Time trialling courses in the UK could be getting a makeover as the sport’s governing body, Cycling Time Trials, seeks to introduce new measures to push it forward.
If a new proposal is voted through at the CTT annual meeting at the end of the month, all UK time trialling would fall under one of two brand new course types – ‘Competition’ and ‘Racing’. The latter would enjoy relaxed course-design rules that would enable organisers to find design new courses with far more ease.
The proposal, which comes straight from CTT’s Board of Directors as opposed to one of its regional districts, is designed to combat a significant time trialling bugbear – course loss.
The current course regulations are tight, making it difficult to design new or replacement courses. They specify that the finish must be relatively close to the start – within 1.5 miles of the start on courses of 10-15 miles for example, and 2.5 miles of the start on courses of 25-50 miles.
There would be no upper limit on the 50% rule, Bradley told CW, but it would be up to organisers to decide whether – for example – having the finish line 50 miles away from the start would benefit their event, or be to the detriment of it.
The new course design regulations are not the only thing set to be voted on at the CTT’s AGM this month. Also up for debate is a proposal to reverse a ruling last year specifying that only bike frames marketed specifically for road (not time trial) use can be used in road bike time trials, and a proposal to reduce the maximum rim depth of front and rear wheels from 90mm to 65mm – also for road bike time trials.
