- David Millar's new film, Time Trial,
has just been released worldwide,
and to celebrate that fact, we get to go for a ride
with the man himself,
talk about bike riding and drill down into the essence
of what you have to do to go fast.
Is it an art, or is it a science?
(energetic music)
- There's a very fine line between art and science.
If you want to get great at time trialing, do time trials.
The only way you get an edge is by finding something
that other people don't know about.
Think of it as like a table laid out,
and you've got an arsenal of weapons.
- Wish we'd had this conversation like 20 years ago.
- David, first of all, thanks very much for showing us
your local roads in Girona.
Now, the film itself is a summary of your last season
as a pro, is that right?
- Yeah, I mean that kind of happened by default,
because we'd been working the film so many years,
we ran out of time.
If we didn't film it that year, we'd never get it.
But it ended up being great, because it was
the final season and it really paints a true picture
of what being a professional cyclist is like,
where there's a lot of headbanging,
very little glory,
and it really is quite a job.
And so it actually turned out for the best, I think.
It's a first-person experience.
The viewer is inside my head for a full racing season
and living the bike races through my eyes.
- Yeah.
It must be quite gritty, I guess,
because quite right like you say,
as a profession it's pretty hard work.
- Yeah it's very gritty and that's what we wanted.
We wanted it to be very honest,
to capture the reality.
And yes, there's a lot of beauty,
and it's a wonderful sport,
but there's also a lot of mundaneness, if you like,
and a lot of just what's quite normal.
It's amazing how quickly it becomes normalized
when you're in it.
- Yeah.
So in the time that's elapsed since your last season,
have you had much time or cause to reflect on
the way you did things actually there,
the minutia of racing,
going fast?
- Yeah, a little bit.
I mean it's something that I think towards
the end of my career,
I began to overthink a lot.
Everything changed in my career
from turning professional in 1997,
where power meters, although they existed,
they were very rare.
Rarely seen.
So nobody had that information on watts
or training nutrition as well was very basic.
And over the 20 years, well 18 years professional,
20 years if you like from when I first arrived in France
when I started,
everything changed.
It became so data-based.
The science was widely recognized,
whereas before it was almost like a black art,
and you had to know the right trainer
who had the old wives' tales.
I saw that change completely.
And to be honest with you, by the end,
the good thing about it was
I learned from the data collection that a lot of the things
that I taught myself, second nature if you like,
and just through hard work and testing of my own back,
were proven right by all the data collection.
- [Simon] Really?
- [David] It was very satisfying.
- [Simon] Yeah what kind of things are we talking about?
- Well I suppose I never really liked using heart rate
or power in time charts.
These sort of distract me.
I was very speed-based.
So if we're talking about how fast can you go,
if you're supposed to say, you got to go as fast as you can
from point A to point B,
I think a lot people get stuck in, oh well I must
stick at that power, I must average that power,
that cadence, that heart rate,
which is true, by the end of it,
if you do the calculations
before you plateau out of that line the average.
But during the event, there are peaks and troughs.
I used to always ride my time trials on,
very much gauging using a sort of technique
where I based everything on speed.
So if it was going slower, I'd try and go harder.
If it was going fast,
once I got over 50 k's an hour,
I used to tuck up into a really tight ball
and almost lift off the power
and just kind of carry the speed.
And the moment it started to slow down,
I'd start really piling on the pressure again,
which meant that,
if you were to look at the graph afterwards,
there were sort of peaks and troughs.
As the speed went up, the power went down.
And as the power speed went down, the power went up.
And you always see those micro peaks and troughs
with the event,
which actually prove right.
- Yeah I mean, do you think that worked
with your physiology,
varying the intensity like that?
- I think so, because I had quite high recovery,
and quite high lactic tolerance,
so I could go push myself into the red.
Let's say this road here.
If it saw a time trial coming off that high speed bit,
you would just punch over this as hard as you could,
so trying not to lose the speed,
which might mean you're going up into pretty high minimal
and way over your threshold into the red.
