Latest news with #time trial
CBC
2 days ago
- Sport
- CBC
Para cycling makes Canada Games debut, Team Quebec's Joseph Vachon wins gold
Team Quebec's Joseph Vachon won his individual time trial event and showed off his historic gold medal as well as his sweet ride after his race at the Canada Games in St. John's.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Pogacar 'super happy' with Stage 13 time trial win
Tadej Pogacar discusses his time trial win during Stage 13 of the 2025 Tour de France, where he earned another stage victory and continued his impressive run.
New York Times
11-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
‘If you have legs left then use them': Behind the scenes at a Tour de France time trial
Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale head coach Stephen Barrett is gripping the radio with two hands, as if it could fly up the road with Felix Gall. 'You're taking back some time,' he tells his rider, from the car trailing behind. 'This is where you're going to come good now. You're taking back time. Really, really good job man.' Advertisement There are five kilometers remaining in Tuesday's stage five time trial. Gall is the team's general classification hope, but time trialling is not his favourite discipline. 'If you've got legs left you have to use them,' Barrett continues, as the cornfields of Normandy whip by. 'If you have legs, then f*****g use them.' Decathlon-AG2R is a team with big ambitions. With their ownership set to change this offseason, and highly promising 18-year-old Paul Seixas waiting in the wings, they have set themselves the goal of winning the Tour de France by 2030. Their budget will increase to above €40m next season. But results are firmly on the up already. In many ways, the time trial is the purest form of cycling — a body and a bike, alone against the clock, but its engineering focus means that wealthier teams often excel. Whilst still existing with a smaller budget, Decathlon-AG2R are considered by many as the most improved time trialling squad in the peloton. They were second-best at last month's Criterium du Dauphine, one year after finishing 10th. But the Tour de France is bigger still. Decathlon-AG2R invited The Athletic behind the scenes to see how they fared at the world's biggest race. It is rice pudding for breakfast. What's more, it's a smaller quantity of rice than usual. 'It's just rice, milk, and sugar,' says nutritionist Julien Louis. 'But some of them prefer pasta as their carbohydrate. Then it's a source of protein — scrambled eggs, usually, two or three depending on their weight. 'We're trying to help them reach peak performance over a very short amount of time, just 35 to 40 minutes, rather than over a whole day like a road stage. So we have to carefully manage their energy level, nothing too major so we don't spike their blood glucose.' After breakfast, his athletes will eat two more small snacks before the race, either side of their reconnaissance ride. It's not rice pudding now. It's rice. The only flavouring they are allowed is a little tomato sauce or olive oil. A final dose of supplements before the time trial is now all they need. The race is so short that it is not worth them eating or drinking mid-course. Advertisement At 11am, the riders are just arriving back at the team bus from the recon. This plays an important role in the day — to work out what speedbumps can be taken at full speed, which side to navigate roundabouts, and how to enter sharp corners on Caen's tight streets. While in many ways, this flat 33km time-trial is simple, particularly in its middle section, there is still plenty to watch out for. 'The start and finish is where this is won and lost,' says Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's head of engineering Dan Bigham as he passes by. 'You need to know the course.' Most of Decathlon's riders head back to the hotel for a few hours. Their schedules are reverse-engineered from their start time — when to eat their last meal, when to start their warm-ups, when to leave the hotel. Not riding until after 3pm, they are treated like waterlogged phones, carefully placed into team cars. It is time for rest and rice. Bruno Armirail's French time trial champion's bike is being carefully set up by the team's mechanics. This is the 31-year-old Pyrenean's third Tour, but it is no stretch to say this is the most special bike he has ever ridden at it. Painted in the red, white, and blue of the French flag, sparkles are sublimated into its frame. A 3D-printed saddle sits on top. On the handlebars, the plastic has been moulded into the shapes of his forearms, pronouncing his low and aerodynamic 'V-shaped' position. Small details accentuate his ability to cut through the air, such as wing-shaped drop bars, and a bespoke down tube designed by partners Van Rysel and Swiss Side. Another secret weapon is part of their design team. Mathias Ribeiro is an engineer, first and foremost, but is also the best amateur time triallist in France, who finished eighth at last year's professional national championships. 