Against the Clock: A Reflection on the SISU Racing Individual Time Trial — and the Challenge Ahead
The Individual Time Trial has quietly become one of the defining pillars of the SISU Racing Club Championships. It’s the discipline that strips racing back to its purest form - no wheels to hide behind, no tactics to mask weakness. Just watts, pacing, and resolve. Looking back at the journey so far only sharpens the anticipation for what awaits in 2025/26.
The inaugural 2023/24 Championships set a brutal benchmark with an uphill iTT on Innsbruck Conti. It was a climber’s dream and a heavyweight’s reckoning - light riders with power-to-weight thrived as gravity decided everything. A season later, the 2024/25 iTT flipped the script entirely. The 19 km battle on Going Coastal was long, flat, and unforgiving, rewarding efficiency, patience, and the ability to suffer at threshold for an extended stretch. It wasn’t flashy but it was decisive.
That decisiveness crowned a formidable group of reigning champions. In the men’s field, Thomas Sorensen (A, Denmark), Curtis Ames (B, Canada), Olli Lappalainen (C, Finland), Casper Casparian (D, USA), and John Mullican(E, USA) mastered the art of controlled damage. On the women’s side, Paula Charlotte (B, Germany), Sabina Bremer(C, Switzerland), and Jess Galatro (D, USA) delivered performances built on discipline and composure. The question now hangs in the air: will they return to defend their crowns?
The answer may hinge on the most intriguing iTT yet. 2025/26 introduces Toefield Tornado in New York, the shortest iTT in Championship history at just 10.3 km. Short doesn’t mean easy - far from it. Toefield Tornado is a pure test of pacing and focus, winding through New York’s fast roads where every watt counts. No drafting, no excuses - just you, your bike, and the relentless push for the perfect effort. It’s a stage designed to set the benchmark and apply early pressure on the GC, where seconds matter more than ever.
From a coaching perspective, the demands are clear. Pacing is everything: the fastest riders will open at roughly 95–98% of target power for the first two to three minutes, then settle into rhythm. Overcook the start and the price is paid late. Cadence discipline becomes non negotiable and small power fluctuations add up brutally over ten kilometres.
The smartest riders will ride the course, not the clock, breaking the effort into thirds: build, hold, then empty the tank when it truly counts. The winning mindset remains unchanged: calm, methodical, relentless. The clock never blinks — don’t either.
From Innsbruck’s climbs, to the endless drag of Going Coastal, and now the razor-sharp precision of Toefield Tornado, the SISU Racing iTT has evolved every year. One thing hasn’t changed: this is where champions announce themselves. The only certainty for 2025/26 is that when the countdown hits zero, history will once again be written one second at a time.