Time Trial Position

I will be honest… I’m not experienced at fitting a bike and I wouldn’t be able to ‘fine tune’ a riding position like a professional would… but I’m not going to pay £100 for someone to do it either…

I have always struggled to stay in the TT position for any length of time. I don’t think it is because my position is wrong… I just think it’s bloody hard. My shoulders and arms begin to ache after a while and I need to sit up and stretch a bit. Hopefully the interval sessions and additional hours spent on it will help.

In the meantime I bought some 60mm risers to raise the arm pads. They didn’t really help and I just ended up acting as a massive wind block

After looking at some of the faster club riders it is very apparent that their front end is very low. Their chins are almost level with their seat and their stomach/chest is basically flat. I have removed the 60mm risers and moved the bars forward slightly (probably outside of UCI specifications) and ended up with something like this…

(Picture to follow)

I have roughly calculated my flexibility (and with a little help from LouLou doing some Physiotherapy on me) I have established that when I am at the top of my pedal stroke, I have also reached the maximum flexibility (before I have to start adding additional force to get my knee further to my chest).

My knee is not in front of the foot when the crank arms are horizontal and my arms are approx 90 degrees to my torso (which I believe to be important).

I have spent a lot of time on the bike in this set-up and although I have to sit up on occasions (especially straight after an intense interval) I feel reasonably comfortable. I am hoping that this need to sit up will improve the more time I spend in it. Each time I can feel it ache over the shoulders and arms, the stronger I am getting in these areas.

I am also consciously 'tucking' my head into my body during training. One thing I noticed from my recent TT photo was my head sticking right up... need to get it low and into my body more.