4 up TT advice

-corblimey-

We've got team in a 4 up tt tomorrow night, anyone got any advice?

I assume we all start side by side on the start line and then drop into formation once we're going. Also at the finish would it make sense to break and sprint for the finish or are we better off pulling the most important (3rd) man across in formation?

andyp

I'd worry about getting to the finish intact before thinking about how you're going to finish!

A 4 up TTT is very difficult and you need to agree how you're all going to ride before you start. Are you of fairly equal ability? If so, then do short turns in rotation and ensure that your changeovers are done smoothly and without an injection of pace, as this'll make life very hard for the rider who's just come off the front.

If one or more of you is stronger than the rest then that rider should make his strength count by doing longer turns rather than harder turns, i.e do a minute to everyone elses 30 seconds.

Steve928

Honestly, I don't think that you can improve on that advice.
Might as well close this thread now.

-corblimey-

andyp wrote:

I'd worry about getting to the finish intact before thinking about how you're going to finish!

No surely no harm in going into it with a little bit of optimism! Fair point though, I know what you're saying.

We're fairly evenly matched although one is defo going to struggle more.

We're not too bad at riding in a chain and we had a practise at speed over half distance on Saturday and the mechanics seemed to work ok. The slower chap was suffering come 9 miles. We were all spending equal time on the front but I thought it might be a good idea for a suffering rider to pull off any time before they'd done their allotted time. That way if you're totally done in when you reach the front you can pull off straight away and yet the rhythm of the team isn't broken, We were riding 60 secs at the front, do you think that's too long?

Since we're only really doing it for a bit of fun (do tt & fun ever go togehter!) I'd like it if we could all fiinish but I'm not really confident that's going to happen.

jibberjim

-corblimey- wrote:

We were all spending equal time on the front but I thought it might be a good idea for a suffering rider to pull off any time before they'd done their allotted time. That way if you're totally done in when you reach the front you can pull off straight away and yet the rhythm of the team isn't broken

If a rider can't do a turn, isn't it better if he doesn't come to the front, but stays at the back? You lose a bike length every time someone drops off the front so if he ducks 10 turns, that 10 extra bike lengths you all have to ride!

avoidingmyphd

jibberjim wrote:

-corblimey- wrote:

We were all spending equal time on the front but I thought it might be a good idea for a suffering rider to pull off any time before they'd done their allotted time. That way if you're totally done in when you reach the front you can pull off straight away and yet the rhythm of the team isn't broken

If a rider can't do a turn, isn't it better if he doesn't come to the front, but stays at the back? You lose a bike length every time someone drops off the front so if he ducks 10 turns, that 10 extra bike lengths you all have to ride!

this post is really screwing with my head. where do these extra bike lengths go? does the course grow to accommodate them? aaarrrggghh

John.T

60 seconds is rather a long time. You may be better doing a constant 'through and off'. That way no-one is on the front for long. Just make sure the speed is kept constant and nobody accelerates as soon as they hit the front.
As for the finish, just get the front 3 to sprint line abreast at the line. Check no cars are passing first.

Tom Butcher

If it's 3 to count then I'd tell the weaker rider to do turns and when they are blown just drop off. If they are just sitting on the back then there is no point in having them there other than as an insurance policy in case of a puncture and it'll make it marginally harder for the other three to drop back and get on a wheel if they have to think about slotting in in front of them.

60 seconds does sound quite long on the front - but then again you can't do proper through and off with 4 riders as it isn't really enough to make it work. I'd probably start with shorter turns - maybe 30 seconds - and then if someone is feeling strong they can do up to a minute later in the ride.

Having said all that I've never ridden any kind of group time trial.

chriskempton

If you're doing it for fun, get the weaker rider to sit on the back the first half of the race and then come through if he's up to it for as long as he can. More fun for him than blowing up in the first half. I'd go for 30 second stints. Remember that the guy coming off the front slows down, not the person coming through speeds up!

-corblimey-

Cheers for all the comments.

Some interesting points, I won't spend too much time trying to work out where all the missing bike lengths have gone though

I think constant through and off will not work with so few riders as Tom says. Getting the weaker guy to hang in till later sounds like a plan.

Trouble is now my right sti shifter is playing silly beggers so it may well be me that doesn't make it round

We'll see, it's all in the name of fun anyway. I'll let you know how we get on

Tom Butcher

Don't be afraid to shout at anyone taking too long on the front either - some people feel they have to do a mammoth turn but all they are doing is slowing everyone down or going too deep into the red. Maybe late on if people are suffering and one rider is on a good night but early in the ride.

-corblimey-

What a cracking time we had

We all made it over the line of our 30 km ttt in a time of 51:47. Not a blistering pace by any stretch of the imagination but not bad for a bunch of numpties!

We worked really well together despite not having had a full team practise before hand.

This is what worked for us.

* We each took a turn on the front for a max of 60 secs per go.
* We pulled off from the front and dropped to the back calling the direction we were going to break to
* We called ease up if the team started to break so we could keep it together
* On the home straight one of up team ramped the pace right up to lead us closer to the line where the other three sprinted across the line.

Worked perfectly

We were racing on an airfield which is sooo much more fun than the road, nice tarmac and no cars.

The sense of team when we crossed the line was fantastic.

Cheers for the input guys