Time Trialing - Dying on it's Arris?

[Bollo]

I'd chuck in the growing evil of triathlons hoovering up some of the TT talent.

 

[Rob3rt]

I think that one works both ways. I am seeing more and more triathletes turning out to time trials this season.

 

[Bollo]

I think that one works both ways. I am seeing more and more triathletes turning out to time trials this season.

Fairy nuff. Maybe it's like you and gds said earlier about the split between club and open competitions. Triathletes might be entering the club competitions to get some training in, but do their 'open' competing with the dip and jog thrown in. I'm only surmising - it'd be interesting (but probably OT) to know whether triathlon draws support away from the single-event clubs or acts as a net benefit.

 

[Rob3rt]

Fairy nuff. Maybe it's like you and gds said earlier about the split between club and open competitions. Triathletes might be entering the club competitions to get some training in, but do their 'open' competing with the dip and jog thrown in. I'm only surmising - it'd be interesting (but probably OT) to know whether triathlon draws support away from the single-event clubs or acts as a net benefit.

I meant in open events too, there seems to be loads of people from Tri clubs at both club and open events in my district this season. Not asserting anything or making a point here, just saying I've seen quite a lot of them vs previous years

 

[Brightski]

Looking at the results posted on the Time Trialing Forum I was astonished to see how few riders were in most of the events, even 25s, long the most popular distance and run by established clubs down to fields in the thirties.

http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/index.php?s=864792433b62cb74c13c16090a3f4bcd&showforum=41

Considering how popular cycling has become that was a surprise, when I was racing most open events had full start sheets of 120 riders with a good number of returned entries. Just a blip, or has the Race of Truth bit the dust in favour of sportives?

Nah, still going strong the fast courses are still getting full fields with returned entries,
Club events have got massive numbers compared to even 10 years ago..

 

[Brahan]

My local club would sometimes be delighted to get into double figures on a Tuesday 10, now there's 20-25 pretty much guaranteed.

 

[jdtate101]

All the 10's I've done have been fully booked out, even having a long reserve list for on-the-day no show's, but they have been mostly open events available to book via the CTT website, which would probably explain it.

 

[frank9755]

Time trialling is not booming but neither is it dying out.
The figures that CTT put out have shown (contrary to a couple of the observations above and my own one below) that overall entries for open events are up a bit and club events are heading downwards.
We do a series of summer evening TTs on the traffic-free circuit at Hillingdon and this year we regularly got over 30 people. A couple of years ago we were around 12-15 per event. Our club 10s on the road (not a great course) are generally <10 people, but they always have been.
Opens on fast courses sell out and on slow courses they don't.

 

[jdtate101]

Another club hosted open today and it was packed. 125 starters, all age groups and also a few tandems.

 

[Spartak]

Good article about TT ing in the latest edition of 'Cyclist' magazine.

But must be lovely being a journalist & having the use of a Trek Speed Concept Project One ( £7220 ) !!!

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

TT's ceased to be the race of truth sometime in the last 15 years when technology overtook most people's budgets. When I was riding them 25 years ago you could be competitve on a very modest budget because no matter how much you spent all racing bikes were pretty much equal. On occasion I achieved top ten placings in open events on a standard steel road bike, no skinsuit, no aero anything in fact. But nowadays most people need to spend 5k on a specialist TT bike to be competitive even in club events. Nowadays its the race of budget not of truth.

 

[jowwy]

I think at the top level of the sport its still the race of truth as budgets dont really come into it for the top teams - at the lower levels its all according how much you wanna push the boundaries of fitness and marginal gains without spending huge amounts.

Club TTs i dont think people break the bank on their equipment from what ive seen

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

What would put me off riding them again is a) the need for yet another bike, b) the need to spend time training on the TT bike, c) the knowledge that having spent 5k on said bike I'm going to be beaten by someone of equal fitness who has spent 10k on theirs, d) the knowledge that even if I did spend 10k, it would be obsolete in 5 years.

 

[Rob3rt]

C) Money spent is not equal to drag reduction achieved! Most of the money bags may as well be riding a shopping bike given the proliferation of crap positions.
D) I do okay on my out of date TT bike (it must be at least 4-5 year old design, it's been replaced twice in the manufacturers line up already and as far as frame aerodynamics go, I doubt it was ever one of the top dogs, I bought it because it fit).

Not saying there isn't an arms race going on, there is, but I think the extent to which this impacts the average rider is not as dramatic as some make it sound.

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

The only reason I haven't spent the children's inheritance on a ' super bike' for TT's, is that I doubt if such a bike would improve my times by more than a few seconds or so over 10 miles.

As Robert says, much better to work on things like position and fitness first!