, relaxing spot on the couch, you’ll wake up half a mile back down the road.

Eight years ago, Nate Sheetz, who stands about 5-foot-8, weighed more than 400 pounds. Last June, at 30 years old, he finished the 40K TT in 54 minutes and 44 seconds as the Cat 3 Texas State Time Trial Champion.

Nate’s path, particularly fraught with difficulty, is inspiring not only because of his accomplishment, but because of the unique patience and grace with which he weathered the worst obstacles along the way. Cycling is his passion, but not his job. A more ordinary person, after getting hit by a car—twice—and breaking almost as many ribs as are found in the human body, might have begun shopping for a new hobby.

In the Saddle

Most roadies get into the sport because they think they’re fast. In bike racing, the peloton already represents a talented segment of the cycling population; then there are those who stand out from that group, the riders who consistently do more than just hang on, who out-train and outperform the competition. Nate is one of those people, a natural, the kind of guy who can just put his head down and go hard forever.

When I ask him whether he had any indication of this aerobic talent growing up, Nate just says, “No, not really.”

Knowing what I do about Nate’s background, I'm expecting an emotional interview. Fat kid turned athlete? Accident victim back on the bike still wearing a neck brace? What hardship, what transformation! But what I soon realize is that I don’t really know Nate at all.

Every answer he gives me is to the point, matter of fact. I never get the sense that Nate is impressed by himself, which is strange even apart from his life story—the typical roadie is an irrepressible peacock. Nate has always been public with his quest to lose or maintain a certain weight, but he doesn’t wear his history like a badge or a chip on his shoulder.

Nate played team sports in YMCA programs as a young child, and then baseball and football in middle school. Outside of PE, however, that was the entirety of his experience in athletic competition before he began cycling. He was essentially sedentary after 10th grade. “I gained the weight steadily through my entire life,” he says. “I was a little bit of a fat kid and just got fatter and fatter for 25 years.”

“What I’ve often said about the entire weight loss project,” he says, “was the hard thing was deciding to do it.”

He began by counting calories and doing light physical activity, like walking up and down stairs. Some months later, he started lifting weights at the gym, followed by half an hour of cardio on the machines. He found the elliptical trainers tedious, however, and that’s when he began substituting time on the bike. He rode to and from the gym, adding on to make it a total of 8 or 10 miles.

It all spiraled from there, he says. Living and working in Berkeley, California, at the time, he began riding with a local group called Grizzly Peak Cyclists. “I found that I enjoyed cycling for fun, never mind the exercise,” he says.

Tour das Hugel 2012

Nate works as an ASIC design engineer at NVIDIA. About six months after he started riding as his main physical activity, he transferred within the company to take a job in Austin. He commuted to work by bike and went on rides with the Austin Cycling Association. Then, in 2010, he got bit by the Driveway bug.

When he heard about the Driveway Series, he told himself some day when he was faster he would think about racing it, but friends convinced him to bite the bullet. His first race was the Driveway 4/5 crit late that summer. He got dropped the first three weeks but found himself enjoying it, and eventually he began to hang on for the duration of the 30-minute race.

By 2011, he was somewhere between 200 and 230 pounds and was still steadily losing weight, but was working very hard to balance his diet with what he needed to fuel his workouts. He says his training at that point consisted mostly of group rides and riding around with people who were faster than him.

He tried a couple of different diets—for about five years, high protein, high fiber, and low fat being the key—but for the most part he was still counting calories. “That’s really the beginning and end of it,” he says. “You figure out what to eat that keeps you from being hungry all the time, while eating as few calories as you need to be able to lose weight.”

“Once I got to what would for a normal, non-insane person be a healthy weight and wanted to get down to race weight, that wasn’t working anymore,” he says. “I was just hungry all of the time.” Eating more carbs helped him feel better on the bike. By spring 2012, he’d hit a low of 168 pounds, and give or take a few pounds, was managing to stay there.