But then I'd know, 'cause I'd done my recon,
that it's gonna come down afterwards,
I knew I had that recovery point.
So it'd be a case of just going as deep as I could,
going the speed, explode over the top,
tuck up really small and just disappear,
and then rest.
On TV or whatever it looks like it's all pretty smooth,
but actually inside it's going all over the place.
My perceived effort here would be close to 10.
- [Simon] Do you think that would be something
that would work for most people?
- Yeah, I think it does.
I think each one of us is very different.
And I think that's often something that's forgotten as well,
is that everybody has different physiologies,
different body types,
and you have to respect that.
That's why I'm not a big believer
in kind of generic sort of rules,
for the time trialing all going fast.
You have to go out, practice lots of different things,
trial and error, cadences, power outputs,
techniques on the way you ride a course,
'cause every course is different,
and every person is different.
So let's say maybe if you're at a flat course
and you're a climber,
then you're gonna have to ride it very differently,
a flat course as though it climbs.
Somebody who specializes on flat would perhaps
take it a little bit easier on the flat bits
then power over the climb bits,
whereas a climber would have to really go above themselves
in the flat and almost use the uphills as a recovery,
which it sounds weird.
- Yeah, that's almost counterintuitive.
That's not playing to your strengths effectively,
it's doing the opposite.
- No it's not, so I mean see exactly this little raise here.
When I was time trialing, if there's a harder hill,
I'd imagine that you were the climber
that I had to beat in a time trial.
So I'd know on this section I'd have in my head
I'd be ghosting the fact
that you've been accelerating away from me.
- You've got a good imagination.
I'm pretty sure I'd be back there.
- So I'd envisage the climb as sort of dancing away from me,
and think, OK, don't panic, don't panic.
You'll bring them back.
So I'd just make sure I matched my ability on the climb,
so I didn't panic and go too deep,
and then get to the top,
and then just start accelerating.
And then I'd have that image in my head of that climber
going down the descent hitting the flat,
and start taking them back,
and then can actually then go past them.
Then when there's the next one, they'd be coming back at me.
So I'd have this permanent ghost image in my head
of what was going on,
which sounds really weird
but it was a real good way for me not to panic.
'Cause otherwise on a really hilly course,
I'd just be thinking the whole time,
oh the climb is gonna kill me.
So instead of thinking that,
I'd go, OK, the climbs are going to kill me,
but I'm going to kill them everywhere else.
You're kind of always on this constant
kind of mind-mapping, race-mapping.
It's lovely,
because it also takes your mind off that effort.
Instead of being completely focused inside yourself
and self-obsessed,
you have to project onto what other people are doing
and thinking about.
And then that allows you to handle the stress, I think,
well for me particularly.
So that was my technique.
It's something that I guess was learned through fear,
so I'd always imagine what other people were doing.
So instead of letting that dominate me,
I started to take it to my advantage
and focus on where I could beat them,
where I imagined them going slower than me.
- Because I guess often it seems that when people
are talking about pacing or whatever for a long effort,
whether it's a sportive or it's a time trial,
it's like well, you have to punch it out
and just getting from A to B as fast as possible,
but it almost seems like playing
with those kind of visualization techniques
might change your pacing.
Is that right, or?
- Yeah, it's bang on.
So I think that's a trap that people fall into,
they're going OK A to B, I gotta go as fast as possible
between A to B.
No, so that's kind of the wrong semantics,
but you have to go as fast as you can from A to B,
which means every rider's gonna have different abilities
in that distance.
So you've got to figure out what your physiology,
what your training allows you to do,
and maximize it from A to B ,
and that's why reconnaissance is so important,
getting to know that course intimately so you can then
ride it race it according to your abilities.
Know when you're gonna get sections
where you can push and excel,
knowing where you're gonna have sections where can amortize
the damage that's gonna be done by other riders.
I think that's something you've always gotta remember.
You can only go as fast as you can.
- Do you train specifically for that kind of riding?
