Time Trial

Montebello Time Trial

At the beginning of each season, we do a timed road hill climb on Montebello to the School. We do this so that we know how to group ourselves for practices, know our training zones, and can see our improvement as the season progresses. NO ONE will be cut from the team, and this is NOT a tryout, or anything like one. Many riders will choose to do the time trial at the end of the season as well just to see how much they have improved.

Bike Setup

We want you to do this on the mountain bike you plan to practice and/or race on. You can set your tire pressure as high as 45psi if you want, but no higher. You should also still carry a water bottle even if it's only half full. If you don't have a mountain bike, let me know and we'll try to loan you one. If necessary, yes you can do it on a CX or road bike, we'll just add a minute or 2 to your time depending on what kind of tires you used. If you're one of our faster riders and you want to do it on your road/cx bike that has a power meter because you're getting special metrics for the training season for Ben, that is ok too.

Preparing

Before you do the TT, you should warm up really well for 20-30 minutes. Also, we won't be timing you, so you'll need some way to time yourself. You can use a watch with a stopwatch, a gps unit, a phone in your back pocket. Using the strava segment time is ok too. Lastly you should mentally prepare yourself for a full-gas effort. Time trials are hard! You should be wobbly legged and out of breath when you get to the end of it. The time trial can take anywhere from 13 to 31 minutes, depending on your fitness level. The team record is 12:40.

Where is it?

The timed part itself will be from the bottom of montebello to the school. Here is the strava segment.
www.strava.com/segments/4197

We like to do a start at the sign. Full stop, 0 mph. Start your timer, then go.

The finish is at the school, where it says "school" on the pavement (and the mailbox and the gate). If you care about the strava segment, it can be good to cruise about 100 yards past the school to make sure the segment registers properly. Otherwise, stop at the finish and stop your timer!

Riding Down Monbello

What goes up must come down! Please obey these critically important rules when riding down Monbello (or any steep twisty road with traffic for that matter)

HUG the right side of the road when making right turns. On every right turn, visualize a car coming up the hill around the corner toward you, and that car is HALFWAY IN YOUR LANE. Sorry for the all-caps, but this is critically important for staying alive - we've had more than one rider report that they would have been dead if they hadn't made a habit of following this rule.
Take the lane when setting up for and entering that hugging right turn. Otherwise it's really hard to do the proper far-right track.
Take the lane when making left turns. DON'T be in the far right of the lane where all the loose dirt and rock bits are - that's a great way to wipe out. Learn to see the main path that the cars take, and ride with your wheels where the car's right-side wheels typically go.
DON'T CROSS THE DOUBLE YELLOW. EVER. When there is a double yellow line, don't be on it, and don't cross it. If your wheels are on your side of the double yellow but you're leaning the bike so far that your left elbow is over the paint, you're crossing the double yellow.
Remember that paint is slippery when wet. Same with anything metal. Road crashes are the worst, that's where the most serious cycling injuries can be found because you can easily be going over 30 mph on a descent.

Extra Metrics