TRIA Orthopaedic Center Your Cycling Blog

By Kristin Armstrong
Peanut Butter and Co. Team TWENTY12
Four-Time Nature Valley Grand Prix winner, 2006-2009

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, I completed the biggest achievement of my career by winning the gold medal in the women’s road time trial competition on August 13. It was a childhood dream to compete in the Olympics and is one of the most amazing days of my life representing the United States at the highest level an athlete can reach.

I love cycling and I love competition. After a year-long break to start a family, I’m proud to be racing this year on a team that I also am part owner of: Peanut Butter & Co. Team TWENTY12.

The Nature Valley Grand Prix is one race I’ve always looked forward to each year. Typically, I excel at the time trial, but the opening stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix, the St. Paul Riverfront Time Trial, is very different. We aren’t allowed to use time trial specific equipment in this race! This nuance creates a unique challenge for me. As a time trial specialist, I’ve always benefitted from using aero bars, disk wheels and a time trial bike frame specially designed for speed. The dynamics of this technical course, plus riding a traditional road bike for the stage, slightly changes my strategy for the race. It still favors time trial specialists like myself, but my training for the time trial will focus on my road bike rather than my time trial machine.

Every cyclist has an opinion about time trials: You either love or hate them. While many cyclists prefer not to do a long, solo effort, the ability to time trial effectively is handy whether you actually do stand-alone TT events or not. How can you benefit from this training?

• Time trial training helps any rider who has an opportunity to break away from the pack in a race. The ability to push your cycling skills and knowledge to the edge and hold it there for extended periods requires mental and physical toughness.
• Riders can train for both skills. If you know you can nail a steady speed, power or heart rate output for an extended period of time, you’ll have more confidence in the saddle. When time trialing, I mentally challenge myself to tap every ounce of energy I have and fight through any physical pain in order to compete and achieve my goals.
• Time trial training can also benefit recreational riders who never pin on a number and race. The power and aerobic capacity that make you a successful time trialist also make you a strong all around rider.

The key to success for the St. Paul Riverfront Time Trial is to stay smooth, calm and powerful on the course. There is no hiding in the pack or drafting behind teammates. Each rider must test herself against the course. This course is all about power and efficiency as riders traverse the out and back on Lilydale Road and then face the steep climb and turns up Cherokee and Ohio Street. Finesse and endurance will help everyone get to the finish. Without the aid of time trial bike technology, riders will need to stay focused. Riding time trails is a great way to get strong and will help your solo training or during the Gran Fondo rides when you find yourself breaking the wind.

In our world, we call time trials “the race of truth.” Although my peers and I will complete more than 200 miles of cycling in the Nature Valley Grand Prix, this 6.1 mile race can be a decisive factor – showing who the true contenders are for the overall win. Losing just a minute in this time trial could cost dearly in the final standings.

Cheers from spectators – especially up the hill climbs and at the finishing straight – always help motivate riders to the finish line. So bring your breakfast and coffee and watch us go for it!

Kristin Armstrong (born August 11, 1973) is a professional road bicycle racer and Olympic gold medalist, the winner of the Women’s Time Trial at the 2008 Summer Olympics and also 2 World Time Trial Championships. Before temporarily retiring to start a family in 2009, she rode for Cervélo TestTeam in women’s elite professional events on the National Racing Calendar (NRC) and UCI Women’s World Cup. She announced a return to competitive cycling beginning in the 2011 season, competing for Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12 at the Redlands Classic.^[1] Armstrong earned a bachelor’s degree in sports physiology from the University of Idaho in 1995, and currently lives in Boise, Idaho. Kristin Armstrong and Lance Armstrong (known to women’s cycling fans as “the other Armstrong”) are not related.

About Time Trials:

An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: contre la montre – literally “against the watch”, in Italian: tappa a cronometro “stopwatch stage”). There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials (TTT). ITT’s are also referred to as “the race of truth”, as winning depends only on each rider’s strength and endurance, and not on help provided by team-mates and others riding ahead and creating a slipstream.

Source: Wikipedia 

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