Stage 3: TT thoughts

But one thing I have a slight difference of opinion on is a comment that was made during the coverage yesterday. Schlanger mentioned that this particular TT course doesn't give the riders any chance to take a rest but I'm not sure that's true. The course (like many of the stages) features rolling terrain. Now with rolling terrain you do have downward sections which can provide some moments to rest. The thing that makes this kind of riding difficult is that it's hard to get into a rhythm. And this makes it hard to gage your effort and tricky to determine an overall strategy.

The Velonews account of the stage has quotes from Hincapie, Leipheimer, and Nathan O'Niel. All three of them seem to feel they didn't do the TT as well as they would have liked. Curiously, O'Niel says the course did not provide any place to rest But Leipheimer on the other hand says he was actually stopping pedaling on some of the downhill sections and getting into a better tuck. When you are going uphill on a bike there is less momentum and it is easier to hit your target wattage output and even go over it but when you go downhill, the effect is reversed and you carry more momentum and speed and it can be harder to maintain the same wattage output. O'Niel was using a power meter and it's possible that his strategy in terms of average power was difficult to maintain due to the rollers. Hincapie and Leipheimer were not using power meters but still, the rollers might make it harder to determine your overall effort and perhaps they felt like they had more to give by the time they reached the end or perhaps they felt overly exhausted and were not able to ride as consistently as planned. At any rate, I think the conclusion that is most certain is that rolling terrain can be the most difficult to race effectively and it takes a certain kind of mind set as well as physiology to do well.

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