Andy Wilkinson - Master of Endurance riding

[The Thin Bloke]

After beating Chris Boardman's 1986 Course Record in our very own Mountain 37 TT in May, Andy Wilkinson of Port Sunlight Wheelers has now claimed another record - the National 12 Hour TT.

 

In 2011 he extended his own 24-Hour Record to 541 Miles - a record which he has held since 1997 when he covered 525 Miles.

 

However, after holding the 12-Hour Record since 1996 with 300 Miles, then improving it to 302.46 Miles in 2009, he lost it last year to a rider who covered 305.51 Miles.

 

But that's clearly given him more motivation as he's just re-claimed it by posting 317.9 Miles on August 5th.

To put that into perspective, imagine doing a 25 Mile TT in around 56-38....then repeating it another 12 times.

His average was 26.48mph, and apparently he covered the first 100 Miles in 3hr 35min, and the second 100 Miles in 3hr 40min.   

 

There is a link to a report of the event below. Andy used the same bike as he did for the Mountain 37....and if you look closely you'll notice the cyclo-cross forks, v-brakes, triple chainset and round-tubing frame.

 

http://www.velouk.net/2012/08/08/result-cc-breckland-12-hour/

[Johan Hirlandt]

Class rider Andy Wilkinson, had the pleasure of racing against him (although not at the same level of ability!) some years ago when he was in his prime.

I have no doubt that if the professional and world beating set up of British Cycling/Team Sky had been around in those days that Andy would have been right up there with the Wiggins and Froomes of this world. He was that good, even in the bad old days of cycling when we really were an enjoyable but laughable amateur sport to the greater public.

[Fergie]

I have read about Andy Wilkinson's bike on other blogs. The bike is custom made in Terry Dolan's workshop out of modern but conventional round section steel tubing. I understand his previous frame was titanium but broke.  The current frame is compact, has a narrow headset and avoids over bulky down tubes or bottom bracket casings minimising frontal area. It may not have the sexy contours that moulded carbon TT and road frames have but it is very compact and has a low frontal area.   It has a long wheelbase due to long top tube and long downtube and it also features brazed on brackets for mudguards, triple water bottle cages and racks. This is because Wilkinson uses it for everyday riding  including touring holidays and commuting when it is fitted with mudguards etc.  When racing he uses a disc at the rear and a HED trispoke at front. (Bradley Wiggins uses this, just like Lance Armstrong for nearly a decade of time trialling, but most others racers use wire spoked deep rims because they are paid to promote sexier products....however the HED trispoke (and the now discontinued Mavic trispoke) remains the lowest drag front wheel...hence Bradley Wiggins continues to use Trispoke unless cross wind conditions are bad). Wilkinson uses a  USE Tula style aero handlebar, with integrated aero brake "pods." These are an acquired taste on 50mph descents (!) but Wilkinson manages ok. This handlebar has a very low frontal area even compared to other tribars.  The  long wheelbase and relaxed steering rake makes for a stable ride which is probably helpful over 100mile distances. The long wheelbase (quite a lot longer than orthodox TT or road frames) means that he can ride semi "superman" without infringing UCI rules which limit how far the aero bars can protrude beyond the front axle etc.   He uses an old style aero head faring. These have a smaller frontal area than the more modern but bulky accredited ones. This keeps frontal area to the minimum as well as smoothing airflow over the head.    The cyclocross style carbon forks, although not aero forks,  are quite deep (3:1)  and nicely faired and widely spaced either side of the front wheel. Wilkinson has "vee brake" calipers rather than the cyclocross norm of "old style" frogleg cantilevers. Each Vee caliper is aligned with the fork and does not add to frontal area (ie does not poke out). The only thing that pokes out is the brake cable & cable housing.  Wilkinson's bike is not the lightest but I picked it up and it is hardly very heavy. Perhaps 8kg, maybe 9kg. This is not really important on time trials.  Weight, or rather lightweight, is overrated for time trials or triathlons.  I bet that the frame is comfortable and soaks up bumps. I bet the carbon cyclocross fork is more gentle over 12hours of riding than the stiff, near vertical aero TT forks that most of us, me included, use. Wilkinson wears a lycra club (Port Sunlight Wheelers) aero suit and, I think, lycra style shoe covers.   This bike does not conform to the carbon TT bling  that TdF riders use and that we ultimately purchase but the compact shape, low frontal area and small tubes share similarities with the frames developed by BC for track and road duties.

