Harder ..... Faster was an April Wine album from 1979. I can't find a better way to concisely describe what a team time-trial feels like.

Last Saturday, the Opus/A team (all four of us, David Albert, Michel Courval, Carl Dessurault, and myself) competed in the 4-man Quebec provincial team time-trial. With good results at the Granby and Gaston-Langlois TT's, we knew we could clock a good time on a hot and humid sunny morning.

4 laps for a total of 56 kilometers... We held back just a touch on the first 5km or so to get into a rythm. Then it was just one hard pull after another, each one seemed harder and faster, until we completed our fourth lap for a total time 1:10:41 for an average of 47.5km/hour (29.7 mph). That was a fine team effort, but the Sport Bazar team headed by Sebastien Laflamme (who is in fine shape this year winning the? Masters North American Championships in Sutton this July), took first place with an amazing time of 1:10:03 (48.0 km/h), placing us in second place.

Here are a few tips for a fast team time trial:

• Make sure your fastest rider is not behind your weakest rider, because that will break the rythm - otherwise the weakest rider will always have difficulty after he/she finishes their pull.
• Take fast short pulls. We could have done better with this. Dave really got this right. He took very strong pulls for about 20 seconds always keeping the pace harder/faster. I think Carl and I probably tooks pulls that were a little long. Most of the the time I came around for my pull I was fully recovered, so I should have taken shorter but harder pulls. A team TT is really just a series of intervals. With a 4 man TT, the intervals roughly become 20 seconds on/60 seconds off.
• Have a good warm up with race like effort. There is no point losing precious seconds warming at the beginning of the race. You have to start hard from the gun.
• Practice with your teammates to have tight fluid rotations. Make sure when you pull off, you fall back on the side that will shelter the pace line.