Crossing the island for a 19km ride - TT day

It's TT day again! After the opening TT on stage 1, today there was another TT on the program. This time 19km, so a bit longer than the 11km of the first stage. The profile and roads were different too. More up and down, and more technical, especially in the first 7km. The start was all the way on the other side of the island in Basse-Terre. Which meant about three hours on the bus today for a 25-minute ride.

I was pretty sure this TT was going to suit me better, for a few reasons. First of all, the length. I tend to do better in longer TTs than shorter ones. The course was also harder and more technical, which means lower average speeds and a bit more power and skill coming into play. I believe that works in my favor, as I don’t necessarily have the fastest setup. The higher the speeds, the bigger the aero penalty you pay. And last but not least: we are at stage 8. A lot of riders are tired by now. You can easily tell from how the bus gets quieter and quieter when we leave for each stage.

I’m high up in GC, so I was starting with the last riders. Which sucks, because it means spending a lot of time waiting around before you can finally start. And because everyone came here by plane, there are no team tents, chairs or much else to make that wait comfortable. We found a spot underneath the tribune of a local sports club, where we could borrow some chairs and sit in the shade. It was actually a pretty funny place to spend a few hours. Although I had 3hrs, I forgot to take a picture. Yes, I’m getting tired too.

So we arrived around 9:30, about 3.5 hours before my start. I did a short recon of the first 10km of the TT. I didn’t feel like doing the full course. Any unnecessary time spent riding in 37-degree heat here feels like wasted energy, and because the TT wasn’t a loop, riding the whole thing would also mean riding all the way back. After seeing those first 10km, though, I was looking forward to it. This course would suit me.

After a 2hr wait post-recon. The actual “warm-up” was nine minutes at 150W, with one minute at 400W and a three-second sprint. Combined with an energy drink from the local grocery store, that was more than enough in this weather. I started the TT without any power target. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do my best fresh power anyway, so the plan was mostly to ride by feel: keep the momentum on the uphill sections and recover a little on the downhills.
The TT finished with a 1km climb followed by roughly 500m downhill to the line. That last climb was something you had to keep a little bit in the bag for. If you arrived there completely cooked, you could lose a lot of time.

Honestly, the approach worked pretty well. It was one of those TTs where you get into the zone. It hurts, but you feel like the rhythm is there and you can keep pushing. The result confirmed it: 7th on the stage, 387W average, and up two places in GC.
And one stat that probably tells the stage-racing story better than anything else:
Stage 1 TT: 192 bpm average, 200 max
Stage 8 TT: 171 bpm average, 184 max
Welcome to stage racing.

Tomorrow we go for a hard stage again with a 5km wall at the finish. I expect Vendée U to play there numbers to turn GC upside down. Will be interesting!

Oh, and if you had a bad day today, things can always be worse.
The rider who finished second crashed in the final corner. He lost the stage by two seconds.
And broke his collarbone.