Abbo TT Data Analysis

I confess I am a data geek. Don't hate.

I often look at the Abbo results and wonder whether it was a tough night, or how I did relative to other riders. So being a get-up-and-go kind of guy, I figured I'd use the data to work it out:

drive.google.com/open?id=0B9SgCVMz1T-pLUZkMl9ISUhEWEU

The two sheets show a season summary and then an event by event breakdown. A third notes page explains some of the columns - if you have questions please ask.
I will be adding graphs in due course... because everyone loves graphs, am I right?

Please note that this analysis is totally unofficial and serves no useful purpose - but you might find it interesting. I have also included non-members in the data, but these riders do not have a starting PB.

Nic

I hope everyone appreciates the sacrifice I'm making to my performance just to provide an interesting statistical counterpoint to everyone getting quicker #selfless

Hi Nic,

As a fellow spreadsheet geek, I found this fascinating - thanks for that.

Looked at my data, I think there is a minor error in your "Improvement" calculation: it's fine if you actually set a new PB, but if not it gives a value close to 60 mins rather than a negative value (at least it does in Google Sheets).

Mike Biggs

Hi Mike

Good spot! (stupid Google doesn't support the Excel 1904 date format to deal with negative time values)...

I had some hidden columns in already to try and deal with this problem on the Google Excel viewer... but I hadn't done enough for Google Sheets.

Should be better now!

Nic

Have added something new to the spreadsheet... How the race was won!
You can compare your time over the three key segments of the course against other riders.

drive.google.com/open?id=0B9SgCVMz1T-pLUZkMl9ISUhEWEU


(Only available to Strava users! And you need to make sure you start your Garmins correctly so I can access all the necessary data points!)

Fantastic - thanks Nic

Updated with 12th May data... only marginally the 'quickest' night of the year so far...

Thanks Nic,

I'm loving the analysis, particularly the "where the race was won" section. Looking at my results, I performed relatively poorly in Section 2 last week and Section 3 this week. When you take the wind direction into account, I'm losing time in the sections with a headwind, which makes sense as my aero position is pants. I probably could have guessed that, but it's great to have the data to back it up. I now know where to target my improvement efforts - don't eat so many pies!

Nic,

Is there anyway you could include the wind direction in your analysis, e.g. indicate whether there's predominantly a headwind, tailwind or sidewind?

Hi

I've added weather information to each event so far.

One of the reasons I started looking at the data is to try and establish which are the best weather conditions for a fast time. It always seems to be windy in one form or another, but we can get wind from all directions... and of course a circuit will always be a mixture of cross / tail / head. That said, a common school of thought is that the best times are set with a tailwind on the first section to the golf club turn as section 2 is largely sheltered from what becomes a cross wind. The Strava segments used for my 'how the race was won' sheet break the course down into three manageable chunks each of which is likely to encounter different wind conditions on the night - clearly these sections suit individual riders differently too!

It'll be interesting to study further as the season progresses!

Nic

MikeB wrote:

Thanks Nic,

I'm loving the analysis, particularly the "where the race was won" section. Looking at my results, I performed relatively poorly in Section 2 last week and Section 3 this week. When you take the wind direction into account, I'm losing time in the sections with a headwind, which makes sense as my aero position is pants. I probably could have guessed that, but it's great to have the data to back it up. I now know where to target my improvement efforts - don't eat so many pies!

One thing to remember - drag is proportional to speed cubed. Which in practical terms means it takes considerably more watts to raise your speed by, say 1mph, when you are already doing 25mph (i.e. 25 to 26) than it does to raise it by 1mph when you are doing 20mph (i.e. 20 to 21). So spend your watts wisely - battle hard on the hardest (i.e. slower) sections and save them on the easier (faster) sections. I've got another side project all about bike aero data (see www.bikeaerodata.com)

HI Nic
Great analysis I love it, one thing I have no sectional results listed for the second race, 05.5.16.



Neil Adams