How Fast Is An Old Tour De France Pro With Modern Kit?

How fast can a 47-year-old ex-pro cyclist go on his old time trial course with the best modern equipment? Join David Millar, a retired pro cyclist and three-time Grand Tour TT stage winner, as we accompany him to his local time trial race to see if he can beat his old time using today’s top equipment!

00:00 How fast can a 47-year-old ex-pro cyclist go?
01:44 When did David Millar start competing?
02:44 How far has the equipment come?
03:10 The last 10 years of David’s training
04:06 What’s the power expectation for tonight?
04:49 Factor HANZŌ – Specialist TT Bike
07:35 Time Trial Test
09:30 I stopped before the finish!
09:57 The final results
10:36 Reflections
12:12 The first cup of tea I’ve drunk in 10 years
14:03 What time would David have done with his 2006 450-watt’s power?

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What do you think of David’s performance? Were you expecting him to go faster or slower with his modern equipment?

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I am nervous because For the First Time in well over a decade I’m on my way to a 10m Time TR the good news is that it’s not me I’m nervous for we’re at the high Wickam CC evening 10 to watch a ryer who was pretty good at time traling in the past in fact he’s won a time trial stage at all three grand tour David Miller retired from professional cycling in 2014 he had a colorful career turning pro with codice as a 19yearold in 1998 and wi in the opening time Tri at the tour to France 2 years later in 2004 he was handed a 2-year ban after admitting to taking performance enhancing drugs he returned from that ban in 2006 and soon after became an anti-doping advocate by the time he retired in 2014 he racked up 30 Pro wins 19 of which came in individual time trials he was twice second at the UCI world time trial Champs but was stripped of his 2003 win in Canada 10 years on from his retirement David is on his own Journey back to health and fitness and also happiness he’s also back on his bike he might not be quite as fit as he was in his Pro days but by most people’s standards and especially my standards he is very fit right now the question that popped into his head is how far can a 47-year-old ex-professional cyclist go on his old 10m time TR course using the best modern equipment well this evening he and we are going to find out we are in longwick near Prince’s rbra it’s an hour or so Northwest of London and where David started competing as a fresh-faced 15-year-old he turned up here with his mom in 1992 and still remembers his time 23 minutes and 58 seconds the course is the HCC 202 every time TR course in the UK has a code they’re not very catchy it’s not your typical out and back you go out come back pass the start take on a second turn and then it’s onto the Finish it’s also not completely flat the official course record is 20 minutes and 4 seconds set by John mvy 3 years ago but David turned up to an evening 10 in 2007 and scorched around it a minute faster than that he had a Scot time trail bike some Arrow shoe covers and a cotton cap fair to say that equipment clothing and things to wear on your head have come quite a long way since the question is how far have they come I was hammering it down with rain so he’s probably even more nervous I’ve only really got one question for you why H yeah I know why not I think I I don’t know I think it’s one of those things D that I said I’d never do again and I suddenly got to that point in life where I thought well I probably still should do it I still can do it so why not and that’s really the primary reason talk us through the last 10 years retired in 2014 where did your sort of exercise part of life go from there and where’s it at now it dropped off a cliff to be perfectly honest I think like many of us it at the end of the career the reason I stopped being a professional cyclist was because I was burnt out I was tired probably more psychologically than physically and so when it came to stopping as a professional I didn’t just want to stop racing I wanted to stop riding my bike and I wanted to stop doing sport I thought everyone’s always said you’ve got the rest of your life when your bikes when you stop being professional cyclist and I was like here we go the rest of my life and as it turned out uh life without sport didn’t suit me well and I think like many professional cyclists I found myself in this descending spiral mentally and physically and it was only at the end of 2022 when I reached an absolute I’d say the mo most unhealthy unfittest i’ ever been unhappiest mentally as well that I had this kind of turnaround point and realized I’ve got to sort myself out what’s the power expectation for tonight over the 20 minutes they there about and what did you used to do for that sort of time frame I think judging by what I’ve been doing the last couple of months probably high 300s so 370 380 is what I would expect it to be if I