The Cemetery TT is a fixture of the Gainesville community. The Team Florida collegiate athletes use it as a benchmark to gauge their fitness, and the strongest Gainesville cyclists use it as a low-key chance to duke it out against the clock. After all, in the “race of truth,” the clock never lies.

For full disclosure, I have never participated in this race. There has only been one instance of the Cemetery TT since I moved to Gainesville, and I had a prior commitment. I have, however, participated in more than my fair share of triathlons (of which the cycling leg bears a strong resemblance to a standalone TT) and time trials of all distances.

The distinguishing feature of the Cemetery TT is the set of unique, arbitrary and unusual equipment restrictions. To quote Team Florida Cycling coach Phil Gaimon on the equipment rules:

“Equipment rules: aerobars, TT bikes, deep clincher wheels, shoe covers, and skinsuits are okay.
Aero helmets, tubular wheels, disc wheels, and trispokes are prohibited. You will not get scored if you come out on this stuff, because aero helmets aren’t as safe in the event of crashes, and no one wants to stand around while you change a flatted tubular or try to find a tube with a 2-mile valve.”

Of course, some of this reasoning is simply illogical.  Aero helmets are no less safe than regular vented helmets in a crash, and during a TT there is no one “standing around” waiting for you to change your flatted tubular.  (In fact, a flat tubular is faster to change than a flat clincher, if you do it right!)

So I followed up with Phil on this issue, and he cited two reasons for these equipment restrictions:

1. It’s the way things have always been done.
2. Since most collegiate athletes can’t afford fancy gear, we want the technological playing field to remain level.

Of course, reason #1 is fundamentally flawed.  Not only is the fact that something has been happening for a long time NOT proof that it is correct, the UCI (International Cycling Union) has a track record of changing equipment restrictions that have been in place for a long time.  Example: the retroactive changing of the Hour Record equipment rules, invalidating Boardman’s and Obree’s hour records that they set in grotesquely awesome positions with some hideously fast equipment.

Reason #2 is, in theory, a perfectly valid reason for implementing equipment restrictions.  There are few higher priorities in the sport of cycling than encouraging new athletes to compete at a high level.  The cost of TT equipment is a legitimate hurdle that these athletes must overcome to be competitive.  Setting equipment restrictions is a simple and effective way of allowing college athletes to get competitive experience without sacrificing their student loan payments.

However, the current equipment restrictions do not adequately reduce the financial barrier to entry of these cyclists.  The use of TT bikes adds a minimum of $1500 in cost to a collegiate cyclist looking to be competitive.  The use of deep clincher wheels is also another expense, as TT wheels are often deeper, heavier and less practical than the aero wheels used in road and crit racing.

Additionally, some of the equipment banned by the current rule-set makes no sense from a financial standpoint.  Aero helmets are not particularly expensive ($100-$200, about the same as a good set of clip-on aerobars, which are LEGAL under the current rule-set).  Tri-spoke wheels are perhaps the best “bang-for-your-buck” wheelset a college athlete could get.  Tubular wheels are often cheaper than their clincher counterparts, especially when obtained secondhand.  Wheel covers for a training wheel, effectively turning the wheel into a super-aero disc wheel, cost $100, a very reasonable price.  All of these pieces of equipment are banned on the pretense of either safety or convenience, both of which are largely non-factors in time trial racing.

The current equipment restrictions for the Cemetery TT are not appropriate.  They do not keep costs down for college athletes, and include the nonsensical banning of perfectly reasonable equipment.  Additionally, they do not allow those with tons of aero gear the chance to actually use a significant portion of their equipment.

So, what *should* the equipment restrictions be?

Simple.  Ban all aero equipment, period.  Run the TTs in an “Eddy Merckx” style–no aerobars, no deep wheels, no aero helmets, nothing.  Let the college athletes show up on the same road bikes they use for their weekly training rides and duke it out.  Total extra cost: $0.  (Well, maybe clip-on aerobars would be OK.   The expense is reasonable, it’s easy to install/remove them for the TTs and they get the athlete 95% of the way to a full-on TT setup in terms of the total bike/rider aerodynamic package.)