'He'd beat a lot of the riders you'll see here,' remarks Paul Barratt, the team's director of innovation and technical support, who leads Ribeiro's team. Despite the Frenchness of the team, Decathlon still boasts a Barratt and a Barrett. 'Riders will instinctively trust someone who's walked in their shoes,' Barratt explains. 'When somebody tells you 'use this, or this', you might worry they haven't come from the same background. 'Building that trust as a practitioner is so important — and Mathias is literally doing what they're doing. It also means that when we do track testing, wind tunnel testing, he is effectively a test rider — that level of testing is a feature from motorsport that we really want to push to adopt.' Advertisement The team works with Swiss Side for their wheels, a company founded by former Formula 1 engineers. Unlike the grooves of a normal road wheel, its surface is almost completely smooth except for small indents, patterned differently between front and back wheel, which are designed to just slightly roughen the air, encouraging the right level of turbulent flow. While the back wheel is filled with a solid disc, to encourage aerodynamic airflow out past the back of the bike, the front wheel is left with spokes, in case of destabilising crosswinds. Aerodynamics are always important in time trials, but especially so on this flat and exposed course. 'The name of the game here is power to drag ratio,' Barratt explains. 'It's essentially the size of a rider's engine, how aero they can get, and their pacing strategy. It is not miles away from an hour record attempt, in the sense of just holding onto a position for as long as you possibly can.' As he explains this, the team's director general, Dominique Serieys, walks past. 'He is my boss,' Serieys laughs, clapping Barratt on the shoulder. Having arrived via INEOS Grenadiers last season, Barratt has played a key role in Decathlon's technical development. One of his proudest innovations is his team's work on new time trial helmets, which have been conservatively estimated to save at least eight watts. 'Bigger helmets is a concept that you see lots,' Barratt explains. 'The design process is heavily, heavily guided by CFD (computational fluid dynamics), a wind tunnel in the computer. We explored how we could manipulate the flow within the maximum possible limit under the rules. 'That's the power of CFD — you couldn't build thousands of prototype models in a wind tunnel, but you can on CFD. Then Van Rysel printed the best prototype for the wind tunnel, because you can't just go out and wear a 3D printed helmet on the road or in the velodrome for safety reasons. 'To be completely honest, it was a big gain almost immediately. It was one of those moments where you go, 'Wow, brilliant', it's a simple fix and the colors are going the right color.' The team's exact setup on the day is decided using another simulation, this time provided by Swiss Side, which used course data, weather, and attack plan to suggest the ideal combination of equipment. Decathlon-AG2R are by no means alone in this, but the squad are proud of their innovation over recent seasons. On a walk down the paddock, there is consternation around the Visma Lease-a-Bike bus, where Jonas Vingegaard's bike has been stripped of paint to save weight. Advertisement 'For this course, that actually makes a lot of sense,' Barratt remarks. 'It's something we'll look at for the future.' He underlines that for all the technological support they can survive, the team still needs to possess exceptional riders — recruiting and supporting those individuals is their starting point. Q might be able to provide James Bond with all the gadgets in the world — but James Bond still needs to be James Bond. Armirail has emerged from the team bus and is onto the rollers, carrying out his warm-up under the supervision of the team's Irish head coach, Stephen Barrett. Armirail, with an early start time, was the only rider to remain on the bus after the recon. 'His warm-up is 20 minutes, and he usually begins 45 minutes before his start-time,' says Barrett. 'He'll go easy for four or five minutes, and then we'll do a progression of different sections. The first one is eight minutes, where he'll gradually build to race pace, through the different zones. 