can do more than that I’d be really pleased but I’m I’m super curious because I’ve got all the modern tech I’ve got a bike that I’d have dreamt of when I was a pro I’ve got a speed suit that Castell have made me which is effectively the same as Remos I’ve got all the gear I think that’s what I’m interested in I imagine a lot of people at home are interested in because we’re always talking to them about how much faster the equipment is now and I’m not sure people always believe that yeah but tonight is the test tonight really is a test so this the bike I’m riding today is a factor Hanzo this is the The Specialist TT bike that’s used by Israel Premier Tech as well so it’s exactly the same bike that will be used at the T to France there’s this is pretty much standard setup for a total France Racer the frame itself as you can see here if you’re looking at it front on I mean there’s nothing there they’ve just reduced the frontal area as much as possible the uh the wheels we use almost always a disc these are the Black Ink the disc with the asymmetric bulge on this side don’t ask me why I don’t know uh three spoke which is pretty much durar these days I’ve gone for a 60 to Big Ring just one ring not two no chain guard which fills me with fear cuz I have lost a to France prologue with a single chain ring and no chain guard uh I’m using I think I’ve got a 1025 on there but the idea of using this big ring at the front is that I’ll be sitting mostly within three or four gears at the back which keeps the chain straight and more efficient it’s got SRAM red Wireless controls all my shifting is done up here so I go up there down there so basically the majority I’d say 98% of the TT today I’m going to be in this position so I’m just using here for Shifting the lrow brake levers I’ve got power on i’ got Garmin pedals that are measuring my power which will be monitoring what I’m doing throughout so they’re good and then disc brakes which again was something that didn’t exist when I was a pro so having discs is a dream because in the old days breaking on time trial bikes was an absolute disaster a couple of other things the seat is a TT specific because in a time trial we tend to be much more forward and on a normal saddle it goes quite narrow here and your sit bones don’t have anywhere to rest so by having these two rails that are quite wide at the front when I’m perched across I’m holding stability as for the position at the front it’s become quite the trend through all the latest aerodynamics and learning so it’s slightly tilted up and so the idea is to have your arm slightly up here as narrow as possible with your shoulders tucked in like this and as you’ll see during the ride the head tuck down as much as possible all about reducing the frontal area to the max then lastly the pest resistance for British time triling lights so these will be on during the ride and on the back so that’s probably the only thing that is different to this bike to a world tour tour France time TR bike fingers crossed it works I could sense David’s nerves just before the [Music] start and I could sense his speed soon after by the time my colleague Mike had filmed him set off and then jumped in the car with me David was already quite some way in front we finally caught him just after the first of the two turns and he was flying I don’t think I’ve ever followed a time trial in a car before and I was genuinely taken back by the speed he was carrying in the early part of the event thankfully the rain had abated at this point in the evening but with a stiff headwind on the longest section David’s aim was to dig deep and go a little into the red there and then try and hang on for the final return leg unlike some of the faster courses in the UK this is a single carriageway road with less traffic to create the beneficial flow of wind as they pass the rider however if the speed in my car was anything to go by he was on for a sub 20 minute 10m time trop [Music] right through to the last kilometer his Cadence remained High his position low I couldn’t help but think that David looked like he returned to his natural habitat it may only have been his second time riding that bike but together they looked in Perfect Harmony it’s just a shame for David that even though his bike clothing and helmet are all state-ofthe-art none of them could tell him exactly where the Finish Line was a I stopped before the Finish really the white car and as it came by the guy was catching shouted his number so I shouted my number as well and just stopped yeah yeah so I rolled back 300 M later and it was finished I think we got your explanation just after you cross the actual Finish Line but just in case we didn’t get the audio can you explain yourself yeah um well being a club time TR there isn’t a finishing Arch and I presumed the Finish was where a white car was parked which was then I thought confirmed by the fact the guy I was catching as we passed the white car stopped pedaling and shouted