In the Hospital
Early on in his training, just after he’d moved to Austin, Nate had his first serious bike accident.  In September 2009, when he was commuting to work, a car turned left in front of him. With no time to stop, he smashed into the side of the car, breaking his left collar bone and completely rupturing the left AC joint. His injuries required surgery, which kept him off the road for three or four months. The recovery period undid much of his hard work.

“I gained a lot of weight,” he says. “I’d dialed back the food, but not enough.”

Eventually, however, he got back to where he was and then some. Training hard at the beginning of 2013, he was looking forward to the early season stage races and was as slim as he’d ever been. From his conversations with my husband, I knew that he was also hitting some of the best power numbers he’d ever seen. Having once gone on an incredibly tough 100-mile ride with Nate that had become 120 miles after a wrong turn, I knew what that meant. I felt sorry for the guys who’d be chasing him.

And then in February, he was on a training ride, going downhill on Veteran’s Drive toward the pedestrian bridge when a car pulled out of a parallel parking spot directly in front of him. In an instant, he went from roughly 25 mph to zero.

"Poster Child for Rule #5," February 2013

He was lucky to be alive. He had 14 broken ribs—12 on the right and 2 on the left—as well as a punctured lung, several broken vertebrae in his neck, and some minor back fractures. He was hospitalized for a week and a half and was put in a neck brace.

I ask him what it felt like to have gone from the best shape in his life to that state. In his typical, somewhat terse fashion, Nate says, “It sucked.”

But with a little prodding, he elaborates, talking about how he'd moved on. “I find it pretty easy to take an attitude of not crying over spilled milk,” he says. “I laid in the hospital and I knew my plans for the year needed to be radically altered, and I was pretty much at peace with it. I’m in the hospital one for two days thinking, you know, I bet I have time to be ready for the State TT if I just don’t worry about anything else before that.”

I was pregnant at the time of his accident, my due date about four months away. I remember thinking, given the extent of Nate’s injuries, that he was going to be back on the bike around the same time as me, and probably in worse shape. But one or two weeks after he went home from the hospital, Nate was on the trainer in his neck brace. He started with a 15-minute spin the first day, and then 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and so on, ramping very quickly back up to real workouts. When the collar was off in mid-April, he immediately got back on the road. His first ride outside was the 8.2-mile AllSports Mopac Time Trial, with a very respectable road bike time of 19:13 (25.6 mph). He returned to racing at the Driveway the following week. He was also at an all-time low of 160 pounds.

Most people would probably say he was crazy, but for Nate, the training was instinctive. “It’s not like I was pushing myself to get back on the bike,” he says. “It was like, ‘I need to start riding again or I’m going to go insane.’ I couldn’t wait to get back on the bike, and I couldn’t wait to start racing again once I was back on the road.”

Even the “sharp object lessons” in how badly he could get hurt didn’t change his desire to return to competition, he says.

Now that his injuries have healed and his surgeries are complete (he recently had a metal plate in his shoulder removed from the 2009 crash), he says there are no lasting effects post-accident that impact his riding. That is, with the exception of a slight difference in the depth of one side of his rib cage versus the other.  In true aeronerd fashion, he finds this annoying because he’s a centimeter higher in his TT position than he would otherwise be.

The State TT

Driveway Series 4/5, August 2012: 2nd Nate Sheetz, 3rd Vince Dietsch

Following the accident in February, Nate’s training goals were simple. He just needed to put in a lot of steady miles. He did plenty of that, but he also mixed in some fast-paced races and group rides.

“I went to the Driveway because it was fun,” he says. “I went to VOP because it’s fun. One thing I realized over the summer, when I was in Minnesota, is that I’ve decided it’s much better to have a 90% optimal training program that’s fun, versus a 100% optimal training program that’s no fun and you want to give up bike racing.” For a few months when he was in Minnesota, his home state, he spent much more time than he would have liked riding by himself on flat terrain.