'Then it's two or three minutes easy, and mini-exposures to race pace, where he'll do one minute at that speed, then 45 seconds just above race pace, then 30 seconds well above race pace. It exposes the system to different intensities — makes the body primed and ready to go.' Barrett has led a lot of research in this area over recent seasons, seeking to optimise the level of lactic produced. Each warm-up is tailored to different riders — as an experienced time triallist, Armirail reacts well to race pace. The team had planned to attack this stage with Stefan Bissegger, their former European time trial champion, but the Swiss rider crashed and abandoned with concussion after stage one. It means their hopes of a high finish on the day rest with Armirail. The Frenchman looks relaxed on his warm-up bike and adjusts his music as a soigneur places an ice vest over his shoulders. Two fans are also aimed at him, while the team bus' canopy is fully extended. The goal is to tread a fine line between warming up his muscles while keeping his core temperature down. Advertisement 'Bruno's not as big as Stefan, and he doesn't have a big sprint, but his physiological capacity allows him to put out a high percentage of his threshold for a very long period of time,' explains Barrett. 'You'll see him on a 62 chainring, he'll be solid, he's got a strong core. He's a really good time triallist.' Officially, the team says they want Armirail to finish in the top 10. Unofficially, they are targeting the top five. Armirail is four seconds off Edoardo Affini's leading time with 2.4km remaining. The Frenchman is gifted in the street part of the circuit, able to get on the power almost before his bike has straightened. The crowd, seeing his tricolor jersey fly through the streets, is as loud as it has been all day. 'Go on, Bruno,' Barratt mutters under his breath. There is now less than one kilometer left. Armirail rises out of his saddle to sprint out of the last corner, the finish rushing towards him. Watching on phones back at the bus, the clock ticking down, Decathlon staff urge the line into their shot. After 33km, he finishes just 2.4 seconds outside of Affini. There is a stifled groan, but they are proud of their rider. Armirail has completed the course 45 seconds quicker than their modelling expected. Later, sitting by the dock with his sunglasses on, still in his national champion jersey, Armirail analyses his day. 'I know I always finish on a high note,' he says. 'The end was very technical, which I like. I felt I was going fast, and made a big gain at the end, but it wasn't big enough. Two seconds is nothing, compared to 37 minutes of effort. It's those small details that make it important.' It will be a long wait to see if he cracks the top five. Serieys is scampering around the team bus between riders, moving with the excitement and spryness of a far younger man. The 64-year-old boss is a former racing driver who won the 1993 Dakar Rally, before triumphing in the same race eight successive times as a manager at Mitsubishi Motors. Having arrived at the team via Parisian rugby giants Racing 92, he wants to reproduce his prior success with Decathlon. In the days before the time trial, it was announced that Decathlon were taking over ownership of the team from co-sponsors AG2R La Mondiale. Advertisement A new title partner will be confirmed before the end of the Tour, but with their budget increasing from next season, Sireiys has openly spoken about his desire to build a super-team, capable of challenging UAE Team Emirates and Visma Lease-a-Bike. 'The team was fully at the bottom, especially in the time trial,' he says. 'So we have to say thank you to our partners, and for the work we have done in the wind tunnel. We have made a step. It's part of the classics project, and even as part of the Tour de France project.' Sireiys has stated that he wants to win the Tour by 2030. The team's hopes are centred around 18-year-old climber Seixas, still too young to ride Grand Tours this season, but who showed startling potential at last month's Criterium de Dauphine. Though their signings cannot be confirmed until August, they are expecting to sign sprinter Olav Kooij and one-day specialist Tiesj Benoot from Visma next season. 'We have to stay humble,' Sireiys says. 'But to be motivated and believe in our objective is the goal. We know how big this step is. If we finish in the top five now, great, but at least the machine is operational. We have to run towards 2028 at the pace we are looking for.' There is sweat beading on Gall's nose during his warm-up, despite the fan and the shade. Typically, only a small portion of the peloton put in their full effort in time trials — specialists in the discipline and GC contenders. Gall is one of the latter, aiming to better his best result of eighth, achieved at the 2023 Tour de France, an edition where he won the queen stage to Courchevel. 'I didn't have much confidence before joining this team,' he said after that stage. 'They saw something in me which I didn't any more, and that gave me the confidence again.' More of a pure climber, he excelled during the time trial during last month's Tour de Suisse, finishing second, though that came on a steep course, well suited to his abilities. As he and his coach acknowledge, 33km on the flat is not his best terrain. 