Carrying on from our recent rides on a Tuesday evening with Richard and Trevor from the Bossard Wheelers, there had been talk of Time Trials and wondering what it would be like to ride one. Trevor has kindly sent us this message about a local “open to all” event that only costs £3. Don’t be put off by thinking this is something only for the super fast – 10 mile time trials are a long lived tradition of British Cycling and how better to celebrate the Tour starting in Britian this weekend by giving something new a go.

Here is the invite from Trevor –

Greetings All

Well the grapevine tells me that you had a really good ride on Tuesday evening and your enthusiasm to have a go at the dark art of time trailing is fired up!

I spoke with Tony Farnborough who organizes the North Bucks Road Club (NBRC) evening events and he is very happy to designate next week’s event as a “come and try” to enable non affiliated riders to take part.

We meet outside the new McDonalds (was known as Kelly’s Kitchen) by the A5/Watling street roundabout at this end of Milton Keynes at 6.30pm on Weds eve. We then “sign on” at Tony Farnborough’s car and are issued with a race number. Cost is £3 for non NBRC riders

You don’t need any specialist equipment and any bike is allowed provided it is roadworthy. Helmets are not compulsory, but I would always recommend you wear one.

We warm up along the course and up towards Brickhill until the event begins, after that it is considered bad form to be warming up on course. As there are normally around 20-30 riders it is generally not a problem getting the warm up done before the event start.

Riders go off at 1 minute intervals, with first rider off at 7.15 the start is just round the corner from the meeting point. The course then runs straight over 1st 2 roundabouts before turning left onto the Stoke Hammond bypass at the next roundabout then turn at the first roundabout up bypass and retrace turning right at next roundabout and straight on at following 2 roundabouts to finish opposite the start point.

http://gb.mapometer.com/cycling/route_3883305.html hopefully this link should take you to a map of course. It is relatively straightforward, from a ride point of view the key points are:- 1st and last roundabout, tight on way out and bad road surface on way back. road rises from 2nd to 3rd roundabout and again on way up to the turn. It is then fast for 1st bit of return and then the sting! the rise up to the 5th roundabout and the warning lines just add to the pain!! It is then a fast run down and along to the finish.

The basic rules of time trailing are very simple, it’s an individual un-paced effort, each rider starts one minute apart and normally the faster riders are interspersed within the field to avoid any pacing. If you are caught the rule is that the overtaken rider ensures there is a sufficient gap to avoid any charge of gaining assistance.

Normally if you are caught the overtaking rider will pull away without any need for you to slow, occasionally this isn’t the case and it may be that you find you are recovering and able to go faster. It is ok to re-pass them provided that you are able to do so and make distance on them.

The classic mistake made by novice riders is to go off too fast, 10 miles is further than you think when you’ve burnt all your reserves before the turn! Everyone is different and it is vital that you ride your own race. It is a cliche, but you need to work within your limits and don’t worry about other riders. 

Always remember your safety not your ride is the most important thing, don’t take risks, we have all occasionally been held up and delayed, when this happens remember there is always another race.

Yours in sport
Trev