Time trial riders will now be able to use their old TT frames in UK road bike events, following the reversal of a decision made a year ago to ban them at what was a tumultuous Cycling Time Trials (CTT) AGM.
The sport’s UK governing body had ruled that road bike time triallists could not use frames that had been marketed for time trialling.
However, that motion was reversed at the weekend, in a proposal put forward by CTT’s own Regulations Advisory Group (RAG). Riders might wish to use their old time trial frames to create a bike for road bike time trials, it was thought, and outlawing such a practice would only make time trialling less accessible – something CTT has fought hard against over the past few years.
Time trial course design is also set to undergo a radical shake-up, with the creation of a two-tier course ‘Competition’ and ‘Racing’ system design to open up new possibilities and combat course loss – a major bugbear for modern time trialling often caused by road development that renders courses unraceable.
CTT’s Mark Bradley, who helped design the new regulations as part of the RAG, told Cycling Weekly in a statement: “I’m pleased that we’ve been able to formalise a way to relax the rules around course creation, in addition to the existing ability to request a dispensation. Hopefully it will encourage more innovative course creation around the country, and enable an uptick in the number of possible events.”
