Ollie: The time trial, the race of truth. Just rider against the clock. It's arguably
bike racing in its purest form. When we see the pros doing time trials on TV, they're
using outrageous TT bikes and the latest pointy helmets, but what would happen if you gave
a complete beginner all that fancy Aero kit, and then put them up against a proton try
list? Well, we're going to find out, it's time for beginner versus amateur versus pro
time trial. No messing about, let's get to it. For our
beginner back by popular demand is Freddie, the people's champion. He's never ridden a
TT bike before in his life. In fact, he's never even ridden a time trial, so this is
going to be fun. He's in for a real treat. I will assume the role of our amateur. I've
ridden many times trials. I've even won some believe it or not, although I've not ridden
a time trial bike in quite a while. I'm hoping I can blag it today with my past experience
and for reference, my PB over 10 miles is 19.14. For our pro, we have Richard Bussell,
he is rapid. He's a former National 10 mile TT champion. His PB for 10 miles is 17.49.
That's over 54 kilometres an hour. Insane. Oh, and he's a former national Hillclimb champion,
too. I mean, he's basically the strongest [bleep].
I can't say that. What's really strong? Dried on Weetabix like when you don't wash the bowl
up straight away. Oh, that's really strong now, isn't it? Yes, dried on Weetabix. He
can hold like over 400 watts for a 10-mile time trial. I know what a lot of you think
when you watch a pro on TV or GCM Plus, you watch a pro with all the gear riding a TT
and you think, "I'd be able to go well fast with a bike and a pointy hat black. It's basically
cheating." While riding a TT bike like this would probably
make you faster, it's not as easy as it looks. When you're in a contorted Aero tuck, you're
recruiting your muscles in a completely different way and you're also constraining your breathing
more as well and this can mean getting the most out of yourself. Getting all the power
out can be really difficult and it's something that you have to train a lot. Pro time trialists
spend a lot of time writing their TT bikes. It's going to be interesting to see how myself
and Freddie get on today, considering neither of us do. [laughs]
[music] Enough of my jibber-jabber, it's time for
the race which today is taking place on a windy Castle Coombe circuit. It's five and
a bit laps to make it 10 miles or 16.1 kilometres, and we're going to set off at two-minute intervals.
Freddie first, then myself, and then it's going to be Richard. Rich, you got any tips
for me in Freddie? Rich: Just try and concentrate on keeping
a nice steady but hard pace and just hope for the best. Hang on.
Ollie: Cool. You ready, Freddie? Freddie: Ready as I can be. [unintelligible
00:03:19] Ollie: We've all got our stupid helmets on,
so roll it. I'll count you down. Freddie: Okay. Go for it.
Ollie: Beep, beep, beep, beep. Go on. Freddie, I'm coming for you Freddie, but go on.
Freddie: I can't believe I'm back doing another GCN challenge. It's nice to see you all GCN
viewers. I'm not going to lie, I am bricking this TT. Tell you what, though I've not ridden
this bike long, but this is actually the most fun I've ever had on a road bike if you can
call it one. I've no idea how to pace this so this could be extremely painful.
Ollie: You beep me in, Rich. Two minutes coming out in a sec.
Rich: Beep, beep, beep, beep. Ollie: No, I tried standing on a TT bike.
Luckily for me, I've got a little bit more experience pacing time trials than Freddie
and that's what it's all about. Once you've ridden a few, you know how your body can be
pushed, and not to go off too hard. Rich: Beep, beep, beep.
Freddie: Coming out to the nasty chicane, I think I pooped myself last time. We'll see
how this goes. [music]
Freddie: I did want to wear the Hawaiian shirt, but Ollie rudely said it was not aero enough.
This is terrifying. I made out alive. Ollie: I was slowly gaining on Freddie and
I was enjoying having a carrot to chase down. Although it did occur to me that Rich was
probably thinking the same thing. Freddie: It's terrifying. There he goes, your
man himself, Ollie Bridgewood. Ollie: Now I'd passed Freddie. I knew it wasn't
long until I'd hear Rich breathing down my neck, but not before he made short work of
Freddie, who was now struggling with pacing. Freddie: How does he do it?
[music] Ollie: This is the point the editor usually
plays the shark music which means I'm toast. [music]
Ollie: With that, Rich's effort was over. Not only had he set off minutes after both
myself and Freddie, but he picked us both to the line and finished first. All he had
to do now was wait. [music]
Ollie: Go, Freddie. Go on, lad. He looks good? Freddie: Most fun you can ever have on a bike.
Ollie: Oh mate, he looks like a shell. How are you, mate?
Rich: How was that? Ollie: How's that [crosstalk]?
Freddie: I can't speak. Ollie: All right, guys, thanks so much for
both of your time today, but we need to reveal the results. We know that Rich finished first
and I second and Freddie was third but what were the times? Rich, what did you manage
to do? Rich: I did 19 minutes and 10 seconds.
Ollie: That's ridiculous. The course record on this course is like 19 dead so that's--
Rich: Close. Ollie: That's pretty insane.
Rich: I think it was a bit windier today. Ollie: It is windy today. What was your power?
Rich: Just under 400, I was aiming for 400. Ollie: Couldn't quite manage a 400.
Rich: It was a good aim, but it was a little out of my reach today.
Ollie: 400 watts for like 20 minutes, that's insane. How about a Freddie, how'd you get
on? Freddie: I did 25:36. I'm not sure if that's
any good. Ollie: That is mega, that is really good.
That is insane because-- Let's put this into context for the audience. When you do your
first 10-mile time trial, the benchmark that most people aim for is under 30 minutes.
Freddie: Oh, wow. Ollie: For your first one, that's seriously
good. Freddie: I'll tell you what, huge respect
for you two. You guys are machines. On TV, they make it look so easy and you guys make
it look easy, it's not. Ollie: It doesn't feel easy.
Freddie: [crosstalk] lot of suffering. Rich: Not easy.
Ollie: Do you know what your power was? Freddie: Yes.
Ollie: He's got a power meter on now, he's even less of a beginner than he was.
Freddie: [chuckles] 240. It's hard to put the power out on that position, I don't know
how you guys do it. Ollie: Yes, well, I think everyone struggles
unless you've grown and done this, to be honest. I managed 21:32. That was actually a PB for
me on this course and I did over just over 300 watts. Quite a bit off Rich but good for
me. [laughs] Anyway, thanks so much again for your time.
Rich: Thanks for having me. Freddie: Thanks for having me.
Ollie: Been great. It really is inspiring how quick someone like Rich is. It's seriously
impressive but also it's equally inspiring seeing someone like Freddie, a complete beginner
just take it on and just his sort of amount of improvement he's had since the first hill
climb video we featured him in is tremendous. Yes, chapeau to Freddie.
Now, I've really enjoyed doing a time trial today and I hope you've enjoyed watching it
and if you've never done a time trial before, I would highly recommend you do one. It's
the best introduction to racing I believe, and you don't need a fancy TT bike to do it.
You can do it on any bike. You can do it on a road bike, you can just be racing against
yourself, and there's plenty of road bike specific events.
By all means, if you like what you've seen today, give it a go and let us know in the
comment section how you get on. Also, comment down below any suggestions you'd like to see
for future videos like this and subscribe so that you don't miss them. I'll see you
in the next one. See you later. I'll put my helmet back on now. [chuckles] My Star Wars
helmet. [00:11:00] [END OF AUDIO]