I mean did you work that out as that was gonna be your thing
and tailored what you did to become more effective at it?
- I found the best way to learn to time trial
was to actually do as long efforts as you could.
I mean intervals are great to do,
four minutes on, one minute off,
or 10 minutes.
But in truth, the only way you learn and teach your body
not only the physicality but the psychological techniques
is by doing the distance.
And that's why time trialing seems a goldmine,
you only do club turns, weekly, two or three if you wanted.
And that's how you get so good at it.
Interval training's great,
but if you want to get great at time trialing,
do time trials.
- Right.
- And really focus.
Afterwards, debrief yourself.
Work out what you did, where you went wrong,
where you went right,
but obviously most importantly,
where you went wrong.
'Cause it's very rare you'll do a perfect time trial.
- Is it more art than science?
- Yeah, I mean I think there's a very fine line
between art and science.
Once you've done all that hard work
and did all the training,
the psychological preparation and conditioning,
the dialing up of all your equipment,
getting everything so.
I still can remember days where I'd roll up to the start
and know I'd done everything right.
I'd finished all my preparation mentally
two, three hours before.
- Do you think it's important to be as fastidious
about your equipment in 2018 as it was in 2008 and 1998?
- It's certainly not as difficult now.
Everybody, the whole teams have TT bikes,
and now everybody's got amazing positions.
Everybody's got the best wheels,
great tires, ceramic bearings everywhere.
I suppose it's not quite as fun,
because part of the fun for me was doing all the research
and hunting down all these bits and bobs.
- Yeah, I mean if someone's looking for an edge now then,
where do they go looking for it?
Is it in the psychology, coming back to that,
how important is that?
- Yeah.
The only way you get an edge
is by doing something better,
or finding something that other people don't know about.
I'm quite convinced that the reason
I had such a great time trialing career,
especially the early part,
is just because I tried harder.
I had a better position.
I took more care of my bikes.
I reconned,
and that was a massive advantage,
whereas now a lot of it is doing the trainings,
pretty nailed down, everyone out there has great bikes.
So what are people not doing?
I doubt a lot of people are reconning properly,
or kind of mind-mapping the course.
- I think Chris Froome needs help
with his time trial recons.
- Well I think he's OK, he's got Tim Kerrison in the car
telling him exactly where to go and what to do.
(laughs)
He doesn't need to recon.
- Maybe that's went wrong at the Giro for him then on that.
(laughs)
- But I think that's it.
I think it's finding something you're not doing.
So if you realize you're not doing recon,
well start doing recons.
You'll go faster.
If you're not visualizing the course
and using different techniques mentally,
then that means something you can add to your arsenal.
And you've got to kind of think of it like that.
Think of it as like a table laid out
and you've got an arsenal of weapons.
Do training there.
And you've got a coach who can help you mentally.
You've got your bike, you've got your apparel,
you've got your recon.
So all those things are laid out.
Are you doing each of those things
to the best of your ability?
And if you're not, then that means you can improve.
- Wish we'd had this conversation like 20 years ago.
It's not like I could've done much more with myself,
but you know.
I'd think wow, I definitely didn't do that.
(relaxed music)
Wow, check this place out.
About to go swimming with me?
- The swimming looks great, doesn't it?
- Well David, this is quite a spot for a cafe stop.
Where are we exactly?
- This is the town of Banyoles, with the lake.
This is actually the recovery loop
for many of the professionals from Girona.
It's only like a 40 minute ride out here, coffee stop,
40 minute ride back.
- Nice, very cool.
Right, do make sure you give this video
a big thumbs up.
Say thank you to David for that conversation,
and also make sure to head out and watch Time Trial.
I know I'm going to as soon as I get back.
Right, if you want to watch another video right now,
then Emma was testing out to see how much faster
clip-on time trial bars are on a road bike.
Something that's frowned upon, in your eyes?
- Depends on the course, of course.
- OK.
(laughs)
Right, anyway, that video is just down there.
Check it out.