Also, maintain a “best human effort” competitive category as a throwaway.  This would be for the athletes who want to show up with their disc wheels, aero helmets and other aero gadetry.  For many athletes, simply getting a chance to use their aero gear in a competitive setting is half of the run!  (Course records could not be set in this division.  Intra-category records could, of course, be set, but the official course record would have to come from the Eddy Merckx division, just as the current Hour Record does now.)

The collegiate cycling TT equipment rules are scheduled to change next year (for all non-A riders) or the year after (for the A riders).  Aero equipment will be severely restricted.  For college athletes, this is unquestionably a GOOD thing.  It’s time that the Cemetery TT followed suit.

The real question (at least, according to the Internet) was: would there be friction between Armstrong and Contador? As it turns out, the answer was NO (the team rode beautifully from start to finish, with Armstrong taking strong pulls and Contador taking minimal pulls as the protected leader of the team). But I could have told you that before the stage even started–it would have been stupid for the team to fracture during the TTT! Everyone loses in that situation.

With Astana’s convincing victory in the TTT today, it made it that much harder for the other GC contenders to catch the Armstrong/Contador (Armstrontador?) pairing. Though Saxo Bank’s strong showing allowed Cancellara to keep yellow, Armstrong sits in 2nd place by a fraction of a second. Contador is not far back either.

For now, Team Astana sits in an unusually commanding position (for the first week of the TdF) over the rest of the peleton. My prediction is that Cavendish will win approximately eight consecutive stages, and then Armstrontador will duke it out in the mountains. If anyone not on Team Astana wants to win this race, they’ll have to have some special moments in the mountains and the last time trial. It’s Astana’s race to lose.

1. The shorter the TT, the longer the warm-up. This is very important.  The high efforts needed in a short TT mean that your body has to be ready to go hard, right from the start.  A thorough warm-up helps to prepare your body for the sudden onset of lactic acid accumulation, and has other benefits (such as raising your heart rate, getting the blood flowing, and increasing your mental focus).  For a short TT, include at LEAST 30 minutes of pedaling before the race (perhaps an hour or more, depending on your speed and your personal needs).  For a longer TT, it depends on the distance.  a 100 mile TT requires minimal warm-up, but a 40k TT requires a similar warm-up to a 10 mile TT.
2. Include several race-pace or faster accelerations. For shorter time trials, saving your aerobic endurance for the race itself is less important, so include more intervals at race pace or faster.  The intervals do not need to be very long (30-90 seconds is a good target), and include an adequate recovery interval.  For longer TTs, use fewer intervals and a slightly longer duration (perhaps 90-120 seconds).  Try to accomplish your last interval within 10-15 minutes of your start time.
3. Use a bike trainer for your warm-up. This will allow you to concentrate on putting out the correct efforts for the duration of your warm-up.  Riding the course is always a good idea, but that should have been taken care of before race day, and not during your warm-up.  On the trainer, you can easily make any last-minute adjustments to your bike and have easy access to all of your pre-race nutrition, as well.
4. Stay warm. If you’re TTing on a cool day, wear plenty of (but not too much) clothing during your warm-up, and consider pushing the easy parts of your warm-up a bit harder.  You want to hit the starting line with the blood and sweat already flowing.  (If it’s a hot day, the opposite applies–keep cool and take your warm-up a bit easier.)
5. This one’s not technically related to your warm-up, but pump up your tires to the correct pressure. Most riders do not require more than 120psi in their tires.  If the road conditions are absolutely perfect, then higher pressures are MAYBE ok, depending on circumstances, but overinflated tires can actually *increase* the rolling resistance of your tire.  Use 10% more pressure in the rear tire than the front, and use 10-20% less air pressure if it’s raining or the roads are wet.  When using your race tire on the trainer, use 20% more pressure than normal.  Then, when you’re done using the trainer, deflate and then re-inflate your tire to the correct pressure.
6. Intimidate your competition. This may include grunting a lot, panting, sweating profusely, wearing dark sunglasses on a cloudy day, keeping a stone face during your hard intervals, wearing a jersey with a skull and crossbones on it, using a disc wheel with a skull and crossbones on it and strutting around wearing your aero helmet for no reason.