He had more success at the end of the 2013 season than he’d ever had before. Racing for Austinbikes/Revenant in the cat 3 field, he won the Mineral Wells Time Trial on June 15, took second at Hotter’N Hell on August 24, and had his first mass-start win on September 8 at the Chappell Hill Road Race with a breakaway. But his result at the State TT on June 29 was the consummation of months of targeted hard work.

His intent going into the State TT was, of course, to win, but in the back of his mind, he was thinking a more realistic goal was to make the podium. However, after a refit on his TT bike from Sol Frost, he was more than a mile an hour faster having done nothing more than change his position. His confidence grew.

On race day, Nate viewed his biggest competition as Vince Dietsch (Austinbikes/Revenant), Ryan Coover (ENVE/Firefly Bicycles Racing), and Matt DeMartino (Team Yacht Club). Matt had missed the start time, Vince was his minute man, and Ryan Coover started just behind. Ryan passed him as early as 10K into the race, so was a concern, but Nate was holding him at a steady distance after, hoping to make a move at the end if Ryan didn’t blow up first. Then Ryan had a flat around 25K. At the halfway point, Nate could see that he’d made up some ground on Vince. Still behind Vince at the 5K mark, he hadn’t caught him, but it wasn’t a minute gap anymore. He knew he had it.

With a very fast time of 54 minutes and 44 seconds (27.2 mph), the State TT was Nate’s first major win (the breakaway at the Chappell Hill Road Race would come about three months later). His time stacked up well against some of the big names in Texas cycling. He would have been second in the cat 2s, only about 23 seconds off of Paul Carty (Austinbikes/Mobil 1); in the cat 1s, he would have been in sixth behind Gray Skinner (Big Sexy Racing).

Moving On
This year Nate is riding for VooDoo Racing, in quest of a final four points for his cat 2 upgrade, and is being coached by David Wenger.

Nate’s weight loss goals have varied over the years— “race weight” is a horse of another color, to be sure. Would he have lost the weight without cycling? Would he have taken it quite so far?

“The gym was always a chore for me,” he says. “Without finding a sport to get passionate about, I don’t know where I would have been. I probably would have kept it up, but not had much fun with it.” He certainly wouldn’t have pushed himself to lose as much of the weight, he says.  

For the bulk of the year, on top of his full-time job, Nate estimates he spends 20 or more hours a week cycling or doing bike-related activities. I ask him if all the time and effort he’s devoted and continues to devote to cycling seem worth it, if he ever has doubts.

“I love riding my bike,” he says, “and there’s a real sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in just trying to better yourself in general.” He says racing is the proof and the fruit of training, but the training itself, that process of striving to improve, is what he finds the most meaningful.

Everyone has their reasons for participating in a sport. Cycling is considered an unattractive pursuit by some because it’s time consuming, expensive, dangerous at times. It’s also very painful—day in and day out, whether it’s training intervals or the field sprint, you meet the weakest and strongest parts of yourself, the sane voice that screams for you to stop and the other one, the darker voice, that convinces you to keep going. But I think people do it because it’s that hard, because they think they can do something other people can’t, because those challenges become a part of who they are and how they see themselves. And that’s the thrill of it, more than the adrenaline rush—you’ve conquered yourself, molded yourself.  

I admire Nate a lot. No, he’s not a pro tour rider, or even a cat 1. His weight is still a constant struggle. But his work ethic is something that I think anyone, athlete or no, can esteem to. It takes a lot of courage to do what he did, changing everything about one’s life and body, and in his case, doing it in the unforgiving realm of skintight lycra and coldblooded competition.

Nate’s story makes me wonder how many other people in the world have it in them and just don’t know, hiding huge aerobic engines that would put the skinny kids to shame. What I sincerely hope for them is, someday soon, an opportunity to get on a bike, as well as the ability to recognize and embrace the potential for more.