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Max Walscheid has just finished his first year with Jayco-Alula, and next season will be his tenth as a World Tour rider. He has a rather unusual rider profile: sprinter, classics, and time-trialist too.

A Happy Accident?

The German rider hasn’t always been a time-trialist. In fact, it wasn’t until an early season team training camp, five years into his career, that his eyes were opened.

“In 2020, while riding for NTT, we did a time-trial on training camp. It was about 10 minutes long and I was clearly the fastest there. I’d never put any effort into time-trialing before then as I was mainly focussed on sprinting, but Victor Campenaerts took me to the side and convinced me. I enjoyed it and it became an opportunity for me at races too.”

Adding the time-trial to his skillset was almost a happy accident. It’s an unusual addition though, it’s rare that sprinters enjoy time-trials.

“I knew from my under-23 years that I was good at time-trials, but when I turned professional I had bigger problems! I’m tall and quite heavy compared to other guys, so I needed to work on my climbing, and I wanted to become a better sprinter too. For the first years of my career, I was neither capable nor willing to focus on them. I think when I reached a certain level as a rider, and a certain threshold, I was able to do this. Also, having Victor in my corner helped.

I had an interesting chat with my coach and it’s all about metabolism pathways. I’m very good at producing power over a couple of seconds, and luckily I have quite a big anaerobic capacity too. But, on the other hand I can also produce 350w for something like six-hours. Physiologically, my strengths are on both ends of the spectrum and not really in the middle.

If I put my strengths together, I can put out a very good time-trial if the course plays to me. In some TTs, I have to be cautious not to go too deep as it’s hard for me to recover. I try to pick time-trials that play to my strengths and flat. Unfortunately there are less of these in the modern day World Tour!"

The Details

Pro, or amateur, getting faster at time-trialling can be frustrating at times. Aerodynamics are often seen as ‘black magic’ and it takes time and resources to be the fastest athlete possible. For the top dogs, this isn’t a problem. Teams are constantly investing in wind tunnel, and velodrome aero-testing. Yet, self-admittedly Max isn’t one of the top dogs at Jayco-Alula.

“I’m by far not the most high profile rider in the team. If there are easy upgrades and ‘free speed’ then I always get onboard and try to help as much as possible. I’m super happy when I get the opportunity to go to a windtunnel and develop. The big guns have the results and then get the resources too, it’s part of the World Tour.”

“Sometimes I'm thinking that I would like to throw it all overboard and just do TTing on road bikes - Merckx style. On the other hand, it’s super fascinating to go into the technology of time-trialling. I appreciate companies like Sync that put so much love and detail in. When I approach a new bike, I always look at and admire the rear hanger. If I see a company put a lot of thought into the way they do the small things, then I really appreciate it. That’s part of time-trialling, putting thought into small details.”

I love working with guys like Ken, because they put so much love and passion into the details. I had to take apart my Aerobar Three earlier this year when we were changing onto the disc brake TT bikes. It was only when I took apart the handlebars that I saw how much thought went into them. There are so many tricks and tweeks. It’s an amazingly thought through product."

The Training:

Finding time to ride the time-trial bike can be difficult for pros. It’s no secret that TT kilometres are getting fewer and fewer at the top level. They’re also becoming more and more specialists, leaning towards General Classification riders, and straying away from pure specialists.

“I like to train a lot on the bike, it can be difficult where I live in Germany though. You have to be careful with the roads, already if I am riding in zone two then I am going more than forty kilometres an hour! I have a few different laps I use, and I really try to focus on cornering - my technique on the bike.

I think most riders underestimate technique. They try to find a straight, flat road to go as fast as possible. I specifically search for corners and train different rhythms, learning how the bike handles. The TT bike is a completely different type of riding, there’s so much weight over the front wheel, it takes time to learn to handle it well.”

This is something we encourage athletes of all levels to do. Training to the demands of the course means not wasting energy. Learning to corner fast, or simply riding the TT bike on the rollers are great skills to practice."

Max, if you were to design the dream time-trial course?

“It would be ten-minutes long. Completely flat, with some corners too. That’s really my timezone, I can average more than five-hundred watts for that…”

Thank you Max, for taking the time to talk to us.

Instagram: @maxwalscheid