In reference to the title, more specifically time trial bikes. For me, it’s that time of year where I have just received my time trial (*TT) bike. 12 days out from my first TT (and an important one too!) at the Giro Next Gen means I have some setting up to do in the coming days…
The initial happiness of receiving a brand new speedy bike is quickly overhauled by the annoyance of trying to set it up into a similar and comfortable position to what I have owned previously. TT bikes have the added complication of lack of compatibility of parts and awkward bolt positioning, making something as easy as raising the handle bars seem like a military grade task. Due to these factors the initial thrill turns into a resentment towards the bike, wishing you could have a professional bike fitter at your finger tips and everything to be set up within a snap of your fingers. Do I further need to mention the difficulties that come with basic things such as changing wheels, pumping up tyres etc?!?!
The Debate
There is a small argument for the idea of scrapping TT bikes in professional cycling. The basic principles of this argument are to instead ride TT’s on road bikes because of the following…
The costs
The dangers
#1 - The expenses inferred from owning additional bikes and also transporting them from race to race. In the grand scheme of things, this for World Tour teams is a small proportion of their budget but when you begin to dive into other expenses such as wind tunnel testing/R&D towards the bikes it can add up. These are effectively fixed costs as in time trialing it really is a case of what you invest in, you get back. Teams and riders can save x amount of watts from having the ability to try and test different set ups if they have the budget for it. Effectively giving top teams such as UAE more speed at the same power output than compared to a lower level budget team such as Movistar, hence widening the gap between the top of the bottom of the field.
#2 - Time trial positions are very extreme with riders often finding that there fastest position is one with their head down and a field of view of only a couple of meters. In a race this is not so much of a problem with rider’s sport directors able to give call outs on the radio for upcoming turns/ dangers and the riders religiously following the roads middle white line beneath them. This can be seen to still cause crashes with Stefan Kung at the European Championships 2023 (https://youtube.com/shorts/Q6N5G5Vo84A?si=Tg_PX82LK_zyHf51). However, it’s in training rides where this becomes a bigger problem, evidenced by frequent crashes happening all around the world. The additional external factors such as cars, junctions and pot holes make it a war zone. With cyclist positioning in their aero tucks they are simply less quick to view and then react (with the additional time of switching to reach the brakes) to any hazards .
Overall these do create a strong argument for a net switch to road bikes and although I am not a full advocate for this, I do sway towards this idea. This being said, I do think the TT specialist should be rewarded for the work they put into time trialing. It’s a skill that they work towards and train for just like any other aspect of cycling. Even with TT bikes being swapped for road bikes it’s likely that the positions on the road bikes would be just as extreme with peoples heads down and hands barely covering the brakes.
My Idea - Scrap time trials completely! **May or may not be because it’s a weakness of mine :)**
My time trial period is likely to be in a very short window this season. Like mentioned earlier the opening time trial in the Giro Next Gen will be my first one for the year. Following on from this I have the British National Time Trial Championships; depending on whether I can knuckle together a decent set up on my Drali TT bike but also my sensations during the TT. All being well, I should have one final TTT with the team at the Giro Del Veneto in the end of July to wrap up my short but sweet time trialing calendar.
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