|Tour de France: time trialists|
|Around the Academy:
The three key things that a top time trialist must be able to do are:
A good time triallist is somebody who is very, very efficient.
They can't necessarily sprint very fast but can keep a good speed up for a long period of time.
A good time trialist can also process a lot of oxygen.
How much oxygen you can process is what basically makes you a good time trialist or not.
Weight does come into it but you also need to be able to get really small to cut down air resistance.
Aerodynamics play a big part in how fast you can go.
The bike itself is about 20% of the whole frontal area whereas you as a person are 80%.
So how small you can get in your riding position is more important than having a fancy bike.
Time trialists also have to be able to concentrate very hard.
They have to go at the maximum speed they can sustain and then stay right on the edge of that for the duration of the race.
This requires good concentration.
Spain's Miguel Indurain was consistently the best time trialler in the world.
But he was also an anomaly - a freak of nature!.
He was big but he could also supply the oxygen needed to give him enough power to overcome the fact that he weighed about 78kg.
He was a rarity who had his cake and ate it!