'One thing with Felix, he's got quite long legs,' says Barrett. 'So on the climb, he's good, where he can be a bit more open with his chest and hips. So we've spent some time working on his mobility and his position. He's got good absolute power, so the aim today is that he can execute a good TT.' With 10 minutes until the start, Gall clips into his time trial bike and rolls through the paddock towards the ramp. Gall is underway. Twenty metres behind him, Decathlon's team car accelerates up the road. A Spotify playlist is softly playing through the speakers — 'Summer 2025'. Driven by the team's directeur sportif, Sebastien Joly, Stephen Barrett is on the radio in the passenger seat, while a mechanic sits in the rear right passenger seat. I am on the left. Advertisement The car is stacked with information. Two screens show a live television feed of the race, one powered by 5G, the other by an aerial in the roof. An iPad also displays VeloViewer, an app displaying the route and live rider tracking data. One iPhone shows Gall's time, which the radio hangs on an extendable telephone coil from the central console. Gall is chasing Red Bull's Florian Lipowitz, a possible GC rival, who starts 90 seconds ahead. INEOS' Carlos Rodriguez is one ahead of him. Lotto's Jenno Berckmoes is chasing Gall. Each rider has a pacing plan, set by coaches, with input from the team's simulation programme. 'Good, strong start,' Barrett tells Gall through his radio. 'We're going into a small downhill. Push the first four kilometers.' He talks his rider through each corner, and whether Gall can stay in his aero position, the car straining to keep up through the city streets. Though Gall is Austrian, he is an Austrian on a French team. The roadside comes alive for him. After four km, the first city segment out of Caen done, Gall is reminded of the next part of his pacing plan. 'Settle into a good rhythm now, around your threshold pace,' Barrett tells him. 'Good job. Good breathing, focus on your position, strong start.' A few more km pass, and Gall is spat out into a long, open straight. 'This is where you start to put some time into the smaller climbers.' Five seconds pass. 'Two speed bumps.' There are three time-checks throughout the stage, but the most significant comes at halfway, where the rider's name, picture, and time are displayed to man and masses. Lipowitz in front is going quickly, and goes through in 19.15. Rodriguez, two ahead, cards 19.58. Though Berckmoes behind is not riding aggressively, knowing you are being chased is still a nerve-wracking feeling, even from the car. Gall records a 20.23. The team are still pleased with his efforts. 'Follow the motor, follow the motor,' instructs Barrett as the crowds swell. In the final kilometers, Gall rises from his saddle to race through corners, long legs on full display. On one occasion, mid-corner, he stands up on both pedals to relieve the lactic. He is quickly back down. Aerodynamics only have limited sympathy for pain. Advertisement 'Last kilometer, last kilometer,' Barrett urges, sounding almost more boxing trainer than cycling coach. 'Now you push, now you push. Into position, push, push, push. Left, then right, then finish. Good job now. Left, right, finish. Left, right, finish.' The team car skids to the left just before the finish, so Gall's coaches do not see him cross the line. 'All the way to the end, all the way to the end,' Barrett implores, sightlessly. Gall finishes in 39.46, 39th on the stage, and 2.30 down on winner Remco Evenepoel. He slumps over his handlebars, exhausted. Gall is immediately back on his warm-down bike, almost before his team car is back at the bus. He looks phlegmatic as he debriefs with Barrett. 'I wasn't expecting any miracles, but maybe I was hoping for a bit better time,' he says. 'But I don't think I could have done much better in terms of power. Of course, I could always improve the technical parts, but power-wise… I'm happy.' 'He executed well, he averaged what we expect,' adds Barrett. 'Which is still very good numbers, very good watts. We always expect more, want more from the results, but I think today, as they say in France, was correct.' As he speaks, the final riders are completing the course. Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogacar are on track to go first and second, but Vingegaard is surprisingly slow, as is his teammate Matteo Jorgenson. Fellow Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin goes quickly, but not quickly enough. From an initial target of top 10, Armirail finishes fourth, just two seconds off the podium. It is the team's best Tour de France individual time trial result for 11 years. For the French champion, in the French jersey, on a French team, it was very correct indeed. (Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Photos via Jacob Whitehead)
