Hi Guys, I’ve been working on TT position and equipment and looking for advice to further improve. mostly looking for positional improvements.
Bike is Cervelo P5 in size 54 with Zipp Super 9 Tubular and Zipp 404 tub. Saddle is adamo and extensions are Zipp Vuka Aluminium. I have a skin suit but am not wearing this on this “training” race. Helmet is Kask Bambino.
I feel my position is really high and that my head sticks up a heap. I would train positional changes incrementally, although it is a pain in the behind on the P5 with 3T aduro aero bars on the high setting.
Are you turtling effectively? It is really hard to hold and you need to train it, but it will help get your head lower. I found the easiest way to practise was to relax my neck and let my head drop right down (at this point I’m looking at my knees). Then shrug my shoulders and push my chin forwards (not upwards) and try to look forwards through my eyebrows. Practise it a few times with your phone set up recording you and then see how it looks - you may find you can drop your head down quite a lot without changing anything else. Sometimes, it is even helpful to raise the elbow pads a little, to allow you to really bring your shoulders up around your ears!
Tuck your shoulders, drop your head lower then your upper body, this will hurt your neck at first but it’ll get better after training with it. Look at how Rohan Dennis holds his head and position on the BMC or Dumoulin on his Cervelo.
Try to get your saddle contact point to bottom bracket angle like 78-82 degrees, about 140 mm to 90 mm at 800mm sable height. This is not saddle set back! This is the point where you sit on the saddle.
The bambino isn’t the greatest helmet so if you have the money get a medium tailed helmet like a giro aerohead.
Also try getting you hands closer and up maybe even drop the bars a few centimeters, 10-15 cm drop from the saddle. If you can get your pads more forward.
Agree with DuncanM23.
You look a bit crunched up so arm pads a little forward and as Rainier says watch how you sit.
Consider tilting bars up to the face, it will break the wind on your frontal area and also provide a guide for your eyes to peak over.
Thanks for the replies. I’m not sure I follow the saddle adjustments. Do you mean my saddle needs to come forward a bunch more so my sit bones are in front the the BB?
I will investigate new bars for the P5 as these really have limited adjust ability. I know @Nate_Pearson ran a Enve bar system I believe, judging from some 2018 podcasts when the guys went aero testing.
High Hands, Hands cupped saved a few watts. Bars are a pretty expensive exercise
Unfortunately we don’t have a picture of you with legs at full extension or at the top of the pedal stroke, which can tell you a lot.
But my instinct is that you might be able to raise your saddle up a bit (and then possibly move it forward a little to compensate).
It’s expensive, but if you got shorter cranks you’d be able to raise the saddle another 0.5cm, and get lower at the front without your knees coming so close to your body.
This video shows what I mean with saddle position.
Get de saddle right and usually you can do with the front whatever you want without losing to much power.
If your bars don’t adjust that much then look at Tony Martin who still rides with his arms parallel to the ground. He is still on of the fastest people on the flat. At least make sure you head is lower then you upper body.
The statement meant that, for your picture to be accurate, you’d be riding right to left. The suggested seat contact angle would not put you in front of the BB.
You look a little scrunched up like I have been. Part of the problem for me was using mechanical shifters and keeping my bike UCI compliant. The handlebar measurement is taken to the end of the lever. I’ve recently upgraded my bike to Di2 and now have the button shifters on the aero bars. I’ve been able to move my aero bars forward about 6cm. My elbows now rest on the pads rather than my forearms as before. This has got me lower and my my arms are more comfortable.
I’ve also got to work on tucking me head in like others have mentioned. Having a larger than normal head does not help my cause.
So new bike day and started working on position. Got 165mm cranks and tririg alpha one which makes dialing it in a lot easier. How do you think I look now?
Nice bike! Would it be possible to get pictures of 3 and 6 o clock pedal positions? Right now the saddle seems fine, but your heel is very high at the bottom. You could also do with a different helmet imo
Please don’t take this as gospel as I’m only commenting on the pictures, but I reckon your saddle may be too high judging by the height of your heel through the pedal stroke.
In the saddle, unclip both legs and let them hang and try to get your heel to touch the pedal whilst keeping the pelvis level (much easier when both legs are hanging). if you can just skim the pedals, that’s probably within a few mm of where you want to be.
Front end looks good in terms of drop and tilt etc
I agree with Aseldi about the saddle height. The front end looks good - it would be interesting to see a picture where you are turtling as I think that would pull the back/top of your head down level with your back, even when you are looking down the road.
Hello, I have had a TT bike fit on previous bike. I transferred the position to this new bike with a couple adjustments. I just like to post to the community for some feedback.
Can you get more stretched out? That may also help the aerodynamics. Also are you dropping your spine all the way. Take a look at Evenepoel and his position and aim for that.
Thanks for the replies. I’m not sure I follow the saddle adjustments. Do you mean my saddle needs to come forward a bunch more so my sit bones are in front the the BB?
