Time Trial Practice

[BrumJim]

Son is looking for time trial practice ready for races later on in the year. Most weekends are booked up by races, so looking for weekday events.
Guess in which major urban centre we live:

 

[DCLane]

There should be some out of Leicestershire Road Club plus others nearby advertised on BC East Midlands plus some local clubs may run them.

Do Birmingham Midland CC run their Tuesday TT still? https://bmcycling.jimdofree.com/#:~:text=The Time Trial Series runs,public car parks near Tesco.

Up in Yorkshire we do have decent provision fortunately but there are some local clubs that run mid-week TT's which aren't massively publicised.

 

[palinurus]

There should be some evening / weekend club TTs, evening ones likely starting around mid April. Join one club and turn up at other clubs events as a guest- might cost an extra pound or two. Or three-- I've not been involved for a while. Check local club websites (if they still use them) or FB.

 

[matticus]

An interesting feature of this map; which parts of the southeast now feature widespread 20mph limits in small villages? And also is considered a cycling stronghold.
[hint: Starts with Oxfor, ends in 'shire !]

I don't know "Brumjim"'s area - perhaps they have the same speed limit problem?



n.b. Chris Boardman set the 25mile comp record in

Spoiler: xx

Oxfordshire

, so it's not like there have never been races in the county!

 

[Jameshow]

There should be some out of Leicestershire Road Club plus others nearby advertised on BC East Midlands plus some local clubs may run them.

Do Birmingham Midland CC run their Tuesday TT still? https://bmcycling.jimdofree.com/#:~:text=The Time Trial Series runs,public car parks near Tesco.

Up in Yorkshire we do have decent provision fortunately but there are some local clubs that run mid-week TT's which aren't massively publicised.

Are there any up in Yorkshire on a Thursday night? I'm busy the other nights.

 

[DCLane]

@Jameshow - there's a Thursday TT league - https://www.facebook.com/groups/451413368373474 plus there's been a Moose TT series from the Sovereign near New Mill on Thursday's during the summer which did run last year -
View: https://www.facebook.com/events/2060788854226398/2060788857559731/


The others I know of are Barnsley (Tues - 5 mile), Wakefield (Wed - 10 mile).

 

[Sharky]

Is your son a member of a cycling club?
To ride open events, you have to be a member of an affiliated cycling club. Somebody in your chosen club will know where the events and courses are.

 

[BrumJim]

Is your son a member of a cycling club?
To ride open events, you have to be a member of an affiliated cycling club. Somebody in your chosen club will know where the events and courses are.

Yes, he is. And the club is affiliated.

In terms of knowledge of events, probably not, mainly due to him being one of the oldest.

As a post script - struggling to get him committed to doing one of these events. He is stubborn, but I think if he tried one he would like it.

 

[BrumJim]

First one tonight.

Since my first post a lot more TTs have appeared on the calendar. Some, annoyingly, don't have a map, so don't appear on the map view.

One club suggested that a parent should follow their child, just a few metres behind. Yeh, like I have a hope of keeping up?

 

[DCLane]

One club suggested that a parent should follow their child, just a few metres behind. Yeh, like I have a hope of keeping up?

Some organisers are OK with this, others aren't. It's worth asking the organiser before you do it. Alternatively, you could enter as well noting that he's likely to keep score of when he beats you.

If your child's OK on the road, and knows the turns, then they should be OK with marshals there. I'd always recommend driving the course first so they know.

And ride well MiniBrumJim.

You'll be buying a time trial bike next

 

[Sharky]

First one tonight.

Since my first post a lot more TTs have appeared on the calendar. Some, annoyingly, don't have a map, so don't appear on the map view.

One club suggested that a parent should follow their child, just a few metres behind. Yeh, like I have a hope of keeping up?

Suggest setting out before his start time and find a safe spot to watch and encourage him as he goes through. Then cycle back and find a spot about two miles from the finish and do the same.

Make sure he carries a mobile phone.

 

[BrumJim]

It is an out and back, with a bit tacked on the end. Thoughts are that I could head out after him, turn around when I see him come back (rather than going all the way to the turnaround point), and then try to hold on as much as possible until the finish.

He also has the route on his bike nav, so should know how far he has gone and when to turn.

 

[Sharky]

All courses are risk assessed and are very safe nowadays. Not like when I started and we did U-Turns where ever the halfway point was and on busy A roads. Did my PB on one of these courses.

So don't worry, your son will do a PB for sure.

 

[matticus]

Not like when I started and we did U-Turns where ever the halfway point was and on busy A roads.

Althought the U-turns weren't always on busy roads:

 

[BrumJim]

Done.

Not quite as smooth as I had hoped for. Turned up at the start 25 minutes early. No one there. Rode up and down the road to check that we had the right place. Still found no one. Eventually, 4 minutes before the end of sign-on, someone turned up, and told us that the sign-on point was about 4 minutes away down the road, and not at the start.

Turned up to sign-on just in time.

Who is taking part? Both of you?

No, just him.

Oh, so are you accompanying him? You ARE accompanying him. Just keep in his draft and it will be easy.

MiniBrumJim is indeed a mini version of me, and if you have ever tried to get a draft from a sub 5' person when you are 6' yourself, you will understand how little draft you get. Add in his flexibility, slammed stem, and noticeably low position on the bike, and there is even less. Enough that I could keep up with him for a few hundred metres. Then the elastic (as pathetic as it was) snapped.

I turned around when I saw him heading back to me, and therefore cut about 1/2 mile off the course. Nevertheless, he still managed to finish in about 27'20", and beat me by almost 3 minutes.