It is noticeable that Bradley Wiggins rode a BC bike in the Olympic TT. This, looked more like a BC track frame, was compact and avoided all recent trends towards contoured aero profiled moulded carbon fibre frames. Wiggins frame looked very similar to the track frames used by the pursuiters and sprinters. It is noticeable that Wiggins and Cavendish road similar frames for the road race also. These were optimised for low frontal area and low drag albeit fitted with drop handlebars, of course! Like Andy Wilkinson's and Graeme Obree's bikes (all steel) they are as compact as can be, to minimise frontal area.

If you look carefully at the most recent BC pursuit (and sprint) bikes used by Olympic team pursuiters (also Omnium & Team Sprint & Keirin, male and female) at London velodrome last week they all featured very wideset forks. Don't take my word for it: go and look on Google. This new fork looks completely unlike the aero forks that used to be fitted for Hoy, Pendleton, Wiggins, Thomas, Clancy et al.  Most of us now use thin profile carbon aero forks with close tolerances.  The BC "Olympic"  forks were  much wider apart and feature  rounded (rather than bladed)  leading edges.    BC have almost certainly researched this iand identified marginal gains but are unlikely to publish findings. The forks looked ugly.   Nevertheless you can be safely assume that widely spread forks allow air to flow more cleanly over both the front wheel and the forks.  Setting the forks wide apart does not look as sleek as an aero fork but assists airflow. Whether intentional or not the cyclocross forks used by Andy Wilkinson have similar wide gaps between the front wheel and the fork blades. Whether intentional or not I suspect that deep section cyclocross forks are probably no less aero than pointy, bladed aero forks even if our intuition would like us to believe that aero forks cut through the air better than a hot knife through butter etc. I bet the cyclocross forks enable the trispoke to spin freely and without any high pressure air struggling to force itself between the narrow gap between aerofork and wheel.  

I don't know whether Andy Wilkinson uses ceramic bearings in his bottom bracket, deraillier pulley wheels or hubs. These can spare up a few watts also.

Andy Wilkinson uses his kit everyday and gets comfortable with it. I think he fits a new chain and cassette for a championship, puts his aero wheels on and removes lights, mudguards and luggage racks.

I think the moral of the story is that the latest aero kit is not neccessarily the fastest and that a steel frame and round tubing is probably good enough as long as aero helmets, tribars and a nice front wheel is used. The bike only accounts for 16-18% of total frontal area. The rider's own body accounts for most of the frontal area (82%).

[Fergie]

As an afterthought Tony Rominger used a compact steel framed bike when he did 55km for the hour back in the early/mid 1990s. The next record went to Boardman and his "superman" position. . It was, I recall, ultra compact and painted white! He used front and rear discs (now standard for pursuit and sprint TTs). Boardman and Indurain were using carbon monocoque bikes but the thinking of Romiger's team was that a compact steel tube frame would have a low frontal area. Romiger's frame can't have been that bad for him to have done 55km for the hour!

On Friday, 10 August 2012 01:29:47 UTC+1, The Thin Bloke wrote:

[austin]

A couple of thoughts - When Wilkinson passed me in the Mountain 37, what became very apparent was that he is able to push a massive gear compared to us mere mortals.  If I tried to push a gear that big, I'd pop a knee cap.  He passed me on a slight incline and he looked like he was riding a moped in terms of the speed and stillness of his upper body.    

My biggest improvements came, not when I bought the TT frame, but when I first used a skinsuit and aero helmet.  In fact, when I first started to take time trialling relatively seriously, I showed little improvement after switching my kit from an old aluminium frame to my new frame.  The old frame was an old aluminium Dave Quinn frame, nothing aero about it.  It was very small so I could get down low on it and pushing the saddle forward made me pretty aero and able drive the pedals better.  I think my aero wheels help on the A55 course, but don't have a great effect on the Denbigh course. I don't think that my TT frame is anywhere near as stiff as my road bike, so it goes well on the A55, but I notice a difference going up The Wall.        

The main thing about time trialling is that if you go out and train a lot, you will improve more than blowing £3000 on a bike and there are other improvements that can be made before spending cash on the frame.  I toyed with the idea of buying a new frame this year, but to make a difference I think I'd have to spend an awful lot. 

 

Best do that training stuff instead then.

    

On Friday, 10 August 2012 01:29:47 UTC+1, The Thin Bloke wrote:

[Johan Hirlandt]

Wholly agree with your thoughts on training first equipment second Martin in terms of hierarchy of improvement in performance.