his number out so I shouted my number out and then and stopped pedling and stopped pedling and looked at my thing and it was 1959 and I thought I’ve done it and I was enjoying that moment and as I was enjoyed that moment I saw the finish rolling up towards me an immense amount of pleasure for about 20 seconds got it I got to enjoy that for 19 seconds yeah cuz we got the official time 2019 2019 so still very respectable yeah I’m really pleased with it was it the same old same old where you set out knowing what power you probably could average and the first part felt incredibly easy well you know what here’s a funny one when I was a pro I didn’t use power I was all on fi I didn’t use heart rate or anything i’ just go on feel so it’s quite a new and it’s probably more important for me to use power now because when I was Pro I tend to have this habit of be able to kind of go over under I push really hard in the kind of slower section and ease off in the faster sections whereas now I kind of have to keep it fairly stable and I was bang on average 370 Watts which is about where my where you expect to be was it and just remind us of what you would have done for that sort of duration before R about 450 so uh 80 W power difference and you’re a minute 15ish lower than your best time yeah exactly so we got the stat 370 wats 20 minutes 19 seconds what about the experience I’m pleased I can do it to be honest with you because that’s an effort that long long ago wouldn’t you even been able to imagine doing and it’s so funny cuz a lot of it the perception of effort is almost exactly the same as it was when I was younger but there’s there’s just missing those tweaks and my Cadence was 102 which is about bang on where where I was when I was a pro I could hold the position fine which is weird as well cuz as I said that’s the only second time I’ve been on a time trial bike since 2014 but did just slip back into it so so much of it is familiar to when I was at my best and it was lovely those moments where I kind of the Nostalgia of going fast and being tucked up in the position it was uh kind of brought back a lot of memories I bet it did yeah uh last question did you do the all important thing of getting tea and Cake in the Village Hall at the end I did I mean look look at this this is the first cup of tea I think I’ve drunk in 10 years no genuinely I don’t drink tea ever and I was I couldn’t help myself and it’s actually quite nice I didn’t have the tea I just had the homemade chocolate cake but it’s great isn’t it I mean you can turn up on a Tuesday or a Thursday night there’s so many local time trials around this country this is why in love with yeah I mean this is how I got into it and this little did I know that what it would turn into but this is what I fell in love with this quirky turning up at car pars yeah and lay and just total mixture of abilities and everyone’s just so nice yeah it’s it’s nice to come back to that after kind of everything I went through because it it takes me back to where it started rather than where it ended full circle yeah well congratulations thank you Dan and thank you you did well just to do it I mean I was saying somebody earlier having seen you I could sort of feel in myself the nerves that I would experience because although you know you’re not going to beat your old times you’ve got something in your own head of this is what I think I can do and you’re be disappointed if you don’t do it you’re very close to it but I think that was one of the reasons I wanted to do it to kind of relive those exper that kind of that feeling because i’ never get it in my normal life so to get have all that apprehension trepidation and dare I say fear it felt good yeah well well done again maybe see you at the next one yeah looking at David’s data file from that evening he judged everything almost perfectly his Cadence was steady throughout he had a slightly higher power average in the first 2/3 of the event which Incorporated that headwind section and his heart rate steadily Rose towards its maximum by the Finish Well by where he finished which as we’ve established wasn’t the actual finish now you may be wondering what time would David have done with his 2006 power of 450 wats on this new equipment well Dr Bridgewood has been crunching the numbers and David would have done an 18-minute 38 with the conditions he had this time around or 1831 had there been less wind that’s around half a minute faster than his 2006 record all that leaves me to say is thank you to David for inviting us along a happy 100th birthday to High Wickham CC who organized the event and a huge thank you to them and all the other clubs around the country who put on events like this week in week out we should all be grateful for what you do for the sport right let us know what you think of David’s performance were you expecting him to go faster or slower with his modern equipment given his power output let me know in the comment section down below