- You're welcome.
I usually charge
two to three million dollars each for these.
- Running a time trial is something of an art form.
And so happily, we have found something of an artiste
when it comes to the discipline.
This is Taylor Phinney from the Cannondale-Drapac team.
And Taylor, you're gonna give us some of your
top time trialling tips.
And bike set-up tips as well, right?
- [Taylor] Yeah.
- [Simon] Cool. Okay, number one then.
Hit us with it.
What would be your golden rule for time trialling?
And time trial bikes.
- I see a lot of people wanna go really low
on the front end.
'Cause you kinda think the lower the better,
the more aerodynamic.
But what that does is it ends up forcing your head up,
and you can't really see anything.
So you kinda open this parachute up in the front.
If you bring up the top,
you can then kind of tuck in a little bit more
and close off the surface area of the front end.
- So how high at the front do you have to go?
I mean, obviously, it's gonna depend
on rider to rider, but...
- I mean, it's basically, if you are in the position,
and you feel like you can comfortably kind of tuck in
and sit in a place where you see maybe three inches
above your hands,
that's kind of my golden rule.
- [Simon] When you're racing,
and you've got an ear piece in,
will you DS behind?
You're like, Taylor look up.
- I don't race with a radio.
- Do you not?
- That maybe would be my second tip.
- Second tip, then, no radio.
Why not?
- (sighs) I just find that I have a lot of voices
in my head already,
then inserting somebody else's voice,
who I may or may not wanna hear
when I'm in the depths of the pain cave,
just doesn't really do much for me.
- This might be a personal questions,
but what are the inner voices telling you?
Is it like a balance between go faster or this is hurting?
Or is it, depending on how good you're feeling on the bike,
it might be all good.
What's the...
Is that just too, too much insight?
- No, I mean, I think it's your classical balance
of you got this,
to you should retire today.
This is what time trialling...
This is the bread and butter of time trialling.
Pushing yourself to the point of
- Retiring.
- Maybe considering retirement.
But then at the same time,
you kind of have to get to that point
to be able to win any of these bike races, so.
- What about looking at numbers?
- I don't look at numbers either.
- Serious? - Just speed and distance.
- So no power on there?
- Nah, I find that if I focus too much on the power,
then I kind of lose track of the road,
and what the road is doing.
You know?
Time trialling cycling, in essence, is about speed,
obviously.
You know, whether it's accelerating over the top
of a little hill to make sure you get up to speed
fast enough, or kind of tapering off through the middle
or at the bottom of a hill.
But it's all about speed.
And it's all about getting up to your maximum speed,
taking a little bit of a breather, and then holding that.
- I you're not a, if I use your words,
a flat line kind of a dude,
does that mean your training for time trials then
reflects that you're not going to be just set at
threshold for 20, 30 minutes at a time?
You actually do quite long intervals within that?
- Yeah well, I train based on perceived exertion.
So, I used do all the watt stuff.
But it just drove me crazy.
And it didn't feel like I was
having any fun.
It was like everyday was a performance.
Like, okay, do this for eight minutes,
this, this, this.
Either you do it or you don't.
But I didn't get any satisfaction out of that.
I didn't feel like I was feeling my body
through the process.
I didn't feel like I was learning anything
about the craft of time trialling.
So now I go out, and I pretend it is a bit of a race.
But I adapt more to the terrain,
and I think, okay, am I doing a race-based effort right now?
Am I doing the low race pace effort?
Am I doing this threshold thing?
- Yeah, so I guess a top tip then would be
don't be a slave to the numbers.
What your body is telling you is more important.
- Yeah.
Be a slave to speed, if anything else.
'Cause that's the only thing that matters.
- That sounds cooler, too, doesn't it?
Be a slave to speed, - Yeah.
- Not to numbers.
(whipping noise)
- What about, what about gearing then?
Are you fussy about, kind of, size of chainrings?
I know some guys like to use a 58.
Whether they can turn it or not, I don't know, but...
Are you particular about what you got on there?
- Yeah, not really.
Coming from the track, I tend to spin.
So I don't feel like I need a 58 or some sort of
Tony Martin-like massive gear.
I don't do well at the high,
that sort of high level of torque.
I need to kind of feel like I'm riding
over the top of the wave of the pedal stroke,
instead of just forcing the wave to make itself.
I think I got a 55, 56 on there.
Which might sound large,
but you have to remember that I race against
- [Simon] Tony Martin.
- [Taylor] A group of cyborgs, so.
- So would you say then that there's very much
an individualistic element to time trials?
So what works for you might not necessarily work
for Tony Martin and vice versa.
So, in watching this, should probably spend
a bit of time thinking about what works for them.
Would that be a fair shout?
- Yeah, I mean, it's in the title.
Individual time trial.
So you gotta just,
you gotta take this thing.
You gotta go ride it.
You gotta figure out why you like it.
I actually prefer,
other than the discomfort
of sitting on a time trial saddle for a really long time,
I prefer the position of a time trial bike
because it feels more like I'm flying.
Instead of sitting on this thing and pedalling.
- I'm not a thrill rider.
I just think of them a as torture,
but yeah, fair enough.
- Yeah, 'cause you're like down,
and you're just kind of resting.
You're sort of in this weird prone resting position,
jettisoning yourself along.
- That's cool.
I think that would help me time trial, actually.
Thinking I was flying.
- Find comfort in this thing.
A lot of people think you have to make it uncomfortable and
make it as fast as they can,
make it whatever.
But if you find comfort, then,
then you can work from there.
That's the foundation that you need.
- Cool.
Sounds pretty Zen there.
- Yeah, I'm a Zen-ass dude.
- Cool, Taylor thank you very much.
That is some crackin' tips there for
any budding time trialer.
There's plenty there of go on if you been time trialling
your whole life, I suspect.
Do make sure that you subscribe to GCN.
To do that, just click on the globe.
And if you want some more content,
then why not just click down there for a time trial
course preview, stage one of the Tour.
Definitely wanna make sure you watch that one
to give you some great tips there.
Or click just down there for a Tour de France programme.
Thanks, man. Cheers!
- Yeah, thanks, dude.