Benchmarking: the Prologue

So as discussed below, the Tour of the North (v2021) ran an opening prologue. A prologue is the cycling equivalent of an appetiser. It's almost always done as a time trial - that's a solo race against the clock. Riders start at one minute intervals. It's less a tactical event, rather one of measuring raw horsepower.

That said, it was a 7 Km ride. Far from massive, but that's a 9 minute effort even for the hitters in A-grade. It would be very easy to go too hard, blow up, record a crap time, and stuff your legs for the rest of the weekend. My feeling is most would have gone at 90% not full gas.

Here's the start finish point. It's out on the fringes of suburbia in Townsville.

The course is pretty much flat. It gently drags ever so slightly uphill on the way out to the turnaround. Always pushing into a headwind on the way out as well. The road surface is good, though a fairly coarse chip.

Here's the Strava segment. 

D Grade was won by Mario Romeo in 11.30. Probably more relevant are the times of Mort (11.36), Knight (11.55) and Hansen (12.15). These guys ended up filling the podium at the end of the Tour, and were there or abouts in all the stages.

So my time this morning? 13.33. 

I was pretty happy with that. I think I've got a lot of improving to do in my fitness. I actually had to stop pedalling at a few points and just coast, to gather myself up, recover a bit and go again. That will have cost me time.

I also wasn't able to sit in the drops the whole way. That's the most aerodynamic position on the bike. But it's also the least comfortable place to sit. I did quite well on this front (I did around two thirds of the way out in the drops), but if I can go the whole way out come Tour of the North 2022, that'll save me another 15 seconds (you're about 2 kph faster in the drops). Admittedly that's less critical downwind but it still helps. So if I can do the full journey in the drops, I'd be about 40 seconds faster.

Take off 10 kilos and that finds me another 15 seconds

 (It's bloody interesting to play with variables around weight, where you sit on the handlebars, etc with Bike Calculator)

So just through weight loss and improvements in my flexibility, I'm already back to a 12.38. The rest would need to come thru improved fitness, strength & endurance, but I reckon that's achievable over 10 months.