|
|
Post by davebramley on Jul 28, 2015 11:00:33 GMT
Kirsty and I are part of Team Swift time trialling team and the coach, Pete Read, also coached Kev Dawson who was part of the Strategic Lions team that hold the RAI and RAAM speed records. We talked to Pete about our strategy of each individual riding for 30 - 40 minutes. His view was that this was too long and would be tiring and that he and Kev had tested lots of different strategies and settled on bursts of around 20 minutes.
I am not making a recommendation - just want to throw this into the mix. The big drawback, of course, is that it is a greater logistical challenge from >50% more changeovers.
I think how much weight we put on this depends on our goal. I know we're keen to beat the 8 person mixed team record but I think this will be a real challenge. The group with the record did the race 4 times and seem to have got some handy riders!
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin_Rodney on Jul 29, 2015 9:10:52 GMT
Welcome to the forum Dave and welcome to the ongoing conversation piece we've had for some time now. We originally started off thinking in terms of 60 minutes, this came back then to 30 mins and has gone out a wee bit to 45-ish minutes. Indeed Mervyn (who is our most experienced crew member regarding anything to do with RAI/RAAM/such matters) is advocating closer to 10 minutes at times. it was logistics that was prompting the increase to 45 mins - the challenge of being able to get into position in time for the handover to occur cleanly .. but ALSO there's been an opinion that it was taking long enough to actually get warmed up and properly motoring, and if you're off again after say 30 mins .... As something to consider, there's some discussions as to the benefit of perhaps having 2 riders on the road (only during daylight hours) ==> so nothing is decided, all these comments and views are very welcomed ==> this thread will go on for some time yet ... and even then no matter what we 'plan' to do, we can fully expect to have to change and adapt once we're on the road. For example, for some of the hillier sections is it practical to have some 5-10 mins hard shifts  |
|
|
|
Post by mervyn on Jul 30, 2015 15:00:02 GMT
In relation to having two riders on the road at a time, the rule below may prevent this
but is open to interpretation.
600: Racer
5. A Racer may not receive pacing of any form within sight of the Racer (on foot, by bicycle, roller
skates, or anything else) from a Crew member or other person. Road side cheering is allowed
from Crew members and race fans.
|
|
|
|
Post by mervyn on Jul 30, 2015 15:02:57 GMT
Sorry found this also it is a lot clearer
Race Around Ireland 2015
Page 26 of 50
600: racer
8. Racers may ride alongside each other for 15 minutes per 24 hour period, and no more. Example:
Racer A rides with Racer B for 15 minutes. These two Racers cannot repeat this until at least
24 hours passes; Racer A, however, can ride with Racer C for 15 minutes within 24 hours, but
A and C cannot repeat this for 24 hours, etc.
|
|
|
|
Post by mervyn on Jul 30, 2015 15:25:24 GMT
Sorry ignore those last two posts I was jumping the gun a bit, found this under the team rules, again sorry
1. One or any combination of a Team’s registered Racers may cycle at any one time (subject to further
rules below). Drafting is permitted within the same Team, but not between rival Teams.
|
|
|
|
Post by davebramley on Aug 1, 2015 20:17:51 GMT
That's interesting! Kirsty is very experienced at drafting me so that might come in handy  |
|
|
|
Post by davemc on Aug 5, 2015 13:36:08 GMT
Hi Dave
Just replying to this now - I think the comments Rodney made above are relevant. When we did our first session we fixed on 10km as the distance so at a 30kph pace this was a 20 minute stint. This was not enough time to get the rider off the road, bike mounted, car moving and getting ahead of the next rider. However, this was in built up areas where cars are less efficient due to traffic, etc. so a shorter stint may work in more open, rural areas. This can be determined when we have all the route to review. I would recommend that if there are large towns or villages en route that the stint be extended accordingly until it is appropriate to switch back to a shorter stint.
A related but important tactic in hilly terrain is to consider shortening the stints still further to 10 minutes so the hill can be traversed more quickly. This will be a fun thing to practice and probably near impossible if being done in the dark!
One other point in relation to short stints is that it can cause haste - my bike was not fixed correctly to the LF car on one stint and almost ended up in a ditch! SO make sure each of the riders is familiar with the racking and have someone double check the bikes are fixed before moving off!
|
|
|
|
Post by davemc on Aug 15, 2015 18:53:01 GMT
More input to this from our overnight training session last night. 20 minutes/10km will be fine in most rural areas. Things that will impact that:
1) Very narrow roads preventing the LeapFrog car getting ahead. During the day this should not be a problem, the Follow Car is really the issue and this will not be so much of a problem during the day, i.e., the FC does not need to be behind the rider all the time as it does at night time so can wait until the LFC moves on.
2) A higher proportion of descending on a particular section - this can be mitigated by having the rider do more than the usual 10km given that the descending is essentially free kms!
We should write more notes on this for discussion or to help the collective learning.
|
|
